Timeline (1511–1522): Magellan–Elcano and Henrique de Malaca

Scope and method. This timeline follows the expedition commonly called the Magellan–Elcano voyage (1519–1522), and anchors key dates to widely accepted reference works and primary narratives. Where Henrique de Malaca is mentioned, the wording is kept conservative: many details about him are preserved only indirectly through European documentation, and the record becomes thin after Magellan’s death.

Terminology. “Henrique” appears in sources under multiple spellings and descriptors (including the epithet “Henry the Black”). This page uses Henrique de Malaca as a conventional label, noting that it is a modern shorthand rather than a single, stable self‑designation.

1511 — Portuguese seizure of Malacca (context)

In 1511 the Portuguese captured Malacca, one of the principal entrepôts of maritime Southeast Asia. The conquest is relevant here as background: it intensified European involvement in the region’s politics and trade networks, and created channels through which Asian intermediaries—interpreters, pilots, merchants, and captives—entered European service.

Reference: Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Malacca”. https://www.britannica.com/place/Malacca

c. 1511–1518 — Henrique in European service (what is claimed vs what is provable)

Many secondary accounts summarise Henrique as having entered Portuguese hands around the period of Malacca’s fall and later becoming attached to Magellan. The broad outline—an interpreter of Malay associated with Magellan’s expedition—is widely repeated, but the surviving evidence for the early chain of custody is not always explicit in popular retellings. For a strict, academic approach, it is safer to state only that Henrique was documented as part of Magellan’s expedition and valued for linguistic capability in a maritime world where Malay served widely as a trade language.

References: Britannica biography of Magellan (expedition overview); overview syntheses that cite primary voyage narratives. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-Magellan

1519 — The expedition is launched (Magellan–Elcano)

20 September 1519 — The fleet departs Spain. From this point forward, the route and major incidents are among the best documented components of the story, preserved through a mixture of logs, letters, and narratives. Henrique’s role is principally that of interpreter—important, but often only briefly visible in the texts.

Reference: Britannica, “Ferdinand Magellan” (route, strait, and death). https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-Magellan

1520 — South America and the Strait of Magellan

In 1520, after navigating along the South American coast, the expedition passed through the strait that now bears Magellan’s name, entering the Pacific. This stage is fundamental for the circumnavigation narrative but offers little specific, securely attested material about Henrique beyond his presence as part of the expedition’s human infrastructure.

1521 — Across the Pacific and into island Southeast Asia

The expedition reached the Philippines in 1521. Here, language mattered: communication shaped alliances, provisioning, and conflict. Many popular accounts presume that Henrique could speak with local communities; an academically cautious framing is: Henrique’s Malay language ability was plausibly useful in maritime Southeast Asia, but the exact conversational reach in any given encounter depends on local language ecology and the specific testimony of sources.

Primary narrative access (English translation): Antonio Pigafetta, The First Voyage Round the World (translation; editions vary). https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World

27 April 1521 — Magellan killed at Mactan

27 April 1521 — Magellan is killed at the Battle of Mactan. From a documentation standpoint, this is the pivot: leadership changes, the expedition contracts, and the surviving record becomes more uneven for individuals outside the command structure. Henrique appears in discussions of what follows, but the evidence is less straightforward than for Magellan or Elcano.

Reference: Britannica, “Ferdinand Magellan” (death at Mactan). https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-Magellan

After April 1521 — Henrique’s fate (documentary limits)

After Magellan’s death, Henrique’s later life is not securely traceable in the surviving expedition documentation available to the general reader. Because of that gap, claims that he certainly completed a circumnavigation should be treated as conjecture unless tied to a specific documentary argument. A rigorous presentation distinguishes between: (i) Henrique’s documented presence up to the Philippine stage; (ii) the expedition’s later route under new command; and (iii) the absence of firm, personal‑level evidence for Henrique after a certain point.

1522 — Elcano returns to Spain (completion of the circumnavigation)

6 September 1522 — Juan Sebastián Elcano returns to Spain aboard the Victoria, completing the first circumnavigation. This completion is among the best attested facts of the voyage and is the appropriate, evidence‑based endpoint for the expedition’s narrative.

Reference: Britannica, “Juan Sebastián del Cano”. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Juan-Sebastian-del-Cano