It was, however, the remarkable fortune of Magellan in this voyage to sail more than ten thousand miles and see but two of these islands, both of which were barren and uninhabited. He found no bottom close to the shore. At the second of the two islands he stopped to fish for sharks, and gave it the name “Shark’s Island,” or “Tiburones.” The crew were so impressed by their dismal welcome that they called the two “Desventuradas,” the “Unfortunate Islands.” These two islands, the first-born to Europe of the multitudes of the Pacific Ocean, cannot now be identified.[1610]
THE LADRONES.
[This fac-simile is made from the Paris edition of Amoretti’s Pigafetta, p. 62, and shows the catamaran of the natives.—Ed.]
On the 6th of March the voyagers at last saw two more small islands. Soon a number of small sails appeared, the islanders coming out to meet the ships. Their little boats had large triangular-shaped sails of matting, and they seemed to fly over the water. The Spanish seamen saw for the first time the curious catamarans of the natives of these waters.
Magellan was tempted to land at a third and larger island. This was either the one since known as Guahan, or that known as Rota; Magellan called it Ivagana. So many of the natives swarmed upon his ship, and they were so rapacious in stealing whatever they could lay their hands on, that he found himself almost at their mercy. They begged him to land, but stole the boat attached to the stern of his ship. At last Magellan did land, in a rage. He burned some of their huts, several of their boats, got back his own, and killed seven men.
The squadron, after this encounter, continued its westward course, followed by a hundred canoes. The savages now showed fish, as if they wished to trade; but the women wept and tore their hair, probably “because we had killed their husbands.”
To this group the Spaniards gave the name of “Ladrones, the robbers,” which it has ever since retained. After three hundred leagues more of westward sailing, the tired navigators, half starved and dying of scurvy, made the discovery of Zamal, now called Samar, the first of the group since known as the Philippines,—a name they took from Philip the Second. Magellan called them the Archipelago of St. Lazarus, because he first found how large a group it was on St. Lazarus’ day, the fifth Sunday in Lent.
In these islands the navigators were, at first, most cordially received. By means of a Malayan interpreter they were able to communicate with the natives. Before six weeks were over, with rapidity which may well have seemed miraculous, they had converted the king and many of the princes and people to what they deemed Christianity. But, alas! the six weeks ended in the defeat of the Spanish men-at-arms in a battle with a rival prince, in the death of Magellan and the murder of Serrano, who had been chosen as one of those who should take his place. The surviving Spaniards withdrew as well as they could from their exasperated allies.