AUTOGRAPH OF MAGELLAN.
By mistake or by design, the Philippines, when they were discovered, were moved on the maps twenty-five degrees east of their true position on the globe. The Spaniards made the maps. The islands were thus brought within their half of the world; and this immense error was not corrected till the voyages of Dampier.[1591]
Charles V. was no fool. He recognized at once the value of such men as Magellan and Faleiro. He heard and accepted their plan for a western voyage to the spice regions. On the 22d of March, 1518, he bound himself to fit out an expedition at his own cost on their plans, under Magellan’s orders, on condition that the principal part of the profits should belong to the Throne. Through years of intrigue, public and private, in which the Spanish jealousy of Sevillian merchants and others tried to break up the expedition, Charles was, for once, faithful to a promise. We must not attempt here to follow the sad history of such intrigues. On the 10th of August, 1519, the expedition sailed under Magellan. Poor Faleiro, alas! had gone crazy in the mean time. What proved even a greater misfortune was that Juan of Carthagena was put on board the “San Antonio” as a sort of Japanese spy on Magellan. He was the marplot of the expedition, as the history will show. He was called a veedor, or inspector.
MAGELLAN.
[Fac-simile of an engraving in Navarrete’s Coleccion, vol. iv. It is also reproduced in Stanley’s First Voyage round the World by Magellan (Hakluyt Society, 1874); in Cladera’s Investigaciones históricas; in the Relacion del ultimo viage al estrecho de Magellanes de la fragata de S. M. Santa Maria de la Cabeza en los anos de 1785 y 1786 (Madrid, 1788); in the Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden (November, 1804), p. 269; in August Bürck’s Magellan oder die erste Reise um die erde, Leipsic, 1844; in Rüge’s Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 402; and in the Carter-Brown Catalogue, i. 81.
There are two portraits in De Bry,—one a full length in the corner of a map of America which accompanies the narrative of Benzoni in part vi., and of Herrera in part xii.; and the other on a map of the two hemispheres in part xi.; also repeated in Schouten’s Journal (1618). There are similar pictures in Hulsius, parts vi. and xvi. Cf. the Catalogue (no. 135) of the Gallery of the New York Historical Society.—Ed.]
There is something pathetic in contrasting the magnificent fleet with which Magellan sailed, under the patronage of an emperor, with the poor little expedition of Columbus. With the new wealth of the Indies at command, and with the resources now of a generation of successful discovery, the Emperor directed the dockyards of Seville to meet all Magellan’s wishes in the most thorough way. No man in the world, perhaps, knew better than Magellan what he needed. The expedition, therefore, sailed with as perfect a material equipment as the time knew how to furnish. It consisted of five ships,—the “Trinidad” and “San Antonio,” each of 120 Spanish toneles, the “Concepcion,” of 90, the “Victoria,” of 85,—long famous as the one vessel which made the whole voyage,—and the “Santiago,” of 75. For the convenience of the translators this Spanish word toneles is generally rendered by the French word tonneaux and the English word tons. But in point of fact the tonele of Seville was one fifth larger than the tonelada of the north of Spain, which nearly corresponds to our ton; and the vessels of Magellan and Columbus were, in fact, so much larger than the size which is generally assigned to them in the popular histories.[1592]
