Over the edge!

Phew! I've been reading Over the Egde of the World for a long long time!! First - thanks to my lovely sister-in-law who doesn't even know that her sister passed her book on to me! So thanks D!

Now - I haven't taken long with this book because it's boring - I've just been lazy with my reading!!! But hospitals provide a particularly reading conducive environment strangely enough!!

The book, by Laurence Bergreen details the (mis)adventures of Magellan in leading the first ever circumnavigation of the globe! Bergreen, apparently, has also written biographies of diverse set of figures like Al Capone, Louis Armstrong and so on (haven't read any of the others, but after this one - I think I will!).

The scene - early 1500s - a time when the Portugese and the Spanish were both looking for world domination, an important component of which would be the domination of Spice Trade. Now Magellan, an ambitious Portugese explorer, was looking for backing for an expedition to look for the Spice Islands via a route never before explored - Across the Atlantic, around the southern tip of South America and across the Pacific to the Spice Islands (present day Brunei and surrounding islands). He was rebuffed by the Portugese king and so defected to Spain, where he found the backing to set out on such an expedition.

The journey started with 5 ships and more than 250 men but ended with 1 ship and 18 people on board. Even Magellan was killed in a rather unnessecary war in Mactan in southern Philippines.

Bergreen's book is based on records from the journey, mainly the account maintained by Pigafetta - the Italian who was on the expedition as the official chronicler. He details the ups and downs of the journey, including what happened to the 240 odd people who didn't make it, Magellan's death and the other 4 vessels. His account of the lands and people they encountered along the way is stunning!

It's an amazing account to read at a time when circumnavigating the globe is just a couple of flights away - even I've done that a couple of times flying from Singapore to New York to Frankfurt to Singapore!!