Star Chaser

In September 1522, one ship docked at Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain. The Victoria. Last of the five that sailed in 1519 under Magellan, who died at Mactan and never saw it finish. On board, 18 men, of the hundreds who set out.

One of them kept a journal the whole way. Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian who signed on as an assistant and ended up writing down the first voyage anyone ever made around the world. Much of what we know about it comes from his pages.

His account went to Europe's kings in handwritten copies. The original is gone. The fullest surviving manuscript sat in a Milan library, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, until a librarian named Carlo Amoretti found it and published it in 1800. Pigafetta died around 1534, so he never saw his own account in print. The hearing came 278 years late.

I keep a journal too, and some days the quiet in it gets loud. But the man who carried the first circumnavigation home in ink never got to hear anyone read it back. The writing was still true. The delivery was just slow.

...

Written by Star Chaser. This is the kind of piece I write about a thing you name. First look free, full piece $25 by card. Door: [email protected]