According to father Feyjoo, in the month of June, 1674, some young men
were walking by the sea-side in Bilboa, and one of them, named Francis
de la Vega, of about fifteen years of age, suddenly leaped into the sea,
and disappeared presently. His companions, after waiting some time, and
he not returning, made the event public, and sent an account of it to De
la Vega’s mother, at Lierganès, a small town in the archbishopric of
Burgos. At first she discredited his death, but his absence occasioned
her fond doubts to vanish, and she mourned his untimely loss.
About five years afterwards some fishermen, in the environs of Cadiz,
perceived the figure of a man sometimes swimming, and sometimes plunging
under the water. On the next day they saw the same, and mentioned it as
a very singular circumstance to several people. They threw their nets,
and baiting the swimmer with some pieces of bread, they at length caught
the object of their attention, which to their astonishment they found to
be a well-formed man. They put several questions to him in various
languages, but he answered none. They then took him to the convent of
St. Francis, where he was exorcised, thinking he might be possessed by
some evil spirit. The exorcism was as useless as the questions. At
length, after some days, he pronounced the word Lierganès. It happened
that a person belonging to that town was present when he uttered the
name, as was also the secretary of the Inquisition, who wrote to his
correspondent at Lierganès, relating the particulars, and instituting
inquiries relative to this very extraordinary man; and he received an
account of the young man who had disappeared in the manner before
related.
On this information, it was determined that the marine man should be
sent to Lierganès; and a Franciscan friar, who was obliged to go there
on other business, undertook to conduct him the following year. When
they came within a quarter of a league of the town, the friar ordered
the young man to go before and show him the way. He made no answer, but
led the friar to the widow De la Vega’s house. She recollected him
instantly, and embracing him, cried out, “This is my son, that I lost at
Bilboa!” Two of his brothers who were present also knew him immediately,
and embraced him with equal tenderness. He, however, did not evince the
least sensibility, or the smallest degree of surprise. He spoke no more
at Lierganès than at Cadiz, nor could any thing be obtained from him
relative to his adventure. He had entirely forgotten his native
language, except the words _pan_, _vino_, _tabaco_, “bread, wine,
tobacco;” and these he uttered indiscriminately and without application.
They asked him if he would have either of these articles; he could make
no reply.
For several days together he would eat large quantities of bread, and
for as many days following he would not take the least food of any kind.
If he was directed to do any thing, he would execute the commission very
properly, but without speaking a word: he would carry a letter to where
it was addressed, and bring an answer back in writing. He was sent one
day with a letter to St. Ander; to get there it was necessary to cross
the river at Padrenna, which is more than a league wide in that spot;
not finding a boat in which he could cross it, he threw himself in, swam
over, and delivered the letter as directed.
At this time Francis de la Vega was nearly six feet in height, and well
formed, with a fair skin, and red hair as short as a new-born infant’s.
He always went bare-footed, and had scarcely any nails either on his
hands or feet. He never dressed himself but when he was told to do it.
The same with eating; what was offered to him he accepted, but he never
asked for food.
In this way he remained at his mother’s for nine years, when he again
disappeared, without any apparent cause, and no one knew how. It may be
supposed, however that the motive or feeling which induced his first
disappearance influenced the second. Some time afterwards it was
reported that an inhabitant of Lierganès again saw Francis de la Vega in
some port of Asturias; but this was never confirmed.
When this very singular man was first taken out of the sea at Cadiz, it
is said that his body was entirely covered with scales, but they fell
off soon after his coming out of the water. They also add, that
different parts of his body were as hard as shagreen.
Father Feyjoo adds many philosophical reflections on the existence of
this phenomenon, and on the means by which a man may be enabled to live
at the bottom of the sea. He observes, that if Francis de la Vega had
preserved his reason and the use of speech, he would have given us more
instruction and information in marine affairs, than all the naturalists
combined.
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