"THE WONDERS OF NEW LANDS."--PIGAFETTA'S TALES OF HIS ADVENTURES WITH
MAGELLAN.--THE STORY OF "THE FOUNTAIN TREE."--"ST. ELMO'S FIRE."
The ships moved on, bearing the hopeful Del Cano, the frowning Gormez,
the two prisoners, and the happy Italian Pigafetta.
Our next chapters will be a series of wonder tales which reveal the
South Temperate Zone and its inhabitants as they appeared to the young
and susceptible Italian, Pigafetta, nearly four hundred years ago.
Pigafetta, as we have shown, desired to accompany Magellan that he might
"see the wonders of the new lands." He saw them indeed, and he painted
them with his pen so vividly that they will always live. We get our
first views of the strange inhabitants of the Southern regions of the
New World from him. We are to follow his narratives, as printed for the
Hakluyt Society, London, making some omissions, and changing its form in
part, hoping thereby to render the text more clear. We closely follow
the spirit of events. Pigafetta addresses his narrative "To the very
illustrious and very excellent Lord Philip de Villiers Lisleaden, Grand
Master of Rhodes," of whom we have spoken.
[Illustration: Interior of the Alcazar of Seville.]
He says, by way of introduction:
"Finding myself in Spain in the year of the nativity of our Lord, 1519,
at the court of the most serene King of the Romans (Charles V), and
learning there of the great and awful things of the ocean world, I
desired to make a voyage to unknown seas, and to see with my own eyes
some of the wonderful things of which I had heard.
"I heard that there was in the city of Seville an armada (armade) of
five ships, which were ready to perform a long voyage in order to find
the shortest way to the Islands of Moluco (Molucca) from whence came the
spices. The Captain General of this armada was Ferdinand de Magagleanes
(Magellan), a Portuguese gentleman, who had made several voyages on the
ocean. He was an honorable man. So I set out from Barcelona, where the
Emperor was, and traveled by land to the said city of Seville, and
secured a place in the expedition.
"The Captain General published ordinances for the guidance of the
voyage.
"He willed that the vessel on which he himself was should go before the
other vessels, and that the others should keep in sight of it. Therefore
he hung by night over the deck a torch or faggot of burning wood which
he called a farol (lantern), which burned all night, so that the ships
might not lose sight of his own.
"He arranged to set other lights as signals in the night. When he wished
to make a tack on account of a change of weather he set two lights.
Three lights signified "faster." Four lights signified to stop and turn.
When he discovered a rock or land, it was to be signalled by other
lights.
"He ordered that three watches should be kept at night.
"On Monday, St. Lawrence Day, August 10th, the five ships with the crews
to the number of two hundred and thirty-seven[A] set sail from the noble
city of Seville, amid the firing of artillery and came to the end of the
river Guadalcavir (Guadalquivir). We stopped near the Cape St. Vinconet
to make further provisions for the voyage.
[A] The number was larger, about 270.
"We went to hear mass on shore. There the Captain commanded that all the
men should confess before going any further.
"On Tuesday, September 20th, we set sail from St. Lucar.
"We came to Canaria (Canaries)."
This account repeats in a different way a part of the facts we have
given.
Here the young Italian relates his first story, which is substantially
as follows:
THE FOUNTAIN TREE.
"Among the isles of the Canaria there is one which is very wonderful.
There is not to be found a single drop of water which flows from any
fountain or river.
"But in this rainless land at the hour of midday, every day, there
descends a cloud from the sky which envelops a large tree which grows on
this island.
"The cloud falls upon the leaves of the tree, when a great abundance of
water distills from the leaves. The tree flows, and soon at the foot of
it there gathers a fountain.
"The people of the island come to drink of the water. The animals and
the birds refresh themselves there."
The story is true so far as relates to the fountain tree. But that a
cloud comes down from Heaven at midday to refresh it, is not an exact
statement of the manner in which this tree furnishes water to the
sterile island. The young Italian writer describes the tree as he saw
it, and as it seemed to be. The tree that supplies water as from a
natural fountain may still be found.
With such a tree to begin his researches on the sea, Pigafetta must have
been impatient to proceed along the marvelous ocean way. All the world
was to him as he saw it; he seldom stopped to inquire if appearances
were true.
With men like Del Cano on board, who had ears for a marvelous story, his
life in the early part of the voyage must have been a very happy one.
Wonder followed wonder....
"Monday, the 3d of October," says the interesting Italian, "we set sail
making the course auster, which the Levantine mariners call siroc
(southeast) entering into the ocean sea. We passed Cape Verde and
navigated by the coast of Guinea of Ethiopia, where there is a mountain
called Sierra Leona. A rain fell, and the storm lasted sixty days."
They came to waters full of sharks, which had terrible teeth, and which
ate all the people whom they found in the sea, alive or dead. These were
caught by a hook of iron.
ST. ELMO'S FIRE.
Here good St. Anseline met the ships; in the fancy of the mariners of
the time, this airy saint appeared to favored ships in the night, and
fair weather always followed the saintly apparition. He came in a robe
of fire, and stood and shone on the top of the high masts or on the
spars. The sailors hailed him with joy, as one sent from Heaven. Happy
was the ship on the tropic sea upon whose rigging the form of good St.
Anseline appeared in the night, and especially in the night of cloud
and storm!
To the joy of all the ships good St. Anseline came down one night to the
fleet of Magellan. The poetical Italian tells the story in this way:
"During these storms, the body of St. Anseline appeared to us several
times.
"One night among others he came when it was very dark on account of bad
weather. He came in the form of a fire lighted at the summit of the main
mast, and remained there near two hours and a half.
"This comforted us greatly, for we were in tears, looking for the hour
when we should perish.
"When the holy light was going away from us it shed forth so great a
brilliancy in our eyes that we were like people blinded for near a
quarter of an hour. We called out for mercy.
"Nobody expected to escape from the storm.
"It is to be noted that all and as many times as the light which
represents St. Anseline shows itself upon a vessel which is in a storm
at sea, that vessel never is lost.
"As soon as this light had departed the sea grew calmer and the wings of
divers kinds of birds appeared."
Beneficent St. Anseline who manifested his presence by illuminations in
the mast and spars in equatorial waters! The beautiful illusion has long
been explained and dispelled. It is but an electric fire at the end of
atmospheric disturbances. But it is usually a correct prophecy of fair
skies and smooth seas. It is now called St. Elmo's Fire.
If ever there was an expedition that the saint of the mariners might
favor it would seem to be this.
One can almost envy the pious Italian his imagination in the clearing
tropic night.
His next wonders were the sea birds, of which there were flocks and
clouds, and with them appeared flying fish.
The ships were now off the coasts of Brazil and stopped at Verzim.
The people of the Brazilian Verzim were accustomed to paint themselves
"by fire." We do not clearly understand how this painting "by fire" was
done. The art of scorching has perished with them. But besides these
indelible marks, the men had three holes in their lower lips, and hung
in them, after the manner of earrings, small round ornamental stones,
about a finger in length. The men did not shave, for they _plucked out_
their beard.
Their only clothing was a circle of parrot feathers. How _terribly_ gay
they must have looked! And yet such customs were hardly more ridiculous
than those of later times, and more civilized countries--earrings,
beauty patches, plume, and snuffboxes.
It was the land of parrots. The most beautiful and intelligent parrots
still come from Brazil. Columbus saw parrots in "clouds" over the
islands of the Antilles.
Parrots were not expensive in these equatorial forests at this time.
"The natives," says Pigafetta, "give eight or ten parrots for a looking
glass," and as a looking glass would multiply the picture of parrots
indefinitely the Verzimans must have thought the exchange a marvelous
bargain.
If Brazilian parrots were cheap and so charming as likely to become an
embarrassment of riches, so were the little cat monkeys which delighted
the men. These little creatures, which looked like miniature lions,
still delight the visitors to the coast of Brazil, but they shiver up
when brought to the northern atmospheres and piteously cry for the home
lands of the sun again.
Very curious birds began to excite the surprise of the voyagers, among
such as had a "beak like a spoon," and "no tongue."
The markets of the new land displayed another commodity far more
surprising than birds or animals, young slaves, which were offered for
sale by their own families. So a family who had many children was rich.
It cost a hatchet to buy one of these, and for a hatchet and a knife one
might buy _two_.
The people made bread of the "marrow of trees," and carried victuals in
baskets on their heads.
Masses were said for the crews on shore, and the natives knelt down with
the men.
The people were so pleased with their visitors that they built a common
house for them.
A pleasing illusion had made the sailors most welcome here.
It had not rained in Verzim for two months when the expedition landed.
The people were looking to the heavens for mercy day by day. But the
copper sun rose as often in a clear sky.
At last Magellan's sails appeared in the burning air. The sight of the
sails was followed by that of clouds.
The people thought that the fleet had brought the clouds with them.
"They come from Heaven," said they of the adventurers.
So when they were exhorted to accept Christianity, they at once fell
down before the uplifted crosses and believed the teachings of the sea
heroes who could command the clouds and bring rain to the parched land.
They thought the ships were gods and the small boats the children of
such beings, and when the latter approached the ships they imagined that
they were children come home to their fathers or mothers.
The ships remained in this delightful country of Verzim thirteen weeks.
Pigafetta and Del Cano must have thought that life here was ideal. What
scenes would follow?