The next incident told by Pigafetta has as fine a touch as a portrayal of character. It relates to a message which Magellan sent to the King, with a present.
"When we came to the town we found the King of Zubu at his palace, sitting on the ground on a mat made of palm, with many people about him.
"He had a very heavy chain around his neck, and two gold rings hung in his ears with precious stones.
"He was eating tortoise eggs in two china dishes, and he had four vessels full of palm wine, which he drank with a cane pipe. We made our obeisance, and presented to him what the Captain had sent him, and told him, through the interpreter that the present was not as a return for his present which he had sent to the Captain, but for the affection which he bore him. This done, his people told him all the good words and explanations of peace and religion which he had spoken to them."
We now behold Magellan in a new attitude, as a missionary teacher, a John the Baptist in the wilderness. Pigafetta thus describes the scene:
"On Sunday morning, the fourteenth day of April, we went on shore, forty men, of whom two were armed, who marched before us, following the standard of our King Emperor. When we landed the ships discharged all their artillery, and from fear of it the people ran away in all directions.
"Magellan and the King embraced one another, and then joyously we went near the scaffolding, where the Captain General and the King sat on two chairs, one covered with red, the other with violet velvet. The principal men sat on cushions, and others on mats, after the fashion of the country.
"Then the Captain began to speak to the King through the interpreter to incite him to the faith of Jesus Christ, and told him that if he wished to be a good Christian, as he had said the day before, that he must burn all the idols of his country, and, instead of them, place a cross, and that every one should worship it every day on their knees, and their hands joined to Heaven; and he showed him how he ought every day to make the sign of the Cross.
"To that the King and all his people answered that they would obey the commands of the Captain and do all that he told them. The Captain took the King by the hand, and they walked about on the scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said that he would name him Don Charles, as the Emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the Prince Don Fernand, after the brother of the Emperor, and the King of Mazzava, Jehan; to the Moor he gave the name of Christopher, and to the others each a name of his fancy. Thus, before mass, there were fifty men baptized."
The baptism of the Queen followed.