On September 6, 1500, the last remaining ship from Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation voyage returned to Spain, five hundred years ago today. Magellan had died in an ill-conceived battle in the Philippines en route, leaving his second in command, Juan Sebastian Elcano, to lead the last 18 of the crew to complete the voyage. Magellan’s name endures, despite his personal failure to return, but Elcano is largely forgotten, except in places like Wikipedia.
The vagaries of history somehow made a hero of Columbus for far too long, who perhaps never quite realized he had failed to reach the Spice Islands or at least never acknowledged the fact. Magellan knew better, but was himself deeply flawed, according to the now generally accepted account of Antonio Pigafetta, a crewman otherwise loyal to him.
Today the world is circled in hours by countless satellites and solo sailors follow Magellan’s path with the aid of GPS satellites, but we remain unable to overcome our human failings to accept and protect each other. Days ago, the last of a Brazilian indigenous tribe died, left uncontacted to avoid tainting what was left of his culture.
We are now edging toward a manned mission to Mars to “discover” a truly new world, which we, perhaps vainly, hope we will not ruin. Still, one thing that remains common to mankind is hope to become better. In that effort, plans are being made to construct a safe means of protecting this world from contamination Mars explorers may bring back.
With wars still being fought here on earth over land we should be preserving, we need hope and the courage to be wise as much or more than ever.
