their own terms granted to them.

The grounds on which this expedition was founded were as follow. The
opinion advanced by Columbus, of the possibility of reaching the East
Indies by sailing to the west, was assumed as certainly well founded,
though he had not been able to accomplish it; and it was asserted, that
it could not be attended with any insuperable difficulty to sail from
the South Sea, then recently discovered, to the Molucca Islands. The
grand desideratum was to find a passage westwards, from the Atlantic
Ocean into the new-found South Sea, which they expected might be met
with through the Rio de la Plata, or by some other opening on that
eastern coast of South America. Should this succeed, Spain might then
reap the benefit of both the Indies; since, if this discovery were made
by way of the _west_, it would then fall expressly within the grant of
the papal bull to Spain.

In consequence of these proposals, it was agreed that Magellan and the
other adventurers were to be furnished by the crown of Spain with five
ships, manned by 234 men, with provisions for two years; and that the
adventurers should reap a twentieth part of the clear profit, the
government of any islands they might discover to be vested in them and
their heirs for ever, with the title of Adelantado. The agreed, fleet of
five ships was accordingly fitted out for the expedition at Seville,
consisting of the Trinidada, in which Magellan sailed as admiral, and
having a Portuguese pilot named Stephen Gomez; the Santa Vittoria,
commanded by Don Luis de Mendoza; the St Antonio, Don Juan de
Carthagena; the St Jago, Don Juan Serrano; and the Conception, Don
Gaspar de Quixada. According to some authors, the number of men in these
five ships amounted to 237, though by most they are said to have been
250, among whom were thirty Portuguese, upon whom Magellan chiefly