Secular priest Pero Sanchez de Reina
Licentiate Morales
Hernando Rodriguez
Hartiga
Diugurria
Soldier Diego Arias Sanlúcar
Blacksmith Juan Hernandez Triana
Servant of Luis Hernando de Aguilar
de Mendoza
The negro of the pilot Juan
Carballo
In addition there were probably others, this list being still three
short of Guillemard’s figures, 268. Harrisse (Disc. of N. Amer.,
London and Paris, 1892, pp. 714 et seq.) gives a partial list.
[27] The Moorish name of Guadalquivir (from Arabic Wâd-al-Kebir,
“the great river”), superseded the Roman name of Bætis. The Romans
formed all Southern Spain into one province called Bætica after the
name of the Bætis. By the town Gioan dal Farax is meant San Juan de
Aznalfarache (from Moorish Hisn al-Faradj). Its Gothic name was Osset
and its Roman name Julia Constantia. It is a favorite resort of the
inhabitants of Sevilla. Coría was once a Roman potters’ town and is
still celebrated for its jars. San Lúcar de Barrameda was named in
honor of St. Luke. It was captured from the Moors in 1264 and granted
to the father of Guzman el Bueno. It attained importance after the
discovery of America because of its good harbor. The house of
Medina-Sidonia was founded by Alfonso Pérez de Guzman, a famous
captain.
[28] The original of this passage is obscure. The distance given (ten
leagues; and both MS. 5,650 and Eden agree substantially with it) is
far too short for the distance between San Lucar and Cape St. Vincent,
which is over one hundred miles. Pigafetta may have forgotten the
actual distance, or it may have been an error of his amanuensis. It is
possible to translate as follows: “which lies in 37 degrees of
latitude, [that parallel being] x leguas from the said port;” for
“longui” may be taken as agreeing with “gradi.” In all
rendering of distances, the Spanish form will be used in preference to
the Italian; and the same will apply to the names of Spanish coins.
[29] MS. 5,650 reads: “And after passing many small villages along
the said river, we at last reached a chateau belonging to the duke of
Medinacidonia, and called Sainct Lucar, where there is a port with an
entrance into the Ocean Sea. One enters that port by the east wind, and
leaves by the west. Nearby is the cape of Sainct Vincent, which,
according to cosmography, lies in a latitude of thirty-seven degrees at
a distance of twenty miles from the said port. From the said city [of
Sevilla] to the said port by the river abovesaid, the distance is
thirty-five or forty miles.” This passage might be cited as a proof
that Pigafetta did not translate or write the French version, but that
the work was done by another, who takes various liberties with his
original.
[30] MS. 5,650 reads: “furnish the fleet.”
[31] Ninguna in original, a Spanish word.
[32] MS. 5,650 adds: “otherwise called ‘labeiche.’” Labech
(Italian libeccio) is simply a name for the southwest wind. This is
another instance in which the French adapter adds an explanation to the
Italian, thus explaining the Italian term garbino, “southwest.”
[33] MS. 5,650 reads wrongly: “sixteenth.” The so-called Genoese
pilot (the author of the “Roteiro,” by which name his account will
be hereafter designated, and concerning whom, see Guillemard’s
Magellan, p. 145, and Mosto, p. 32, and note 4) gives the date of
departure as September 21 (with which Barros agrees) and the arrival at
Tenerife as the twenty-ninth (see Stanley, p. 1). Peter Martyr, Gomara,
and Oviedo agree with Pigafetta, while Castanheda makes the departure
in January, 1520. Hughes observes that if one keep in mind the
circumstance that the day of the arrival coincided with the day
dedicated by the Church to St. Michael, the date September 29 seems
more admissible. However, one may reconcile the two dates of the
arrival by observing that the ships stopped at Tenerife until October
2; while Herrera says that the ships fetched Montaña Roja (the Monte
rosso of the text) on September 29. See Mosto, p. 53, notes 4 and 5. It
should be noted that Gomara and Oviedo are not entirely trustworthy
authorities, and that many times they have simply copied from
authorities, such as Maximilianus Transylvanus, who is not always to be
relied upon.
[34] The Canaries were known to the ancients under the names of Islands
of the Blest, Fortunate Islands, and the Hesperides. The Moors knew of
them under the name of Islands of Khaledat, but had no practical
acquaintance with them. In the fourteenth century these islands began
to be known to Europeans, especially through the Portuguese. In 1402,
the Frenchman Jean de Bethencourt went there, and shortly after began
their conquest under the auspices of the crown of Castile. In
consequence of the settlements made by Bethencourt, the islands were
definitely ceded to Spain in 1481 (see Birch’s Alboquerque, London,
1875–1884, Hakluyt Society Publications, ii, p. vi). The inhabitants
of the islands were known as Guanches or Guanchinet, the latter meaning
“men of Tenerife.” The inhabitants of this island, holding out
longer than the others, were not subdued until 1496. See also Conquest
of Canaries (London, 1877); and History and Description of Africa
(London, 1896), i, pp. 99–101: both publications of the Hakluyt
Society. The island of Tenerife was formerly called Nivana and by some
the Island of Hell. Like all the other islands of the Canaries it is
volcanic in formation, and its peak, the Teyde, is one of the largest
volcanic cones known. Its latitude is 28° 15′.
[35] Guillemard conjectures that this is Punta Roxa, located at the
south end of Tenerife.
[36] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is a substance needed by ships.”
Herrera says that they waited three days at the port awaiting a caravel
that was laden with pitch for the fleet (Mosto, p. 53, note 8).
[37] MS. 5,650 reads: “water coming from spring or river.”
[38] Eden (p. 250) adds to this account which he greatly abridges:
“The lyke thynge is alſo ſcene in the Iland of ſaynt Thomas,
lyinge directly vnder the Equinoctiall lyne.” Of this island of
Hierro, Pory (History and description of Africa, Hakluyt Society
edition, p. 100) says: “Hierro hath neither spring nor well, but is
miraculously furnished with water by a cloud which over-spreadeth a
tree, from whence distilleth so much moisture, as sufficeth both for
men and cattel. This cloud ariseth an hower or two before the sunne,
and is dissolued two howers after sunne rising.” This is an old story
and is related by Pliny and founded upon fact “for both in Madeira
and the Canaries the laurel and other heavy-foliaged evergreens
condense abundant water from the daily mists” (Guillemard’s
Magellan, p. 149). Gregorio Chil y Naranio (Estudios históricos ... de
las islas Canarias, 1879) believes Pigafetta means here the island of
Palma, and that the first navigators visited only the coast and so did
not see the lake in the interior (Mosto, p. 53, note 9).
[39] MS. 5,650 adds: “which the sailors of the east call
‘Cyroc’” This is the Italian sirocco, which is the name for the
southeast wind instead of the south. Herrera says they left the port
October 2 (Mosto, p. 54, note 2).
[40] Eden (p. 250) reads incorrectly: “In this coaſt they had no
maner of contrary wynds but a great calme and fayre wether for the
ſpace of three ſcore and tenne dayes, in the which they came vnder
the Equinoctiall lyne.”
[41] MS. 5,650 adds: “and of those persons who have sailed there
often.”
[42] MS. 5,650 reads: “And in order that our ships might not be
wrecked or broach to (which often happens when the squalls come
together).”
[43] This last phrase, as well as the two following sentences are
missing in MS. 5,650. The third sentence following begins: “During
the calm weather, large fish called tiburoni,” etc. The word
tiburoni, “sharks” is from the Spanish tiburon, which comes from
the French tibéron (tiburin, tiburon).—Echagaray’s Diccionario
Etimológico (Madrid, 1889).
[44] MS. 5,650 reads: “The said fish are caught by means of a
contrivance which sailors call ‘hame’ which is an iron fishhook.”
Hame (ain) is the French form of the Italian Amo, meaning
“fishhook.”
[45] MS. 5,650 adds: “because of the bad weather.”
[46] MS. 5,650 reads “a quarter of an hour,” and the same duration
of time is given by Eden (p. 250).
[47] MS. 5,650 adds: “It is to be noted that whenever that fire that
represents the said Saint Anselme ascends and descends the mast of a
ship while in a storm at sea, that the said ship is never wrecked.”
Herrera (cited by Mosto, p. 54, note 5) says that St. Elmo appeared on
the masthead with a lighted candle and sometimes two during the storms
encountered along the coasts of Guinea, and that the sailors were
greatly comforted thereby, and saluted the saint as is the custom of
seamen. When he appeared, he remained a quarter of an hour; and at his
departure a great flash of light occurred which blinded all the men.
Eden (p. 250) calls it the fire of St. Helen. Continuing, Eden injects
into his abridgment of the first circumnavigation a description of St.
Elmo’s fire by Hieronimus Cardanus in the second book of De
Subtilitate. He says: “Of the kynde of trewe fyer, is the fyer baule
or ſtarre commonly cauled ſaynt Helen which is ſumtyme ſeene abowt
the maſtes of ſhyppes, beinge of ſuche fyery nature that it
ſumetyme melteth braſen veſſels, and is a token of drownyng,
foraſmuch as this chaunceth only in great tempeſtes. For the vapoure
or exhalation whereof this fyre is engendered, can not bee dryven
togyther or compacte in forme of fyre, but of a groſe vapoure and by a
great poure of wynde, and is therfore a token of imminent perell.”
The fires called after St. Peter and St. Nicholas are on the contrary,
he says, good omens, and are generally to be seen on the cables, after
a storm. Being little and swift moving they can do no damage as they
could do if massed and of slow movement. St. Elmo’s fire is the
popular name for the atmospheric electricity that gathers in the form
of a star or brush about the masthead of ships and on the rigging. It
was sometimes accompanied by a hissing noise and was considered as a
good omen by sailors. The Greeks who observed this phenomenon wove it
into the Castor and Pollux myth; and the French edition of
Pigafetta’s relation published by Simon de Colines has the passage
(see Mosto, p. 54): “They saw the fires called Sainct Eline and
Sainct Nicolas like blazing torches (whom the ancients called Castor
and Pollux).” “Elmo” is said by some to be a corruption of
“Helena,” the sister of Castor and Pollux, and the name
“Hellene” or “Helen” was often given to the fire when only one
light was visible. It is, however, more probably derived from St. Elmo,
bishop of Formine who died about 304, and who is invoked by sailors on
the Mediterranean. The phenomenon is also called fire of “St.
Elias,” “St. Clara,” “St. Nicolas,” and “composite,”
“composant,” and “corposant (i.e., corpus sanctum).”
[48] The second bird mentioned is the stormy petrel (of the family
Laridæ and genus Thalassidroma), which is found along all the Atlantic
coasts and on some of the Pacific. The tale of the text was current
among sailors (see Wilkes, U. S. Exploring Expedition, viii, pp. 402,
403). The cagassela (“cagaselo” in MS. 5,650) is the Stercorarius
parasiticus, called also the jaeger, and by sailors “boatswain,”
“teaser,” and “dung-hunter.” The last name arose from the
belief, long held even by scientists, that this bird fed on the dung of
gulls and terns. In reality it pursues the latter birds and compels
them to disgorge the fish that they have swallowed. The flying-fish is
either a species of Exocœtus, or the Scomberesox saurus of Europe and
America, both of which feed in large schools and jump from the water to
escape their enemies. See Riverside Natural History (Boston and New
York).
[49] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is the collateral wind between the south
and the west;” and below reads: “twenty-four and one-half
degrees;” while Eden (p. 250) reads: “xxii degrees and a halfe.”
[50] Verzino, the etymology of which is unknown (see Varthema’s
Travels, Hakluyt Society edition, p. lxxviii, note, and 205 note), is
the Italian name for brazil-wood, from which Brazil, which was first
visited by Vicente Pinzon, Diego Lope, Pedro Alvares Cabral, and
Amerigo Vespucci, was named. The first names of the country were Vera
Cruz and Santa Cruz. Cape Santo Agostinho, mentioned below, lies in 8°
21´ south latitude, and is the most eastern headland of South America.
It was the first land of that continent to be discovered, being sighted
at least as early as 1500 by Pinzon. Before sighting the above cape,
Magalhães arrested Juan de Cartagena for insubordination and gave the
command of the “San Antonio” to Antonio de Coca (see Guillemard’s
Magellan, p. 153). Albo’s log begins slightly before the sighting of
the point, his first entry being November 29. See Burton’s
“Introduction” in his Captivity of Hans Stade (Hakluyt Society
publications, London, 1874).
[51] MS. 5,650 reads: “veal.” The anta is the tapir, once very
plentiful in South America, but now rare in the well civilized
districts. See Burton’s Captivity of Hans Stade, p. viii. Albo,
however, seems to designate the llama by this name, for he says when
speaking of the stay at Bay St. Julian: “and many Indians came there,
who are clad in certain skins of antas, which resemble camels without
the hump.” (Navarrete, Col. de viages, iv, p. 214).
[52] Stanley mistranslates the French phrase of MS. 5,650 et est de la
longueur dun naveau, “and is of the length of a shuttle,” confusing
naveau with navette, “shuttle.” Naveau here is equivalent to navet,
“turnip” or navette, “rape,” a plant of the turnip class, as is
proved by the Italian.
[53] MS. 5,650 reads: “And for a king of cards, of the kind which are
used to play with in Italy, they gave me five fowls.” The four suits
of Italian playing cards are called spade (“swords”), bastoni
(“clubs”), danari (literally: “money;” “diamonds”), and
coppe (“cups”).
[54] MS. 5,650 reads: “five.”
[55] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is an astrological term. That zenith is a
point in the sky, according to astrologers, but only in the
imagination, and is in a straight line over our head, as can be seen by
the treatise of the sphere, and in Aristotle, in the first book De
caelo et mondo.” By the treatise of the sphere is evidently meant the
treatise of Pigafetta which follows his relation, and which is not
reproduced here as being outside the scope of the present work. In the
flyleaf of the Italian original is the following: “Notices concerning
the new world, with the charts of the countries discovered, written by
Antonio Pigafeta, Venetian and knight of Rodi. At the end are added
some rules for finding the longitude and latitude of places east and
west.” In the Italian MS. this treatise occupies the last twelve
folios. Stanley translates Amoretti’s version of the Treatise, which
is greatly abridged. Mosto (p. 35) conjectures that the treatise is the
fruits of his three-years’ experience during the expedition.
[56] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 210) says that the fleet continued to
coast southwest from November 29 until arriving at St. Lucy’s bay on
December 13 (St. Lucy’s day). Of the coast he says: “The mountains
are peaked and have many reefs about them. There are many rivers and
ports in the said Brasil and San Tomé, and some six leguas down the
coast there are many bays running two leguas into the land. But the
coast runs northeast and southwest to Cape Frio, and has many islands
and rivers. Cape Frio is a very large river.... At the entrance of the
said bay is a very large bay, and at the mouth a very low island, and
inside it spreads out extensively and has many ports ... and is called
the bay of Santa Lucía.... In the said bay, one finds a well-disposed
and numerous race, who go naked and trade for fishhooks, mirrors, and
hawk’s bells with food.... We entered that place on the very day of
St. Lucy, and stayed there until the day of St. John, namely, the
twenty-seventh of the said month of December. On that day we went and
took our course west southwest, and found seven islands. To the right
of them is a bay called the bay of Los Reyes [i.e., the Kings] which
has a good entrance.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 1) says: “as
soon as they sighted the other coast of Brazil, he steered to the
south-east [sic] along the coast as far as Cabo-frio, which is in
twenty-three degrees south latitude; and from this cape he steered to
the west, a matter of thirty leagues, to make the Rio de Janeiro, which
is in the same latitude as Cabo-frio, and they entered the said river
on the day of St. Lucy, which was the 13th December, in which place
they took in wood, and they remained there until the first octave of
Christmas, which was the 26th of December of the same year.” Brito
(Navarrete, iv, p. 306) says: “Setting sail thence [i.e., from
Tenerife], the first land sighted was the cape of the shoals of Ambas.
They descended the coast as far as the river called Janeiro, where they
stayed 15 or 16 days.”
[57] Eden (p. 251) says: “bygger then all Spayne, Portugale, Fraunce,
and Italie.”
[58] MS. 5,650 adds: “more like beasts than anything else.”
[59] MS. 5,650 reads: “And some of those people live to the age of
one hundred, one hundred and twenty, one hundred and forty, or more.”
Eden (p. 251) says: “C.xx. and C.xl. yeares.” For description of
the Brazil Indians, and their manners and customs, see Captivity of
Hans Stade (Hakluyt Society edition), pp. 117–169.
[60] Wrongly transcribed by Stanley as “boy.”
[61] MS. 5,650 reads: “You must know that a family of one hundred
persons, who make a great racket, lives in each of those houses called
boii.” One of these houses (called Oca, in Tupi) is described by
Wilson (Transactions of Ethnological Society, new series, vol. i) as
being “60 or 70 feet long, divided into rooms for several families by
rush mats, and provided with a central fire whose smoke passed through
the roof. Some of them contained 200 head.” See Burton’s Captivity
of Hans Stade, pp. 59, 60, note. The Indians described by Pigafetta are
probably the Tamoyos of the Tupi or Guarani stock (Mosto, p. 56, note
1; see also Burton, ut supra, pp. lxi-lxxvi).
[62] Amoretti makes this passage read: “Their boats, called canoes,
are hollowed out from the single trunk of a huge tree;” understanding
maschize as massiccio “huge.” Mosto prefers to read maschize as two
words ma schize (notwithstanding that it is one word in the original),
for ma schiacciate, “but flattened.” Accepting this, the
translation would be: “They have boats made from one single tree,
only flattened.” Amoretti’s interpretation is to be preferred.
[63] MS. 5,650 reads: “and one would believe them to be enemies from
hell.”
[64] MS. 5,650 adds: “of the said country of Verzin.”
[65] MS. 5,650 reads: “daily.” Amerigo Vespucci says in a letter
(Mosto, p. 55, note 6): “I saw human flesh salted and suspended from
the beams, in the same way as we are wont to hang up bacon and
swine’s flesh.” See Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents
(Cleveland reissue), for instances of cannibalism among the North
American Indians. See also Captivity of Hans Stade (Hakluyt Society
edition), pp. 151, 155–159; and Dominguez’s Conquest of the River
Plate (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1891), pp. 129, 130.
[66] For Carvagio, as in MS. 5,650, and later in the Italian; an error
of the amanuensis. This was João Carvalho (the Juan Lopez Caraballo of
the register—see note 26, ante). Carvalho was a Portuguese, of none
too scrupulous morals, even in his age, as appears later in
Pigafetta’s narrative. After the fatal banquet in the island of
Cebú, he became the leader of the remaining men of the fleet, but was
later deposed (see post, note 441). He remained behind with the
ill-fated “Trinidad,” and never returned to Europe. His son, borne
to him by a native woman of Brazil, was left behind in Borneo. See
Stanley, pp. 252–255, for Correa’s account of the actions of
Carvalho after the death of Magalhães.
[67] The early French edition and the Italian edition of 1536 both
include the women and children.—Stanley.
[68] It is a widespread (perhaps universal) characteristic of the
American Indian to pull out the hair of the body. See Jesuit Relations
and Allied Documents (Cleveland reissue).
[69] Eden (p. 45), defines gatti mammoni as monkeys. Monkeys of the
genus Cebus are probably meant (Mosto, p. 55, note 8).
[70] MS. 5,650 reads: “fresh cheese.” Pigafetta may here refer to
the bread made from the casava or manioc root. See Burton’s Captivity
of Hans Stade, pp. 130–132, for a description of the method of
preparing this root.
[71] The swine mentioned by Pigafetta is the Tayasu (Tagaçu), or
peccari (Dicotyles torquatus), which has quills resembling those of the
porcupine, and is generally of a whitish color. It is tailless and very
fierce and difficult to domesticate. The flesh was eaten; and the teeth
were worn by some of the chiefs as necklaces. Burton (ut supra), p.
160, note.
[72] The Platalea ajaja or rosy spoonbill, belonging to the family of
the Plataleidæ, whose habitat extends through all of tropical and
subtropical America, including the West Indies, south to the Falkland
Islands, Patagonia and Chile, and north to the southern part of the
United States.
[73] Hans Stade (Burton, ut supra) testifies to the chastity of the
people of Eastern Brazil among whom he lived as a prisoner.
[74] MS. 5,650 reads: “The women attend to the outside affairs, and
carry everything necessary for their husband’s food in small panniers
on the head or fastened to the head.”
[75] MS. 5,650 adds: “and compassion.”
[76] MS. 5,650 reads: “When we departed they gave us a very great
quantity of verzin;” and adds: “That is a color which comes from
trees which grow in the said country, and so abundantly, that the
country is called Verzin from it.”
[77] MS. adds: “which was a piece of great simplicity.”
[78] This sentence is preceded by the following in MS. 5,650:
“Besides the abovesaid which proclaims their simplicity, the people
of the above place showed us another very simple thing.”
[79] This passage in Stanley reads as follows: “A beautiful young
girl came one day inside the ship of our captain, where I was, and did
not come except to seek for her luck: however, she directed her looks
to the cabin of the master, and saw a nail, of a finger’s length, and
went and took it as something valuable and new, and hid it in her hair,
for otherwise she would not have been able to conceal it, because she
was naked, and, bending forwards, she went away; and the captain and I
saw this mystery.” The matter between the words “length” and
“naked” is taken from MS. 24,224 (wrongly declared by Stanley to be
the copy of his travels presented to the regent Louise by Pigafetta,
the conclusion being based on the fact that some of the details are
softened down), as Stanley considered the incident as told in MS.
5,650, the Italian MS. and the first French edition, as unfit for
publication. Stanley cites the following (in the original) from the
edition of 1536 which omits the above story: “At the first land at
which we stopped, some female slaves whom we had brought in the ships
from other countries and who were heavy with child, were taken with the
pains of childbirth. Consequently, they went alone out of the ships,
went ashore, and after having given birth, returned immediately to the
ships with their infants in their arms.” He also cites the following
passage from the first French printed edition, which also narrates the
above story of the girl: “At the first coast that we passed, some
slave women gave birth. When they were in travail, they left the boat,
after which they immediately returned, and nursed their children.”
Stanley adds that this story of the slave women is improbable, as women
were not allowed to come aboard ship.
[80] MS. 5,650 gives the words of the Brazil as follows: “maiz, huy,
pinda, taesse, chignap, pirame, itenmaraca, tum maraghatom.” Amoretti
(see Stanley’s edition, p. 48) reads tacse as tarse and itanmaraca as
Hanmaraca. Stanley mistranslates the French forcette (“scissors”)
as “fork.”
[81] Eden says (p. 251): “xxxiiii. degree and a halfe toward the pole
Antartike.”
[82] MS. 5,650 reads: “and to ask whether the others might come.”
[83] MS. 5,650 reads: “That place was formerly called Cape Saincte
Marye and it was thought that one could pass thence to the sea of Sur,
that is to say the South Sea, but it has not been ascertained that any
ships have ever discovered anything farther on.” Eden (p. 251) reads:
“Abowt the mouth of this ryuer are ſeven ilandes, in the byggeſt
whereof, they founde certeyne precious ſtones, and cauled it the cape
of Saynt Marie. The Spanyardes thought that by this ryuer they might
haue paſſed into the ſouth ſea. But they were deceaued in theyr
opinion. For there was none other paſſage than by the ryuer which is
xvii. leagues large in the mouth.” This river was the Rio de la
Plata. The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 2) says that Magalhães left Rio
de Janeiro December 26, proceeding to the cape Santa María and the
river which was called St. Christopher. There they remained until
February 2, 1520. Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 211) also mentions the river
which he calls the “river of Solís.” The ships sent to look for a
strait through the river were gone two days, and a careful exploration
of the mouth of the river was made. Brito (Navarrete, iv, pp. 306, 307)
says: “They left that place [i.e., Rio de Janeiro] and coasted along
shore until they reached the river called Solís, where Fernando
Magallanes thought that he could find a strait. They stayed there forty
days. Magallanes ordered the ship ‘Santiago’ to sail forward for
about 50 leguas to see whether there was any passage. Not finding a
passage, he crossed the river which is about 25 leguas wide and found
the [opposite] coast which runs northeast and southwest.” For early
history of this region, see Dominguez’s Conquest of the River Plata.
[84] Juan Diaz de Solis, a famous Spanish navigator, was born at
Lebrixa, in 1470. He is said, although without sufficient authority, to
have discovered Yucatan with Pinzon in 1506. He was appointed chief
pilot of Spain after the death of Amerigo Vespucci in 1512. In October,
1515, he sailed in command of an expedition in search of a southwest
passage to India. He discovered Rio de la Plata which he explored as
far as the region of the Charrua tribe, by whom he and some of his men
were killed and eaten before September, 1516. The remnant of the
expedition was conducted back to Spain by his brother-in-law.
[85] Eden adds (p. 251): “which ſum thynke to bee thoſe fyſſhes
that wee caule pikes.” Below, the sea-wolf is described as having a
head “of golden coloure.” They were probably some species of the
Otariidæ or fur-seals (Giullemard, p. 160, note). The “geese” were
penguins. Albo, Herrera, and others, also mention the “sea-wolves and
ducks.” Kohl (Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, xi, 362)
says that this bay where the ships were laden with the seals and
penguins is probably Desvelos Bay, but it is more probably Puerto
Deseado (“Port Desire;” see Mosto, p. 57, note 2). Drake also
secured fresh provisions from these “sea-wolves,” calling the bay
where he secured them “Seale Bay.” See World Encompassed (Hakluyt
Society edition), pp. 54, 55.
[86] Port St. Julian. The “Roteiro” pilot (Stanley, p. 3) says that
they reached it on March 31, 1520, and places it in 49° 20´ south
latitude. Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 214) says: “We went to a port
called San Julian, where we entered the last day of March, and where we
stayed until the day of St. Bartholomew. The said port lies in a
latitude of 49 and two-thirds degrees. We pitched the ships in that
port.” Other writers give slightly different locations (see Mosto, p.
57, note 5). Antonio Brito, the Portuguese, whose MS. is preserved in
the Torre do Tombo at Lisbon, writes in 1523 to the king of Portugal
certain news obtained from some of the men of the “Trinidad.” His
information as might be expected, is at times faulty. Of Port St.
Julian, he says: “They coasted along shore until they reached a river
called San Juan where they wintered for four months.”
[87] MS. 5,650 adds: “jumping up and down.” The only reference made
to the Patagonians by Albo is as follows: “Many Indians came there,
who dress in certain skins of the anta, which resemble camels without
the hump. They have certain bows made from cane, which are very small
and resemble turkish bows. The arrows also resemble Turkish arrows, and
are tipped with flint instead of iron. Those Indians are very prudent,
swift runners, and very well-built and well-appearing men.”
(Navarrete, iv, pp. 214, 215). Cf. with Pigafetta’s account that
given by Maximilianus Transylvanus, in Vol. I, pp. 303–337.
[88] MS. 5,650 reads: “he began to marvel and to be afraid.”
[89] Guillemard, who follows the Amoretti edition, translates (p. 180)
this passage: “His hair was short and colored white,” but this
translation is borne out by neither the Italian MS. nor MS. 5,650.
Guillemard presents a picture of a Patagonian, as does also Wilkes
(Narrative of U. S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842), i, facing p.
95. The latter describes Indians, whom the officers of the expedition
thought to be Patagonians, and who were taller than average Europeans,
as follows: “They had good figures and pleasant looking countenances,
low foreheads, and high cheekbones, with broad faces, the lower part
projecting; their hair was course and cut short on the crown leaving a
narrow border of hair hanging down; over this they wore a kind of cap
or band of skin or woolen yarn. The front teeth of all of them were
very much worn, more apparent, however, in the old than in the young.
On one foot they wore a rude skin sandal. Many of them had their faces
painted in red and black stripes, with clay, soot, and ashes. Their
whole appearance, together with their inflamed and sore eyes, was
filthy and disgusting.” They showed that they had had previous
communication with white men. Their food was fish and shellfish, and
they carried bows and arrows and had dogs. Brinton (American Race, New
York, 1891) says that “The Patagonians call themselves Chonek or
Tzoneca, or Inaken (men, people), and by their Pampean neighbors are
referred to as Tehuel-Che, southerners.” Many of them are “from six
to six feet four inches in height, and built in proportion. In color
they are a reddish brown, and have aquiline noses and good
foreheads.” Ramon Lista (Viage al pais de los Tehuel-Ches) gives the
average height of the Patagonians as 1.854 m., hence the early accounts
of their great stature are greatly exaggerated (Mosto, p. 57, note 6).
See also the description of the Patagonians in the “Roteiro”
(Stanley, p. 5); and World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (Hakluyt
Society edition), pp. 40, 56–61 (where the origin of the name
“Patagonian” is wrongly given).
[90] The guanaco, a species of llama. See also Vol. II, p. 34, note 5*.
[91] Hence arose the name “Patagonians” or “men with big feet,”
given by Magalhães, because of the awkward appearance of the feet in
such coverings, which were stuffed with straw for greater warmth.
[92] The words “somewhat thicker than those of a lute” are lacking
in MS. 5,650.
[93] This sentence is omitted by MS. 5,650.
[94] Eden (p. 251) says “two,” and following says that Magalhaes
gave the giant “certeyne haukes belles and other great belles, with
alſo a lookynge glaſſe, a combe, and a payre of beades of
glaſſe.”
[95] MS. 5,650 adds: “on the face.”
[96] MS. 5,650 omits “face.”
[97] “For the smiths” is omitted by MS. 5,650.
[98] Maximilianus Transylvanus says that only one Patagonian was
captured, but that he died shortly from self-starvation (Vol. I, pp.
314, 315). The “Roteiro” says (Stanley, p. 5) that three or four
were captured, but all died except one, who went to Spain in the “San
Antonio.” Pigafetta’s account, as given by an eyewitness, is to be
preferred.
[99] MS. 5,650 reads: “for otherwise they could have caused some of
our men trouble.” Below Stanley (p. 53) again mistranslates the
French “forces” as “forks.”
[100] MS. 5,650 adds: “of malefactors,” and reads farther: “and
their faces lighted up at seeing those manacles.”
[101] MS. 5,650 reads: “and they were grieved that they could not
take the irons with their hands, for they were hindered by the other
things that they were holding.” Eden (p. 252) says at the end of his
account of the capture: “Being thus taken, they were immediately
ſeperate and put in ſundry ſhyppes.”
[102] MS. 5,650 adds: “that is, the big devil.”
Arber in his introduction to The first three English books on America
says that Shakespeare had access to The decades of the newe worlde of
Eden, and created the character of Caliban (who invokes Setebos) in the
Tempest from the description of the Patagonian giants. See also World
encompassed by Sir Francis Drake (Hakluyt Society edition), p. 48, for
mention of the god Settaboth.
[103] MS. 5,650 reads: “the wife of one of the giants who had
remained behind in irons.”
[104] MS. 5,650 makes this plural.
[105] See ante, note 103.
[106] This word is omitted in MS. 5,650.
[107] MS. 5,650 adds: “in their language.”
[108] MS. 5,650 omits this sentence.
[109] MS. 5,650 reads “instead of taking medicine.” See Jesuit
Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland reissue) for examples of
medicine and surgery as practiced by the North American Indians.
[110] MS. 5,650 reads “two feet or so.”
[111] MS. 5,650 reads “cut short and shaven like religious.” Hans
Stade also notices the tonsure among the Indians who captured him (see
Captivity of Hans Stade, Hakluyt Society edition, pp. 136–138, and
note, from which it appears that this manner of wearing the hair, was
practiced among many Tupi tribes).
[112] Stanley (p. 55) does not translate this sentence, but gives the
original from MS. 5,650.
[113] In MS. 5,650 this sentence reads as follows: “They seem to be
painted, and one of those enemies is taller than the others, and makes
a greater noise and gives expression to greater joy than the others.”
[114] Mosto (p. 59) mistranscribes or misprints “Setebas.” Roncagli
(Da punta arenas a Santo Cruz, in “Bollettino della Società
geografica italiana,” 1884, p. 775) says that the Patagonians
sacrificed to an evil spirit called “Wallichu.” Brinton, ut supra,
p. 328, says: “They are not without some religious rites, and are
accustomed to salute the new moon, and at the beginning of any solemn
undertaking to puff the smoke of their pipes to the four cardinal
points, just as did the Algonquins and Iroquois.”
[115] See ante, note 91. Stanley mistranscribes “Pataghoni” of MS.
5,650 as “Palaghom.”
[116] A reference to the gypsies who had made their appearance in Italy
as early as 1422, where they practiced various deceptions upon the
credulous people. The name “Cingani” or Zingari, as they are
generally called in Italy, comes from the Greek word t>asigqanoi, by
which they were called by Byzantine writers of the ix–xii centuries;
the same name appearing also in slightly different forms in Turkey,
Bulgaria, Roumania, Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany. Their ancestral home
was probably in northwestern India, whence they emigrated in successive
waves. In many countries extreme and harsh measures were taken against
them, especially in Germany, where they had appeared as early as 1417.
They were never allowed a foothold in France, but have become a
significant part of the population in Russia, Hungary, and Spain. In
the latter country, where they are called Gitános (Egyptians), in
spite of many severe laws passed against them until the reign of
Cárlos III, they continued, more fortunate than the Jews, to thrive.
They are mentioned by Cervantes in his Don Quixote (pt. i, chap, xxx),
but the name Gitáno had first appeared in a Spanish document of 1499,
where their customs are described. The few in Italy have been allowed
to remain, and those in the Slavic countries and England were generally
treated kindly. Their language is Aryan and was highly inflected; and
while they have been given many names by the nations among whom they
have lived, their own appellation is “Rom” “the man.” See New
International Encyclopedia (New York, 1903).
[117] MS. 5,650 reads: “capae;” but Stanley has mistranscribed
“capac.”
[118] “Albo (Navarrete iv, p. 215), the “Roteiro” (Stanley, p.
4), Transylvanus and Oviedo (Mosto, p. 59, note 3) give the date of
departure from Port San Julian August 24, 1520; but the second errs in
giving 5½ instead of 4½ months for the period for which the fleet
remained there. Peter Martyr places the date of departure as August 21.
Castanheda, who gives the same date says that the name “St. Julian”
or “of the ducks” was given to that bay which he calls a river.
Barros gives the date of arrival as April 2, and says that the place
was called “river of Saõ Julião.” See Mosto, ut supra.
[119] A portion of the passage relating to the attempted mutiny reads
as follows in MS. 5,650: “However the treason was discovered, and as
a consequence the treasurer was killed by a dagger and then quartered.
Gaspar de Casada was beheaded and then quartered. The overseer trying
shortly after to lead another mutiny, was banished together with a
priest and set ashore on that land of Pathagonia.” The Italian MS. is
badly confused, while the above is more in accordance with the facts,
and shows the hand of the translator and adapter. Eden (p. 252) says of
the attempted mutiny: “They remayned fyue monethes in this porte of
Sainte Iulian, where certeyne of the vnder capitaynes conſpirynge the
death of theyr general, were hanged and quartered: Amonge whom the
treaſurer Luigo of Mendozza was one. Certeyne of the other
conſpirators, he left in the ſayd land of Patogoni.” See the short
account of the mutiny given by Transylvanus in Vol. I, p. 317, and the
account given in the same volume, pp. 297, 299. The Roteiro (Stanley,
p. 3) says that three of the ships revolted against Magalhães”
saying that they intended to take him to Castile in arrest, as he was
taking them all to destruction;” but Magalhães subdued the mutiny by
the aid of the foreigners with him. Mendoza was killed by Espinosa the
chief constable of the fleet, and Gaspar Quesada was beheaded and
quartered. Alvaro de Mesquita, Magalhães’s cousin, is wrongly
reported to have been given command of one of the ships of those
killed, but the command of the “San Antonio” that had previously
been given to Antonio de Coca, after Magalhães had deprived Cartagena
of it, had been given him before the real outbreak of the mutiny.
The narrative of the mutiny as given by Navarrete (Col. de viages, iv,
pp. 34–38) which was compiled mainly from documents presented in the
same volume and from Herrera, is as follows:
“March 31, the eve of Palm Sunday, Magallanes entered the port of San
Julian, where he intended to winter, and consequently ordered the
rations to be served by measure. In view of that and of the barrenness
and cold of the country, the men asked Magallanes by various arguments
to increase the rations or turn back, since there was no hope of
finding the end of that country or any strait. But Magallanes replied
that he would either die or accomplish what he had promised; that the
king had ordered the voyage which he was to accomplish; and that he had
to sail until he found that land or some strait which must surely
exist; that in regard to the food, they had no reason to complain,
since that bay had an abundance of good fish, good water, many game
birds, and quantities of wood, and that bread and wine had not failed
them, nor would fail them if they would abide by the rule regarding
rations. Among other observations, he exhorted and begged them not to
be found wanting in the valorous spirit which the Castilian nation had
manifested and showed daily in greater affairs; and offering them
corresponding rewards in the king’s name. By such means did he quiet
the men.
“April 1, Palm Sunday, Magallanes summoned all his captains,
officers, and pilots to go ashore to hear mass and afterward to dine in
his ship. Alvaro de la Mezquita, Antonio de Coca, and all the men went
to hear mass. Louis de Mendoza, Gaspar de Quesada, and Juan de
Cartagena (the latter because he was a prisoner in Quesada’s keeping)
did not go, however; and Alvaro de la Mezquita alone went to dine with
Magallanes.
“During the night, Gaspar de Quesada and Juan de Cartagena with about
thirty armed men of the ship ‘Concepcion’ went to the ‘San
Antonio,’ where Quesada requested that the captain, Alvaro de la
Mezquita, be surrendered to him, and told the crew of the ship to seize
it, as they had already done with the ‘Concepcion’ and
‘Victoria.’ [He said] that they already knew how Magallanes had
treated and was treating them, because they had asked him to fulfil the
king’s orders; that they were lost men; and that they should help him
make another request of Magallanes, and if necessary, seize him. Juan
de Elorriaga, the master of the ‘San Antonio,’ spoke in favor of
his captain, Alvaro de la Mezquita, saying to Gaspar de Quesada: ‘I
summon you, in God’s name and that of the king, Don Cárlos, to go to
your ship, for the present is no time to go through the ships with
armed men; and I also summon you to release our captain.’ Thereupon
Quesada replied: ‘Must our deed remain unaccomplished because of this
madman?’ and drawing his dagger stabbed him four times in the arm,
thus overawing the men. Mezquita was kept prisoner, Elorriaga was cared
for, Cartagena went to the ship ‘Concepcion,’ while Quesada
remained in the ‘San Antonio.’ Thus were Quesada, Cartagena, and
Mendoza masters of the three ships, ‘San Antonio,’
‘Concepcion,’ and ‘Victoria.’
“Thereupon, they sent a message to Magallanes to the effect that they
held three ships and the small boats of all five at their disposal in
order to require him to fulfil his Majesty’s provisions. They said
that they had done that in order that he might no longer illtreat them
as he had done thitherto. If he would agree to fulfil his Majesty’s
orders, they would obey his commands, and [said] that if they had
thitherto treated him as a superior, they would thenceforth treat him
as a master, and would be most respectful to him.
“Magallanes sent word to them to come to his ship, where he would
hear them and do what was proper. They answered that they did not dare
come lest he illtreat them, but that he should go to the ship ‘San
Antonio,’ where they would all assemble and decide definitely on what
the king’s orders commanded.
“Magallanes believing that boldness was more useful than meekness in
the face of such actions, determined to employ craft and force
together. He kept the small boat of the ship ‘San Antonio’ which
was used for those negotiations, at his ship; and sent the alguacil,
Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa, in the skiff belonging to his ship, to the
‘Victoria,’ with six men armed secretly and a letter for the
treasurer, Luis de Mendoza, in which he told the latter to come to the
flagship. While the treasurer was reading the letter and smiling as if
to say ‘You don’t catch me that way,’ Espinosa stabbed him in the
throat, while another sailor stabbed him at the same instant on the
head so that he fell dead. Magallanes, being a man with foresight, sent
a boat under command of Duarte Barbosa, sobresaliente of the
‘Trinidad’ with fifteen armed men, who entering the ‘Victoria’
flung the banner to the breeze without any resistance. That happened on
April 2. Then the ‘Victoria’ approached the flagship, and they
together immediately approached the ‘Santiago.’
“On the following day, the ‘San Antonio’ and the ‘Concepcion’
which were held by Quesada and Cartagena tried to put to sea, but it
was necessary for them to pass close to the flagship which stood
farthest out. The ‘San Antonio’ raised two anchors, and being in
danger with one, Quesada determined to free Alvaro de la Mezquita, whom
he held a prisoner in his ship, in order to send him to Magallanes to
arrange peace between them. Mezquita, however, told him that nothing
would be obtained. Finally, they arranged that when they set sail,
Mezquita should station himself forward and ask Magallanes as they
approached his ship, not to fire and that they would anchor provided
affairs would be settled favorably.
“Before setting sail in the ‘San Antonio,’ where they were
endangered, as it was night and the crew were asleep, the ship dragged
and ran foul of the flagship. The latter discharged some large and
small shots and men leaped aboard the ‘San Antonio’ crying, ‘For
whom are you?’ they responding, ‘For the king, our sovereign, and
your Grace,’ surrendered to Magallanes. The latter seized Quesada,
the accountant, Antonio de Coca, and other sobresalientes who had gone
to the ‘San Antonio’ with Quesada. Then he sent to the
‘Concepcion’ for Juan de Cartagena and imprisoned him with them.
“Next day Magallanes ordered the body of Mendoza taken ashore and had
it quartered, and Mendoza cried as a traitor. On the seventh, he
ordered Gaspar de Quesada beheaded and quartered with a like cry. That
was done by Quesada’s own follower and sobresaliente, Luis de Molino,
in order to save himself from hanging, for that sentence had been
passed on him. Magallanes sentenced Juan de Cartagena and the lay
priest, Pedro Sanchez de la Reina, who had been active in causing the
men to mutiny, to be marooned in that country. He pardoned more than
forty men who merited death, as they were needed to work the ships, and
so that he might not excite hard feelings by the severity of the
punishment.”
Brito’s account of the mutiny (Navarrete, iv, p. 307) is very brief
and unsatisfactory: “In that port the captains began to ask him where
he was taking them, especially one Juan de Cartagena, who said that he
had a royal cedula naming him as associate with Magallanes, as Rui
Falero would also have been, had he been there. Then they tried to rise
against Magallanes and kill him, and go back to Castilla or to Rodas.
From that point they went to the river of Santa Cruz, where they
endeavored to put their plan in execution. But when Magallanes
discovered their ill-considered attempt, for the captains said that
they would kill him or take him prisoner, he ordered his ship armed and
Juan de Cartagena arrested. As soon as the other captains saw their
chief arrested they thought no longer of prosecuting their attempt.
Magallanes, however, seized them all, for most of the crew were in his
favor. He sent the merino or alguacil to kill Luis de Mendoza with his
dagger, for the latter refused to be arrested; while he had another
named Gaspar Quesada beheaded. When they set sail, he left Juan de
Cartagena together with a secular priest ashore at a place where there
were no inhabitants.”
Correa (Stanley, pp. 247–250) gives a different and imperfect account
of the meeting.
Cf. with these accounts the one given by Guillemard (Magellan), pp.
162–174. When the “San Antonio” deserted, Esteban Gomez is said
to have rescued Cartagena and the priest. João Serrão (after the loss
of the “Santiago”) was given command of the “Concepcion,”
Mesquita of the “San Antonio,” and Duarte Barbosa of the
“Victoria,” all Portuguese (Guillemard, ut supra, p. 179). It is
rather singular that Sir Francis Drake should also have faced a mutiny
in this same port, where Thomas Doughty was executed. That the history
of Magalhães’s expedition was generally known is evident from the
following: “The next day after, being the twentieth of June, wee
harboured ourselues againe in a very good harborough, called by
Magellan Port S. Julian, where we found a gibbet standing upon the
maine, which we supposed to be the place where Magellan did execution
upon some of his disobedient and rebellious company.” World
encompassed (Hakluyt Society edition), p. 234.
[120] MS. 5,650 reads: “twenty-five leagues.”
[121] Instead of this last phrase, MS. 5,650 reads: “and very little
of that.” The account of the shipwreck and rescue as given here is
very confusing and inadequate. Cf. Guillemard, ut supra, pp. 175–179,
and Navarrete, iv, pp. 38, 39. One man was lost, namely, the negro
slave of João Serrão. The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 4) gives the
briefest mention of it. Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 307) says: “After
this [i.e., the mutiny], they wintered for three months; and Magallanes
again ordered the ship ‘Santiago’ to go ahead in order to explore.
The ship was wrecked but all of its crew were saved.” Correa’s
account (Stanley, p. 250) is very short, and mentions that only the
hull of the vessel was lost.
[122] Mosto (p. 60, note 3) derives this word from the Spanish
mejillon, a variety of cockle, which he thinks may be the Mytilus or
common mussel.
[123] See Vol. II, p. 34, note 5*.
[124] Eden (p. 252) says: “52. degree ... lackynge a thyrde parte.”
[125] MS. 5,650 omits: “and the holy bodies,” and has in its place:
“by His grace.”
[126] MS. 5,650 omits these last two words. The Italian form braccio is
retained in view of these words; for the Spanish braza is a measure
about equivalent to the English fathom, while the braccio, although
varying in different cities, is near three palmos (spans) in length.
The term is, however, translated brasse (“fathom”) in MS. 5,650.
Mosto (p. 60, note 8), conjectures this fish to be the Eliginus
maclovinus. Of this fish, Theodore Gill, the well-known ichthyologist,
says in a letter of May 22, 1905: “The Italian editor gave a shrewd
guess in the suggestion that the fish in question was what was formerly
called Eliginus maclovinus. The only vulgar name that I have been able
to find for it is ‘robalo,’ and this name is applied to it by the
Spanish-speaking people of both sides of South America. Like most
popular names, however, it is very misleading. ‘Robalo’ is the
Spanish name for the European bass, which is nearly related to our
striped bass or rock bass. To that fish the robalo of South America has
no affinity or real resemblance, and belongs to a very different family
peculiar to the southern hemisphere—the Nototheniids. The so-called
Eliginus maclovinus (properly, Eliginops maclovinus) is the most common
and widely distributed species and probably the one obtained by the
fleet of Magalhães.”
[127] Of the river Santa Cruz and the stay there, Albo (Navarrete, iv,
p. 215) says: “We left that place [i.e., Port San Julian] on the 24th
of the said month [of August] and coasted along to the southwest by
west. About 30 leguas farther on, we found a river named Santa Cruz,
which we entered on the 26th of the same month. We stayed there until
the day of San Lucas, the 18th of the month of October. We caught many
fish there and got wood and water. That coast extends northeast by east
and southwest by west, and is an excellent coast with good
indentations.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 4) places the river
Santa Cruz twenty leagues from San Julian and in about 50°. That
narrative says that the four remaining boats continued to pick up the
wreckage of the “Santiago” until September 18. The name Santa Cruz
was said to have been given to the river because they entered it on
September 14, the day of the exaltation of the holy cross (see Stanley,
p. 4, note 4, and Mosto, p. 60, note 7), but Kohl (Mosto, ut supra)
attributes the name to João Serrão who was near that river on May 3,
1520, the day on which the church celebrates the feast of the finding
of the holy cross. Navarrete (iv, p. 41) cites Herrera as authority for
an eclipse of the sun that happened while at this river on October 11,
1520. Guillemard (ut supra, pp. 187, 188) is disinclined to believe the
report, although he mentions an annular eclipse of the sun on October
20, 1520, which was however not visible in Patagonia. Navarrete (ut
supra) says that Magalhães gave instructions to his captains here
“saying that he would follow those coasts until finding a strait or
the end of that continent, even if he had to go to a latitude of 75°;
that before abandoning that enterprise, the ships might be twice
unrigged; and that after that he would go in search of Maluco toward
the east and east northeast, by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza and
the island of San Lorenzo.”
A new chapter begins at this point in MS. 5,650, being simply headed
“chapter.”
[128] The anonymous Portuguese who accompanied Duarte Barbosa says 53°
30´; Barros, 52° 56´; Elcano, 54°; and Albo, 52° 30´. Mosto, p.
60, note 9.
[129] MS. 5.650 has the words in brackets.
[130] Eden (p. 252) says of the strait: “they founde the ſtraight
nowe cauled the ſtraight of Magellanus, beinge in ſum place C.x.
leagues in length: and in breadth ſumwhere very large and in other
places lyttle more than halfe a league in bredth.” Stanley (p. 57) is
uncertain of the French et quasi autant de largeur moins de demye
lieue, which is (translated freely) simply “something like almost a
half-league wide.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 7) says that the
channel “at some places has a width of three leagues, and two, and
one, and in some places half a league.” Transylvanus (Vol. I, p. 320)
gives the width as two, three, five, or ten Italian miles; Gomara, two
leagues or so; Barros, one league at the mouth, and the strait, from a
musket or cannon shot to one and one and one-half leagues; Castanheda,
at the mouth as wide as two ships close together, then opening up to
one league; Peter Martyr, a sling-shot’s distance in places. (Mosto,
p. 61, note 2.)
[131] Proise or Proi (proy, proic) is an ancient Catalonian word
meaning the “bow moorings;” Cf. Jal, Glossaire nautìque (Mosto, p.
61, note 3). The old Spanish word is “proís,” which signifies both
the thing to which the ship is moored ashore, and the rope by which it
is moored to the shore.
[132] This passage is as follows in MS. 5,650: “The said strait was a
circular place surrounded with mountains (as I have said), and the
majority of the sailors thought that there was no exit from it into the
said Pacific Sea. But the captain-general declared that there was
another strait which led out, and that he knew that well, for he had
seen it on a marine chart of the king of Portugal. That map had been
made by a renowned sailor and pilot, named Martin de Boesme. The said
captain sent two of his ships forward—one named the ‘Sainct
Anthoine,’ and the other the ‘Conception’—in order that they
might look for and discover the exit from the said strait, which was
called the cape de la Baya.”
Martin de Behaim (Beham, Behem, Behemira, Behen, Bœhem), Bhm) was
born about 1459 (some say also in 1430 or 1436) of a family originally
from Bohemia, in Nuremberg, Germany, and died at Lisbon, July 29, 1506.
He was a draper in Flanders, 1477–1479, after which he went to Lisbon
(1480) where he became acquainted with Columbus. In 1484 he was chosen
geographer of Diego Cam’s expedition to Western Africa. On his
return, he received the order of knighthood in the military order of
Christ of Portugal; after which he went to the island of Fayal in the
Azores where he became interested in colonization and agriculture, and
married the daughter of the governor. In 1491 he returned to Germany,
where he lived at Nuremberg until 1493, and where, at the request of
his townsmen, he constructed an immense globe on the information of
Ptolemy, Strabo, and others, which contains many errors (see facsimile
in Guillemard), In 1493 he returned to Lisbon, and in 1494 to Fayal,
where he remained until 1506, when he went to Lisbon. Many myths sprung
up about him, such that he had visited America before Columbus and the
straits of Magellan before Magalhães, the latter of whom he may have
known at Lisbon. See Rose, New Biographical Dictionary (London, 1848);
Grande Encyclopédie (Paris, Lamirault et Cie.); and Guillemard, pp.
73, 74.
See Guillemard (ut supra, pp. 189–198) for a discussion of knowledge
regarding the existence of a strait to the south of the American
continent, prior to Magalhães’s discovery and passage of it.
Guillemard, after weighing the evidence for and against, decides that
there may have been a “more or less inexact knowledge of the
existence of some antarctic break “that would allow access to the
eastern world.
[133] Possession Bay, according to Mosto, p. 61, note 5, but Guillemard
(pp. 199, 200) thinks it may have been Lomas Bay.
[134] Probably Anegada Point to the northwest of Cape Orange.
[135] The “First Narrows” or Primera Garganta, just beyond Anegada
Point.
[136] Lago de los Estrechos, St. Philip’s Bay, or Boucant Bay.
[137] The “Second Narrows” and Broad Reach.
[138] MS. 5,650 does not mention the smoke signals.
[139] MS. 5,650 reads: “When near us they suddenly discharged a
number of guns, whereat we very joyously saluted them with artillery
and cries.”
[140] The first is the passage east of Dawson Island, which extends to
the northeast into Useless Bay and to the southeast into Admiralty
Sound. The second opening was the passage between the western side of
Dawson Island and Brunswick Peninsula.
[141] Esteban Gomez was an experienced Portuguese navigator and pilot
with ambitions only less than those of Magalhães, his kinsman
(Guillemard, p. 203). His desertion occurred probably in the first part
of November, and was perhaps directly due to pique at what he
considered lack of appreciation from Magalhães. Conspiring with
Gerónimo Guerra, the notary, who was elected captain of the “San
Antonio” they made off with that ship, and after imprisoning Alvaro
de Mezquita, returned to Spain, anchoring at Sevilla May 6, 1521. There
Gomez was imprisoned after the return of the “Victoria,” but was
liberated, and in 1524 proposed an expedition to discover a northwest
passage. An expedition having been fitted out by Cárlos I, he coasted
Florida and the eastern coast, as far as Cape Cod, and returned to
Spain in 1525. See Grande Encyclopédie; Navarrete, iv, pp. 42–45,
and 201–208; and Guillemard, ut supra, pp. 203–205.
Brito’s story of the exploration of the strait and the loss of the
“San Antonio” (Navarrete, iv, pp. 307, 308) is as follows: “They
left that place [i.e., the river of Santa Cruz] on October 20, and went
to enter a strait of which they had no knowledge. The entrance of the
strait extends for about 15 leguas; and after they had entered, it
seemed to them that it was all land-locked, and they accordingly
anchored there. Magallanes sent a Portuguese pilot named Juan Carballo
ashore with orders to ascend a mountain in order to ascertain whether
there was any outlet. Carballo returned saying that it appeared
land-locked to him. Thereupon Magallanes ordered the ships ‘San
Antonio’ and the ‘Concepcion’ to go in advance in order to
explore the strait. After having gone ahead for about 30 leguas, they
returned to tell Magallanes that the river went farther but that they
could not tell where it would take them. Upon receiving that
information Magallanes weighed anchor with all three ships, and
advanced along the strait until reaching the point to which the others
had explored. Then he ordered the ‘San Antonio’ of which Alvaro de
Mezquito, his cousin, was captain, and Esteban Gomez, a Portuguese
pilot, to go ahead and explore a southern channel that opened in the
strait. That ship did not return to the others and it is not known
whether it returned to Castilla or whether it was wrecked. Magallanes
proceeded with his remaining ships until he found an exit.”
Correa’s account of the desertion of the “San Antonio” is as
usual with him, inadequate, and evidently based on hearsay evidence
(see Stanley, p. 250).
[142] Literally “brother;” but to be understood probably as the
expression cugino germano, “cousin german.”
[143] MS. 5,650 begins this sentence as follows: “But that ship lost
its time, for the other.”
[144] Guillemard (p. 206) conjectures from the records of Albo,
Pigafetta, and Herrera that the river of Sardines is Port Gallant which
is located on the Brunswick Peninsula, opposite the Charles Islands.
Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 215) says that after taking the course to the
northwest they sailed about 15 leagues before anchoring.
[145] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 216) says that the two capes at the exit
of the strait were called Fermosa and Deseado, this latter being Cape
Pillar (see Guillemard, map facing p. 198).
[146] MS. 5,650 adds: “which were on the other side.”
[147] João Serrão, the brother of Magalhães’s staunchest friend
Francisco Serrão, and a firm supporter of the great navigator.
Pigafetta errs in calling him a Spaniard (see p. 183), though he may
have become a naturalized Spaniard, since the register speaks of him as
a citizen of Sevilla. One document (Navarrete, iv, p. 155) calls him a
Portuguese pilot, and Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 308) a Castilian. He was
an experienced navigator and captain, and had served under Vasco da
Gama, Almeida, and Albuquerque. Vasco da Gama (on his second voyage,
1502–1503) made him captain of the ship “Pomposa” which was built
in Mozambique where he was left to attend to Portuguese affairs. On
this expedition he saw the coast of Brazil for the first time, for
Vasco da Gama’s fleet, ere doubling the Cape of Good Hope, crossed to
the Brazilian coast, which they followed as far as Cape Santo
Agostinho. He fought bravely in the battle of Cananor under Almeida
(March 16, 1506, in which Magalhães also participated). He was chief
captain of three caravels in August, 1510, in Eastern water, and was in
the Java seas in 1512, but must have returned to Portugal soon after
that, for he was there in 1513; although he seems to have been
appointed clerk at the fortress of Calicut in the latter year. He
embarked with Magalhães as captain and pilot of the “Santiago,”
but after the wreck of that vessel near port San Julian was given
command of the “Concepcion,” in which he later explored the strait.
Failing to dissuade Magalhães from attacking the natives of Matan, he
became commander, with Duarte Barbosa, of the fleet at Magalhães’s
death, and was murdered by the Cebuans after the treacherous banquet
given by them to the fleet. See Guillemard (ut supra), and Stanley’s
Three voyages of Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society publications, London,
1869).
[148] MS. 5,650 reads as follows: “Such was the method ordered by the
captain from the beginning, in order that the ship that happened to
become separated from the others might rejoin the fleet.” Then it
adds: “Thereupon the crew of the said ship did what the captain had
ordered them and more, for they set two banners with their letters,”
etc.
[149] “The island of Santa Magdalena (Mosto, p. 62, note 11).
[150] According to Guillemard the river of Isleo (or “of Islands”)
is located on Brunswick Peninsula, and is identified with the port of
San Miguel, just east of the “River of Sardines;” the island where
the cross was planted would be one of the Charles Islands.
[151] The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 3) mentions that the day at the
port of San Julian was about seven hours long; while the anonymous
Portuguese (Stanley, p. 30) says that the sun only appeared for some
“four hours each day” in June and July. Transylvanus says the
nights in the strait were not longer than five hours.
[152] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is the collateral wind between the east
and south.”
[153] MS. 5,650 adds: “and anchorages.”
[154] Various kinds of these umbelliferous parsley plants are still to
be found in Patagonia, where they are highly esteemed (Mosto, p. 63,
note 3).
[155] MS. 5,650 reads: “I do not believe that there is a more
beautiful country or a better strait than that.” See Albo’s
description of the strait, in Vol. I, pp. 264–265; that of
Transylvanus, Vol. I, pp. 319–321; and that in World encompassed
(Hakluyt Society edition), pp. 236, 237 (this last account also
mentioning the difficulty of finding water sufficiently shallow for
anchoring). The anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31) says that the
strait was called the “Strait of Victoria, because the ship
‘Victoria’ was the first that had seen it: some called it the
Strait of Magalhaens because our captain was named Fernando de
Magalhaens.” Castanheda says that Magalhães gave it the name of
“bay of All Saints” because it was discovered on November 1; and
San Martin in his reply to Magalhães’s request for opinions
regarding the continuance of the expedition calls it “channel of All
Saints:” but this name was first applied to only one gulf or one
branch and later extended to the entire channel. This name is found in
the instructions given for the expedition of Sebastian Cabot in 1527,
and in the map made that same year at Sevilla by the Englishman Robert
Thorne. Sarmiento de Gamboa petitioned Felipe II that it be called
“strait of the Mother of God.” It was also called “strait of
Martin Behaim.” The anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31) says that
the strait is 400 miles long. The “Roterio” (Stanley, pp. 7, 8)
says that it is 100 leagues in length, and that in traversing it, they
“sailed as long as it was daylight, and anchored when it was
night.” Transylvanus (Vol. I, p. 320) gives the length as 100 Spanish
miles; Oviedo, 100 or 110 leagues; Herrera, 100 leagues, and twenty
days to navigate; Gomara, 110 to 120 leagues; Peter Martyr, 110
leagues. See Mosto, p. 60, note 10, and p. 62, note 2; and ante, note
130.
[156] These fish are: a species of Coryphæna; the Thymnus albacora,
and the Thymnus plamys.
[157] From the Spanish golondrina, the sapphirine gurnard or tubfish
(Trigla hirundo).
[158] MS. 5,650 reads: “one foot or more.”
[159] At this point in the original Italian MS., which ends a page,
occurs the heading of the following page Sequitur Vocabuli pataghoni,
that is, “Continuation of Patagonian words.”
[160] Literally: “for the nature of women.”
[161] MS. 5,650 presents the following differences in the list of
Patagonian words from the Italian MS.
Eyes ather
Eyelashes occhechl
Lips schiane
Hair ajchir
Throat ohumer
Shoulders peles
Penis scachet
Testicles scaneos
Rump schiachen
Arm mar
Pulse ohon
Legs choss
Feet teche
Heel there
Sole of the foot cartscheni
Fingernails colini
To scratch ghecare
Young man calemi
Water oli
Smoke jaiche
We chen
Yes zei
Petre lazure secheghi
Sun calexcheni
To eat mecchiere
To look conne
To walk rhei
Ship theu
To run haim
Ostrich eggs jan
The powder of the herb
which they eat capae
Red cloth terechai
Black amel
Red theiche
To cook jrecoles
A goose chache
Their little devils Cheleult
In the above list, chen corresponds in the Italian MS. to ehen, the
equivalent of “no;” theu is “ship” in the above, and “snow”
in the Italian; courire (the equivalent of covrire or coprire, “to
cover”) in the Italian, becomes courir (“to run”) in MS. 5,650.
All are to be regarded as errors of the French. Certain words are left
in Italian in MS. 5,650, which are as follows: la copa; alcalcagno;
(Italian MS. al calcagno); homo squerzo (Italian MS. sguerco); a la
pignate (Italian MS. pigniata); alstruzzo vcelo (Italian MS. al seruzo
ucelo); and alcocinare (Italian MS. al coçinare). Stanley offers this
as proof that MS. 5,650 was written by Pigafetta, and not translated
from his Italian, but it furnishes no evidence that Pigafetta even saw
the French version of his relation. It must be remembered that Stanley
did not himself see the Italian MS. but only the Amoretti mutilation of
it (from which, and from MS. 5,650, he reproduces the vocabulary,
without English translation); and hence bases his observations on that
and the conjectures of its editor. Stanley points out the fact that
Amoretti has omitted several words of this list, but they are all in
the Italian MS. A sad blunder has been made by Stanley in his
transcription of La pouldre dherbe qui mangent whose Patagonian
equivalent is capac. He transcribes as follows: la pouldre d’herbe
with Patagonian equivalent qui (which it is to be noted is only the
wrong form of the French relative), and mangent with Patagonian
equivalent capac, explaining mangent in a footnote as “Food, the root
used as bread.” Stanley also makes the following mistranscriptions:
orescho for oresche (“nostrils”); canneghin for caimeghin (“palm
of the hand”); ochy for ochii (“bosom”); scancos for scaneos
(“testicles”); hou for hoii (“buttocks”); ohoy for ohon
(“pulse”); cartschem for cartscheni (“sole of the foot”); chol
for thol (“heart”); om for oni (“wind”); aschame for aschanie
(“earthen pot”); oamaghei for oamaghce (“to fight”); amet for
amel (“black”); and ixecoles for jrocoles (“to cook”). Amoretti
has also made many errors (see Stanley’s First Voyage, pp. 62, 63).
Mosto, who is on the whole a faithful transcriber, has sacancos as the
Patagonian equivalent of a li testiculi; om jani for a li sui, the
correct forms of the latter being jani and a li sui oui; and tcrechai
for the equivalent of “red cloth.” Eden (p. 252) gives only the
following words: “breade, Capar: water, Oli: redde clothe, Cherecai:
red colour, Cheiche: blacke colour, Amel.”
Mosto (p. 63, note 8) gives the following words from the vocabulary of
the Tehuel-ches compiled by the second lieutenant of the ship
“Roncagli,” which correspond almost exactly with those given by
Pigafetta.
English Roncagli Pigafetta
Nose or or
eye óthel other
hand tzén chene
ear sha sane
ostrich óyue hoi hoi
Brinton (American Race, p. 328) cites Ramon Lista (Mis exploraciones y
descubrìmientos en Patagonia, Buenos Ayres, 1880) in proof that the
language of the Patagonians has undergone but slight change since the
time of Pigafetta. See also lists of words in Brinton (ut supra), p.
364, from the Patagonian and Fuegian languages. The vocabularies given
by Horatio Hale (Wilkes’s U. S. Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842,
Philadelphia, 1846, viii, pp. 651–656) bear no resemblance to
Pigafetta’s vocabulary. Hale says that guttural sounds are frequent
among the Indians of the Patagonian district.
[162] MS. 5,650 reads: “capae.”
[163] Cf. with the methods of fire-making used by the North American
Indians in Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland reissue);
see also Captivity of Hans Stade (Hakluyt Society edition), p. 126.
At this point (folio 14a) in the original Italian MS. occurs the first
chart, representing the straits of Magellan (see p. 86). The cardinal
points in all of Pigafetta’s charts are the reverse of the ordinary,
the north being below and the south above. MS. 5,650 precedes this
chart (which there occupies folio 21a) by the words: “Below is
depicted the strait of Patagonie.” Immediately following this chart
in the Italian MS. (folio 15a) is the chart of the Ysole Infortunate
(“Unfortunate Isles;” see p. 92). These islands are shown in MS.
5,650 on folio 23a, with the following notice: “Here are shown the
two islands called ‘Unfortunate Islands.’” The charts in the
Italian MS. are brown or dull black on a blue ground.
[164] The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 9) says that Magalhães left the
strait November 26 (having entered it October 21); the anonymous
Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31) and Peter Martyr (Mosto, p. 65, note 1),
November 27.
[165] MS. 5,650 reads: “And we ate only biscuits that had fallen to
powder, which was quite full of worms, and stank from the filth of the
urine of rats that covered it, and of which the good had been eaten.”
Eden (p. 252) reads: “And hauynge in this tyme conſumed all theyr
byſket and other vyttales, they fell into ſuche neceſſitie that
they were inforced to eate the pouder that remayned therof beinge nowe
full of woormes and ſtynkynge lyke pyſſe by reaſon of the ſalte
water,” Herrera (Navarrete, iv, p. 51) says that the rice was cooked
with salt water.
[166] A curious coincidence in view of Magalhães’s answer to Esteban
Gomez at a council called in the strait to discuss the continuance of
the voyage that “although he had to eat the cowhide wrappings of the
yardarms, he would still persevere and discover what he had promised
the emperor” (Navarrete, iv, p. 43; cited from Herrera). At that
council André de San Martin, pilot in the “San Antonio,” advised
that they continue explorations until the middle of January, 1521, and
then return to Spain; and urged that no farther southward descent be
made, and that navigation along so dangerous coasts be only by day, in
order that the crew might have some rest (Navarrete, iv, pp. 45–49).
[167] MS. 5,650 reads: “enough of them.”
[168] This was the scurvy. Navarrete (iv, p. 54) following a document
conserved in Archivo general de Indias, says that only eleven men died
of scurvy during the voyage from the strait to the Ladrones.
[169] The anonymous Portuguese says (Stanley, p. 31) that after sailing
west and northwest for 9,858 miles, the equator was reached. At the
line (“Roteiro,” Stanley, p. 9), Magalhães changed the course in
order to strike land north of the Moluccas, as “he had information
that there were no provisions” there.
[170] MS. 5,650 reads: “It is well named Pacific.”
[171] MS. 5,650 adds: “which is a large fish called tiburoni.” The
anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31), says that the Unfortunate
Islands were met before the line was reached and were eight hundred
miles distant from one another. One was called St. Peter (in 18°) and
the other the island of Tiburones (in 14°). Transylvanus (Vol. I, p.
321), Herrera, and Oviedo, say that the three vessels stopped two days
at those islands for supplies, but Albo’s journal (Navarrete, iv, p.
218) indicates that no stop was made there. The “Roteiro” (Stanley,
p. 9), gives the latitude of these islands as 18° or 19° and 13° or
14°. Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 218) says that the first was discovered
January 24 in 16° 15´, and was called San Pablo, because that was the
date of St. Paul’s conversion; and the island of Tiburones was
discovered February 4, in 10° 40´, at a distance of 9° (sic) from
the former. Eden (p. 253) says that the second island lay in 5°. These
two islands were probably Puka-puka (the Honden Eyland of the Dutch
atlases) of the Tuamotu group, located in latitude 14° 45´ south, and
longitude 138° 48´ west; and Flint Island of the Manihiki group,
located in latitude 11° 20´ south and longitude 151° 48´ west. The
latter is still uninhabited, but the former contains a population of
over four hundred. See ante, note 163. See Guillemard, p. 220, and
Mosto, p. 65, note 6.
[172] MS. 5,650 reads: “now at the stern, now at the windward side,
or otherwise.” Amoretti changes this passage completely, reading:
“According to our measurement of the distance that we made with the
chain astern, we ran from sixty to seventy leagues daily.” Many
basing themselves on this passage of Amoretti, have believed that the
log was in use at the time of the first circumnavigation. Dr. Breusing
(Die Catena a poppa bei Pigafetta und die Logge, in “Zeitschrift der
Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin,” 1869, iv, pp. 107–115)
believes that the “stern chain (catena poppa) is not the log properly
so-called, but an instrument for determining the angle of the ship’s
leeway, an opinion accepted also by Gelcich in his La scoperta
d’America e Cristoforo Colombo nella letteratura moderna (Gorizia,
1890). L’Vzielle (Studi bibliogr. e biogr. sulla storia della geogr.
in Italia, Roma, 1875, part ii, introduction, pp. 294–296), combats
that opinion, as well as the idea that the log is meant. The difficulty
of the passage, he says, hinges on the word ho and whether it is
interpreted as a verb or a conjunction. If it be a conjunction then the
passage, means “estimating by sight, the rate of the ship from the
‘bow catena,’ or at the stern” (‘catena’ being a beam
perpendicular to the ship’s axis at the point near the bow where it
begins to curve inward; that is, at such a point that from that place
to the stern, the direction of the apparent way is parallel to the
longitudinal axis of the ship) his ship made fifty, sixty, or seventy
leagues.” One might suppose, if ho be regarded as a verb, that
Pigafetta called catena a cross beam of the stern (the passage reading
“the catena that was at the stern”); or that the disjunctive ho,
“or” is used in place of e, “and,” and that Pigafetta, dividing
the distance between the stern and the bow catena by the time necessary
for a fixed point of the sea to pass from the elevation of the bow to
that of the stern, thus deduced the ship’s rate. See Mosto, p. 66,
note 1. L’Vzielli’s opinion is the most probable, for although the
log is mentioned by Purchas as early as 1607, its use did not become
general until 1620. An instrument used to measure the rates of vessels
is mentioned as early as 1577, but it was very deficient.
[173] The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 6) says that this cape, which he
calls “cape of the virgins” was discovered on October 21, 1520, and
lay in latitude about 52° south. Barros says that it was discovered on
October 20; and Transylvanus and Oviedo, on November 27. See Mosto, p.
61, note 1.
[174] Regarding the reckonings Eden says: “In ſo much that it was
neceſſarie to helpe the needle with the lode ſtone (commonly cauled
the adamant) before they could ſaile therwith, bycauſe it moued not
as it doothe when it is in theſe owre partes.” Eden also gives a cut
of the “ſtarres abowt the pole Antartike.” The same author also
(pp. 277–280) compiles from Amerigo Vespucci and Andreas de Corsali a
treatise entitled “Of the Pole Antartike and the stars abowt the same
and of the qualitie of the regions and disposition of the Elementes
abowt the Equinoctiall line. Alſo certeyne ſecreates touching the
arte of ſaylynge.” The former says: “The pole Antartike hath
nother the great beare nor the lyttle as is ſeene abowte owre pole.
But hath foure ſtarres whiche compaſſe it abowt in forme of a
quadrangle. When these are hydden, there is ſeene on the lefte ſyde a
bryght Canopus of three ſtarres of notable greatneſſe, whiche beinge
in the myddeſt of heauen, repreſenteth this figure.” The latter
says: “Here we ſawe a marueylous order of ſtarres, ſo that in the
parte of heauen contrary to owre northe pole, to knowe in what place
and degree the ſouth pole was, we tooke the day with the ſoonne, and
obſerued the nyght with the aſtrolabie, and ſaw manifeſtly twoo
clowdes of reaſonable bygneſſe mouynge abowt the place of the pole
continually nowe ryſynge and nowe faulynge, ſo keepynge theyr
continuall courſe in circular mouynge, with a ſtarre euer in the
myddeſt which is turned abowt with them abowte. xi. degrees frome the
pole. Aboue theſe appeareth a marueylous croſſe in the myddeſt of
fyue notable ſtarres which compaſſe it abowt.... This croſſe is so
fayre and bewtiful, that none other heuenly gne may be compared to
it....” These are the Magallanic clouds (Nuebecula major and Nubecula
minor) and the constellation of the Southern Cross or Crux. The
Magellanic clouds resemble portions of the milky way, Nubecula major
being visible to the naked eye in strong moonlight and covering about
two hundred times the moon’s surface, while the Nubecula minor,
although visible to the naked eye, disappears in full moonlight, and
covers an area only one-fourth that of the former. They were first
observed by the Arabians. The Portuguese pilots probably called them at
first “clouds of the cape.” (Mosto, p. 66, note 2). The Southern
Cross, which resembles a lute rather than a cross, was first erected
into a constellation by Royer in 1679, although often spoken of before
as a cross. Only one of its five principal stars belongs to the first
magnitude. The cross is only 6° in extent north and south and less
than that east and west.
The second chart of the plate at p. 92 represents the Ladrones Islands
and occurs in the Italian MS. at this point (folio 16b). This chart is
found on folio 25b in MS. 5,650, and is preceded by the inscription:
“The island of the robbers and the style of their boats.”
[175] MS. 5,650 reads: “During that time of two months and twelve
days.”
[176] Amoretti reads: “three degrees east of Capo Verde.” If the
cape is meant, the correction is proper, but if the islands, the MS. is
correct. See Mosto, p. 67, note 4.
[177] Cipangu is Japan, while Sumbdit Pradit may be the island of
Antilia, called “Septe citade” on Martin Behaim’s globe (Mosto,
p. 67, note 5). The locations given by Pigafetta prove that they did
not see them, but that he writes only from vague reports. Europe first
learned of Japan, near the end of the thirteenth century, through Marco
Polo, who had been told in China fabulous tales of the wealth of
Zipangu. This word is derived by Marco Polo from the Chinese
Dschi-pen-Kuë or Dschi-pon, which the Japanese have transformed into
Nippon or Nihon. See Travels of Marco Polo, book iii, ch. ii; and
Rein’s Japan, p. 4.
[178] See Vol. I, pp. 208, 209, 210, 312, 336.
[179] MS. 5,650 reads: “sixty.” Transylvanus (Vol. I, p. 322) names
two islands of the Ladrones Inuagana and Acacan, but says that both
were uninhabited. Guillemard (ut supra, p. 223) conjectures these names
to be identical with Agana in Guam and Sosan in Rota. Hugues (Mosto, p.
67, note 7) believes the first island visited to have been Guam, and
his conjecture is undoubtedly correct.
[180] MS. 5,650 adds: “called skiff.”
[181] MS. 5,650 adds: “of the said island.”
[182] MS. 5,650 has a new unnumbered chapter heading before the
following paragraph.
[183] This phrase is omitted in MS. 5,650, as is also all the following
sentence; but that MS. adds: “We left the said island immediately
afterward, and continued our course.” This was on March 9, on which
day the only Englishman in the fleet, “Master Andrew” of Bristol,
died (Guillemard, ut supra, p. 226).
[184] Eden (p. 254) says: “two hundreth of theyr boates.”
[185] MS. 5,650 has a new chapter at this point, although the chapter
is unnumbered.
When Loaisa’s expedition reached the Ladrones, they found still alive
a Galician, one of three deserters from Espinosa’s ship (see Vol. II,
pp. 30, 34, 35, 110). See the reception accorded Legazpi, and a
description of one of those islands in 1565, Vol. II, pp. 109–113.
The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 9) says that the expedition reached the
Ladrones, March 6, 1521 (with which Albo, Navarrete, iv, p. 219
agrees); and that after the theft of the skiff, Magellan landed with
fifty or sixty men, burned the whole village, killed seven or eight
persons, both men and women; and that supplies were taken aboard. The
anonymous Portuguese (Stanley, p. 31) says that the Ladrones (which lay
in 10°–12° north latitude, were 2,046 miles by the course traveled
from the equator. Brito (Navarrete, iv, p. 308) says: “Thence [i.e.,
the Unfortunate Islands] they laid their course westward, and after
sailing 500 leguas came to certain islands where they found a
considerable number of savages. So many of the latter boarded the
vessels that when the men tried to restore order in them, they were
unable to get rid of the savages except by lance-thrusts. They killed
many savages, who laughed as if it were a cause for rejoicing.”
[186] MS. 5,650 adds: “or superior.”
[187] MS. 5,650 reads: “cloth.”
[188] At this point, MS. 5,650 begins a new sentence, thus: “There
are found in that place.”
[189] MS. 5,650 reads: “Those women.”
[190] MS. 5,650 makes use of the Italian word store for stuoje or stoje
meaning “mats,” and explains by adding: “which we call mats.”
[191] They also (according to Herrera) received the name Las Velas,
“the sails” from the lateen-rigged vessels that the natives used
(Mosto, p. 67, note 7). See also Vol. XVI, pp. 200–202.
[192] In MS. 5,650 this sentence reads as follows: “The pastime of
the men and women of the said place and their sport, is to go in their
boats to catch those flying fish with fishhooks made of fishbone.”
[193] Mosto (p. 68, note 5) says that these boats were the fisolere,
which were small and very swift oared-vessels, used in winter on the
Venetian lakes by the Venetian nobles for hunting with bows and arrows
and guns. Amoretti conjectures that Pigafetta means the fusiniere,
boats named after Fusine whence people are ferried to Venice.
[194] MS. 5,650 reads: “The said boats have no difference between
stern and bow.” Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 219), in speaking of the
boats of the Chamorros, uses almost identically the same expression:
“They went both ways, for they could make the stern, bow, and the
bow, stern, whenever they wished.” The apparatus described by
Pigafetta as belonging to these boats is the outrigger, common to many
of the boats of the eastern islands.
[195] In the Italian MS., the chart of Aguada ly boni segnaly
(“Watering-place of good signs”), Zzamal (Samar), Abarien, Humunu,
Hyunagan, Zuluam, Cenalo, and Ybusson (q.v., p. 102) follows at this
point. It is found on folio 29b of MS. 5,650 and is preceded by the
following: “Here is shown the island of Good Signs, and the four
islands, Cenalo, Humanghar, Ibusson, and Abarien, and several
others.”
[196] “The tenth of March” in Eden, and the distance of Zamal from
the Ladrones is given as “xxx. leagues.” Albo (Navarrete, iv, p.
220) says that the first land seen was called Yunagan, “which
extended north and had many bays;” and that going south from there
they anchored at a small island called Suluan. At the former “we saw
some canoes, and went thither, but they fled. That island lies in 9°
40´ north latitude.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 10) says that
the first land seen was in “barely eleven degrees,” and that the
fleet “went to touch at another further on, which appeared first.”
Two praus approached a boat sent ashore, whereupon the latter was
ordered back, and the praus fled. Thereupon the fleet went to another
nearby island “which lies in ten degrees, to which they gave the name
of the ‘Island of Good Signs,’ because they found some gold in
it.”
[197] This word is omitted in MS. 5,650.
[198] MS. 5,650 reads: “more than one foot long.”
[199] Since rice is an important staple among all the eastern islands,
it is natural that there are different and distinctive names for that
grain in the various languages and dialects for all stages of its
growth and all its modes of preparation. Thus the Tagálog has words
for “green rice,” “rice with small heads,” “dirty and partly
rotten rice,” “early rice,” “late rice,” “cooked rice,”
and many others. See also U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 70, 71.
[200] MS. 5,650 reads: “In order to explain what manner of fruit is
that above named, one must know that what is called ‘cochi’ is the
fruit borne by the palm-tree. Just as we have bread, wine, oil, and
vinegar, which are obtained from different things, so those people get
the above named substances from those palm-trees alone.” See
Delgado’s Historia, pp. 634–659, for description of the useful
cocoa palm; also, U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 72, 73, 75.
[201] MS. 5,650 reads: “along the tree.” Practically the method
used today to gather the cocoanut wine. See U. S. Philippine Gazetteer,
p. 75.
[202] In describing the cocoanut palm and fruit, Eden (p. 254) reads:
“Vnder this rynde, there is a thicke ſhell whiche they burne and
make pouder thereof and vſe it as a remedie for certeyne
diſeaſes.” He says lower, that the cocoanut milk on congealing
“lyeth within the ſhell lyke an egge.”
[203] MS. 5,650 reads: “By so doing they last a century.”
[204] Called “Suluan” by Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 220). It is a
small island southeast of Samar. See ante, note 196. Dr. David P.
Barrows (Census of the Philippines, Washington, 1905, i, p. 413), says
that the men from Suluan “were perhaps not typical of the rest of the
population which Magellan found sparsely scattered about the coasts of
the central islands, but ... were almost certainly of the same stock
from which the present Visayan people are in the main descended.”
These natives had probably come, he says, “in successively extending
settlements, up the west coast of Mindanao from the Sulu archipelago.
‘Sulúan’ itself means ‘Where there are Suluges,’ that is, men
of Sulu or Joló.”
[205] MS. adds: “seeing that they were thus well dispositioned.”
[206] MS. 5,650 adds: “into the sea.”
[207] Albo calls it (Navarrete, iv, p. 220) the island of Gada (i.e.,
Aguada, “watering-place”) “where we took on water and wood, that
island being very free of shoals” (see ante, note 196). This island
is now called Homonhón, Jomonjol, or Malhón. Its greatest dimensions
are ten miles from northwest to southeast, and five miles from
northeast to southwest. It is eleven miles southwest from the nearest
point in Samar. It is called “Buenas Señas” on Murillo Velarde’s
map.
[208] The “Roteiro” (Stanley p. 11) says that the archipelago was
also called “Vall Sem Periguo,” or “Valley without Peril.” The
name “Filipinas” was not applied to them until 1542 by Villalobos
(see Vol. II, p. 48).
[209] Probably the jungle-fowl (Gallus bankiva) which is caught and
tamed in large numbers by the natives of the Philippines and still used
for crossing with the domestic fowl. See Guillemard (ut supra, p. 228,
note 1).
[210] This sentence is omitted in MS. 5,650.
[211] MS. 5,650 reads: “In his ears he wore pendants of gold jewels,
which they call ‘schione.’”
[212] MS. adds: “whom he had put ashore on that island that they
might recruit their strength.”
[213] MS. 5,650 reads: “There is another island near the above
island, inhabited by people.” Mosto says (p. 70, note 6) that picheti
is from the Spanish piquete, “a small hole made with a sharp pointed
instrument.” This custom of piercing the ears is quite general among
savage, barbarous, and semi-barbarous peoples.
[214] Eden (p. 254) reads: “caphranita that is gentyles.” See Vol.
III, p. 93, note 29.
[215] This word is omitted in MS. 5,650.
[216] Our transcript reads facine, and MS. 5,650 fascine, both of which
translate “fascines.” Mosto reads focine, which is amended by
Amoretti to foscine. This latter is probably the same word as fiocina,
a “harpoon” or “eel-spear,” and hence here a “dart.”
[217] Stanley failed to decipher this word in MS. 5,650, which is the
same as the word in the Italian MS. Mosto, citing Boerio (Dizion.
veneziano), says of rizali: “Rizzagio or rizzagno, ‘sweepnet’ a
fine thickly woven net, which when thrown into rivers by the fisherman,
opens, and when near the bottom, closes, and covers and encloses the
fish. Rizzagio is also called that contrivance or net, made in the
manner of an inverted cone, with a barrel hoop attached to the
circumference as a selvage. It has a hole underneath, through which if
the eels in the ponds slyly enter the net, there is no danger of their
escape.”
Fish are caught in the Philippines by various devices—in favorable
situations by traps, weirs, corrals of bamboo set along the shore in
shallow waters. Various kinds of nets and seines, the hook and line,
and also the spear, are also used. See Census of the Philippine Islands
(Washington, 1905), iv, p. 533.
[218] MS. 5,650 reads: “Hiunanghar.” Stanley has mistranscribed
“Huinanghar.” It is difficult to identify the four islands of
Cenalo, Hiunanghan, Ibusson, and Abarien with certainty. Mosto (p. 71,
notes) suggests that they may be Dinagat, Cabugan, Gibuson, and
Cabalarián. The first three are evidently correct, as those islands
would naturally be sighted in the course followed. The last island is
shown in Pigafetta’s chart to be north of Malhón, and the
probability is that he names and locates it merely from hearsay, and
that they did not see it. Its position seems to indicate Manicani
rather than Cabalarián.
After this paragraph in the Italian MS. (folio 21a) follows the chart
of the islands of Pozzon, Ticobon, Polon, Baibai and Ceilon (together
forming the island of Leyte), Gatighan, Bohol, and Mazzana (sic) (q.v.,
p. 112). This chart in MS. 5,650 (on folio 36a) is preceded by:
“Below is shown the cape of Gatighan and many other islands
surrounding it.”
[219] Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 220) says: “We departed thence [i.e.,
from Malhón] and went toward the west in order to strike a large
island called Seilani [i.e., Leyte] which is inhabited and has gold in
it. We coasted along it and took our course to the west southwest in
order to strike a small island, which is inhabited and called Mazava.
The people there are very friendly. We erected a cross on a mountain in
that island. Three islands lying to the west southwest were pointed out
to us from that island, which are said to possess gold in abundance.
They showed us how it was obtained. They found pieces as large as
chickpeas and beans. Masava lies in latitude 9 and two-thirds degrees
north.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 11) says: “They ran on to
another island twenty leagues from that from which they sailed [i.e.,
Malhón], and came to anchor at another island, which is named Macangor
[i.e., Masaua], which is nine degrees; and in this island they were
very well received, and they placed a cross in it.” See also Vol. I,
pp. 322, 323.
[220] MS. 5,650 reads: “But they moved off immediately and would not
enter the ship through distrust of us.” The slave who acted as
interpreter is the Henrique de Malaca of Navarrete’s list.
[221] Bara: the Spanish word barra.
[222] MS. 5,650 reads: “to ask him to give him some food for his
ships in exchange for his money.”
[223] MS. 5,650 reads: “The king hearing that came with seven or
eight men.”
[224] For dorade, i.e., the dorado. MS. 5,650 adds: “which are very
large fish of the kind abovesaid.”
[225] The ceremony of blood brotherhood. Casicasi means “intimate
friends.” See Trumbull’s Blood Covenant (Philadelphia, 1898), which
shows how widespread was the covenant or friendship typified by blood.
[226] MS. 5,650 reads: “After that the said captain had one of his
men-at-arms armed in offensive armor.” Stanley has translated harnois
blanc literally as “white armor.”
[227] This passage may be translated: “Thereby was the king rendered
almost speechless, and told the captain, through the slave, that one of
those armed men was worth a hundred of his own men. The captain
answered that that was a fact, and that he had brought two hundred men
in each ship, who were armed in that manner.” Eden so understood it,
and reads: “whereat the Kynge marualed greatly, and ſayde to th[e]
interpretoure (who was a ſlaue borne in Malacha) that one of thoſe
armed men was able to encounter with a hundreth of his men.” MS.
5,650 agrees with the translation of the text.