Seri Bummipala. After that follows Great China, the king of which is
the greatest sovereign of the world, and is called Santoa raja. He
has seventy crowned kings under his dependence; and some of these
kings have ten or fifteen lesser kings dependent on them. The port of
this kingdom is named Guantan,[409] and among the many cities of this
empire, two are the most important, namely Nankin and Comlaha, where
the king usually resides.
He has four of his principal ministers close to his palace, at the
four sides looking to the four cardinal winds, that is, one to the
west, one to the east, to the south, and to the north. Each of these
gives audience to those that come from his quarter. All the kings and
lords of India major and superior obey this king, and in token of their
vassalage, each is obliged to have in the middle of the principal place
of his city the marble figure of a certain animal named Chinga, an
animal more valiant than the lion; the figure of this animal is also
engraved on the king’s seal, and all who wish to enter his port must
carry the same emblem in wax or ivory.
If any lord is disobedient to him, he is flayed, and his skin, dried
in the sun, salted, and stuffed, is placed in an eminent part of the
public place, with the head inclined and the hands on the head in the
attitude of doing zongu, that is obeisance to the king.
He is never visible to anybody; and if he wishes to see his people, he
is carried about the palace on a peacock most skilfully manufactured,
and very richly adorned, with six ladies dressed exactly like himself,
so that he cannot be distinguished from them. He afterwards passes into
a richly-adorned figure of a serpent called Naga, which has a large
glass in the breast, through which he and the ladies are seen, but
it is not possible to distinguish which is the king. He marries his
sisters in order that his blood should not mix with that of others.
His palace has seven walls round it, and in each circle there are
daily ten thousand men on guard, who are changed every twelve hours
at the sound of a bell. Each wall has its gate, with a guard at each
gate. At the first stands a man with a great scourge in his hand,
named Satuhoran[410] with Satubagan; at the second a dog called
Satuhain;[411] at the third, a man with an iron mace, called Satuhoran
with pocumbecin;[412] at the fourth, a man with a bow in his hand,
called Satuhoran with anatpanan;[413] at the fifth, a man with a
lance, called Satuhoran, with tumach;[414] at the sixth, a lion called
Satuhorimau;[415] at the seventh, two white elephants called Gagiapute.
The palace contains seventy-nine halls, in which dwell only the ladies
destined to serve the king; there are always torches burning there. It
is not possible to go round the palace in less than a day. In the upper
part of it are four halls where the ministers go to speak to the king:
one is ornamented with metal, both the pavement and the walls; another
is all of silver, another all of gold, and the other is set with pearls
and precious stones. The gold and other valuable things which are
brought as tribute to the king are placed in these rooms; and when they
are there deposited, they say, Let this be for the honour and glory
of our Santoa Raja. All these things and many others relating to this
king, were narrated to us by a Moor, who said that he had seen them.
The Chinese are white, and are clothed; they eat on tables like us.
They have crosses, but it is not known why they have them.
It is from China that musk comes; the animal which produces it is a
kind of cat, like the civet cat; it eats nothing but a certain soft
wood, slender as a finger, named chamaru. To extract the musk from
this animal they attach a leech to it, and leave it till it is full
of blood, and when they see that it is well filled, they crush it,
and collect the blood in a plate, and put it in the sun for four or
five days, moistening it every day with urine. In this way it becomes
perfect musk. Whoever keeps one of these cats pays a tribute to the
king. The grains of musk which come to Europe as musk, are only small
pieces of kid’s flesh soaked in real musk, and not the blood, since
though it can be made into grains, it easily evaporates. The cat which
produces musk is called castor, and the leech is called Linta.
Continuing along the coast of China, many nations are met with, and
they are these: the Chienchi, who inhabit the islands in which they
fish for pearls, and where the cinnamon grows. The Lecchii inhabit the
mainland: the entrance to their port is traversed by a large rock, for
which reason all the junks and vessels which wish to enter must take
down their masts. The king of this country is called Moni. He has on
the mainland twenty kings under him, and he is subject to the King of
China: his capital is Baranaci, and here is situated Oriental Cathay.
Han is a high and cold island, where there is copper, silver, pearls,
and silk; its king is named Raja Zotra. There is also Miliaula, the
king of which is named Raja Quetischeniga, and Guio, the king of which
is Raja Sudacali. These places are cold and on the mainland. Friagonba
and Trianga are two islands which also produce copper, silver, pearls,
and silk; their king is Raja Ruzon. Bassi is a low land on the
continent. There come afterwards Sumbdit and Pradit, two islands very
rich in gold, where the men wear a large ring of gold round the ankle.
In the neighbouring mountains dwell people who kill their parents when
they are old, so that they may cease from travail. All the people of
these countries are Gentiles.
Tuesday night (between it and Wednesday,) on the 11th of February of
1522, we left the island of Timor, and entered upon the great sea named
Laut Chidol,[416] and taking a west-south-west course, we left to the
right and to the North, from fear of the Portuguese, the island of
Zumatra, anciently named Taprobana; also Pegu, Bengala, Urizza, Chelim,
where are the Malabars, subjects of the King of Narsinga: Calicut which
is under the same king; Cambaya in which are the Guzeratis; Cananor,
Goa, Armus, and all the other coast of India major.
In this kingdom dwell six classes of persons, that is to say: Nairs,
Panicals, Franas, Pangelins, Macuas, and Poleas. The Nairs are the
chiefs; the Panicals are the townspeople; these two classes live and
converse together. The Franas collect the wine from the palm trees and
the bananas. The Macuas are fishermen; and the Poleas sow and harvest
the rice; these last always dwell in the fields, and never enter the
city, and when it is desired to give them anything, it is placed on the
ground and they take it. When they go along the roads they always cry
out, po, po, po, that is take care of yourself; and we were told that a
Nair who had been accidentally touched by a Polea, not to survive such
a disgrace, had himself killed.
In order to double the Cape of Good Hope, we went as far as 42° South
latitude, and we remained off that cape for nine weeks, with the sails
struck on account of the Western and North-western gales which beat
against our bows with fierce squalls. The Cape of Good Hope is in 34°
30′ South latitude, 1600 leagues distant from the Cape of Malacca, and
it is the largest and most dangerous cape in the world.
Some of our men, and among them the sick, would have liked to land at
a place belonging to the Portuguese called Mozambique, both because
the ship made much water, and because of the great cold which we
suffered; and much more because we had nothing but rice and water for
food and drink, all the meat of which we had made provision having
putrified, for the want of salt had not permitted us to salt it. But
the greater number of us, prizing honour more than life itself, decided
on attempting at any risk to return to Spain.
At length, by the aid of God, on the 6th of May, we passed that
terrible cape, but we were obliged to approach it within only five
leagues distance, or else we should never have passed it. We then
sailed towards the north-west for two whole months without ever taking
rest; and in this short time we lost twenty-one men between Christians
and Indians. We made then a curious observation on throwing them into
the sea, that was that the Christians remained with the face turned
to the sky, and the Indians with the face turned to the sea. If God
had not granted us favourable weather, we should all have perished of
hunger.
Constrained by extreme necessity, we decided on touching at the Cape
Verde Islands, and on Wednesday the 9th of July, we touched at one of
those islands named St. James’s. Knowing that we were in an enemy’s
country, and amongst suspicious persons, on sending the boat ashore
to get provision of victuals, we charged the seamen to say to the
Portuguese that we had sprung our foremast under the equinoctial line
(although this misfortune had happened at the Cape of Good Hope), and
that our ship was alone, because whilst we tried to repair it, our
captain-general had gone with the other two ships to Spain. With these
good words, and giving some of our merchandise in exchange, we obtained
two boat-loads of rice.
In order to see whether we had kept an exact account of the days, we
charged those who went ashore to ask what day of the week it was, and
they were told by the Portuguese inhabitants of the island that it was
Thursday, which was a great cause of wondering to us, since with us
it was only Wednesday. We could not persuade ourselves that we were
mistaken; and I was more surprised than the others, since having always
been in good health, I had every day, without intermission, written
down the day that was current. But we were afterwards advised that
there was no error on our part, since as we had always sailed towards
the west, following the course of the sun, and had returned to the same
place, we must have gained twenty-four hours, as is clear to any one
who reflects upon it.
The boat, having returned for rice a second time to the shore, was
detained, with thirteen men[417] who were in it. As we saw that, and,
from the movement in certain caravels, suspected that they might wish
to capture us and our ship, we at once set sail. We afterwards learned,
some time after our return, that our boat and men had been arrested,
because one of our men had discovered the deception, and said that the
captain-general was dead, and that our ship was the only one remaining
of Magellan’s fleet.
At last, when it pleased Heaven, on Saturday the 6th of September
of the year 1522, we entered the bay of San Lucar; and of sixty men
who composed our crew when we left Maluco, we were reduced to only
eighteen,[417] and these for the most part sick. Of the others, some
died of hunger, some had run away at the island of Timor, and some had
been condemned to death for their crimes.
From the day when we left this bay of San Lucar until our return
thither, we reckoned that we had run more than fourteen thousand four
hundred and sixty leagues, and we had completed going round the earth
from East to West.
Monday the 8th of September, we cast anchor near the mole of Seville,
and discharged all the artillery.
Tuesday, we all went in shirts and barefoot, with a taper in our hands
to visit the shrine of St. Maria of Victory, and of St. Maria de
Antigua.
Then, leaving Seville, I went to Valladolid, where I presented to his
Sacred Majesty Don Carlos, neither gold nor silver, but things much
more precious in the eyes of so great a Sovereign. I presented to him
among other things, a book written by my hand of all the things that
had occurred day by day in our voyage. I departed thence as I was best
able, and went to Portugal, and related to King John the things which I
had seen. Returning through Spain, I came to France, where I presented
a few things from the other hemisphere to Madam the Regent, mother of
the most Christian King Don Francis.[418] Afterwards, I turned towards
Italy, where I established for ever my abode, and devoted my leisure
and vigils to the very illustrious and noble lord, Philip de Villiers
Lisleadam, the very worthy grand master of Rhodes.
The Chevalier,
+Anthoyne Pigaphete+.
TREATISE OF NAVIGATION
OF THE
CHEVALIER ANTONY PIGAFETTA.
The armillary sphere, of which the author gives a drawing, serves
to explain the system of the world according to Ptolemy, and could
also serve as an astrolabe, for one sees at the top of it a kind of
handle or ring, by which to hold it suspended, as is seen in the
above-mentioned drawing. He begins his treatise by giving us an idea of
that system, as have done all those after him, who have written of the
elements of the nautical art and of pilotage.
“The earth is round,” he says, “and remains suspended and immovable in
the midst of all the celestial bodies. The first index fixed on two
poles, the arctic and antarctic, which are supposed to correspond with
the poles of the earth. It runs from East to West, and transports with
itself all the planets and stars. Besides this there is the eighth
sphere, the poles of which are at 23 deg. 33 min.,[419] it runs from
West to East.”
“It is supposed that all the circumference of the earth is divided
into 360 degrees; and each degree is of 17 leagues and a half,
consequently the circumference of the earth is 6,300 leagues. Land
leagues are of three miles and sea leagues of four miles.[420]”
“The ten circles of the armillary sphere, of which the six major pass
through the center of the earth, serve to determine the situation
of countries and climates. The Ecliptic determines the movement of
the sun and the planets: the two Tropics indicate the point to which
the sun declines from the equator towards the North in summer, and
towards the South in winter. The Meridian, always variable, because it
passes through all points of the equator, cutting it perpendicularly,
designates the longitude, and it is on it that the latitudes are
marked.”
+Of Latitude.+
After having well explained the armillary sphere with all its parts,
and their use according to the system of Ptolemy, the author goes on
to teach the method of taking the altitude of the pole, on which the
latitude is calculated; fixing the pole at 0° and the equator at 90°.
“The Polar star,” he says, “is not precisely on the point
corresponding to the axis of the earth; but it turns round it, as do
all the other stars. In order to know its true position with regard
to the pole, it must be observed where the Guard stars[421] stand. If
these are on the western arm,[422] the polar star stands one degree
above the pole: if they are on the line[423] the pole star stands 3
deg. 30 min.[424] below the pole: if they are on the eastern arm the
pole star is one degree below the pole. When one wishes to take the
altitude of the pole star, in whichever of the above-mentioned four
places the Guard stars may be, the degrees which the pole star has
above the pole will be subtracted from its altitude, or those which it
has below the pole will be added to it. I have spoken in the account of
the voyage of the stars of the Antarctic Pole.”
“The latitude of the place may also be ascertained by the sun’s
altitude. 1. If you find yourself between the equinoctial and the
arctic pole and the shadow falls towards that pole, look how many
degrees and minutes meridianal declination the sun has that day; and
this you will subtract from the altitude of the sun which you have
taken: afterwards, deducting the remaining degrees from 90 deg., you
will have in the residue the number of degrees of North latitude,
that is your distance from the equator. 2. If the sun has a boreal
declination, in such a manner that the shadow falls towards the south,
take the sun’s declination on that day, and add it to the sun’s
altitude which you have taken, from that sum subtract 90 degs., and
the remaining degrees will indicate your boreal latitude. 3. If the
sun is between the equinoctial and the antarctic, and the shadow falls
towards the antarctic, observe the sun’s declination for that day,
subtract it from the altitude taken, according to the first rule, and
you will have the degrees of south latitude. 4. If, when you and the
sun are between the equinoctial and the antarctic pole, the shadow
falls towards the north, you will add the altitude you have taken to
the sun’s declination that day, and act according to the second rule.
5. When you have an altitude of 90 deg., you will be so many degrees
distant from the equator as there are degrees of the sun’s declination,
and if the sun has no declination you will be under the equator. 6. If
you are to the north of the equator, and the sun is in the southern
signs you will look what is its declination, you will add these degrees
of declination to those of the altitude observed, and as many degrees
as are wanting from 90 deg., so many will you be distant from the
equinoctial. 7. You will do the same when you find yourself to the
south of the equinoctial, whilst the sun is in the northern signs.”
+Of Longitude.+
“Longitude indicates the degrees from east to west: I have considered
many methods or means for ascertaining it, and I have found three
methods[425] fitting for that object. The last is the most convenient
for those who do not know astrology. At the present time the pilots
content themselves with knowing the latitude; and are so proud that
they will not hear speak of longitude.”
“I. From the latitude of the moon the longitude is calculated of the
place in which the observation is made. The distance of the moon from
the ecliptic is called its latitude: the ecliptic is the path of the
sun. The moon, in its movement, always increases its distance until
it reaches the furthest point of its distance: and thence it returns
back, to diminish, so to say, its latitude, until it is with the head
or tail of the dragon:[426] there it cuts the ecliptic. And since the
moon, whilst it lengthens its distance from the ecliptic, has more
degrees towards the west than towards the east, it must necessarily
have more latitude on one side (_of the globe_) than on the other:
and when the latitude is known, by measuring the degrees and minutes
with the astrolabe, it will be known whether it is found, and how far
it is found towards the east or the west. But in order to ascertain
the longitude, you must know in what latitude the moon ought to be at
that same moment in the place from which you sailed, for instance, in
Seville. By knowing the latitude and longitude of the moon at Seville
in degrees and minutes, and seeing also the latitude and longitude
which it has in the place where you are, you will know how many hours
and minutes you are distant from Seville; and afterwards you will
calculate the distance in east or west longitude.”
“II. The moon furnishes another method for ascertaining the
longitude, but that is when I knew the precise hour in which the moon
observed at Seville ought to be in conjunction with a given star or
planet, or ought to be in a certain opposition to the sun, of which the
degrees are determined: and this I can know by means of an almanack.
And since that happens in the east before it happens in the west, as
many as may be the hours and minutes that may elapse from the time
when the conjunction took place at Seville, till the time in which I
observe it to take place, so much will be my longitude west of Seville.
But if I should see the conjunction take place before the hour in
which it ought to happen with respect to Seville, then my distance in
longitude will be east. For each hour, fifteen degrees of longitude are
calculated.”
[Illustration]
“To understand this does not require any great genius. It should be
borne in mind that the moon has a motion opposed to the general motion
of the heavens; that is, it goes from west to east, and in every two
hours it progresses a degree and a few minutes; and since it is in
the first heaven, and the stars are in the eighth, it certainly never
enters in conjunction with them; but sometimes it interposes itself
before the rays which come from them to our eye: but this does not
happen at the same time to those who are at Seville, and to those who
are at Valencia. The annexed figure will give an idea of this, from
which it is seen that the ray of the star +d+ is intercepted by the
moon +c+ for those who are at +a+, and not for those who are at +B+,
for whom it was intercepted when the moon was at +e+.”
“III. The compass can also supply a method, still easier, for finding
the longitude of the place in which you are. It is known that the
compass, or the magnetised needle which is in it, directs itself to a
given point, because of the tendency which the loadstone has towards
the pole. The reason of this tendency is because the loadstone does not
find in the heavens any other spot in repose except the pole, and on
that account directs itself towards it. This is an explanation of the
phenomenon which I propose; and I believe it to be true, so long as
experience does not inform us of some better explanation.”
“In order to know, by means of the needle, the degrees of longitude,
form a large circle, in which place the compass, and divide it into 360
deg.: and having placed the needle at 360 deg., where it indicates the
arctic pole; when the needle is in repose, draw a thread, which should
pass from the arctic pole, pointed out by the needle to the antarctic
pole, and let this thread be longer than the diameter. After that take
the south, which you will know by the greatest altitude of the sun.
Turn the compass, until the thread which traverses it coincides with
the direction of the meridian shade; then, from the antarctic pole of
the needle, with the thread which remained over, draw another thread
to the arctic pole, that is, to the flower;[427] and you will thus
find how many degrees the needle of the compass is distant from the
meridian line, that is, from the true pole. So many will be the degrees
of longitude, which you will have from the place where the compass
begins to set itself in motion.[428] Therefore, with the more accuracy
you take the true meridian so much the more exactly will you be able
to ascertain the degrees of longitude. And from this it may be seen
that the meridian should never be taken with the compass, because it
north-easts or north-wests,[429] as soon as it goes out of the true
meridian; but take an observation of the south[430] with the astrolabe,
and judge that it is midday when the sun is at its greatest height.”
“If it is not possible to take the sun’s altitude at midday, that
can be determined with an hour-glass of sand, taking the hours of
the night from sunset till the moment of its rising. Having learned
the hours of the night, you will know how many are wanting of the
twenty-four, and these you will divide into two equal parts. When half
of this has elapsed, be sure that it is midday, and that the shadow
indicates to you the true meridian. But since the sand clock may often
be inexact, it will be better to take the sun’s altitude with the
astrolabe by means of its mediclino.[431]”
“The true meridian may also be ascertained, or rather the equinoctial
line, which cuts the meridian at right angles, by observing the points
where the sun rises and sets, and by observing how much they are
distant from the equinoctial either to the north or to the south. For
this purpose an astrolabe is formed with the globe; that is, a circle
is made representing the earth’s circumference, divided into 360 deg.
At sunrise fix two pins in the circumference, in such a manner that a
line drawn from one to the other should pass through the centre, and
place the pins so that both should be in a line opposite the sun’s
center. Place two other pins in the same way in the circumference when
the sun sets. You will thus see how much the sun declines from the
equinoctial line, either to the north or to the south. And as many
degrees as the pins are distant from the equinoctial, so many degrees
are the sun’s declination. Having found the sun’s rising and setting,
you will also find the medium distance; that is, the meridian line,
and afterwards you will see how much the compass or magnetic needle
north-easts or north-wests. You will infer from this how far you are
from the Fortunate islands; that is, from Tenerife towards the east or
the west. This method has been tried by experience.[432]”
+Direction of the Ship.+