instead of Ternate. But Ternate was preferred as the most convenient,
Brito laying the first stone on the festival of St John the Baptist, the
28th of December 1521.

At this time a private correspondence was carried on between Francis
Serram, who resided in Ternate and Ferdinando de Magallanes in Portugal,
which turned to the advantage of Spain and the detriment of Portugal.
Magalanes, otherwise named Magellan, was a man of note and a knight of
St Jago, who had served with reputation at Azamor in Africa and in
several parts of India. Having solicited for a small allowance usually
given in reward of service, and which was refused, he left Portugal and
entered into the service of Spain. From his skill in sea affairs, and
the correspondence he held with Serram at Ternate, he concluded there
might be another way to India; and as the Spaniards had already tasted
the fruits of these islands, he wrote to Serram that he hoped soon to be
his guest at Ternate going thither by a new way[156]. He accordingly got
the command of five ships with 250 men, some of whom were Portuguese.
Sailing from the port of San Lucar de Barameda on the 20th of September
1519, after having renounced his country by a solemn act, he sailed
toward the south along the eastern coast of South America. When past Rio
de Janeiro on the coast of Brazil, the men began to grow mutinous, and
still more so when they had gone beyond the river of St Julian on the
coast of Patagonia, where they did not immediately find the strait of
passage to the Pacific Ocean, and found themselves pinched by the cold
of that inhospitable climate. As they proceeded to hold disrespectful
discourses against Magellan, both reflecting upon his pretended
knowledge, and espousing doubts of his fidelity, which came to his
knowledge, he called together all the principal people in his squadron,
to whom he made a long and learned discourse. Yet a conspiracy was
entered into to kill Magellan, by three of his captains, named