PLATES AND MAPS.

[Portrait of Magellan]to face Title
[Arms of Magellan]1
[Facsimiles of Signatures]1
[Pigafetta’s Map of the Straits]65
[Track of the “Victoria” in the Pacific]177
[Islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul]235

INTRODUCTION
AND
LIFE OF MAGELLAN.

——Teucer Salamina patremque

Quum fugeret, tamen uda Lyæo

Tempora populeâ fertur vinxisse coronâ,

Sic tristes affatus amicos:

Quo nos cunque feret melior Fortuna parente,

Ibimus, o socii comitesque!

Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro;

Certus enim promisit Apollo

Ambiguam tellure novâ Salamina futuram.

O fortes, pejoraque passi

Mecum sæpe viri, nunc vino pellite curas:

Cras ingens iterabimus æquor.

Though Magellan’s enterprise was the greatest ever undertaken by any navigator, yet he has been deprived of his due fame by the jealousy which has always existed between the two nations inhabiting the Peninsula: the Spaniards would not brook being commanded by a Portuguese, and the Portuguese have not yet forgiven Magellan for having abandoned them to serve Castile. But Magellan really had no choice; for if the western passage which he expected to discover was to be sought for, it could only be under the auspices of Spain, within whose demarcation those waters lay.

It would seem that D. Manuel had only himself to blame for the loss of Magellan’s services; and, as M. Amoretti well observes, D. Manuel ought to have been well aware of the value of those services, since Charles V knew it, and showed his appreciation of them. It is difficult to believe that the injury of which Magellan complained, and which led him to seek other service, was merely, as Osorio says, the refusal of promotion in palace rank, and which he had well deserved, especially since the motive ascribed by Osorio to the king’s refusal, namely the necessity of avoiding a bad precedent, was not alone a sufficient affront to account for Magellan’s sacrificing all his hopes and property in his own country, had he not also felt that the king was condemning him to inaction, obscurity, and uselessness. Barros, indeed, says that:

“The favours of princes given for services are a retributive justice, which must be observed equally with all, with regard to the quality of each man: and that if a man’s portion be denied him, though he endures it ill, yet he will have patience; but if he see the advancement of those who have profited more by artifice and friends than by their own merits, he loses all patience; indignation, hatred, and despair arise, and he will commit faults injurious to himself and others. And what outraged Magellan more than the refusal of the half ducat a month, was that some men who were with him at Azamor, said that his lameness was feigned to support his petition.”

The king, moreover, refused to receive Magellan, and showed his ill-will against him. It is therefore highly probable that before Magellan took the step of leaving Portugal, D. Manuel, prompted by his niggardly disposition, had refused to entertain Magellan’s desire for employment at sea, or his projects of discovery, from which no immediate profit was to be expected. This is apparent from the statement of Barros, Decad. iii, lib. v, cap. viii, that letters of Magellan to Francisco Serrano were found after the death of the latter in Maluco, in which Magellan said that he should soon see him; and, if it were not by way of Portugal, it would be by way of Castile, and that Serrano should therefore wait for him there. Further on, Barros says that recourse to Castile appears from these letters to have been in Magellan’s mind some time before the occurrence of the king’s dismissal of his business: and that this was shown by his always associating with pilots, and occupying himself with sea-charts.

The Portuguese exaggerated very much the injury they expected to result, and, later, which they thought had resulted from Magellan’s voyage, which could not change the position of the Moluccas, nor consequently the Portuguese title to them; but the apprehensions which they felt, arose from their fear of others sharing in the spice trade, and from the limited geographical knowledge of the period, which left both parties very much in doubt as to the true position of those islands, or as to the extent of the circumference of the globe. The question of the exact position of the Moluccas was not definitely ascertained till much later, though a compromise was arrived at in 1529 by the treaty between Spain and Portugal, by which Charles V gave up whatever rights to the Moluccas he imagined he possessed, to Portugal, for a sum of three hundred and fifty thousand ducats.⁠[1] As late as 1535, Gaspar Correa mentions, tom. iii, p. 661, a Dominican friar in Portuguese India, who was learned in cosmography, and who asserted that the Moluccas fell within the demarcation of Castile.

The grounds of complaint of the Portuguese against Magellan are, perhaps, best expressed, and in the strongest terms, by Bishop Osorio, so it may be well to quote from him the following passage. Lib. xi, § 23.

“About this time a slight offence on the part of the king (D. Manuel) so grievously exasperated the mind of a certain Portuguese, that, forgetful of all faith, piety, and religion, he hastened to betray the king who had educated him, and the country which had brought him forth; and he risked his life amongst the greatest perils. Ferdinand Magellan, of whom we have before spoken, was a man of noble birth, and endued with a high spirit. He had given proofs in India, in warlike affairs, of courage and perseverance in no small degree. Likewise in Africa he had performed his duties with great ardour. Formerly it was the custom among the Portuguese that the king’s servants should be fed in the palace at the king’s expense; but when the number of these servants had become so great (because the sons of the king’s officers retained the same station, and besides, many were admitted for their services into the king’s household), it was seen to be very difficult to prepare the food of such a multitude. On this account it was determined by the Kings of Portugal that the food which each man was to receive in the palace should be provided by himself out of the king’s money. Thus it was settled that a certain sum of money was assigned per month to each man. That money, indeed, when provisions were so cheap, provided abundantly for the men; but now that the number of men, and the prices of commodities had increased, it happened that the sum, which formerly was more than sufficient for their daily expenses, was now much too small. Moreover, as all the dignity of the Portuguese depends upon the king, this small sum of money is as eagerly sought after as though it were much more ample. And as the Portuguese think that the thing most to be desired is to be enrolled amongst the king’s household, so also, they consider the greatest honour to consist in an increase of this stipend. For, as there are various ranks of king’s servants, so the sum of money is assigned to each servant according to the dignity of his rank. The highest class is that of nobleman; but, as there are distinctions of nobility, so an equal salary is not given to all. Thus it happens that the nobility of each is estimated according to the importance of this stipend, and each one is held to be more noble in proportion to the more ample stipend which he receives. This judgment, indeed, as human affairs go, is often most false; for many obtain through ambition and pertinacity what ought to be assigned to deserts and innate nobleness. The Portuguese, however, since they are over anxious in seeking this nobility, and imagine that their nobility is increased by a small accession of salary, very often think that they must strive for this little sum of money, as though all their well-being and dignity depended upon it. Now, Magellan contended that for his services, his stipend should be increased monthly by half a ducat. The king refused it him, lest an entrance should be opened to ambitious persons. Magellan, excited by the injury of the refusal of this advantage to him at that time, abandoned the king, broke his faith, and brought the State into extreme danger. And whilst we ought to tolerate the injuries inflicted by the State, and to endure also the outrages of kings, who are the fathers of the republick, and whilst we ought to lay down our lives for the well-being of our country, which lives we owe to our country; this most audacious man conceived such despite on account of half a ducat, amounting to five denarii, which was refused to him, that he opposed the State; he offended the king, who had brought him up; and brought his country, for which he should have died, into peril. For the affair reached such a pitch that the danger of a perilous war impended over the commonwealth. I do not know, indeed, whence so barbarous a custom has crept into the State: for, whilst the name of a traitor is not only hateful and hated, but also burns in the stain of everlasting dishonour upon a whole posterity; yet men who determine upon breaking their faith, and opposing their kings or states, may reject the favours they have received by formal letters, may abjure their fealty, and despoil themselves of the rights and duties of the State; they bid the king keep for himself that which belongs to him, and they attest that thenceforward they will have nothing in common with their country: then, at length, they contend that it is allowable for them to commence war against their country. Be it so: reject favours if it please you; contemn the liberality of your country; grumble as much as you please, that a reward equal to your dignity has not been granted. But by what means can you betray the faith which you have plighted? My country has inflicted on me a severe outrage; it has inflicted, indeed, the worst. But an outrage is not to be avenged, either upon parents or upon one’s country. I have abandoned, he says, all that I had received from my country. Have you then rejected life, disposition, and education? By no means. But all these things; you received them, in the first place, from God, and then from the laws, customs, and institutions of your country. It will never be allowable to combat nature, to injure your country, or to break faith, even should you be laden with every injury. Nay, your life should be given up, and the most extreme punishments should be undergone, sooner than break your faith, or betray your duty. Abjure fealty as much as you please, attest your perfidy by public letters, leave to posterity a notable memory of unspeakable wickedness; yet you will not be able by any such document to avoid offending the Deity, nor the stain of an everlasting opprobrium.”

Against this view of Osorio may be set the following passage from Vattel, which has all the more weight, in that it is simply an enunciation of law and right, and is not written to support or to denounce any particular person.

“Many distinctions will be necessary, in order to give a complete solution to the celebrated question, whether a man may quit his country, or the society of which he is a member. The children are bound by natural ties to the society in which they were born; they are under an obligation to shew themselves grateful for the protection it has afforded to their fathers, and are in a great measure indebted to it for their birth and education. They ought, therefore, to love it, as we have already shewn, to express a just gratitude to it, and requite its services as far as possible by serving it in turn. We have observed above, that they have a right to enter into the society of which their fathers were members. But every man is born free; and the son of a citizen, when come to the years of discretion, may examine whether it be convenient for him to join the society for which he was destined by his birth. If he does not find it advantageous to remain in it, he is at liberty to quit it, on making it a compensation for what it has done in his favour, and preserving, as far as his new engagements will allow him, the sentiments of love and gratitude he owes it.”—Chitty’s translation of Vattel, book i, cap. xix, § 220.

There are also some remarkable passages in a pamphlet by Condorcet, dated October 25th, 1791, named Opinion sur les Emigrants. This opinion deserves attention, both on account of its author and the time in which it was written, when popular passions and prejudices were much excited against those who were expatriating themselves from France.

Condorcet begins with the statement, that:

“It is a great error to imagine that the public utility is not constantly to be found united with the rights of individuals, or that the public well-being may demand acts of real injustice. This error has everywhere been the eternal excuse for the inroads of tyranny, and the pretext for the artful manœuvres employed to establish it.⁠[2]”

“On the contrary, in the case of every measure that is proposed as useful, it must first be examined whether it is just. Should it not be so, it must be concluded that it had only an empty and fallacious appearance of utility.”

•• •••

“Nature concedes to every man the right of going out of his country; the constitution guarantees it to every French citizen, and we cannot strike a blow at it. The Frenchman who wishes to leave his country, for his business, for his health, even for the sake of his peace and well-being, ought to have the fullest liberty to do so: he ought to be able to use this liberty, without his absence depriving him of the least of his rights. In a great empire, the variety of professions, and inequality of fortunes, do not admit of residence and personal service being regarded as a common obligation which the law may impose upon all citizens. This rigorous obligation can only exist in the case of absolute necessity; to extend it to the habitual state of society, and even to all periods when the public safety or tranquillity may seem to be menaced, would be to disturb the order of useful labours, and to attack the sources of general prosperity.”

“Every man, moreover, has the right to change his country; he may renounce that in which he was born, to choose another. From that moment, as a citizen of his new country, he is only a foreigner in the first; but if some day he returns to it, if he has left any property in it, he ought to enjoy there to the full the rights of man; he has only deserved to lose those of a citizen.”

“But here a first question presents itself. Is this citizen by his sole renunciation released from every obligation towards the body politic which he abandons? Does the society from which he separates himself lose immediately all its rights over him? Doubtless, not; and I do not speak only of those sentiments which a noble and grateful soul preserves for its country, even though it be unjust; I speak of rigorous obligations, of those which a man cannot fail to fulfil without becoming guilty of an offence: and I say that there exists a time during which a man placed between his ancient and his new country can only permit himself to express hopes as to the differences which arise between them: a time when that one of the two nations against which he might bear arms would have the right to punish him as an assassin; and when the man who might employ his riches or talents against his former countrymen, would really be a traitor.”

“I will add that each nation has also the right to fix the time after which the citizen who abandons it is to be considered as free from all obligation, and to determine what are his duties until the expiration of that period, and what actions it still preserves the power to forbid him. To deny this principle, would be to break all the social bonds which can bind men together. This period, doubtless, is not an arbitrary one; it is that during which the citizen who abdicates can employ against his country the means which he has received from it, and during which he can do it more injury than could a foreigner.”

Further on, Condorcet proposes two years as the period during which a citizen who renounces his nationality shall engage not to enter the service of any foreign power, unless he has been authorised so to do by a decree of the national assembly. He also proposes various measures for different classes of emigrants, and the full enjoyment of their property on the same footing as foreigners, by those who sign an engagement not to take foreign service for two years, nor during that time to solicit the aid of any foreign power against the nation or its constituted authorities.

Magellan fully satisfied the conditions specified by Vattel, as may be seen by his conversations with Sebastian Alvarez, the King of Portugal’s agent: at this date, also, it is sufficiently clear that Magellan not only did no harm to his native country, but that he increased its renown by his own services, and by those of the other Portuguese officers whom he associated with his labours. If his countrymen have preferred Gama to him, it is because he only served the interests of science, whilst Gama served the passions of his countrymen, and aided them to enrich themselves. After D. Manuel had refused employment and advancement to Magellan, and seemed inclined to leave him in the obscurity of a small garrison in Africa, the Portuguese would seem to have no more right to complain of Magellan’s profiting by the opportunities offered by Spain, than the Genoese would have had, if they had reproached Columbus for availing himself in a similar way of the resources of that country. D. Manuel, it is true, made offers to Magellan if he would leave Spain and return to Portugal, but it was then too late, for the great navigator had already pledged his word to Charles V.

There is another circumstance which justifies Magellan still more than if he had been an Englishman or a Frenchman, a circumstance peculiar to Spain and Portugal. In the Peninsula, the kingly power was of recent origin, and had been divided amongst several crowns: the wearers of these crowns had been at first only the equals of other great lords, and, after they had acquired these crowns, they were only the first amongst their equals; and such they recognised themselves to be by their coronation oaths, even long after the time of Magellan. In these coronation oaths they also bound themselves more than did other European sovereigns to respect all the privileges of the great nobles; any infraction of which was held to justify these in revolt from the sovereign. At the same time there existed the custom and tradition of disnaturalisation, in accordance with which any noble who felt aggrieved, formally renounced his fealty to the sovereign, and betook himself to some neighbouring state. Osorio and Mariana, who wrote when the kingly power had become consolidated, ridicule this custom; but it must have had the advantage of giving time and opportunity for a peaceable settlement instead of an immediate recourse to arms. But whether the custom was good or bad, there is no doubt that it was generally and constantly acted upon; and Magellan was following precedents that were generally received in the Peninsula. It is unfortunate that the document mentioned by historians, by which Magellan formally renounced fealty to D. Manuel, is not forthcoming in the archives either of Spain or Portugal; but it may be supposed to be similar in substance to those renunciations which Osorio mentions and reproves.

Among those who disnaturalised themselves may be cited various Condes de Haro of Biscay, and Guzman, who gave his services to Marocco, and who bears the title of El Bueno. With regard to Count Diego de Haro, who in 1216 withdrew from Castile to Navarre, Mariana makes the following observations.

“Several great lords of Castile, irritated against their king, whose avarice they could not endure, had passed into the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon, after having renounced their right of naturalisation by a public deed, a means formerly in use amongst those nations, in order not to be regarded as traitors and rebels when they quitted the states of their sovereign.... Among the grandees who came to take refuge in Navarre, the most illustrious beyond dispute was Don Diego de Haro. This lord had excellent qualities: never were seen greater constancy, probity, or zeal for the public service than his; the slightest injustice irritated him. It was in order not to see his country and freedom oppressed, that he abandoned Castile.”—Mariana, History of Spain, book xiii.

“In the year 1276, Alfonso the Wise had defeated Yussuf, the Emperor of Marocco, and made peace with him with the assistance of Guzman: a tournament was held in Seville in celebration of it, and King Alfonso having asked who had most distinguished himself, was told D. Alonzo Perez. He asked which of them, and D. Juan Ramirez de Guzman replied: ‘Alonzo Perez de Guzman, my brother of profit.’ This answer seemed ill to all, and especially to Guzman, who saw that a slur was cast upon the illegitimacy of his birth, for at that time they named children of profit (gananciu), those who were born of unmarried women, and his mother had not been married. Guzman, irritated at being thus spoken of before the king and the court, then said: ‘You speak truth, I am a brother of profit, but you are and will be one of loss; and were it not for the respect due to the presence in which we stand, I would teach you the manner in which you should treat me; but you are not to blame for it, but rather he who has brought you up and taught you so ill.’ The king, against whom this complaint appeared to be directed, then said: ‘Your brother does not speak ill, for so it is the custom in Castile to name those who are not children of women married to their husbands.’ ‘So also,’ he replied, ‘is it the custom of the nobles of Castile, when they are not well treated by their sovereigns, to go abroad to seek those who will treat them well; I will do likewise; and I swear not to return until with truth they may call me a man of profit. Grant me, therefore, the term which the privilege of the nobles of Castile gives, that I may go out of the kingdom, for from this day I disnaturalise myself, and take leave of being your vassal.’ The king attempted to dissuade him, but his efforts being in vain, he had to grant him the term which he asked for; during which Guzman sold all that he had inherited from his father or acquired in the war, and went out from Castile, accompanied by thirty of his friends and servants.”—Quintana, Vidas de Españoles Celebres.

There seems to be some inconsistency on the part of those who refuse to admit of disnaturalisation, yet at the same time maintain that rebellion can be justified. If there is a justification of rebellion, the right of expatriation, or of withdrawal from amongst those who provoke rebellion, must exist; and there can be no doubt that the peaceable withdrawal of those who are oppressed or injured is preferable in the interests of all to armed insurrection. Even Bishop Osorio and Mariana would probably admit that the disnaturalisation of Prim and Serrano would have been better than their treason, which has plunged Spain in anarchy and bloodshed for so many years.⁠[3] Rebellions have almost always been conducted by minorities; and as their justification does not depend upon the numerical importance of those engaged in them, it would follow that in the case of disnaturalisation, where numbers are not requisite, as in the case of armed insurrection, the right would exist equally even if the minority consisted only of one.

There are some writers on the Law of Nations, with whom I am agreed in general, who disapprove of the Naturalisation and Disnaturalisation Act of the Session of 1869. I am compelled to differ from them with respect to that measure, for the foregoing reasons, and also because it seems to me that they have lost sight of another circumstance which affects the question. So long as kingly power was a reality, personal allegiance and duty to the sovereign was a reality also. But now that modern innovation and corruption have substituted the rule of majorities for the kingly power, the feeling of the personal duty of the subject is almost lost; and the subject, or citizen, has become only one of an aggregation of individuals, or of an association of persons with equal rights; and each member of such an association has clearly the right to choose whether he will form part of it or not: so that whatever rights of expatriation may have existed in the times of Magellan, Grotius, and Vattel, have become much stronger at the present time, when the conscience of the subject is no longer considered by some as held bound by duty to the sovereign, who has become almost impersonal: instead of loyalty and fealty, we have the duty of fair dealing as between partners and associates on equal terms, as is exemplified by the argumentation of Condorcet in the passage quoted above. That this view is in accordance with the common sense and consent of mankind is shown by the general repudiation of the pretension of the northern portion of the United States to term the secession of the southern states a rebellion; and this pretension was seen to be especially illogical on the part of those who had repudiated the name of rebels when they departed from the duty of obedience to their lawful sovereign.

Magellan has not had the good fortune of Vasco da Gama, whose exploits have been narrated by Camoens and Gaspar Correa; he did not survive to give his own account of his great voyage, and the only accounts preserved were written by two Italians of very small literary capacity. There are, however, more documents concerning Magellan in existence than are to be found with respect to Gama.

The birth-place of Magellan is doubtful; according to his will executed in Lisbon, December 29th, 1504, in favour of his sister, Theresa de Magalhāes, wife of Joan da Sylva Telles, he was born at Villa de Sabroza, in the district of Villa Real, Traz os Montes; in his will of August 24th, 1519, he calls himself “Vezino de Porto,” or domiciled at Porto; documents quoted by M. Ferdinand Denis make him to be born at Villa de Figueiro in Portuguese Estremadura. His family was “hidalgo,” with a known coat of arms, of which a plate is given in this volume.

The book of noble genealogies of Portugal, by Bernardo Pimenta do Avelar Portocarrero, states, in the vol. M, done and copied in the year 1721, fo. 641, that Ruy de Magalhaēs, whose parents are unknown, was Alcaide-mōr of Aveiro. He married Alda de Mesquita, daughter of Martin Gonzalves Pimentel and Ignez de Mesquita. Antonio de Lima (another genealogist) represents her as the wife of Gil de Magalhaēs, fifth son of Gil de Magalhaēs; and he gives her the same children as others give to Ruy de Magalhaēs: who had

Genebra de Magalhaēs, wife of Pero Cāo.

Fernāo de Magalhaēs, who married Da. Brites Barbosa, daughter of his relation Diogo Barbosa, alcaidemōr of Seville, in the absence of D. Alvaro of Portugal; he had

Da. Anna de Magalhaēs, his heiress, the wife of D. Hernando de Henao e Avila, from whom his lineage continues. She was his only child.

This does not agree with the archives of Seville, from which it appears that Beatriz Barbosa was daughter of Diego Barbosa and Maria Caldera, and that Fernan Magalhaēs and Beatriz Barbosa had a son named Rodrigo; and that after the death of these three, Diego Barbosa became their heir; and he having died in 1525, his son Jayme inherited.

Fernan Magellan executed a will in Seville on the 24th day of August, 1519. He instituted by it a mayorazgo for his son, grandson, or relation, who should bear the name of Magallanes, and who should be bound to live in the kingdoms of Castille. He also bequeathed a sum of 12,500 maravedis to the Convent of N. S. de la Victoria in Triana.

Two facsimiles of the signature of Magellan are given, one taken from his signature to the protocol of the Council of War, held at Cochim in 1510; there is also a facsimile of the signature of another Magellan, taken from the book of Moradias or Palace stipends, attached to a receipt printed by Navarrete, who appears to have supposed it to have been that of the navigator: and a facsimile of the signature of Magellan’s brother-in-law Duarte Barbosa.

Gaspar Correa states, in his Lendas da India, tom. ii, p. 28, that, in January of 1510, Alfonso d’Alboquerque despatched the ships from Cochim to the kingdom.

“Two ships of Bastian de Sousa and Francisco de Sá convoyed this fleet, and at night they both struck on the shoals of Padua, which are opposite the Maldive Islands, and remained aground, upright, and without breaking up. Upon this they prepared the boats as well as they could, and raised their sides, and put inside water and biscuit, and victuals which did not require cooking. The captains and pilots, and as many men as could, got into these boats and returned to Cochym. The people who remained in the ships set shores⁠[4] on each side of the ships, with the yards, which they cut. All this was arranged and commanded by an honourable gentleman, who remained as overseer, named Fernan de Magalhaēs, who had been much wounded in Calecut. He took much care that the chests should not be broken, and that there should be no robbery, because the captains were going to request ships of the governor, with which to return to the ships to save what goods had not been wetted. These captains reached Cananor in eight days, from whence they sent a message to the governor, who at once sent Gonzalo de Crasto in a caravel, with two pilots; and they went to the ships and put the best things on board the caravel, until they could not load it any more, and having recovered all the men, they set fire to the ships, as they were already full of water. So they returned to Cochim. In this Fernan de Magalhāes worked hard, and did much service, and attended well to everything.”

“This Fernan de Magalhāes was of the king’s household, and came to India with the Viceroy Dom Francisco [d’Almeida], and he was in the action with the Turks; and he was always much wounded in the fleets and in Calecut; and in these ships he lost his small portion of property,⁠[5] and he went away poor to Portugal, and went about with claims for his services, and begged of the king a hundred reis increase of his palace stipend,⁠[6] which the king did not choose to grant, at which he was aggrieved, and went to Castile to live at Seville, where he married. As he had much knowledge of the art of navigation, and enterprise, and devoted himself to that, he came to an understanding with the directors of the House of Trade of Seville, so that the emperor gave him a fleet of five ships, with which he navigated, discovering a new way to Maluco, which was in the year 1519, as I will relate further on in its place; with which he caused great difficulties to Portugal.”

Correa again refers to the incident of Magellan remaining with the wreck, in his tome ii, p. 625, where he says:

“Fernan de Magalhāes, an honourable gentleman, who served in these parts in the time of the Viceroy Afonso d’Alboquerque, of whom I made mention in the first book, with respect to two ships which were going to the kingdom, which were lost on the shoals of Padua, and their captains went back to Cochym in their boats, and this Fernan de Magalhāes remained in the ships with the men taking care of the ships until caravels came from Cochim in which much property, belonging to the king and to private individuals, was saved. This Fernan de Magalhāes, on going to the kingdom and bringing before the king his services, asked in satisfaction for them that he should have an increase in his palace stipend of a hundred reis a month, which the king refused him, because he did not find favour with him, or because it was so permitted to be. Fernan de Magalhāes, offended at this, because he much entreated the king to do it, and he would not, asked his leave to go and live with whoever would show him favour, where he might obtain more good fortune than with him. The king told him to do as he pleased; for which he wished to kiss his hand, which the king did not choose to give him.”

Castanheda, in relating the wreck on the Padua banks, says (lib. iii, cap. v):

“There were disputes as to who should go away with the captains from the grounded vessels, and Magellan said that it was clear that all could not go away, and that to avoid strife, which was commencing, let the gentlemen and chief men go away with the captains, and he would remain with the sailors and other common people, provided they would promise to return for him, or get the governor to send for him. This they swore to, and Fernan de Magalhāes stayed behind, the common people consented to remain, for otherwise there must have been strife. As Magalhāes was in the boat, when it was nearly ready to go away, a sailor, thinking that he repented himself of remaining, said to him: ‘Sir, did you not promise to remain with us?’ He replied: ‘Yes; and see, I am coming;’ and went to them and remained with them. In this he shewed great courage, and confidence in the men.”

Barros relates the incident of the two vessels wrecked on the banks of Padua, and says that Antonio Pacheco was sent with a caravel to their assistance; and that:

“As much honour as Antonio Pacheco gained in the method with which he recovered these crews, with the differences which he had with them on account of some goods which the men took with them, so much honour also did Magellan gain by the good management of these men, which he shewed whilst waiting with them till they came to fetch them. And if he had had as much loyalty to his king and country, as he observed with a friend of his, on whose account he would not go away in company with Bastian de Sousa [the captain]; for they did not take away the other man, as he was not a man of much importance, perchance he would not have lost himself with a name of infamy, as will be seen further on.”—Decad. II, lib. iv, chap. i.

Thus Castanheda and Barros, who are both of them very hostile to Magellan, have preserved one of the finest traits of his life. Whether the motive of Magellan in remaining by the wreck was fidelity to the interests of his friend, or devotion to the common seamen, or the repugnance of an officer and a gentleman to abandon a ship which had not broken up, this trait is alone sufficient to show that he was incapable of disloyalty, or of being influenced by pique, as the Portuguese historians have represented.

The next mention we find of Magellan is in the following document, preserved in the archives of Lisbon, which contains an account of a Council of War held by Albuquerque respecting his attack on Goa. This document confirms what Correa says of Albuquerque’s departure from Cochym for Goa.

Council held by Alfonso d’Albuquerque with the Captains with respect to going to Goa.

Torre do Tombo. Corpo Chron. Part 2a, Maç 23, Doc. 190.

Thursday, which was the tenth day of the month of October, of five hundred and ten, the captain-major ordered all the captains of the king our sovereign to be summoned in Cochim, in order to hold a council with them, to which council there came those named below, and no others. This council was as to whether, whilst the ships of burden remained in Cochim taking in their cargo, it seemed good to them to carry all their crews with them to the action of Goa, or not.

•• •••

Fernan de Magalhāes said that it seemed to him that the captain-major ought not to take the ships of burden to Goa, inasmuch as if they went thither they could not pass this year to Portugal, since we are at the twelfth of October; and that, making their shortest course without touching at Cananor, nor at any other port, it was not possible to lay the fleet before the port of Goa before the eighth of November,⁠[7] as the winds were now contrary for that place: and with respect to the crews, let his worship say whether it was well that they should go, that it seemed to him that he ought not to take them, since there did not remain time for them to lay out their money, nor to do anything of what was necessary for the voyage; and this said Fernan de Magalhāes.

The following gave an opinion:

(N.B. Albuquerque said at the end of these opinions that he was determined to sail on the following day, the eleventh of October, with the captains who wished to accompany him. Therefore, we are at the twelfth of October, means that that day was close at hand, and not that the council was held on that day.)

Gaspar Correa says, tome ii, p. 138:

“When this was thus ended, the governor told all the captains that he was going immediately, and that he would sail from Cananor with all the ships and men that he could take, and go and take Goa, as he trusted in the Lord’s Passion that He would assist him; and he gave them notice that so he would act, and not occupy himself with anything else: and he gave them all this notice, because he trusted in the Lord, that he should be able to send news to the king in these ships, that he was taking his rest inside the city of Goa: and, as it was already October, whoever had the will to serve the king, and win such great honour, as it would be to find oneself in such a noble action, would still have time enough to witness the action and return to embark in his ship, carrying away so much honour from having been present in the action: and each one was to act according to his own will, for he would give an account of all to the king in his letters. But the captains, occupied with their profits of selling and taking in cargo, set little store by this, and the governor departed, saying that he was not going to take anyone away with him against his will.”

Albuquerque then went to Cananor, which G. Correa says he again left on the 3rd October for Goa (tom. ii, p. 140); tres is probably an error for treze, the 13th, which would be in accordance with the statement of the document that Albuquerque sailed from Cochim on the 11th of October. Gaspar Correa gives the following names of captains who accompanied Albuquerque against Goa.

*The names marked with an asterisk are among those who gave an opinion at the Council of War above mentioned.

He also mentions, p. 145, the following gentlemen as being with Albuquerque in the attack on Goa:

The supposition may be hazarded that it was this opinion which Magellan gave at the Council of War in opposition to Alfonso d’Albuquerque, which set D. Manuel against him. Such opposition was enough to have made Albuquerque write unfavourably of Magellan to D. Manuel; and the ill-will of D. Manuel to Magellan, and his refusal to grant him a due recognition of his services is not otherwise sufficiently accounted for. On the other hand, Gaspar Correa, who was Albuquerque’s secretary at one time, does not indicate this; but Correa is the most friendly to Magellan of all the Portuguese historians, and does not appear, like the others, to have taxed Magellan with treason.

After this, Magellan appears to have left India, and to have been stationed at Azamor in Morocco, where, in a skirmish with the Arabs, he was wounded in the leg by a javelin, which left him somewhat lame. After that, some disputes arose as to the distribution amongst the townsmen of some cattle that had been captured from the Arabs. When João Soarez, Captain of Azamor, left that place, and was succeeded by D. Pedro de Sousa, Magellan left Azamor without leave from D. Pedro de Sousa, and came to Portugal; his petition with regard to the increase of his palace stipend had already been sent to D. Manuel; but D. Pedro de Sousa having written to the king of Magellan having left Azamor without leave of absence, and of the complaints made about the cattle, the king refused to receive Magellan, and commanded him to return at once to Azamor, and there give himself up as he was accused. When he arrived there, as Barros says, either because he was free from blame, or, as was mostly asserted, because the frontier officers of Azamor, in order not to vex him, would not accuse him, he received a sentence of acquittal, and returned with it to Portugal; but the king always bore ill-will to him, and, Magellan’s requests not being granted, he set about that business of which he had written to his friend Francisco Serrano, who was in Maluco.

After Magellan had disnaturalised himself, he took refuge in Spain, accompanied by the astrologer Ruy Faleiro, and having arrived at Seville on the 20th of October, 1517, he entered upon negotiations with the ministers of Charles V; and the King of Portugal did his utmost, through his agents, to thwart him; Osorio says that the king would have succeeded in dissuading Charles V from employing Magellan, had not the Spanish nobles persuaded him not to lose such an opportunity of increasing the Spanish empire. Charles V then ordered ships to be provided for Magellan, by which he might discover a new way to the east.

Here follows an abstract of documents, copies of which are contained in the Torre do Tombo, relating to the appointment of Magellan, and the privileges and powers conferred upon him: these documents are dated in the spring of 1518, more than a year before Magellan sailed; and it appears that delay was caused partly through the procrastination of the Spanish authorities in Seville, who were charged with equipping the fleet, and partly by the intrigues of the agents of the King of Portugal. These intrigues appear to have been partially successful, and to have caused delay. A final order for the departure of Magellan was given in Barcelona, April 19th, 1519. The original of this document is preserved in the Lisbon archives, and it was probably carried out with the fleet, and fell into the possession of the Portuguese in the Moluccas after Magellan’s death; a translation of this order is given below, and the text is in the Appendix.

After this document, translations are given of two letters (the text of which is given in the Appendix) from Alvaro da Costa, the Portuguese ambassador in Spain, and from Sebastian Alvarez, the Portuguese factor, about the efforts made by them to prevent Magellan’s expedition. M. Ferdinand Denis, in the Biographie Universelle, mentions that Alvaro da Costa is said to have pushed his zeal to the extremity of wishing to assassinate Magellan, and even his poor associate, Ruy Faleiro; this, with regard to the latter, seems hardly probable, judging from Costa’s own letter. Navarrete states that the Portuguese agents succeeding in exciting the mob of Seville against Magellan on the 22nd of October, 1518, under the empty pretext that he was substituting the arms of Portugal for those of Castile in his ships. Faria y Sousa, in his Europa Portuguese, tom. ii, pt. iv, cap. i, p. 543, says:

“D. Fernando de Vasconcellos, Bishop of Lamego, alone expressed the desire that the King of Portugal should either grant favours to him (Magellan) or else have him killed, because his intentions were most dangerous to the kingdom. The result of this (counsel) was that the kingdom received a great disappointment, and Magellan glorious and everlasting fame; since, whilst the world endures it will endure in the monument of his name, which has remained applied to all the South Sea and to his Straits.”

Que nunca se vera tāo forte peito,

Do Gangetico mar ao Gaditano;

Nem das Boreaes ondas ao Estreito,

Que mostrou o aggravado Lusitano.

Camoens, Canto ii, 55.

And never will their prowess find its mate,

No, not from Ganges to the Gadite shore,

Not from Arcturus to the Southern Strait

Which first an injured Lusian will explore.

Quillinan.

Eis aqui as nóvas portas do Oriente,

Que vosoutros agora ao mundo dais,

Abrindo a porta ao vasto mar patente,

Que com tam forte peito navegais:

Mas he tambem razaō, que no ponente

De hum Lusitano hum feito inda vejais,

Que de seu Rey monstrandose agravado,

Caminho ha de fazer nunqua cuidado.

Camoens, Canto x, 138.

Thus hast thou all the regions of the East,

Which by thee giv’n unto the world is now:

Opening a way with an undaunted breast,

Through that vast sea which none before did plough.

But it is likewise reason, in the West

That of a Lusian too one action thou

Shouldst understand, who (angry with his king)

Achieves a great and memorable thing.

Fanshaw.

Contract and Agreement made by the King of Castile with Fernan Magellan for the discovery which he was to make, a copy of which he carried with him, signed by the Officers of the King of Castile, and made by his Secretary Fernan de los Cobos, and copied word for word.⁠[9]

Gav. 18, Maço 10, No. 4.

Certificate given in Seville that the commendador Fernan de Magallanes, and the bachelor Ruy Faleiro, Portuguese, presented themselves at the Audiencia on the fourth of May, of 1518, before Dr. Sancho de Matienzo, the contador Juan Lopez de Ricalde, and the factor Juan de Aranda, judges and fiscals of their Highnesses, of the India House, residing in this city, in the presence of Juan Gutierrez Calderon, clerk of their H.H., and his Notary public, on behalf of Diego de Porras, chief clerk in civil and criminal causes of the said India House; and they presented to the judges two capitulations written on paper and signed by his Highness, and one sealed with a seal of coloured wax at the back and other necessary signatures, and two royal orders (cedulas) of H.H. signed with his royal name, all written by the secretary Fernan de los Cobos, the tenour of all which, one after another, is as follows.

The King:

“Since you, Fernando de Magallanes, a knight, native of the Kingdom of Portugal, and the bachelor Ruy Faleiro, also a native of that kingdom, wish to render us a great service in the limits which belong to us in the ocean within the bounds of our demarcation, we order the following capitulation to be established with you for that purpose.”

“Firstly: That you are to go with good luck to discover the part of the ocean within our limits and demarcation, and because it would not be in reason that, while you go to do the above mentioned, that other persons should cross you to do the same, and taking into consideration that you undertake the labour of this enterprise, it is my favour and will, and I promise that for the first ten following years we will not give leave to any person to go and discover by the same road and course by which you shall go; and if anyone desire to undertake it and should ask our leave for it, before giving it, we will let you know of it in order that if you should be ready to make it in that time in which they offer, you should do so, providing an equal sufficiency and equipment, and as many ships as the other persons who may wish to make the said discovery: but, be it understood that, if we please to send to discover, or to give leave for it to such other persons as we please by way of the south-west in the parts of the islands and mainland, and all other parts which are discovered towards the part where they are to seek the strait of those seas (para buscar el estrecho de aquellas mares),⁠[10] we may order it to be done, or give leave to other persons to do it, both of the mainland by the South Sea, which is discovered, or from the island of S. Miguel, if they wish to go and discover, they may do so. Also, if the governor and people who are now, by our orders, or may in future be in the said mainland, or other of our subjects may wish to discover in the South Sea, they may do so, notwithstanding the above, or any section or clause of this capitulation. Also, you may discover in any of those parts what has not yet been discovered, so that you do not discover nor do anything in the demarcation and limits of the most serene King of Portugal, my very dear and well-beloved uncle and brother, nor to his prejudice, but only within the limits of our demarcation.”

In consideration of their good-will and services, the next paragraph grants the right to levy upon any isles or countries settled by them after the expenses have been paid, a twentieth part, with the title of our Adelantados and Governors of the said countries and isles, “you, and your sons and rightful heirs for ever, so that they remain for us and the kings that may come after us, and your sons and heirs being natives of our realms and married in them; and of this we will send you your formal letter of privileges.”

The next paragraph grants the right to invest in goods each year the value of a thousand ducats, cost price, to sell in the islands and countries, and bring back the returns, paying only a twentieth in duty to the king without other payment. This only after the return from the voyage, not during it.

Also to grant them greater favour, if more than six islands should be discovered; after six have been set apart for the king, they might mark out two from which they might take the fifteenth part of all the net profits and duties of the king after the expenses had been deducted.

Also of all the net profit that there may be for the king on the return of the fleet, after this first voyage, deducting its expense, they may take a fifth part.

“In order that you may better carry this out, I will order the equipment of five ships, two of one hundred and thirty tons each, and two others of ninety, and another of sixty tons, provided with men, victuals, and artillery; that is to say, that the said ships shall be supplied for two years, and there shall go in them two hundred and thirty-four persons for their management: amongst masters, mariners, ship-boys, and all other people that are of necessity, according to the memorial, and this we will order to be carried out by our officers in Seville.”

Also if either of them died, this agreement was to be kept with, and by the other, as it would have been kept with both if they were alive.

The next paragraph says that a factor, a treasurer, an accountant, and clerks of the said ships, shall keep the accounts of all the expenses of the fleet.

“All which I promise and plight my faith and royal word that I will order it to be observed to you, in all and for all, according as is contained above, and upon it I have ordered this present to be given, signed with my name. Dated in Valladolid, the twenty-second day of March, of five hundred and eighteen years.”

“Yo el Rey.
By order of the King,
Francisco de los Cobos.”

Another copy of the same document has the heading:—

Doña Juana and Don Carlos, her son, by the grace of God, Queen and King of Castile, Leon, Aragon, the two Sicilies, and Jerusalem, of Navarra, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, the Mallorcas, Seville, Sardinia, Cordova, Corsica, Murcia, Jaen, the Algarves, of Aljazira, Gibraltar, of the Canary Isles, of the Indies, isles and mainland of the Ocean-sea, Counts of Barcelona, Lords of Biscay and Molina, Dukes of Athens and Neopatria, Counts of Roussillon and Cerdaña, Marquises of Euristan and Gociano, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Bergoña and Brabant, Counts of Flanders and Tirol, etc.

Another letter, also dated Valladolid, March 22nd, 1518, and signed by the king, and the secretary Francisco de los Cobos, and signed at the back by Joanes Beijamanse, Fonseca Archiepiscopus, Episcopus, registered, Johan de Samana, Guillermo Chancellor, confers upon Magellan the power of deciding and executing short and summary justice by sea or land in case of suits or disputes arising in the fleet.

Another royal letter of the same date as the above orders the officers of the India House to provide Magellan with five ships, crews, provisions, etc., according to the memorial which is signed by our chancellor of Bargonha and by the Archbishop of Rosano and Bishop of Burgos; and bids them use all dispatch.

Another royal letter, dated Aranda, 17th of April, 1518, to Magellan and Ruy Faleiro, says that if, after they shall have sailed, either or both of them should die, and that they should have given to the people in the fleet instructions and orders which should be necessary for the discovery; and if they, profiting by them, should discover the isles and parts which they were going to discover, then their heirs and successors should enjoy the favours and privileges contained in the said capitulations.

The document then states that Magellan and Ruy Faleiro having presented the capitulations and letters and royal orders of his highness to the said judges, they summoned and required them to fulfil them according to their contents, and they requested this in the presence of the witnesses, Francisco de Santa Cruz, alguazil Lorenzo Pinelo, and Francisco de Collantes, porter of the Audiencia of the said House. Then the judges took the letters in their hands, and kissed them, and put them on their heads, as the orders of their king, and natural sovereign, whom may God suffer to live and reign many years; and they would answer more at length in complying with the orders. Witnesses the above-named.

After that, on Monday, at the Audiencia de la Nona, on the thirty-first day of May of 1518, the said judges, Dr. Sancho de Matienzo and the contador Juan Lopez de Ricalde, appeared before me, the said Juan Gutierrez Calderon, the above-mentioned clerk and notary, and presented an answer signed with their names to the presentation made by the Portuguese captains of the royal orders and letters. And this reply is as follows.

The said judges state, in reply, that the king’s letters order them to provide five ships, and men and provisions as may be necessary, in conformity with a memorial which the captains bring, signed by the great Chancellor of Burgundy and by the very Reverend Archbishop of Rosano and Bishop of Burgos, which said memorial up to this time has not been shown to us, and without it we cannot undertake anything; so let his Highness send us orders according to that the said despatch signed, as has been said, by the chancellor and bishop; and we are ready to fulfil the orders which his Highness sends, having at the time moneys of his Highness in our power. This they said, and gave as their answers, and signed it with their names, Doctor Matienzo, Juan Lopez de Ricalde.

Magellan and Ruy Faleiro asked from Juan Gutierres Calderon, Clerk and Notary Public, a certificate and legalised copy of what had passed for the conservation of their rights, which he accordingly gave him, dated on the said day and month (31st May) of 1518.

The letter, the text of which is given in the Appendix No. iii, the original of which appears to have fallen into the hands of the Portuguese at the Moluccas, is as follows:

The King:

Fernando de Magallam̄s and Ruy Faleiro, Knights of the Order of St. James, our captains-general of the fleet, which we command to be equipped to go to discover, and the other separate captains of the said fleet, and pilots, masters, quarter-masters, and seamen of the said fleet: Inasmuch as I know for certain, according to the much information which I have obtained from persons who have seen it by experience, that there are spices in the islands of Maluco; and, chiefly, you are going to seek them with this said fleet, and my will is that you should straightway follow the voyage to the said islands in the form and guise which I have said and commanded to you, the said Ferdinand de Magallam̄s; moreover, I command you all and each one of you that in the navigation of the said voyage you follow the opinion and determination of the said Ferdinand de Magallam̄s, in order that first and foremost, before any other part, you should go to the said islands of Maluco, without there being any shortcoming in this, because thus it is fitting for our service, and after this done, the rest that may be convenient may be sought for according to what you have been commanded, and one and all neither do nor let them do anything else in anywise, under pain of losing their goods and their persons, at our discretion. Done in Barcelona, nineteenth day of April, year of one thousand five hundred and nineteen.

I, the King.
By order of the King,
Frco de los Covos.

(Docket).—In order that those of the fleet may follow the opinion and determination of Magallan̄s, in order that first and before anything else they go to the spices.

Translation.

Letter of Alvaro da Costa, giving an Account to the King Dom Manuel of what passed with the King of Castile, to dissuade him from the discovery which he determined to order the execution of, by Fernan de Magalhaes.

Torre do Tombo. Gav. 18, Maço 8, No. 38.

Sire,

With respect to the business of Fernam de Magalhaes, I have done and laboured very much, as God knows, as I have written to you at length; and now, Xebres being ill, I have spoken on this matter very firmly to the king, laying before him all the objections that there were in it, and besides other matters, setting forth how ill-seeming and unusual a matter it was for a king to receive the vassals of another king his friend, against his will; which was a thing which was not usual amongst knights, and was held to be a great fault, and a very ill-looking thing: also that I had just before offered to him in Valladolid the services of your royal self, and kingdom and lordships, while he was already receiving these men against your pleasure; and I begged him to look well that this was not a time for causing discontent to your Highness, especially in a matter of such little importance to him, and of such little certainty, and that he had many vassals and men for making discoveries when the time came, without making use of those who came away from your Highness discontented, and that your Highness could not fail to suspect that these men would labour more to do you a dis-service than for anything else; and that his Highness had now so much to do with discovering his own kingdoms and lordships, and settling them, that such novelties ought hardly to come into his recollection, from which scandals might follow, and other things which might well be dispensed with. I also laid before him how ill this appeared in the year and period of the marriage, and increase of family duty and affection, and that it seemed to me that your Highness would feel deeply the knowledge that these men asked his leave to return, and that he did not give it; which would be two evils, the receiving them against your will, and the retaining them against their own wills: and I begged him on account of what was fitting for his service, and for that of your Highness that of two things he should do one, either give them leave to go, or lay aside this business for this year, by which much would not be lost, and such means might be taken that he might be served without your Highness receiving displeasure from the manner in which this should be done.

He, Sire, remained so surprised at what I said to him, that I was amazed; and he replied to me with the best words in the world, and that on no account did he desire that anything should be done, by which your Highness should be displeased, and many other good words; and he told me to speak to the Cardinal, and to relate everything to him. I, Sire, had already talked it all well over with the Cardinal, who is the best thing here, and this business does not seem good to him, and he promised me to labour as much as he could to avoid speaking to the king; and for this purpose they summoned the Bishop of Burgos, who is the person who upholds this business, and so two of the Council again made the king believe that in this he was not in fault towards your Highness, because he was not sending to make discoveries except within his limit, and very far off from the affairs of your Highness; and that your Highness ought not to take it ill that he made use of two of your vassals, men of little substance, while your Highness was making use of the services of many natives of Castile; and they alleged many other arguments: lastly, the Cardinal told me that the Bishop and those men used so much urgency in this, that at present the king could not take any other determination.

As long as Xebres was well I continued to set this business before him, as I have said, and much more. He puts the blame upon these Castilians who lead the king into this matter, and withal that, he will speak to the king. Some days past I entreated him much about this business, and he never took a determination, and I think that he will do likewise now. It appears to me, Sire, that your Highness might get back Fernam de Magalhāes, which would be a great buffet to these people. I do not reckon the bachelor [Ruy Faleiro] for much, for he is almost out of his mind. I took steps with Dom Jorge⁠[11] with respect to the going there of his alcaide, and he says that he will go at any rate; so, Sire, as this is in this manner, for all that, I will never desist from striving in this to the extent of my power.

Let not your Highness consider that I said much to the king in what I did say to him, because, besides what I said being all true, these people, as I say, do not feel anything, neither has the king liberty up to this time to do anything of himself, and on this account what he does (his affairs) need to be felt less. The Lord increase the life and State of your Highness for His holy service. From Saragoça, Tuesday at night, the twenty-eighth of September [1518].⁠[12]

I kiss the hands of your Highness.

Alvaro da Costa.

Letter from Sebastian Alvarez, Factor of Dom Manuel, to the King, dated Seville, July 18, 1519.

(Torre do Tombo. Corp. Chronol., Part I. Maço 13, Doc. 20.)

Sire,

On the 15th of this July I received through Chavascas, the equerry, two letters from your Highness, one of the 18th and the other of the 29th of last month, which I understood, and without recapitulating the second one, I answer your Highness.

There have now arrived together in this city, Christopher de Haro and Juan de Cartagena, the chief factor of the fleet and captain of a ship, and the treasurer and clerk of this fleet; and in the regulations which they bring there are clauses contrary to the instructions of Fernan de Magalhāes; these having been seen by the accountant and factors of the House of Trade, they seek how they can embroil the affairs of Magellan, and they were at once of the opinion of those who have recently arrived.

Together, they sent to summon Fernan de Magalhāes, and requested to know from him the order of this fleet, and the cause why there was no captain going in the fourth ship, but only Carvalho, who was a pilot and not a captain. He replied, that he wished to take the ship thus for it to carry the lantern, and for him to pass over to it from time to time.

And they said to him that he carried many Portuguese, and that it was not well that he should take so many. He answered, that he would do what he chose in the fleet without giving them any account, and that they could not do it without rendering account to him. There passed between them so many and such evil words, that the factors ordered pay to be issued to the seamen and men-at-arms, but not to any of the Portuguese whom Magellan and Ruy Faleiro have got to take with them, and at the same time a courier was sent to the Court of Castile.

As I saw the matter was begun and the season convenient for saying that which your Highness bade me say, I went to the lodgings of Magellan, where I found him arranging baskets and boxes with victuals of conserves and other things. I pressed him, feigning, that as I found him thus occupied, it seemed to me that the undertaking of his evil design was settled, and that, as this would be the last conversation I should have with him, I wished to recall to his memory how many times, as a good Portuguese and his friend, I had spoken to him, and opposed the great error which he was committing.

After begging his pardon, if he should receive from me any offence in the conversation, I called to his recollection how often I had spoken to him, and how well he had always answered me, and that, according to his replies, I had always hoped that at the end he would not go to the so great dis-service of your Highness; and that what I always told him was that he should see that this road had as many dangers as Saint Catharine’s wheel, and that he ought to leave it and take the straight road,⁠[13] and return to his native country and the favour of your Highness, where he would always receive benefits. In this conversation I introduced all the dangers which appeared to me, and the faults which he was committing. He said to me, that now he could do nothing else, for his honour’s sake, except follow his path. I said to him, that to acquire honour unduly, and when acquired by such infamy, was neither wisdom nor honour, but rather deprivation of wisdom and honour, for he might be certain that the chief Castilians of this city, when speaking of him, held him to be a vile man, of low blood, since to the dis-service of his true king and lord he accepted such an enterprise; and so much the more since it was prepared, concerted, and requested by him, that he might be sure that he was held to be a traitor in going against the State of your Highness. Here he answered me that he saw the fault he was committing, but that he hoped to observe the service of your Highness, and to do you great service by his going. I told him that whoever should praise such a speech, did not understand the matter, because, supposing that he did not touch any of the conquest of your Highness, how was he going to discover what he talked of; moreover, it was to the great detriment of the revenues of your Highness, and this would be sustained by the whole realm and by all sorts of persons: and that thought of his had been a more virtuous one which he had when he said to me that, if your Highness ordered him to return to Portugal, he would do so without any other assurance of favours, and that should your Highness not confer them, there was always Serradossa and seven ells of serge, and some beads of acorns.⁠[14] It seemed to me then that his heart was true as to what befitted his honour and conscience; that which was said was so much that it is not possible to write it.

Here, Sire, he began to give a sign, telling me to tell him more, that this did not come from myself, and that if your Highness had bidden me say it, that I should tell him, and the favour which you would confer upon him. I told him that I was not of so much tonnage as that your Highness should put me into such a business; but I said it to him as I had done on many other occasions. Here he wished to do me honour, saying that if what I had begun with him, went forward, without other persons intervening, that your Highness would be served; but that Nuño Ribeiro had told him one thing, and that it was of no importance; and Joam Mendez, another, and that these did not agree; and he told me the favour which they promised on behalf of your Highness. Here he made a great lamentation, and said that he felt it all, but that he did not know of anything by means of which he could reasonably leave a king who had shown him so much favour. I told him that to do that which he ought and not to lose his honour, and the favour which your Highness would confer upon him, would be more certain and accompanied by truer honour: and that he should weigh his coming from Portugal, which had been for a hundred reals, more or less, of allowances,⁠[15] which your Highness had not granted him, so as not to break your ordinance, and that two regulations had arrived contrary to his, and that which he had contracted with the King Don Carlos, and he would see whether that neglect weighed more, for him to go and do what he ought to do, or come here for that which he had come for.

He wondered much at my knowing so much, and here he told me the truth, and that the courier had left: all which I knew. And he told me that certainly there would be no reason for his throwing over the undertaking, unless they deprived him of anything which had been assigned him by the contract. But first he had to see what your Highness would do. I said to him, what more did he want to see than the instructions, and Ruy Faleiro, who said openly that he was not going to follow his lantern, and that he would navigate to the south, or would not go in the fleet? also, that he thought he was going as captain-major, whilst I knew that others were sent in opposition, whom he would not know of except at a time when he could not remedy his honour; and that he should not pay attention to the honey, which the Bishop of Burgos put to his lips, and that now was the fit time for him to see whether he would do it, and that he should give me a letter for your Highness, and that I from affection for him would go to your Highness to act on his behalf, because I had no message⁠[16] from your Highness to occupy myself with the like, but that I only spoke what I thought as at other times I had done. He said to me that he would not say anything to me until he saw the message which the courier brought: and with this we concluded. I will watch the service of your Highness to the full extent of my power.

At this juncture, it seems to me well that your Highness should know that it is certain that the navigation which these men hope to perform is known to the King Don Carlos, and Fernan Magellan has told me as much, and there might be some one to undertake the enterprise who would do more harm. I spoke to Ruy Faleiro on two occasions. He never answered me anything else than, how could he do anything against the king his lord, who did him such favour. To all that I said to him, he did not reply anything else. It seems to me that he is like a man deranged in his senses, and that this familiar of his has deprived him of whatever knowledge there was in him. It seems to me that, if Fernan Magellan were removed, that Ruy Faleiro would follow whatever Magellan did.

The ships of Magellan’s fleet, Sire, are five; that is to say, one of a hundred and ten tons, two of eighty tons each, and the other two of sixty tons each, a little more or less. They are very old and patched up; for I saw them when they were beached for repairs. It is eleven months since they were repaired, and they are now afloat, and they are caulking them in the water. I went on board of them a few times, and I assure your Highness that I should be ill inclined to sail in them to the Canaries, because their knees are of touchwood.

The artillery which they all carry are eighty guns, of a very small size; only in the largest ship, in which Magellan is going, there are four very good iron cannon. All the crews whom they take in all the five vessels are two hundred and thirty men. The greater number have already received their pay; only the Portuguese, who will not accept a thousand reis, and who are waiting for the courier to arrive, because Magellan told them that he would get their pay increased, and they carry provisions for two years.

The captain of the first ship is Fernan Magellan, and of the second, Ruy Faleiro; of the third, Juan de Cartagena, who is the chief factor of the fleet; of the fourth, Quesada, a dependant of the Archbishop of Seville; the fifth goes without any known captain, —— Carvalho, a Portuguese, goes in her as pilot. Here it is said that, as soon as they are out of the mouth of the river, he will put into her, as captain, Alvaro da Mesquita of Estremoz, who is here.

The Portuguese who have come here to sail are,

Other small people of the servants of these also say that they are going, of which I will make a report to your Highness, if you command it, when they go.

The fifth part of this armament is from Cristoval de Haro, who has spent on it four thousand ducats. They say here that your Highness had ordered to take from him there [in Portugal] twenty thousand cruzados of property. He gives here information about the fleets of your Highness, both of what is done, and of what is to be done. I learned that by a servant of his whom he has got there; by obtaining from him the letters, your Highness might be able to know by what means he learns these secrets.

The goods which they take are copper, quicksilver, common cloths of colours, common coloured silks, and jackets made of these silks.

It is assured that this fleet will start down the river at the end of this July; but it does not seem so to me, nor before the middle of August, even though the courier should come more quickly.

The course which it is said they are to take is straight to Cape Frio, Brasil remaining on their right hand, until they reach the line of the demarcation; from thence they are to navigate to the west and west-north-west, straight to Maluco, which land of Maluco I have seen laid down on the sphere and map, which the son of Reynell made here, which was not completed when his father came here for him; and his father finished it all, and placed these lands of Maluco; and after this pattern all the maps are made, which Diogo Ribeiro makes, and he makes the compasses, quadrants, and globes, but he does not go in the fleet, nor does he wish to do more than gain his living by his skill.⁠[17]

From this Cape Frio, until the islands of Maluco throughout this navigation, there are no lands laid down in the maps which they carry with them. Please God the Almighty that they may make such a voyage as did the Cortereals,⁠[18] and that your Highness may be at rest, and for ever be envied, as you are, by all princes.

Sire, another fleet is being prepared of three small rotten ships, in which Andres Niño goes as captain; he takes out, inside these old ships, two other small vessels built in pieces; he goes to the mainland which Pedre Ayres discovered, to the port of Larym, and from thence he is to go by land twenty leagues to the South Sea, whither he is to carry by land the newly-built ships, with the rigging of the old ones, and to fit them out on that South Sea, and with these vessels he is to discover for a thousand leagues, and not more, towards the west of the coasts of the land which is named Gataio; and in these Gil Gonzalez, the accountant of the Island of Hispaniola, is to go as captain-major, and they are going for two years. When these fleets have sailed, another of four ships will then be made to go, as it is said, on the track of Magellan; but, as this is not yet put into gear for performance, nothing certain is known: and this is arranged by Christoval do Haro. Whatever more may occur, I will make known to your Highness.

As to the news of the fleet which the King Don Carlos orders to be built to defend himself from, or to attack France, or to go to the Empire, as it is said, I excuse myself from writing of it to your Highness, since your Highness will obtain them with more certainty from Nuno Ribeiro, who is in Cartagena. But there is certain news in this city by letters, that the King of France announces that the King Don Carlos is not going to be emperor, and that he will be it. The Pope assists the King of France in an honest way. He grants to him four cardinal’s hats for him to give to whomsoever he pleases. It is said that the King of France keeps them to give to those whom the electors of the empire might wish. There it is assured that either the King of France will be emperor or else the person he may choose. I will take especial care to inform your Highness of what more happens with these fleets, although I had become cool in this matter, because it seemed to me that your Highness wished to learn it from some one else; for I saw here Nuno Ribeiro and other persons who spoke to me in a dissembling manner, and seeking to learn about me. I kiss the hands of your Highness. From Seville, the 18th of July, of 1519.

Sebastian Alvarez.

The long interval which elapsed before the example set by Magellan was followed by Drake and Van Noort (for the expedition of the Comendador Loaysa in 1527, and two others having failed, this voyage was not again attempted in those times by the Spaniards) is a proof that greater hardihood was displayed in Magellan’s voyage than in those of Columbus and Gama; and the fortitude and constancy of Magellan appear strongly from the foregoing despatches, since in addition to the physical difficulties of his enterprise, he had to struggle against intrigues, jealousy, and the alternate upbraiding and cajolery of the King of Portugal’s agents. The despatch of Sebastian Alvarez to Dom Manuel, though biassed as it naturally is, shows that whatever he and the Portuguese of that day thought of Magellan’s design, he himself did not consider that he was doing anything injurious to his king or country, and Camoens, though he repeats the hackneyed accusation of disloyalty against Magellan, yet boasts of his achievements as a lasting honour to Portugal, in the following lines:

“Fired by thy fame,⁠[19] and with his king in ire,

To match thy deeds shall Magalhaens aspire:

In all but loyalty, of Lusian soul,

No fear, no danger shall his toils controul.

Along these regions from the burning zone

To deepest south he dares the course unknown.

While to the kingdoms of the rising day,

To rival thee he holds the western way,

A land of giants shall his eyes behold,

Of camel strength, surpassing human mould:

And onward still, thy fame, his proud heart’s guide,

Haunting him unappeased, the dreary tide

Beneath the southern star’s cold gleam he braves,

And stems the whirls of land-surrounded waves.

For ever sacred to the hero’s fame

These foaming straits shall bear his deathless name.

Through these dread jaws of rock he presses on;

Another ocean’s breast, immense, unknown,

Beneath the south’s cold wings, unmeasured, wide,

Receives his vessels; through the dreary tide

In darkling shades where never man before

Heard the waves howl, he dares the nameless shore.

Thus far, O favoured Lusians, bounteous heaven

Your nation’s glories to your view has given.

What ensigns, blazing to the morn, pursue

The path of heroes, opened first by you!

Still be it your’s the first in fame to shine:

Thus shall your brides⁠[20] new chaplets still entwine,

With laurels ever new your brows enfold,

And braid your wavy locks with radiant gold.”⁠[21]

The poet of the Lusiad, who had said that the Muses sang of Gama unwillingly, here concludes his praises of Magellan with a promise to the Portuguese of ever renewed praise—a promise which will be fulfilled by posterity whenever the character and enterprise of Magellan are compared with those of his contemporaries; for whilst the cruelty and violence of Gama, and the difficulty his companions had in restraining him, were very serious defects in his character, Magellan gave many noble examples of the opposite virtues and of other qualities of a very high order. His conduct on the occasion of the shipwreck near the Maldive Islands has been already described; the clemency with which he tempered justice when he put down the mutiny in Port St. Julian—a mutiny which Sebastian Alvarez, the King of Portugal’s agent, would appear to have been privy to, if indeed he did not prepare it, shows great self-restraint, and the whole of his conduct in the islands of Sebu and Matan, where he fell, defending the retreat of his companions, is more like that of the knights errant of an earlier date, than that of his contemporaries. Pigafetta, who was with him at his death, was deeply affected by it, and recounts his many virtues and qualities in an appeal to the Grand Master of Rhodes not to allow Magellan’s memory to be lost.

Most of the captains of ships at this time, and long afterwards, were soldiers put into naval commands; but Magellan, besides being a military officer, was also an experienced and learned navigator, and Pigafetta’s Treatise of Navigation may be taken as the result of Magellan’s instruction in that art.⁠[22] The voyage of Columbus, which employed only thirty-three days out and twenty-eight homeward-bound, cannot be compared with that of Magellan, and if Columbus was as good a seaman and navigator as Magellan, yet a certain superiority must be allowed to the latter on account of his numerous military exploits in India and Africa.

I have not been able to ascertain who was Juan Serrano, who remained in the hands of the Sebu islanders after the massacre of Duarte Barbosa and his companions, and in Navarrete he is sometimes spoken of as an inhabitant of Seville and sometimes as a Portuguese. Pigafetta speaks of him as a Spaniard, but the despatch of Sebastian Alvarez leaves no doubt as to his being Portuguese, which otherwise might have been inferred from his being a compadre of Joan Carvalho. It is probable that he was a relation of Francisco Serrano, the friend and correspondent of Magellan, who died in Ternate about eight months before the arrival at Tidore of Magellan’s ships: it is also probable that he was the same Juan Serrano whose voyage with Francisco Serrano in 1512 from Malacca to the Java Seas is related in the book of Duarte Barbosa on the coasts of East Africa and Malabar (Hakluyt Society).

Sebastian de Elcano, a native of Guetaria in Biscay, had the good fortune to be in command of the Victoria on her return to Seville, and though his name is not mentioned during the voyage in any of the narratives, he reaped the principal rewards of the expedition, and on his arrival at Court, received from Charles V a pension of five hundred gold crowns, and was authorised to take for arms a globe, with the motto “Primus me circumdedisti”. Amongst other sonnets to his memory, are the following:

Por tierra y por mar profundo

Con iman y derrotero,

Un Vascongado, el primero

Dió la vuelta á todo el mundo.

Conchita.

Entraba en el breado y hueco pino,

Tomando el dulce y suspirado puerto,

Juan Sebastian del Cano, Vizcaino,

Piloto de este mundo el mas esperto,

Despuces de haber andado en su camino

Cuanto del mar se halla descubierto,

En una nave dicha la Victoria:

Hazaña digna de inmortal memoria.

Mosquera.

This volume contains six contemporary accounts of Magellan’s voyage for the circumnavigation of the globe: one was written by a Genoese pilot of the fleet; the second by a Portuguese companion of Duarte Barbosa, which has been preserved by Ramusio; the third by Antonio Pigafetta of Vicenza; and the fourth is a letter of Maximilian Transylvanus, a Secretary of the Emperor Charles V; the fifth a log book of a pilot named Francisco Albo or Alvaro; the sixth is taken from Gaspar Correa’s Lendas da India.

Of Pigafetta’s account, four manuscripts are known, three of them are in French, and one in Italian. Two of the French manuscripts are in the Bibliothèque Impériale of Paris; one of these, numbered 5,650, is on paper; the other, numbered 68, of the Lavallière collection, is on vellum, and is richly illuminated; it does not contain the Brazilian and Patagonian vocabularies given in No. 5,650, and some rather indecent details are omitted or softened down, which leads to the conclusion that this copy was the one presented by Pigafetta to the Regent, Louise of Savoy. The third French manuscript, and the most complete, was in the possession of M. Beaupré of Nancy till 1855, it then passed into the Solar collection, and in 1861 was sold for 1,650 francs to a London book-seller, and, later, was bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Libri’s sale.

M. Rd. Thomassy published a memoir in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie of Paris, September 1843, in which he examines the question whether Pigafetta composed his account of his voyage in French. He has come to a conclusion (which M. Ferdinand Denis has also adopted) in favour of the French manuscript having been originally composed by Pigafetta, and not translated from the Italian, on the grounds of its being addressed to the grand master of Rhodes, Villiers de l’Ile-Adam, who was himself a Frenchman, and that Pigafetta had recently been made a Knight of Rhodes; and that Pigafetta used the French language for the device which he set up over his paternal house in the street of la Luna in Vicenza, “Il n’y a pas de roses sans épines”; that other Italians of the time had written in French; that the Italian MS. of the Ambrosian Library of Milan, published in 1800 by Amoretti, is in bad Italian, mixed with Venetian and Spanish, so that M. Amoretti saw in it rather a copy than the original of the relation presented to the Pope or to the Grand Master; these defects M. Amoretti removed by translating them into good Italian: also that the French edition of Fabre, though stated to be a translation from the Italian, was used in 1536 to publish an Italian edition; whereas if an Italian edition had existed before, that of Fabre would not have been required. Fabre’s edition, moreover, is very imperfect; and he puts what Pigafetta says in the third person. M. Thomassy concludes, therefore, that the version of Fabre was made from some Italian resumé.

In addition to the motives urged by M. Thomassy for believing that Pigafetta himself composed the French manuscripts, there is evidence of it in the phraseology of the MSS.; had these been translations from the Italian, every word would have been translated into French, whereas, instead of that, we find a great many Italian words used, especially in the vocabularies, also some Italian idioms. It was natural that Pigafetta, if he had not the French word at command, should write down an Italian one, such as “calcagno” for “talon”.

For the same reason, I should be inclined to believe that the Ambrosian MS., with its mixture of Spanish words, was composed by Pigafetta himself, in whom such a mixture of words would be more natural after so long a voyage in a Spanish ship, than in an Italian scribe.

That Pigafetta did compose a work in Italian appears from a document in the archives of Venice, containing a petition of Pigafetta to the Doge and Council of Venice, dated August 5th, 1524, applying for leave to print his account of his circumnavigation of the globe, and to have a privilege for twenty years. This is followed by a statement that the prayer of the petition was granted by the Doge and 152 of the Council, six members of which voted against Pigafetta. The text of this document is given in the Appendix; it was communicated to me by the Geographical Society of Paris, which has published a translation of it in its bulletin of February 1869.

Until M. Amoretti published his edition of Pigafetta from the Ambrosian MS. in 1800, there never was a complete or an original Italian edition of Pigafetta; for the quarto edition of 1536 (Grenville, 6,977), without name of author or printer, is, as is mentioned in the address to the reader, a translation from the edition of Jacques Fabre. This edition of 1536 had a privilege for fourteen years; it must be by Ramusio, for the address to the reader is almost the same as his more abridged “discourse” in his collection of travels of Venice, 1550, and Venice, 1613, folio, 346 v. In Ramusio’s collection, and in the edition of 1536, Pigafetta’s voyage is preceded by the letter of Maximilian Transylvanus, Secretary of the Emperor Charles V, to the Cardinal of Salzburg. This letter of Maximilian’s is not quite the same in the two books in the division of the paragraphs; in Pigafetta’s voyage there is greater similarity, and the paragraphs are numbered identically in the edition of 1536 and in Fabre’s French edition. Ramusio says:

“Magellan’s voyage was written, with details, by Don Pietro Martire, of the Council of the Indies of the Emperor, and that he had examined all those who had survived the voyage, and returned to Seville in the year 1522; but, having sent it to be printed at Rome, in the miserable sack of that town it was lost, and it is not yet known where it is. One who saw it and read it gives testimony of it, and amongst the other things worthy of recollection which the above-named Don Pietro noted in this voyage, was that the Spaniards having navigated about three years and a month, and the greater part of them (as is the custom of those who navigate on the ocean) having noted down each day of each month, when they rejoined Spain they found they had lost one day; that is, when they reached the port of Seville, which was on the 7th of September, by the account which they had kept it was the 6th. Don Pietro having related this particularity to an excellent and rare man, Sig. Gasparo Contarino,⁠[23] a Venetian senator, who was then in Spain as ambassador to his Majesty from his Republic, and having asked him how it could be, he, as a very great philosopher, shewed him that it could not be otherwise, as they had navigated three years, always accompanying the sun, which was going westwards; and he said that the ancients had observed that those who navigated to the west greatly lengthened their day.”

This book of Don Pietro’s having been lost, says Ramusio, he thought of translating the Latin letter of Maximilian, and of adding to it the summary of a book which was written by the valiant knight of Rhodes, Messer Antonio Pigafetta, a Vicentine; and this said book was abridged and translated into French by a very learned philosopher, named Messer Jacopo Fabri, of Paris, at the instance of the most serene mother of the most Christian King Francis, Madame Louisa the Regent, to whom the aforesaid knight had made a present of one [of his books].

This French epitome by Fabre is a small octavo of seventy-six leaves, in Gothic type (Grenville, 7,065); it is without date; the title is as follows:

“Le Voyage et Navigation, faict par les Espaignolz es Isles de Mollucques, des isles quilz out trouue audict voyage, des Roys dicelles, de leur gouuernment & maniere de viure, auec plusieurs aultres choses.”

“Cum Priuilegio, ¶ on les vend a Paris en la maison de Simon de Colines, libraire iure de luniuersite de Paris, demeurāt en la rue sainct Jehan de Beauluais, a lenseigne du Soleil Dor.”

Simon de Colines, the printer, issued his last work in 1546, and his heirs are mentioned on a work of 1550.⁠[24]

In 1801, a French translation of Amoretti’s edition of Pigafetta was published by H. J. Jansen, who added a translation from the German of M. de Murr’s Notice on the Chevalier M. Behaim. In this translation, some liberties have been taken with the text; and it is to be regretted that this translation was published instead of the French text contained in the two MSS. of the Bibliothèque Impériale; these, even were they not Pigafetta’s own composition, possess a philological interest of their own.

An English translation of Pigafetta by Richard Wren, London, 1625, is mentioned in l’Art de Vérifier les Dates, depuis 1770, folio, vol. iii, p. 333. There is no copy of this in the British Museum Library.

The other contemporaneous account of Magellan’s voyage, a translation of which precedes that of Pigafetta’s account, is by a Genoese pilot. This pilot probably was named Mestre Bautista, since Barros mentions him as a Genoese who, on the death of the pilot Joan Carvalho, was charged with piloting the Trinidad, which got as far as Ternate. Correa (tom. ii, p. 632) also mentions that Mestre Joan Bautista was made captain instead of Carvalho, after he had allowed the son of the King of Luzon to escape at Borneo. Of this account, three manuscripts exist; all three are in Portuguese. From two of these MSS. a printed edition was published in the Noticias Ultramarinas, No. ii, by the Academy of History of Lisbon. The text which served for this publication was a MS. which belonged to the library of the monks of S. Bento da Saude; and it has been supplemented and annotated from another manuscript, which is in the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris, numbered 7158⁄33, a copy of which was made by Dr. Antonio Nunes de Carvalho in 1831. A third manuscript of this pilot’s narrative exists in the library of the Academy of History of Madrid, No. 30, Est. 11a, grada 2a.

After the Genoese pilot’s narrative follows that of an anonymous Portuguese taken from Ramusio.

The letter of Maximilian, the Transylvanian, follows Pigafetta’s account; this has been translated from the Latin by Mr. James Baynes, of the Printed Book Department of the British Museum. After that comes the log-book of Francisco Albo or Alvaro, translated from a MS. in the British Museum, which is a copy from a document in Simancas. This log-book has been printed, in Navarrete’s collection, apparently from the British Museum MS., and it appears to have escaped the notice of Captain Burney. It is especially valuable because it helps to fix the position of the “Unfortunate Islands”, and because it establishes that the Island of Amsterdam in the Southern Indian Ocean to the North of St. Paul’s Island, the discovery of which is usually attributed to the Dutch navigator Vlaming, in 1696, was discovered March 18th, 1522, by the Victoria, the first ship which went round the world.

There is a confusion as to the names of these two islands, which are rightly named in the Admiralty and other sea charts, but which are wrongly named in common English maps, which place St. Paul to the north of Amsterdam. The southern island is bare and arid, and the northern island has bushes and a high peak visible eighteen or twenty leagues off. Francisco Albo says this Island had no trees; but the Victoria may not have approached near enough to see the bushes, which, from the views of the island, appear to be near its base; it is clear that the Victoria approached the northern island, or Amsterdam, because not only does the latitude given by F. Albo differ from that of modern observation by only eight miles, but also because from the course steered by the Victoria on leaving this island, she must have sighted the northern island had the one discovered by her been the southern one. Plates are given of these two islands, taken from Valentyn’s Dutch work on the East Indies. A French Geographical Dictionary sets up a claim to these islands as belonging to the government of the Isle of France or Mauritius; it does not say on what grounds; but if ever they were dependencies of Mauritius, they will have passed with that island into the possession of Great Britain.

Correa’s narrative contains two details not given in any of the other accounts, viz., the warning given to Magellan at Tenerife by Diogo Barbosa of the intended mutiny; and the incident of the Portuguese ship speaking the Victoria off the Cape of Good Hope. Correa’s having been in India at the time, and relating what he heard from the Portuguese, would account for his misplacing the death of Magellan as having happened at the same time as that of Duarte Barbosa. His narrative also contains additional evidence of the violent animosity of the Portuguese against Magellan, though he himself is more favourable than other Portuguese historians to him who is one of the most renowned of their countrymen, as he undoubtedly is the greatest of ancient and modern navigators.

September 1874.

CHRONOLOGY
OF THE
FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

Magellan arrives at Seville October 20,

1518
Magellan’s fleet sails from Seville

Monday,⁠[25]

 August 10,

1519
Magellan sails from San Lucar de Barrameda,

Tuesday,

 September 20,

„
„ arrives at Tenerife September 26,

„
„ sails from Tenerife

Monday,

 October 3,

„
„ arrives at Rio de Janeiro December 13,

„
„ sails from Rio December 26,

„
„ sails from Rio de la Plata February 2,

1520
„ arrives at Port St. Julian March 31,

„
Eclipse of Sun April 17,

„
Loss of Santiago
Magellan sails from Port St. Julian August 24,

„
„ sails from river of Santa Cruz October 18,

„
„ makes Cape of the Virgins, entrance of Straits October 21,

„
Desertion of San Antonio November

„
Magellan issues from Straits into the Pacific,

Wednesday,

 November 28,

„
Magellan fetches San Pablo Island January 24,

1521
„ fetches Tiburones Island February 4,

„
„ reaches the Ladrone Islands,

Wednesday,

 March 6,

„
„ reaches Samar Island of the Philippines

Saturday,

 March 16,

„
„ reaches Mazzava Island,

Thursday,

 March 28,

„
„ arrives at Sebu Island April 7,

„
Death of Magellan at Matan

Saturday,

 April 27,

„
Burning of Conception May,

„
Arrival of San Antonio at Seville May 6,

„
Arrival of Victoria and Trinity at Tidore,

Friday,

 November 8,

„
Victoria sails from Tidore December 21,

„
„ discovers Amsterdam Island,

Tuesday,

 March 18,

1522
„ doubles the Cape of Good Hope May 18,⁠[26]

„
„ arrives at Cape Verde Islands,

Wednesday,[27]

 July 9,

„
„ arrives at San Lucar

Saturday,[27]

 September 6,

„
„ casts anchor at Seville

Monday,⁠[27]

 September 8,

„
Thanksgiving at Church of Our Lady of Victory

Tuesday,⁠[27]

 September 9,

„

CHEFE Magelliāes

Facsimile of the signature of Fernam de Magalhães, son of Pero de Magalhães, to a receipt in the Book of Moradias signed apparently in 1525, and by some erroneously supposed to be that of the navigator.

Facsimile of the signature of Duarte Barbosa, taken from his letter to D. Manuel, dated Cananor, January 12th 1513, printed in the Appendix to “Vasco da Gama”, Hakluyt Society.

Facsimile of the signature of the navigator Fernam de Magalhães, at a Council of War at Cochim, 1510.

Magellan’s signature to a letter to the Emperor Charles V. dated, Seville, October 24th 1518.

NAVIGATION AND VOYAGE WHICH FERNANDO
DE MAGALHĀES MADE FROM SEVILLE TO
MALUCO IN THE YEAR 1519.

(BY A GENOESE PILOT.)

He sailed from Seville on the 10th day of August of the said year, and remained at the bar until the 21st day of September, and as soon as he got outside, he steered to the south-west to make the island of Tenerife, and they reached the said island on the day of St. Michael, which was the 29th of September.⁠[28] Thence he made his course to fetch the Cape Verde islands, and they passed between the islands and the Cape without sighting either the one or the other. Having got as far as this neighbourhood, he shaped his course so as to make for Brazil, and as soon as they sighted the other coast of Brazil, he steered to the south-east⁠[29] along the coast as far as Cabo-frio, which is in twenty-three degrees south latitude; and from this cape he steered to the west, a matter of thirty leagues, to make the Rio de Janeiro, which is in the same latitude as Cabo-frio, and they entered the said Rio on the day of St. Lucy, which was the 13th December, in which place they took in wood, and they remained there until the first octave of Christmas, which was the 26th of December of the same year.

They sailed from this Rio de Janeiro on the 26th December, and navigated along the coast to make the Cape of St. Mary, which is in thirty-four degrees and two-thirds; as soon as they sighted it, they made their course west-north-west, thinking they would find a passage for their voyage, and they found that they had got into a great river of fresh water, to which they gave the name of river of St. Christopher, and it is in thirty-four degrees, and they remained in it till the 2nd of February, 1520.⁠[30]

He sailed from this river of St. Christopher on the 2nd of the said month of February; they navigated along the said coast, and further on to the south they discovered a point which is in the same river more to the south, to which they gave the name of Point St. Antony; it is in thirty-six degrees, hence they ran to the south-west, a matter of twenty-five leagues, and made another cape which they named Cape St. Apelonia, which is in thirty-six degrees; thence they navigated to the west-south-west to some shoals,⁠[31] which they named Shoals of the Currents, which are in thirty-nine degrees; and thence they navigated out to sea, and lost sight of land for a matter of two or three days, when they again made for the land, and they came to a bay, which they entered, and ran within it the whole day, thinking that there was an outlet for Maluco, and when night came they found that it was quite closed up, and in the same night they again stood out by the way which they had come in. This bay is in thirty-four degrees;⁠[32] they name it the island⁠[33] of St. Matthew. They navigated from this island of St. Matthew along the coast until they reached another bay, where they caught many sea-wolves and birds; to this they gave the name of “Bay of Labours;”⁠[34] it is in thirty-seven degrees; here they were near losing the flag-ship in a storm. Thence they navigated along the said coast, and arrived on the last day of March of the year 1520 at the Port of St. Julian, which is in forty-nine and one-third degrees,⁠[35] and here they wintered, and found the day a little more or less than seven hours.⁠[36]

In this port three of the ships rose up against the Captain-major, their captains saying that they intended to take him to Castile in arrest, as he was taking them all to destruction. Here, through the exertions of the said Captain-major, and the assistance and favour of the foreigners whom he carried with him, the Captain-major went to the said three ships which were already mentioned, and there the captain of one of them was killed, who was treasurer of the whole fleet, and named Luis de Mendoça; he was killed in his own ship⁠[37] by stabs with a dagger by the chief constable of the fleet, who was sent to do this by Fernando de Magalhāes in a boat with certain men. The said three ships having thus been recovered, five days later Fernando de Magalhāes ordered Gaspar de Queixada to be decapitated and quartered; he was captain of one of the ships,⁠[38] and was one of those who had mutinied.

In this port they refitted the ship. Here the captain-major made Alvaro de Mesquita, a Portuguese,⁠[39] captain of one of the ships the captain of which had been killed. There sailed from this port on the 24th of August four ships, for the smallest of the ships had been already lost;⁠[40] he had sent it to reconnoitre, and the weather had been heavy, and had cast it ashore, where all the crew had been recovered along with the merchandise, artillery and fittings of the ship. They remained in this port, in which they wintered, five months and twenty-four days,⁠[41] and they were seventy degrees less ten minutes to the southward.⁠[42]

They sailed on the 24th day of the month of August of the said year from this port of St. Julian and navigated a matter of twenty leagues along the coast, and so they entered a river which was called Santa Cruz, which is in fifty degrees,⁠[43] where they took in goods and as much as they could obtain: the crew of the lost ship were already distributed among the other ships, for they had returned by land to where Fernando de Magalhāes was, and they continued collecting the goods which had remained there during August and up to the 18th September, and there they took in water and much fish which they caught in this river; and in the other, where they wintered, there were people like savages, and the men are from nine to ten spans in height, very well made; they have not got houses, they only go about from one place to another with their flocks, and eat meat nearly raw: they are all of them archers and kill many animals with arrows, and with the skins they make clothes, that is to say, they make the skins very supple, and fashion them after the shape of the body, as well as they can, then they cover themselves with them, and fasten them by a belt round the waist. When they do not wish to be clothed from the waist upwards, they let that half fall which is above the waist, and the garment remains hanging down from the belt which they have girt round them.⁠[44] They wear shoes which cover them four inches above the ankle, full of straw inside to keep their feet warm. They do not possess any iron, nor any other ingenuity of weapons, only they make the points of their arrows with flints, and so also the knives with which they cut, and the adze and awls with which they cut and stitch their shoes and clothes. They are very agile people, and do no harm, and thus they follow their flocks: wherever night finds them there they sleep; they carry their wives along with them with all the chattels which they possess. The women are very small and carry heavy burdens on their backs; they wear shoes and clothes just like the men. Of these men they obtained three or four and brought them in the ships, and they all died except one, who went to Castile in a ship which went thither.⁠[45]

They sailed from this river of Santa Cruz on the 18th of October:⁠[46] they continued navigating along the coast until the 21st day of the same month, October, when they discovered a cape, to which they gave the name of Cape of the Virgins, because they sighted it on the day of the eleven thousand virgins; it is in fifty-two degrees, a little more or less, and from this cape a matter of two or three leagues distance, we found ourselves at the mouth of a strait.⁠[47] We sailed along the said coast within that strait which they had reached the mouth of: they entered in it a little and anchored. Fernando de Magalhāes sent to discover what there was further in, and they found three channels, that is to say, two more in a southerly direction, and one traversing the country in the direction of Maluco, but at that time this was not yet known, only the three mouths were seen. The boats went thither, and brought back word, and they set sail and anchored at these mouths of the channels, and Fernando de Magalhāes sent two ships to learn what there was within, and these ships went: one returned to the Captain-major, and the other, of which Alvaro de Mesquita was captain, entered into one of the bays which was to the south, and did not return any more. Fernan de Magalhāes seeing that it did not come back, set sail,⁠[48] and the next day he did not choose to make for the bays, and went to the south, and took another which runs north-west and south-east, and a quarter west and east. He left letters in the place from which he sailed, so that if the other ship returned, it might make the course which he left prescribed. After this they entered into the channel, which at some places has a width of three leagues, and two, and one, and in some places half a league, and he went through it as long as it was daylight, and anchored when it was night: and he sent the boats, and the ships went after the boats, and they brought news that there was an outlet, for they already saw the great sea on the other side; on which account Fernando de Magalhāes ordered much artillery to be fired for rejoicing;⁠[49] and before they went forth from this strait they found two islands, the first one larger, and the other nearer towards the outlet is the smaller one: and they went out between these islands and the coast on the southern side, as it was deeper than on the other side. This strait is a hundred leagues in length to the outlet; that outlet and the entrance are in fifty-two degrees latitude.⁠[50] They made a stay in this strait from the 21st October to the 26th of November,⁠[51] which makes thirty-six days of the said year of 1520, and as soon as they went out from the strait to sea, they made their course, for the most part, to west-north-west, when they found that their needles varied to the north-west almost two-fourths, and after they had navigated thus for many days, they found an island in a little more or less than eighteen degrees, or nineteen degrees, and also another, which was in from thirteen to fourteen degrees, and this in south latitude;⁠[52] they are uninhabited. They ran on until they reached the line, when Fernan de Magalhāes said that now they were in the neighbourhood of Maluco, as he had information that there were no provisions at Maluco, he said that he would go in a northerly direction as far as ten or twelve degrees, and they reached to as far as thirteen degrees north, and in this latitude they navigated to the west, and a quarter south-west, a matter of a hundred leagues, where on the 6th of March, 1521, they fetched two islands inhabited by many people, and they anchored at one of them, which is in twelve degrees north; and the inhabitants are people of little truth, and they did not take precautions against them until they saw that they were taking away the skiff of the flagship, and they cut the rope with which it was made fast, and took it ashore without their being able to prevent it. They gave this island the name of Thieves’ Island (dos ladrōes).⁠[53]

Fernando de Magalhāes seeing that the skiff was lost, set sail, as it was already night, tacking about until the next day; as soon as it was morning they anchored at the place where they had seen the skiff carried off to, and he ordered two boats to be got ready with a matter of fifty or sixty men, and he went ashore in person, and burned the whole village, and they killed seven or eight persons, between men and women, and recovered the skiff, and returned to the ships; and while they were there they saw forty or fifty paros⁠[54] come, which came from the same land, and brought much refreshments.⁠[55]

Fernan de Magalhāes would not make any further stay, and at once set sail, and ordered the course to be steered west, and a quarter south-west; and so they made land, which is in barely eleven degrees. This land is an island, but he would not touch at this one, and they went to touch at another further on which appeared first.⁠[56] Fernando de Magalhāes sent a boat ashore to observe the nature of the island; when the boat reached land, they saw from the ships two paráos come out from behind the point; then they called back their boat. The people of the paraos seeing that the boat was returning to the ships, turned back the paraos, and the boat reached the ships, which at once set sail for another island very near to this island, which is in ten degrees, and they gave it the name of the island of Good Signs, because they found some gold in it.⁠[57] Whilst they were thus anchored at this island, there came to them two paráos, and brought them fowls and cocoa nuts, and told them that they had already seen there other men like them, from which they presumed that these might be Lequios or Mogores;⁠[58] a nation of people who have this name, or Chiis;⁠[59] and thence they set sail, and navigated further on amongst many islands, to which they gave the name of the Valley Without Peril, and also St. Lazarus,⁠[60] and they ran on to another island twenty leagues from that⁠[61] from which they sailed, which is in ten degrees,⁠[62] and came to anchor at another island, which is named Macangor,⁠[63] which is in nine degrees; and in this island they were very well received, and they placed a cross in it.⁠[64] This king conducted them thence a matter of thirty leagues to another island named Cabo,⁠[65] which is in ten degrees, and in this island Fernando de Magalhāes did what he pleased with the consent of the country, and in one day eight hundred people became Christian, on which account Fernan de Magalhāes desired that the other kings, neighbours to this one, should become subject to this who had become Christian: and these did not choose to yield such obedience. Fernan de Magalhāes seeing that, got ready one night with his boats, and burned the villages of those who would not yield the said obedience;⁠[66] and a matter of ten or twelve days after this was done he sent to a village about half a league from that which he had burned, which is named Matam, and which is also an island, and ordered them to send him at once three goats, three pigs, three loads of rice, and three loads of millet for provisions for the ships; they replied that of each article which he sent to ask them three of, they would send to him by twos, and if he was satisfied with this they would at once comply, if not, it might be as he pleased, but that they would not give it. Because they did not choose to grant what he demanded of them, Fernan de Magalhāes ordered three boats to be equipped with a matter of fifty or sixty men,⁠[67] and went against the said place, which was on the 28th day of April, in the morning;⁠[68] there they found many people, who might well be as many as three thousand or four thousand men, who fought with such a good will that the said Fernan de Magalhāes was killed there, with six of his men,⁠[69] in the year 1521.

When Fernan de Magalhāes was dead the Christians got back to the ships, where they thought fit to make two captains and governors whom they should obey;⁠[70] and having done this, they took counsel [and decided] that the two captains should go ashore where the people had turned Christians to ask for pilots to take them to Borneo, and this was on the first day of May of the said year; when the two captains went, being agreed upon what had been said, the same people of the country who had become Christians, armed themselves against them, and whilst they reached the shore let them land in security as they had done before. Then they attacked them, and killed the two captains and twenty-six gentlemen,⁠[71] and the other people who remained got back to the boats, and returned to the ships, and finding themselves again without captains they agreed, inasmuch as the principal persons were killed, that one Joam Lopez,⁠[72] who was the chief treasurer, should be captain-major of the fleet, and the chief constable of the fleet should be captain of one of the ships; he was named Gonzalo Vaz Despinosa.⁠[73]

Having done this they set sail, and ran about twenty-five leagues with three ships, which they still possessed; they then mustered, and found that they were altogether one hundred and eight men⁠[74] in all these three ships, and many of them were wounded and sick, on which account they did not venture to navigate the three ships, and thought it would be well to burn one of them—the one that should be most suitable for that purpose⁠[75]—and to take into the two ships those that remained: this they did out at sea, out of sight of any land. While they did this many paraos came to speak to them; and navigating amongst the islands, for in that neighbourhood there are a great many, they did not understand one another, for they had no interpreter, for he had been killed with Fernan de Magalhāes. Sailing further on amongst islets they came to anchor at an island which is named Carpyam,[4] where there is gold enough, and this island is in fully eight degrees.

Whilst at anchor in this port of Capyam,⁠[76] they had speech with the inhabitants of the island, and made peace with them, and Carvalho, who was captain-major, gave them the boat of the ship which had been burnt: this island has three⁠[77] islets in the offing; here they took in some refreshments, and sailed further on to west south-west, and fell in with another island, which is named Caram, and is in eleven degrees; from this they went on further to west south-west,⁠[78] and fell in with a large island, and ran along the coast of this island to the north-east,⁠[79] and reached as far as nine degrees and a half,⁠[80] where they went ashore one day, with the boats equipped to seek for provisions, for in the ships there was now not more than for eight days. On reaching shore the inhabitants would not suffer them to land, and shot at them with arrows of cane hardened in the fire, so that they returned to the ships.

Seeing this, they agreed to go to another island, where they had had some dealings, to see if they could get some provisions. Then they met with a contrary wind, and going about a league in the direction in which they wished to go, they anchored, and whilst at anchor they saw that people on shore were hailing them to go thither; they went there with the boats, and as they were speaking to those people by signs, for they did not understand each other otherwise, a man at arms, named Joam de Campos, told them to let him go on shore, since there were no provisions in the ships, and it might be that they would obtain some means of getting provisions; and that if the people killed him, they would not lose much with him, for God would take thought of his soul; and also if he found provisions, and if they did not kill him, he would find means for bringing them to the ships: and they thought well of this. So he went on shore, and as soon as he reached it, the inhabitants received him, and took him into the interior the distance of a league, and when he was in the village all the people came to see him, and they gave him food, and entertained him well, especially when they saw that he ate pig’s flesh; because in this island they had dealings with the Moors of Borneo, and because the country and people were greedy, they made them neither eat pigs nor bring them up in the country. This country is called Dyguasam,⁠[81] and is in nine degrees.

The said Christian seeing that he was favoured and well treated by the inhabitants, gave them to understand by his signs that they should carry provisions to the ships, which would be well paid for. In the country there was nothing except rice not pounded. Then the people set to pounding rice all the night, and when it was morning they took the rice and the said Christian, and came to the ships, where they did them great honour, and took in the rice and paid them, and they returned on shore. This man being already set on shore, inhabitants of another village, a little further on, came to the ships and told them to go to their village, and that they would give them much provisions for their money; and as soon as the said man whom they had sent arrived, they set sail and went to anchor at the village of those who had come to call them, which was named Vay Palay Cucara Canbam,⁠[82] where Carvalho made peace with the king of the country, and they settled the price of the rice, and they gave them two measures of rice which weighed one hundred and fourteen pounds⁠[83] for three fathoms of linen stuff of Britanny; they took there as much rice as they wanted, and goats and pigs, and whilst they were at this place there came a Moor, who had been in the village of Dyguaçam,⁠[84] which belongs to the Moors of Borneo, as has been said above, and after that he went to his country.

While they were at anchor near this village of Diguaçam,⁠[84] there came to them a parao in which there was a negro named Bastiam, who asked for a flag and a passport for the governor of Diguaçam, and they gave him all this and other things as a present. They asked the said Bastiam, who spoke Portuguese sufficiently well, since he had been in Maluco, where he became a Christian, if he would go with them and shew them Borneo; he said he would very willingly, and when the departure arrived he hid himself, and seeing that he did not come, they set sail from this port of Diguaçam on the 21st day of July⁠[85] to seek for Borneo. As they set sail there came to them a parao, which was coming to the port of Diguaçam, and they took it, and in it they took three Moors, who said they were pilots, and that they would take them to Borneo.

Having got these Moors, they steered along this island to the south-west, and fell in with two islands at its extremity, and passed between them; that on the north side is named Bolyna, and that on the south Bamdym.⁠[86] Sailing to the west south-west a matter of fourteen leagues, they fell in with a white bottom, which was a shoal below the water, and the black men they carried with them told them to draw near to the coast of the island, as it was deeper there, and that was more in the direction of Borneo, for from that neighbourhood the island of Borneo could already be sighted. This same day they reached and anchored at some islands, to which they gave the name of islets of St. Paul, which was a matter of two and a half or three leagues from the great island of Borneo, and they were in about seven degrees at the south side of these islands. In the island of Borneo there is an exceedingly great mountain, to which they gave the name of Mount St. Paul; and from thence they navigated along the coast of Borneo to the south-west, between an island and the island of Borneo itself; and they went forward on the same course and reached the neighbourhood of Borneo,⁠[87] and the Moors whom they had with them told them that there was Borneo, and the wind did not suffer them to arrive thither, as it was contrary. They anchored at an island which is there, and which may be eight leagues from Borneo.

Close to this island is another which has many myrobolans, and the next day they set sail for the other island, which is nearer to the port of Borneo; and going along thus they saw so many shoals that they anchored, and sent the boats ashore in Borneo, and they took the aforesaid Moorish pilots on shore, and there went a Christian with them; and the boats went to set them on land, from whence they had to go to the city of Borneo, which was three leagues off, and there they were taken before the Shahbender of Borneo, and he asked what people they were, and for what they came in the ships; and they were presented to the King of Borneo with the Christian. As soon as the boats had set the said men on shore, they sounded in order to see if the ships could come in closer: and during this they saw three junks which were coming from the port of Borneo from the said city out to sea, and as soon as they saw the ships they returned inshore: continuing to sound, they found the channel by which the port is entered; they then set sail, and entered this channel, and being within the channel they anchored, and would not go further in until they received a message from the shore, which arrived next day with two paraos: these carried certain swivel guns of metal, and a hundred men in each parao, and they brought goats and fowls, and two cows, and figs, and other fruit, and told them to enter further in opposite the islands which were near there, which was the true berth; and from this position to the city there might be three or four leagues. Whilst thus at anchor they established peace, and settled that they should trade in what there was in the country, especially wax, to which they answered that they would willingly sell all that there was in the country for their money. This port of Borneo is in eight degrees.

For the answer thus received from the King they sent him a present by Gonzalo Mendes Despinosa,⁠[88] captain of the ship Victoria, and the King accepted the present, and gave to all of them China stuffs: and when there had passed twenty or twenty-three days that they were there trading with the people of the island, and had got five men on shore in the city itself, there came to anchor at the bar, close to them, five junks, at the hour of vespers, and they remained there that evening and the night until next day in the morning, when they saw coming from the city two hundred paraos, some under sail, others rowing. Seeing in this manner the five junks and the paraos, it seemed to them that there might be treachery, and they set sail for the junks, and as soon as the crews of the junks saw them under sail, they also set sail and made off where the wind best served them; and they overhauled one of the junks with the boats, and took it with twenty-seven men;⁠[89] and the ships went and anchored abreast of the island of the Myrololans, with the junk made fast to the poop of the flagship, and the paraos returned to shore, and when night came there came on a squall from the west in which the said junk went to the bottom alongside the flagship, without being able to receive any assistance from it.⁠[90]

Next day in the morning they saw a sail, and went to it and took it; this was a great junk in which the son of the King of Lucam came as captain, and had with him ninety men, and as soon as they took them they sent some of them to the King of Borneo; and they sent him word by these men to send the Christians whom they had got there, who were seven men, and they would give him all the people whom they had taken in the junk; on which account the King sent two men of the seven whom he had got there in a parao, and they again sent him word to send the five men who still remained, and they would send all the people whom they had got from the junk. They waited two days for the answer, and there came no message; then they took thirty men from the junk, and put them into a parao belonging to the junk, and sent them to the King of Borneo, and set sail with fourteen men of those they had taken and three women; and they steered along the coast of the said island to the north-east, returning backwards; and they again passed between the islands and the great island of Borneo, where the flagship grounded on a point of the island, and so remained more than four hours, and the tide turned and it got off, by which it was seen clearly that the tide was of twenty-four hours.⁠[91]

Whilst making the aforesaid course the wind shifted to north-east, and they stood out to sea, and they saw a sail coming, and the ships anchored, and the boats went to it and took it; it was a small junk and carried nothing but cocoa-nuts; and they took in water and wood, and set sail along the coast of the island to the north-east, until they reached the extremity of the said island, and met with another small island, where they overhauled the ships. They arrived at this island on the day of our Lady of August, and in it they found a very good point for beaching the ships, and they gave it the name of Port St. Mary of August, and it is in fully seven degrees.

As soon as they had taken these precautions they set sail and steered to the south-west until they sighted the island which is named Fagajam,⁠[92] and this is a course of thirty-eight to forty leagues: and as soon as they sighted this island they steered to the south-west, and again made an island which is called Seloque,⁠[93] and they had information that there were many pearls there: and when they had already sighted that island the wind shifted to a head-wind, and they could not fetch it by the course they were sailing, and it seemed to them that it might be in six degrees. This same night they arrived at the island of Quipe, and ran along it to the south-east, and passed between it and another island called Tamgym,⁠[94] and always running along the coast of the said island, and going thus, they fell in with a parao laden with sago in loaves, which is bread made of a tree which is named cajare,⁠[95] which the people of that country eat as bread. This parao carried twenty-one men, and the chief of them had been in Maluco in the house of Francisco Serram, and having gone further along this island they arrived in sight of some islands which are named Semrryn;⁠[96] they are in five degrees, a little more or less. The inhabitants of this land came to see the ships, and so they had speech of one another, and an old man of these people told them that he would conduct them to Maluco.

In this manner, having fixed a time with the old man, an agreement was made with him, and they gave him a certain price for this; and when the next day came, and they were to depart, the old man intended to escape, and they understood it, and took him and others who were with him, and who also said that they knew pilot’s work, and they set sail; and as soon as the inhabitants saw them go they fitted out to go after them: and of these paraos there did not reach the ships more than two, and these reached so near that they shot arrows into the ships, and the wind was fresh⁠[97] and they could not come up with them. At midnight of that day they sighted some islands, and they steered more towards them; and next day they saw land, which was an island; and at night following that day they found themselves very close to it, and when night fell the wind calmed and the currents drew them very much inshore; there the old pilot cast himself into the sea, and betook himself to land.

Sailing thus forward, after one of the pilots had fled, they sighted another island and arrived close to it, and another Moorish pilot said that Maluco was still further on, and navigating thus, the next day in the morning they sighted three high mountains, which belonged to a nation of people whom they called the Salabos;⁠[98] and then they saw a small island where they anchored to take in some water, and because they feared that in Maluco they would not be allowed to take it in; and they omitted doing so, because the Moorish pilot told them that there were some four hundred⁠[99] men in that island, and that they were all very bad, and might do them some injury, as they were men of little faith; and that he would give them no such advice as to go to that island; and also because Maluco, which they were seeking, was now near, and that its kings were good men, who gave a good reception to all sorts of men in their country; and while still in this neighbourhood⁠[100] they saw the islands themselves of Maluco, and for rejoicing they fired all the artillery, and they arrived at the island⁠[101] on the 8th of November of 1521, so that they spent from Seville to Maluco two years, two months and twenty-eight days, for they sailed on the 10th of August of 1519.⁠[102]

As soon as they arrived at the island of Tydor,⁠[103] which is in half a degree, the King thereof did them great honour, which could not be exceeded: there they treated with the King for their cargo, and the King engaged to give them a cargo and whatever there was in the country for their money, and they settled to give for the bahar of cloves fourteen ells of yellow cloth of twenty-seven tem,⁠[104] which are worth in Castile a ducat the ell; of red cloth of the same kind ten ells; they also gave thirty ells of Brittany linen cloth, and for each of these quantities they received a bahar of cloves, likewise for thirty knives eight bahars:⁠[105] having thus settled all the above mentioned prices, the inhabitants of the country gave them information that further on, in another island near, there was a Portuguese man. This island might be two leagues distant, and it was named Targatell;⁠[106] this man was the chief person of Maluco; there we now have got a fortress.⁠[107] They then wrote letters to the said Portuguese, to come and speak with them, to which he answered that he did not dare, because the King of the country forbade it; that if they obtained permission from the King he would come at once; this permission they soon got, and the Portuguese came to speak with them.⁠[108] They gave him an account of the prices which they had settled, at which he was amazed, and said that on that account the King had ordered him not to come, as they did not know the truth about the prices of the country; and whilst they were thus taking in cargo there arrived the King of Baraham,⁠[109] which is near there, and said that he wished to be a vassal of the King of Castile, and also that he had got four hundred bahars of cloves, and that he had sold it to the King of Portugal, and that they had bought it, but that he had not yet delivered it, and if they wished for it, he would give it all to them; to which the captains answered that if he brought it to them, and came with it, they would buy it, but otherwise not. The King, seeing that they did not wish to take the cloves, asked them for a flag and a letter of safe conduct, which they gave him, signed by the captains of the ships.

While they were thus waiting for the cargo, it seemed to them, from the delay in the delivery, that the King was preparing some treachery against them, and the greater part of the ships’ crews made an uproar and told the captains to go, as the delays which the King made were for nothing else than treachery: as it seemed to them all that it might be so, they were abandoning everything, and were intending to depart; and being about to unfurl the sails, the King, who had made the agreement with them, came to the flagship and asked the captain why he wanted to go, because that which he had agreed upon with him he intended to fulfil it as had been settled. The captain replied that the ships’ crews said they should go and not remain any longer, as it was only treachery that was being prepared against them. To this the King answered that it was not so, and on that account he at once sent for his Koran, upon which he wished to make oath that nothing such should be done to them. They at once brought him this Koran, and upon it he made oath, and told them to rest at ease with that. At this the crews were set at rest, and he promised them that he would give them their cargo by the 15th December 1521, which he fulfilled within the said time without being wanting in anything.

When the two ships were already laden and about to unfurl their sails, the flagship⁠[110] sprung a large leak, and the King of the country learning this, he sent them twenty-five divers⁠[111] to stop the leak, which they were unable to do. They settled that the other ship should depart, and that this one should again discharge all its cargo, and unload it; and as they could not stop the leak, that they [the people of the country] should give them all that they might be in need of. This was done, and they discharged the cargo of the flagship; and when the said ship was repaired, they took in her cargo, and decided on making for the country of the Antilles, and the course from Maluco to it was 2,000 leagues a little more or less. The other ship, which set sail first, left on the 21st of December of the said year, and went out to sea for Timor, and made its course behind Java, 2,055 leagues to the Cape of Good Hope.⁠[112]

They refitted the ship, and took in the cargo in four months and sixteen days: they sailed on the 6th of April of the year 1522, and took their course for the mainland of the Antilles by the strait through which they had come; and at first they navigated to the North, until they came out from the islands of Ternate and Tymor;⁠[113] afterwards they navigated along the island of Betachina, ten or eleven leagues to the North-east;⁠[114] after that they steered about twenty leagues to the North-east, and so arrived at an island, which is named Doyz,⁠[115] and is in three and a half degrees South latitude at its South-eastern side: from this place they navigated three or four leagues eastwards, and sighted two islands, one large and the other small; the large one was named Porquenampello,⁠[116] and passed between it and Batechina, which lay on their starboard side. They reached a cape, to which they gave the name Cape of Palms, because they sighted it on the vigil of Palms. This cape is in two and a half degrees: thence they steered to the South to make Quimar,⁠[117] which is land belonging to the King of Tydor, and the said King had ordered that they should receive whatever there was in the country for their money, and there they took pigs and goats, and fowls and cocoa-nuts and hava:⁠[118] they remained in this port eight or nine days. This port of Camarfya⁠[119] is in one and a quarter degree.

They sailed from this port on the 20th⁠[120] of April, and steered for about seventeen leagues,⁠[121] and came out of the channel of the island of Batechina and the island Charam;⁠[122] and as soon as they were outside, they saw that the said island of Charam⁠[123] ran to the South-east a good eighteen or twenty leagues, and it was not their course, for their direction was to the East⁠[124] and a quarter North-east; and they navigated in the said course some days, and always found the winds very contrary for their course. On the 3rd of May they made two small islands, which might be in five degrees more or less, to which they gave the name of islands of St. Antony.⁠[125] Thence they navigated further on to the North-east, and arrived at an island which is named Cyco,⁠[126] which is in fully nineteen degrees, and they made this island on the 11th of July.⁠[127] From this island they took a man, whom they carried away with them, and they navigated further on, tacking about with contrary winds, until they reached forty-two degrees North latitude.

When they were in this neighbourhood, they were short of bread, wine, meat, and oil; they had nothing to eat only water and rice, without other provisions; and the cold was great, and they had not sufficient covering, the crews began to die, and seeing themselves in this state, they decided on putting back in the direction of Maluco, which they at once carried into effect. When at a distance of five hundred leagues from it, they desired to make the island which is named Quamgragam,⁠[128] and as they sighted it at night, they did not choose to make it; they waited thus till it dawned next day, and they were unable to fetch the said island; and the man whom they carried with them, and whom before they had taken from that island, told them to go further on, and they would make three islands, where there was a good port, and this which the black man said, was in order to run away at them, as indeed he did run away. On arriving at these three islands, they fetched them with some danger, and anchored in the middle of them in fifteen fathoms. Of these islands, the largest was inhabited by twenty persons between men and women: this island is named Pamo;⁠[129] it is in twenty degrees more or less: here they took in rain-water, as there was no other in the country. In this island the black man⁠[130] ran away. Thence they sailed to make the land of Camafo, and as soon as they sighted it they had calms, and the currents carried them away from the land; and afterwards they had a little wind, and they made for the land, but could not fetch it; they then went to anchor between the islands of Domi and Batechina, and while at anchor, a parao passed by them with some men who belonged to the King of an island named Geilôlo,⁠[131] and they gave them news that the Portuguese were in Maluco making a fortress. Learning this, they at once sent the clerk of the ship with certain men⁠[132] to the captain-major of those Portuguese, who was named Antonio de Bryto, to ask him to come and bring the ship to the place where they were; because the crew of the ship had mostly died, and the rest were sick, and could not navigate the ship. As soon as Antonio de Bryto saw the letter and message, he sent down Dom Gonzalo⁠[133] Amriquiz, captain of the ship Sam Jorge,⁠[134] and also a fusta with some country parāos, and they went thus in search of the ship, and having found it, they brought it to the fortress, and whilst they were discharging its cargo, there came a squall from the north,⁠[135] which cast it on shore. Where this ship turned to put back to Maluco was a little more or less than 1050 or 1100 leagues from the island.

This was transcribed from the paper-book of a Genoese pilot, who came in the said ship, who wrote all the voyage as it is here. He went to Portugal in the year 1524 with Dom Amriqui de Menezes.⁠[136] Thanks be to God.

NARRATIVE OF A PORTUGUESE, COMPANION OF
ODOARDO BARBOSA, IN THE SHIP VICTORIA,
IN THE YEAR 1519. (From “Ramusio”.)

In the name of God and of good salvation. We departed from Seville with five ships on the tenth of August, in the year 1519, to go and discover the Molucca Islands. We commenced our voyage from San Lucar for the Canary Islands, and sailed south-west 960 miles, where we found ourselves at the island of Tenerife, in which is the harbour of Santa Cruz in twenty-eight degrees of north latitude. And from the island of Tenerife we sailed southwards 1680 miles, when we found ourselves in four degrees of north latitude. From these four degrees of north latitude we sailed south-west, until we found ourselves at the Cape of Saint Augustin, which is in eight degrees of south latitude, having accomplished 1200 miles. And from Cape Saint Augustin we sailed south and by south-west 864 miles, where we found ourselves in twenty degrees of south latitude. From twenty degrees of south latitude, being at sea, we sailed 1500 miles south-west, when we found ourselves near the river, whose mouth is 108 miles wide, and lies in thirty-five degrees of the said south latitude. We named it the river of Saint Christopher. From this river we sailed 1638 miles south-west by west, where we found ourselves at the point of the Lupi Marini, which is in forty-eight degrees of south latitude. And from the point of the Lupi Marini we sailed south-west 350 miles, where we found ourselves in the harbour of Saint Julian, and stayed there five months waiting for the sun to return towards us, because in June and July it appeared for only four hours each day. From this harbour of Saint Julian, which is in fifty degrees, we departed on the 24th of August, 1520, and sailed westward a hundred miles, where we found a river to which we gave the name of River of Santa Cruz, and there we remained until the 18th of October. This river is in fifty degrees. We departed thence on the 18th of October, and sailed along the coast 378 miles south-west by west, where we found ourselves in a strait, to which we gave the name Strait of Victoria, because the ship Victoria was the first that had seen it: some called it the Strait of Magalhaens, because our captain was named Fernando de Magalhaens. The mouth of this strait is in fifty-three degrees and a half, and we sailed through it 400 miles to the other mouth, which is in the same latitude of fifty-three degrees and a half. We emerged from this strait on the 27th of November, 1520, and sailed between west and north-west 9858 miles, until we found ourselves upon the equinoctial line. In this course we found two uninhabited islands, the one of which was distant from the other 800 miles. To the first we gave the name of Saint Peter, and to the other the island of the Tiburones. Saint Peter is in eighteen degrees, the island of the Tiburones in fourteen degrees of south latitude. From the equinoctial line we sailed between west and north-west 2046 miles, and discovered several islands between ten and twelve degrees of north latitude. In these islands there were many naked people as well men as women, we gave the islands the name of the Ladrones, because the people had robbed our ship: but it cost them very dear. I shall not relate further the course that we made, because we lengthened it not a little. But I will tell you that to go direct from these islands of the Ladrones to the Moluccas it is necessary to sail south-west a 1000 miles, and there occur many islands, to which we gave the name of the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus. A little further there are the islands of the Moluccas, of which there are five, namely, Ternate, Tidor, Molir, Machiam, Bachian. In Ternate the Portuguese had built a very strong castle before I left. From the Molucca Islands to the islands of Banda there are three hundred miles, and one goes thither by different courses, because there are many islands in between, and one must sail by sight. In these islands until you reach the islands of Banda, which are in four degrees and a half of south latitude, there are collected from thirty to forty thousand cantaros of nutmegs annually, and there is likewise collected much mastic; and if you wish to go to Calicut you must always sail amidst the islands as far as Malacca, which is distant from the Moluccas 2000 miles, and from Malacca to Calicut are 2000 miles more. From Calicut to Portugal there are 14,000 miles. If from the islands of Banda you wish to round the Cape of Good Hope, you must sail between west and south-west until you find yourself in thirty-four degrees and a half of south latitude, and from there you sail westward, always keeping a good look-out at the prow not to run aground on the said Cape of Good Hope or its neighbourhood. From this Cape of Good Hope one sails north-west by west 2400 miles, and there finds the island of Saint Helena, where Portuguese ships go to take in water and wood, and other things. This island is in sixteen degrees south latitude, and there is no habitation except that of a Portuguese man, who has but one hand and one foot, no nose, and no ears, and is called Fornam-lopem.

Sailing 1600 miles north-west from this island of Saint Helena you will find yourself upon the equinoctial line: from which line you will sail 3534 miles north-west by north, until you find yourself in thirty-nine degrees north latitude. And if you wish to go from these thirty-nine degrees to Lisbon you will sail 950 miles eastward, where you will find the islands of the Azores, of which there are seven, namely, Terceira, San Jorge, Pico, Fayal, Graciosa, on the east, the island of Saint Michael, and the island of Saint Mary, all are between thirty-seven and forty degrees of north latitude. From the island of Terceira you will then sail eastward 1100 miles, where you will find yourself on the land of Lisbon.

NAVIGATION ET DESCOUUREMENT DE LA
INDIE SUPÉRIEURE FAICTE PAR MOY
ANTHOYNE PIGAPHETA, VINCENTIN,
CHEVALLIER DE RHODES.

Anthony Pigapheta, Patrician of Vicenza, and Knight of
Rhodes, to the very illustrious and very excellent
Lord Philip de Villers Lisleaden, the famous
Grand Master of Rhodes, his most
respected Lord.⁠[137]

Since there are several curious persons (very illustrious and very reverend lord) who not only are pleased to listen to and learn the great and wonderful things which God has permitted me to see and suffer in the long and perilous navigation, which I have performed (and which is written hereafter), but also they desire to learn the methods and fashions of the road which I have taken in order to go thither, [and who do] not grant firm belief to the end unless they are first well advised and assured of the commencement. Therefore, my lord, it will please you to hear that finding myself in Spain in the year of the Nativity of our Lord, one thousand five hundred and nineteen, at the court of the most serene king⁠[138] of the Romans, with the reverend lord, Mons. Francis Cheregato,⁠[139] then apostolic proto-notary, and ambassador of the Pope Leon the Tenth, who, through his virtue, afterwards arrived at the bishoprick of Aprutino and the principality of Theramo, and knowing both by the reading of many books and by the report of many lettered and well-informed persons who conversed with the said proto-notary, the very great and awful things of the ocean, I deliberated, with the favour of the Emperor and the above-named lord, to experiment and go and see with my eyes a part of those things. By which means I could satisfy the desire of the said lords, and mine own also. So that it might be said that I had performed the said voyage, and seen well with my eyes the things hereafter written.

Now in order to decypher the commencement of my voyage (very illustrious lord); having heard that there was in the city of Seville, a small armade to the number of five ships, ready to perform this long voyage, that is to say, to find the islands of Maluco, from whence the spices come: of which armade the captain-general was Fernand de Magaglianes, a Portuguese gentleman, commander of St. James of the Sword, who had performed several voyages in the ocean sea (in which he had behaved very honourably as a good man), I set out with many others in my favour from Barcelona, where at the time the Emperor was, and came by sea as far as Malaga, and thence I went away by land until I arrived at the said city of Seville. There I remained for the space of three months, waiting till the said armade was in order and readiness to perform its voyage. And because (very illustrious lord) that on the return from the said voyage, on going to Rome towards the holiness of our Holy Father,⁠[140] I found your lordship at Monterosa,⁠[141] where of your favour you gave me a good reception, and afterwards gave me to understand that you desired to have in writing the things which God of His grace had permitted me to see in my said voyage; therefore to satisfy and accede to your desire,⁠[142] I have reduced into this small book the principal things, in the best manner that I have been able.

Finally (very illustrious lord), after all provisions had been made, and the vessels were in order, the captain-general, a discreet and virtuous man, careful of his honour, would not commence his voyage without first making some good and wholesome ordinances, such as it is the good custom to make for those who go to sea. Nevertheless he did not entirely declare the voyage which he was going to make, so that his men should not from amazement and fear be unwilling to accompany him on so long a voyage, as he had undertaken in his intention. Considering the great and impetuous storms⁠[143] which are on the ocean sea, where I wished to go; and for another reason also, that is to say that the masters and captains of the other ships of his company did not love him: of this I do not know the reason, except by cause of his, the captain-general, being Portuguese, and they were Spaniards or Castilians, who for a long time have been in rivalry and ill will with one another. Notwithstanding this all were obedient to him. He made his ordinances such as those which follow, so that during the storms at sea, which often come on by night and day, his ships should not go away and separate from one another. These ordinances he published and made over in writing to each master of the ships, and commanded them to be observed and inviolably kept, unless there were great and legitimate excuses, and appearance of not having been able to do otherwise.

Firstly, the said captain-general willed that the vessel in which he himself was should go before the other vessels, and that the others should follow it; therefore he carried by night on the poop of his ship a torch or faggot of burning wood, which they called farol, which burned all the night, so that his ships should not lose sight of him. Sometimes he set a lantern, sometimes a thick cord of reeds⁠[144] was lighted, which was called trenche.⁠[145] This is made of reeds well soaked in the water, and much beaten, then they are dried in the sun or in the smoke, and it is a thing very suitable for such a matter. When the captain had made one of his signals to his people, they answered in the same way. In that manner they knew whether the ships were following and keeping together or not. And when he wished to take a tack on account of the change of weather, or if the wind was contrary, or if he wished to make less way, he had two lights shown; and if he wished the others to lower their small sail,⁠[146] which was a part of the sail attached to the great sail, he showed three lights. Also by the three lights, notwithstanding that the wind was fair for going faster, he signalled that the studding sail should be lowered; so that the great sail might be quicker and more easily struck and furled when bad weather should suddenly set in, on account of some squall⁠[147] or otherwise. Likewise when the captain wished the other ships to lower the sail he had four lights shown, which shortly after he had put out and then showed a single one, which was a signal that he wished to stop there and turn, so that the other ships might do as he did. Withal, when he discovered any land, or shoal, that is to say, a rock at sea, he made several lights be shown or had a bombard fired off. If he wished to make sail, he signalled to the other ships with four lights, so that they should do as he did, and follow him. He always carried this said lantern suspended to the poop of his vessel. Also when he wished the studding sail to be replaced with the great sail, he showed three lights. And to know whether all the ships followed him and were coming together, he showed one light only besides the fanol, and then each of the ships showed another light, which was an answering signal.

Besides the above-mentioned ordinances for carrying on seamanship as is fitting, and to avoid the dangers which may come upon those who do not keep watch, the said captain, who was expert in the things required for navigation, ordered that three watches should be kept at night. The first was at the beginning of the night, the second at midnight, and the third towards break of day, which is commonly called La diane, otherwise the star of the break of day. Every night these watches were changed; that is to say, he who had kept the first watch, on the following day kept the second, and he who had kept the second kept the third; and so on they changed continually every night. The said captain commanded that his regulations both for the signals and the watches should be well observed, so that their voyage should be made with greater security. The crews of this fleet were divided into three companies; the first belonged to the captain, the second to the pilot or nochier, and the third to the master. These regulations having been made, the captain-general deliberated on sailing, as follows.

Monday, the day of St. Laurence, the 10th of August, in the year above mentioned, the fleet, provided with what was necessary for it, and carrying crews of different nations, to the number of two hundred and thirty-seven men in all the five ships, was ready to set sail from the mole of Seville; and firing all the artillery, we made sail only on the foremast, and came to the end of a river named Betis, which is now called Guadalcavir. In going along this river we passed by a place named Gioan de Farax, where there was⁠[148] a large population of Moors, and there there was a bridge over the river by which one went to Seville. This bridge was ruined, however there had remained two columns which are at the bottom of the water, on which account it is necessary to have people of the country of experience and knowledge to point out the convenient spot for safely passing between these two columns, from fear of striking against them. Besides that, it is necessary in order to pass safely by this bridge and by other places on this river, that the water should be rather high. After having passed the two columns we came to another place named Coria, and passing by many little villages lying along the said river, at last we arrived at a castle, which belongs to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, named St. Lucar, where there is a port from which to enter the ocean sea. It is entered by the east wind and you go out by the west wind. Near there is the cape of St. Vincent, which, according to cosmography, is in thirty-seven degrees of latitude, at twenty miles distance from the said port; and from the aforesaid town to this port by the river there are thirty-five or forty miles. A few days afterwards the captain-general came along the said river with his boat, and the masters of the other ships with him, and we remained some days in this port to supply the fleet with some necessary things. We went every day to hear mass on shore, at a church named Our Lady of Barrameda, towards St. Lucar. There the captain commanded that all the men of the fleet should confess before going on any further, in which he himself showed the way to the others. Besides he did not choose that anyone should bring any married woman, or others to the ships, for several good considerations.

Tuesday, the 20th September of the said year,⁠[149] we set sail from St. Lucar, making the course of the south-west otherwise named Labeiche;⁠[150] and on the twenty-sixth of the said month we arrived at an island of great Canaria, named Teneriphe, which is in twenty-eight degrees latitude; there we remained three days and a half to take in provisions and other things which were wanted. After that we set sail thence and came to a port named Monterose, where we sojourned two days to supply ourselves with pitch, which is a thing necessary for ships. It is to be known that among the other isles which are at the said great Canaria, there is one, where not a drop of water is to be found proceeding from a fountain or a river, only once a day at the hour of midday, there descends a cloud from the sky which envelops a large tree which is in this island, and it falls upon the leaves of the tree, and a great abundance of water distils from these leaves, so that at the foot of the tree there is so large a quantity of water that it seems as if there was an ever-running fountain. The men who inhabit this place are satisfied with this water; also the animals, both domestic and wild, drink of it.

Monday, the third of October of the said year, at the hour of midnight, we set sail, making the course auster, which the levantine mariners call Siroc,⁠[151] entering into the ocean sea. We passed the Cape Verd and the neighbouring islands in fourteen-and-a-half degrees, and we navigated for several days by the coast of Guinea or Ethiopia; where there is a mountain called Sierra Leona, which is in eight degrees latitude according to the art and science of cosmography and astrology. Sometimes we had the wind contrary and at other times sufficiently good, and rains without wind. In this manner we navigated with rain for the space of sixty days until the equinoctial line, which was a thing very strange and unaccustomed to be seen, according to the saying of some old men and those who had navigated here several times. Nevertheless, before reaching this equinoctial line we had in fourteen degrees a variety of weather and bad winds, as much on account of squalls as for the head winds and currents which came in such a manner that we could no longer advance. In order that our ships might not perish nor broach to⁠[152] (as it often happens when the squalls come together), we struck our sails, and in that manner we went about the sea hither and thither until the fair weather came. During the calm there came large fishes near the ships which they called Tiburoni (sharks), which have teeth of a terrible kind, and eat people when they find them in the sea either alive or dead. These fishes are caught with a device which the mariners call hamc, which is a hook of iron. Of these, some were caught by our men. However, they are worth nothing to eat when they are large; and even the small ones are worth but little. During these storms the body of St. Anselme appeared to us several times; amongst others, one night that it was very dark on account of the bad weather, the said saint appeared in the form of a fire lighted at the summit of the mainmast,⁠[153] and remained there near two hours and a half, which comforted us greatly, for we were in tears, only expecting the hour of perishing; and when that holy light was going away from us it gave out so great a brilliancy in the eyes of each, that we were near a quarter-of-an-hour like people blinded, and calling out for mercy. For without any doubt nobody hoped to escape from that storm. It is to be noted that all and as many times as that light which represents the said St. Anselme shows itself and descends upon a vessel which is in a storm at sea, that vessel never is lost. Immediately that this light had departed the sea grew calmer, and then we saw divers sorts of birds, amongst others there were some which had no fundament.⁠[154] There is also another kind of bird of such a nature that when the female wishes to lay her eggs she goes and lays them on the back of the male, and there it is that the eggs are hatched. This last kind have no feet and are always in the sea. There is another kind of bird which only lives on the droppings of the other birds, this is a true thing, and they are named Cagaselo, for I have seen them follow the other birds until they had done what nature ordered them to do; and after it has eat this dirty diet it does not follow any other bird until hunger returns to it; it always does the same thing.⁠[155] There are also fish which fly, and we saw a great quantity of them together, so many that it seemed that it was an island in the sea.

After that we had passed the equinoctial line, towards the south, we lost the star of the tramontana, and we navigated between the south and Garbin, which is the collateral wind [or point] between south and west; and we crossed as far as a country named Verzin, which is in twenty-four degrees and a half of the antarctic sky. This country is from the cape St. Augustine, which is in eight degrees in the antarctic sky. At this place we had refreshments of victuals, like fowls and meat of calves,⁠[156] also a variety of fruits, called battate, pigne (pine-apples), sweet, of singular goodness, and many other things, which I have omitted mentioning, not to be too long. The people of the said place gave, in order to have a knife, or a hook⁠[157] for catching fish, five or six fowls, and for a comb they gave two geese, and for a small mirror, or a pair of scissors, they gave so much fish that ten men could have eaten of it. And for a bell (or hawk’s-bell)⁠[158] they gave a full basket⁠[159] of the fruit named battate; this has the taste of a chestnut, and is of the length of a shuttle.⁠[160] For a king of cards, of that kind which they used to play with in Italy, they gave me five fowls, and thought they had cheated me. We entered into this port the day of Saint Lucy⁠[161] [13th December], before Christmas, on which day we had the sun on the zenith,⁠[162] which is a term of astrology. This zenith is a point in the sky, according to astrologers, and only in imagination, and it answers to over our head in a straight line, as may be seen by the treatise of the sphere,⁠[163] and by Aristotle, in the first book, De Cælo et Mondo. On the day that we had the sun in the zenith we felt greater heat, as much as when we were on the equinoctial line.

The said country of Verzin is very abundant in all good things, and is larger than France, Spain, and Italy together. It is one of the countries which the King of Portugal has conquered [acquired]. Its inhabitants are not Christians, and adore nothing, but live according to the usage of nature, rather bestially than otherwise. Some of these people live a hundred, or a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and forty years, and more; they go naked, both men and women. Their dwellings are houses that are rather long, and which they call “boy”; they sleep upon cotton nets, which they call, in their language, “amache.” These nets are fastened to large timbers from one end of their house to the other. They make the fire to warm themselves right under their bed. It is to be known that in each of these houses, which they call “boy,” there dwells a family of a hundred persons, who make a great noise. In this place they have boats, which are made of a tree, all in one piece, which they call “canoo.” These are not made with iron instruments, for they have not got any, but with stones, like pebbles, and with these they plane⁠[164] and dig out these boats. Into these thirty or forty men enter, and their oars are made like iron shovels: and those who row these oars are black people, quite naked and shaven, and look like enemies of hell. The men and women of this said place are well made in their bodies. They eat the flesh of their enemies, not as good meat, but because they have adopted this custom. Now this custom arose as follows: an old woman of this place of Verzin had an only son, who was killed by his enemies, and, some days afterwards, the friends of this woman captured one of the said enemies who had put her son to death, and brought him to where she was. Immediately the said old woman, seeing the man who was captured, and recollecting the death of her child, rushed upon him like a mad dog, and bit him on the shoulder. However, this man who had been taken prisoner found means to run away, and told how they had wished to eat him, showing the bite which the said old woman had made in his shoulder. After that those who were caught on one side or other were eaten. Through that arose this custom in this place of eating the enemies of each other. But they do not eat up the whole body of the man whom they take prisoner; they eat him bit by bit, and for fear that he should be spoiled, they cut him up into pieces, which they set to dry in the chimney, and every day they cut a small piece, and eat it with their ordinary victuals in memory of their enemies. I was assured that this custom was true by a pilot, named John Carvagio, who was in our company, and had remained four years in this place; it is also to be observed that the inhabitants of this place, both men and women, are accustomed to paint themselves with fire, all over the body, and also the face. The men are shaven, and wear no beard, because they pluck it out themselves, and for all clothing they wear a circle surrounded with the largest feathers of parrots,⁠[165] and they only cover their posterior parts, which is a cause of laughter and mockery. The people of this place, almost all, excepting⁠[166] women and children, have three holes in the lower lip, and carry, hanging in them, small round stones, about a finger in length. These kind of people, both men and women, are not very black, but rather brown,⁠[167] and they openly show their shame, and have no hair on the whole of their bodies. The king of this country is called Cacich, and there are here an infinite number of parrots, of which they give eight or ten for a looking-glass; there are also some little cat-monkeys⁠[168] having almost the appearance of a lion; they are yellow, and handsome, and agreeable to look at. The people of this place make bread, which is of a round shape, and they take the marrow of certain trees which are there, between the bark and the tree, but it is not at all good, and resembles fresh cheese. There are also some pigs which have their navel on the back,⁠[169] and large birds which have their beak like a spoon, and they have no tongue. For a hatchet or for a knife they used to give us one or two of their daughters as slaves, but their wives they would not give up for anything in the world. According to what they say the women of this place never render duty to their husbands by day, but only at night; they attend to business out of doors, and carry all that they require for their husband’s victuals inside small baskets on their heads, or fastened to their heads. Their husbands go with them, and carry a bow of vergin,⁠[170] or of black palm, with a handful of arrows of cane. They do this because they are very jealous of their wives. These carry their children fastened to their neck, and they are inside a thing made of cotton in the manner of a net. I omit relating many other strange things, not to be too prolix; however, I will not forget to say that mass was said twice on shore, where there were many people of the said country, who remained on their knees, and their hands joined in great reverence, during the mass, so that it was a pleasure and a subject of compassion to see them. In a short time they built a house for us, as they imagined that we should remain a long time with them, and, at our departure thence, they gave us a large quantity of verzin. It is a colour which proceeds from the trees which are in this country, and they are in such quantity that the country is called from it Verzin.

It is to be known that it happened that it had not rained for two months before we came there, and the day that we arrived it began to rain, on which account the people of the said place said that we came from heaven, and had brought the rain with us, which was great simplicity, and these people were easily converted to the Christian faith. Besides the above-mentioned things which were rather simple, the people of this country showed us another, very simple; for they imagined that the small ships’ boats were the children of the ships, and that the said ships brought them forth when the boats were hoisted out to send the men hither and thither; and when the boats were alongside the ship they thought that the ships were giving them suck.

A beautiful young girl came one day inside the ship of our captain, where I was, and did not come except to seek for her luck: however, she directed her looks to the cabin of the master, and saw a nail of a finger’s length, *and went and took it as something valuable and new, and hid it in her hair, for otherwise she would not have been able to conceal⁠[171] it, because she was naked,* and, bending forwards, she went away; and the captain and I saw this mystery.⁠[172]

Some Words of this People of Verzin.
Milan Edition.
Millet Au mil Maize.
Flour Farine Huy.
A hook Ung haim Pinda.
A knife Ung coutteau Taesse Tarse.
A comb Ung peigne Chignap Chipag.
A fork Une forcette Pirame.
A bell Une sonnette Itemnaraca Hanmaraca.
Good, more than good Bon, plus que bon tum maraghatom.

We remained thirteen days in this country of Verzin, and, departing from it and following our course, we went as far as thirty-four degrees and a third towards the antarctic pole; there we found, near a river, men whom they call “cannibals,”⁠[173] who eat human flesh, and one of these men, great as a giant, came to the captain’s ship to ascertain and ask if the others might come. This man had a voice like a bull, and whilst this man was at the ship his companions carried off all their goods which they had to a castle further off, from fear of us. Seeing that, we landed a hundred men from the ships, and went after them to try and catch some others; however they gained in running away. This kind of people did more with one step than we could do at a bound. In this same river there were seven little islands, and in the largest of them precious stones are found. This place was formerly called the Cape of St. Mary, and it was thought there that from thence there was a passage to the Sea of Sur; that is to say, the South Sea. And it is not found that any ship has ever discovered anything more, having passed beyond the said cape. And now it is no longer a cape, but it is a river which has a mouth seventeen leagues in width, by which it enters into the sea. In past time, in this river, these great men named Canibali ate a Spanish captain, named John de Sola,⁠[174] and sixty men who had gone to discover land, as we were doing, and trusted too much to them.

Afterwards following the same course towards the Antarctic pole, going along the land, we found two islands full of geese and goslings, and sea wolves, of which geese the large number could not be reckoned; for we loaded all the five ships with them in an hour. These geese are black, and have their feathers all over the body of the same size and shape, and they do not fly, and live upon fish; and they were so fat that they did not pluck them, but skinned them. They have beaks like that of a crow. The sea wolves of these two islands are of many colours, and of the size and thickness of a calf, and have a head like that of a calf, and the ears small and round. They have large teeth, and have no legs, but feet joining close on to the body, which resemble a human hand; they have small nails to their feet, and skin between the fingers like geese. If these animals could run they would be very bad and cruel, but they do not stir from the water, and swim and live upon fish. In this place we endured a great storm, and thought we should have been lost, but the three holy bodies, that is to say, St. Anselmo, St. Nicolas, and Sta. Clara, appeared to us, and immediately the storm ceased.

Departing thence as far as forty nine degrees and a half in the Antarctic heavens (as we were in the winter), we entered into a port to pass the winter, and remained there two whole months without ever seeing anybody. However, one day, without anyone expecting it, we saw a giant, who was on the shore of the sea, quite naked, and was dancing and leaping, and singing, and whilst singing he put the sand and dust on his head. Our captain sent one of his men towards him, whom he charged to sing and leap like the other to reassure him, and show him friendship. This he did, and immediately the sailor led this giant to a little island where the captain was waiting for him; and when he was before us he began to be astonished, and to be afraid, and he raised one finger on high,⁠[175] thinking that we came from heaven. He was so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist;⁠[176] however⁠[177] he was well built. He had a large face, painted red all round, and his eyes also were painted yellow around them, and he had two hearts painted on his cheeks; he had but little hair on his head, and it was painted white. When he was brought before the captain he was clothed with the skin of a certain beast, which skin was very skilfully sewed. This beast⁠[178] has its head and ears of the size of a mule, and the neck and body of the fashion of a camel, the legs of a deer, and the tail like that of a horse, and it neighs like a horse. There is a great quantity of these animals in this same place. This giant had his feet covered with the skin of this animal in the form of shoes, and he carried in his hand a short and thick bow, with a thick cord made of the gut of the said beast, with a bundle of cane arrows, which were not very long, and were feathered like ours,⁠[179] but they had no iron at the end, though they had at the end some small white and black cut stones, and these arrows were like those which the Turks use. The captain caused food and drink to be given to this giant, then they showed him some things, amongst others, a steel mirror. When the giant saw his likeness in it, he was greatly terrified, leaping backwards, and made three or four of our men fall down.

After that the captain gave him two bells, a mirror, a comb, and a chaplet of beads, and sent him back on shore, having him accompanied by four armed men. One of the companions of this giant, who would never come to the ship, on seeing the other coming back with our people, came forward and ran to where the other giants dwelled. These came one after the other all naked, and began to leap and sing, raising one finger to heaven, and showing to our people a certain white powder made of the roots of herbs, which they kept in earthen pots, and they made signs that they lived on that, and that they had nothing else to eat than this powder. Therefore our people made them signs to come to the ship and that they would help them to carry their bundles.⁠[180] Then these men came, who carried only their bows in their hands; but their wives came after them laden like donkeys, and carried their goods. These women are not as tall as the men, but they are very sufficiently large. When we saw them we were all amazed and astonished, for they had the breasts half an ell⁠[181] long, and had their faces painted, and were dressed like the men. But they wore a small skin before them to cover themselves. They brought with them four of those little beasts of which they make their clothing, and they led them with a cord in the manner of dogs coupled together. When these people wish to catch these animals with which they clothe themselves, they fasten one of the young ones to a bush, and afterwards the large ones come to play with the little one, and the giants are hid behind some hedge, and by shooting their arrows they kill the large ones. Our men brought eighteen of these giants, both men and women, whom they placed in two divisions, half on one side of the port, and the other half at the other, to hunt the said animals. Six days after, our people on going to cut wood, saw another giant, with his face painted and clothed like the above-mentioned, he had in his hand a bow and arrows, and approaching our people he made some touches on his head and then on his body, and afterwards did the same to our people. And this being done he raised both his hands to heaven. When the captain-general knew all this, he sent to fetch him with his ship’s boat, and brought him to one of the little islands which are in the port, where the ships were. In this island the captain had caused a house to be made for putting some of the ships’ things in whilst he remained there. This giant was of a still better disposition than the others, and was a gracious and amiable person, who liked to dance and leap. When he leapt he caused the earth to sink in a palm depth at the place where his feet touched. He was a long time with us, and at the end we baptised him, and gave him the name of John. This giant pronounced the name of Jesus, the Pater noster, Ave Maria, and his name as clearly as we did: but he had a terribly strong and loud voice. The captain gave him a shirt and a tunic⁠[182] of cloth, and seaman’s breeches,⁠[183] a cap, a comb, some bells, and other things, and sent him back to where he had come from. He went away very joyous and satisfied. The next day this giant returned, and brought one of those large animals before mentioned, for which the captain gave him some other things, so that he should bring more. But afterwards he did not return, and it is to be presumed that the other giants killed him because he had come to us.

Fifteen days later we saw four other giants, who carried no arrows, for they had hid them in the bushes, as two of them showed us, for we took them all four, and each of them was painted in a different way. The captain retained the two younger ones to take them to Spain on his return; but it was done by gentle and cunning means, for otherwise they would have done a hurt to some of our men. The manner in which he retained them was that he gave them many knives, forks, mirrors, bells, and glass, and they held all these things in their hands. Then the captain had some irons brought, such as are put on the feet of malefactors: these giants took pleasure in seeing the irons, but they did not know where to put them, and it grieved them that they could not take them with their hands, because they were hindered by the other things which they held in them. The other two giants were there, and were desirous of helping the other two, but the captain would not let them, and made a sign to the two whom he wished to detain that they would put those irons on their feet, and then they would go away: at this they made a sign with their heads that they were content. Immediately the captain had the irons put on the feet of both of them, and when they saw that they were striking with a hammer on the bolt which crosses the said irons to rivet them, and prevent them from being opened, these giants were afraid, but the captain made them a sign not to doubt of anything. Nevertheless when they saw the trick which had been played them, they began to be enraged,⁠[184] and to foam like bulls, crying out very loud Setebos,⁠[185] that is to say, the great devil, that he should help them. The hands of the other two giants were bound, but it was with great difficulty; then the captain sent them back on shore, with nine of his men to conduct them, and to bring the wife of one of those who had remained in irons, because he regretted her greatly, as we saw by signs. But in going away one of those two who were sent away, untied his hands and escaped, running with such lightness that our men lost sight of him, and he went away where his companions were staying; but he found nobody of those that he had left with the women because they had gone to hunt. However he went to look for them, and found them, and related to them all that had been done to them. The other giant whose hands were tied struggled as much as he could to unfasten himself, and to prevent his doing so, one of our men struck him, and hurt him on the head, at which he got very angry; however he led our people there where their wives were. Then John Cavagio,⁠[186] the pilot who was the chief conductor of these two giants, would not bring away the wife of one of the giants who had remained in irons on that evening, but was of opinion that they should sleep there, because it was almost night. During this time the one of the giants who had untied his hands came back from where he had been, with another giant, and they seeing their companion wounded on the head, said nothing at that moment, but next morning they spoke in their language to the women, and immediately all ran away together, and the smallest ran faster than the biggest, and they left all their chattels. Two of these giants being rather a long way off shot arrows at our men, and fighting thus, one of the giants pierced with an arrow the thigh of one of our men, of which he died immediately. Then seeing that he was dead, all ran away. Our men had cross-bows and guns,⁠[187] but they never could hit one of these giants, because they did not stand still in one place, but leaped hither and thither. After that, our men buried the man who had been killed, and set fire to the place where those giants had left their chattels. Certainly these giants run faster than a horse, and they are very jealous of their wives.

When these giants have a stomach-ache, instead of taking medicine they put down their throats an arrow about two feet long; then they vomit a green bile⁠[188] mixed with blood: and the reason why they throw up this green matter is because they sometimes eat thistles. When they have headaches they make a cut across the forehead, and also on the arms and legs, to draw blood from several parts of their bodies. One of the two we had taken, and who was in our ship, said that the blood did not choose to remain in the place and spot of the body where pain was felt. These people have their hair cut short and clipped in the manner of monks with a tonsure: they wear a cord of cotton round their head, to this they hang their arrows when they go a-hunting....⁠[189]

When one of them dies, ten or twelve devils appear and dance all round the dead man. It seems that these are painted, and one of these enemies is taller than the others, and makes a greater noise, and more mirth than the others: that is whence these people have taken the custom of painting their faces and bodies, as has been said. The greatest of these devils is called in their language Setebos, and the others Cheleule. Besides the above-mentioned things, this one who was in the ship with us, told us by signs that he had seen devils with two horns on their heads, and long hair down to their feet, and who threw out fire from their mouths and rumps. The captain named this kind of people Pataghom,⁠[190] who have no houses, but have huts made of the skins of the animals with which they clothe themselves, and go hither and thither with these huts of theirs, as the gypsies⁠[191] do; they live on raw meat, and eat a certain sweet root, which they call Capac. These two giants that we had in the ship ate a large basketful⁠[192] of biscuit, and rats without skinning them, and they drank half a bucket of water at each time.

We remained in this port, which was called the port of St. Julian, about five months, during which there happened to us many strange things, of which I will tell a part. One was, that immediately that we entered into this port, the masters of the other four ships plotted treason against the captain-general, in order to put him to death. These were thus named: John of Carthagine, conductor⁠[193] of the fleet; the treasurer, Loys de Mendoza; the conductor,⁠[194] Anthony Cocha; and Gaspar de Casada.⁠[195] However, the treason was discovered, for which the treasurer was killed with stabs of a dagger, and then quartered. This Gaspar de Casada had his head cut off, and afterwards was cut into quarters; and the conductor having a few days later attempted another treason, was banished with a priest, and was put in that country called Pattagonia.⁠[196] The captain-general would not put this conductor to death, because the Emperor Charles had made him captain of one of the ships. One of our ships, named St. James, was lost in going to discover the coast; all the men, however, were saved by a miracle, for they were hardly wet at all. Two men of these, who were saved, came to us and told us all that had passed and happened, on which the captain at once sent some men with sacks full of biscuit for two months. So, each day we found something of the ship of the other men who had escaped from the ship which was lost; and the place where these men were was twenty-five leagues from us, and the road bad and full of thorns, and it required four days to go there, and no water to drink was to be found on the road, but only ice, and of that little. In this port of St Julian there were a great quantity of long capres,⁠[197] called Missiglione; these had pearls in the midst. In this place they found incense, and ostriches, foxes, sparrows, and rabbits⁠[198] a good deal smaller than ours.⁠[199] We set up at the top of the highest mountain which was there a very large cross, as a sign that this country belonged to the King of Spain; and we gave to this mountain the name of Mount of Christ.

Departing thence, we found in fifty-one degrees less one-third (50° 40′ S.), in the Antarctic, a river of fresh water, which was near causing us to be lost, from the great winds which it sent out; but God, of his favour, aided us. We were about two months in this river, as it supplied fresh water and a kind of fish an ell long, and very scaly,⁠[200] which is good to eat. Before going away, the captain chose that all should confess and receive the body of our Lord like good Christians.

CHAPTER.⁠[201]

After going and taking the course to the fifty-second degree of the said Antarctic sky, on the day of the Eleven Thousand Virgins [October 21], we found, by a miracle, a strait which we called the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, this strait is a hundred and ten leagues long, which are four hundred and forty miles, and almost as wide as less than half a league,⁠[202] and it issues in another sea, which is called the peaceful sea;⁠[203] it is surrounded by very great and high mountains covered with snow. In this place it was not possible to anchor⁠[204] with the anchors, because no bottom was found, on which account they were forced to put the moorings⁠[205] of twenty-five or thirty fathoms length on shore. This strait was a round place surrounded by mountains, as I have said, and the greater number of the sailors thought that there was no place by which to go out thence to enter into the peaceful sea. But the captain-general said that there was another strait for going out, and said that he knew it well, because he had seen it by a marine chart of the King of Portugal, which map had been made by a great pilot and mariner named Martin of Bohemia.⁠[206] The captain sent on before two of his ships, one named St. Anthony and the other the Conception, to seek for and discover the outlet of this strait, which was called the Cape de la Baya. And we, with the other two ships, that is to say, the flagship named Trinitate, and the other the Victory, remained waiting for them within the Bay, where in the night we had a great storm, which lasted till the next day at midday, and during which we were forced to weigh the anchors and let the ships go hither and thither about the bay. The other two ships met with such a head wind⁠[207] that they could not weather⁠[208] a cape which the bay made almost at its extremity; wishing to come to us, they were near being driven to beach the ships.⁠[209] But, on approaching the extremity of the bay, and whilst expecting to be lost, they saw a small mouth, which did not resemble a mouth but a corner,⁠[210] and (like people giving up hope⁠[211]) they threw themselves into it, so that by force they discovered the strait. Seeing that it was not a corner, but a strait of land, they went further on and found a bay, then going still further they found another strait and another bay larger than the first two, at which, being very joyous, they suddenly returned backwards to tell it to the captain-general. Amongst us we thought that they had perished: first, because of the great storm; next, because two days had passed that we had not seen them. And being thus in doubt⁠[212] we saw the two ships under all sail, with ensigns spread, come towards us: these, when near us, suddenly discharged much artillery, at which we, very joyous, saluted them with artillery and shouts. Afterwards, all together, thanking God and the Virgin Mary, we went to seek further on.

After having entered inside this strait we found that there were two mouths, of which one trended to the Sirocco (S.E.), and the other to the Garbin (S.W.). On that account the captain again sent the two ships, St. Anthony and Conception, to see if the mouth which was towards Sirocco had an outlet beyond into the said peaceful sea. One of these two ships, named St. Anthony, would not wait for the other ship, because those who were inside wished to return to Spain: this they did, and the principal reason was on account of the pilot⁠[213] of the said ship being previously discontented with the said captain-general, because that before this armament was made, this pilot had gone to the Emperor to talk about having some ships to discover countries. But, on account of the arrival of the captain-general, the Emperor did not give them to this pilot, on account of which he agreed with some Spaniards, and the following night they took prisoner the captain of their ship, who was a brother⁠[214] of the captain-general, and who was named Alvar de Meschite; they wounded him, and put him in irons. So they carried him off to Spain. And in this ship, which went away and returned, was one of the two above-mentioned giants whom we had taken, and when he felt the heat he died. The other ship, named the Conception, not being able to follow that one, was always waiting for it, and fluttered hither and thither. But it lost its time, for the other took the road by night for returning. When this happened, at night the ship of the captain and the other ship went together to discover the other mouth to Garbin (S.W.), where, on always holding on our course, we found the same strait. But at the end⁠[215] we arrived at a river which we named the River of Sardines, because we found a great quantity of them. So we remained there four days to wait for the other two ships. A short time after we sent a boat well supplied with men and provisions to discover the cape of the other sea: these remained three days in going and coming. They told us that they had found the cape, and the sea great and wide. At the joy which the captain-general had at this he began to cry, and he gave the name of Cape of Desire to this cape, as a thing which had been much desired for a long time. Having done that we turned back to find the two ships which were at the other side, but we only found the Conception, of which ship we asked what had become of her companion. To this the captain of the said ship, named John Serrano (who was pilot of the first ship which was lost, as has been related), replied that he knew nothing of her, and that he had never seen her since she entered the mouth. However, we sought for her through all the strait, as far as the said mouth, by which she had taken her course to return. Besides that, the Captain-General sent back the ship named the Victory as far as the entrance of the strait to see if the ship was there, and he told the people of this ship that if they did not find the ship they were looking for, they were to place an ensign on the summit of a small hill, with a letter inside a pot placed in the ground near the ensign, so that if the ship should by chance return, it might see that ensign, and also find the letter which would give information of the course which the captain was holding. This manner of acting had been ordained by the captain from the commencement, in order to effect the junction of any ship which might be separated from the others. So the people of the said ship did what the captain had commanded them, and more, for they set two ensigns with letters; one of the ensigns was placed on a small hill at the first bay, the other on an islet in the third bay, where there were many sea wolves and large birds. The captain-general waited for them with the other ship near the river named Isles: and he caused a cross to be set upon a small island in front of that river, which was between high mountains covered with snow. This river comes and falls into the sea near the other river of the Sardines.

If we had not found this strait the captain-general had made up his mind to go as far as seventy-five degrees towards the antarctic pole; where at that height in the summer time there is no night, or very little: in a similar manner in the winter there is no day-light, or very little, and so that every one may believe this, when we were in this strait the night lasted only three hours, and this was in the month of October.

The land of this strait on the left hand side looked towards the Sirocco wind, which is the wind collateral to the Levant and South; we called this strait Pathagonico. In it we found at every half league a good port and place for anchoring, good waters, wood all of cedar, and fish like sardines, missiglioni, and a very sweet herb named appio (celery).⁠[216] There is also some of the same kind which is bitter. This herb grows near the springs, and from not finding anything else we ate of it for several days. I think that there is not in the world a more beautiful country, or better strait than this one. In this ocean sea one sees a very amusing chase of fish, which are of three sorts, of an ell or more in length, and they call these fish Dorades, Albacores, and Bonitos; these follow and pursue another sort of fish which flies, which they call Colondriny,⁠[217] which are a foot long or more, and are very good to eat. When these three sorts of fish find in the water any of these flying fish, immediately they make them come out of the water, and they fly more than a cross bow-shot, as long as their wings are wet; and whilst these fishes fly the other three run after them under the water, seeing the shadow of those that fly: and the moment they fall into the water they are seized upon and eaten by the others which pursue them, which is a thing marvellous and agreeable to see.

Milan Edition.
Le chefHer...idem.
YeulxAther...oter.
Le nezOr...id.
Les silzOcchechl...id.
Paupieres des yeulxSechechiel...id.
Aux deux narinesOrescho...id.
La boucheXiam...chian.
Les leuresSchiane...schiaine.
Les dentzPhor...for.
La langueSchial...id.
Le mentonSechen...secheri.
Les cheueulx⁠[218]Ajchir...archiz.
Le visaigeCogechel.
La gorgeOhumer...ohumez.
La copa⁠[*] (le cou)Schialeschin.
Les epaullesPeles.
Le coudeCotel.
La mainChene.
La paulme de la mainCanneghin.
Les oreillesSane...id.
Les essellesSalischin...id.
La mamelleOthen...oton.
La poitrineOchy...ochii.
Le corpsGechel.
Le vitScachet...sachet.
Le couillonsScancos...sachancos.
Le conIsse...id.
Le foutreJohoi.
Les cuissesChiaue...id.
Le genouilTepin...id.
Le culSchiachen...schiaguen.
Les fessesHoy...hoii.
Le brazMar...riaz.
Le poulseOhoy...holion.
Les jambesChoss...id.
Les piedzTeche...ti.
Alcalcagno⁠[*]There...tire.
La cheuille du piedPerchi...id.
Le doitCori...id.
Les onglesColim...colmi.
Le cueurChol...tol.
Le graterGhecare...id.
Homo sguerzo⁠[*]Calischen...id.
Au jeuneCalemi...id.
L’eauOli...holi.
Le feuGhialeme...gialeme.
La fuméeJaiche...giache.
La fortune (storm)Ohone...id.
Le poissonHoi...id.
Le mangerMecchiere...id.
Une escuelleElo...etlo.
A combatreOamaghei...ohomagse.
Alle frezzeSethe...seche.
Ung chienHoll...id.
Ung loupAni...id.
A aller loingSchien.
A la guideAnti.
Aladorer⁠[219]Os...id.
Ung papegault⁠[220]Cheche.
La caige doyseauCleo...id.
Al missiglion⁠[*] (oyster)Siameni...id.
Drap rougeTerechai...id.
Al cocinare⁠[*]Ixecoles...irocoles.
La ceinctureCathechin...id.
Une oyeChache...cache.
La plante ou sole du piedCartschem...caotchoni.
NousChen.
Si ou ouyRei.
L’orPelpeli...id.
Petre lazure⁠[221]Secheghi...sechey.
Le soleilCalexchem...id.
Les estoillesSettere...id.
La merAro...id.
Le ventOm...oni.
A la pignate⁠[*]Aschame...id.
A demanderGhelhe...gheglie.
Vien icyHaisi...hai.
Au regarderConne...id.
A allerRhei...id.
A la nef⁠[222]Theu...id.
A courir⁠[223]Hiam...tiam.
Al struzzo vcelo⁠[*]⁠[224]Hoihoi.
A ses œufs⁠[225]Jan.
La pouldre d’herbe⁠[225]Qui.
Mangent⁠[226]Capac...id.
Le bonnetAichel...id.
CoulernoireAmet...oinel.
RougeTheiche...faiche.
JaulnePeperi...id.
Le diable grandSetebos...id.
Les petitz diablesCheleule...id.
[†]

[*] The Italian words mixed up in the French MS. show that this MS. was written by Pigafetta, and not translated from his Italian.

[†] None of these words resemble those given by the Jesuit, Falkner, from the language of the Moluche tribe.

All these words are pronounced in the throat, because they pronounce them thus.

These words were given me by that giant whom we had in the ship, because he asked me for capac, that is to say bread, since they thus name that root which they use for bread, and oli that is to say water. When he saw me write these names after him, and ask for others he understood (what I was doing) with my pen in my hand.⁠[227] Another time I made a cross and kissed it in showing it to him; but suddenly he exclaimed Setebos! and made signs to me that if I again made the cross it would enter into my stomach and make me die. When this giant was unwell⁠[228] he asked for the cross, and embraced and kissed it much, and he wished to become a Christian before his death, and we named him Paul. When these people wish to light a fire they take a pointed stick and rub it with another until they make a fire in the pith of a tree which is placed between these sticks.

(In the Milan Edition here begins Book II.)

Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of November, 1520, we came forth out of the said strait, and entered into the Pacific sea, where we remained three months and twenty days without taking in provisions or other refreshments, and we only ate old biscuit reduced to powder, and full of grubs, and stinking from the dirt which the rats had made on it when eating the good biscuit, and we drank water that was yellow and stinking. We also ate the ox hides which were under the main-yard,⁠[229] so that the yard should not break the rigging:⁠[230] they were very hard on account of the sun, rain, and wind, and we left them for four or five days in the sea, and then we put them a little on the embers, and so ate them; also the sawdust of wood,⁠[231] and rats which cost half-a-crown⁠[232] each, moreover enough of them were not to be got. Besides the above-named evils, this misfortune which I will mention was the worst, it was that the upper and lower gums of most of our men grew so much⁠[233] that they could not eat, and in this way so many suffered, that nineteen died, and the other giant, and an Indian from the county of Verzin. Besides those who died, twenty-five or thirty fell ill of divers sicknesses, both in the arms and legs, and other places, in such manner that very few remained healthy. However, thanks be to the Lord, I had no sickness. During those three months and twenty days we went in an open sea,⁠[234] while we ran fully four thousand leagues in the Pacific sea. This was well named Pacific, for during this same time we met with no storm, and saw no land except two small uninhabited islands, in which we found only birds and trees. We named them the Unfortunate Islands; they are two hundred leagues apart from one another, and there is no place to anchor, as there is no bottom. There we saw many sharks, which are a kind of large fish which they call Tiburoni. The first isle is in fifteen degrees of austral latitude,⁠[235] and the other island is in nine degrees. With the said wind we ran each day fifty or sixty leagues,⁠[236] or more; now with the wind astern, sometimes on a wind⁠[237] or otherwise. And if our Lord and his Mother had not aided us in giving us good weather to refresh ourselves with provisions and other things, we should all have died of hunger in this very vast sea, and I think that never man will undertake to perform such a voyage.

Pigafetta’s Map of Magellan’s Straits.

When we had gone out of this strait, if we had always navigated to the west we should have gone⁠[238] without finding any land except the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, which is the eastern head of the strait in the ocean sea, with the Cape of Desire at the west in the Pacific sea. These two capes are exactly in fifty-two degrees of latitude of the antarctic pole.

The antarctic pole is not so covered with stars as the arctic, for there are to be seen there many small stars congregated together, which are like to two clouds a little separated from one another, and a little dimmed,⁠[239] in the midst of which are two stars, not very large, nor very brilliant, and they move but little:⁠[240] these two stars are the antarctic pole. Our compass needle still pointed a little to its arctic pole; nevertheless it had not as much power as on its own side and region.⁠[241] Yet when we were in the open sea,⁠[242] the captain-general⁠[243] asked of all the pilots, whilst still going under sail, in what direction they were navigating and pointing the charts. They all replied, by the course he had given, punctually [pricked in]; then he answered, that they were pointing falsely (which was so), and that it was fitting to arrange the needle of navigation, because it did not receive so much force as in its own quarter. When we were in the middle of this open sea we saw a cross of five stars, very bright, straight, in the west, and they are straight one with another.⁠[244]

During this time of two months and twelve days we navigated between west and north-west (maestral), and a quarter west of north-west, and also north-west, until we came to the equinoctial line, which was at [245] and the meridian⁠[246] is three degrees distant from the Cape Verd towards the east.⁠[247] In going by this course we passed near two very rich islands; one is in twenty degrees latitude in the antarctic pole, and is called Cipanghu; the other, in fifteen degrees of the same pole, is named Sumbdit Pradit. After we had passed the equinoctial line we navigated between west, and north-west and a quarter west, by north-west. Afterwards we made two hundred leagues to westwards, then changed the course to a quarter of south-west, until in thirteen degrees north latitude, in order to approach the land of Cape Gaticara,⁠[248] which cape (under correction of those who have made cosmography), (for they have never seen it), is not placed where they think, but is towards the north, in twelve degrees or thereabouts.

After having navigated sixty leagues⁠[249] by the said course, in twelve degrees latitude, and a hundred and forty-six of longitude, on Wednesday, the 6th of March, we discovered a small island in the north-west direction,⁠[250] and two others lying to the south-west. One of these islands was larger and higher than the other two. The captain-general wished to touch at the largest of these three islands to get refreshments of provisions; but it was not possible because the people of these islands entered into the ships and robbed us, in such a way that it was impossible to preserve oneself from them. Whilst we were striking and lowering the sails to go ashore, they stole away with much address and diligence the small boat called the skiff, which was made fast to the poop of the captain’s ship, at which he was much irritated, and went on shore with forty armed men, burned forty or fifty houses, with several small boats, and killed seven men of the island; they recovered their skiff. After this we set sail suddenly, following the same course. Before we went ashore some of our sick men begged us that if we killed man or woman, that we should bring them their entrails, as they would see themselves suddenly cured.