No man living could better know what he needed for such a stupendous and unprecedented undertaking than Magellan, who had already been to the spicery of the Orient in the service of Albuquerque, the Portuguese Viceroy. Under the royal sanction, the dockyards of Seville were at his command. He repaired to Seville, and was there looked upon as one destined to harvest the wealth of the Indies.
But as soon as it became known in Portugal that Magellan was to lead a new expedition of discovery, the mistake that the King had made in rejecting the proposal of the lame soldier, to whom he had refused pension honors, became apparent. The court saw what this rejected man of positive purpose and invaluable knowledge of navigation might accomplish. Should his dreams be prophetic and his projects prove successful, the glory would go to Spain, and the King would be held responsible for another mistake like that which his predecessor had made in the case of Columbus.
What must the court of Portugal do? The hammers were flying in Seville on the ships loading for the voyage. Magellan was making up his crews. Spain had faith in him, and he had faith in himself; never a man had more.
Portugal must prevent the expedition. The Crown must appeal to Magellan to withdraw from it. The King must ask young King Charles to dismiss Magellan as an act of royal courtesy. If these efforts were not successful, it was argued that the expedition must be arrested by force, or Magellan must be murdered by secret spies of the court.
The fleet preparing was to consist of five ships with ample equipment. These were named the Trinidad, the San Antonio, of one hundred and twenty Spanish tons each; the Concepcion, of ninety Spanish tons; the Victoria, of eighty-five tons; and the Santiago, of seventy-five. The Victoria, the ship of destiny, was to circumnavigate the globe.
And now while the hammers were at work, the dull King of Portugal began to arouse himself to arrest the plan, and the court, seeing his spirit, acted with him.
In the bright days in Zaragoza Magellan had been warned that he was in danger of being assassinated. But he did not take alarm. As his project rose into public view at Seville he must have known that he was surrounded by spies, but he did not heed them; he kept right on, marching forward as itwere after the inspiration that had taken possession of his soul.
BEHAIM'S GLOBE. 1492.
There was an India House in Seville, composed of merchants, and these were favorable to the expedition. In Spain everything favored Magellan.
Aluaro da Costa was the Portuguese minister to the court of Spain. He plotted against Magellan, and sought an interview with young Charles in order to induce him to eliminate the Portuguese from the expedition. Charles was about to become a brother-in-law to Dom Manoel, and Aluaro da Costa could appeal to the King in this cause in many ways.
Full of diplomacy and craft, he met the King who had to weigh the prospect of gold and glory against this personal argument. Gold outweighed the family considerations, for Charles in his young days was a man of powerful ambitions.
Aluaro da Costa wrote to Dom Manoel a graphic account of this interview. It shows how politic ministers of state were in those days. We can not give the reader a clearer view of some of the obstacles against which Magellan had to contend in those perilous days in Spain than by citing Aluaro's account to Dom Manoel of his interview with young Charles V in his intrigue against Magellan:
"Sire: Concerning Ferdinand Magellan's affair, how much I have done and how I have labored, God knows, as I have written you at length; and now I have spoken upon the subject very stronglyto the King, putting before him all the inconveniences that in this case may arise, and also representing to him what an ugly matter it was, and how unusual for one King to receive the subjects of another King, his friend, contrary to his wish, a thing unheard of among cavaliers, and accounted both ill-judged and ill-seeming. Yet I had just put your Highness and your Highness's possessions at his service in Valladolid at the moment that, he was harboring these persons against your will. I begged him to consider that this was not the time to offend your Highness, the more so in an affair which was of so little importance and so uncertain; and that he would have plenty of subjects of his own and men to make discoveries when the time came, without availing himself of those malcontents of your Highness, whom your Highness could not fail to believe likely to labor more for your disservice than for anything else; also that his Highness had had until now so much to do in discovering his own kingdoms and dominions, and in settling them, that he ought not to turn his attention to these new affairs, from which dissensions and other matters, which may well be dispensed with, may result.
"I also presented to him the bad appearance that this would have at the very moment of the marriage—the ratification of friendship and affection. And also that it seemed to me that your Highness would much regret to learn that these men asked leave of him to return,[C]and that he didnot grant it, the which are two faults—the receiving them contrary to your desire, and the retaining them contrary to their own. And I begged of him, both for his own and for your Highness's sake, that he would do one of two things: either permit them to go, or put off the affair for this year, by which he would not lose much; and means might be taken whereby he might be obliged, and your Highness might not be offended, as you would be were this scheme carried out.
"He was so surprised, sire, at what I told him, that I also was surprised; but he replied to me with the best words in the world, saying that on no account did he wish to offend your Highness, and many other good words; and he suggested that I should speak to the Cardinal, and confide the whole matter to him.
"May the Lord increase the life and dominions of your Highness to his holy service. From Saragoca, Tuesday night, the 28th day of September.
"I kiss the hands of your Highness,"ALUARO DA COSTA."
Court intrigue against Magellan did not avail. There was one thing statecraft could do. It could set spies on Magellan on board his own ships. This it succeeded in doing.
There was in Spain at this time a Portuguese adventurer and navigator by the name of Estevan or Esteban Gormez—Stephen Gormez.
He was a student of navigation, and was restless to follow the examples of Columbus and Vascoda Gama. He had applied to the court of Spain—probably to Cardinal Ximenes, for a commission to go on a voyage of discovery and he had received a favorable answer, and was preparing to embark, when Magellan appeared at court and promised to find the Spice Islands by way of South America.
Magellan's scheme was so much larger and definite than that of Gormez that the court canceled its favors to the lesser plans, and Gormez had to abandon his prospects of sailing under the royal favors of Spain.
The eyes of Spain were now fixed on Magellan.
"I will find a way to the Spice Islands by South America or by the West," said Magellan to the ministers of the King, "or you may have my head."
These were bold words. Magellan had not only been to the Spice Islands, but he had gone out on the very voyage that discovered some of them. He had behaved heroically on the voyage. So his application to the court superseded the plan of Gormez and the latter sunk out of sight.
In his despondency at the failure of his plans, Gormez came to Magellan.
"My countryman," said Gormez, "your schemes have supplanted mine and turned my ships into air. I was the first to plan a voyage to the Moluccas out of the wake of hurricanes and monsoons. I do not feel that I have been treated rightly. Something surely is due to me."
Magellan was a man of generous impulses. He saw that Gormez had a case for moral appeal.
"My friend," said he, "you shall have a place in my expedition."
He could but think that the inspiration and knowledge of navigation of his countryman would be useful to him, and he pitied him for his disappointment, knowing how he himself would feel were his plans to be set aside.
So Gormez, the Portuguese, was made the pilot of the Antonio.
Magellan, had he reflected, must have seen that this man would carry with him envy and jealousy, passions that are poisons. But Estefano, or Esteban, or Stephen Gormez, took his place at the pilot house of the Antonio to follow the lantern of Magellan, but the hurt in his heart at being superseded never healed.
On the ships also was one Juan de Carthagena, captain of the Concepcion, a spy, and one of the "malapots" of the expedition. He was called thereedor, or inspector. He inspected Magellan, and Magellan inspected him, as we shall see.
And now the flags arose in the clear air, and the joyful fleet cleared the Guadalquivir and leaped into the arms of the open sea, amid the acclamations of gay grandees and a happy people.
It was September 20th when the anchors were lifted, of which probably one was destined to comeback in triumph after an immortal voyage that encompassed the earth, and gave to Spain a new ocean.
And the King of Portugal ordered the coat of arms to be torn down from the house of Magellan, as we have pictured at the beginning of our narrative.
The expedition moved down its western way, over the track of Columbus. It had left poor Ruy Faleiro behind—he who had seen the progress of it all in the fitful light of a disordered vision. He had not relinquished his own high aims. He hoped to follow Magellan with an expedition of his own.
The ships were furnished with "castles," fore and aft; they carried gay pennons and were richly stored. The artillery comprised sixty-two culverins and smaller ordnance. Five thousand or more pounds of powder were shut up in the magazines, and a large provision was made for trading with the natives—looking glasses for women, velvets, knives, and ivory ornaments, and twenty thousand bells.
Magellan's ship bore a lantern, swung high in the air amid the thickly corded rigging, which the other ships were to keep in view in the night. What a history had this lantern! It gleamed out on the night track of a new world, a pillar of fire that encompassed the earth as in the orbit of a star.
The fleet had fifteen days of good weather and passed Cape Verde Islands, running along the African coast.
But the fleet carried with it disloyal hearts. The Portuguese prejudice against Magellan sailed with it. The Spanish sailors distrusted the loyalty of Magellan to Spain.
The commander was a man of great heart, chivalrous, and noble, but he could be firm when there arose an occasion for it.
After leaving Teneriffe Magellan altered his course.
Juan de Carthagena, captain of the San Antonio, "the inspector" and a spy, demanded of Magellan why he had done so.
"Sir," said Magellan, "you are to follow my flag by day and my lantern by night, and to ask me no further questions."
Carthagena demanded that Magellan should report his plans to him. Finding that the Admiral was bent on conducting his own expedition, he began to act sullenly, and to disobey orders.
Again the captain of the San Antonio demanded of Magellan that he should communicate his orders in regard to the course of steerage to him. He did this by virtue of his office as inspector. He showed a very haughty and disloyal spirit, and if this were not to be checked, the success of the expedition would be imperilled. He was abetted by PedroSanches, a priest. Magellan saw treason already brewing, and he determined to stamp it out at once.
He went to Carthagena, and laid his hands on him.
"Captain, you are my prisoner."
The astonished captain cried out to his men:
"Unhand me—seize Magellan!"
Carthagena had been a priest, and he had great personal influence, but the men did not obey him.
"Lead him to the stocks and secure him there," ordered Magellan.
The order was obeyed. The fallen inspector was committed to the charge of the Captain of the Victoria, and another officer was given charge of the San Antonio.
"When we reach land Juan de Carthagena shall be marooned," was the sentence imposed upon the inspector. A like sentence was imposed upon Sanches.
It touched the hearts of the crews to hear this sentence. What would become of the two priests, were it to be executed? Would they fall prey to the natives, or perhaps win the hearts of the people and be made chiefs among them?
There was a pilot on board the ship who sympathized with the mutineers, but who had close lips, Esteban Gormez, of whom we have spoken. Were the two mutineers to be marooned he would be glad to rescue them.
He had been discontented since the day that his own plans for an expedition had been superseded by those of Magellan.
His discontentment had grown. He became critical as the fleet sailed on. Every day reminded him of what he might have done, if he could have only secured the opportunity.
A disloyal heart in any enterprise is a very perilous influence. A wooden horse in Troy is more dangerous than an army outside.
Magellan in Gormez had a subtle foe, and that foe was his own countryman.
This man probably could not brook to see his rival add the domains of the sea to the crowns of Juana and of Charles, though he himself had sought to do the same thing. Magnanimous he could not be. Discovery for the sake of discovery had little meaning for him, but only discovery for his own advancement and glory.
He became jealous of Mesquita, Magellan'scousin, now master of the Antonio, who is thought to have advised severe measures to suppress conspiracy.
Night after night the ships followed.Night after night the ships followed Magellan's lantern.
Night after night he sat down under the moon and stars, and brooded over his fancied neglect, and dreamed. Night after night the ships followed the lantern of Magellan, and the wonders of the sea grew; but to him it were better that no discoveries should be made than that such achievements wereto go to the glory of Spain through the pilotage of Magellan.
Discontent grows; jealousy grows as one broods over fancied wrongs, and sees the prospects of a rival's success. So it was with Gormez. In his heart he did not wish the expedition to succeed. He was ambitious to lead such an enterprise himself, which he also did, at last, sailing along Massachusetts Bay and giving it its first name.
When Gormez had heard that the two disloyal men were to be marooned, his feelings rose against Magellan. That they deserved their sentence he well knew, but they were opposed to Magellan, as was his own heart. He would have been glad to have saved them from the execution of their sentence, but he did not know how to do it.
"I will rescue them if ever I can," he thought. "This expedition is not for the glory of Portugal."
The ships sailed on, bearing the two conspirators to some place where they could be marooned.
Let us turn from this dark scene to one of a more hopeful spirit.
One day, as we may picture the scene, the sea lay unruffled like a mirror. The ships drifted near each other, and night came on after a sudden twilight, and the stars seemed like liquid lights shot forth or let down from some ethereal fountain. The Southern Cross shone so clearly as to uplift the eyes of the sailors. The ships were becalmed.
Boats began to ply between the ships, and the officers of the Trinity, Santiago, Victoria, and Concepcion assembled under the awning of the San Antonio, Mesquita's ship, of one hundred and twenty tons.
Mesquita, as we have said, was a cousin of Magellan, and so the Antonio seemed a friendly ship.
Magellan sat down by his cousin. The lantern was going out; its force was spent.
"We must get a new kind of lantern," said Magellan to his cousin, "and a code of signal lights. We need a lantern that is something more steady and durable than a faggot of wood."
"I have here a new farol," he continued, the men listening with intent ears. "Here it is, and I wonder, my sailors, how far your eyes will follow it."
"All loyal hearts will follow it," said Mesquita, "wherever it may go."
Gormez frowned. His heart was bitter.
There rose up an officer named Del Cano, and stood hat in hand. All eyes were fixed upon him.
"May it please you, Admiral," he said, "to receive a word from me. I will follow the new farol wherever it may lead me. I have ceased to count my own life in this cause."
Gormez frowned again.
"Del Cano," said the Admiral, "I believe in you.You have a true heart. If I should fall see that this farol goes back to Spain!"
Del Cano bowed.
Arms granted to Sebastian Del Cano,Captain of the Victoria, the first vesselthat circumnavigated the globe.
Magellan showed the new lantern to the officers. It was made of beaten reeds that had been soaked in water, and dried in the sun. It would hold light long, and carry it strongly and steadily.
"All the ships must have these new farols," said he, "and I must teach you how to signal by them."
He stood up. The moon was rising, and the dusky, purple air became luminous.
He held the farol in his hand.
"Two lights," he said, "shall mean for the ship to tack.
"Three lights that the sails shall be lowered. Four, that they shall stop.
"Five lights, or more, that we have discovered land, when the flagship shall discharge a bombard. Follow my lantern always; you can trust itwherever it may fare. My farol shall be my star!"
The men sat there long. There sprung up a breeze at last, and the sea began to ripple in the moon.
Most expeditions that have made successful achievements have carried men of great hope. Such a man was Del Cano. He was loyal to the heart of Magellan; and happy is any leader who has such a companion, whose steel rings true.
Magellan hung out the farol. The sails were spread, and the fleet passed on over the solitary ocean.
Whither?
The ships moved on, bearing the hopeful Del Cano, the frowning Gormez, the two prisoners, and the happy Italian Pigafetta.
Our next chapters will be a series of wonder taleswhich reveal the South Temperate Zone and its inhabitants as they appeared to the young and susceptible Italian, Pigafetta, nearly four hundred years ago.
Interior of the Alcázar of Seville.
Pigafetta, as we have shown, desired to accompany Magellan that he might "see the wonders of the new lands." He saw them indeed, and he painted them with his pen so vividly that they will always live. We get our first views of the strange inhabitants of the Southern regions of the New World from him. We are to follow his narratives, as printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, making some omissions, and changing its form in part, hopingthereby to render the text more clear. We closely follow the spirit of events. Pigafetta addresses his narrative "To the very illustrious and very excellent Lord Philip de Villiers Lisleaden, Grand Master of Rhodes," of whom we have spoken.
He says, by way of introduction:
"Finding myself in Spain in the year of the nativity of our Lord, 1519, at the court of the most serene King of the Romans (Charles V), and learning there of the great and awful things of the ocean world, I desired to make a voyage to unknown seas, and to see with my own eyes some of the wonderful things of which I had heard.
"I heard that there was in the city of Seville an armada (armade) of five ships, which were ready to perform a long voyage in order to find the shortest way to the Islands of Moluco (Molucca) from whence came the spices. The Captain General of this armada was Ferdinand de Magagleanes (Magellan), a Portuguese gentleman, who had made several voyages on the ocean. He was an honorable man. So I set out from Barcelona, where the Emperor was, and traveled by land to the said city of Seville, and secured a place in the expedition.
"The Captain General published ordinances for the guidance of the voyage.
"He willed that the vessel on which he himself was should go before the other vessels, and that the others should keep in sight of it. Therefore he hungby night over the deck a torch or faggot of burning wood which he called a farol (lantern), which burned all night, so that the ships might not lose sight of his own.
"He arranged to set other lights as signals in the night. When he wished to make a tack on account of a change of weather he set two lights. Three lights signified "faster." Four lights signified to stop and turn. When he discovered a rock or land, it was to be signalled by other lights.
"He ordered that three watches should be kept at night.
"On Monday, St. Lawrence Day, August 10th, the five ships with the crews to the number of two hundred and thirty-seven[D]set sail from the noble city of Seville, amid the firing of artillery and came to the end of the river Guadalcavir (Guadalquivir). We stopped near the Cape St. Vinconet to make further provisions for the voyage.
"We went to hear mass on shore. There the Captain commanded that all the men should confess before going any further.
"On Tuesday, September 20th, we set sail from St. Lucar.
"We came to Canaria (Canaries)."
This account repeats in a different way a part of the facts we have given.
Here the young Italian relates his first story, which is substantially as follows:
THE FOUNTAIN TREE.
"Among the isles of the Canaria there is one which is very wonderful. There is not to be found a single drop of water which flows from any fountain or river.
"But in this rainless land at the hour of midday, every day, there descends a cloud from the sky which envelops a large tree which grows on this island.
"The cloud falls upon the leaves of the tree, when a great abundance of water distills from the leaves. The tree flows, and soon at the foot of it there gathers a fountain.
"The people of the island come to drink of the water. The animals and the birds refresh themselves there."
The story is true so far as relates to the fountain tree. But that a cloud comes down from Heaven at midday to refresh it, is not an exact statement of the manner in which this tree furnishes water to the sterile island. The young Italian writer describes the tree as he saw it, and as it seemed to be. The tree that supplies water as from a natural fountain may still be found.
With such a tree to begin his researches on the sea, Pigafetta must have been impatient to proceed alongthe marvelous ocean way. All the world was to him as he saw it; he seldom stopped to inquire if appearances were true.
With men like Del Cano on board, who had ears for a marvelous story, his life in the early part of the voyage must have been a very happy one. Wonder followed wonder....
"Monday, the 3d of October," says the interesting Italian, "we set sail making the course auster, which the Levantine mariners call siroc (southeast) entering into the ocean sea. We passed Cape Verde and navigated by the coast of Guinea of Ethiopia, where there is a mountain called Sierra Leona. A rain fell, and the storm lasted sixty days."
They came to waters full of sharks, which had terrible teeth, and which ate all the people whom they found in the sea, alive or dead. These were caught by a hook of iron.
ST. ELMO'S FIRE.
Here good St. Anseline met the ships; in the fancy of the mariners of the time, this airy saint appeared to favored ships in the night, and fair weather always followed the saintly apparition. He came in a robe of fire, and stood and shone on the top of the high masts or on the spars. The sailors hailed him with joy, as one sent from Heaven. Happy was the ship on the tropic sea upon whose rigging the form of good St. Anseline appeared inthe night, and especially in the night of cloud and storm!
To the joy of all the ships good St. Anseline came down one night to the fleet of Magellan. The poetical Italian tells the story in this way:
"During these storms, the body of St. Anseline appeared to us several times.
"One night among others he came when it was very dark on account of bad weather. He came in the form of a fire lighted at the summit of the main mast, and remained there near two hours and a half.
"This comforted us greatly, for we were in tears, looking for the hour when we should perish.
"When the holy light was going away from us it shed forth so great a brilliancy in our eyes that we were like people blinded for near a quarter of an hour. We called out for mercy.
"Nobody expected to escape from the storm.
"It is to be noted that all and as many times as the light which represents St. Anseline shows itself upon a vessel which is in a storm at sea, that vessel never is lost.
"As soon as this light had departed the sea grew calmer and the wings of divers kinds of birds appeared."
Beneficent St. Anseline who manifested his presence by illuminations in the mast and spars in equatorial waters! The beautiful illusion has long been explained and dispelled. It is but an electricfire at the end of atmospheric disturbances. But it is usually a correct prophecy of fair skies and smooth seas. It is now called St. Elmo's Fire.
If ever there was an expedition that the saint of the mariners might favor it would seem to be this.
One can almost envy the pious Italian his imagination in the clearing tropic night.
His next wonders were the sea birds, of which there were flocks and clouds, and with them appeared flying fish.
The ships were now off the coasts of Brazil and stopped at Verzim.
The people of the Brazilian Verzim were accustomed to paint themselves "by fire." We do not clearly understand how this painting "by fire" was done. The art of scorching has perished with them. But besides these indelible marks, the men had three holes in their lower lips, and hung in them, after the manner of earrings, small round ornamental stones, about a finger in length. The men did not shave, for theyplucked outtheir beard.
Their only clothing was a circle of parrot feathers. Howterriblygay they must have looked! And yet such customs were hardly more ridiculous than those of later times, and more civilized countries—earrings, beauty patches, plume, and snuffboxes.
It was the land of parrots. The most beautiful and intelligent parrots still come from Brazil. Columbussaw parrots in "clouds" over the islands of the Antilles.
Parrots were not expensive in these equatorial forests at this time. "The natives," says Pigafetta, "give eight or ten parrots for a looking glass," and as a looking glass would multiply the picture of parrots indefinitely the Verzimans must have thought the exchange a marvelous bargain.
If Brazilian parrots were cheap and so charming as likely to become an embarrassment of riches, so were the little cat monkeys which delighted the men. These little creatures, which looked like miniature lions, still delight the visitors to the coast of Brazil, but they shiver up when brought to the northern atmospheres and piteously cry for the home lands of the sun again.
Very curious birds began to excite the surprise of the voyagers, among such as had a "beak like a spoon," and "no tongue."
The markets of the new land displayed another commodity far more surprising than birds or animals, young slaves, which were offered for sale by their own families. So a family who had many children was rich. It cost a hatchet to buy one of these, and for a hatchet and a knife one might buytwo.
The people made bread of the "marrow of trees," and carried victuals in baskets on their heads.
Masses were said for the crews on shore, and the natives knelt down with the men.
The people were so pleased with their visitors that they built a common house for them.
A pleasing illusion had made the sailors most welcome here.
It had not rained in Verzim for two months when the expedition landed. The people were looking to the heavens for mercy day by day. But the copper sun rose as often in a clear sky.
At last Magellan's sails appeared in the burning air. The sight of the sails was followed by that of clouds.
The people thought that the fleet had brought the clouds with them.
"They come from Heaven," said they of the adventurers.
So when they were exhorted to accept Christianity, they at once fell down before the uplifted crosses and believed the teachings of the sea heroes who could command the clouds and bring rain to the parched land.
They thought the ships were gods and the small boats the children of such beings, and when the latter approached the ships they imagined that they were children come home to their fathers or mothers.
The ships remained in this delightful country of Verzim thirteen weeks. Pigafetta and Del Cano must have thought that life here was ideal. What scenes would follow?
Other things were there on the wonderful Brazilian coast. There the mariners traded in them and were refreshed with a delicious fruit, called pique—pineapples.
They came to the knowledge here of a nutritious ground fruit called battate. "This," says our Italian, "has the taste of a chestnut and is the length of a shuttle." These ground fruits were potatoes.
The people here seem to have been very liberal in trading.
They would give six fowls for a knife—well they might do so, as they used stone implements.
They gavetwogeese for a comb—here they were both generous and wise.
They gave as great a quantity of fish as ten men could eat for a pair of scissors.
And for a bell, they gave a whole basket full of potatoes (battate).
Marvelous indeed as was this same country ofVerzim, it also abounded in the conditions and atmospheres of long life.
"Some of these people," says our Italian chronicler, "live to be a hundred or a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and forty or more. They wear little clothing."
Which speaks well for pineapples, potatoes, and easy dress.
"They sleep on cotton nets, which are fastened on large timbers, and stretch from one end of the house to another."
It is good to sleep in ample ventilation. We do not wonder that many of the people passed a hundred years.
The boats of these people were as simple as their open houses.
"These are not made with iron instruments, for there are none, but with stones."
The canoes were dug out of one long tree—some giant growth of the forest which would convey from thirty to forty men. The paddles for these canoes resembled shovels. The rowers were usually black men.
The people ate human flesh, but only at feasts of triumph. They then served up their enemies.
Pigafetta draws the following grewsome picture:
"They do not eat up the whole body of a man whom they take prisoner; they eat him bit by bit, and for fear that he should be spoiled, they cut himup into pieces, which they set to dry before the chimney. They eat this day by day, so as to keep in mind the memory of their enemy."
This was indeed the sweet food of revenge, and as barbarous as it seems, the spirit of revenge secretly cherished is hardly less unworthy when it finds expression in words that are bitter, if not carnal.
The region abounded with bright birds, yet with all these delights, and pineapples and potatoes, there fell great rains. So there were shadows in the sunlands.
We can fancy Pigafetta relating his discoveries on the shore to a susceptible spirit, like Del Cano, and writing an account of them day by day in his immortal journal.
These strange adventures by sea and on land which so greatly interested the Italian Knight Pigafetta, our historian, do not seem to have greatly impressed the mind of Magellan. The lands had been sighted before. His whole soul was bent on one purpose—not on rediscovery, but on discovery. He was sailing now where other keels had been. It was his purpose to find new ways for the world to follow over unknown seas. His heart could find no full satisfaction but in water courses that sails had never swept; a new way to the Moluccas that no ship had ever broken.
Notwithstanding the friendly spirit and liberal patronage of the Emperor, he still stood against theworld. He represented a cast-out name. His own countrymen, on his own ships in the long delays on the voyage to unknown seas, were plotting against him.
Let us recall in fancy a night scene as the ships lay on the waters of the meridional world. Magellan sits alone in one of the castles of the ship and looks out on the phosphorescent sea. The stars above him shine in a clear splendor, and are reflected in the sea. The sky seems to be in the waters; the waters are a mirror of the sky. Among the clear stars the Southern Cross, always vivid, here rises high. Magellan lifts to it his eye, and feels the religious inspiration of the suggestion. He is a son of the Church, and he holds that all discoveries are to be made for the glory of the Cross.
On the distant shores palms rise in armies in the dusky air. The shores are silent. When arose the tall people that inhabited them?
Magellan dreams: he wonders at himself, at his inward commission; at his cast-out name and great opportunity.
One of his trusty friends comes to him; he is a Spaniard and his disquieting words break the serenity of the scene.
"Captain General, it hurts my soul to say it, but there is disloyalty on the ships—it is everywhere."
"I seem to feel the atmospheres of it," said Magellan."Why should it be? The sea and the sky promise us success. Who are disloyal?"
"Captain General, they are your own countrymen!"
"And why do they plot treason under the Cross of discovery?"
"Captain General, if the ocean open new ways before you, and you should achieve all of which you dream, they will have little share in the glory; you are facing stormy waters and perils unknown, not for Portugal, but for Spain."
"Not for Spain alone, nor for Portugal, but for the glory of the Cross, and the good of all the world. A divine will leads me, and sustains me, and directs me. I am not seeking gold or fame or any personal advantage; my soul goes forth to reveal the wonders and the benevolence of Providence to the heart of the whole world. I go alone, and feel the loneliness of my lot. I left all that I had to make this expedition. It is my purpose to discover unknown seas. Joy, rapture, and recompense would come to me, beyond wealth or fame, could my eyes be the first to see a new ocean world, and to carry back the knowledge of it to all nations. What happiness would it be to me to ride on uncharted tides! My friend, you are loyal to me?"
"Captain General, I am loyal, and the Spanish sailors are loyal; it is your own men who plot in dark corners to bring your plans to naught."
In the shadow of one of the tall castles of another ship sit a band of idle men. They are Portuguese.
One of them, who seems to lead the minds of the others, is whittling, and after a long silence says:
"We do not know where we are going, and wherever we are going, we are Portuguese and are slaves to Spain."
"Ay, ay," returned an old Portuguese sailor, "and when we go back again, should that ever be, the profit to us will be little at the India House."
"Right," answered a number of voices, and one ventured to say:
"Magellan, after all, may be mad, like his old companion, the astronomer. Both came from the same place in Portugal."
Some of the officers had schemes of their own.
But the ships crept on and on, along the Brazilian coast, where the flag of Spain and the farol guided them in the track of the Admiral they followed. Night after night the lantern of the flagship gleamed in the air, moving toward cooler waters under the Southern Cross.
And in Magellan's heart was a single purpose, and he anticipated the joy of a great discovery, as a revelation that would answer the prophetic light that shone like a star in his own spiritual vision. On, and on!
The narrative of Pigafetta, the Knight of Rhodes, has much curious lore in regard to giants. At a place on the coast, formerly called Cape St. Mary, the first of these giants appeared.
He was a leader of a tribe "who ate human flesh." The lively Knight of Rhodes informs us that this man, who towered above his fellows, "had a voice like a bull."
He came to one of the captains' ships and asked—of course in sign language; for a man may have a "voice like a bull" and yet fail to be understood in cannibal tongues—if he might come on board the ship and bring his fellows with him.
He left a quantity of goods on the shore. While he was negotiating at the ships, his people on the shore, who seem to have been unusually wise and prudent, began to remove the stores of goods from exposure to danger to a kind of castle at some distance.
The officers of the ships grew inpatient when they saw the tempting goods being thus removed. So they landed a hundred men to recover the goods, which they seemed to have deemed theirs after the "right of discovery."
The men began to run after the provident natives, when they became greatly surprised. The natives seemed toflyover the ground, and leave them behind at a humiliating distance.
"They did more in one step than we could do at a bound," says Pigafetta, Knight of Rhodes.
The giant people here showed that there was need to approach them with caution. Some time before, these "Canibali" had captured a Spanish sea captain and sixty men, who had landed and pastured inland to make discoveries. They ate them all—a fearful feast!
Our voyagers probably had no desire to go too far inland in view of such a warning; so they returned and proceeded on their course toward the antarctic pole.
They discovered two small islands, which had more agreeable inhabitants than the land of Cape St. Mary. "These islands," says our good Knight Pigafetta, "were full of geese and goslings and sea wolves." He adds: "We loaded five ships with them for an hour."
The Knight has also left us the following curious picture of the birds, which must havebeen very much surprised at being so rudely disturbed:
"The geese are black, and have feathers all over the body of the same size and shape; and they do not fly but live on fish, and they were so fat that we did not pluck them, but skinned them. They have beaks like that of a crow.
"The sea wolves of these islands are of many colors and of the size and thickness of a calf, and have a head like a calf, and ears small and round. They have teeth but no legs, but feet joining close to the body, which resemble a human hand. They have small nails to their feet, and skin between the fingers like geese.
"If these animals could run they would be very bad and cruel, but they do not stir from the waters, and swim and live upon fish."
This seems to be a very admirable description of a sea wolf, O Knight of Rhodes!
A great storm came down upon the ships here. But, marvelous to relate, the fiery body of good St. Anselmo or Anseline "appeared to us, and immediately the storm ceased."
The fleet sailed away again and came to Port St. Julian, the true land of the giants, of which place our Knight has some very interesting stories to tell.
The fleet entered the Port of St. Julian. It waswinter, and for a long time no human beings appeared.
The world according to the Ptolemy of 1548.
Suddenly one day a most extraordinary sight met the eyes of some of the adventurers. Our Knight's description of this being is very vivid. He says:
"One day, without any one's expecting it, we saw a giant who was on the shore of the sea, quite naked, and was dancing and leaping and singing, and, while singing, he put sand and dust on his head." The Captain of one of the ships, who first saw this extraordinary creature, said to one of the sailors:
"Go and meet him. He dances and sings as a sign of friendship. You must do the same. Beckon him to me."
The Captain himself was on a little island.
The scene that followed must have been comical indeed.
The giant danced and sung and sprinkled his head with sand. The sailor did the same, danced and sang, and the two approached each other.
So the giant was made to think that he was among friends. The sailor led him on to the island, where he met the Captain.
But the lively giant now began to be afraid in the presence of a new people. He seemed to wish to ask them who they were and whence they came. Then an answer to this question came to him. He looked up to the sky and pointed upward with one finger, saying by signs:
"Did you come down from Heaven?"
"He was so tall," says our descriptive Knight, "that the tallest of us only came up to his waist." He was probably hardly taller than many of his race. Falkner, in his account of Patagonia (1774), says that he saw men there seven feet and a half high.
Of this dancing giant our historian gives a further description in lively and interesting colors:
"He had a large face painted red all around, and around his eyes were rings of yellow, and he had two hearts painted on his cheeks. He had but little hair on the top of his head, which was painted white.
"When he was brought before the Captain, he had thrown over him the skin of a certain beast, which skin was very carefully sewed."
The dancing giant
The skin was that of a guanaco, a kind of llama.
Our historian thus describes the guanaco:
"This beast has its head and ears of the size of a mule, and the neck and body of the fashion of a camel, the legs of a deer, and the tail of a horse, and it neighs like a horse. There are great numbers of these animals in the same place."
Patagonia is the land of these strange animals, which are still found there, and are hunted by Indians who lie upon the ground with drawn bows. The animal has great curiosity, and he draws near this living snare and is killed. When tame he is an interesting companion, but if angered he suddenly emits a great quantity of offensive liquid from his nose, like a half bucket of water, which he throws upon the offender. He is the South American camel.
This giant when he made himself ready to meet the adventurers had shoes of leather or skins, and carried a bow made of the "gut of a beast" and a bundle of cane arrows feathered, at the end of which were small white stones.
"The Captain caused food and drink to be given to him.
"Then the crew began to show him some of the presents they had brought, among them a looking-glass."
When the giant saw himself in the glass he was filled with wonder. It was as though his own ghost had appeared to him. There were men behind him curious to see how he would be affected. He leaped back with such force as to tumble them over. They were but pigmies to him.
The Captain now gave the giant two bells, a mirror, a comb, and beads, and sent him back to the shore.
One of the giants of the country saw him coming back, ran to the habitation of the giants, and summoned the giant people to the shore to meet him. They came, almost naked, leaping and singing, and pointing upward to Heaven. What a sight it must have been!
The women were laden with goods. The sailors beckoned them to the ships to trade.
Queerly enough, the women brought with them a baby or little guanaco, which they led by a string. Our historian learned that when these giants wished to capture the old guanacos or camels they fastened one of the little guanacos to a bush, and the old ones came to the bush to play with it, and so became an easy prey.
"Six days afterward, our people going to cut wood," writes the Knight, "saw another giant, who raised his hands toward Heaven.
"When the Captain General came to know of it, he sent to fetch him with his ship's boat, and broughthim to one of the little islands in the port. This giant was of a better disposition than the other, and was a gracious and amiable person, he loved to dance and leap. When he leaped, he caused the earth to sink to a palm's depth at the place where his feet touched."
The good giant remained for a time with the adventurers. They gave him the name of John. They learned him to pronounce the name of Jesus.
"Say Pater Noster," said they.
"Pater Noster," said the giant.
"Say Ave Maria," said the men.
"Ave Maria," said the susceptible giant.
They made him presents when he went away, among them some of the many tinkling bells.
"We must capture some of these people," said the Captain, "and take them to Spain for wonders."
So the explorers began to study how to secure some interesting specimens of these tall people, to excite the wonder of the people of Spain.
The attempts to capture wild giants greatly interested Pigafetta.
Our historian says that it was "done by gentle and cunning means, for otherwise they would have done a hurt to some of our men."
One day some sailors saw four giants hidden in some bushes, and they were unarmed. They brought these into the power of the Captain. Two of them were young, and such as would excite admiration anywhere for their noble development.
They gave these two lusty young Herculeses as many knives, mirrors, bells, and trinkets as they could hold in their hands, and while the delighted youths were thus abounding in riches, the Captain said:
"Now show them the iron fetters."
The two youths could but wonder at these when they were brought.
The Captain ordered that the fetters be presented to them.
But their hands were already full. What could they do with them? Where could they put them?
The Captain signified to them that he would ornament their feet with the fetters. To this they consented.
So the fetters were put on the feet of each of them, like necklaces or rings, but when the young giants saw a blacksmith bring a hammer and rivet the fetters, they began to be distrustful and presently greatly agitated. They tried to walk, but they could not move.
Our historian thus describes their fury when they saw that they were helplessly bound:
"Nevertheless when they saw the trick which had been played on them they began to be enraged, and to foam like bulls, crying out to thedevilto help them." We do not see why our Knight should have taken this view of the case; we would think that two human beings who had been so treacherously deceived, might have been regarded as appealing to the Deity of justice.
"The hands of the other two giants were bound," says the original narrative, "but it was with great difficulty; then the Captain sent them back on shore, with nine of his men to conduct them, and to bring the wife of one of those who had remained in irons, because he regretted her greatly." This last touch gives us a very favorable view of this young giant.
But on being conducted away, one of the twogiants who were to be liberated, untied his hands and escaped. As soon as he found that he was free, his feet were picked up nimbly indeed. He flew, as it were, his long strides leaving his late captors far behind him. He had no heart to trust Europeans again. He rushed to his native town, but he found only the women there, who must have been greatly alarmed; the men had gone to hunt.
He rushed after the hunters to tell them how his companions had been betrayed.
What became of the other giant whose hands were bound? He struggled, too, to break the cords, seeing which, one of the men struck him on the head. He became quiet when he saw that he was helpless, and led the men to the giant's town where the women and children were.
The men concluded to pass the night there, as it was near night and everything there looked harmless and inviting.
But during the night the other giant who had gone to meet the hunters returned with his companions. These saw the bruised head of the giant who had also been bound, and warned the women who began to run. We are told that the youngest "ran faster than the biggest" and that the men "ran faster than horses," at which we can not wonder. The fleeing giant shot one of the men from the ships, and he was buried there on shore. Thepoor giant in irons who had lamented for his wife probably never saw the giantess again.
The methods of treating sickness in the town of the giants were curious. For an emetic one ran a stick down his throat. For a headache, one cut a gash on the forehead, not unlike the old method of bleeding. The philosophy of this latter treatment was interesting—blood did not remain with pain, and pain departed with blood—quite true; white people have advanced theories as conclusive.
"When one of them dies," says our Knight, "ten devils appear and dance around the dead man." One of the poor giants who was forced to remain on board said he had seen devils with horns, and hair that fell to their feet, who spouted fire. There seems to be the color of the European imagination in this statement.
The giants lived on raw meat, thistles, and sweet root, and one of them drank a "bucket of water" at a time.
The expedition remained at St. Julian five months, and acquired much information about the country from the captive giants with whom they learned to talk by sign language.
They here set up a cross on a mountain and took possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain. They called the signal elevation where they planted the cross the Mount of Christ.
The primitive people of the shores of Brazil andPatagonia delighted in exciting the wonder of their visitors. Many of these people who thought that the Europeans had come down from the sky, where they conceived all life must be wonderful indeed, liked to show them some of the feats that the people of the earth could do. The people who came down from the sky they reasoned had great wisdom in sailing the seas, but they were not giants. They could trail a lantern along the sea in the night air in some unaccountable way, but they did not know how to run with flying feet on the land or how to wing arrows with unerring aim into the sky and sea.
One day there came from a company of the primitive people, a champion in an art of which the Europeans could have never heard. They had seen these people run, leap, and vault with almost magic power, but they had never seen one who could make a tube of himself.
This new champion approached the men in the usual way, inviting attention. He carried in his hand an arrow which was a cubit and a half long.
He tilted it, opened his great mouth to receive it, dropped it into his throat, when, amid muscular contortions, it began to descend. The sailors watched him with amazement as it went down. It disappeared at last, having, as we are told, descended to the "bottom of his stomach." It seemed to cause him no pain.
Presently the quiver began to appear again. Thelong arrow slowly rose out of the human tube which the man had made of himself, and dropped into his hand at last, the whole being performed by muscular movement.
He must have been delighted at the sensation which this mental control over the muscles of digestion had produced. It was less strange that the arrow should have gone down than that it should have come up again.
Such feats as these entertained the sailors from time to time when they were on shore. Pigafetta was now seeing the "wonders of the world" indeed.
Magellan's mind was given to the more serious problems of the voyage.
The Antarctic pole star now rose to his view. It was cold. Magellan saw that the voyage would be likely to last long.
Not only the Portuguese came to distrust him, but some of the Spanish sailors caught the infection of the deleterious atmosphere. They reasoned differently from the Portuguese.
"The Admiral is a native of Portugal," said they, "and though the Portuguese court rejected him, he will be sure in the end to be true to his own people and King. He will never allow the glory of his discoveries to go to Spain."
Some of them came to him to say that the wind blew cold, that the sea was full of perils, that nothingbut disaster could come by pushing on into the sea where they were tending.
"Turn south," said they.
The answer of Magellan was royal and loyal. We give it in what, from what was reported of it, must be in his own thought, and very nearly his own words.
"Comrades, my course was laid down by Cæsar (the King) himself. I—will—not—depart—from—it—in—any—degree. I will open to Cæsar an unknown world."
Days of mutiny came in the cold waters.
The spirit of disloyalty that had found expression in the inspector broke out anew at Port St. Julian. It spread through the officers and crews of three of the ships. These caused to be published the resolution that they would sail no farther.
"You are leading us to destruction," said the mutineers.
Luis de Mendoza, Captain of the Victoria, the treasurer of the expedition, was a leader of the mutiny. Another disturbing spirit was Gasper de Queixada, Captain of the Concepcion.
Magellan, of the kind heart, had, as we have seen, the resolution to meet emergencies. This expedition was his life. It must not be opposed, hindered, or thwarted. He lived in his purpose. He must stamp out the mutiny. He no more used gentle and courteous words. He thundered his will.
One day Ambrosia Fernandez, his constable, came to him, and said:
"Three crews are ready to mutiny, to force you to go back."
Magellan saw that he must make the leaders of these ships his prisoners, or that he would become theirs.
"Constable," he said, "pick out sixty trusty men and arm them well. Go with them on board the treasurer's ship, and arrest Mendoza and lay him dead on the deck."
The fleet was moored in line. It was flood tide, and Mendoza's ship rode astern of Magellan's, and the ship of Queixada, ahead.
Magellan prepared his own crew to face the consequences of a tragedy should one occur. He ordered his hawser to be attached to the cable, and called his crew to arms.
When the flood tide was at its height, Fernandez, the constable, prepared to execute his order.
He appeared before the ship of the mutinous Mendoza, and asked to be received on board.
"Back to your own ship," said the mutineer. "I command the Victoria."
"But we are few against many," said the constable, "and I have a message from the Admiral which I must deliver."
He was helped on board the Victoria.
His feet had no sooner touched the deck than he seized Mendoza.
"I arrest you in the name of the Emperor."
The armed men that the constable had left on the boat rushed on board.
The crew of the Victoria, stood aghast. They saw the power of the Admiral's mind.
Magellan brought his ship alongside the Victoria.
He led his armed crew on board the Victoria, and halted before a terrible scene. Mendoza had been stabbed by the constable, and the crew of the Victoria plead for mercy, and promised to be loyal to the Admiral.
In this hour of tragedy and terror Magellan bore his ship around to Queixada's, and made the officers and crew of the Concepcion his prisoners. The leaders of the mutiny were executed. It was a necessity.
Magellan caused also the sentence he had imposed on the inspector and his accomplice to be carried out here.
Carthagena and Sanches were led from their prison to the shore.
As the sails were being lifted to depart, they were marooned—left with some provisions, among which were some bottles of wine, on the desert shore.
There were hearts that pitied them as the ships sailed away. There wasonewho plotted to rescue them. It was Gormez.
They left them some biscuits with the bottles of wine.
"It is the last bread they will ever eat," said their companions.
"And the last wine that they will ever drink," said a loyal priest on board.
But there was one on board that shook his head.
If he could have his will the two would eat bread and drink wine again in the convents of beautiful Seville.
The execution of the disloyal Spaniards again awakened the jealousy of Gormez. He probably began to plan about this time to separate the Antonio from the expedition, and lead her back to Spain. His heart was with the inspector and friar far away on the desolate shore.
The ships sailed away, and the marooned priests saw them disappear.
"They were cast aside for opposing a madman," reasoned Gormez. "Magellan is no fit leader of an expedition. If I had full command of the Antonio, I would rescue the inspector, if I were to find him alive."
But he could not take the Antonio back while Mesquita, Magellan's loyal cousin, was in command. Had he breathed a breath of disloyalty in the presence of this Portuguese, he might have himself been deposed from his position and marooned, as had been the inspector and the friar.
A dark plot began to form in the pilot's mind. If he could incite the crew against Mesquita in somehour of peril, he might cause him to be imprisoned on his own ship, and then he could succeed to the command, and take the Antonio back to Spain.
And he would also endeavor to rescue the inspector and the friend of the inspector who had been marooned. If he could rescue them and take them back with him to Spain, they would be powerful witnesses for him against Magellan.
Gormez now waited his opportunity. A jealous man seeks for a principle of life to ease his conscience and justify evil deeds. Gormez had two principles to sustain him in his disloyalty. The one was that he could lead a better expedition, and the other the merciful rescue of his two companions who had been marooned for the same opinions that he had from the first carried in his heart. So calling treachery, loyalty and sympathy, he awaited an hour favorable to his plan.
If he could return to Spain he would offer his services to Portugal or to Spain to lead an expedition to the Spice Islands that should be conducted in some more promising way than by the winter seas.
As the ships sailed on into the clouds and cold, the sailors were filled with apprehension. But the farol still shone at night like a star in the changing atmosphere. They had expected that the extremity of South America would point West, but this was not the case. Whither were they tending?
It was the middle of October. The water grew colder and the land became more desolate. Suddenly a bay appeared and the continent seemed to part. The sea poured its tides to the East amid towering mountains, and a strait appeared, which now bears the name of Magellan.
The soul of the Admiral thrilled. It was the fulfillment of his visions. He called the opening to the swift channel Cape Virgins, as he discovered it on the day on which the Church commemorated the martyrdom of the "eleven thousand virgins."