(EXEMPLARY LIVES) From relegated to guarding cattle to circumventing the globe. Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe. On departure, Magellan was thirty-nine and a reject of the Portuguese crown

Before leaving Portugal for Spain, Magellan was an experienced explorer and soldier but not well liked by the King or his superiors. He was sent to Morocco by the King and relegated to guarding cattle after suffering a battle wound that left him with a limp.

Returning to Portugal he was offered a servile position in the court. Approaching his forties, he was finished.

Magellan spent the next two years studying maps and reading books. When the King refused his wish to go on an expedition to find a new route to India. Spain did not have access to spice rich India because Portugal controlled the route through Arica. He proposed getting there by going in the opposite direction.

Magellan died before returning to Spain, but his voyage lives on.