Determined to find a new and better route to Asia and the distant and profitable Spice Islands, Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain in 1519 on what would become the history-making first circumnavigation of the world. Magellan himself did not complete the journey--he was killed by a poison arrow while on the Pacific island of Mactan--but the expedition he mounted forever changed the course of human exploration. Details of the journey, including Magellan's tools of navigation, the political battles for control over the valuable islands of the Pacific, and Magellan's final moments in battle, are all vividly portrayed