He knew that he would soon die.
"Make me a Christian," he said.
They named him "Paul," and baptized him.
One day found him dead, and they cast his great frame into the sea. He was probably the first convert to the faith among Patagonians, and his so-called conversion was the heart's cry in helplessness.
The other giant may have lived to see the days of famine, when men shrank and death threatened all. Then he, too, famished and died, and found a grave in the sea. Another account, makes this giant die on the Antonio before that ship went back to St. Julian.
Two islands only appeared in the months of steady sailing. They were uninhabited except by birds. The sky in all this time brought no storm.
In these days of ocean solitude, hunger, and death, Magellan was sure always of the faith of two true hearts—the susceptible Italian and Del Cano.
Magellan dreamed of the fate of Mesquita in these strange experiences, and Mesquita in his lonely prison thought continually of him. Would Magellan ever return? the latter must have asked daily.
If so, his prison doors might swing open. He had no other hope, but this hope was a star. Magellan's wife must have shared this hope with the prisoner.