Note 26 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

The exact number of men who accompanied Magalhães is a matter of doubt. A royal decree, dated Barcelona, May 5, 1519, conserved in the papers of the India House of Trade in Archivo general de Indias at Sevilla, with pressmark est. 41, caj. 6, leg. 2–25, orders that only two hundred and thirty-five persons sail in the fleet. The same archives contain various registers of the fleet (sec Llorens Ascensio’s Primera vuelta al mundo, Madrid, 1903), one of which is published by Medina in his Colección (i, p. 113). Guillemard (Magellan, p. 326) says that at least two hundred and sixty-eight men went as is shown by the official lists and “the casual occurrence of names in the numerous and lengthy autos fiscales connected with the expedition.” Guillemard conjectures that the total number must have been between two hundred and seventy and two hundred and eighty. Mosto (p. 53, note 2) says: “Castanheda and Barros say that the crews amounted to 250 men, while Herrera says 234. Navarrete’s lists show a total of 265 men. At least 37 were Portuguese, and in addition to them and the Spaniards, the crews contained Genoese and Italians (thirty or more), French (nineteen), Flemings, Germans, Sicilians, English, Corfiotes, Malays, Negroes, Moors, Madeirans, and natives of the Azores and Canary Islands. But seventeen are recorded from Seville, while there are many Biscayans. (See Guillemard, ut supra, pp. 326–329.) The registers of men as given by Navarrete (Col. de viages, iv, pp. 12–26) are as follows.