His lieutenant, Sebastian d'Elcano, now took command of the ship, directing her course for the Cape of Good Hope, and encountering frightful hardships.

He doubled the cape at last, and then for the fourth time crossed the equator.

On September 7, 1522, after a voyage of more than three years, he brought his ship, the San Vittoria, to anchor in the port of St.
Lucar, near Seville.

She had accomplished the greatest achievement in the history of the human race.

She had circumnavigated the earth.
The San Vittoria, sailing westward, had come back to her starting-point.
Henceforth the theological doctrine of the flatness of the earth was irretrievably overthrown.
Five years after the completion of the voyage of Magellan, was made the first attempt in Christendom to ascertain the size of the earth.