His lone lantern entered the straits. The way was toward the East.
Magellan sent the ship Antonio, which was commanded by his cousin Alvaro de Mesquita, to explore the bay, of which ship Gormez still held the position of pilot. The mutineer's hour had come.
The pilot entered the bay, but presently a powerful tide carried the ship back, and beyond the sight of the flag and the lantern of Magellan.
The jealous Portuguese had seen enough to know that great perils were before the fleet or that a glory like to that of Columbus was now likely to fall to the lot of Magellan. He determined to be revenged upon the Admiral for supplanting him in accepting the favors of the King.
He called the crew secretly about him.
"You are rushing on to ruin," he said. "I can take you back to Spain. Put Mesquita in irons, andlet us return. Mesquita advised Magellan to execute our comrades!"
The crew, overcome by the perils of the situation, obeyed the pilot.
Mesquita was placed in irons, and the pilot bore the Antonio away from the wintry seas, and turned her prow toward Spain.
But untrue as the sailors were to Magellan, he was true to them. He delayed the expedition for their return, and sent out the Victoria in search of them. The Victoria's crew planted signal standards, under which were letters.
Now perhaps for the first time Magellan was master of the expedition. He supposed at first that the Antonio had become lost in the terrible tides, but he still suspected treachery.
As the fleet entered the straits, the hills at night blazed with fires. The explorers thought these fires were volcanoes. They were signal fires kindled by the natives. Magellan gave the place the name of "Tierra del Fuego"—the "Land of Fire," a name that it still bears.
The water ran icy cold. Peaks of crystal towered above the straits, and the sublimities of mountain desolations everywhere appeared. So amid awful chasms of the sea, now white with snows, now dark with shadows, the little fleet glided on, the farol in the air at night, and all eyes strained with wonder to see what new disclosure this strait would bring.
What must have been the reflection of Magellan as the mysteries of the new world lifted before his eyes?
Joy is the compensation of suffering, and if his happiness was as great as his trials had been, he must have indeed known thrilling moments. He had dared, and he had achieved.
He wondered at the fate of the Antonio, as the days went by. He indeed thought her lost, but yet hoped that she might appear.
"She has deserted us," ventured a loyal officer.
"No," reasoned the Admiral. "Mesquita would never desert me."
He was right. There were many true hearts that made the voyage like Del Cano's, but no heart was truer to Magellan than Mesquita's; and true hearts know and love each other.
The ships glided on slowly, without the Antonio. They had two new passengers in the giants whose lives must have been filled with wonder on ship-board.
Grave as was the act of treachery that the jealousy of Gormez led him to commit, he was true to the two marooned priests who had opposed the daring schemes of Magellan.
"We must not leave them to perish," he said.
So with Mesquita in irons he steered his ship toward the lonely islands where the crew had passed the winter.
They found Carthagena and his brother monk still living, and never could two men have been more glad to escape from exile. To live among naked giants, whom they could not civilize, must have become a horror to them. But their lives had been spared, though their biscuits and wine, we fancy, were gone.
"The Admiral has gone mad," said the men who had come to rescue them. "He knows not the way to the Moluccas, nor to anywhere."
The marooned men asked them where they were now going.
"To Spain," was the answer. "We have come to rescue you. Our Captain has never forgotten you. He will need you as witnesses. You must testify that the Admiral is mad."
They were ready to testify that.
The ship sailed back to Spain.
The tales that they carried back to beautiful Seville caused a great disappointment in Spain. They must have stricken the heart of the wife of Magellan.
Gormez related there that the Admiral had become mad; that he had marooned the two priests whom they had brought back as witnesses of the truth of what he asserted; that Magellan had sailed into winter seas, and quite lost his reason, and knew not where he was going.
Then he told a terrible story of the execution of the mutinous Spaniards, friends of the King, at St. Julian. He said:
"His cousin, Mesquita, our captain, advised these crimes, and so we put him in irons, and have brought him back to receive justice in Spain."
Mesquita protested his innocence and tried to gain credence for his case. But no one cared to listen to him. The court and the popular feeling were against him. He was consigned to a prison. It was useless for him to protest, and to say that Magellan had made a great discovery; that he had found straits which were leading to the South Sea, and which werelikely to prove that the ocean that Balboa had beheld was continuous.
He was placed in a lonely dungeon, and there brooded over his wrongs and dreamed.
He had one hope; it was that Magellan would return triumphant, a second Columbus or Vasco da Gama. If that day were to come, he would be released, and the court would honor him, and he would be hailed as a hero.
"I have been made a prisoner by treachery," he said to a few men. "I believe that the day of my vindication will one day dawn."
Cardinal Ximenes died. Juana still watched by the tomb of her husband, and took no interest in the world. Charles V was entering upon his career as a conqueror who was to subdue the Roman world to his will.
As for Magellan in Spain he was to be but little more remembered now. Spain believed the story of the jealous Gormez, and the mariners of Seville said:
"The Admiral was mad!"
In the common view the mad Admiral had gone down in Antarctic seas. Like Faleiro, his friend, who had been sent to the mad house, it was thought that his brain had become unsettled, and that his bright visions had failed.
The two mutineers ate bread and drank wine again in the convent bowers of Seville.
Gormez had schemes of his own. He desired the authority of the throne to make an expedition to the Spice Islands, which he believed he could find by sailing West. Strangely enough, as we have said, this jealous, treacherous man was afterward made a pilot in an expedition that visited Florida, Cape Cod, and Massachusetts Bay. But he did not find the way to the Spice Islands on the voyage.
Mesquita, still believing in the success of the expedition of Magellan, said to a few whom he could reach:
"Magellan is not mad. He executed those who had planned to murder him. He had to put to death these men for the sake of the expedition. He will return again!"
Few believed his story, and fewer his prophecy.
Still there were some who hoped that the prisoner's prophecy might prove true. Columbus was deemed mad, and quelled a mutiny, but he returned again. Vasco da Gama faced doubt and destruction, but he returned again. There were not wanting some who asked, "Will Magellan ever return again?" Such usually received the answer, "The Admiral was mad!"
The poor wife of Magellan, who had hoped much from him for the sake of her child, as well as for Spain, heard these reports in an agony of grief. But she still hoped. She must have believed in her husband's destiny.
The four ships glided along the wonderful straits which Magellan named the "Virgins," but which will always bear his own name. The scenery continued wild and fierce, and in some places overawing and sublime; they sailed amid domes of crystal and almost under the roofs of a broken world. They still moved slowly—the scenery growing more and more wonderful.
The air grew bright again. The ships were in the sea. They had entered a sea broad and glorious, but which Magellan could have hardly dreamed to be nearly ten thousand miles long, and more than that wide! Its waters were placid—an ocean plain. Columbus had heard of this vast sea, and Balboa had seen it from the peak of Darien.
All the joy that Magellan had anticipated in his visions of years now burst upon him.
"The Pacific!"
This was the name that came to him as he surveyed the new ocean world. He was the discovererof the South Pacific, which was continuous with the ocean discovered by Balboa. What did it contain? Whither might he sail over the new serenity of waters?
His soul had stood against his own country; his name had been cast out by his countrymen. But in the splendors of the sunset sea he had found his faith to be reality. It is said that the sailors wept when they beheld the Pacific.
We may fancy the joy of Del Cano.
We may imagine how the heart of Pigafetta, the young Italian, which had always been true to the Admiral, must have overflowed with delight when the Pacific opened before his eyes! There is a strong heart beat in the happiness of one who has been true to a successful man in the hour of his need.
He may have sung the song that cheered Columbus and his men—the mariners' hymn to the Virgin:
"Gentle Star of Ocean!Portal of the sky!Ever Virgin MotherOf the Lord most high!"
"Wednesday, the 20th of November, 1520," says the original narrative, "we came forth out of the same strait, and entered the Pacific Sea."
The ships sailed on into the calm mystery of the ocean, the soul of Magellan glowing. But though the Admiral had risen superior to so many obstacles, there were others to be met. The sea was indeedplacid and full of promise, but starvation now stared him in the face, and after the spectre of Treason had departed that of Famine appeared.
Day after day the sun arose on the same serenity of sea. One month passed, and still there spread before the ships the same infinite ocean. Another month passed, and another, and twenty days more.
How did the crews live on this long voyage of silence and calms?
The narrative says: "We only ate old biscuit reduced to powder, and full of grubs, and we drank water that had turned yellow and smelled."
But a more perilous diet had to be followed.
They ate the "ox hides that were under the main yard." To eat these hides they had to soak them for some days in the sea, and then cook them on embers.
They ate sawdust; then the vermin on the ships.
A worse condition came. The gums of the men swelled from such food, so that many of them could not eat at all, and nineteen died. Beside those who died, twenty-five fell ill of "divers sicknesses."
Kind-hearted Pigafetta, who was always true to the Portuguese Admiral, formed an intimacy with the poor young giant, presumably with the giant whose wife had been left behind. This giant was imprisoned on the flagship of Magellan.
One day the giant said to him, helplessly:
"Capac."
Our Italian understood that this must be the Patagonian word for bread. So he wrote it down, and the giant saw that he was interested in the meaning of his native words.
So the young giant began to teach the young Italian.
"Her-dem" meant a chief.
"Holi" meant water.
"Ohone," a storm.
"Setebos," the Unseen Power.
They studied together for a time, and shared each other's good will.
One day the Italian drew a cross on paper. The young giant raised it to his lips and kissed it, as he had seen Pigafetta kiss the sign of the Cross.
But he said by signs: "Do not make the Cross again, else Setebos will enter into you and kill you."
The meaning of the cross was explained to him.
The poor giant fell ill at last, amid all the misery.
"Bring me the Cross," he said by signs.
He kissed it again.
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-calledconversion 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.
On Wednesday, March 6th, Magellan sighted islands. His lantern had crossed the Pacific Ocean. Here he hoped to find food. He approached the shores eagerly. So hungry were the crews that one of the sick men begged that if any of the natives were killed human flesh might be brought him.
But the natives here were not only wild men, they were robbers; they sought to kill the voyagers and to steal everything. Hence, Magellan called the islands the Ladrones (robbers).
The robbers threw stones at the famishing mariners as the ships turned away in search of more hospitable shores. The women were dressed in bark.
The ships moved on into unknown seas.
On Saturday, March 16, 1521, a notable sight appeared in the dawn of the morning. It was a high bluff, some three hundred leagues distant from the Thieves' Islands. The island was named Zamal, now called Samar.
Magellan saw another island near. It was inhabitedby a friendly people. He determined to land there for the sake of security, as he could there gather sea food and care for the sick. He planted his tents there, and provided the sick with fresh meat.
Where was he?
Here surely was a new archipelago which had found no place on a map. March 16, 1521, was to be a notable date of the world.
He had discovered the Philippine Islands, though they were not then known by that name. They were the door to China from the West—this he could hardly have known.
The islands as now known consist of Luzon, fifty-one thousand three hundred square miles in extent; and Mendanao, more than twenty-five thousand miles in extent. The islands lying between Luzon and Mendanao are called the Bissayas, of which Samar has an area of thirteen thousand and twenty miles. Magellan visited Mendanao and then sailed for Zebu, a small island where the first Spanish settlement was made, before Manila, which was founded in 1581.
This archipelago was a new world of wonder. The small islands are now computed to number fourteen hundred. Magellan never knew the extent of his discovery.
Here he was to find the happiest days of his life, after the serene but famishing voyage.
The people here were to receive him with open arms; to feast him; to raise his expectations and to bow down before the Cross. We must describe in detail—thanks to the Italian who was true to the heart of the Admiral—this golden age of the troubled life of Magellan.
After all the struggle for so many years against many overwhelming oppositions, Magellan now rose into the vantage ground of success, and fulfilled the vision which had illumined his soul in his darkest hours.
Every man has a right to his record, and whatever might happen now, his record no power could destroy; he had discovered the Pacific Ocean, and a new way around the world. Whatever might be his fate, the world must follow his lantern.
On the 18th of March, 1521, after dinner on shore, the Admiral saw a boat coming out from a near island toward his ship. There were men in it.
"Let no one move or speak," said Magellan.
The crews awaited the coming of the strangers in the blazing sunlight of the tropic sea. The Indians landed, led by a chief.
They were friends. They signified by signs their joy at seeing them. Magellan feasted the Indians and gave them presents.
When these people saw the good disposition of the Captain, they gave him palm wine and figs"more than a foot long." On leaving they promised to return with fruits.
Pigafetta, our Italian Chevalier, vividly describes the scenes that followed between Magellan and the friendly people of the newly-discovered islands, which we call the Philippines, but which were not so named at that time.
He tells us in a wonderfully interesting narrative a translation of which we closely follow:
"That people became very familiar and friendly, and explained many things in their language, and told the names of some islands which they beheld. The island where they dwelt was called Zuluam, and it was not large. As they were sufficiently agreeable and conversible the crews had great pleasure with them. The Captain seeing that they were of this good spirit, conducted them to the ship and showed them specimens of all his goods—that he most desired—cloves, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, and gold.
"He also had shots fired with his artillery, at which they were so much afraid that they wished to jump from the ship into the sea. They made signs that the things which the Captain had shown them grew there.
"When they wished to go they took leave of the Captain and of the crew with very good manners and gracefulness, promising to come back.
"The island where the ships had moored wasnamed Humunu; but because the men found there two springs of very fresh water it was named the Watering Place of Good Signs. There was much white coral there, and large trees which bear fruit smaller than an almond, and which are like pines. There were also many palm trees both good and bad. In this place there were many circumjacent islands, on which account the archipelago was named St. Lazarus. This region and archipelago is in ten degrees north latitude, and a hundred and sixty-one degrees longitude from the line of demarcation.
"Friday, the 22d of March, the above-mentioned people, who had promised to return, came about midday with two boats laden with the said fruit, cochi, sweet oranges, a vessel of palm wine, and a cock, to give us to understand that they had poultry in their country." The Italian thus describes the habits of the people:
"The lord of these people was old, and had his face painted, and had gold rings suspended to his ears, which they name 'schione,' and the others had many bracelets and rings of gold on their arms, with a wrapper of linen round their head. We remained at this place eight days; the Captain went there every day to see his sick men, whom he had placed on this island to refresh them; and he gave them himself every day the water of this said fruit, the cocho, which comforted them much."
Pigafetta tells us that near this isle is anotherwhere there is a kind of people "who wear holes in their ears so large that they can pass their arms through them"—a very remarkable statement—"and these people go naked, except that round their middles they wear cloth made of the bark of trees. But there are some of the more remarkable of them who wear cotton stuff, and at the end of it there is some work of silk done with a needle. These people are tawny, fat, and painted, and they anoint themselves with the oil of cocoanuts and sesame to preserve them from the sun and the wind. Their hair is very black and long, reaching to the waist, and they carry small daggers and knives, ornamented with gold."
Pigafetta fell into the sea here, and he gives a vivid account of the personal accident:
"The Monday of Passion week, the 25th of March, and feast of our Lady, in the afternoon, and being ready to depart from this place, I went to the side of our ship to fish, and putting my feet on a spar to go down to the storeroom, my feet slipped, because it had rained, and I fell into the sea, without any one seeing me; and being near drowning, by luck I found at my left hand the sheet of the large sail which was in the sea, I caught hold of it and began to cry out till some came to help and pick me up with the boat. I was assisted not by my merits, but by the mercy and grace of the Fountain of Pity. That same day we took the course betweenwest and southwest, and passed amid four small islands; that it to say, Cenalo, Huinanghar, Ibusson, and Abarien."
The Italian describes in an interesting way the visit of the King of one of the islands to the ships. He says of this first visit of a Philippine King to the Europeans:
"Thursday, the 28th of March, having seen the night before fire upon an island, at the morning we came to anchor at this island, where we saw a small boat which they call boloto, with eight men inside, which approached the ship of the Captain General. Then a slave of the Captain's, who was from Sumatra, otherwise named Traprobana, spoke from afar to these people, who understood his talk, and came near to the side of the ship, but they withdrew immediately, and would not enter the ship from fear of us.
"So the Captain, seeing that they would not trust to us, showed them a red cap and other things, which he had tied and placed on a little plank, and the people in the boat took them immediately and joyously, and then returned to advise their King. Two hours afterward, or thereabout, we saw come two long boats, which they call ballanghai, full of men.
"In the largest of them was their King sitting under an awning of mats; when they were near the ship of the Captain General, the said slave spoketo the King, who understood him well, because in these countries the kings know more languages than the common people. Then the King ordered some of his people to go to the Captain's ship, while he would not move from his boat, which was near enough to us.
"This was done, and when his people returned to the boat, he went away at once. The Captain made a good entertainment to the men who came to his ship, and gave them all sorts of things, on which account the King wished to give the Captain a rather large bar of solid gold, and a chest full of ginger. However, the Captain thanked him very much, but would not accept the present. After that, when it was late, he went with the ships near to the houses and abode of the King."
The Captain in refusing the offer of gold and ginger from his guest, showed indeed a true sense of hospitality. The incident pictures the life of Magellan. He obeyed his moral sense and his heart was true. He was a Portuguese gentleman of the old type, and presented an example worthy of imitation in any age.
They were ready to meet the King now, when all was so friendly and promising. The good soul of Pigafetta felt that these islands of fruits and spiceries were indeed an earthly paradise. He alone had not been sick in all of the long monotonous voyage across the Pacific. His strength had never abated and his faith in the Admiral had never faltered.
Night after night he had watched the lantern swinging in the unknown air, and had said his prayers. He had had ever a cheering word to say to the Admiral on all occasions. His heart was true to the lantern, the stars, the Admiral, and the Divine Power which he believed was leading him.
He was now in the sea gardens of palms and spices. He thus continues his narrative (we follow in part the translation of the Hakluyt Society in the work of Lord Stanley Alderley).
He tells us that on "the next day, which wasGood Friday, the Captain sent on shore a slave, who was an interpreter, to the King to beg him to give him for money some provisions for his ships, sending him word that he had not come to his country as an enemy, but as a friend. The King on hearing this came with seven or eight men in a boat, and entered the ship, and embraced the Captain, and gave him three China dishes covered with leaves full of rice, and twodorades, which are rather large fish. The Captain gave this King a robe of red and yellow cloth, made in the Turkish fashion, and a very fine red cap, and to his people he gave knives and mirrors. After that refreshments were served up to them. The Captain told the King, through the interpreter, that he wished to be with him, ascassi cassi; that is to say, brothers. To which the King answered that he desired to be the same toward him. After that the Captain showed him cloths of different colors, linen, coral, and much other merchandise, and all the artillery, of which he had some pieces fired before him, at which the King was much astonished; after that the Captain had one of his soldiers armed with white armor, and placed him in the midst of three comrades, who struck him with swords and daggers.
"The King thought this very strange, and the Captain told him, through the interpreter, that a man thus in white armor was worth many common men; he answered that it was true; he was furtherinformed that there were in each ship two hundred like that man.
"After that the Captain showed him a great number of swords, cuirasses, and helmets, and made two of the men play with their swords before the King; he then showed him the sea chart and the ship compass, and informed him how he had found a strait, and of the time which he had spent on the voyage; also of the time he had been without seeing any land, at which the King was astonished. At the end the Captain asked if he would be pleased that two of his people should go with him to the places where they lived to see some of the things of his country. This the King granted, and I went with another."
The Italian was again in his element, and he gives a graphic account of his visit to the natives:
"When I had landed, the King raised his hands to the sky, and turned to us two, and we did the same as he did; after that he took me by the hand, and one of his principal people took my companion, and led us under a place covered with canes, where there was a ballanghai; that is to say, a boat, eighty feet long or thereabouts, resembling a fusta. We sat with the King upon its stern, always conversing with him by signs, and his people stood up around us, with their swords, spears, and bucklers. Then the King ordered to be brought a dish of pig's flesh and wine. Their fashion of drinking is in this wise: theyfirst raise their hands to Heaven, then take the drinking vessel in their right hand, and extend the left hand closed toward the people. This the King did, and presented to me his fist, so that I thought that he wanted to strike me; I did the same thing toward him; so with this ceremony, and other signs of friendship, we banqueted, and afterward supped with him."
The Italian was a pious man, but he says:
"I ate flesh on Good Friday, not being able to do otherwise, and before the hour of supper, I gave several things to the King, which I had brought. There I wrote down several things as they name them in their language, and when the King and the others saw me write, and I told them their manner of speech, they were all astonished.
"When the hour for supper had come, they brought two large China dishes, one of which was full of rice, and the other of pig's flesh, with its broth and sauce. We supped with the same signs and ceremonies, and then went to the King's palace, which was made and built like a hay grange, covered with fig and palm leaves."
Here the two found delightful hospitality; the house was "built on great timbers high above the ground, and it was necessary to go up steps and ladders to it. Then the King made us sit on a cane mat, with our legs doubled as was the custom; after half an hour there was brought a dish of fish roastin pieces, and ginger fresh gathered that moment and some wine. The eldest son of the King, who was a Prince, came where we were, and the King told him to sit down near us, which he did; then two dishes were brought, one of fish, with its sauce, and the other of rice, and this was done for us to eat with the Prince. My companion enjoyed the food and drank so much that he got drunk. They use for candles or torches the gum of a tree which is named anime, wrapped up in leaves of palms or fig trees. The King made a sign that he wished to go to rest, and left us with the Prince, with whom we slept on a cane mat, with some cushions and pillows of leaves. Next morning the King came and took me by the hand, and so we went to the place where we had supped, to breakfast, but the boat came to fetch us. The King, before we went away, was very gay, and kissed our hands, and we kissed his. There came with us a brother of his, the King of another island, accompanied by three men. The Captain General detained him to dine with us, and we gave him several things."
"The King abounded in gold, and was a grand figure. In the island belonging to the King who came to the ship there are mines of gold, which they find in pieces as big as a walnut or an egg, by seeking in the ground. All the vessels which he makes use of are made of it, and also some parts of his house, which was well fitted up according to thecustom of the country, and he was the handsomest man that we saw among these nations. He had very black hair coming down to his shoulders, with a silk cloth on his head, and two large gold rings hanging from his ears; he had a cloth of cotton worked with silk, which covered him from the waist to the knees; at his side he wore a dagger, with a long handle which was all of gold, his sheath was of carved wood. Besides he carried upon him scents of storax and benzoin. He was tawny and painted all over."
An island where nuggets of gold as big as eggs could be found must have offered a tempting place of residence.
But Magellan's first thought was for the good of the souls of this hospitable people.
Now begins the dawn of Christianity in the Philippines. Magellan was a deeply religious man, and Pigafetta was a Christian Knight. Magellan saw the significance of his marvelous voyage, and his soul glowed with gratitude to Heaven.
Easter Sunday approached. Magellan had made preparations to plant a cross on a mountain overlooking the sea.
Easter Sunday fell on the last day of March. "The Captain," to follow the Italian's narrative in part, "sent the Chaplain ashore early to say mass, and the interpreter went with him to tell the King that they were not coming on shore to dine with him, but only to hear the mass.
"When it was time for saying mass the Captain went ashore with fifty men, not with their arms, but only with their swords, and dressed as well as each one was able to dress, and before the boats reached the shore our ships fired six cannon shots as a sign of peace.
"At our landing the two Kings of the islands were there, and received the Captain in a friendly manner, and placed him between them, and then we went to the place prepared for saying mass, which was not far from the shore."
The ceremonies that followed were dramatic. "Before the mass began the Captain threw a quantity of musk-rose water on those two Kings," is the picture drawn by the Italian, "and when the offertory of the mass came, the two Kings went to kiss the Cross like us, but they offered nothing, and at the elevation of the body of our Lord they were kneeling like us, and adored our Lord with joined hands. The ships fired all their artillery at the elevation of the body of our Lord."
The scene that followed discloses the religious nature of Magellan and his joy in what was ennobling.
He caused a great cross to be lifted, "with the nails and crown, to which the Kings made reverence." He told the Kings that he wished to place it in their country for their profit, "because if there came afterward any ships from Spain to those islands, on seeing this cross, they would know that we had been there, and therefore they would not cause them any displeasure to their persons nor theirgoods; and if they took any of their people, on showing them this sign, they would at once let them go."
Mount Mayon, on the Island of Luzun.
The Captain continued his address to the Kings in the same spirit. He told them that it was necessary that this cross "should be placed on the summit of the highest mountain in their country, so that seeing it every day and night they might adore it." He further told them that if they did thus, "neither thunder, lightning, nor the tempest could do them hurt." This he believed to be true. The Kings "thanked the Captain, and said they would do it willingly." The Captain asked them how they worshiped. They answered that "they did not perform any other adoration, but only joined their hands, looking up to Heaven, and that they called their God Aba. Hearing this, the Captain was very joyful; on seeing that, the first King raised his hands to the sky and said that he wished it were possible for him to be able to show the affection which he felt toward him."
The elevation of the Cross followed.
"After dinner we all returned in our dress coats, and we went together with the two Kings to the middle of the highest mountain we could find, and there the Cross was planted."
Important information followed.
"After the two Kings and the Captain rested themselves, and, while conversing, I asked where was the best port for obtaining victuals. They replied that there were three; that is to say, Ceylon, Zubu, and Calaghan; but that Zubu was the largest and of the most traffic. Then the Kingsoffered to give him pilots to go to those ports, for which he thanked them, and deliberated to go there, for his ill-fortune would have it so. After the cross had been planted on the mountain, each one said the Paternoster and Ave Maria, and adored it, and the Kings did the like. Then he went down below to where their boats were. There the kings had brought some of the fruit called cocos and other things to make a collation and to refresh us."
The fleet sailed away soon after Easter Monday, the Captain having secured native pilots from the Kings. One of the Kings volunteered to act himself as pilot, and this service was accepted.
Pigafetta describes the use of betel:
"This kind of people are gentle, and go naked, and are painted. They wear a piece of cloth made from a tree, like a linen cloth, round their body to cover their natural parts; they are great drinkers. The women are dressed in tree cloth from their waists downward; their hair is black, and reaches down to the ground; they wear certain gold rings in their ears. These people chew most of their time a fruit which they call areca (betel), which is something of the shape of a pear; they cut it in four quarters, and after they have chewed it for a long time they spit it out, from which afterward they have their mouths very red. They find themselves the better from the use of this fruit because it refreshesthem much, for this country is very hot, so that they could not live without it."
The use of the areca, or betel nut, is still common in all the Philippine Islands.
The fleet next went to Maestral, "passing through five islands—Ceylon, Bohol, Canighan, Baibai, and Satighan. In the Island of Satighan was a kind of bird called barbarstigly, which was as large as an eagle. Of these we killed only one," says our narrator, "because it was late. We ate it, and it had the taste of a fowl. There were also in this island doves, tortoises, parrots, and certain black birds as large as a fowl, with a long tail. They lay eggs as large as those of a goose. These they put a good length under the sand in the sun, where they were hatched by the great heat, which the heated sand gives out; and when these birds were hatched they pushed up the sand and came out. These eggs are good to eat.
"From this island of Mazzubua to that of Satighan there are twenty leagues, and on leaving Satighan we went by the west; but the King of Mazzubua could not follow us; therefore we waited for him near three islands; that is to say, Polo, Ticobon, and Pozzon. When the King arrived he was much astonished at our navigation; the Captain General bade him come on board his ship with some of his principal people, at which they were much pleased. Thus wewent to Zubu, which is fifteen leagues off from Satighan."
The story of the Italian here, which we so freely use, leaves in the mind a picture of the first voyage among the Philippines. The habits of the people in these same islands are not greatly changed, but we hardly find there now as tractable kings as were those to whom Magellan left the Cross.
On April 9th they entered the Port of Zubu, on approaching which they saw houses in the trees. The Captain hung out his flags in the clear sunny air. He caused his artillery to be fired, which greatly alarmed the natives. He then sent an interpreter to the King.
The interpreter found the people in terror at the thunder of the guns. He assured the King that the salute had been made in his honor. Then the interpreter said:
"My master is the greatest King in all the world. We are sailing at his command to discover the Spice Islands. But we have heard of your fame, and the fame of your country, and have come to visit you."
"You are welcome," said the King, "but you must pay me tribute."
"My master," said the interpreter, "is the greatest of all Kings, and we can pay tribute to no one."
The King feasted them, and they entered into negotiations of peace with the King of Zubu.
At Zubu Magellan turned missionary with no common zeal.
He told the native princes that his visit was for the sake of peace.
We are told that the "Captain General sat in a chair of red velvet, and near him were the principal men of the ships sitting in leather chairs, and the others sat on the ground on mats.
"The Captain," says the narrative, "spoke at length on the subject of peace, and prayed God to confirm it in Heaven. These people replied that they had never heard such words as these which the Captain had spoken to them, and they took great pleasure in hearing them. The Captain, seeing then that those people listened willingly to what was said to them, and that they gave good answers, began to say a great many good things to induce them to become Christians.
"He told them how God had made Heaven and earth and all other things in the world, and that he had commanded that every one should render honor and obedience to his father and mother, and that whoever did otherwise was condemned to eternal fire."
His teaching bore immediate fruit.
"The people heard these things willingly, and besought the Captain to leave them two men to teachand show them the Christian faith, and they would entertain them well with great honor. To this the Captain answered that for the moment he could not leave any of his people, but that if they wished to be Christians that his priest would baptize them, and that another time he would bring priests and teachers to teach them the faith."
His manner of teaching reveals his heart:
"The people told him that they wished to consult their King in regard to becoming Christians." The friends of the Captain "wept for the joy which they felt at the good-will of these people, and the Captain told them not to become Christians 'from fear of us, or to please us, but that if they wished to become Christian they must do it willingly, and for the love of God, for even though they should not become Christian, no displeasure would be done them, but those who became Christian would be more loved and better treated than the others.' Then they all cried out with one voice that they did not wish to become Christians from fear, nor from complaisance, but of their free will."
Here the true character of the man again appears—few Christian explorers ever made so noble a record. His sincerity won the hearts of the natives:
"At last they said they did not know what more to answer to so many good and beautiful words which he spoke to them, but that they placed themselvesin his hands, and that he should do with them as with his own servants."
The next scene is ideal:
"Then the Captain, with tears in his eyes, embraced them, and, taking the hand of the Prince and that of the King, said to him that by the faith he had in God, and to his master the Emperor, and by the habit of St. James which he wore, he promised them to cause them to have perpetual peace with the King of Spain, at which the Prince and the others promised him the same."
It is a pleasure to follow such a narrative as Pigafetta here writes in illustration of the character of a true Christian Knight. Compare this narrative with the history of Pizarro, Cortes, and De Soto. Magellan was a Las Casas, a Marquette, a La Salle.
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 ourobeisance, and presented to him what the Captain had sent him, and told him, through the interpreter that the presentwas 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 theirhands 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.
"Our Chaplain and some of us went on shore to baptize the Queen. She came with forty ladies, and we conducted them onto the scaffolding; then made her sit down on a cushion, and her women around her, until the priest was ready. During that time they showed her an image of our Lady, of wood, holding her little child, which was very well made, and a cross. When she saw it, she had a greater desire to be a Christian, and, asking for baptism, she was baptized and named Jehanne, like the mother of the Emperor. The wife of the Prince, daughter of this Queen, had the name of Catherine, the Queen of Mazzava Isabella, and to the others each their name.
"That day we baptised eight hundred persons ofmen, women, and children. The Queen was young and handsome, covered with a black and white sheet; she had the mouth and nails very red, and wore on her head a large hat made of leaves of palm, with a crown over it made of the same leaves, like that of the Pope. After that she begged us to give her the little wooden boy to put in the place of the idols. This we did, and she went away. In the evening the King and Queen, with several of their people, came to the sea beach, where the Captain had some of the large artillery fired, in which they took great pleasure. The Captain and the King called one another brother."
The "little boy" spoken of was an image of the infant Christ. The figure was preserved until the year 1598, when the Spaniards sent missionaries to the place who gave it a place in a shrine and named a city for it.
The naming of the Queen at her baptism for poor Juana, or "Crazy Jane," the incapable mother of Charles V, who was watching beside her dead husband in Granada, and who had signed the commission of Magellan by proxy, completes a tale of missionary work in a somewhat ideal way. If these people did not maintain their faith, the work reveals the intention of Magellan, and shows the nobility of character of the Christian Knight.
These were indeed days of joy. The glory of them grew. All the inhabitants of the island came to be baptized. Magellan went on shore daily to hear mass.
It was Pigafetta who gave to the Queen the image of the infant Christ, which became historical.
On one of the occasions that Magellan went on shore to hear mass he met the Queen, who appeared in a veil of silk and gold. He sprinkled over her some rose water and musk, and noticed that she cherished the image of the infant Christ.
"You do well," said he. "Put it in the place where your idols were; it will keep in your mind the Son of God."
"I will cherish it forever," said the veiled Queen.
She seems to have kept her word.
The joy of these scenes reached their height, when the King of Seba swore fealty to the King of Spain.
The scene of the conclusion of this ceremony wasknightly indeed, and again reveals the heart of Magellan.
He, seeing a good spirit, of the King of Seba, resolved to swear fealty of eternal friendship to him. Only a Christian Knight would have dreamed of such a thing.
"I swear," he said, "by the image of our Lady, the Virgin, by the love of my Emperor, and by the insignia, on my heart, that I will ever be faithful to you, O King of Seba!"
Here the true character of the statesman as well as teacher appeared. History records few acts more noble. Magellan sought the good of mankind.
There was one officer on the ships whose soul, like that of Pigafetta's, must have been in all these benevolent efforts.
The expedition was tarrying long, seeking the glory of the Cross rather than the gold and spices. There were impatient hearts in Seville.
Mesquita in his still prison, with the world against him, dreamed of Magellan, Del Cano, and the Italian historian. The half world separated them now.
In his dreams Mesquita saw the fleet coming back again, and he heard the shouting of the people and the ringing of the bells. The star of hope in his heart did not fail.
"Padre," he said, "the day of my vindication will come."
But the seasons came and went, and the light changed color in the window of his cell, and the birds sang their notes in the trees in spring and left their empty nests to silence in the retreating summer. The great Cathedral grew, and the achievement of Charles had begun to excite the world.
We now come to the tragedy of this wonderful expedition; to the tempest that rose out of the calm. The transition from these ideal scenes to what is to follow is sudden indeed.
Magellan, as we have shown, had sought not wealth, nor glory, but the good of the world in his life. He was ever ready to put his own interest aside in the service of that which was best for others. He had sought welfare and not wealth, service and not self, and his life was about to end in the unselfish spirit in which it had lived.
On Friday, April 26, 1520, Zula, one of the great chiefs of the Island of Matan, sent to Magellan one of his sons and two goats as a present. He had promised his service to the King of Spain, but this surrender of royalty had been opposed by another chief named Silapalapa. This chief had declared with native spirit that Matan would never submit to the Spanish King.
"But I can overthrow Silapalapa," ran the Matan chief's message, "if I can have your help. Send me a boatload of men. Let them come to-morrow night."
Magellan received the message and the presentsin a friendly feeling, and resolved to follow the chief's lead.
"I will not send another on this expedition so full of peril," he thought. "I will lead it myself."
So he set out from Zubu to Matan at midnight, with sixty men, in corselets and helmets. He took with him the Christian King, and the chief men of his new adherents.
The boats moved silently over the tropic waters under the moon and stars. Magellan had become a happy man. He could not doubt that he was on his way to new victories. Pigafetta, the Italian, always true to the Admiral, was with him.
The expedition arrived at Matan just before the dawn of the morning.
The mellow nature of Magellan came back to him on this short night journey. He had no wish to slaughter men.
So he spoke to a Moorish merchant.
"Go to the natives," he said, "and tell them if they will recognize a Christian King as their sovereign I will become their friend. If not, that they must feel our lances."
The Moorish ambassador was landed, and met the chiefs.
"Go tell your master," they said, "that if he has lances, so have we, and our lances are hardened by fire."
At the red dawn of the morning, the Admiralgave the order to disembark, and forty-nine men leaped into the water. They faced a fierce army, some fifteen hundred in number.
Magellan divided his followers into two bands. The musketeers and cross bowmen began the attack. But the firing was not effective. The black army moved down upon them like a cloud, throwing javelins and spears hardened with fire. Some of them singled out Magellan. They threw at him lances pointed with iron.
Magellan, seeing that the odds were against him in such a contest, sought to break their lines by firing their houses. Some thirty houses burst into flame.
The sight of the fire maddened the natives and rendered them furious. They discovered that the legs of the invaders were exposed, and that they could be wounded there with poisoned arrows.
A poisoned arrow was aimed at Magellan. It pierced him in the leg. He felt the wound, and knew its import.
He gave orders to retreat. A panic ensued, and his men took to flight.
The air was filled with arrows, spears, stones, and mud.
The Spaniards tried to escape to the boat. The islanders followed them and directed their fury to Magellan. They struck him twice on his helmet.
Magellan's thought now was not for himself, but for the safety of his men.
He stood at his own post fighting that they might make safe their retreat.
He thus broke the assault for nearly an hour, until he was almost left alone.
An Indian suddenly rushed down toward him having a cane lance. He thrust this into his face. Magellan wounded the Indian, and attempted to draw his sword. But he had received a javelin wound in his arm, and his strength failed.
Seeing him falter, the Indian rushed upon him and brought him down to the earth with a rude sword.
The Indians now fell upon him and ran him through with lances.
He tried to rise up, to see if his men were safe. He did not call for assistance, but to the last sought to secure the safety of his men. In fact, he never seemed to so much as think of himself in the whole contest. It was thus that his life went out, and his heart ceased to beat. He was left dead on the sand,on April 27, 1521. The natives refused to surrender his body. Eight of his own men and four Indians, who had become Christians, perished with him.
The death of Magellan.
There was one man who was true to the Admiral to the end. He was wounded with him, but survived. He it was that saw that the Admiral had forgotten himself at the hour of the final conflict. It was Pigafetta, the Italian, whose narrative we are following.
This hero of the pen says of him to whom he gave his heart:
"One of his principal virtues was constancy in the most adverse fortune."
"It was God who made me the messenger of the new heavens and new earth, and told me where to find them," said Columbus. "Maps, charts, and mathematical knowledge had nothing to do with the case."
As sublime an inspiration is seen in the words of Pigafetta in regard to Magellan:
"No one gave to him the example how to encompass the globe." His sight was the inner eye, the pure vision of a consecrated purpose in life.
No hero of the sea has ever been more noble! His purpose in life was everything; he had the faith of a Christian Knight; he was as nothing to himself, but to others all, and he died giving his own body for a shield to his men. His name will always be associated with what is glorious in the history of the Philippines.
Magellan was dead, but a good purpose lives in others. Magellan dead, Del Cano yet lives, and the Italian historian has other scenes to record.
The farol of Magellan will go on; it will never cease to shine, and the cast-out name of the Christian Knight will become a fixed star amid the lights that have inspired the world.
The massacre at Matan caused the Spaniards to lose credit in the eyes of the natives. The King of Seba turned against them, thus throwing a shadow on the glory of Magellan's missionary work. The Spaniards were, however, much to blame for the change that took place in the King's heart.
Their ships were becoming unseaworthy.
They were reduced to two ships, the Victoria and the Trinidad, and these shaped their course for the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, by the way of Borneo. Del Cano began to represent the spirit of Magellan among the crews.
They came to the Bornean city, Brunei, "a collection of houses built on piles over the water, where were twenty-five thousand fires or families." On the shore was the palace of a voluptuous Sultan, its walls hung with brocades of silk. Here was also one of the most curious markets in all the world,carried on at high tide, when there gathered a great army of canoes.
On November 8, 1521, the two ships anchored off Tidor on the Spice Islands, saluting the King of the place with a broadside.
They concluded a treaty of peace with the King, and began to load the two ships with spice, and especially with cloves, a kind of spice at that time regarded as a great luxury in Spain.
If Pigafetta had desired above all things to see the wonders of the ocean world, he must again have been gratified here at some of the presents sent to the ships by the natives. Columbus had brought to Spain gorgeous parrots or macaws. But the King of Batchian sent to him a bird whose plumage surpassed anything that he had ever seen.
"It is the bird of Paradise," said the agent of the royal almoner.
The Italian did not doubt it. He wished to learn the history of this superb inhabitant of the air.
He did in a way that excited his wonder beyond measure.
The bird, after the Mohammedan account, was born in Paradise. It came down from Heaven where dwelt departed souls, who had died true to the Moslem faith.
These birds were found dead, and they had no feet. If Pigafetta inquired the cause of this, he doubtless was answered:
"They do not need feet; they never alight on the ground."
But as greatly as the Chevalier must have wondered, he was not induced to accept the Moslem faith.
They overcrowded the ships while receiving the favors of the Sultan of Tidor.
An account of their voyage about the Spice Islands, "most delightful to read," as we are told in the title, was written by one Maximilianus Transylvanus, from which we gather the following incidents (Hakluyt Society) of great pearls and strange men:
"They came to the shores of the Island of Solo, where they heard that there were pearls as big as dove's eggs, and sometimes as hen's eggs, but which can only be fished up from the very deepest sea. Our men brought no large pearl, because the season of the year did not allow of the fishery. But they testify that they had taken an oyster in that region, the flesh of which weighed forty-seven pounds. For which reason I could easily believe that pearls of that great size are found there; for it is clearly proved that pearls are the product of shellfish. And to omit nothing, our men constantly affirm that the islanders of Porne told him that the King wore in his crown two pearls of the size of a goose's egg.
"Hence they went to the Island of Gilo, where they saw men with ears so long and pendulous thatthey reached to their shoulders. When our men were mightily astonished at this, they learnt from the natives that there was another island not far off where the men had ears not only pendulous, but so long and broad that one of them would cover the whole head if they wanted it (cum exusu esset). But our men, who sought not monsters but spices, neglecting this nonsense, went straight to the Moluccas, and they discovered them eight months after their Admiral, Magellan, had fallen in Matan. The islands are five in number, and are called Tarante, Muthil, Thidore, Mare, and Matthien; some on this side some on the other, and some upon the equinoctial line.
"One produces cloves, another nutmegs, and another cinnamon. All are near to each other, but small and rather narrow."
The world to-day thinks little of spices, for commerce has made common the luxuries of the Indian Ocean. Cloves, nutmegs, allspice, cinnamon, ginger are found in every home in all civilized lands, and even children make few inquiries about them.
This was not so in the early days of the Viceroys of India. Spices which were gathered and sold by Arabian merchants, were held in Europe as a gift of Arabia, and esteemed to be the greatest, or among the greatest of luxuries. A ship laden with spices was hailed in the ports of the Iberian peninsula as next to a ship freighted with gold, as the Golden Hyndewas welcomed in the days of Sir Francis Drake. It used to be said that the odors of the spice ships from the East Indies could be breathed through the breezes that wafted them toward the land.
The principal Spice Islands were the Moluccas, or the islands of the East India Archipelago between Celebes on the west and New Guinea on the east, Timor on the south and the open Pacific Sea on the north. They are distributed over a wide ocean area. Of these the Moluccas form the principal group. Here are the paradises of the seas.
It was to these islands where could be procured the products of "Araby the Blessed" that Magellan had hoped to find a new way. There were brighter shores than Spain, and to these he sought the shortest routes over which ships could travel.
The Peruvian adventurers wished to find gold; the voyagers to the Antilles, magical waters and new productions of the earth; but Magellan's dream was of the spiceries of the Indian seas. They all found what they sought, except Ponce de Leon, who hoped to find the Fountain of Eternal Youth.
Transylvanus speaks of another wonderful bird that only alighted at death, and whose feathers were believed to possess magic powers.
"The kings of Marmin began to believe that souls were immortal a few years ago, induced by no other argument than that they saw that a certain most beautiful small bird never rested upon the groundnor upon anything that grew upon it; but they sometimes saw it fall dead upon the ground from the sky. And as the Mohammedans, who traveled to those parts for commercial purposes, told them that this bird was born in Paradise, and that Paradise was the abode of the souls of those who had died, these kings (reguli) embraced the sect of Mohammed, because it promised wonderful things concerning this abode of souls. But they call the bird Mamuco Diata, and they hold it in such reverence and religious esteem that they believe that by it their kings are safe in war, even though they, according to custom, are placed in the forefront of battle."
He continues his narrative:
"But, our men having carefully inspected the position of the Moluccas and of each separate island, and also having inquired about the habits of the kings, went to Thedori, because they learnt, that in that island the supply of cloves was far above that of the others, and that its King also surpassed the other kings in wisdom and humanity. So, having prepared their gifts they land, and salute the King, and they offer the presents as if they had been sent by Cæsar. He, having received the presents kindly, looks up to Heaven, and says: