CHRISTIANITY AND TRADE ESTABLISHED.--THE BAPTISM OF THE QUEEN.
On April 9th they entered the Port of Zubu, on approaching which they
saw houses in the trees. The Captain hung out his flags in the clear
sunny air. He caused his artillery to be fired, which greatly alarmed
the natives. He then sent an interpreter to the King.
The interpreter found the people in terror at the thunder of the guns.
He assured the King that the salute had been made in his honor. Then the
interpreter said:
"My master is the greatest King in all the world. We are sailing at his
command to discover the Spice Islands. But we have heard of your fame,
and the fame of your country, and have come to visit you."
"You are welcome," said the King, "but you must pay me tribute."
"My master," said the interpreter, "is the greatest of all Kings, and we
can pay tribute to no one."
The King feasted them, and they entered into negotiations of peace with
the King of Zubu.
At Zubu Magellan turned missionary with no common zeal.
He told the native princes that his visit was for the sake of peace.
We are told that the "Captain General sat in a chair of red velvet, and
near him were the principal men of the ships sitting in leather chairs,
and the others sat on the ground on mats.
"The Captain," says the narrative, "spoke at length on the subject of
peace, and prayed God to confirm it in Heaven. These people replied that
they had never heard such words as these which the Captain had spoken to
them, and they took great pleasure in hearing them. The Captain, seeing
then that those people listened willingly to what was said to them, and
that they gave good answers, began to say a great many good things to
induce them to become Christians.
"He told them how God had made Heaven and earth and all other things in
the world, and that he had commanded that every one should render honor
and obedience to his father and mother, and that whoever did otherwise
was condemned to eternal fire."
His teaching bore immediate fruit.
"The people heard these things willingly, and besought the Captain to
leave them two men to teach and show them the Christian faith, and they
would entertain them well with great honor. To this the Captain answered
that for the moment he could not leave any of his people, but that if
they wished to be Christians that his priest would baptize them, and
that another time he would bring priests and teachers to teach them the
faith."
His manner of teaching reveals his heart:
"The people told him that they wished to consult their King in regard to
becoming Christians." The friends of the Captain "wept for the joy which
they felt at the good-will of these people, and the Captain told them
not to become Christians 'from fear of us, or to please us, but that if
they wished to become Christian they must do it willingly, and for the
love of God, for even though they should not become Christian, no
displeasure would be done them, but those who became Christian would be
more loved and better treated than the others.' Then they all cried out
with one voice that they did not wish to become Christians from fear,
nor from complaisance, but of their free will."
Here the true character of the man again appears--few Christian
explorers ever made so noble a record. His sincerity won the hearts of
the natives:
"At last they said they did not know what more to answer to so many good
and beautiful words which he spoke to them, but that they placed
themselves in his hands, and that he should do with them as with his
own servants."
The next scene is ideal:
"Then the Captain, with tears in his eyes, embraced them, and, taking
the hand of the Prince and that of the King, said to him that by the
faith he had in God, and to his master the Emperor, and by the habit of
St. James which he wore, he promised them to cause them to have
perpetual peace with the King of Spain, at which the Prince and the
others promised him the same."
It is a pleasure to follow such a narrative as Pigafetta here writes in
illustration of the character of a true Christian Knight. Compare this
narrative with the history of Pizarro, Cortes, and De Soto. Magellan was
a Las Casas, a Marquette, a La Salle.
The next incident told by Pigafetta has as fine a touch as a portrayal
of character. It relates to a message which Magellan sent to the King,
with a present.
"When we came to the town we found the King of Zubu at his palace,
sitting on the ground on a mat made of palm, with many people about him.
"He had a very heavy chain around his neck, and two gold rings hung in
his ears with precious stones.
"He was eating tortoise eggs in two china dishes, and he had four
vessels full of palm wine, which he drank with a cane pipe. We made our
obeisance, and presented to him what the Captain had sent him, and told
him, through the interpreter that the present _was not as a return for
his present which he had sent to the Captain, but for the affection
which he bore him_. This done, his people told him all the good words
and explanations of peace and religion which he had spoken to them."
We now behold Magellan in a new attitude, as a missionary teacher, a
John the Baptist in the wilderness. Pigafetta thus describes the scene:
"On Sunday morning, the fourteenth day of April, we went on shore, forty
men, of whom two were armed, who marched before us, following the
standard of our King Emperor. When we landed the ships discharged all
their artillery, and from fear of it the people ran away in all
directions.
"Magellan and the King embraced one another, and then joyously we went
near the scaffolding, where the Captain General and the King sat on two
chairs, one covered with red, the other with violet velvet. The
principal men sat on cushions, and others on mats, after the fashion of
the country.
"Then the Captain began to speak to the King through the interpreter to
incite him to the faith of Jesus Christ, and told him that if he wished
to be a good Christian, as he had said the day before, that he must burn
all the idols of his country, and, instead of them, place a cross, and
that every one should worship it every day on their knees, and their
hands joined to Heaven; and he showed him how he ought every day to make
the sign of the Cross.
"To that the King and all his people answered that they would obey the
commands of the Captain and do all that he told them. The Captain took
the King by the hand, and they walked about on the scaffolding, and when
he was baptized he said that he would name him Don Charles, as the
Emperor his sovereign was named; and he named the Prince Don Fernand,
after the brother of the Emperor, and the King of Mazzava, Jehan; to the
Moor he gave the name of Christopher, and to the others each a name of
his fancy. Thus, before mass, there were fifty men baptized."
The baptism of the Queen followed.
"Our Chaplain and some of us went on shore to baptize the Queen. She
came with forty ladies, and we conducted them onto the scaffolding; then
made her sit down on a cushion, and her women around her, until the
priest was ready. During that time they showed her an image of our Lady,
of wood, holding her little child, which was very well made, and a
cross. When she saw it, she had a greater desire to be a Christian, and,
asking for baptism, she was baptized and named Jehanne, like the mother
of the Emperor. The wife of the Prince, daughter of this Queen, had the
name of Catherine, the Queen of Mazzava Isabella, and to the others each
their name.
"That day we baptised eight hundred persons of men, women, and
children. The Queen was young and handsome, covered with a black and
white sheet; she had the mouth and nails very red, and wore on her head
a large hat made of leaves of palm, with a crown over it made of the
same leaves, like that of the Pope. After that she begged us to give her
the little wooden boy to put in the place of the idols. This we did, and
she went away. In the evening the King and Queen, with several of their
people, came to the sea beach, where the Captain had some of the large
artillery fired, in which they took great pleasure. The Captain and the
King called one another brother."
The "little boy" spoken of was an image of the infant Christ. The figure
was preserved until the year 1598, when the Spaniards sent missionaries
to the place who gave it a place in a shrine and named a city for it.
The naming of the Queen at her baptism for poor Juana, or "Crazy Jane,"
the incapable mother of Charles V, who was watching beside her dead
husband in Granada, and who had signed the commission of Magellan by
proxy, completes a tale of missionary work in a somewhat ideal way. If
these people did not maintain their faith, the work reveals the
intention of Magellan, and shows the nobility of character of the
Christian Knight.