Magellan was a knowledgable and skillful navigator.Magellan had a crew of about 270 included men from several nations: including Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Flemish, Greeks, English, and French. On August 10,1519, the five ships under Magellan’s command-Trinidad, Sam Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago- left Seville and descended the Guadalquivir River to Sanlucarde de Barraneda. During the resulting battle against ,Lapu-Lapu’s troops, Magellan was hit by a bamboo spear and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons, he was killed in the Philippines. On September 6,1522 Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan’s voyage arrived in Spain aboard the last ship in the fleet, Victoria, almost exactly three years after they departed, only 18 men returned . His expedition of 1519-1522 became the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and the first to cress the Pacific.
It took only a little over three months to cross the Pacific, and the fleet reached Guam safely in March 1521. From there they proceded to the Philippines, which were unknown to Magellan, since his previous travels in the region had not taken him so far North. It occurred to Magellan to befriend the local king and claim the region for Spain, and so he agreed to aid a local chieftain in one of his battles. This turned into a very costly skirmish—the natives used poison arrows and Magellen and many of the other sailors were killed. The command of the expedition turned to Juan Elcano, who loaded up two of the remaining ships with spices and other valuables before attempting to return to Spain. The return journey was complicated by the fact that the Portuguese were dominant in the region, and were somewhat hostile to the Spanish venture.
