Elcano was born in 1476 in Getaria, Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country of northern Spain. His parents were Domingo Sebastián de el Cano and Catalina de el Puerto. From his childhood he was a sailor and fisherman. He later smuggled contraband into French ports. He was part of an expedition against Algeria in 1509. In 1519 he was in Seville when Charles V of Spain was sending a major expedition to find a shortcut to the Indies.