[167] MS. 5,650 reads: “enough of them.”
[168] This was the scurvy. Navarrete (iv, p. 54) following a document conserved in Archivo general de Indias, says that only eleven men died of scurvy during the voyage from the strait to the Ladrones.
[169] The anonymous Portuguese says (Stanley, p. 31) that after sailing west and northwest for 9,858 miles, the equator was reached. At the line (“Roteiro,” Stanley, p. 9), Magalhães changed the course in order to strike land north of the Moluccas, as “he had information that there were no provisions” there.
[170] MS. 5,650 reads: “It is well named Pacific.”
[171] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is a large fish called tiburoni.” The anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31), says that the Unfortunate Islands were met before the line was reached and were eight hundred miles distant from one another. One was called St. Peter (in 18°) and the other the island of Tiburones (in 14°). Transylvanus (Vol. I, p. 321), Herrera, and Oviedo, say that the three vessels stopped two days at those islands for supplies, but Albo’s journal (Navarrete, iv, p. 218) indicates that no stop was made there. The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 9), gives the latitude of these islands as 18° or 19° and 13° or 14°. Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 218) says that the first was discovered January 24 in 16° 15´, and was called San Pablo, because that was the date of St. Paul’s conversion; and the island of Tiburones was discovered February 4, in 10° 40´, at a distance of 9° (sic) from the former. Eden (p. 253) says that the second island lay in 5°. These two islands were probably Puka-puka (the Honden Eyland of the Dutch atlases) of the Tuamotu group, located in latitude 14° 45´ south, and longitude 138° 48´ west; and Flint Island of the Manihiki group, located in latitude 11° 20´ south and longitude 151° 48´ west. The latter is still uninhabited, but the former contains a population of over four hundred. See ante, note 163. See Guillemard, p. 220, and Mosto, p. 65, note 6.
[172] MS. 5,650 reads: “now at the stern, now at the windward side, or otherwise.” Amoretti changes this passage completely, reading: “According to our measurement of the distance that we made with the chain astern, we ran from sixty to seventy leagues daily.” Many basing themselves on this passage of Amoretti, have believed that the log was in use at the time of the first circumnavigation. Dr. Breusing (Die Catena a poppa bei Pigafetta und die Logge, in “Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin,” 1869, iv, pp. 107–115) believes that the “stern chain (catena poppa) is not the log properly so-called, but an instrument for determining the angle of the ship’s leeway, an opinion accepted also by Gelcich in his La scoperta d’America e Cristoforo Colombo nella letteratura moderna (Gorizia, 1890). L’Vzielle (Studi bibliogr. e biogr. sulla storia della geogr. in Italia, Roma, 1875, part ii, introduction, pp. 294–296), combats that opinion, as well as the idea that the log is meant. The difficulty of the passage, he says, hinges on the word ho and whether it is interpreted as a verb or a conjunction. If it be a conjunction then the passage, means “estimating by sight, the rate of the ship from the ‘bow catena,’ or at the stern” (‘catena’ being a beam perpendicular to the ship’s axis at the point near the bow where it begins to curve inward; that is, at such a point that from that place to the stern, the direction of the apparent way is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the ship) his ship made fifty, sixty, or seventy leagues.” One might suppose, if ho be regarded as a verb, that Pigafetta called catena a cross beam of the stern (the passage reading “the catena that was at the stern”); or that the disjunctive ho, “or” is used in place of e, “and,” and that Pigafetta, dividing the distance between the stern and the bow catena by the time necessary for a fixed point of the sea to pass from the elevation of the bow to that of the stern, thus deduced the ship’s rate. See Mosto, p. 66, note 1. L’Vzielli’s opinion is the most probable, for although the log is mentioned by Purchas as early as 1607, its use did not become general until 1620. An instrument used to measure the rates of vessels is mentioned as early as 1577, but it was very deficient.
[173] The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 6) says that this cape, which he calls “cape of the virgins” was discovered on October 21, 1520, and lay in latitude about 52° south. Barros says that it was discovered on October 20; and Transylvanus and Oviedo, on November 27. See Mosto, p. 61, note 1.
[174] Regarding the reckonings Eden says: “In ſo much that it was neceſſarie to helpe the needle with the lode ſtone (commonly cauled the adamant) before they could ſaile therwith, bycauſe it moued not as it doothe when it is in theſe owre partes.” Eden also gives a cut of the “ſtarres abowt the pole Antartike.” The same author also (pp. 277–280) compiles from Amerigo Vespucci and Andreas de Corsali a treatise entitled “Of the Pole Antartike and the stars abowt the same and of the qualitie of the regions and disposition of the Elementes abowt the Equinoctiall line. Alſo certeyne ſecreates touching the arte of ſaylynge.” The former says: “The pole Antartike hath nother the great beare nor the lyttle as is ſeene abowte owre pole. But hath foure ſtarres whiche compaſſe it abowt in forme of a quadrangle. When these are hydden, there is ſeene on the lefte ſyde a bryght Canopus of three ſtarres of notable greatneſſe, whiche beinge in the myddeſt of heauen, repreſenteth this figure.” The latter says: “Here we ſawe a marueylous order of ſtarres, ſo that in the parte of heauen contrary to owre northe pole, to knowe in what place and degree the ſouth pole was, we tooke the day with the ſoonne, and obſerued the nyght with the aſtrolabie, and ſaw manifeſtly twoo clowdes of reaſonable bygneſſe mouynge abowt the place of the pole continually nowe ryſynge and nowe faulynge, ſo keepynge theyr continuall courſe in circular mouynge, with a ſtarre euer in the myddeſt which is turned abowt with them abowte. xi. degrees frome the pole. Aboue theſe appeareth a marueylous croſſe in the myddeſt of fyue notable ſtarres which compaſſe it abowt.... This croſſe is so fayre and bewtiful, that none other heuenly gne may be compared to it....” These are the Magallanic clouds (Nuebecula major and Nubecula minor) and the constellation of the Southern Cross or Crux. The Magellanic clouds resemble portions of the milky way, Nubecula major being visible to the naked eye in strong moonlight and covering about two hundred times the moon’s surface, while the Nubecula minor, although visible to the naked eye, disappears in full moonlight, and covers an area only one-fourth that of the former. They were first observed by the Arabians. The Portuguese pilots probably called them at first “clouds of the cape.” (Mosto, p. 66, note 2). The Southern Cross, which resembles a lute rather than a cross, was first erected into a constellation by Royer in 1679, although often spoken of before as a cross. Only one of its five principal stars belongs to the first magnitude. The cross is only 6° in extent north and south and less than that east and west.
The second chart of the plate at p. 92 represents the Ladrones Islands and occurs in the Italian MS. at this point (folio 16b). This chart is found on folio 25b in MS. 5,650, and is preceded by the inscription: “The island of the robbers and the style of their boats.”
[175] MS. 5,650 reads: “During that time of two months and twelve days.”