Then came the equipment of great fleets for the
Indies, the discovery of Brazil and its exploration.
No wonder that the youth sought service in the far
East and joined the great expedition of Almeida
in 1505. In this service Magellan, to adopt for
convenience this anglicized form of the name, re-
mained for seven years, during which he visited
Malacca and took part in its conquest in 1511.
His return to Portugal soon followed, and next
came a campaign or two in Morocco. ¹

Africa was a "pent-up Utica" compared with the
Indies, and the letters which Magellan received from
his intimate friend Francisco de Sarrão, who pene-
trated still farther East, and was living in the
Molucca islands and writing of "another new world
larger and richer than that found by Vasco da
Gama," ² hardened to a fixed purpose the project
to seek the Spice Islands by the west. The de-
cisive moment came when King Emmanuel denied
Magellan's request for promotion and a slight in-
crease in his stipend, and rejected his proposal for
the western voyage. ³ Magellan was not the man
to sit quiet with a great idea in his head. If the
door was closed against him in Portugal he would
find an opening elsewhere.

Hence he went to Seville in 1517, and, taking out
naturalization papers, became a subject of Charles I.,

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