ORDER OF THE DAY OF MAGELLAN,
Given in the Straits, which fell into the hands of the Portuguese,
along with the Papers of the Astrologer
Andres de San Martin, at the Moluccas:
taken from Barros, Decade iii,
Liv. v, Cap. 19.
“I Fernan de Magalhaes, Knight of the Order of St. James, and captain-general of this fleet, which his majesty sent for the discovery of the spices, etc. I make known to you, Duarte Barbosa, captain of the ship Victoria, and to the pilots, masters, and quarter-masters of that ship, as I have understood that it seems to you all a serious matter, that I am determined to go forward, because it seems to you that the weather is little fitted for this voyage on which we are going; and inasmuch as I am a man who never rejected the opinion or counsel of any one, but rather all my affairs are discussed and communicated generally to all, without any person being affronted by me; and since, because of that which happened in the port of S. Julian with respect to the death of Luis de Mendoça, Gaspar de Quexada, and the banishment of Juan de Cartagena and Pero Sanches de Reina, the priest, you, from fear, desist from telling me, and counselling all that may appear to you to be for the service of his majesty, and the safe conduct of this fleet, and you have not told it me nor counselled it: you err in the service of the emperor and king our sovereign, and go against the oath and plighted homage which you have made to me; for which I command you on the part of the said sovereign, and on my part beseech you and charge you, that with respect to all that you think is fitting for our voyage, both as to going forward, and as to turning back, that you give me your opinions in writing each one for himself: declaring the circumstances and reasons why we ought to go forward or turn back, not having respect to anything for which you should omit to tell the truth. With which reasons and opinions, I will say mine, and my decision for coming to a conclusion as to what we have to do. Done in the Channel of All Saints, opposite the river of the islet, on Wednesday, twenty-first of November, in fifty-three degrees, of the year one thousand five hundred and twenty.”
Andres de San Martin replied, giving his opinion that, though he doubted there being any opening in the channel by which to go to the Moluccas, yet he thought they should go forward till the middle of January, as long as the summer and long days lasted.
Magellan, having received this and the other opinions, which he had asked for only to please and content his people, gave a full answer, with long reasons for going forward; and he swore by the habit of St. James, which he wore, that so it seemed to him to be for the good of the fleet. This opinion was notified to the fleet, and next day he set sail.
A LETTER
FROM
MAXIMILIANUS TRANSYLVANUS
TO THE
MOST REVEREND CARDINAL OF SALZBURG,
VERY DELIGHTFUL TO READ,
CONCERNING THE MOLUCCA ISLANDS, AND ALSO MANY
OTHER WONDERS, WHICH THE LATEST VOYAGE OF
THE SPANIARDS HAS JUST DISCOVERED.
(THE TITLE IN RAMUSIO’S COLLECTION RUNS THUS)—
A Letter of Maximilianus Transylvanus, Secretary to His Majesty the
Emperor, written to the Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord
the Cardinal of Salzburg, concerning the wonderful and
astonishing Voyage made by the Spaniards in the
Year 1519, round the World.
DISCOURSE OF
M. GIOVANNI BATTISTA RAMUSIO
UPON THE
VOYAGE MADE BY THE SPANIARDS ROUND THE WORLD.
The voyage made by the Spaniards round the world in the space of three years is one of the greatest and most marvellous things which have been heard of in our times; and, although in many things we surpass the ancients, yet this expedition far excels every other that has been made up till now. The voyage was described very minutely by Peter Martyr, who belonged to the Council of the Indies of His Majesty the Emperor, and to whom was entrusted the duty of writing this history; and by him were examined all those who remained alive of that expedition, and who reached Seville in the year 1522. But, as it was sent to be printed in Rome, it was lost in the miserable sacking of that city; and nothing is known even now as to where it is. And he who saw it, and read it, bears testimony to the same; and, amongst other things worthy of recollection that the aforesaid Peter noted concerning the voyage, was this, that the Spaniards, having sailed about three years and one month, and the greater part of them, as is usual amongst seafaring men, having noted down the days of the months one by one, found, when they arrived in Spain, that they had lost a day, for the day on which they arrived at Seville, which was the 7th of September, was, by their reckoning, the 6th. And the aforesaid Peter having mentioned this peculiarity to a certain excellent and extraordinary man, who was at that time ambassador for his Republic to His Majesty; and, having asked him how it could be, he, who was a great philosopher and learned in Greek and Latin literature, so that for his singular learning and rare excellence, he was afterwards promoted to much higher rank, gave this explanation: That it could not have fallen out otherwise, as they had travelled for three years continuously and always accompanied the sun, which was going westward. And he told him besides, that those who sailed due westwards towards the sun, lengthen their day very much, as the ancients also had noticed. Now, the book of the aforesaid Peter having disappeared, Fortune has not allowed the memory of so marvellous an enterprise to be entirely lost, inasmuch as a certain noble gentleman of Vicenza called Messer Antonio Pigafetta (who, having gone on the voyage and returned in the ship Victoria, was made a Knight of Rhodes), wrote a very exact and full account of it in a book, one copy of which he presented to His Majesty the Emperor, and another he sent to the most Serene Mother of the most Christian King, the Lady Regent. She entrusted to an excellent Parisian philosopher called Jacomo Fabre, who had studied in Italy, the work of translating it into French.[437] This worthy person, I suppose to save himself trouble, made only a summary of it, leaving out what seemed fit to him; and this was printed, very incorrectly, in France, and has now come into our hands; and along with it a letter from one called Maximilianus of Transylvania, a secretary of His Majesty the Emperor, to the most Reverend Cardinal of Salzburg. And this we have wished to add to this volume of travels, as one of the greatest and most remarkable that there has ever been, and one at which those great philosophers of old, hearing of it, would have been stupified and beside themselves. And the city of Vicenza may well boast, among the other cities of Italy, that in addition to its nobility and high qualities; in addition to its many rare and excellent geniuses, both in letters and arms, there has been a gentleman of such courage as the aforesaid Messer Antonio Pigafetta, who has circumnavigated the whole globe, and has described it so exactly. There is no doubt that the ancients would have erected a statue of marble to him, and would have placed it in an honourable position, as a memorial and example to posterity of his great worth, and in acknowledgment of so stupendous an enterprise. But if, in this letter or in the summary, there be seen any discrepancy of names or things, let no one be astonished; for the bent of men’s minds is various, and one notices one thing and one another, just as the things appear most deserving of attention. Let it suffice if, in the principal things they agree, and many parts which are left out in one can be read at length in the other. Fabulous stories, too, are noted for what they are. This may be safely affirmed by anyone, that the ancients never had such a knowledge of the world, which the sun goes round and examines every twenty-four hours, as we have at present, through the industry of the men of these our times.
•• •••
Most Reverend and Illustrious Lord, my only Lord, to you I most humbly commend myself.
One of those five ships has lately returned which Cæsar sent in former years, when he was living at Saragossa, to a strange, and for so many ages, an unknown world, in order to search for the islands where spices grow. For though the Portuguese bring a great quantity of them from the Golden Chersonesus, which we now suppose to be Malacca, yet their own Indies produce nothing but pepper. Other spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, and the nutmeg, which we call muscat, and its covering (mace), which we call muscat flower, are brought to their own Indies from distant islands till now only known by name, and in ships which are fastened together not by iron but by palm leaves. The sails of these ships are round and woven, too, of the palm-fibre. This sort of ships they call junks, and they only use them with a wind directly fore and aft.
It is no wonder that these islands should be unknown to any human beings almost up to our time. For whatever we read concerning the native soil of the spices has been told us by ancient authors, and is partly, certainly, fabulous; and, partly, so far from the truth, that even the very countries in which they said that they grew naturally, are but little less distant from those where it is now known that they grow, than we are. For to omit others, Herodotus, in other respects a most famed author, has said that cinnamon is found in birds’ nests, to which the birds have brought it from most distant regions, and specially the Phœnix, and I know not who has seen his nest. But Pliny, who thought himself able to give more certain information, because, before his time, many things had been made clear by the voyages of the fleets of Alexander the Great and of others, relates that cinnamon grows in Æthiopia on the borders of the land of the Troglodytæ, whilst now it is known that cinnamon is produced very far from any part of Æthiopia, and specially from the Troglodytæ (that is, the dwellers in subterranean caverns). But our men, who have now returned, and who were perfectly acquainted with Æthiopia, have been obliged to make a complete circuit of the world, and that a very wide one, before they could find the islands and return. As this voyage may be considered marvellous, and not only unaccomplished, but even unattempted either in our age or in any previous one, I have resolved to write as truly as possible to your Reverence the course (of the expedition) and the sequence of the whole matter. I have taken care to have everything related to me most exactly by the captain and by the individual sailors who have returned with him. They have also related each separate event to Cæsar and to others with such good faith and sincerity, that they seemed not only to tell nothing fabulous themselves, but by their relation to disprove and refute all the fabulous stories which had been told by old authors. For who can believe that these were Monosceli, Scyopodæ, Syritæ, Spitamei, Pygmies, and many others, rather monsters than men. And as so many places beyond the Tropic of Capricorn have been sought, found, and carefully examined, both by the Spaniards in the south-west and by the Portuguese sailing eastwards, and as the remainder of the whole world has now been sailed over by our countrymen, and yet nothing trustworthy has been heard concerning these man-monsters, it must be believed that the accounts of them are fabulous, lying, and old women’s tales, handed down to us in some way by no credible author. But lest I, who have to travel over the whole world, should seem too diffuse in my introduction, I return to my story. When, nearly thirty years ago, the Spaniards in the west, and the Portuguese in the east, began to search for new and unknown lands, their two kings, lest one should be a hindrance to the other, divided the whole globe between them by the authority, most likely, of Pope Alexander the Sixth, in this manner: that a straight line should be drawn 360 miles, which they call leucæ, west of the islands of the Hesperides, which are now called the islands of Cape Verd; towards the north, and another towards the south Pole, till they should meet again, and so divide the world into two equal parts. And whatever strange land should be discovered eastwards (of this line) should be ceded to the Portuguese, and whatever west of it to the Spaniards. In this manner it happened that the Spaniards always sailed south-west, and there they discovered a very large continent and very great and innumerable islands, rich in gold and pearls and in other wealth, and now, quite lately, have they discovered the vast Mediterranean city, Tenostica,[438] situated in a lake, like Venice. About this city Peter Martyr, an author more careful about his facts than the elegance of his style, has written many wonderful, and yet true, things. But the Portuguese, passing southwards by the shores of the Hesperides, and of the ichthyophagous Æthiopians, and crossing the equinoctial line and the Tropic of Capricorn, sailed eastward, and discovered many great and unknown islands, and afterwards the sources of the Nile and the land of the Troglodytæ. Thence they sailed past the Arabian and Persian Gulfs to the shores of India, within the Ganges, where there is now the mighty emporium and kingdom of Calicut. Thence they sailed to Taprobanes, which they now call Zamatara. For there is now no island which either can be, or can be supposed to be, Taprobanes, in the position in which Ptolemy, Pliny, and the other cosmographers placed it. Going thence, they arrived at the Golden Chersonesus, where now is situated that most famous city of Malacca, the greatest emporium of the East. After this they entered the Great Gulf,[439] which reaches as far as the country of the Sinæ, which they now call Schinæ, where they found a white and tolerably civilised people, like our Germans. They believe that the Seres and the Asiatic Scythians extend as far as there. And though there was a certain rumour afloat that the Portuguese had progressed so far to the east as to cross their own limits and enter the territory of the Spaniards, and that Malacca and the Great Bay were within our limits, still all these things were said rather than believed, until four years ago Ferdinand Magellan, a distinguished Portuguese, who, for many years had explored the coasts of the whole of the East as Admiral, took a great hatred to his king, whom he complained of as being most ungrateful to him, and came to Cæsar. Christopher Haro, too, my own father-in-law’s brother, who had traded for many years in the East by means of his agents, he himself staying in Ulyssipone, commonly called Lisbon, and who had lastly traded with the Chinese, so that he has great practice in such things, having also been unjustly treated by the King of Portugal, came also home to Spain. And they both showed Cæsar that though it was not yet quite sure whether Malacca was within the confines of the Spaniards or the Portuguese, because, as yet, nothing of the longitude had been clearly proved, yet that it was quite plain that the Great Gulf and the people of Sinæ lay within the Spanish boundary. This, too, was held to be most certain, that the islands which they call the Moluccas, in which all the spices are produced, and are thence exported to Malacca, lay within the Spanish western division, and that it was possible to sail there; and that spices could be brought thence to Spain more easily, and at less expense and cheaper, as they came direct from their native place.
Their course would be this, to sail westward, coasting the southern hemisphere (till they came) to the East. The thing seemed almost impossible and useless, not because it was thought a difficult thing to go from the west right to the east under the hemisphere, but because it was uncertain whether ingenious nature, which has done nothing without the greatest foresight, had not so dissevered the east from the west, partly by sea and partly by land, as to make it impossible to arrive there by either land or sea travelling. For it had not then been discovered whether that great region which is called Terra Firma did separate the western sea from the eastern; it was clear enough that that continent, in its southern part, trended southwards and afterwards westwards. It was clear, also, that two regions had been discovered in the North, one of which they called Regio Bacalearum (Cod-fish Land), from a new kind of fish; and the other Terra Florida. And if these two were united to that Terra Firma, it was impossible to get to the east by going from the west, as nothing had ever been discovered of any channel through this land, though it had been sought for most diligently and with great labour. And they considered it a very doubtful and most dangerous enterprise to go through the limits of the Portuguese, and so to the east. For which reason it seemed to Cæsar and to his counsellors that these men were promising a thing from which much was to be hoped, but still of great difficulty. When they were both brought to an audience on a certain day, Magellan offered to go himself, but Christopher offered to fit out a fleet at his own expense and that of his friends, but only if it were allowed to sail under the authority and protection of Cæsar. Whilst they both persisted rather obstinately in their offers, Cæsar himself equipped a fleet of five ships, and appointed Magellan its admiral. Their orders were, to sail southwards along the coast of Terra Firma till they found either its termination or some channel through which they might reach the spice-bearing Moluccas. So Magellan set sail on the 10th of August, 1519, with five ships from Seville. A few days after he reached the Fortunate Islands, which are now sometimes called the Canaries. Thence they arrived at the Islands of the Hesperides,[440] from which they took a south-western course towards that continent which we mentioned before; and after some days’ fair sailing they sighted a promontory, to which the name of Santa Maria has been given. Here Juan Ruy Diaz Solis had been eaten, with some of his companions, by the anthropophagi, whom the Indians call cannibals, whilst, by order of Ferdinand the Catholic, he was exploring the coast of this continent with a fleet. Sailing thence, our men coasted in an unbroken course along the coasts of this continent, which extend a very long way south, and tend a little west, so that they crossed the Tropic of Capricorn by many degrees. I think that this continent should be called that of the Southern Pole. But it was not so easy as I have said; for not till the last day of March of the following year did they reach a bay, to which they gave the name of Saint Julian. Here they found the Antarctic Pole star 491⁄5 degrees above their horizon, both by the altitude and declination of the sun from the Equinoctial, and also by the altitude of the Antarctic (Pole star) itself. This star our sailors generally make use of more than of any other. They state also that the longitude was 56 deg. west of the Fortunate Isles. For, as the ancient cosmographers, and specially Ptolemy, reckoned the longitude from the Fortunate Islands eastward to Catigara at 180 deg., so our men, sailing as far as they could westward also, began to reckon another 180 deg. westward to Catigara, as was right. Yet our sailors seem to me rather to be mistaken in the calculation of the longitudes (of distances?) than to have fixed them with any certainty, because in so long a voyage, and being so distant from the land, they cannot fix and determine any marks or signs for the longitude. Still I think that these accounts, whatever they be, should not be cast aside, but rather accepted till more certain information be discovered.
This Gulf of Saint Julian seemed very great, and had the appearance of a channel. Wherefore Admiral Magellan ordered two ships to explore the Gulf and anchored the rest outside. After two days, information was brought to him that the Gulf was full of shoals, and did not extend far inland. Our men, on their way back, saw some Indians picking up shell-fish on the shore; for they call the natives of all unknown lands Indians. They were of extraordinary height, that is to say, about ten spans, were clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and seemed darker than would be expected from the situation of the country. When some of our men went on shore to them and showed them bells and pictures painted on paper, they began a hoarse chant and an unintelligible song, dancing round our men, and, in order to astonish them, they passed arrows a cubit and a half long down their throats to the bottom of their stomachs, and without being sick. And forthwith drawing them out again, they seemed to rejoice greatly, as having shown their bravery by this exploit.
At last three came as ambassadors, and prayed our men, by certain signs, to go further inland with them, as if they would receive them with all hospitality. Magellan sent seven men, well armed, with them, to investigate as carefully as possible both country and people. When they had gone with them about seven miles inland, they came to a thick and pathless wood.
Here was a rather low hut, covered with skins of wild beasts. There were two apartments in it; in one lived the women with their children, in the other the men. There were thirteen women and children, and five men. These received their guests with a (ferali apparatu[441]) barbarous pomp, which seemed to them a royal one. An animal was slaughtered, which seemed to differ little from the onager, and they served it up half roasted to our men, without any other food or drink. Our men were obliged, contrary to their custom, to sleep under skins, on account of the severity of the snow and wind. Wherefore, before they slept, they set watch. The Indians did the same, and lay down near our men, snoring horribly.
When the day had broken, our men asked them to return with them to the ships, with the whole family. When the Indians had refused for a considerable time, and our men had insisted upon it rather imperiously, the men entered the den-like[442] women’s apartment. The Spaniards thought that they were consulting with their wives concerning this expedition; but they returned covered, from the sole of their feet to the crown of their heads, with different horrible skins, and with their faces painted in different colours, and equipped in this terrible and horrible garb with bows and arrows for battle, and (seemingly?) of much greater stature than before. The Spaniards, who thought that it would come to a fight, ordered (a shot) to be fired. Though this shot was harmless, still the giants, who looked just before fit to contend with Jove, were so frightened by this sound, that they began forthwith to speak of peace. The upshot was, that three men returned with our fellows to the ships, having sent away the rest of the family. So they started for the ships. But, as our men could not only not keep up with these almost giants when the latter were running, but could not, even by running, keep up with them walking, two of them escaped upon the march, on the pretext of pursuing an onager, which they saw feeding at a distance upon a mountain. The third was brought to the ship, but died, within a few days, of fasting, which he had imposed upon himself, according to the habit of the Indians, through homesickness. And though the admiral sent again to that hut, in order to catch some one of these giants to take to Cæsar on account of their novelty, yet no one was found there, but all had gone elsewhere with the hut. Whence it seems clear that that race is a wandering one, nor did our men ever see another Indian on that coast, though they remained in that bay for many days, as we shall mention farther on. They did not think that there was anything in that region of sufficient importance to justify their exploring it and the interior any farther. Though Magellan perceived that any longer stay there was useless, yet, as the sea for several days was stormy and the sky threatening, and the land stretched continuously southwards, so that the farther they went the colder they would find that region, his departure was necessarily put off from day to day, till the month of May was close upon them, from which time the winter there begins to be most severe, so that it became necessary to winter at the very time when we have our summer. Magellan foreseeing that the voyage would be a long one, ordered provisions to be served out more sparingly among his crews, so that the stock might last longer. When the Spaniards had borne this patiently for some days, fearing the severity of the winter and the barrenness of the country, they at last petitioned their admiral, Magellan, that, as he saw that the land stretched uninterruptedly to the south, and that no hope remained of its terminating or of the discovery of a strait through it, and that a severe winter was imminent, and that many of them were dead of starvation and hardships; and declared that they could no longer bear the rule which he had made about the allowance of provisions (lex sumptuaria), and begged that he would increase the allowance of provisions, and think about going home; that Cæsar never intended that they should too obstinately attempt what nature itself and other obstacles opposed; that their exertions were already sufficiently known and approved of,—for they had gone farther than either the boldness or rashness of mortals had ever dared to go as yet; and that they could easily reach some milder shore, if they were to sail south (north?) for a few days, a south wind being then blowing. But in reply, Magellan, who had already made up his mind either to die or to complete his enterprise, said that his course had been laid down for him by Cæsar himself, and that he neither could nor would depart from it in any degree, and that he would in consequence sail till he found either the end of the land or some strait (through it).
That though they could not at present succeed whilst winter was against them, yet that it would be easy in the summer of that region. But that, if they would continue towards the Antarctic portion of this country, the whole of its summer would be one perpetual day. That there were means if they would only try them, by which they might avoid famine and the rigour of the winter, inasmuch as there was abundance of wood, and the sea provided shell-fish and many sorts of the very best fish. The springs there were wholesome, and birdfowling and hunting would supply many wants; and neither bread nor wine had as yet been lacking, nor would they lack in future if they would only bear that they should be served out when needed, or for health’s sake, and not for pleasure or for luxury. They had done nothing as yet worthy of admiration, or which could serve as an excuse for their return, inasmuch as the Portuguese crossed the tropic of Capricorn by as much as 12 deg. not only every year, but almost every day, when they were sailing eastwards. They would be thought worthy of very little praise who had gone only 4 deg. southwards. He had certainly made up his mind to endure the worst rather than return ignominiously to Spain, and he trusted that all his comrades, or at least those in whom the noble Spanish spirit was not yet dead, would be of the same mind.
He advised them to bear at least the remainder of the winter patiently, and said that their rewards would be the more abundant the more difficulties and dangers they had endured in opening to Cæsar a new unknown world, rich in spices and gold. Magellan thought that the minds of his crews were soothed and cheered by this harangue, but within a few days was harassed by a shameful and foul conspiracy. For talking began amongst the crews about the old eternal hatred between the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and about Magellan’s being a Portuguese. He, they said, could do nothing more glorious for his own country than to cast away this fleet, with so many men. Nor was it credible that he should wish to discover the Moluccas, even if he were able; but he would think it sufficient if he could hire Cæsar on for some years with a vain hope, and meanwhile something new would turn up, by which the Spaniards would for the future be diverted from the search for spices. Nor even had their course begun to turn towards those happy Moluccas, but rather to distant snows and ice, and to perpetual storms.
Magellan, very much enraged by these sayings, punished the men, but rather more harshly than was proper for a foreigner, especially when commanding in a distant country. So, having planned a conspiracy, they seize upon a ship, and make ready to return to Spain. But he, with the rest whom he had still obedient to his commands, attacked that ship, and put to death the head man and the other ringleaders, those even who could not lawfully be so treated sharing the same fate. For these were certain servants of the king, upon whom no one but Cæsar and his Council could lawfully pronounce a sentence of death. Nevertheless, no one from that time dared to disparage the power of the commander. Still, there were not wanting some who whispered that Magellan would, in the same manner, murder all the Spaniards to the last man, until he, having got rid of them all, might return with the few Portuguese with the fleet to his own country. And so this hatred settled more deeply in the hearts of the Spaniards.
As soon as ever Magellan saw the storminess of the sea and the rigour of the winter mitigated, he set sail from the gulf of St. Julian on the 24th of August. And, as before, he followed the course of the coast southwards for many days. A promontory was at last sighted, which they called Santa Cruz, when a severe storm, springing from the east, suddenly caught them, and one of the five ships was cast on shore, the men being all saved, with the merchandise and equipment, except one Ethiopian slave, who was caught and drowned by the waves. After this the land seemed to bear a little east and south, and this they began to coast along as usual, and on the 26th of November certain inlets of the sea were discovered, which had the appearance of a strait. Magellan entered them forthwith with the whole fleet, and when he saw other and again other bays, he gave orders that they should be all carefully examined from the ships, to see if anywhere a passage might be discovered; and said that he would himself wait at the mouth of the strait till the fifth day, to hear what might happen.
One of the ships, which Alvarus Meschito, his nephew, commanded, was carried back by the tide to the sea, to the very place where they entered the gulf. But when the Spaniards perceived that they were far away from the other ships, they made a plot to return home, put Alvarus, their captain, in irons, bent their course northwards, and were at last carried to the coast of Æthiopia (Guinea), and, having victualled there, they reached Spain eight months after they had deserted the rest. There they compel Alvarus to stand his trial in chains (causam ex vinculis dicere faciunt quasi), for having, by his counsel and advice, induced his uncle Magellan to practise such harshness on the Spaniards.
But when Magellan had waited for this ship some days longer than the time fixed, another returned, which had discovered nothing but a bay full of shoals and shingle, and very lofty cliffs. The third ship, however, reported that the largest bay had the appearance of a strait, as in three days’ sail they had found no way out; but the farther they had gone the narrower the sea was, and they had not been able to sound the depth of it in many places by any length of line, and that they had also noticed that the tide was rather stronger than the ebb, and that so they were persuaded that a passage was open in that direction to some other sea. He made up his mind to sail through it. This channel, which they did not then know to be a channel, was at one place three Italian miles wide, at another two, sometimes ten, and sometimes five, and pointed a little westward. The altitude of the southern pole was found to be 52 deg., and the longitude to be the same, as at St. Julian’s Bay. The month of November was upon them (Aderat jam mensis Novembris), the night was rather more than five hours long, and they had never seen any human beings on the shore.
But one night a great number of fires were seen, mostly on their left hand, from which they guessed that they had been seen by the natives of the region. But Magellan, seeing that the country was rocky, and also stark with eternal cold, thought it useless to waste many days in examining it; and so, with only three ships, he continued on his course along the channel, until, on the twenty-second day after he had entered it, he sailed out upon another wide and vast sea. The length of the channel they attest to be nearly a hundred Spanish miles.
There is no doubt that the land which they had upon their right was the continent of which we have spoken, but they think that the land on the left was not a mainland, but islands, because sometimes on that side they heard on a still farther coast the beating and roaring of the sea.
Magellan saw that the continent stretched northwards again in a straight line; wherefore, leaving that huge continent on the right hand, he ordered them to sail through that vast and mighty sea (which I do not think had ever seen either our or any one else’s ships) in the direction whence the wind called Corus[443] generally blows—that is, ’twixt north and west—so that he might, by going through west to east, again arrive at the torrid zone; for he thought that it was proved sufficiently clearly that the Moluccas were in the most remote east, and could not be far from the equator. They kept this course uninterruptedly, nor did they ever depart from it, except when rough weather or violent winds compelled them to diverge; and when they had in this manner been carried for forty days by a strong and generally favourable wind, and had seen nothing but sea, and everywhere sea—when they had almost reached the tropic of Capricorn once more, two islands were sighted, but small and barren. These they found uninhabited when they tried to land; still, they stopped there two days for their health’s sake, and general recruiting of their bodies, for there was very fair fishing there. They named these the Unfortunate Islands by common consent. Then they again set sail thence, following their original course and direction of sailing. And when, for three months and twenty days, they had been sailing over this ocean with great good fortune, and had traversed an immense part of the sea—more vast than mind of man can conceive, for they had been driven almost continuously by a very strong wind—they were now at last arrived on this side of the equinoctial line, and at last they saw an island, called, as they learnt afterwards, Inuagana by the natives. When they had approached nearer, they discovered the altitude of the Arctic pole to be 11 deg. The longitude they thought to be 158 deg. west of Gades. Then they saw other and still more islands, so that they knew they had arrived at some vast archipelago. When they reached Inuagana, the island was discovered to be uninhabited. They then approached a rather small island, where they saw two Indian canoes—for that is the name by which this strange kind of boat is called by the Indians. The canoes are cut and hollowed out of a single trunk of a tree, and hold one, or, at most, two men; and they usually speak by gestures and signs, as if the dumb were talking with the dumb.
They asked the Indians the names of the islands, and where they could get provisions, of which they were in great want. They understood that the island in which they had been was called Inuagana, and that the one where they now were was Acaca, but both of them uninhabited. They said that there was an island not far off, which was called Selani, and which they almost showed with their finger, and that it was inhabited, and that an abundance of everything necessary for life was to be found there.
Our men, having taken in water in Acaca, sailed towards Selani; here a storm took them, so that they could not bring the ships to that island, but were driven to another island called Massaua, where lives a king of (the?) three islands, after that they arrived at Subuth. This is an excellent and large island, and, having made a treaty with its chieftain, they landed immediately to perform divine service, according to the manner of Christians, for it was the feast of the resurrection of Him who was our salvation. Wherefore they built a small chapel of the sails of the ships, and of boughs, and in that they built an altar according to the Christian rites, and performed service after their home fashion. The chieftain came up with a great number of Indians, who seemed in every way delighted by this worship of the gods. They led the admiral and some of the officers to the chief’s hut, and put before them whatever food they had. Their bread, which they call sago, was made of the trunk or wood of a tree, rather like a palm. This, when cut in pieces, and fried in oil in a pan, supplies them with bread, a small piece of which I send to your reverence. Their drink was a liquor which flows and trickles from the boughs of the palm-trees when cut. Fowling, too, supplied the feast, and the rest was the fruit of that region.
Magellan beheld, in the chief’s hut, one sick, and almost at the last gasp. He asked who he was, and what illness he was suffering from. He learnt that he was the chief’s grandson, and had now suffered for two years from a raging fever. But he told him to be of good cheer, and that he would immediately recover his health and former strength, if he would only become a Christian. The Indian accepted the condition, and, having adored the Cross, he received baptism, and the next day declared that he was well, rose from his bed, walked, and took food like the rest. He told I know not what visions to the Indians. What need I say more? The chief himself, with two thousand two hundred Indians, was baptized, and professed the name and religion of Christ. But Magellan, judging this island to abound in gold and ginger, and, besides, to be convenient from its position with respect to the neighbouring islands, for exploring with ease their wealth and produce of the earth, goes to the Chief of Subuth, and persuades him that as he had abandoned that vain and impious worship of the gods, and had turned to the religion of Christ, it was only fair that the kings of the neighbouring isles should be subject to his rule and command; and he said that he had resolved to send ambassadors concerning this, and compel by arms those who did not listen to his command.
This proposition pleased the savage, and the ambassadors were sent. The chiefs came in one by one, and did homage. The nearest island was called Mauthan, the king of which excelled the others in number of soldiers and in arms, and he refused to do homage to one whom he had been accustomed for so long to command.
Magellan, who desired to finish what he had once begun, gave orders that forty of his men, whose bravery and prowess he had proved, should arm, and he crossed over to Mauthan in boats, for the island was very near. The Chief of Subuth added some of his own men to show him the situation of the island, and to fight, if matters came to that. The King of Mauthan, seeing our men coming, draws up about three thousand of his subjects in the field, and Magellan draws up his on the shore, with their guns and warlike engines, though only a few; and though he saw that he was far inferior to the enemy in number, yet he thought it better to fight this warlike race, which made use of lances and other long weapons, than either to return or to use the soldiers from Subuth. So he orders his men to be of good cheer and brave hearts, and not to be alarmed at the number of the enemy, for they had often seen, as formerly, so in quite recent times, two hundred Spaniards in the island of Yucatan put sometimes two or three hundred thousand men to flight. But he pointed out to the Subuth islanders that he had brought them, not to fight, but to watch their bravery and fighting power (robur in acie). So, having charged the enemy, both sides fought valiantly: but, as the enemy were more numerous, and used longer weapons, with which they did our men much damage, Magellan himself was at last thrust through and slain. But the rest of our men, though they did not seem quite conquered, yet retreated, having lost their leader. And the enemy dared not follow them, as they were retreating in good order.
So the Spaniards, having lost their admiral, Magellan, and seven of their comrades, returned to Subuth, where they chose another commander, John Serrano, a man not to be despised. He immediately renewed with fresh gifts the alliance that had been made with the King of Subuth, and promised to subdue the King of Mauthan.
Magellan had a slave, born in the Moluccas, whom he had bought in Malacca some time back; this man was a perfect master of the Spanish language, and, with the assistance of one of the islanders of Subuth as interpreter, who knew the language of the Moluccas, our men managed all their communications. This slave had been present at the battle of Mauthan, and had received some slight wounds in it. For which reason he lay all day long nursing himself. Serrano, who could manage nothing without him, spoke to him very harshly, and told him that he had not ceased to be a slave and bondsman because Magellan was dead, but that the yoke of slavery would be heavier, and that he would be severely flogged unless he did the services required of him more zealously.
This slave conceived an intense hatred of us from these words; but, concealing his anger, he went a few days after to the Chief of Subuth, and told him that the greed of the Spaniards was insatiable, that they had resolved and determined, after they had conquered the King of Mauthan, to make a quarrel with him and take him away prisoner, and there was no other remedy possible than to anticipate their treachery by treachery. The savage believed it all. He made peace secretly with the King of Mauthan and the others, and they plotted our destruction. Serrano, the commander, with all the rest of his officers, who were about twenty-seven in number, were invited to a solemn banquet. They, suspecting no evil—for the savages had cunningly dissimulated in everything—land, careless and unsuspecting, as men who were going to dine with the chief would do. Whilst they were feasting they were set upon by those who had been placed in ambush. Shouts were raised on all sides, and news flew to the ships that our men were murdered, and that everything on the island was hostile to us. Our men see from the ships that the beautiful cross which they had hoisted on a tree was hurled to the ground, and kicked to pieces by the savages with great fury. But the remaining Spaniards, who had stopped on board, when they knew of their comrades’ murder, feared some still greater treachery. Wherefore, when they had weighed anchor, they begin to set sail quickly. Shortly after, Serrano was brought down to the shore bound most cruelly, and he begged them to redeem him from so harsh a captivity. He said he had prevailed upon them to permit his being ransomed, if our men would only do it.
Though our men thought it shameful to leave their commander in this way, yet, fearing fraud and treachery, they put out to sea, leaving Serrano on the shore, weeping bitterly, and imploring the help and assistance of his fellow-countrymen with great and grievous lamentation. The Spaniards sailed along, sad and anxious, having lost their commander and their shipmates, not only alarmed by their loss and by the slaughter of their mates, but because their number was reduced so low that it was quite insufficient for the management of three ships. Wherefore they hold a council, and, having taken the votes, they agree that there was nothing better to do than to burn some one of the three ships, and keep only two.
So they go to an island near, Cohol[444] by name, and transfer the equipment to the other two ships, and burn the third. Then they sailed to the island called Gibeth. Though they found that it was rich in gold and ginger and many other things, yet they thought it better not to stay there long, because they could not, by any kindness, attract the Indians to them. And their scantiness of number prevented their fighting. Thence they went to the island Porne (Borneo). There are two great and rich islands in this archipelago, one of which was called Siloli, the king of which had six hundred children; and the other Porne.
Siloli was greater than the one called Porne. For it takes nearly six months to sail round it, but Porne only three. But just so much as the former is larger, so much is the latter better situated as regards fertility of soil, and more famed also for the size of a city of the same name as itself. And, as Porne must be considered of more importance than any of the other islands which they had examined, and seemed to be the source whence the others received their good customs and civilization (cultum vitæ), I have resolved to touch, in a few words, upon the customs and laws of these peoples. All these islanders are Caphræ, that is, heathen, and worship the sun and moon. They ascribe the rule of the day to the sun, but that of the night to the moon; the former they call male, and the latter female; and them, too, they call the parents of the stars, which they deem to be all gods, though small ones. They salute the rising sun with certain hymns before they worship it. This they do also to the moon, when it shines at night, to whom they pray for children, and fruitful increase of cattle, and abundant fruits of the earth, and other things of that sort.
But they practise justice and piety, and specially do they love peace and quiet, but war they greatly detest, and they honour their king as a god whilst he is bent upon peace. But if he be too desirous of war, they rest not till he has fallen by the hand of the enemy in battle. Whenever he has determined to wage war, which is rarely done, he is placed by his subjects in the vanguard, where he is compelled to bear the whole onslaught of the enemy. Nor do they fight against the enemy with any spirit until they know that their king is dead; then, first do they begin to fight for their liberty and for their future king, nor has there ever been seen among them a king who began a war who has not died in battle. Wherefore they rarely wage war, and think it unjust to extend their territories; but the special care of all is not wantonly to attack either the neighbouring or the distant peoples. But if at any time they are attacked, they meet force by force (par pari referunt). But lest the mischief should spread farther they look immediately to making peace. There can be nothing more honourable among them than to be the first to ask for peace, nor more disgraceful than to be anticipated in asking for it, and they think it shameful and hateful to refuse it to anyone, even if he had attacked them without provocation. And all the neighbouring people unite against the one (who refuses peace) for his destruction, as against a cruel and impious man. Whence it happens that they almost always enjoy quiet and repose. There is no robbery among them, and no murder. No one but his wives and children may speak to the king, except by means of canes, which they place to his ear from a distance, and whisper what they wish through them. They say that man, after his death, has no feeling, as he had none before his birth. They have small houses, built of logs and of earth, partly roofed with rubble, and partly with palm leaves. [Ædes habent exiles ex lignis & terra constructas, partim rudere, partim palmatis frondibus coopertas.] It is, though, quite certain that in Porne there are twenty thousand houses. They marry as many wives as they can afford, and live on food, which bird-fowling or fishing supplies them with. They make bread of rice, and a drink which drops from the severed branches of the palm, as we said before.
Some carry on traffic in the neighbouring islands, to which they go in junks; some devote themselves to hunting; some to fishing; and others to agriculture. They have dresses of cotton, and almost all the animals that we have, except the sheep, the ox, and the ass; but their horses are very small and feeble. The produce of camphor, of ginger, and of cinnamon, is great among them. Thence our men, having saluted this king, and heaped him with presents, directed their course to the Moluccas, which had been pointed out to them by the same king. They came to the shores of the island of Solo, where they heard that there were pearls as big as dove’s eggs, and sometimes as hen’s eggs, but which can only be fished up from the very deepest sea. Our men brought no large pearl, because the season of the year did not allow of the fishery. But they testify that they had taken an oyster in that region, the flesh of which weighed forty-seven pounds. For which reason I could easily believe that pearls of that great size are found there; for it is clearly proved that pearls are the product of shell-fish. And to omit nothing, our men constantly affirm that the islanders of Porne told them that the king wore in his crown two pearls of the size of a goose’s egg. Hence they went to the island of Gilo, where they saw men with ears so long and pendulous, that they reached to their shoulders. When our men were mightily astonished at this, they learnt from the natives that there was another island not far off where the men had ears not only pendulous, but so long and broad, that one of them would cover the whole head, if they wanted it (cum ex usu esset). But our men, who sought not monsters but spices, neglecting this nonsense, went straight to the Moluccas, and they discovered them eight months after their admiral, Magellan, had fallen in Mauthan. The islands are five in number, and are called Tarante, Muthil, Thidore, Mare, and Matthien: some on this side, some on the other, and some upon the equinoctial line.
One produces cloves, another nutmegs, and another cinnamon. All are near to each other, but small and rather narrow.
The kings (of?) Marmin began to believe that souls were immortal a few years ago, induced by no other argument than that they saw that a certain most beautiful small bird never rested upon the ground nor upon anything that grew upon it; but they sometimes saw it fall dead upon the ground from the sky. And as the Mahometans, who travelled to those parts for commercial purposes, told them that this bird was born in Paradise, and that Paradise was the abode of the souls of those who had died, these kings (reguli) embraced the sect of Mahomet, because it promised wonderful things concerning this abode of souls. But they call the bird Mamuco Diata, and they hold it in such reverence and religious esteem, that they believe that by it their kings are safe in war, even though they, according to custom, are placed in the fore front of battle. The common folk are Caphræ, and of almost the same manners and laws as the islanders of Porne; they are rather poor, as would be likely with people in whose land nothing grows except spices. These they willingly barter for poisons, namely, arsenic and what is commonly called sublimate of mercury, and for linens, in which they generally are dressed; but for what purpose they use these poisons, we have not yet found out. They live on sago bread and fish, and sometimes on parrots, and they shelter in low huts. What need of many words. Everything there is humble, and of no value, but peace, quiet, and spices. The best and noblest of which, and the greatest good possible, namely, peace, seems to have been driven by men’s wickedness from our world to theirs. But avarice and the insatiable greed of the belly, have driven us to seek for spices in their unknown world. (Adeo hominum protervia salubria quaeque haud longius satis nequet protudere neque quæ luxus et libidinis appetere.) But, our men having carefully inspected the position of the Moluccas and of each separate island, and also having inquired about the habits of the kings, went to Thedori, because they learnt that in that island the supply of cloves was far above that of the others, and that its king also surpassed the other kings in wisdom and humanity. So, having prepared their gifts, they land, and salute the king, and they offer the presents as if they had been sent by Cæsar. He, having received the presents kindly, looks up to heaven, and says: “I have known now for two years from the course of the stars, that you were coming to seek these lands, sent by the most mighty King of Kings. Wherefore your coming is the more pleasant and grateful to me, as I had been forewarned of it by the signification of the stars.”
And, as I know that nothing ever happens to any man which has not been fixed long before by the decree of fate and the stars, I will not be the one to attempt to withstand either the fates or the signification of the stars, but willingly and of good cheer, will henceforth lay aside the royal pomp and will consider myself as managing the administration of this island only in the name of your king. Wherefore draw your ships into port, and order the rest of your comrades to land; so that now at last, after such a long tossing upon the seas, and so many dangers, you may enjoy the pleasures of the land and refresh your bodies. And think not but that you have arrived at your king’s kingdom. Having said this, the king, laying aside his crown, embraced them one by one, and ordered whatever food that land afforded to be brought. Our men being overjoyed at this, returned to their comrades, and told them what had happened. They, pleased above measure with the friendly behaviour and kindness of the king, take possession of the island. And when their health was completely restored, in a few days, by the king’s munificence, they send envoys to the other kings, to examine the wealth of the islands, and to conciliate the other kings. Tarante was the nearest, and also the smallest, of the islands; for it has a circumference of a little more than six Italian miles. Mathien is next to it, and it, too, is small. These three produce a great quantity of cloves, but more every fourth year than the other three. These trees only grow on steep rocks, and that so thickly as frequently to form a grove. This tree is very like a laurel (or bay tree) in leaf, closeness of growth, and height; and the gariophile which they call clove from its likeness (to a nail, clavus) grows on the tip of each separate twig. First a bud, and then a flower, just like the orange flower is produced.
The pointed part of the clove is fixed at the extreme end of the branch, and then growing slightly longer, it forms a spike. It is at first red, but soon gets black by the heat of the sun. The natives keep the plantations of these trees separate, as we do our vines. They bury the cloves in pits till they are taken away by the traders.
Muthil, the fourth island, is not larger than the rest, and it produces cinnamon. The tree is full of shoots, and in other respects barren; it delights in dryness, and is very like the tree which bears pomegranates. The bark of this splits under the influence of the sun’s heat, and is stripped off the wood; and, after drying a little in the sun, it is cinnamon. Near to this is another island, called Bada,[445] larger and more ample than the Moluccas. In this grows the nutmeg, the tree of which is tall and spreading, and is rather like the walnut tree, and its nut, too, grows like the walnut; for it is protected by a double husk, at first like a furry calix, and under this a thin membrane, which embraces the nut like network. This is called the Muscat flower with us, but by the Spaniards mace, and is a noble and wholesome spice. The other covering is a woody shell, like that of hazel-nut, and in that, as we have already said, is the nutmeg. Ginger grows here and there in each of the islands of the archipelago. It sometimes grows by sowing, and sometimes spontaneously; but that which is sown is the more valuable. Its grass is like that of the saffron, and its root is almost the same too, and that is ginger. Our men were kindly treated by the chiefs in turn, and they, too, submitted freely to the rule of Cæsar, like the King of Thidori. But the Spaniards, who had but two ships, resolved to bring some of each (spice) home, but to load the ships with cloves, because the crop of that was most abundant that year, and our ships could contain a greater quantity of this kind of spice. Having, therefore, loaded the ships with cloves, and having received letters and presents for Cæsar from the kings, they make ready for their departure. The letters were full of submission and respect. The gifts were Indian swords, and things of that sort. But, best of all, the Mamuco Diata; that is, the Bird of God, by which they believe themselves to be safe and invincible in battle. Of which five were sent, and one I obtained from the captain (con gran prieghi), which I send to your reverence, not that your reverence may think yourself safe from treachery and the sword by means of it, as they profess to do, but that you may be pleased by its rareness and beauty. I send also some cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves, to show that our spices are not only not worse, but more valuable than those which the Venetians and Portuguese bring, because they are fresher. When our men had set sail from Thedori, one of the ships, and that the larger one, having sprung a leak, began to make water, so that it became necessary to put back to Thedori. When the Spaniards saw that this mischief could not be remedied without great labour and much time, they agreed that the other ship should sail to the Cape of Cattigara, and afterwards through the deep as far as possible from the coast of India, lest it should be seen by the Portuguese, and until they saw the Promontory of Africa, which projects beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, and to which the Portuguese have given the name of Good Hope; and from that point the passage to Spain would be easy. But as soon as the other ship was refitted, it should direct its course through the archipelago, and that vast ocean towards the shores of the continent which we mentioned before, till it found that coast which was in the neighbourhood of Darien, and where the southern sea was separated from the western, in which are the Spanish Islands, by a very narrow space of land. So the ship sailed again from Thedori, and, having gone twelve degrees on the other side of the equinoctial line, they did not find the Cape of Cattigara, which Ptolemy supposed to extend even beyond the equinoctial line; but when they had traversed an immense space of sea, they came to the Cape of Good Hope and afterwards to the Islands of the Hesperides. And, as this ship let in water, being much knocked about by this long voyage, the sailors, many of whom had died by hardships by land and by sea, could not clear the ship of the water. Wherefore they landed upon one of the islands, which is named after Saint James, to buy slaves. But as our men had no money, they offered, sailor fashion, cloves for the slaves. This matter having come to the ears of the Portuguese who were in command of the island, thirteen of our men were thrown into prison. The rest were eighteen in number. Frightened by the strangeness of this behaviour, they started straight for Spain, leaving their shipmates behind them. And so, in the sixteenth month after leaving Thedori, they arrived safe and sound on the sixth of September, at the port near Hispalis (Seville). Worthier, indeed, are our sailors of eternal fame than the Argonauts who sailed with Jason to Colchis. And much more worthy was their ship of being placed among the stars than that old Argo; for that only sailed from Greece through Pontus, but ours from Hispalis to the south; and after that, through the whole west and the southern hemisphere, penetrating into the east, and again returned to the west.
I commend myself most humbly to your Reverence. Given at Vallisoleti, on the 23rd of October, 1522.
Your most Reverend and Illustrious Lordship’s
Most humble and constant servant,
Maximilianus Transylvanus.
(Printed at) Cologne, in the house of Eucharius Cervicornus, in the year of the Virgin’s Child, 1523, in the month of January.
EXTRACTS FROM
A DERROTERO OR LOG-BOOK
OF THE VOYAGE OF FERNANDO DE MAGALLANES IN SEARCH OF THE STRAIT, FROM THE CAPE OF ST. AUGUSTIN. FRANCISCO ALBO, 1519.
Copied from the Original in “Simancas en un legajo suelto”. Additional MS., British Museum, 17, 621. (Published by Navarrete.)
Tuesday, 29th day of November, I began to take the altitude of the sun whilst following the said voyage; and whilst in the vicinity of Cape St. Augustine, and in 7° altitude on the S. side, and at a distance from the said cape a matter of 27 leagues to S.W. Wednesday, 30th of said month, I took the sun in 76°, and its declination was 22° 59′, and its polar altitude was 8° 59′, and the course was S.S.W.
On the 1st December, Thursday, the sun had 78° meridian altitude, and 23° 4′ declination, and our distance (from the equator) 11° 4′, and the course was S.S.W.
Friday, the 2nd of the said month, I took the sun in barely 80°, and its declination was 23° 3′, the altitude was just 13°, and the course S.S.W.
Saturday, the 3rd of the said month, I took the sun in 82° 15′, which had 23° 13′ declination, and our distance was 14° 58′, and the course was S.S.W.
Sunday, the 4th of the said month, the sun had 83° altitude, and 23° 17′ declination; and our distance came to be 16° 17′, and the course was S.S.W.
Monday, 5th of the said month, I took the sun in barely 84°, and it had 23° 21′ declination; and our distance to the South came to be 17° 13′, and the course was S.S.W. 1⁄4 W.
Tuesday, 6th of the said month, the sun had 85° meridian altitude, and 23° 25′ declination; and the height to the S. Pole came to be 18° 25′; the course was S.W. 1⁄4 S.
Wednesday, 7th of the said month, I took the sun in 86° 30′, and it had 23° 29′ declination; our distance from the line came 18° 57′, and the course was to W.S.W.
Thursday, 8th of the said month, I took the sun in 86° 30′, and it had 23° 29′ declination; and so our altitude came to be 19° 59′, and the course was S.W., and we sounded here, and found bottom at 10 fathoms; and this day we saw land, flat beaches, and it was the day of the Conception of our Lady.
Friday, 9th of the said month (December), I took the sun in 88°, and its declination was 23° 31′; and our distance from the equinoctial line towards the South part came to be 21° 31′, and the course was S.S.W., and we arose in the morning to the right of St. Thomas, on a great mountain, and south slopes along the coast in the S.S.W. direction; and on this coast, at 4 leagues to sea, we found bottom at 25 fathoms, free from shoals; and the mountains are separated one from another, and have many reefs round them; and in Brazil and St. Thomas there are many rivers and ports; and going along the coast 6 leagues there are many shoals 2 leagues out to sea, and there is a depth of 12 fathoms on them, and 10, and 8; but the coast runs N.E. and S.W. to Cape Frio, and there are many islands and rivers.
At Cape Frio there is a very large river, and to the N.E., at three leagues distance, there is the peak of a high mountain and three islands; and the cape is in 23°, and at the said cape there are three islands, and you leave them outside. Passing the said cape there is a large bay, and at its entrance there is a low island, and the bay within is very large, with many ports; it extends two leagues from the mouth, and it is called Bay of St. Lucy; and if you wish to pass the island, you leave it on the left hand, and (the entrance) is narrow; but there is a depth of 7 fathoms, and a foul bottom; but outside there is a depth of 20 to 25 fathoms, and within, where there is anchorage, there are 18 fathoms. In this bay there are good people, and plenty of them, and they go naked, and barter with fish-hooks, and looking-glasses, and little bells, for victuals. There is a good deal of brazil wood, and this bay is in 23°, and we entered here the day of St. Lucy, and remained till the day of St. John, which is the 27th of the month of December; and we set sail the same day, and went to W.S.W., and found seven islets, and to the right of them there is a bay, and it is called the Bay of Kings; it has a good entrance, and in this neighbourhood, on the 31st of the month, I took the sun in 86° 45′, and its declination was 22° 8′, and our latitude came to be 25° 23′.
Sunday, 1st of January of the year 1520, I took the sun in 84°, and it had 21° 23′ declination; and the altitude from the pole came to be 27° 29´; and on the days after the first day we went to S.W., and the other to W. and the fourth day to S.W. 1⁄4 S. Thursday, the 5th, the sun was in 85° 30′ of altitude, and 23° 19′ of declination; so that our distance from the line came to be 29° 49′, and the course was S.W. 1⁄4 S.
On the 6th, the day of the Kings, the sun was in barely 80°, and had 21° 8′ of declination; and the altitude from the pole came to be 31°, and the course was S.W. 1⁄4 W.
Saturday, the 7th, I took the sun in 78°; it had 20° 56′ of declination, and our parallel was 32° 56′; the course was to S.W. 1⁄4 S., and we went along the coast.
On the 8th I did not take the sun, but we went to S.W. 1⁄4 S., and at night we sounded and found 50 fathoms; and we altered the course, and went on the 9th of the said month to W.S.W.; and in the morning we sounded, and found 15 fathoms, and we went till midday, and saw land, and there I took the sun in 76°, and it had 20° 31′ of declination; and at night we anchored in a bottom of 12 fathoms—34° 31′.
Tuesday, 10th January (1520), I took the sun in 75°; it had a declination of 20°, and our latitude came to 35°. We were to the right of the Cape of Sta. Maria. Thence forward the coast runs East and West, and the land is sandy; we gave it the name of Montevidi (now they call it correctly Santovidio), and between it and the Cape Sta Maria there is a river which is called (de los Patos) Duck River. From thence we went on forward through fresh water, and the coast runs E.S.E. and W.N.W. for ten leagues distance; after that it trends N.E. and S.W. as far as 341⁄2°, with a depth of 5, 4 and 3 fathoms; there we anchored, and sent the ship Santiago along the coast to see if there was a roadstead, and the river is in 331⁄2°. To the N.E. we found some islets, and the mouth of a very large river (it was the river of Solis), and it went to the N. Here they turned back to the ships, and the said ship was away from us a matter of 25 leagues, and they were 15 days in coming; and during this time two other of our ships went in a southerly direction to see if there was a roadstead for staying at; and those went in the space of two days, and the Captain-General went thither, and they found land to the S.S.W., 20 leagues distance from us, and they were four days in coming; and on returning we took in water and wood, and we went away from there, tacking from one tack to the other with contrary winds, until we came in sight of Montevidi; and this was on the 2nd day of the month of February, the day of our Lady of the Candlemas; and at night we anchored at 5 leagues from the mountain, and it lay to the S.E. and a quarter S. of us. Afterwards, on the morning of the 3rd, we set sail for the South, and we sounded, and found 4, 5, 6, and 7 fathoms, always increasing in depth; and this day we took the sun in 68° 30′; it had 13° 35′ declination, and our latitude came to 35°.
Saturday, 4th February, we anchored in a depth of seven fathoms, the ship San Antonio having got leaky, and we were there till the 5th, and afterwards we weighed on the 6th, and stood on the south course, and at night we anchored in eight fathoms, and remained there till next day.
The 7th we set sail to reconnoitre better the coast, and we saw that it trended S.E. 1⁄4 S.; after that we took another tack and anchored in 8 fathoms, and there we took the sun in 66° 30′, and it had 12° 15′ declination, with which our distance from the equinoctial line to the south came to be 353⁄4°; after that we sailed the same day, and at night we anchored in 9 fathoms, and stood for Cape Santanton [Cabo Blanco] it was to the south in 36°, and this was Tuesday, the 7th.
On the 8th we set sail from the said point, and it is north and south with Montevidi, and 27 leagues distant from it; this coast runs N. and S. [the width of the Rio de la Plata is 27 leagues]; from that place forward we went along the coast round the cape of St. Polonia; after that the coast trends from N.E. to S.W. The said cape is in 37°, and the land sandy and very low, it has sea of shallow depth for a distance of two leagues from land, of 8, 9, and 10 fathoms; so we ran all this day to the S.W., and the night and day.
Thursday, 9th of February, I took the sun in 631⁄4°; it had 111⁄2° declination, and the altitude came to be 38° 30′; the coast can be sounded, and not very high nor mountainous, and we made out many smokes along the coast; this coast runs E.W. 1⁄4 N.W. S.E., and the point is called Punta de las Arenas.
On the 10th I took the sun in 62°1⁄3, and it had 11° 8′ declination, our distance from the equinoctial came to be 38° 48′, and the coast runs E. W., and it is a very pretty coast for running in one or other direction.
On the 11th of the said month, I took the sun in 62°, it had 10° 47′ declination, and the altitude came to be 38° 47′, and the course was W. 1⁄4 N.W., and the coast ran east and west from the Point do las Arenas; to this place there is a very good coast, with soundings, with many little green hills and low land.
Sunday the 12th, we did not take the sun, but from the day before till midday we began to run to S.W. and to S.W. and a quarter W., and to W.S.W., and W. and a quarter S.W., but I calculate that the whole course was W.S.W., and this run was from midday of the 11th, till nightfall of the 12th, and at that hour we anchored in 9 fathoms, and further on in 13 fathoms, and after that we had anchored we saw land, and we set sail to the N., and this was on the 13th, and in the morning we were alongside of some shoals, where the Victoria bumped several times.
Item, the same day we were at anchor, and we did not take the sun’s altitude, and we were in soundings of 7 fathoms, and we remained there till the 14th, and the said day I took the sun in 601⁄2°, and it had 9° 41′ declination, and our altitude came to 39° 11′.
On the 15th of the said month I took the sun in 60°, and it had 9° 13′ declination, and our distance came to be 39° 19′, and we sailed a south course.
Thursday the 16th, we could not take the sun until the 18th, and on that day we were in 391⁄4°; and the next day, the 19th, we were in 391⁄3°, and this day we went to S.W., and we went by this course, and could not take the sun until the 20th of the month.
On the 20th I took the sun in 57°, it had 7° 27′ declination, and our distance to the south came to 40° 17′.
On the 21st, I took the sun in 55°, it had 7° 4′ declination, our altitude came to 42° 4′, the course was S.W. 1⁄4 W., and we sounded and found bottom at 55 fathoms.
Wednesday the 22nd, I took the sun in 53°, it had 6° 41′ declination, and our distance came to 43° 26′, the course was S.W. 1⁄4 W.; at night we sounded and found bottom at 55 fathoms.
On the 23rd I took the sun in 531⁄4°, it had 6° 18′ declination, our distance from the line came to be 43° 3′, the course was W.N.W.
On the 24th I took the sun in 53°, it had 5° 54′ declination, our altitude from the pole came to 42° 54′, and our course was W.N.W., and we were to the right of a very large bay, to which, we gave the name of Bay of St. Matthew, because we found it on his day; we entered well in, and could not find bottom until we were entirely inside, and we found 80 fathoms, and it has a circuit of 50 leagues, and the mouth is to the N.W., and it is in the altitude of 421⁄2°.
On the 25th I did not take the sun, but I took it on the 26th, in 512⁄3°, and it had 5° 7′ declination, by which we found ourselves in 43° 27′ to the south, of the line, and the coast runs N.W. S.E. 1⁄4 N.S.
On the 27th I took the sun in 501⁄2°, and it had 43⁄4° declination, and so our altitude came to be 44°; and here to the right hand we found a bay, and three leagues before it there are two rocks, and they lie East and West with the said bay, and further on we found another (bay), and there were in it many sea wolves, of which we caught eight, and on this land there are no people, but it is very good land, with pretty plains without trees, and very flat country.
Tuesday, 28th, I took the sun in 481⁄2°, and it had 4° 21′ declination, and so we found ourselves in 44° 21′, and the course was to the south, and at night we saw land to W.N.W.
On the 29th I took the sun in 481⁄2°, and this day it had 4° declination, by which we found ourselves in 451⁄2°, and the course was to S.S.W. and to W.S.W. and to W.N.W., and I give the whole of the run as to W.S.W. until I took the sun, and afterwards we were two days that we could not take it.
On Friday, 2nd of March, I took the sun in 43° 50′, it had 3° 10′ declination, with which our distance came to be 47°; and after that we did not take the sun again until we entered a port called St. Julian, and we entered there on the last day of March, and remained there till the day of St. Bartholomew, which is the 24th of August, and the said port is in 492⁄3°, and there we caulked the ships, and many Indians came there, who go covered with skins of antas, which are like camels without humps, and they carry some bows of canes very small like the Turkish, and the arrows are like theirs, and at the point they have a flint tip for iron, and they are very swift runners, and well made men, and well fashioned. We sailed thence on the 24th of the said month of August, and went along the coast to S.W. 1⁄4 W., a matter of 30 leagues, and found a river called Santa Cruz, and we entered there on the 26th of August, and remained till the day of S. Lucas, which is the 18th of the month of October, and there we caught much fish, and we took in water and wood, and this coast is well defined and with good marks.
Thursday, the 18th of October, we sailed from the said river of Santa Cruz, with contrary winds, we went for two days tacking about, and then we had a fair wind, and went to the S.S.W. for two days, and in that time we took the sun in 502⁄3°, and it was on the 20th.
On the 21st of the said month, I took the sun in exactly 52°, at five leagues from the land, and there we saw an opening like a bay, and it has at the entrance, on the right hand a very long spit of sand, and the cape which we discovered before this spit, is called the Cape of the Virgins, and the spit of sand is in 52° latitude, and 521⁄2° longitude, and from the spit of sand to the other part, there may be a matter of 5 leagues, and within this bay we found a strait which may be a league in width, and from this mouth to the spit you look East and West, and on the left hand side of the bay there is a great elbow, within which are many shoals, but when you enter the strait, keep to the North side, and when you are in the strait go to the S.W., in the middle of the channel, and when you are in the strait, take care of some shallows less than three leagues from the entrance of the straits, and after them you will find two islets of sand, and then you will find the channel open, proceed in it at your pleasure without hesitation; and passing this strait we found another small bay, and then we found another strait of the same kind as the first, and from one mouth to the other runs East and West, and the narrow part runs N.E. and S.W., and after we had come out of the two straits or narrows, we found a very large bay, and we found some islands, and we anchored at one of them; and took the sun, and found ourselves in 521⁄3°, and thence we came in S.S.E. direction, and found a spit on the left hand, and from thence to the first mouth there will be a matter of 30 leagues; after that we went to S.W. a matter of 20 leagues, and there we took the sun, and we were in 532⁄3°, and from there we returned to N.W., a matter of 15 leagues, and there anchored in 53° latitude. In this strait there are a great many elbows, and the chains of mountains are very high and covered with snow, with much forest. After that we went to N.W. and a quarter W., and in this course there are many islets; and issuing from this strait the coast turns to the north, and on the left hand we saw a cape with an island, and we gave them the name of Cape Fermoso and Cape Deseado, and it is in the same latitude as the Cape of the Virgins, which is at the beginning of the straits, and from the said Cape Fermoso we afterwards went to N.W. and to N., and to N.N.E., and we went in this course two days and three nights, and in the morning we saw land of pointed hills, and it runs North and South (thus runs the coast of the South sea) and from this land to Cape Fermoso there is a matter of 20 leagues, and we saw this land the 1st December.
Now I will commence the course and latitude of this voyage after this land, and the 1st day of December, when we were opposite to it; it is in latitude 48°.
December—
On the 2nd of December we did not take the sun, but we went to the N.N.E., and were in 471⁄4°, and this day we found ourselves that much ahead,[446] as all this country is in the same altitude.
On the | 3rd, | we went N.W., | and found ourselves in | 46° 30′. |
„ | 4th, | to N.W., | „ | 451⁄2 |
„ | 5th, | to N. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 441⁄4 |
„ | 6th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 E. | „ | 44 |
„ | 7th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 E. | „ | 432⁄3 |
„ | 8th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 N. | „ | 431⁄4 |
„ | 9th, | to N.N.E. | „ | 422⁄3 |
„ | 10th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 E. | „ | 42 12′. |
„ | 11th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 E. | „ | 412⁄3 |
„ | 12th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 E. | „ | 411⁄4 |
„ | 13th, | to N.E. 1⁄4 N. | „ | 40 |
„ | 14th, | to N. | „ | 383⁄4 |
„ | 15th, | to N. 1⁄4 N.E. | „ | 38 |
„ | 16th, | to N. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 361⁄2 |
„ | 17th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 N. | „ | 341⁄2 |
„ | 18th, | to N. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 331⁄2 |
„ | 19th, | to N.W. | „ | 322⁄3 |
„ | 20th, | to N.W. | „ | 313⁄4 |
„ | 21st, | to N.W. | „ | 302⁄3 |
„ | 22nd, | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., | „ | 302⁄3 |
„ | 23rd, | to W.N.W. | „ | 30 |
„ | 24th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 293⁄4 |
„ | 25th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 291⁄2 |
„ | 26th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 283⁄4 |
„ | 27th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 272⁄3 |
„ | 28th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 262⁄3 |
„ | 29th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 261⁄3 |
„ | 30th, | to W., 12 leagues. | ||
„ | 31st, | to N.W. | „ | 251⁄2 |
| Year 1521—January— | ||||
On the | 1st, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 25 |
„ | 2nd, | to W.N.W. | „ | 24 |
„ | 3rd, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 231⁄3 |
„ | 4th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 22 |
„ | 5th, | to W. 1⁄4 S.W. | „ | 23 |
„ | 6th, | to W. 1⁄4 NW. | „ | 22 |
„ | 7th, | to W., 25 leagues. | ||
„ | 8th, | to W., 23 leagues. | ||
„ | 9th, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 221⁄4 |
„ | 10th, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 22 |
„ | 11th, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 213⁄4 |
„ | 12th, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 211⁄3 |
„ | 13th, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 21 |
„ | 14th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 201⁄2 |
„ | 15th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 191⁄2 |
„ | 16th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 19 |
„ | 17th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 181⁄4 |
„ | 18th, | to W.N.W. | „ | 171⁄2 |
„ | 19th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 161⁄4 |
„ | 20th, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W. | „ | 15 |
„ | 21st, | to S.W. | „ | 152⁄3 |
„ | 22nd, | to S.W. | „ | 163⁄4 |
„ | 23rd, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 161⁄2 |
„ | 24th, | to W. 1⁄4 N.W. | „ | 161⁄4 |
And in this neighbourhood we found an islet with trees on it. It is uninhabited; and we took soundings at it, and found no bottom, and so we went on our course. We called this islet San Pablo, having discovered it on the day of his conversion, and it is ...[447] leagues from that of Tiburones.
On the | 25th | of the said month, | to N.W. 1⁄4 W., | in 153⁄4° |
„ | 26th | „ | to N.W. 1⁄4 W., | in 151⁄3 |
„ | 27th | „ | to N.W. 1⁄4 W., | in 15 |
„ | 28th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 141⁄2 |
„ | 29th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 133⁄4 |
„ | 30th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 N.W., | in 131⁄2 |
„ | 31st | „ | to W. 1⁄4 N.W., | in 131⁄3 |
| February— | ||||
On the | 1st | „ | to N.W., | in 13 |
„ | 2nd | „ | to N.W., | in 121⁄2 |
„ | 3rd | „ | to N.W., | in 113⁄4 |
„ | 4th | „ | to N.W., | in 113⁄4 |
In this latitude we found an uninhabited island, where we caught many sharks, and therefore we gave it the name of Isle of Tiburones, and it is with the Strait N.W. and S.E. 1⁄4 E. and W., and it is in 102⁄3° S. latitude, and is distant ... leagues from the Ladrone Islands.
On the | 5th | Feb., | to N.W., | in 10° |
„ | 6th | „ | to N.W., | in 91⁄4 |
„ | 7th | „ | to N.W., | in 82⁄3 |
„ | 8th | „ | to N.W., | in 72⁄3 |
„ | 9th | „ | to N.W. 1⁄4 W., | in 61⁄2 |
„ | 10th | „ | to N.W., | in 5 |
„ | 11th | „ | to N.W., | in 21⁄2 |
„ | 12th | „ | to N.W., | in 1 |
„ | 13th | „ | to N.W., | in — 30′ N. of the line. |
„ | 14th | „ | to N.W., | in 1 N. latitude. |
„ | 15th | „ | to N.W., | in 13⁄4 |
„ | 16th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 21⁄2° |
„ | 17th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 31⁄2 |
„ | 18th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 5 |
„ | 19th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 53⁄4 |
„ | 20th | „ | to W.N.W., | in 61⁄2 |
„ | 21st | „ | to W.N.W., | in 8 |
„ | 22nd | „ | to W.N.W., | in 91⁄2 |
„ | 23rd | „ | to W.N.W., | in 111⁄2 |
„ | 24th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 N.W., | in 12 |
„ | 25th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 N.W., | in 121⁄3 |
„ | 26th | „ | to W., | in 12 |
„ | 27th | „ | to W., | in 12 |
„ | 28th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 N.W., | in 13 |
| March, 1521— | ||||
On the | 1st | March, | to W., | in 13 |
„ | 2nd | „ | to W., | in 13 |
„ | 3rd | „ | to W., | in 13 |
„ | 4th | „ | to W., | in 13 |
„ | 5th | „ | to W., | in 13 |
On the 6th (March), to W., in 13°. This day we saw land, and went to it, and there were two islands, which were not very large; and when we came between them, we turned to the S.W., and left one to the N.W., and then we saw a quantity of small sails coming to us, and they ran so, that they seemed to fly, and they had mat sails of a triangular shape, and they went both ways, for they made of the poop the prow, and of the prow the poop, as they wished, and they came many times to us and sought us to steal whatever they could; and so they stole the skiff of the flag-ship, and next day we recovered it; and there I took the sun, and one of these islands is in 122⁄3°, and the other in 13° and more (N. latitude); and this island of 12° is with that of Tiburones W.N.W. and E.S.E. (and it appears to be 20 leagues broad at the N. end), from the island of 12° we sailed on the 9th of March, in the morning, and went W. 1⁄4 S.W.
The islands of Ladrones are 300 leagues from Gilolo.
| On the | 9th | of March, | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., in 12° |
| „ | 10th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., in 121⁄3 |
| „ | 11th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., in 111⁄2 |
| „ | 12th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., in 11 |
| „ | 14th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., in 102⁄3 |
| „ | 15th | „ | to W. 1⁄4 S.W., in 10 |
On the 16th (March) we saw land, and went towards it to the N.W., and we saw that the land trended north, and that there were many shoals near it, and we took another tack to the south, and we fell in with another small island, and there we anchored: and this was the same day, and this island is called Suluano, and the first one is named Yunuguan; and here we saw some canoes, and we went to them, and they fled; and this island is in 92⁄3° N. latitude and in 189° longitude from the meridian. To these first islands, from the archipelago of St. Lazarus....
Ytem. From the Strait of All Saints and Cape Fermoso to these two islands, there will be 106° 30′ longitude, which strait is with these islands in a straight course W.N.W. and E.S.E., which brings you straight to them. From here we went on our course.
Leaving these islands, we sailed W., and fell in with the island of Gada, which is uninhabited, and there we provided ourselves with water and wood. This island is very free from shoals.
From here we departed and sailed W., and fell in with a large island called Seilani, which is inhabited, and contains gold; we coasted it, and went to W.S.W., to a small inhabited island called Mazaba. The people are very good, and there we placed a cross upon a mountain; and from thence they showed us three islands in the W.S.W. direction, and they say there is much gold there, and they showed us how they gather it, and they found small pieces like beans and like lentils; and this island is in 91⁄3° N. latitude.
We departed from Mazaba and went N., making for the island of Seilani, and afterwards coasted the said island to the N.W. as far as 10°, and there we saw three islets; and we went to the W., a matter of 10 leagues, and then we fell in with two islets, and at night we stopped; and on the morrow we went S.W. and 1⁄4 S., a matter of 12 leagues, as far as 101⁄3°, and there we entered a channel between two islands, one called Matan, and the other Subo; and Subo, with the isle of Mazaba and Suluan, are E.W. 1⁄4 N.W.S.E.; and between Subo and Seilani we saw a very high land to the north, which is called Baibai, and they say that there is in it much gold and provisions, and much extent of land, that the end of it is not known.
From Mazaba and Seilani and Subo, by the course which we came, towards the south part, take care; for there are many shoals, and they are very bad; for this a canoe would not stop which met us in this course.
From the mouth of the channel of Subo and Matan we went west in mid-channel, and met with the town of Subu, at which we anchored, and made peace, and there they gave us rice and millet and flesh; and we remained there many days; and the king and the queen, with many people, became Christians of their free will.
We sailed from Subu, and went S.W. till 93⁄4° between the head of Subu and an island called Bohol; and on the W. side of the head of Subu there is another, which is named Panilongo, and it belongs to black men; and this island and Subu contain much gold and much ginger, and it is in 91⁄3°, and Subu in 101⁄3°; and so we came out of the channel, and came ten leagues to the S., and anchored off the island of Bohol, and there of the three ships we made two, and burned the other, not having crews enough; and this island is in 91⁄2°.
We sailed from Bohol to Quipit to the S.W., and came to anchor at the same anchorage to the right of a river; and in the offing to the N.W. part there are two islets, which are in 81⁄2°, and there we could not get provisions, for there were none, but we made peace with them; and this island of Quipit has much gold, ginger, and cinnamon, and so we decided on going to seek provisions; and from this head of Quipit to the first islands there will be a course of 112 leagues; it lies with them E.W. 1⁄4 N.E. S.W., and this island lies due East and West.
From thence we sailed and went to W.S.W., and to S.W. and W., until we fell in with an island in which there were very few people, and it was named Cuagayan; and here we anchored on the N. side of it, and we asked where the island of Poluan was, to get provisions of rice, for there is much of it in that island, and they load many ships for other parts; and so they showed us where it was, and so we went to the W.N.W., and fell in with the head of the island of Poluan. Then we went to N. 1⁄4 N.E., coasting along it until the town Saocao, and there we made peace, and they were Moors; and we went to another town, which is of Cafres; and there we bought much rice, and so we provisioned ourselves very well; and this coast runs N.E. S.W., and the cape of the N.E. part is in 91⁄3°, and the part of S.W. is in 81⁄3°; and so we returned to S.W. as far as the head of this island, and there we found an island, and near it there is a shoal, and in this course, and along Poluan, there are many shoals, and this head lies E.W. with Quipit, and N.W. S.E. 1⁄4 E.W. with Cuagayan.
From Poluan we sailed for Borney, and we coasted the above-named island, and went to its S.W. head, and near there found an island which has a shoal on the E.; and in 71⁄2° we had to change the course to W., until running 15 leagues; after that we ran S.W., coasting the island of Bornei until the city itself; and you must know that it is necessary to go close to land, because outside there are many shoals, and it is necessary to go with the sounding lead in your hand, because it is a very vile coast, and Bornei is a large city, and has a very large bay, and inside it and without it there are many shoals; it is, therefore, necessary to have a pilot of the country. So we remained here several days, and began to trade, and we made good agreements of peace; and after that they armed many canoes to take us, which were 260 in number, and they were coming to us, and as we saw them we sailed in great haste, and we went outside and we saw some junks coming, and we went to them, and we captured one, in which was a son of the King of Luzon, which is a very large island, and also the captain let him go without the counsel of anyone.
Borney is a large island, and there is also in it cinnamon, mirabolams, and camphor, which is worth much in these countries; and they say that when they die they embalm themselves with it. Borney is in 5° 25′ latitude—that is, the port itself—and 201° 5′ of longitude from the line of demarcation, and from here we sailed and returned by the same road; and this port of Borney lies E.N.E. W.S.W. with the isle of Mazaba, and in this course there are many islands; and from the cape at the N.E. of Bornei to Quipit is E.W. 1⁄4 N.E. S.W.
We sailed from Borney, and returned by the same course which we had come, and so we passed between the head of the isle of Bornei and Poluan; and we went to the W.,[448] to fall in with the isle of Cuagayan; and so we went by the same course to make for the island of Quipit on the S. side, and in this course, between Quipit and Cuagayan, we saw to the S. an island which they call Solo, in which there are many pearls, very large—they say that the king of this island has a pearl like an egg. This island is in 6° latitude; and so, going on this course, we fell in with three small islands; and further on we met with an island named Tagima, and they say there are many pearls there; and this island lies with Solo N.E. S.W. 1⁄4 E.W., and Tagima is in 65⁄6°. It is opposite the Cape of Quipit, and the said cape is in 71⁄4°, and lies with Paluan E.S.E. W.N.W.
From here we coasted the island of Quipit on the south side, and we went to E. 1⁄4 S.E. as far as some islets; and along the coast there are many villages, and there is much good cinnamon in this island, and we bought some of it; and there is much ginger on this coast; and so we went to E.N.E., until we saw a gulf; then we went to S.E. until we saw a large island, and thence to the cape at the east of the island of Quipit, and at the cape of this island there is a very large village, which collects much gold from a very large river, and this cape is 1911⁄2° of the meridian.
We sailed from Quipit to go to Maluco, and went to S.E., sighting an island called Sibuco; after that we went to S.S.E., and saw another island, called Virano Batolague; and we went by the same course as far as the cape of this island, and after that we saw another, which they call Candicar; and we went to the E. between the two, until we went ahead of it; and there we entered a channel between Candicar and another, which they call Sarangani; and at this island we anchored and took a pilot for Maluco; and these two islands are in 42⁄3°, and the cape of Quipit in 71⁄4°, and the Cape of Sibuco, on the south side, is in 6°, and the Cape of Virano Batologue in 5°, and from the Cape of Quipit and Candicar the run is from N.N.W. to S.S.E., without touching any cape.
We sailed from Sarangani, and went S. 1⁄4 S.E., until we came opposite an island called Sanguin, and between the two are many islets, and they are on the West side, and this island is in 32⁄3°. From Sanguin we went S. 1⁄4 S.E. to an island called Sian; between them there are many islets, and this island is in just 3°. From Sian we went to S 1⁄4 S.W., as far as an island called Paginsara, it is in 11⁄6°; and from this island to Sarangani the run is N.S 1⁄4 N.E. S.W. in sight of all these islands.
From Paginsara we went to S. 1⁄4 S.E., until we came between two islets, which lie together, N.E. and S.W., and that one to the N.E. is named Suar, and the other is named Atean, and one is in 1° 45′, and the other in 11⁄2°.
From Atean we went S.S.E. until we sighted the Molucos, and then we went to East, and entered between Mare and Tidori, at which we anchored, and there we were very well received, and made very good arrangements for peace, and made a house on shore for trading with the people, and so we remained many days, until we had taken in cargo.
The islands of the Malucos are these: Terrenate, Tidori, Mare, Motil, Maquian, Bachian, and Gilolo, these are all those which contain cloves and nutmeg; and there are also several others among them, the names of which I will mention, and in what altitude they are, and the first is Terrenate, which is on the side of the equinoctial line.
| Terrenate is in altitude of | 1° | 0′ |
| Tidori„„ | 0 | 30 |
| Mare„„ | 0 | 15 |
| Motil is on the line | 0 | |
| Maquian is to the south | 0 | 15 |
| Cayoan„„ | 0 | 20 |
| Bachian„„ | 1 | |
| La Talata„„ | 1 | 1⁄4 |
La Talata (Lata-lata) lies north of Terrenate N.N.E. and S.S.W., and that which is on the equinoctial line is 190° 30′ of longitude from the line itself, and the island of Motil itself with Cagayan lies N.W. and S.E., and with Tagima, which is opposite the island of Quipit, it lies N.E. and S.W. 1⁄4 N.S., but in these courses one cannot venture to pass, for they say there are many shoals, and so we came by another course, coasting the said islands. From the islands of Maluco we sailed Saturday, 21st December, of the said year 1521, and we went to the island of Mare, and there took in wood to burn, and the same day we sailed and went to S.S.W., making for Motil, and thence we went by the same course, making for Maquian, and thence we went to S.W., running by all these islands, and others, which are these:—Cuayoan, Laboan, Agchian, Latalata, and other small islands, which remain in the N.W. quarter, and now I will say in what latitude and longitude are each one separately, and which are those which contain cloves and other spices. The first to the North is Terrenate, which is in 1° North, and Tidore 40′ and Mare 15′ and Motil on the equinoctial line, and these lie North and South. The others to the South are these: Maqui is in 20′ Cuayoan in 40′ and Laboan in 1°, and Latalata in 1° 15′ and Bachian lies with Terrenate E.N.E. and W.S.W.; and to the S.E. of all these islands there is a very large island called Gilolo, and there are cloves in it, but very few; therefore there are seven islands which contain cloves, and those which have a large quantity are these: Terrenate, Tidore, Motil, Maqui, and Bachian, which are the five principal ones, and some of them contain nutmeg and mace. Motil is on the line, and is in longitude of the meridian of 191° 45′
From Latalata we went to S.W. 1⁄4 W., and fell in with an island which is called Lumutola, it is in 13⁄4°, and on the W. side there is another island called Sulan, and at these islands there are many shoals, and from hence we took the course to the South, towards an island named Buro, and between these three, there is another island which is named Fenado, it is in 21⁄2°, and Buro is in 31⁄2°, and it lies with Bachian N.E. and S.W. 1⁄4 N.S. in longitude 194°; and to the East of Buro there is a very large island called Ambon, in which they make much cotton cloths, and between it and Buro there are some islets; take care of them, for this it is necessary to coast the island of Buro to the East, and to the South of it. I took the sun in 70° 24′, it had 22° 36′ declination, and so the latitude came to be 3°. I was in the Southern part of the island, and this was on the 27th of December, on Friday. On the 28th of the said month, I did not take the sun, but we were in the neighbourhood of the said isle of Buro, and Bidia, which, lies to the eastward.
Sunday, 29th, I took the sun in 711⁄2°, it had 22° 21′ declination, and our distance came to be 3° 51′, and we were opposite the isle of Ambon.
On the 30th I took the sun in the altitude of the day before, in calm, it was Monday.
On the 31st I did not take the sun, we were a matter of 12 leagues from the Isle of Ambon E.N.E. and W.S.W., the day was Tuesday.
1522—
The 1st day of January, 1522, I took the sun in barely 73°, it had 21° 54′ declination, the altitude came to be 4° 45′.
On the 2nd of the month, I took the sun in 733⁄4°, it had 213⁄4° declination, our distance came to be 51⁄2°, the course was to S.W., and it was Thursday.
Friday, 3rd, I did not take the sun, but the ship made the course of S.S.W., in latitude of 61⁄3°, after that we took the course to N.W.
On the 4th of the month I did not take the sun, but we were in 5¾°, the course was to N.W., and the day Saturday.
Sunday, the 5th, I took the sun in 75°, it had 21° 14′ declination, the latitude came to 6° 14′.
On the 6th, Monday, I took the sun in 76°, it had 21° 2′ declination, the latitude came to be 7° 2′.
On the 7th, I took the sun in 762⁄3°, it had 20° 50′ declination, the latitude came to be 71⁄2°, and the course was to S.W. Tuesday.
On the 8th of the month, I took the sun in 771⁄2°, it had 20° 37′ declination, and the latitude came to be 8° 7′, the course was to S.W., and the day Wednesday, and this day we saw some islands, which lie East and West, and this day we entered between two of them, which are these, Lamaluco and Aliguom; between them are two little ones which you will leave on the right hand after entering the channel, they are inhabited; this channel lies N.E. S.W. 1⁄4 E.W., with Buro, and all these islands are ten in number, and they lie E.W. 1⁄4 N.E. S.W., and they have of longitude a matter of 50 leagues; we ran along them, with very bad weather from the South; we coasted them and anchored off the last, which is called Malua, which is in 81⁄3°, the others are named Liaman, Maumana, Cui, Aliguim, Bona, Lamaluco, Ponon, Vera. We sailed from Malua and went to the South, and found the island of Timor, and we coasted the coast from east to west, on the north side of this island, which is in the latitude of 9°, and the nearest land on the north side, and this land will have 10 leagues journey, and this coast lies with Buro N.E. S.W. 1⁄4 N.S., in longitude of 197° 45´, and of this island of Timor we coasted all the coast from east to west, as far as the village of Manvai; and first we came near the village of Queru, and from Queru to Manvai, the coast runs N.E. S.W 1⁄4 N.S., and here I took the sun on the 5th day of February, in 862⁄3°, and it had 12° 44′ declination, so that the latitude came to be 9° 24′, and this island is very large and populous, and all the island has much sandal wood, and there are many towns in it.
On the 8th of February I took the sun in 871⁄2°, and it had 11° 42′ of declination, with which our distance came to be 91⁄6°, and we were at the head of the island of Timor, at the West end, and from here to the Eastern cape the coast runs E.N.E. to W.S.W., and it was Saturday.
Sunday, 9th of the said month, I took the sun in 881⁄6°, and it had 111⁄3° declination. Our latitude came to be 9° 35′, and we were at the most salient cape of all the island, and from there it goes falling off to the S.W. and S.
On the 10th of the same month I took the sun in 881⁄4°, it had 10° 58′ declination; our latitude came to be 9° 28′, and the head of the island lay to the south, and the day was Monday.
On the 11th, Tuesday, I took the sun in 881⁄4°, it had 91⁄3° declination; the latitude came to 9° 35′, and we were in calm.
Wednesday, the 12th, I did not take the sun, but we were becalmed in the neighbourhood of where we were the the day before, or a little more.
On the 13th I took the sun in 892⁄3°; it had 9° 52′ declination; the latitude came to 10° 32′, and we were in the neighbourhood of islands of which we do not know the names, nor whether they are inhabited. They lie E.S.E. and W.N.W. with the west cape of Timor, and from here we took our course to the Cape of Good Hope, and went to W.S.W.
[After this the course was W.S.W. for several days, and there is nothing worthy of note till Tuesday, the 18th of March, when the Victoria discovered Amsterdam Island.]
On the 18th of the said month (March), I took the sun in 491⁄2°, it had 2° 55′ declination, the latitude came to be 37° 35′, and whilst taking the sun we saw a very high island, and we went towards it to anchor, and we could not fetch it; and we struck the sails and lay to until next day, and the wind was W.; and we made another tack to the north under storm sails;[449] and this was on the 19th, and we could not take the sun; we were east and west with the island, and it is in 38°[450] to the south, and it appears that it is uninhabited, and it has no trees at all, and it has a circumference of a matter of six leagues.
On the 20th of the said month, Thursday, I did not take the sun, but we were east and west with the island, and we went to N.W. and to N.N.W. and 1⁄4 N.W., and for the whole course I put down a matter of 15 leagues to the N.N.W., and in the latitude of 351⁄2°.
On the 22nd of the said month I took the sun in 501⁄4°: it had 4° 27′ declination; the latitude came to 36° 18′. The day before we had struck the sails until the morning of the said Saturday, and this day we set sail and went to the N.W.
•• •••
On the 8th of the said month (May) I did not take the sun; but, according to the run we had made, we thought we were ahead of the Cape, and on this day we saw land, and the coast runs N.E. and S.W. and a quarter east and west; and so we saw that we were behind the Cape a matter of 160 leagues, and opposite the river Del Infante,[451] eight leagues distant from it in the offing; and this day we were lying to with winds from the west and west-north-west, and it was Thursday.
On the 9th I did not take the sun, but we made land and anchored, and the coast was very wild, and we remained thus till next day; and the wind shifted to W.S.W., and upon that we set sail, and we went along the coast to find some port for anchoring and taking refreshments for the people who were most suffering, which we did not find. And we stood out to sea, to be at our ease; and we saw many smokes along the coast, and the coast was very bare, without any trees, and this coast runs N.E. and S.W.: it is in 33° latitude, and it was Saturday, 10th of May.
Het Eyland Amsterdam.
Het Eyland St. Paulo.
•• •••
Friday, the 16th (May), I took the sun in 331⁄4°; it had 21° 6′ declination; the latitude came to 35° 39′, and we were E.S.E. and W.N.W., with the Cape of Good Hope twenty leagues off from it; and this day we sprung our fore-mast and fore-yard, and we were all day hove to, and the wind was W.
[The Victoria doubled the Cape of Good Hope between the 18th and the 19th of May, and arrived] on the 9th of the month of July, and anchored in the port of Rio Grande in Santiago [of the Cape Verde Islands], and they received us very well, and gave us what provisions we wanted; and this day was Wednesday, and they reckoned this day as Thursday, and so I believe that we had made a mistake of a day; and we remained there till Sunday in the night, and we set sail for fear of bad weather and the difficulty of the port; and on the morrow we sent our boat on shore to get more rice, which we wanted, and we were standing off and on till it came.
On the 14th of July, Monday, we sent our boat on shore for more rice, and it came at midday, and returned for more, and we were waiting for it till night, and it did not come; and we waited till next day, and it never came; then we went near the port to see what the matter was, and a boat came and told us to give ourselves up, and that they would send us with a ship which was coming from the Indies, and that they would put some of their people in our ship, and that the gentlemen had so ordered. We required them to send us our boat and men, and they said that they would bring an answer from the gentlemen; and we said we would take another tack, and would wait: and so we took another tack, and we made all sail, and went away with twenty-two men, sick and sound, and this was Tuesday, the 15th of the month of July. On the 14th I took the sun. This town is in 15° 10′.
•• •••
September, 1522.
On the 4th of the said month, in the morning, we saw land, and it was Cape St. Vincent, and it was to the north-east of us, and so we changed our course to the S.E., to get away from that Cape.
The manuscript has at the end:
Vto Simancas, 8 Setiembre, 1783, Muñoz.
D. Juan Bautista Muñoz, who died in 1822 or 1823, made a large collection of transcripts from the Simancas and Seville archives, which Navarrete made use of. In 1793 Muñoz published the first volume of his Historia del Nuevo Mundo, which he never finished.
ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED
TO
THE SHIP “TRINITY” AND HER CREW
After she parted company with the “Victoria”.
From Navarrete.
After the Victoria left Tidore, the crew of the Trinity commenced careening their ship, and took out of her and placed in the store-house in Tidore their goods and the guns of the Conception, which they had burned, and of the Santiago, which was lost. Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa determined to leave in charge of these goods and factory the accountant, Juan de Campos, as clerk; the officer, Luis del Molino; the servants, Alonso de Cota, Genoese, and Diego Arias; and Master Pedro, a bombardier.
Taking leave of the King of Tidore, the Trinity sailed thence on the 6th of April 1522, with fifty men on the muster-roll, and a cargo of nine hundred quintals of cloves. The Trinity sailed for forty leagues to an island named Zanufo, in 2 deg. 30 min. N. latitude, belonging to the King of Tidore, thence to the open sea, where they calculated they had two thousand leagues to run to Panama. In 20 deg. they fell in with an island, where they took in a native, and continuing a northerly course to 42 deg., they met with a storm which lasted five days, and they had to cut away the castle at the prow; their poop was broken; their mainmast was broken in two. The crews fell sick, and they returned to seek the island from which they had taken the native; but, not being able to fetch it, they arrived at another twenty leagues distant from it. This island was named Mao, and is to the north of the island Botaha; they are in 12 deg. and 13 deg. This island was three hundred leagues from the Moluccas, and they were a month and a half in getting there; many of the crew died. When they arrived and anchored at the first land, which was Zanufo, a vessel passed by which informed them that a fortnight after the Trinity sailed, five or seven Portuguese sail had arrived at Terrenate, whose captain was Antonio de Brito, and that they were building a fortress there. Barros states that the first stone of this was placed by Antonio de Brito June 24th, 1522. The captain of the Trinity begged the people of this vessel to take a man to Terrenate, who was Bartolome Sanchez, the clerk of the ship, by whom he sent a letter to the Portuguese captain, begging him, on the part of His Majesty, to send him succour to prevent the ship being lost, for his crew was sick and reduced in number. Gonzalo Gomez, seeing that this was delayed, weighed, and came to anchor in the port of Benaconora. Simon Abreu, and Duarte Roger, clerk of the King of Portugal’s factory, came there, with other people, in a caracora, and after that came a fusta and caravel, with other armed Portuguese, who entered the Trinity, and gave to the captain a letter from Antonio de Brito in answer to his, dated October 21st, 1522, which only said that people were going to bring in his ship. By an order which they brought from Antonio Brito, they at once took from Gonzalo Gomez all the letters, astrolabes, quadrants, and log-books which he had made; they took the vessel and anchored her in the port of Talangomi. There were seventeen Castilians of sound and sick in the vessel, and they took those that were well with Gonzalo Gomez to the fortress, and next day took the sick to the hospital.
Gonzalo Gomez complained of the violence done in taking that which belonged to the emperor, and in his country. They replied that he had done what the emperor, his lord, had commanded him; and they, what they ought to do by the instructions from the king, their lord. They asked him to give up the royal standard of Castile, and he answered that he could not do so, neither could he defend it, since he was in their power. Upon which they drew up some documents before a notary; and when they discharged the cargo of the ship, he asked the Portuguese to give him a certificate of what was in it, for him to render an account to His Majesty; and they replied that, if he asked for this often, they would give it him on a yard arm. In the fortress we found Juan de Campos, Diego Arias, and Alonzo, the Genoese, sick, who were three of those who had remained in Tidore with the goods of His Majesty. They said that the Portuguese had knocked down the factory-house and taken the cloves and receipts for cloves which were paid for, and all the rigging and fittings of the ships; Luis del Molino had fled, and Gonzalo Gomez called him to come to the fortress under safe conduct, but when in it they put him in irons; Master Pedro had died.
When the ship was in Tidore, the pilot, Juan Lopez Carvalho, died on the 14th February, 1522; and, between sailing thence and anchoring at Benaconora, there died in August, September, and October, thirty-one individuals, without counting three who ran away in the isle of Mao of the Ladrones.
The twenty-one Castilians of the ship and factory remained about four months as prisoners in Terrenate, until, at the end of February 1523, Captain Antonio de Brito gave them a passage to India, sending them to the island of Banda, which was a hundred leagues off, excepting the carpenter Antonio, and the caulker Antonio Basazaval, whom he said that he required. The clerk of the factory, Juan de Campos, and three other Castilians, went in a junk, of which nothing was known nor what became of those persons. The Castilians remained in Banda about four months; from thence they were conducted to Java, and coasting it they arrived at a city named Agrazue. Agrazue was a town of thirty thousand inhabitants, Mussulmans, of great trade, to which porcelain, silks, and other Chinese goods were brought from Borneo and other parts.
From Agrazue they went to Malacca, two hundred leagues distant, where Jorge de Albuquerque was captain.
They were about five months at Malacca. Four Castilians died there at the end of November 1524. The ship-boy, Anton Moreno, remained there, who was, they said, the slave of a sister of Jorge de Albuquerque, and the rest went on to India. They were twenty-five days in reaching Ceylon, which was three hundred leagues, and they went a hundred leagues more to Cochin. The clerk, Bartolomé Sanchez, and two others, went in a junk, of which nothing more was heard. In Cochin they found that the ships for Portugal had sailed a short time before their arrival, and they had to wait a year for the passage of the spice ships.
After they had been ten months in Cochin, without obtaining leave to embark, the seaman, Leon Pancaldo, and Bautista Poncero, master of the ship Trinity, fled secretly in the ship Sta. Catalina, which left them in Mozambique. There they were arrested and put on board the ship of Diego de Melo to be taken to the Governor of India, but contrary winds did not permit her departure; and, having been allowed to go ashore, Bautista Poncero died, and Leon Pancaldo hid himself in the ship of Francisco Pereira, which was going to Portugal. He remained hid till they got a hundred leagues from Mozambique. When they arrived at Lisbon they put him in prison, from which the king commanded him to be set free.
At this time, D. Vasco da Gama arrived in India as Viceroy, and the Castilians begged for leave to embark in the ships which were going to Portugal, but he would not give it. The Viceroy died in twenty days, and they elected in his stead D. Enrique de Meneses governor of Goa, who came to Cochin. Two Castilians died there, and those that remained had to wait for another year.
Gonzalo Gomez had done homage and could not get away until after constant recourse and petitions to the governor, D. Enrique de Meneses, who gave him leave, as also to the seaman, Gines de Mafra, and to Master Hans, a bombardier, when it was known there that the King of Portugal was married to Da. Catalina, sister of His Majesty the Emperor. These three individuals left Cochin in the Portuguese ships, and when they arrived at Lisbon they put them in the Limoneiro or public prison, where Master Hans died. Gonzalo Gomez and Gines de Mafra remained there about seven months, until they were set free by letters from His Majesty; but Gonzalo Gomez[452] was set free twenty-seven days before Gines, whom they supposed to be a pilot, having found some log-books in his box and two other (books), which Andres de San Martin, pilot of His Majesty, had made, which books and other writings they took, and would not return to him.
From their departure from Terrenate, in the Moluccas, to Lisbon, inclusively, there died eight individuals. What became of seven was unknown; two remained in the Moluccas; one in Malacca; and three reached Spain, besides the licentiate and priest, Morales.
Gaspar Correa says (tome iii, p. 109):—
“In this year 1527, one Sebastian Gabato, a Basque, and a great pilot, sailed from Seville as captain-major of two ships and a caravel, who was ordered by the Viceroy of the Antilles to go and take in cargo at Maluco, and recover the property of the Castilians, which he might find belonging to the ship of the fleet of Fernan de Magalhāes which put in in distress; and if he found any things in the possession of the Portuguese, he was to ask for them and require them from the captains on behalf of the emperor, with all urbanity: and if they did not choose to give them up, he was to ask for documents, with protests, which he was to bring to the emperor for him to do in the matter what might be for his service. This fleet sailed from Seville, and never more was any news heard of what became of it, nor what end it had. This only was known, that this fleet had thus sailed this year, through other Castilians, who later arrived at Maluco in another fleet, as I will relate further on in its place.”
[Correa relates, in his Tom. iii, cap. xiv, that Charles V sent a fleet of five ships in 1527 to Maluco under Fray Garcia de Loaysa, and that only one ship under Captain Martim Inhigo reached Maluco: he then describes the disputes and skirmishes between the Castilians and Portuguese.]
ACCOUNT OF
THE MUTINY IN PORT ST. JULIAN.
Navarrete gives, No. XX of his documents relating to Magellan, a copy of a document presented on Wednesday, the 22nd of May, 1521, by a servant of Diego Barbosa, on behalf of Alvaro de Mezquita, to the Alcalde of Seville, dated April 26th, 1520, which were the informations taken in Port St. Julian by Martin Mendes, clerk of the Victoria; Sancho de Heredia, king’s notary; Gonzalo Gomes de Spinosa, Alguazil-mayor or chief constable of the fleet: he could not write, and Domingo de Barruty signed for him.
These informations were taken in consequence of a petition from Alvaro de Mezquita, captain of the S. Antonio, to Magellan, complaining of Gaspar de Quesada, captain of the Conception, and Juan de Cartagena, with about thirty armed men, having seized him the night of Palm Sunday, April 1st, 1520, and having locked him up in the cabin of Geronimo Guerra, the clerk of the S. Antonio. This petition was presented to Magellan when he was on shore, after hearing Mass on Sunday, the 15th of April, and he gave orders to the two clerks and Alguazil to make an inquiry on board the S. Antonio. His order was dated April 17th, and signed by himself and Leon de Speleta, clerk of the flag-ship. The informations taken on board the S. Antonio were dated Thursday, the twenty-sixth April, 1520.
No. XXI of Navarrete is a letter from Juan Lopez do Recalde to the Bishop of Burgos, of May 12th, 1521, giving him an account of the arrival of the S. Antonio at Seville, 6th May, 1521, commanded by Geronimo Guerra, a relation and servant of Christoval de Haro, and of the execution of Gaspar de Quesada and others. This letter relates the story of the mutineers and those who turned back from difficulty and danger, and is naturally unfavourable to Magellan.
According to Navarrete, the desertion of Magellan’s fleet by the ship S. Antonio, was caused by Esteban Gomez, a Portuguese pilot, who, from rivalry with Magellan, and envy at seeing others promoted instead of himself, after the executions, got up a conspiracy on board the S. Antonio, and proposed to return to Spain. The mutineers put Alvaro de Mezquita in irons; they then went to the coast of Guinea, and thence to Spain. When the S. Antonio arrived at Seville, Alvaro de Mezquita was handed over to the authorities and kept in prison until the ship Victoria arrived. Esteban Gomez, Juan do Chinchilla, Geronimo Guerra, and Francisco Angulo, were also arrested; and Magellan’s wife and family were put under surveillance to prevent their going away to Portugal. According to Herrera, Juan de Cartagena and the priest, who were left behind, did not come away with the S. Antonio, and orders were given to send and look for them.
More ample details of the suppression of the mutiny are given by Gaspar Correa in the following account of Magellan’s voyage, in his Lendas da India (tome ii, cap. xiv):—
“Ferdinand Magellan went to Castile to the port of Seville, where he married the daughter of a man of importance, with the design of navigating on the sea, because he was very learned in the art of pilots, which is that of the sphere. The emperor kept the House of Commerce in Seville, with the overseers of the treasury, with great powers, and much seafaring traffic, and fleets for abroad. Magellan, bold with his knowledge, and with the readiness which he had to annoy the King of Portugal, spoke to the overseers of this House of Commerce, and told them that Malacca, and Maluco, the islands in which cloves grew, belonged to the emperor on account of the demarcation drawn between them both [the Kings of Spain and Portugal]: for which reason the King of Portugal wrongfully possessed these lands: and that he would make this certain before all the doctors who might contradict him, and would pledge his head for it. The overseers replied to him, that they well knew that he was speaking truth, and that the emperor also knew it, but that the emperor had no navigation to that part, because he could not navigate through the sea within the demarcation of the King of Portugal. Magellan said to them: ‘If you would give me ships and men, I would show you navigation to those parts, without touching any sea or land of the King of Portugal; and if not, they might cut off his head.’ The overseers, much pleased at this, wrote it to the emperor, who answered them that he had pleasure in the speech, and would have much more with the deed; and that they were to do everything to carry out his service, and the affairs of the King of Portugal, which were not to be meddled with; rather than that everything should be lost. With this answer from the emperor, they spoke with Magellan, and became much more convinced by what he said, that he would navigate and show a course outside of the seas of the King of Portugal; and that if they gave him the ships he asked for, and men and artillery, he would fulfil what he had said, and would discover new lands which were in the demarcation of the emperor, from which he would bring gold, cloves, cinnamon, and other riches. The overseers hearing this, with a great desire to render so great a service to the emperor as the discovery of this navigation, and to make this matter more certain, brought together pilots and men learned in the sphere, to dispute upon the matter with Magellan, who gave such reasons to all, that they agreed with what he said, and affirmed that he was a very learned man. So the overseers at once made agreements with him, and arrangements, and powers, and regulations, which they sent to the emperor, who confirmed everything, reserving specially the navigation of the King of Portugal; thus he commanded and prohibited, and ordered that everything which Magellan asked for should be given him. On this account, Magellan went to Burgos, where the emperor was, and kissed his hand, and the emperor gave him a thousand cruzados alimony for the expenses of his wife whilst he was on his voyage, set down in the rolls of Seville, and he gave him power of life and death[453] over all persons who went in the fleet, of which he should be captain-major, with regard to which he assigned him large powers. So, on his return to Seville, they equipped for him five small ships, such as he asked for, equipped and armed as he chose, with four hundred men-at-arms, and they were laden with the merchandise which he asked for. The overseers told him to give the captaincies, with regard to which he excused himself, saying that he was new in the country and did not know the men; and that they should seek out men who would be good and faithful in the emperor’s service, and who would rejoice to endure hardships in his service, and the bad life which they would have to go through in the voyage. The overseers were obliged to him for this, and held it to be good advice, and decided to inform the captains they might make, and the crews they might take, of the powers which he had received from the emperor. This they did, and they sought in Seville for trustworthy men for captains, who were Juan de Cartagena, Luis de Mendoça, Juan Serrano, Pero de Quesada. This fleet having been fitted out, and the crews paid for six months, he sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda in August of the year 1519. So he navigated to the Canary Islands, and took in water; whilst he was there a vessel arrived with letters from his father-in-law,[454] in which he warned him to keep a good watch for his personal safety, because he had learned that the captains whom he took with him had said to their friends and relations, that if he annoyed them they would kill him, and would rise up against him. To this he replied, that he would do them no injuries so that they should have reason to act thus; and on that account he had not appointed them, but the overseers, who knew them, had given them; and whether they were good or bad, he would labour to do the service of the emperor, and for that they had offered their lives. The father-in-law showed this answer to the overseers, who greatly praised the good heart of Magellan.”
“He sailed from the Canaries of Tanarife, and made the Cape Verde, whence he crossed over to the coast of Brazil, and there entered a river which is named Janeiro. There went, as chief pilot, a Portuguese named Joan Lopes Carvalhinho, who had already been in this river, and took with him a son whom he had gotten there of a woman of the country. From this place they went on sailing until they reached the Cape of Santa Maria, which Joan of Lisbon had discovered in the year 1514; thence they went to the river San Julian. While they were there taking in water and wood, Juan de Cartagena, who was sub-captain-major, agreed with the other captains to rise up, saying that Magellan had got them betrayed and entrapped. As they understood that Gaspar de Quesada was a friend of Magellan’s, Juan de Cartagena got into his boat at night, with twenty men, and went to the ship of Gaspar Quesada, and went in to speak to him, and took him prisoner,[455] and made a relation of his captain of the ship, in order that all three might go at once to board Magellan and kill him, and after that they would reduce the other ship of Joan Serrano, and would take the money and goods, which they would hide, and would return to the emperor, and would tell him that Magellan had got them entrapped and deceived, having broken faith with his instructions, since he was navigating in seas and countries of the King of Portugal: for which deed they would get first a safe conduct from the emperor. So they arranged matters for their treason, which turned out ill for them.”
“Magellan had some suspicion of this matter, and before this should happen, he sent his skiff to the ships to tell the captains that the masters were to arrange their ships for beaching them to careen them; and with this pretext he warned a servant of his to notice what the captains answered. When this skiff came to the revolted ships they did not let it come alongside, saying that they would not execute any orders except those of Juan de Cartagena, who was their captain-major. The skiff having returned with this answer, Magellan spoke to Ambrosio Fernandes,[456] his chief constable, a valiant man, and gave him orders what he was to do, and to go secretly armed; and he sent a letter to Luis de Mendoça by him, with six men in the skiff, whom the chief constable selected. And the current set towards the ships, and Magellan ordered his master to bend a long hawser,[457] with which he might drop down to the ships if it suited him. All being thus arranged, the skiff went, and coming alongside of Luiz de Mendoça, they would not let him come on board. So the chief constable said to the captain that it was weakness not to bid him enter, as he was one man alone who was bringing a letter. Upon which the captain bade him enter. He came on board, and giving him the letter, took him in his arms, shouting: ‘On behalf of the emperor, you are arrested!’ At this the men of the skiff came on board with their swords drawn; then the chief constable cut the throat of Luis de Mendoça with a dagger, for he held him thrown down under him, for so Magellan had given him orders. Upon this a tumult arose, and Magellan hearing it, ordered the hawser to be paid out, and with his ship dropped down upon the other ships, with his men under arms, and the artillery in readiness. On reaching the ship of Mendoça, he ordered six men to be hung at the yard-arms, who had risen up against the chief constable, and these were seized upon by the sailors of the ship, of which he at once made captain, Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese, and a friend of his: and he ordered the corpse of Mendoça to be hung up by the feet, that they might see him from the other ships. He then ordered Barbosa to prepare the men for going and boarding one of the other ships; and to avoid doing the harm which it was in its power to have done, and since he was a Portuguese, and the crews belonged to the emperor, he used a stratagem, and spoke secretly to a sailor, whom he trusted, who fled to the ship of Cartagena, where, at night when the current set for Magellan’s ship, which was astern, the sailor seeing his opportunity, cut the cable or loosed the ship of Cartagena, so that it drifted upon that of Magellan, who came up, shouting: ‘Treason! treason!’ Upon which he entered the ship of Cartagena, and took him and his men prisoners, and made captain of the ship one Alvaro de Mesquita, whom Cartagena had arrested and put in irons, because he found fault with him for the mutiny which he was making. Seeing this, the other ship at once surrendered. He ordered Cartagena to be quartered, having him publicly cried as a traitor; and the body of Luis de Mendoça also was quartered; and he ordered the quarters and the executed men to be set on shore, spitted on poles. So the Castilians had great fear of him, for he kept the mutineers prisoners in irons, and set to the pumps, during three months that he remained in this river, in which he careened and refitted his ships very well.”
“When he was about to set sail, he ordered the prisoners to be set at liberty, and pardoned them, and he sent them to go along the shore, following the bank of the river until they found the headland from which they could see the sea on the other side; and whoever returned to him with this news he would give him a hundred ducats as a reward for good news. These men went for more than forty leagues, and returned without news; and they brought back two men, fifteen spans high, from a village which they found. He then sent Serrano, because his vessel was the smallest, to go along the river to discover its extremity; and he went with a strong current, which carried him without wind. And, going along thus, his ship grounded on some rocks, on which it was lost, and the boat returned laden with the crew. Magellan sent the boats thither, and they saved everything, so that only the hull was lost. Then he ordered two priests, who had taken part in the mutiny, to be set on shore, and a brother of Cartagena, whom he pardoned at the petition of Mesquita, and he left them thus banished.”
“Then he sailed from the river and ran along the coast until he reached a river, to which they gave the name of Victoria, and which had high land on either side. From this river Mesquita’s ship ran away, and it was not known whether they had killed him, or if he had gone of his own accord; but an astrologer and diviner told him that the captain was a prisoner, and that they were returning to Castile, but that the emperor would do them an injury.”
“Then Magellan, with the three ships which he had, entered the river, through which he ran for more than a hundred leagues, and came out on the other side into the open sea, where he had a stern wind from the east, with which they ran for more than five months without lowering their sails, and they fetched some uninhabited islands, in one of which they found some savages, who lived in huts underground. They went to another island where they gave them gold for its weight of iron, by which means they collected much gold: the people also were of a good disposition, and had a king. They were well governed people, who were at war with other neighbours who were more powerful than themselves; for which reason the king became Christian, with all his people, in order that Magellan might assist him against his enemies. This Magellan offered to do, and with his armed men, and the people of the country, he went against the enemy, of whom he killed many, and burned a village. The enemy got assistance from others, and many came to fight with Magellan, who defeated them, and the struggle was a severe one. They acted with cunning, for they had placed ambuscades of men hidden in the bush, who, seeing the Castilians wearied, came out against them and killed many, and another ambuscade came out of the bush to seize the boats, which were on the beach without men: then the king came out, and fought with them, and defended the boats, and brought off the men.”
“The king who had fled, seeing himself defeated, plotted treachery with the Christian king, and made an agreement with him to give him his daughter in marriage, and plighted his troth to him, that when he died, for he was already old, all would remain to him, and they would always live as friends; because the Castilians would depart, and if he did not act thus he would always make war on him: and this was with the condition that he was to find him means for killing the Castilians. And the Christian king, like a brutal man, consented to the treachery, and prepared a great feast and banquet for carrying it out, to which he invited Magellan, who went to the banquet with thirty men, of the most honourable and well dressed: while they were enjoying themselves at the banquet, the armed enemies entered, and killed Magellan, and all the Castilians, and none of them escaped, and they stripped Serrano, and dragging him along, brought him to the beach, where they executed him, and killed him thrown down on the ground.[458]”
“Those who were in the ships, seeing the misfortune on shore, which the sailors who had gone in the boats related to them, raised up from among them as captain, Carvalhinho, the pilot of the flag-ship, whom all obeyed. He ordered one of the ships, which was very leaky, to be stripped, and set fire to it in the midst of the sea, so that the people on shore should not profit by the iron, and he made captain of the ship of Serrano one Gonzalo Gomez d’Espinosa, who was a relation of the astrologer,[459] who also died with Magellan, and did not divine the evil which befel him.”
“The two ships departed thence, running between many islands, and they went to one which had much very fine cinnamon. From this place they went running through many islands to the island of Borneo, where they found in the port many merchant junks from all the parts of Malacca, which made frequent visits to Borneo. Here Carvalhinho sent a present to the king of scarlet cloth, and coloured silks, and other things, with which the king was much pleased, and he did him great honour, and gave him leave and safe conduct to remain on shore for twenty days, for such was their custom to give to new people, the first time that they came to their port, in which they could buy and sell freely as much as they pleased. But the king, knowing how much goods the ships contained, got up a plot to kill them, and take the ships. This treachery was concerted by the king with the Javanese who were in the port in large junks; and for this object the king showed great honour to those who went on shore, and sent refreshments to the ships, and leave to remain in the port as long as they pleased. Carvalhinho became suspicious at this, and ordered good watch to be kept day and night, and did not allow more than one or two men to go ashore. The king perceiving this sent to beg Carvalhinho to send him his son who had brought the present, because his little children who had seen him, were crying to see him. He sent him, very well dressed, with four men, who, on arriving where the king was, were ordered by him to be arrested. When Carvalhinho knew this he raised his moorings, and with armed men went to board a junk which was filled with many people and ready to sail. They entered this junk and plundered much gold and rich stuffs, and captured a son of the King of Luzon, who was captain of the junk and of three others which were in the port, and who had come in them to marry a daughter of this King of Borneo. They found in this junk valuable things of gold and jewellery which he had brought for his wedding; and they found there three girls of extreme beauty, whom Carvalhinho took care of, saying that he would take them to the emperor: at which all rejoiced. But he did not act thus, but slept with them, so that the Castilians were near killing him; but he divided with the Castilians so liberally that they became friends; for he agreed with the bridegroom, that he and his people should escape by night, and for that should give him much wealth of precious stones, and by night they got away by swimming; and Carvalhinho pretended to have been asleep, and woke up complaining of the watch. But the Castilians understood the deceit, and took Carvalhinho and put him in irons, and took from him all he had, and raised up as captain one Juan Bautista, master of the ship, because he understood pilot’s work.[460]”
“Thence they sailed and went to Maluco, Ternate, and Tidore, where they took to the kings the presents which Magellan had set apart for them. They paid them great honour, and received them hospitably, for they also gave to their ministers; and to the kings they gave an embassage on the part of the emperor, relating to them his magnificence, so that both soon obeyed him, and did homage as vassals for ever; and they established trade and prices for buying and selling, and established factories on shore, and began to collect cloves, and very much was brought to them, because the Castilians gave what they asked, for they had a superfluity of merchandise; thus they became lords of the land. As the ships were much injured, they patched them up a little, the best they could, and hastened to fill both ships with cargo, which they did in one month. When they were about to sail there came to the Castilians a Portuguese, named Juan de la Rosa, who had come to Ternate, saying he was a pilot, and would take them to Castile, upon which they agreed with him to give him fifty quintals of cloves in each ship, because he said he would take them to the island of Banda, which had more riches than Maluco. So the Castilians rejoiced greatly at taking this man back to the emperor, for the greater certainty as to their discovery. This Juan de la Rosa warned the Castilians that they would come from India and seek for them, and kill them all, for this was spoken of in India. To this the Castilians gave much credit, and on that account did him great honour. They settled with the King of Tidore to leave with him a factor with the merchandise, which they had, because many ships would soon come, sent by the emperor; for which reason they should have much cloves collected together. They then set sail, making de la Rosa captain of the ship of Carvalhinho.”
“When they were at sea they freed him from his irons, from the need they felt for his navigation, and they went to the island of Banda, where they restored to Carvalhinho his captaincy, and they went to Banda, where they took samples of nutmeg and mace, as they had nowhere to take in cargo of it. All having been consulted, they set sail to make for the Cape of Good Hope, and navigate thence to Castile, for they did not dare take any other course. Setting sail with this design, they met with hard weather, with which the ship of Carvalhinho put into port, and that of la Rosa continued her course. Carvalhinho put into Maluco, where he discharged half the ship’s cargo, and heeled her over, and repaired her as well as possible; this he did in twenty days, and again set to taking in cargo and departing; but he fell ill with the labour, and died on setting sail. They made Gonzalo Gomez d’Espinosa captain of the ship again, and he, by the instructions of Carvalhinho, took a course to search for the river (strait) through which they had come; but when at sea, the ship again took in so much water, that they ran before the wind to beach her on the first land they made, which was in Batochina, where they beached the ship, and saved from her no great quantity of goods. Whilst they were at this juncture D. Gracia Anriques arrived at Maluco, with a ship to take in cloves, which came from Malaca, and learning how these Castilians were there he sent to call them under his safe conduct, that they should all come, because if they did not he would hold them as enemies, and would go at once and fetch them. The Castilians therefore, constrained by fortune, went to where D. Gracia was, like as men who were lost, so that D. Gracia had compassion upon them, and gave them a good reception, and supplied them with necessaries, and having laden his ship, he embarked them all with him, and they were more than thirty, and he took them to Malaca, where Jorge d’Albuquerque was captain, who ordered the factor to give them provisions for their maintenance, and in the monsoon to send them to India, where D. Duarte [de Meneses] was governor. He commanded those who chose to be written down in the rolls for pay, and he forbade the ships of the kingdom to take them, that they might not return to Castile; and in fact all died, only Gonzalo Gomes d’Espinosa passed to Portugal in the year 1525, and he was made a prisoner in Lisbon, and set at liberty by a letter which the empress sent to the king.”
“The other ship followed its course, so that la Rosa made the Cape of Good Hope, and while she was going near the land Pero Coresma, who was going to India in a small ship, met her, and spoke her; and he was told she belonged to the emperor, and came from Maluco, and it did not come into his understanding to send her to the bottom, that she might not return to Castile, and the ship entered the watering place of Saldanha, and thence fetched Cape Verde, where they went ashore to get wood and water; there some Portuguese, learning that the ship came from Maluco, took the boat when it came ashore, with twenty Castilians; and as there was no ship in the port they got into a boat to go and capture the ship; but the ship seeing the boat come with armed men, for the arms glittered, weighed and set sail for Cape St. Vincent, and thence entered San Lucar with thirteen men, for now there were no more, and it arrived in the year 1521. From Cape Verde they wrote to the king about the Castilians, who remained there; the king ordered that they should let them go till they died, but never to allow them to embark for any port; and so it was done.”