The first few weeks in the Pacific were uneventful. The fleet ran north parallel to the Chilean coast until they picked up the Peruvian Drift from astern and the Westerlies from abeam. By the middle of the month Magellan altered course to the west-northwest as he neared the thirteenth parallel hoping to sight the coast of Asia. This was an unfortunate choice and the ships sailed for weeks without any sight of land. Food stocks rotted and dwindled, and six weeks out from the Strait of Magellan his men began to die of scurvy. By mid-January over a third of the men were so weak they could not walk, and water was rationed to a single sip a day. Finally on January 25 land was sighted and Magellan named this small island St. Paul's (probably Pukapuka, the most northern of the Tuamotus). Magellan made another unfortunate choice when departing this island on January 28, for he set sail away from the archipelagos of the Pacific, setting a course of west north-west. They sailed on and the voyage became more and more arduous. By March 4th the Trinidad had no more food, nineteen men had died, twenty were too weak to stand, and less than a dozen were able to do any work at all. By the evening of March 5 the situation seemed hopeless until land was spotted. They landed on the Marianas but were very quickly surrounded by an armada of canoes filled with indigenous people, the Chamorros, fully armed with clubs, spears, and shields. Crossbows were fired and islanders were killed. The Chamorros retreated. Magellan then had the village bombed by his cannon. He led a landing party to pillage the remains of the village filling their butts with water and taking everything edible: coconuts, yams, chickens, pigs, rice, and bananas. That night the Chamorros returned in hundreds of canoes but the winds strengthened and the Europeans sailed away. For then next couple of days the ships sailed on, stopping at islands along the way to resupply. Magellan decided to continue to the Philippines and not to the Spice Islands that captive Chamorros had told him were within a few days sailing.
