FERDINAND DE, an eminent navigator, was by birth a Portuguese, of a good family. He served in the East Indies with reputation for five years under Albuquerque, and in 1510 he greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Malacca. Deeming his services poorly repaid by his own court, he entered into the employment of Charles V., king of Spain. He has been charged with peculation by some of his countrymen, who have assigned this as the reason why he quitted Portugal. In conjunction with Ruy Folero he formed the bold design of discovering a new passage by the west to the Molucca islands, which he offered to prove fell within the division of the globe assigned by the pope to the crown of Castile. It is said that he first proposed this enterprise to Emanuel king of Portugal, who rejected it, as opening a way for other nations to have access to the East Indies, the trade of which was now monopolized by the Portuguese. The proposition was agreed to by the king of Spain, and on the 20th of September 1519 Magellan sailed from San Lucar with five ships and 236 men under his command. His officers soon murmured at this appointment, considering it as a disgrace to be commanded by a renegade Portuguese; and when the fleet was lying at a port in South America which they named San Julian, a conspiracy was formed against him by three of the captains, which he discovered and quelled. He caused the captain of one of the ships to be assassinated, he boarded a second, and secured the mutineers, and the third submitted.

The coast on which they lay was that of Patagonia; and this first voyage contains accounts of the extraordinary stature of the natives. About the end of October they reached a cape, to which they gave the name of Dee las Virgenes, forming the entrance of the straits which bear the name of Magellan. He exerted all his authority to induce his men to venture on this unknown passage, with the view of crossing a vast ocean beyond it, at the hazard of running short of provisions, of which a supply for three months was all he had remaining. One of his ships abandoned him, and made the best of her way to Europe. The rest proceeded, and on the Magellan discovered the South Sea, which made Magellan shed tears of joy. They continued their voyage over this ocean, now visited for the first time by Europeans, and were not long in suffering those evils from famine which they had apprehended. The men were reduced to the necessity of eating the hides with which the rigging was covered. The weather proved so uniformly calm and temperate, that they gave to the ocean the name of Pacific. They came in sight of the Ladrones on the 6th of March, so called from the thievish disposition of the inhabitants; and from thence they sailed to the Philippines. At Zebu Magellan obtained with little difficulty the conversion of the king; and on condition of his becoming a vassal of Spain, the Portuguese assisted him in reducing some neighbouring chieftains, and the crops were erected over some burnt villages.

With about 50 men Magellan landed upon Matan, whose chief refused to submit to Zebu, and an engagement between them lasted for the greater part of the day. His troops having spent all their ammunition, found it necessary to retreat, during which Magellan was wounded in the leg by an arrow, beaten down, and at last slain with a lance. This happened in 1521. By this act of imprudence he lost the honour of being the first circumnavigator of the globe, which fell to the lot of Cano, who brought his ship home by the East Indies. Yet Magellan has secured an immortal name among maritime discoverers, by the commencement of this great enterprise, in which he displayed extraordinary skill and resolution, but disregarded justice and humanity, then almost universal among adventurers of this class.

Straits of Magellan, a narrow passage between the island of Terra del Fuego and the southern extremity of the continent of America. This passage was first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan, who sailed through it into the South Sea, and from thence to the East Indies. Other navigators have passed the same way; but as these straits are exceedingly difficult, and subject to storms, it has been common to fail by Cape Horn, rather than through the straits of Magellan. See Straits Le Maire, and Terra del Fuego.

Magellanic clouds, whitish appearances like clouds, seen in the heavens towards the south pole, and having the same apparent motion as the stars. They are three in number, two of them near each other. The largest lies far from the south pole; but the other two are not many degrees more remote from it than the nearest conspicuous star, that is, about 11 degrees. Mr Boyle conjectures, that if these clouds were seen through a good telescope, they would appear to be multitudes of small stars, like the milky-way.

Maggi, Jerome, in Latin Magius, one of the most learned men of the 16th century, was born at Anghiari in Tuscany. He applied himself to all the sciences, and even to the art of war; and distinguished himself so much in this last study, that the Venetians sent him into the island of Cyprus in quality of judge of the admiralty. When the Turks besieged Famagusta, he performed all the services that could be expected from the most excellent engineer; he invented mines and machines for throwing fire, by means of which he destroyed all the works of the besiegers, and in an instant overthrew what had cost the Turks infinite labour. But they had their revenge; for, taking the city in 1571, they plundered his library, carried him loaded with chains to Constantinople, and treated him in the most inhuman and barbarous manner. He nevertheless comforted himself from the example of Ælop, Menippus, Epictetus, and other learned men; and, after passing the whole day in the meanest drudgery, he spent the night in writing. He composed, by the help of his memory alone, treatises filled with quotations, which he dedicated to the Imperial and French ambassadors. These ministers, moved by compassion for this learned man, resolved to purchase him; but while they were treating for his ransom, Maggi found means to make his escape, and to get to the Imperial ambassador's house; when the grand vizir being enraged at his flight, and remembering the great mischief he had done the Turks during the siege of Famagusta, sent to have him seized, and caused him to be strangled in prison in 1572. His principal works are, 1. A Treatise on the Bells of the Ancients. 2. On the Destruction of the World by Fire. 3. Commentaries on Æmilius Probus's Lives of Illustrious Men. 4. Commentaries on the Institutes. These works are written in elegant Latin. He also wrote a treatise on fortification in Italian; and a book on the situation of ancient Tuscany.

He ought not to be confounded with his brother Bartholomew Maggi, a physician at Bologna, who wrote a treatise of gunshot wounds; nor with Vincent Maggi, a native of Brescia, and a celebrated professor of humanity at Ferrara in Padua, who was the author of several works.