Note 141 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

Esteban Gomez was an experienced Portuguese navigator and pilot with ambitions only less than those of Magalhães, his kinsman (Guillemard, p. 203). His desertion occurred probably in the first part of November, and was perhaps directly due to pique at what he considered lack of appreciation from Magalhães. Conspiring with Gerónimo Guerra, the notary, who was elected captain of the “San Antonio” they made off with that ship, and after imprisoning Alvaro de Mezquita, returned to Spain, anchoring at Sevilla May 6, 1521. There Gomez was imprisoned after the return of the “Victoria,” but was liberated, and in 1524 proposed an expedition to discover a northwest passage. An expedition having been fitted out by Cárlos I, he coasted Florida and the eastern coast, as far as Cape Cod, and returned to Spain in 1525. See Grande Encyclopédie; Navarrete, iv, pp. 42–45, and 201–208; and Guillemard, ut supra, pp. 203–205.