It was the little boy that told this large story, quite like Sinbad's.
There were found mysterious fruits floating on the sea, which were supposed to have fallen from the tree.
"I have seen the bird myself," said a third Moorish pilot, and with the testimony of the little boy, and the three pilots and the floating fruit, this story ought to be as trustworthy as the one of Sinbad the Sailor.
The voyage back to the Cape of Good Hope and thence to the Cape Verde Islands was one for strange reflections. Del Cano now was the leader of the returning mariners. The expedition had gone out from the port of Seville amid shouting quays and towers, with some two hundred and seventy men. Only one ship was returning and she was bringing home hardly as many men as composed her own crew.
We can imagine Del Cano on deck, with the lantern of Magellan still swinging above him, talking with his officers on a tropical night off the African coast.
"Magellan has found an unknown grave," we may hear him say.
"But humanity will mourn for him, and honor him, and the grave matters not," answers a padre.
"We shall never see Mesquita again," continues Del Cano.
"We can not be sure," replies the padre. "We can know nothing that we do not see."
"We surely shall never meet Carthagena again. I can see in my memory those last biscuits and bottles of wine. He needs none of them now."