The First Voyage Round the World, by Magellan

The search for a western passage brings royal rivalry and the spice trade into this collection of accounts of Magellan's voyage. Antonio Pigafetta's narrative appears with reports by other contemporary writers, a pilot's log, letters and documents concerning the fleet. Lord Stanley of Alderley's introduction examines Magellan's departure from Portuguese service and the competing claims to the Moluccas, where uncertain geography carried immediate commercial consequences.

Meetings aboard ship give the expedition a more personal scale. At Tadore, Raja Sultan Manzor welcomes the visitors and asks about their pay, rations and time away from Spain. Gifts of cloth, mirrors and knives accompany conversations about allegiance to the crown. A treatise on navigation and records of the fleet's costs broaden the collection beyond the narrative accounts. Readers studying early global travel can compare practical maritime concerns with the ceremonial exchanges and political negotiations described by the voyagers.