[143] MS. 5,650 begins this sentence as follows: “But that ship lost its time, for the other.”
[144] Guillemard (p. 206) conjectures from the records of Albo, Pigafetta, and Herrera that the river of Sardines is Port Gallant which is located on the Brunswick Peninsula, opposite the Charles Islands. Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 215) says that after taking the course to the northwest they sailed about 15 leagues before anchoring.
[145] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 216) says that the two capes at the exit of the strait were called Fermosa and Deseado, this latter being Cape Pillar (see Guillemard, map facing p. 198).
[146] MS. 5,650 adds: “which were on the other side.”
[147] João Serrão, the brother of Magalhães’s staunchest friend Francisco Serrão, and a firm supporter of the great navigator. Pigafetta errs in calling him a Spaniard (see p. 183), though he may have become a naturalized Spaniard, since the register speaks of him as a citizen of Sevilla. One document (Navarrete, iv, p. 155) calls him a Portuguese pilot, and Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 308) a Castilian. He was an experienced navigator and captain, and had served under Vasco da Gama, Almeida, and Albuquerque. Vasco da Gama (on his second voyage, 1502–1503) made him captain of the ship “Pomposa” which was built in Mozambique where he was left to attend to Portuguese affairs. On this expedition he saw the coast of Brazil for the first time, for Vasco da Gama’s fleet, ere doubling the Cape of Good Hope, crossed to the Brazilian coast, which they followed as far as Cape Santo Agostinho. He fought bravely in the battle of Cananor under Almeida (March 16, 1506, in which Magalhães also participated). He was chief captain of three caravels in August, 1510, in Eastern water, and was in the Java seas in 1512, but must have returned to Portugal soon after that, for he was there in 1513; although he seems to have been appointed clerk at the fortress of Calicut in the latter year. He embarked with Magalhães as captain and pilot of the “Santiago,” but after the wreck of that vessel near port San Julian was given command of the “Concepcion,” in which he later explored the strait. Failing to dissuade Magalhães from attacking the natives of Matan, he became commander, with Duarte Barbosa, of the fleet at Magalhães’s death, and was murdered by the Cebuans after the treacherous banquet given by them to the fleet. See Guillemard (ut supra), and Stanley’s Three voyages of Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1869).
[148] MS. 5,650 reads as follows: “Such was the method ordered by the captain from the beginning, in order that the ship that happened to become separated from the others might rejoin the fleet.” Then it adds: “Thereupon the crew of the said ship did what the captain had ordered them and more, for they set two banners with their letters,” etc.
[149] “The island of Santa Magdalena (Mosto, p. 62, note 11).
[150] According to Guillemard the river of Isleo (or “of Islands”) is located on Brunswick Peninsula, and is identified with the port of San Miguel, just east of the “River of Sardines;” the island where the cross was planted would be one of the Charles Islands.
[151] The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 3) mentions that the day at the port of San Julian was about seven hours long; while the anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 30) says that the sun only appeared for some “four hours each day” in June and July. Transylvanus says the nights in the strait were not longer than five hours.
[152] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is the collateral wind between the east and south.”