Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese navigator who, with the support of the Spanish king, set out in 1519 on a voyage west toward Asia.
In 1520 he passed through the strait at the southern tip of South America (later the Strait of Magellan) and entered the Pacific. The land seen south of the strait was thought to be part of a huge southern continent, later named Megallanica after him. Magellan was killed in battle in the Philippines in 1521, but part of his fleet returned to Spain in 1522, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.
