"Near to this is another island, called Bada, larger and more ample than the Moluccas. In this grows the nutmeg, the tree of which is tall and spreading, and is rather like the walnut tree, and its nut, too, grows like the walnut; for it is protected by a double husk, at first like a furry calix, and under this a thin membrane, which embraces the nutlike network. This is called the Muscat flower with us, but by the Spaniards mace, and is a noble and wholesome spice. The other covering is a woody shell, like that of a hazelnut, and in that, as we have already said, is the nutmeg."
And ginger:
"Ginger grows here and there in each of the islands of the archipelago. It sometimes grows by sowing, and sometimes spontaneously; but that which is sown is the more valuable. Its grass is like that of the saffron, and its root is almost the same too, and that is ginger."
While sailing among these bowery ocean gardens, and gathering their odorous products, the poetic Maximilianus was presented with one of the immortal birds that protected a hero in battle, "the bird of God."
He thus speaks of the rare present:
"Our men were kindly treated by the chiefs in turn, and they, too, submitted freely to the rule of Cæsar, like the King of Thidori. But the Spaniards, who had but two ships, resolved to bring some of each (spice) home, but to load the ships with cloves, because the crop of that was the most abundant that year, and our ships could contain a greater quantity of this kind of spice. Having, therefore, loaded the ships with cloves, and having received letters and presents for Cæsar from the Kings, they make ready for their departure. The letters were full of submission and respect. The gifts were Indian swords, and things of that sort. But, best of all, the Mamuco Diata; that is, the bird of God, by which they believe themselves to be safe and invincible in battle. Of which five were sent, and one I obtained from the Captain (congran prieghi), which I send to your reverence, not that your reverence may think yourself safe from treachery and the sword by means of it, as they profess to do, but that you may be pleased with its rareness and beauty. I send also some cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves, to show that our spices are not only not worse, but more valuable than those which the Venetians and Portuguese bring, because they are fresher."
He also relates the disasters which fell to one of the overloaded ships:
"When our men had set sail from Thedori, one of the ships, and that the larger one, having sprung a leak, began to make water, so that it became necessary to put back to Thedori. When the Spaniards saw that this mischief could not be remedied without great labor and much time, they agreed that the other ship should sail to the Cape of Cattigara, and afterward through the deep as far as possible from the coast of India, lest it should be seen by the Portuguese, and until they saw the promontory of Africa which projects beyond the tropic of Capricorn, and to which the Portuguese have given the name of Good Hope; and from that point the passage to Spain would be easy.
"But as soon as the other ship was refitted it should direct its course through the archipelago, and that vast ocean toward the shores of the continent which we mentioned before, till it found that coast which was in the neighborhood of Darien, and where the southern sea was separated from the western, in which are the Spanish Islands, by a very narrow piece of land. So the ship sailed again from Thedori, and, having gone twelve degrees on the other side of the equinoctial line, they did not find the Cape of Cattigara, which Ptolemy supposed to extend even beyond the equinoctial line; and when they had traversed an immense space of sea, they came to the Cape of Good Hope and afterward to the Islands of the Hesperides.
"And, as this ship let in water, being much knocked about by this long voyage, the sailors, many of whom had died by hardships by land and by sea, could not clear the ship of water. Wherefore they landed upon one of the islands, which is named after Saint James, to buy slaves.