Copyright 2021 by Andrs Resndez
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
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Title page map courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University.
All other maps by Mapping Specialists, Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Resndez, Andrs, author.
Title: Conquering the Pacific : an unknown mariner and the final great voyage of the Age of Discovery / Andrs Resndez.
Other titles: Unknown mariner and the final great voyage of the Age of Discovery
Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021004112 (print) | LCCN 2021004113 (ebook) | ISBN 9781328515971 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780358676348 | ISBN 9780358638339 | ISBN 9781328517364 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Legazpi, Miguel Lpez de, 1510?1572Friends and associates. | Martn, Lope. | Pilots and pilotageBiography. | PhilippinesDiscovery and explorationSpanish. | Pacific OceanDiscovery and explorationSpanish. | ExplorersSpainBiography. | Barra de Navidad (Mexico)History, Naval. | BISAC : HISTORY / Europe / Spain & Portugal | HISTORY / Expeditions & Discoveries
Classification: LCC DS 674.9. L 4 R 47 2021 (print) | LCC DS 674.9. L 4 (ebook) | DDC 959.9/01092 [ B ]dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021004112
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021004113
Cover design by Richard Ljoenes
Jacket images: Stanislav Pobytov / Getty Images (ship); courtesy of the Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin (Bay of Acapulco painting); courtesy of Germanisches Nationalmuseum (mariner); courtesy of The Met Fifth Avenue (The Christ Child with an Orb), BLR Antique Maps (Wall Map of America by Pierre Du Val)
v1.0821
Most people realize the sea covers two thirds of the planet, but few take the time to understand even a gallon of it. Watch what happens when you try to explain something as basic as the tides, that the suction of the moon and the sun creates a bulge across the ocean that turns into a slow and sneaky yet massive wave that covers our salty beaches twice a day. People look at you as if youre making it up as you go.
Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide, 2006
The voyage from the Philippines to America may be said to be the most dreadful and longest of any in the world. The ocean to be crossed is vast, almost half of the terraqueous globe, with the wind always in front, terrible tempests, one on the back of another, and mortal diseases in a voyage lasting seven or eight months, sometimes in higher and lower altitudes, in cold, temperate, and hot weather. It is enough to destroy a man of steel.
Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, Giro del Mondo (Voyage Around the World), 1699
Lord my God, You are very great... You make the clouds your chariot, and you walk upon the wings of the winds.
Psalm 104:13
List of Illustrations
page
The Pacific Coast in the Middle of the Sixteenth Century. Credit: Archivo General de Indias
Lisbon. Credit: From Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Vol. V by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg (Cologne, 1598)
Juan Pablo de Carrin, circa 1582. Credit: From Espadas del Fin del Mundo by ngelMiranda, illustrated by Juan Aguilera. Used by permission of the illustrator.
A Long Island. Credit: Archivo General de Indias
An Atoll. Credit: Archivo General de Indias
People of the Sea. From Admiral Franois-Edmond Pris, Essai sur la construction navale des peuples extra-europens ou Collection des navires et pirogues construits par les habitants de lAsie, de la Malaisie, du Grand Ocan et de lAmrique dessins et mesurs pendant les voyages autour du monde de lAstrolabe, la Favorite et lArtmise.Credit: Flying paraoas of the Caroline Islands from Essai sur la construction navale des peuples extra-europens... by Franois-Edmond Pris (Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1841)
Guam and a Native Canoe. Credit: Archivo General de Indias
Eager Traders. Credit: From the 1603 Frankfurt edition of Description du Penible Voyage Faict entour de lUnivers ou Globe Terrestre by Olivier van Noort. Courtesy of Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps.
A Miraculous Find. Martin Schongauer, Christ the Child as Salvator Mundi, 14691482. Credit: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Giacomo Gastaldis 1554 Map of East Asia. From Giovanni Battista Ramusios Delle navigationi et viaggi, a 1563 redrawing of the map which first appeared in 1554. Credit: From Delle Navigationi et Viaggi by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, illustrated by Giacomo Gastaldi, 155059
Letter About a Glorious Discovery. Credit: From Copia de una carta venida de Sevilla a Miguel Salvador de Valencia... edited by Bernardo Mendel (Madrid: Imprenta de la sucesora de M. Minuesa de los Ros, 1905)
Sling to Transport Horses. Christoph Weiditz, circa 1530. Credit: From Trachtenbuch by Christoph Weiditz, c. 1530
The Forecastle. Drawing by Rafael Monlen in Cesreo Fernndez Duro, La nao Santa Mara (Madrid: Comisin Arqueolgica Ejecutiva, 1892). Credit: Drawing by Rafael Monlen, 1892
Petrus Planciuss 1594 Orbis Terrarum. From Petrus Plancius, Orbis Terrarum Typus de Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (Amsterdam, 1594). Courtesy of Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps.
Color Insert
. Credit: Patrimonio Nacional, 10014146
. Saln de Virreyes del Castillo de Chapultepec. Photograph by Leonardo Hernndez. Credit: Reproduction authorized by the Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia
. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo. Used by permission of Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial
. Christoph Weiditz, circa 1530. Credit: Illustration by Christoph Weiditz, c. 1530. Courtesy of Germanisches Nationalmuseum, DigitaleBibliothek. Image 189
. Fresco by Niccol Granello at the Sala de las Batallas painted in 1583. Credit: Patrimonio Nacional, 10014921
. Atlas Miller. Credit: Bibliothque nationale de France
. Credit: Courtesy Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
. Acapulco in 1628 based on a drawing by Dutch engineer Adrian Boot. Credit: Courtesy of the Benson Latin AmericanCollection, University of Texas at Austin
List of Maps
All commissioned maps rendered by Mapping Specialists, Ltd., Fitchburg, Wisconsin.
page
The Most Extravagant Labyrinth
Panthalassa or Pre-Pacific
Ancient Iguana Crossing
Human Chain Across the Ocean
Guided by the Stars
Atlantic Meridian
The North Atlantic Gyre
Magnetic Map of the World
The Philippines and the Spice Islands
Route Proposals
From Navidad to Micronesia
World Gyres
The Original Loop Around the Ocean
A Second Vuelta
Magellans Track Across the Pacific
