That Expedition

ON THIS DAY, ALMOST 500 YEARS AGO, a Portuguese explorer in service of the then king of Spain, had set off in search of the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. His expedition had been the first to sail from the Atlantic to the extremely tranquil waters he had called Pacificó; an ocean which the expedition was also first to cross in completing the Earth's first circumnavigation.

Although this explorer did not live to finish the circumnavigation he had led, after dying in battle against Mactan ruler Lapu Lapu's warriors in the Philippines, he leaves a legacy of naming after himself a species of penguin, a set of clouds, as well as setting the groundwork for establishing an international date line.

Of course, he was also first to physically prove that the world was round by sending a ship to sail around it and make it back to starting point without changing direction.

Whatever his reasons were for setting off, be it for personal gain or gain for those who had employed him, the best thing that Portuguese orphan boy Fernão de Magalhães left us with is a sense of adventure; to see a world bigger than our own, to meet peoples of various colors, to see the calm, to sail through storms, to set out and explore the unknown because it may just lead us to something more certain, more sure.

Treat every day as an adventure. Get up, get out. After all, the journey that has failed the most is that which was never begun.

Images of the Victoria, Ferdinand Magellan and the expedition to Moluccas from www.fineartamerica.com, www.mainlesson.com, michel.wermelinger.ws, libweb5.princeton.edu, www.eonimages.com, www.vintagefineartprints.com and en.wikipedia.org