Alonso de Salazar

Toribio Alonso de Salazar was a Spanish navigator, who discovered the Marshall Islands on August 21, 1526. He was part of the Fray García Jofre de Loaísa's expedition from Spain to the Spice Islands in 1525, the second in history to cross the Pacific Ocean, after the Magellan-Elcano voyage of global circumnavigation. De Salazar was in command of Santa Maria de la Victoria, the last of seven ships to survive the voyage, and finally reach the Spice Islands. His ship sighted the Bokak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on route to Guam, the Philippines and finally the Moluccas. He was the second to last commander of the Loaisa expedition, after Loaisa and Elcano died. After one month of holding the command, he also died of scurvy shortly after having left Guam on 5 September 1526 and was succeeded by Martín Iñiguez de Zarquizano.