Magellan sailed from Spain in 1519, with five ships:  he explored the river Plate a considerable way, thinking at first it was the sea, and would lead him to the west.  He then continued his voyage to the south, and reached the entrance of the straits which afterwards received his name, on the 21st October, 1520, but, in consequence of storms, and the scarcity of provisions, he did not clear them till the 28th of November.  He now directed his course to the north-west:  for three months and twenty days he saw no land.  In 15 south, he discovered a small island; and another in 9 south.  Continuing his course still in the same direction, he arrived at the Ladrones, and soon afterwards at the Phillippines, where he lost his life in a skirmish.  His companions continued their voyage; and, on the twenty-seventh month after their departure from Spain, arrived at one of the Molucca islands.  Here the Spaniards found plenty of spices, which they obtained in exchange for the cloth, glass, beads, &c., which they had brought with them for that purpose.  From the Moluccas they returned home round the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Seville in September, 1552.  Only one ship returned, and she was drawn up in Seville, and long preserved as a monument of the first circumnavigation of the globe.  The Spaniards were surprised, on their return to their native country, to find that they had gained a day in their reckoning—­a proof of the scanty knowledge at that time possessed, respecting one of the plainest and most obvious results of the diurnal motion of the earth.

The voyage of Magellan occupied 1124 days:  Sir Francis Drake, who sailed round the world about half a century afterwards, accomplished the passage in 1051 days:  the next circumnavigator sailed round the globe in 769 days; and the first navigators who passed to the south of Terra del Fuego, accomplished the voyage in 749 days.  In the middle of the eighteenth century, a Scotch privateer sailed round the world in 240 days.

In the meantime, several voyages had been performed to the east coast of North America.  The first voyages to this part of the new world were undertaken by the English:  there is some doubt and uncertainty respecting the period when these were performed.  The following seems the most probable account.

At the time when Columbus discovered America, there lived in London a Venetian merchant, John Cabot, who had three sons.  The father was a man of science, and had paid particular attention to the doctrine of the spheres:  his studies, as well as his business as a merchant, induced him to feel much interest in the discoveries which were at that period making.  He seems to have applied to Henry VII.; who accordingly empowered him to sail from England under the royal flag, to make discoveries in the east, the west, and the north, and to take possession of countries inhabited by Pagans, and not previously discovered by other European nations.  The king gave him two ships,