He in the meantime returned to Portugal, and was employed on an expedition to Morocco.

He was not, however, well treated by the Portuguese monarch, and determined to leave his service for that of Charles V., though he made it a condition of his entering his service that he should make no discoveries within the boundaries of the King of Portugal, and do nothing prejudicial to his interests.
[Illustration: FERDINAND MAGELLAN.] This was in the year 1517, and two years elapsed before Magelhaens started on his celebrated voyage.

He had represented to the Emperor that he was convinced that a strait existed which would lead into the Indian Ocean, past the New World of Amerigo, and that the Spice Islands were beyond the line of demarcation and within the Spanish sphere of influence.

There is some evidence that Spanish merchant vessels, trading secretly to obtain Brazil wood, had already caught sight of the strait afterwards named after Magelhaens, and certainly such a strait is represented upon Schoner's globes dated 1515 and 1520--earlier than Magelhaens' discovery.

The Portuguese were fully aware of the dangers threatened to their monopoly of the spice trade--which by this time had been firmly established--owing to the presence of Serrao in Ternate, and did all in their power to dissuade Charles from sending out the threatened expedition, pointing out that they would consider it an unfriendly act if such an expedition were permitted to start.