The First Voyage Round the World/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
and
LIFE OF MAGELLAN.
—— Teucer Salamina patremque
Quum fugeret, tamen uda Lyæo
Tempora populeâ fertur vinxisse coronâ,
Sic tristes affatus amicos:
Quo nos cunque feret melior Fortuna parente,
Ibimus, o socii comitesque!
Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro;
Certus enim promisit Apollo
Ambiguam tellure novâ Salamina futuram.
O fortes, pejoraque passi
Mecum sæpe viri, nunc vino pellite curas:
Cras ingens iterabimus æquor.
Though Magellan’s enterprise was the greatest ever undertaken by any navigator, yet he has been deprived of his due fame by the jealousy which has always existed between the two nations inhabiting the Peninsula: the Spaniards would not brook being commanded by a Portuguese, and the Portuguese have not yet forgiven Magellan for having abandoned them to serve Castile. But Magellan really had no choice; for if the western passage which he expected to discover was to be sought for, it could only be under the auspices of Spain, within whose demarcation those waters lay.
It would seem that D. Manuel had only himself to blame for the loss of Magellan's services; and, as M. Amoretti well observes, D. Manuel ought to have been well aware of the value of those services, since Charles V knew it, and showed his appreciation of them. It is difficult to believe that the injury of which Magellan complained, and which led him to seek other service, was merely, as Osorio says, the refusal of promotion in palace rank, and which he had well deserved, especially since the motive ascribed by Osorio to the king's refusal, namely the necessity of avoiding a bad precedent, was not alone a sufficient affront to account for Magellan's sacrificing all his hopes and property in his own country, had he not also felt that the king was condemning him to inaction, obscurity, and uselessness. Barros, indeed, says that:
"The favours of princes given for services are a retributive justice, which must be observed equally with all, with regard to the quality of each man: and that if a man's portion be denied him, though he endures it ill, yet he will have patience; but if he see the advancement of those who have profited more by artifice and friends than by their own merits, he loses all patience; indignation, hatred, and despair arise, and he will commit faults injurious to himself and others. And what outraged Magellan more than the refusal of the half ducat a month, was that some men who were with him at Azamor, said that his lameness was feigned to support his petition."
The king, moreover, refused to receive Magellan, and showed his ill-will against him. It is therefore highly probable that before Magellan took the step of leaving Portugal, D. Manuel, prompted by his niggardly disposition, had refused to entertain Magellan's desire for employment at sea, or his projects of discovery, from which no immediate profit was to be expected. This is apparent from the statement of Barros, Decad. iii, lib. v, cap. viii, that letters of Magellan to Francisco Serrano were found after the death of the latter in Maluco, in which Magellan said that he should soon see him; and, if it were not by way of Portugal, it would be by way of Castile, and that Serrano should therefore wait for him there. Further on, Barros says that recourse to Castile appears from these letters to have been in Magellan's mind some time before the occurrence of the king's dismissal of his business: and that this was shown by his always associating with pilots, and occupying himself with sea-charts.
The Portuguese exaggerated very much the injury they expected to result, and, later, which they thought had resulted from Magellan's voyage, which could not change the position of the Moluccas, nor consequently the Portuguese title to them; but the apprehensions which they felt, arose from their fear of others sharing in the spice trade, and from the limited geographical knowledge of the period, which left both parties very much in doubt as to the true position of those islands, or as to the extent of the circumference of the globe. The question of the exact position of the Moluccas was not definitely ascertained till much later, though a compromise was arrived at in 1529 by the treaty between Spain and Portugal, by which Charles V gave up whatever rights to the Moluccas he imagined he possessed, to Portugal, for a sum of three hundred and fifty thousand ducats.[1] As late as 1535, Caspar Correa mentions, tom. iii, p. 661, a Dominican friar in Portuguese India, who was learned in cosmography, and who asserted that the Moluccas fell within the demarcation of Castile.
The grounds of complaint of the Portuguese against Magellan are, perhaps, best expressed, and in the strongest terms, by Bishop Osorio, so it may be well to quote from him the following passage. Lib. xi, § 23.
"About this time a slight offence on the part of the king (D. Manuel) so grievously exasperated the mind of a certain Portuguese, that, forgetful of all faith, piety, and religion, he hastened to betray the king who had educated him, and the country which had brought him forth; and he risked his life amongst the greatest perils. Ferdinand Magellan, of whom we have before spoken, was a man of noble birth, and endued with a high spirit. He had given proofs in India, in warlike affairs, of courage and perseverance in no small degree. Likewise in Africa he had performed his duties with great ardour. Formerly it was the custom among the Portuguese that the king's servants should be fed in the palace at the king's expense; but when the number of these servants had become so great (because the sons of the king's officers retained the same station, and besides, many were admitted for their services into the king's household), it was seen to be very difficult to prepare the food of such a multitude. On this account it was determined by the Kings of Portugal that the food which each man was to receive in the palace should be provided by himself out of the king's money. Thus it was settled that a certain sum of money was assigned per month to each man. That money, indeed, when provisions were so cheap, provided abundantly for the men; but now that the number of men, and the prices of commodities had increased, it happened that the sum, which formerly was more than sufficient for their daily expenses, was now much too small. Moreover, as all the dignity of the Portuguese depends upon the king, this small sum of money is as eagerly sought after as though it were much more ample. And as the Portuguese think that the thing most to be desired is to be enrolled amongst the king's household, so also, they consider the greatest honour to consist in an increase of this stipend. For, as there are various ranks of king's servants, so the sum of money is assigned to each servant according to the dignity of his rank. The highest class is that of nobleman; but, as there are distinctions of nobility, so an equal salary is not given to all. Thus it happens that the nobility of each is estimated according to the importance of this stipend, and each one is held to be more noble in proportion to the more ample stipend which he receives. This judgment, indeed, as human affairs go, is often most false; for many obtain through ambition and pertinacity what ought to be assigned to deserts and innate nobleness. The Portuguese, however, since they are over anxious in seeking this nobility, and imagine that their nobility is increased by a small accession of salary, very often think that they must strive for this little sum of money, as though all their well-being and dignity depended upon it. Now, Magellan contended that for his services, his stipend should be increased monthly by half a ducat. The king refused it him, lest an entrance should be opened to ambitious persons. Magellan, excited by the injury of the refusal of this advantage to him at that time, abandoned the king, broke his faith, and brought the State into extreme danger. And whilst we ought to tolerate the injuries inflicted by the State, and to endure also the outrages of kings, who are the fathers of the republick, and whilst we ought to lay down our lives for the well-being of our country, which lives we owe to our country; this most audacious man conceived such despite on account of half a ducat, amounting to five denarii, which was refused to him, that he opposed the State; he offended the king, who had brought him up; and brought his country, for which he should have died, into peril. For the affair reached such a pitch that the danger of a perilous war impended over the commonwealth. I do not know, indeed, whence so barbarous a custom has crept into the State: for, whilst the name of a traitor is not only hateful and hated, but also burns in the stain of everlasting dishonour upon a whole posterity; yet men who determine upon breaking their faith, and opposing their kings or states, may reject the favours they have received by formal letters, may abjure their fealty, and despoil themselves of the rights and duties of the State; they bid the king keep for himself that which belongs to him, and they attest that thenceforward they will have nothing in common with their country; then, at length, they contend that it is allowable for them to commence war against their country. Be it so: reject favours if it please you; contemn the liberality of your country; grumble as much as you please, that a reward equal to your dignity has not been granted. But by what means can you betray the faith which you have plighted? My country has inflicted on me a severe outrage; it has inflicted, indeed, the worst. But an outrage is not to be avenged, either upon parents or upon one's country. I have abandoned, he says, all that I had received from my country. Have you then rejected life, disposition, and education? By no means. But all these things; you received them, in the first place, from God, and then from the laws, customs, and institutions of your country. It will never be allowable to combat nature, to injure your country, or to break faith, even should you be laden with every injury. Nay, your life should be given up, and the most extreme punishments should be undergone, sooner than break your faith, or betray your duty. Abjure fealty as much as you please, attest your perfidy by public letters, leave to posterity a notable memory of unspeakable wickedness; yet you will not be able by any such document to avoid offending the Deity, nor the stain of an everlasting opprobrium."
Against this view of Osorio may be set the following passage from Vattel, which has all the more weight, in that it is simply an enunciation of law and right, and is not written to support or to denounce any particular person.
"Many distinctions will be necessary, in order to give a complete solution to the celebrated question, whether a man may quit his country, or the society of which he is a member. The children are bound by natural ties to the society in which they were born; they are under an obligation to show themselves grateful for the protection it has afforded to their fathers, and are in a great measure indebted to it for their birth and education. They ought, therefore, to love it, as we have already shown, to express a just gratitude to it, and requite its services as far as possible by serving it in turn. We have observed above, that they have a right to enter into the society of which their fathers were members. But every man is born free; and the son of a citizen, when come to the years of discretion, may examine whether it be convenient for him to join the society for which he was destined by his birth. If he does not find it advantageous to remain in it, he is at liberty to quit it, on making it a compensation for what it has done in his favour, and preserving, as far as his new engagements will allow him, the sentiments of love and gratitude he owes it,"—Chitty's translation of Vattel, book i, cap. xix, § 220.
There are also some remarkable passages in a pamphlet by Condorcet, dated October 25th, 1791, named Opinion sur les Emigrants. This opinion deserves attention, both on account of its author and the time in which it was written, when popular passions and prejudices were much excited against those who were expatriating themselves from France.
Condorcet begins with the statement, that:
"It is a great error to imagine that the public utility is not constantly to be found united with the rights of individuals, or that the public well-being may demand acts of real injustice. This error has everywhere been the eternal excuse for the inroads of tyranny, and the pretext for the artful manoeuvres employed to establish it.[2]
"On the contrary, in the case of every measure that is proposed as useful, it must first be examined whether it is just. Should it not be so, it must be concluded that it had only an empty and fallacious appearance of utility.
.....
"Nature concedes to every man the right of going out of his country; the constitution guarantees it to every French citizen, and we cannot strike a blow at it. The Frenchman who wishes to leave his country, for his business, for his health, even for the sake of his peace and well-being, ought to have the fullest liberty to do so: he ought to be able to use this liberty, without his absence depriving him of the least of his rights. In a great empire, the variety of professions, and inequality of fortunes, do not admit of residence and personal service being regarded as a common obligation which the law may impose upon all citizens. This rigorous obligation can only exist in the case of absolute necessity; to extend it to the habitual state of society, and even to all periods when the public safety or tranquillity may seem to be menaced, would be to disturb the order of useful labours, and to attack the sources of general prosperity.
"Every man, moreover, has the right to change his country; he may renounce that in which he was born, to choose another. From that moment, as a citizen of his new country, he is only a foreigner in the first; but if some day he returns to it, if he has left any property in it, he ought to enjoy there to the full the rights of man; he has only deserved to lose those of a citizen.
"But here a first question presents itself. Is this citizen by his sole renunciation released from every obligation towards the body politic which he abandons? Does the society from which he separates himself lose immediately all its rights over him? Doubtless, not; and I do not speak only of those sentiments which a noble and grateful soul preserves for its country, even though it be unjust; I speak of rigorous obligations, of those which a man cannot fail to fulfil without becoming guilty of an offence: and I say that there exists a time during which a man placed between his ancient and his new country can only permit himself to express hopes as to the differences which arise between them: a time when that one of the two nations against which he might bear arms would have the right to punish him as an assassin; and when the man who might employ his riches or talents against his former countrymen, would really be a traitor.
"I will add that each nation has also the right to fix the time after which the citizen who abandons it is to be considered as free from all obligation, and to determine what are his duties until the expiration of that period, and what actions it still preserves the power to forbid him. To deny this principle, would be to break all the social bonds which can bind men together. This period, doubtless, is not an arbitrary one; it is that during which the citizen who abdicates can employ against his country the means which he has received from it, and during which he can do it more injury than could a foreigner."
Further on, Condorcet proposes two years as the period during which a citizen who renounces his nationality shall engage not to enter the service of any foreign power, unless he has been authorised so to do by a decree of the national assembly. He also proposes various measures for different classes of emigrants, and the full enjoyment of their property on the same footing as foreigners, by those who sign an engagement not to take foreign service for two years, nor during that time to solicit the aid of any foreign power against the nation or its constituted authorities.
Magellan fully satisfied the conditions specified by Vattel, as may be seen by his conversations with Sebastian Alvarez, the King of Portugal's agent: at this date, also, it is sufficiently clear that Magellan not only did no harm to his native country, but that he increased its renown by his own services, and by those of the other Portuguese officers whom he associated with his labours. If his countrymen have preferred Gama to him, it is because he only served the interests of science, whilst Gama served the passions of his countrymen, and aided them to enrich themselves. After D. Manuel had refused employment and advancement to Magellan, and seemed inclined to leave him in the obscurity of a small garrison in Africa, the Portuguese would seem to have no more right to complain of Magellan's profiting by the opportunities offered by Spain, than the Genoese would have had, if they had reproached Columbus for availing himself in a similar way of the resources of that country. D. Manuel, it is true, made offers to Magellan if he would leave Spain and return to Portugal, but it was then too late, for the great navigator had already pledged his word to Charles V.There is another circumstance which justifies Magellan still more than if he had been an Englishman or a Frenchman, a circumstance peculiar to Spain and Portugal. In the Peninsula, the kingly power was of recent origin, and had been divided amongst several crowns: the wearers of these crowns had been at first only the equals of other great lords, and, after they had acquired these crowns, they were only the first amongst their equals; and such they recognised themselves to be by their coronation oaths, even long after the time of Magellan. In these coronation oaths they also bound themselves more than did other European sovereigns to respect all the privileges of the great nobles; any infraction of which was held to justify these in revolt from the sovereign. At the same time there existed the custom and tradition of disnaturalisation, in accordance with which any noble who felt aggrieved, formally renounced his fealty to the sovereign, and betook himself to some neighbouring state. Osorio and Mariana, who wrote when the kingly power had become consolidated, ridicule this custom; but it must have had the advantage of giving time and opportunity for a peaceable settlement instead of an immediate recourse to arms. But whether the custom was good or bad, there is no doubt that it was generally and constantly acted upon; and Magellan was following precedents that were generally received in the Peninsula. It is unfortunate that the document mentioned by historians, by which Magellan formally renounced fealty to D. Manuel, is not forthcoming in the archives either of Spain or Portugal; but it may be supposed to be similar in substance to those renunciations which Osorio mentions and reproves.
Among those who disnaturalised themselves may be cited various Condes de Haro of Biscay, and Guzman, who gave his services to Marocco, and who bears the title of El Bueno. With regard to Count Diego de Haro, who in 1216 withdrew from Castile to Navarre, Mariana makes the following observations.
"Several great lords of Castile, irritated against their king, whose avarice they could not endure, had passed into the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon, after having renounced their right of naturalisation by a public deed, a means formerly in use amongst those nations, in order not to be regarded as traitors and rebels when they quitted the states of their sovereign. . . Among the grandees who came to take refuge in Navarre, the most illustrious beyond dispute was Don Diego de Haro. This lord had excellent qualities: never were seen greater constancy, probity, or zeal for the public service than his; the slightest injustice irritated him. It was in order not to see his country and freedom oppressed, that he abandoned Castile."—Mariana, History of Spain, book xiii.
"In the year 1276, Alfonso the Wise had defeated Yussuf, the Emperor of Marocco, and made peace with him with the assistance of Guzman: a tournament was held in Seville in celebration of it, and King Alfonso having asked who had most distinguished himself, was told D. Alonzo Perez. He asked which of them, and. D. Juan Ramirez de Guzman replied: 'Alonzo Perez de Guzman, my brother of profit.' This answer seemed ill to all, and especially to Guzman, who saw that a slur was cast upon the illegitimacy of his birth, for at that time they named children of profit (gananciu), those who were born of unmarried women, and his mother had not been married. Guzman, irritated at being thus spoken of before the king and the court, then said: 'You speak truth, I am a brother of profit, but you are and will be one of loss; and were it not for the respect due to the presence in which we stand, I would teach you the manner in which you should treat me; but you are not to blame for it, but rather he who has brought you up and taught you so ill.' The king, against whom this complaint appeared to be directed, then said: 'Your brother does not speak ill, for so it is the custom in Castile to name those who are not children of women married to their husbands.' 'So also,' he replied, 'is it the custom of the nobles of Castile, when they are not well treated by their sovereigns, to go abroad to seek those who will treat them well; I will do likewise; and I swear not to return until with truth they may call me a man of profit. Grant me, therefore, the term which the privilege of the nobles of Castile gives, that I may go out of the kingdom, for from this day I disnaturalise myself, and take leave of being your vassal.' The king attempted to dissuade him, but his efforts being in vain, he had to grant him the term which he asked for; during which Guzman sold all that he had inherited from his father or acquired in the war, and went out from Castile, accompanied by thirty of his friends and servants."—Quintana, Vidas de Españoles Celebres.
There seems to be some inconsistency on the part of those who refuse to admit of disnaturalisation, yet at the same time maintain that rebellion can be justified. If there is a justification of rebellion, the right of expatriation, or of withdrawal from amongst those who provoke rebellion, must exist; and there can be no doubt that the peaceable withdrawal of those who are oppressed or injured is preferable in the interests of all to armed insurrection. Even Bishop Osorio and Mariana would probably admit that the disnaturalisation of Prim and Serrano would have been better than their treason, which has plunged Spain in anarchy and bloodshed for so many years.[3] Rebellions have almost always been conducted by minorities; and as their justification does not depend upon the numerical importance of those engaged in them, it would follow that in the case of disnaturalisation, where numbers are not requisite, as in the case of armed insurrection, the right would exist equally even if the minority consisted only of one.
There are some writers on the Law of Nations, with whom I am agreed in general, who disapprove of the Naturalisation and Disnaturalisation Act of the Session of 1869. I am compelled to differ from them with respect to that measure, for the foregoing reasons, and also because it seems to me that they have lost sight of another circumstance which affects the question. So long as kingly power was a reality, personal allegiance and duty to the sovereign was a reality also. But now that modern innovation and corruption have substituted the rule of majorities for the kingly power, the feeling of the personal duty of the subject is almost lost; and the subject, or citizen, has become only one of an aggregation of individuals, or of an association of persons with equal rights; and each member of such an association has clearly the right to choose whether he will form part of it or not: so that whatever rights of expatriation may have existed in the times of Magellan, Grotius, and Vattel, have become much stronger at the present time, when the conscience of the subject is no longer considered by some as held bound by duty to the sovereign, who has become almost impersonal: instead of loyalty and fealty, we have the duty of fair dealing as between partners and associates on equal terms, as is exemplified by the argumentation of Condorcet in the passage quoted above. That this view is in accordance with the common sense and consent of mankind is shown by the general repudiation of the pretension of the northern portion of the United States to term the secession of the southern states a rebellion; and this pretension was seen to be especially illogical on the part of those who had repudiated the name of rebels when they departed from the duty of obedience to their lawful sovereign.
Magellan has not had the good fortune of Vasco da Gama, whose exploits have been narrated by Camoens and Gaspar Correa; he did not survive to give his own account of his great voyage, and the only accounts preserved were written by two Italians of very small literary capacity. There are, however, more documents concerning Magellan in existence than are to be found with respect to Gama.
The birth-place of Magellan is doubtful; according to his will executed in Lisbon, December 29th, 1504, in favour of his sister, Theresa de Magalhāes, wife of Joan da Sylva Telles, he was born at Villa de Sabroza, in the district of Villa Real, Traz os Montes; in his will of August 24th, 1519, he calls himself "Vezino de Porto," or domiciled at Porto; documents quoted by M. Ferdinand Denis make him to be born at Villa de Figueiro in Portuguese Estremadura. His family was "hidalgo," with a known coat of arms, of which a plate is given in this volume.
The book of noble genealogies of Portugal, by Bernardo Pimenta do Avelar Portocarrero, states, in the vol. M, done and copied in the year 1721, fo. 641, that Ruy de Magalhaēs, whose parents are unknown, was Alcaide-mōr of Aveiro. He married Alda de Mesquita, daughter of Martin Gonzalves Pimentel and Ignez de Mesquita. Antonio de Lima (another genealogist) represents her as the wife of Gil de Magalhaēs, fifth son of Gil de Magalhaēs; and he gives her the same children as others give to Ruy de Magalhaēs: who had
Genebra de Magalhaēs, wife of Pero Cāo.
Fernāo de Magalhaēs, who married Da. Brites Barbosa, daughter of his relation Diogo Barbosa, alcaide-mōr of Seville, in the absence of D. Alvaro of Portugal; he had
Da. Anna de Magalhaēs, his heiress, the wife of D. Hernando de Henao e Avila, from whom his lineage continues. She was his only child.
This does not agree with the archives of Seville, from which it appears that Beatriz Barbosa was daughter of Diego Barbosa and Maria Caldera, and that Fernan Magalhaēs and Beatriz Barbosa had a son named Rodrigo; and that after the death of these three, Diego Barbosa became their heir; and he having died in 1525, his son Jayme inherited.
Fernan Magellan executed a will in Seville on the 24th day of August, 1519. He instituted by it a mayorazgo for his son, grandson, or relation, who should bear the name of Magallanes, and who should be bound to live in the kingdoms of Castille. He also bequeathed a sum of 12,500 maravedis to the Convent of N. S. de la Victoria in Triana.
Two facsimiles of the signature of Magellan are given, one taken from his signature to the protocol of the Council of War, held at Cochim in 1510; there is also a facsimile of the signature of another Magellan, taken from the book of Moradias or Palace stipends, attached to a receipt printed by Navarrete, who appears to have supposed it to have been that of the navigator: and a facsimile of the signature of Magellan's brother-in-law Duarte Barbosa.
Caspar Correa states, in his Lendas da India, tom. ii, p. 28, that, in January of 1510, Alfonso d'Alboquerque despatched the ships from Cochim to the kingdom.
"Two ships of Bastian de Sousa and Francisco de Sá convoyed this fleet, and at night they both struck on the shoals of Padua, which are opposite the Maldive Islands, and remained aground, upright, and without breaking up. Upon ths they prepared the boats as well as they could, and raised their sides, and put inside water and biscuit, and victuals which did not require cooking. The captains and pilots, and as many men as could, got into these boats and returned to Cochym. The people who remained in the ships set shores[4] on each side of the ships, with the yards, which they cut. All this was arranged and commanded by an honourable gentleman, who remained as overseer, named Fernan de Magalhaēs who had been much wounded in Calecut. He took much care that the chests should not be broken, and that there should be no robbery, because the captains were going to request ships of the governor, with which to return to the ships to save what goods had not been wetted. These captains reached Cananor in eight days, from whence they sent a message to the governor, who at once sent Gonzalo de Crasto in a caravel, with two pilots; and they went to the ships and put the best things on board the caravel, until they could not load it any more, and having recovered all the men, they set fire to the ships, as they were already full of water. So they returned to Cochim. In this Fernan de Magalhāes worked hard, and did much service, and attended well to everything.
"This Fernan de Magalhāes was of the king's household, and came to India with the Viceroy Dom Francisco [d'Almeida], and he was in the action with the Turks; and he was always much wounded in the fleets and in Calecut; and in these ships he lost his small portion of property,[5] and he went away poor to Portugal, and went about with claims for his services, and begged of the king a hundred reis increase of his palace stipend,[6] which the king did not choose to grant, at which he was aggrieved, and went to Castile to live at Seville, where he married. As he had much knowledge of the art of navigation, and enterprise, and devoted himself to that, he came to an understanding with the directors of the House of Trade of Seville, so that the emperor gave him a fleet of five ships, with which he navigated, discovering a new way to Maluco, which was in the year 1519, as I will relate further on in its place; with which he caused great difficulties to Portugal."
Correa again refers to the incident of Magellan remaining with the wreck, in his tome ii, p. 625, where he says:
"Fernan de Magalhāes, an honourable gentleman, who served in these parts in the time of the Viceroy Afonso d'Alboquerque, of whom I made mention in the first book, with respect to two ships which were going to the kingdom, which were lost on the shoals of Padua, and their captains went back to Cochym in their boats, and this Fernan de Magalhāes remained in the ships with the men taking care of the ships until caravels came from Cochim in which much property, belonging to the king and to private individuals, was saved. This Fernan de Magalhāes, on going to the kingdom and bringing before the king his services, asked in satisfaction for them that he should have an increase in his palace stipend of a hundred reis a month, which the king refused him, because he did not find favour with him, or because it was so permitted to be. Fernan de Magalhāes, offended at this, because he much entreated the king to do it, and he would not, asked his leave to go and live with whoever would show him favour, where he might obtain more good fortune than with him. The king told him to do as he pleased; for which he wished to kiss his hand, which the king did not choose to give him."
Castanheda, in relating the wreck on the Padua banks, says (lib. iii, cap. v):
"There were disputes as to who should go away with the captains from the grounded vessels, and Magellan said that it was clear that all could not go away, and that to avoid strife, which was commencing, let the gentlemen and chief men go away with the captains, and he would remain with the sailors and other common people, provided they would promise to return for him, or get the governor to send for him. This they swore to, and Fernan de Magalhāes stayed behind, the common people consented to remain, for otherwise there must have been strife. As Magalhāes was in the boat, when it was nearly ready to go away, a sailor, thinking that he repented himself of remaining, said to him: 'Sir, did you not promise to remain with us?' He replied: 'Yes; and see, I am coming;' and went to them and remained with them. In this he shewed great courage, and confidence in the men." Barros relates the incident of the two vessels wrecked on the banks of Padua, and says that Antonio Pacheco was sent with a caravel to their assistance; and that:
"As much honour as Antonio Pacheco gained in the method with which he recovered these crews, with the differences which he had with them on account of some goods which the men took with them, so much honour also did Magellan gain by the good management of these men, which he shewed whilst waiting with them till they came to fetch them. And if he had had as much loyalty to his king and country, as he observed with a friend of his, on whose account he would not go away in company with Bastian de Sousa [the captain]; for they did not take away the other man, as he was not a man of much importance, perchance he would not have lost himself with a name of infamy, as will be seen further on."—Decad. II, lib. iv, chap. i.
Thus Castanheda and Barros, who are both of them very hostile to Magellan, have preserved one of the finest traits of his life. Whether the motive of Magellan in remaining by the wreck was fidelity to the interests of his friend, or devotion to the common seamen, or the repugnance of an officer and a gentleman to abandon a ship which had not broken up, this trait is alone sufficient to show that he was incapable of disloyalty, or of being influenced by pique, as the Portuguese historians have represented.
The next mention we find of Magellan is in the following document, preserved in the archives of Lisbon, which contains an account of a Council of War held by Albuquerque respecting his attack on Goa. This document confirms what Correa says of Albuquerque's departure from Cochym for Goa.
Council held by Alfonso d'Albuquerque with the Captains with respect to going to Goa.
Torre do Tombo. Corpo Chron. Part 2a, Maç 23, Doc. 190.
Thursday, which was the tenth day of the month of October, of five hundred and ten, the captain-major ordered all the captains of the king our sovereign to be summoned in Cochim, in order to hold a council with them, to which council there came those named below, and no others. This council was as to whether, whilst the ships of burden remained in Cochim taking in their cargo, it seemed good to them to carry all their crews with them to the action of Goa, or not.
.....
Fernan de Magalhāes said that it seemed to him that the captain-major ought not to take the ships of burden to Goa, inasmuch as if they went thither they could not pass this year to Portugal, since we are at the twelfth of October; and that, making their shortest course without touching at Cananor, nor at any other port, it was not possible to lay the fleet before the port of Goa before the eighth of November,[7]as the winds were now contrary for that place: and with respect to the crews, let his worship say whether it was well that they should go, that it seemed to him that he ought not to take them, since there did not remain time for them to lay out their money, nor to do anything of what was necessary for the voyage; and this said Fernan de Magalhāes.
The following gave an opinion:
Nuno Vaz, captain of the Rumesa.
Antonio da Costa. ..Rei Pequeno.
Duarte da Silva...Galé Grande.
∗Simāo Martins.
∗D. Joāo de Lima...Sta. Maria d'Ajuda.
∗Sebastian de Miranda.. .Galé Pequeno.
Fernan de Magalhāes.[8]
Jeronimo Teixeira...Sta. Maria do Campo.
∗Jorge da Silveira.
Francisco de Sousa...Boa Ventura.
∗Manuel da Cunha.
∗Garcia de Sousa...Sta. Clara.
Francisco Corvinel...Sant–Iago.
Lourenço de Paiva.
Antonio Real, alcaìde-mór and captain of Cochim.
Gonzalo de Sequeira, captain-major of the fleet which had just come from Portugal.
Affonso d'Albuquerque said at the end what he determined to do.
(N.B. Albuquerque said at the end of these opinions that he was determined to sail on the following day, the eleventh of October, with the captains who wished to accompany him. Therefore, we are at the twelfth of October, means that that day was close at hand, and not that the council was held on that day.)
Gaspar Correa says, tome ii p. 138:
"When this was thus ended, the governor told all the captains that he was going immediately, and that he would sail from Cananor with all the ships and men that he could take, and go and take Goa, as he trusted in the Lord's Passion that He would assist him; and he gave them notice that so he would act, and not occupy himself with anything else: and he gave them all this notice, because he trusted in the Lord, that he should be able to send news to the king in these ships, that he was taking his rest inside the city of Goa: and, as it was already October, whoever had the will to serve the king, and win such great honour, as it would be to find oneself in such a noble action, would still have time enough to witness the action and return to embark in his ship, carrying away so much honour from having been present in the action: and each one was to act according to his own will, for he would give an account of all to the king in his letters. But the captains, occupied with their profits of selling and taking in cargo, set little store by this, and the governor departed, saying that he was not going to take anyone away with him against his will."
Albuquerque then went to Cananor, which G. Correa says he again left on the 3rd October for Goa (tom. ii, p. 140); tres is probably an error for treze, the 13th, which would be in accordance with the statement of the document that Albuquerque sailed from Cochim on the 11th of October. Gaspar Correa gives the following names of captains who accompanied Albuquerque against Goa.
∗Joan de Lima.
Jeronymo de Lima, his brother.
Manuel de Lacerda.
Fernan Peres d'Andrade.
Simāo d'Andrade, his brother.
Diogo Fernandes de Beja.
∗Manuel da Cunha.
Duarte de Mello.
Francisco de Tavora.
Vasco Fernandes Coutinho.
∗Gracia de Sousa.
Gaspar Cāo.
Lopo Vaz de Sampayo.
Ayres da Silva.
Diniz Fernandes de Mello.
Joan Serrano.
Diogo Mendes de Vascogoncellos.
Pero Coresma.
Baltesar da Silva.
Mice Vinete Cerniche.
Antonio Raposo.
∗Simāo Martins.
Gaspar de Paiva.
Francisco Pantoja.
∗Bastian de Miranda, d'Azevedo.
Afonso Pessoa.
Jorge Martins de Liāo.
Francisco Pereira.
Twenty-eight ships, and 1,700 Portuguese.
He also mentions, p. 145, the following gentlemen as being with Albuquerque in the attack on Goa:
∗ The names marked with an asterisk are among those who gave an opinion at the Council of War above mentioned.
Fernan Gomez de Lemos.
Nuno Vaz de Castello Branco.
∗Jorge da Silveira.
Ruy de Brito.
Luis Coutinho, brother of
Vasco Fernandes.
Simāo d'Andrade, brother of
Fernan Peres.
Gonzalo d'Almeida.
Simāo Martins Henriques.
Payo Rodrigues de Sousa.
Diogo Pires de Miranda.
Duarte de Mello.
Alvaro Paçanha.
Luis Preto.
Pero d'Afonsequa.
Antonio de Matos.
Antonio Diniz.
And other gentlemen.
The supposition may be hazarded that it was this opinion which Magellan gave at the Council of War in opposition to Alfonso d'Albuquerque, which set D. Manuel against him. Such opposition was enough to have made Albuquerque write unfavourably of Magellan to D. Manuel; and the ill-will of D. Manuel to Magellan, and his refusal to grant him a due recognition of his services is not otherwise sufficiently accounted for. On the other hand, Gaspar Correa, who was Albuquerque's secretary at one time, does not indicate this; but Correa is the most friendly to Magellan of all the Portuguese historians, and does not appear, like the others, to have taxed Magellan with treason.
After this, Magellan appears to have left India, and to have been stationed at Azamor in Morocco, where, in a skirmish with the Arabs, he was wounded in the leg by a javelin, which left him somewhat lame. After that, some disputes arose as to the distribution amongst the townsmen of some cattle that had been captured from the Arabs. When João Soarez, Captain of Azamor, left that place, and was succeeded by D. Pedro de Sousa, Magellan left Azamor without leave from D. Pedro de Sousa, and came to Portugal; his petition with regard to the increase of his palace stipend had already been sent to D. Manuel; but D. Pedro de Sousa having written to the king of Magellan having left Azamor without leave of absence, and of the complaints made about the cattle, the king refused to receive Magellan, and commanded him to return at once to Azamor, and there give himself up as he was accused. When he arrived there, as Barroa says, either because he was free from blame, or, as was mostly asserted, because the frontier officers of Azamor, in order not to vex him, would not accuse him, he received a sentence of acquittal, and returned with it to Portugal; but the king always bore ill-will to him, and, Magellan's requests not being granted, he set about that business of which he had written to his friend Francisco Serrano, who was in Maluco.
After Magellan had disnaturalised himself, he took refuge in Spain, accompanied by the astrologer Ruy Faleiro, and having arrived at Seville on the 20th of October, 1517, he entered upon negotiations with the ministers of Charles V; and the King of Portugal did his utmost, through his agents, to thwart him; Osorio says that the king would have succeeded in dissuading Charles V from employing Magellan, had not the Spanish nobles persuaded him not to lose such an opportunity of increasing the Spanish empire. Charles V then ordered ships to be provided for Magellan, by which he might discover a new way to the east.
Here follows an abstract of documents, copies of which are contained in the Torre do Tombo, relating to the appointment of Magellan, and the privileges and powers conferred upon him: these documents are dated in the spring of 1518, more than a year before Magellan sailed; and it appears that delay was caused partly through the procrastination of the Spanish authorities in Seville, who were charged with equipping the fleet, and partly by the intrigues of the agents of the King of Portugal. These intrigues appear to have been partially successful, and to have caused delay. A final order for the departure of Magellan was given in Barcelona, April 19th, 1519. The original of this document is preserved in the Lisbon archives, and it was probably carried out with the fleet, and fell into the possession of the Portuguese in the Moluccas after Magellan's death; a translation of this order is given below, and the text is in the Appendix.
After this document, translations are given of two letters (the text of which is given in the Appendix) from Alvaro da Costa, the Portuguese ambassador in Spain, and from Sebastian Alvarez, the Portuguese factor, about the efforts made by them to prevent Magellan's expedition. M. Ferdinand Denis, in the Biographie Universelle, mentions that Alvaro da Costa is said to have pushed his zeal to the extremity of wishing to assassinate Magellan, and even his poor associate, Ruy Faleiro; this, with regard to the latter, seems hardly probable, judging from Costa's own letter. Navarrete states that the Portuguese agents succeeding in exciting the mob of Seville against Magellan on the 22nd of October, 1518, under the empty pretext that he was substituting the arms of Portugal for those of Castile in his ships. Faria y Sousa, in his Europa Portuguesa, tom. ii, pt. iv, cap. i, p. 543, says.
"D. Fernando de Vasconcellos, Bishop of Lamego, alone expressed the desire that the King of Portugal should either grant favours to him (Magellan) or else have him killed, because his intentions were most dangerous to the kingdom. The result of this (counsel) was that the kingdom received a great disappointment, and Magellan glorious and everlasting fame; since, whilst the world endures it will endure in the monument of his name, which has remained applied to all the South Sea and to his Straits."
Que nunca se vera tāo forte peito,
Do Gangetico mar ao Gaditano;
Nem das Boreaes ondas ao Estreito,
Que mostrou o aggravado Lusitano.
And never will their prowess find its mate,
No, not from Ganges to the Gadite shore,
Not from Arcturus to the Southern Strait
Which first an injured Lusian will explore.
Eis aqui as nóvas portas do Oriente,
Que vosoutros agora ao mundo dais,
Abrindo a porta ao vasto mar patente,
Que com tam forte peito navegais:
Mas he tambem razaō, que no ponente
De hum Lusitano hum feito inda vejais,
Que de seu Rey monstrandose agravado,
Caminho ha de fazer nunqua cuidado.
Thus hast thou all the regions of the East,
Which by thee giv'n unto the world is now:
Opening a way with an undaunted breast,
Through that vast sea which none before did plough.
But it is likewise reason, in the West
That of a Lusian too one action thou
Shouldst understand, who (angry with his king)
Achieves a great and memorable thing.
Contract and Agreement made by the King of Castile with Fernan Magellan for the discovery which he was to make, a copy of which he carried with him, signed by the Officers of the King of Castile, and made by his Secretary Fernan de los Cobos, and copied word for word.[9]
Gav. 18, Maço 10, No. 4.
Certificate given in Seville that the commendador Fernan de Magallanes, and the bachelor Ruy Faleiro, Portuguese, presented themselves at the Audiencia on the fourth of May, of 1518, before Dr. Sancho de Matienzo, the contador Juan Lopez de Ricalde, and the factor Juan de Aranda, judges and fiscals of their Highnesses, of the India House, residing in this city, in the presence of Juan Gutierrez Calderon, clerk of their H.H., and his Notary public, on behalf of Diego de Porras, chief clerk in civil and criminal causes of the said India House; and they presented to the judges two capitulations written on paper and signed by his Highness, and one sealed with a seal of coloured wax at the back and other necessary signatures, and two royal orders (cedulas) of H.H. signed with his royal name, all written by the secretary Fernan de los Cobos, the tenour of all which, one after another, is as follows.
The King:
"Since you, Fernando de Magallanes, a knight, native of the Kingdom of Portugal, and the bachelor Ruy Faleiro, also a native of that kingdom, wish to render us a great service in the limits which belong to us in the ocean within the bounds of our demarcation, we order the following capitulation to be established with you for that purpose." "Firstly: That you are to go with good luck to discover the part of the ocean within our limits and demarcation, and because it would not be in reason that, while you go to do the above mentioned, that other persons should cross you to do the same, and taking into consideration that you undertake the labour of this enterprise, it is my favour and will, and I promise that for the first ten following years we will not give leave to any person to go and discover by the same road and course by which you shall go; and if anyone desire to undertake it and should ask our leave for it, before giving it, we will let you know of it in order that if you should be ready to make it in that time in which they offer, you should do so, providing an equal sufficiency and equipment, and as many ships as the other persons who may wish to make the said discovery; but, be it understood that, if we please to send to discover, or to give leave for it to such other persons as we please by way of the south-west in the parts of the islands and mainland, and all other parts which are discovered towards the part where they are to seek the strait of those seas (para buscar el estrecho de aquellas mares),[10] we may order it to be done, or give leave to other persons to do it, both of the mainland by the South Sea, which is discovered, or from the island of S. Miguel, if they wish to go and discover, they may do so. Also, if the governor and people who are now, by our orders, or may in future be in the said mainland, or other of our subjects may wish to discover in the South Sea, they may do so, notwithstanding the above, or any section or clause of this capitulation. Also, you may discover in any of those parts what has not yet been discovered, so that you do not discover nor do anything in the demarcation and limits of the most serene King of Portugal, my very dear and well-beloved uncle and brother, nor to his prejudice, but only within the limits of our demarcation." In consideration of their good-will and services, the next paragraph grants the right to levy upon any isles or countries settled by them after the expenses have been paid, a twentieth part, with the title of our Adelantados and Governors of the said countries and isles, "you, and your sons and rightful heirs for ever, so that they remain for us and the kings that may come after us, and your sons and heirs being natives of our realms and married in them; and of this we will send you your formal letter of privileges."
The next paragraph grants the right to invest in goods each year the value of a thousand ducats, cost price, to sell in the islands and countries, and bring back the returns, paying only a twentieth in duty to the king without other payment. This only after the return from the voyage, not during it.
Also to grant them greater favour, if more than six islands should be discovered; after six have been set apart for the king, they might mark out two from which they might take the fifteenth part of all the net profits and duties of the king after the expenses had been deducted.
Also of all the net profit that there may be for the king on the return of the fleet, after this first voyage, deducting its expense, they may take a fifth part.
"In order that you may better carry this out, I will order the equipment of five ships, two of one hundred and thirty tons each, and two others of ninety, and another of sixty tons, provided with men, victuals, and artillery; that is to say, that the said ships shall be supplied for two years, and there shall go in them two hundred and thirty-four persons for their management: amongst masters, mariners, ship-boys, and all other people that are of necessity, according to the memorial, and this we will order to be carried out by our officers in Seville."
Also if either of them died, this agreement was to be kept with, and by the other, as it would have been kept with both if they were alive.
The next paragraph says that a factor, a treasurer, an accountant, and clerks of the said ships, shall keep the accounts of all the expenses of the fleet.
"All which I promise and plight my faith and royal word that I will order it to be observed to you, in all and for all, according as is contained above, and upon it I have ordered this present to be given, signed with my name. Dated in Valladolid, the twenty-second day of March, of five hundred and eighteen years.
"Yo el Rey.
"By order of the King,
"Francisco de los Cobos."
Another copy of the same document has the heading:—
Doña Juana and Don Carlos, her son, by the grace of God, Queen and King of Castile, Leon, Aragon, the two Sicilies, and Jerusalem, of Navarra, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, the Mallorcas, Seville, Sardinia, Cordova, Corsica, Murcia, Jaen, the Algarves, of Aljazira, Gibraltar, of the Canary Isles, of the Indies, isles and mainland of the Ocean-sea, Counts of Barcelona, Lords of Biscay and Molina, Dukes of Athens and Neopatria, Counts of Roussillon and Cerdaña, Marquises of Euristan and Gociano, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Bergoña and Brabant, Counts of Flanders and Tirol, etc.
Another letter, also dated Valladolid, March 22nd. 1518, and signed by the king, and the secretary Francisco de los Cobos, and signed at the back by Joanes Beijamanse, Fonseca Archiepiscopus, Episcopus, registered, Johan de Samana, Guillermo Chancellor, confers upon Magellan the power of deciding and executing short and summary justice by sea or land in case of suits or disputes arising in the fleet.
Another royal letter of the same date as the above orders the officers of the India House to provide Magellan with five ships, crews, provisions, etc., according to the memorial which is signed by our chancellor of Bargonha and by the Archbishop of Rosano and Bishop of Burgos; and bids them use all dispatch.
Another royal letter, dated Aranda, 17th of April, 1518, to Magellan and Ruy Faleiro, says that if, after they shall have sailed, either or both of them should die, and that they should have given to the people in the fleet instructions and orders which should be necessary for the discovery; and if they, profiting by them, should discover the isles and parts which they were going to discover, then their heirs and successors should enjoy the favours and privileges contained in the said capitulations.
The document then states that Magellan and Ruy Faleiro having presented the capitulations and letters and royal orders of his highness to the said judges, they summoned and required them to fulfil them according to their contents, and they requested this in the presence of the witnesses, Francisco de Santa Cruz, alguazil Lorenzo Pinelo, and Francisco de Collantes, porter of the Audiencia of the said House. Then the judges took the letters in their hands, and kissed them, and put them on their heads, as the orders of their king, and natural sovereign, whom may God suffer to live and reign many years; and they would answer more at length in complying with the orders. Witnesses the above-named.
After that, on Monday, at the Audiencia de la Nona, on the thirty-first day of May of 1518, the said judges, Dr. Sancho de Matienzo and the contador Juan Lopez de Ricalde, appeared before me, the said Juan Gutierrez Calderon, the above-mentioned clerk and notary, and presented an answer signed with their names to the presentation made by the Portuguese captains of the royal orders and letters. And this reply is as follows.
The said judges state, in reply, that the king's letters order them to provide five ships, and men and provisions as may be necessary, in conformity with a memorial which the captains bring, signed by the great Chancellor of Burgundy and by the very Reverend Archbishop of Rosano and Bishop of Burgos, which said memorial up to this time has not been shown to us, and without it we cannot undertake anything; so let his Highness send us orders according to that the said despatch signed, as has been said, by the chancellor and bishop; and we are ready to fulfil the orders which his Highness sends, having at the time moneys of his Highness in our power. This they said, and gave as their answers, and signed it with their names, Doctor Matienzo, Juan Lopez de Ricalde.
Magellan and Ruy Faleiro asked from Juan Gutierres Calderon, Clerk and Notary Public, a certificate and legalised copy of what had passed for the conservation of their rights, which he accordingly gave him, dated on the said day and month (31st May) of 1518.
The letter, the text of which is given in the Appendix No. iii, the original of which appears to have fallen into the hands of the Portuguese at the Moluccas, is as follows:
Fernando de Magallam̄s and Ruy Faleiro, Knights of the Order of St. James, our captains-general of the fleet, which we command to be equipped to go to discover, and the other separate captains of the said fleet, and pilots, masters, quarter-masters, and seamen of the said fleet: Inasmuch as I know for certain, according to the much information which I have obtained from persons who have seen it by experience, that there are spices in the islands of Maluco; and, chiefly, you are going to seek them with this said fleet, and my will is that you should straightway follow the voyage to the said islands in the form and guise which I have said and commanded to you, the said Ferdinand de Magallam̄s; moreover, I command you all and each one of you that in the navigation of the said voyage you follow the opinion and determination of the said Ferdinand de Magallam̄s, in order that first and foremost, before any other part, you should go to the said islands of Maluco, without there being any shortcoming in this, because thus it is fitting for our service, and after this done, the rest that may be convenient may be sought for according to what you have been commanded, and one and all neither do nor let them do anything else in anywise, under pain of losing their goods and their persons, at our discretion. Done in Barcelona, nineteenth day of April, year of one thousand five hundred and nineteen.
(Docket).—In order that those of the fleet may follow the opinion and determination of Magallam̄s, in order that first and before anything else they go to the spices.
Translation.
Letter of Alvaro da Costa, giving an Account to the King Dom Manuel of what passed with the King of Castile, to dissuade him from the discovery which he determined to order the execution of, by Fernan de Magalhaes.
Torre do Tombo. Gav. 18, Maço 8, No. 38.
Sire,
With respect to the business of Fernam de Magalhaes, I have done and laboured very much, as God knows, as I have written to you at length; and now, Xebres being ill, I have spoken on this matter very firmly to the king, laying before him all the objections that there were in it, and besides other matters, setting forth how ill-seeming and unusual a matter it was for a king to receive the vassals of another king his friend, against his will; which was a thing which was not usual amongst knights, and was held to be a great fault, and a very ill-looking thing: also that I had just before offered to him in Valladolid the services of your royal self, and kingdom and lordships, while he was already receiving these men against your pleasure; and I begged him to look well that this was not a time for causing discontent to your Highness, especially in a matter of such little importance to him, and of such little certainty, and that he had many vassals and men for making discoveries when the time came, without making use of those who came away from your Highness discontented, and that your Highness could not fail to suspect that these men would labour more to do you a dis-service than for anything else; and that his Highness had now so much to do with discovering his own kingdoms and lordships, and settling them, that such novelties ought hardly to come into his recollection, from which scandals might follow, and other things which might well be dispensed with. I also laid before him how ill this appeared in the year and period of the marriage, and increase of family duty and affection, and that it seemed to me that your Highness would feel deeply the knowledge that these men asked his leave to return, and that he did not give it; which would be two evils, the receiving them against your will, and the retaining them against their own wills: and I begged him on account of what was fitting for his service, and for that of your Highness that of two things he should do one, either give them leave to go, or lay aside this business for this year, by which much would not be lost, and such means might be taken that he might be served without your Highness receiving displeasure from the manner in which this should be done.
He, Sire, remained so surprised at what I said to him, that I was amazed; and he replied to me with the best words in the world, and that on no account did he desire that anything should be done, by which your Highness should be displeased, and many other good words; and he told me to speak to the Cardinal, and to relate everything to him. I, Sire, had already talked it all well over with the Cardinal, who is the best thing here, and this business does not seem good to him, and he promised me to labour as much as he could to avoid speaking to the king; and for this purpose they summoned the Bishop of Burgos, who is the person who upholds this business, and so two of the Council again made the king believe that in this he was not in fault towards your Highness, because he was not sending to make discoveries except within his limit, and very far off from the affairs of your Highness; and that your Highness ought not to take it ill that he made use of two of your vassals, men of little substance, while your Highness was making use of the services of many natives of Castile; and they alleged many other arguments: lastly, the Cardinal told me that the Bishop and those men used so much urgency in this, that at present the king could not take any other determination.
As long as Xebres was well I continued to set this business before him, as I have said, and much more. He puts the blame upon these Castilians who lead the King into this matter, and withal that, he will speak to the king. Some days past I entreated him much about this business, and he never took a determination, and I think that he will do likewise now. It appears to me, Sire, that your Highness might get back Fernam de Magalhāes, which would be a great buffet to these people. I do not reckon the bachelor [Ruy Faleiro] for much, for he is almost out of his mind. I took steps with Dom Jorge[11] with respect to the going there of his alcaide, and he says that he will go at any rate; so, Sire, as this is in this manner, for all that, I will never desist from striving in this to the extent of my power.
Let not your Highness consider that I said much to the king in what I did say to him, because, besides what I said being all true, these people, as I say, do not feel anything, neither has the king liberty up to this time to do anything of himself, and on this account what he does (his affairs) need to be felt less. The Lord increase the life and State of your Highness for His holy service. From Saragoça, Tuesday at night, the twenty-eighth of September [1518][12]
I kiss the hands of your Highness.
Letter from Sebastian Alvarez, Factor of Dom Manuel, to the King, dated Seville, July 18, 1519.
(Torre do Tombo. Corp. Chronol., Part I. Maço 13, Doc. 20.)
Sire,
On the 15th of this July I received through Chavascas, the equerry, two letters from your Highness, one of the 18th and the other of the 29th of last month, which I understood, and without recapitulating the second one, I answer your Highness.
There have now arrived together in this city, Christopher de Haro and Juan de Cartagena, the chief factor of the fleet and captain of a ship, and the treasurer and clerk of this fleet; and in the regulations which they bring there are clauses contrary to the instructions of Fernan de Magalhāes; these having been seen by the accountant and factors of the House of Trade, they seek how they can embroil the affairs of Magellan, and they were at once of the opinion of those who have recently arrived.
Together, they sent to summon Fernan de Magalhāes and requested to know from him the order of this fleet, and the cause why there was no captain going in the fourth ship, but only Carvalho, who was a pilot and not a captain. He replied, that he wished to take the ship thus for it to carry the lantern, and for him to pass over to it from time to time.
And they said to him that he carried many Portuguese, and that it was not well that he should take so many. He answered, that he would do what he chose in the fleet without giving them any account, and that they could not do it without rendering account to him. There passed between them so many and such evil words, that the factors ordered pay to be issued to the seamen and men-at-arms, but not to any of the Portuguese whom Magellan and Ruy Faleiro have got to take with them: and at the same time a courier was sent to the Court of Castile.
As I saw the matter was begun and the season convenient for saying that which your Highness bade me say, I went to the lodgings of Magellan where I found him arranging baskets and boxes with victuals of conserves and other things. I pressed him, feigning, that as I found him thus occupied, it seemed to me that the undertaking of his evil design was settled, and that, as this would be the last conversation I should have with him, I wished to recall to his memory how many times, as a good Portuguese and his friend, I had spoken to him, and opposed the great error which he was committing.
After begging his pardon, if he should receive from me any offence in the conversation, I called to his recollection how often I had spoken to him, and how well he had always answered me, and that, according to his replies, I had always hoped that at the end he would not go to the so great dis-service of your Highness; and that what I always told him was that he should see that this road had as many dangers as Saint Catharine's wheel, and that he ought to leave it and take the straight road,[13] and return to his native country and the favour of your Highness, where he would always receive benefits. In this conversation I introduced all the dangers which appeared to me, and the faults which he was committing. He said to me,that now he could do nothing else, for his honour's sake, except follow his path. I said to him, that to acquire honour unduly, and when acquired by such infamy, was neither wisdom nor honour, but rather deprivation of wisdom and honour, for he might be certain that the chief Castilians of this city, when speaking of him, held him to be a vile man, of low blood, since to the dis-service of his true king and lord he accepted such an enterprise; and so much the more since it was prepared, concerted, and requested by him, that he might be sure that he was held to be a traitor in going against the State of your Highness. Here he answered me that he saw the fault he was committing, but that he hoped to observe the service of your Highness, and to do you great service by his going. I told him that whoever should praise such a speech, did not understand the matter, because, supposing that he did not touch any of the conquest of your Highness, how was he going to discover what he talked of; moreover, it was to the great detriment of the revenues of your Highness, and this would be sustained by the whole realm and by all sorts of persons: and that thought of his had been a more virtuous one which he had when he said to me that, if your Highness ordered him to return to Portugal, he would do so without any other assurance of favours, and that should your Highness not confer them, there was always Serradossa and seven ells of serge, and some beads of acorns.[14] It seemed to me then that his heart was true as to what befitted his honour and conscience; that which was said was so much that it is not possible to write it.
Here, Sire, he began to give a sign, telling me to tell him more, that this did not come from myself, and that if your Highness had bidden me say it, that I should tell him, and the favour which you would confer upon him. I told him that I was not of so much tonnage as that your Highness should put me into such a business; but I said it to him as I had done on many other occasions. Here he wished to do me honour, saying that if what I had begun with him, went forward, without other persons intervening, that your Highness would be served; but that Nuño Ribeiro had told him one thing, and that it was of no importance; and Joam Mendez, another, and that these did not agree; and he told me the favour which they promised on behalf of your Highness. Here he made a great lamentation, and said that he felt it all, but that he did not know of anything by means of which he could reasonably leave a king who had shown him so much favour. I told him that to do that which he ought and not to lose his honour, and the favour which your Highness would confer upon him, would be more certain and accompanied by truer honour: and that he should weigh his coming from Portugal, which had been for a hundred reals, more or less, of allowances,[15] which your Highness had not granted him, so as not to break your ordinance, and that two regulations had arrived contrary to his, and that which he had contracted with the King Don Carlos, and he would see whether that neglect weighed more, for him to go and do what he ought to do, or come here for that which he had come for.
He wondered much at my knowing so much, and here he told me the truth, and that the courier had left: all which I knew. And he told me that certainly there would be no reason for his throwing over the undertaking, unless they deprived him of anything which had been assigned him by the contract. But first he had to see what your Highness would do. I said to him, what more did he want to see than the instructions, and Ruy Faleiro, who said openly that he was not going to follow his lantern, and that he would navigate to the south, or would not go in the fleet? also, that he thought he was going as captain-major, whilst I knew that others were sent in opposition, whom he would not know of except at a time when he could not remedy his honour; and that he should not pay attention to the honey, which the Bishop of Burgos put to his lips, and that now was the fit time for him to see whether he would do it, and that he should give me a letter for your Highness, and that I from affection for him would go to your Highness to act on his behalf, because I had no message[16] from your Highness to occupy myself with the like, but that I only spoke what I thought as at other times I had done. He said to me that he would not say anything to me until he saw the message which the courier brought: and with this we concluded. I will watch the service of your Highness to the full extent of my power.
At this juncture, it seems to me well that your Highness should know that it is certain that the navigation which these men hope to perform is known to the King Don Carlos, and Fernan Magellan has told me as much, and there might be some one to undertake the enterprise who would do more harm. I spoke to Ruy Faleiro on two occasions. He never answered me anything else than, how could he do anything against the king his lord, who did him such favour. To all that I said to him, he did not reply anything else. It seems to me that he is like a man deranged in his senses, and that this familiar of his has deprived him of whatever knowledge there was in him. It seems to me that, if Fernan Magellan were removed, that Ruy Faleiro would follow whatever Magellan did.
The ships of Magellan's fleet, Sire, are five; that is to say, one of a hundred and ten tons, two of eighty tons each, and the other two of sixty tons each, a little more or less. They are very old and patched up; for I saw them when they were beached for repairs. It is eleven months since they were repaired, and they are now afloat, and they are caulking them in the water. I went on board of them a few times, and I assure your Highness that I should be ill inclined to sail in them to the Canaries, because their knees are of touchwood.
The artillery which they all carry are eighty guns, of a very small size; only in the largest ship, in which Magellan is going, there are four very good iron cannon. All the crews whom they take in all the five vessels are two hundred and thirty men. The greater number have already received their pay; only the Portuguese, who will not accept a thousand reis, and who are waiting for the courier to arrive, because Magellan told them that he would get their pay increased, and they carry provisions for two years.
The captain of the first ship is Fernan Magellan, and of the second, Ruy Faleiro; of the third, Juan de Cartagena, who is the chief factor of the fleet; of the fourth, Quesada, a dependant of the Archbishop of Seville; the fifth goes without any known captain,—Carvalho, a Portuguese, goes in her as pilot. Here it is said that, as soon as they are out of the mouth of the river, he will put into her, as captain, Alvaro da Mesquita of Estremoz, who is here.
The Portuguese who have come here to sail are,
——— Carvalho, pilot.
Estevan Gomez, pilot.
———Serrāo, pilot.
Vasco Galego, pilot; he has been living here for some time.
Alvaro de Mesquita of Estremoz.
Martin de Mesquita of Estremoz.
Francisco d'Afonseca, son of the Corregidor of Rosmaninhal.
Christopher Ferreira, son of the Corregidor of Castelejo.
Martin Gil, son of the Judge for the Orphans of Lisbon.
Pero d'Abreu, a dependent of the Bishop of Zafy.
Duarte Barbosa, nephew of Diogo Barbosa, a dependent of the Bishop of Siguenza.
Antonio Fernandez, who lived in the Moorish quarter of Lisbon.
Luis Affonso of Beja, who was a dependent of the Lady Infanta, whom may God have in His keeping.
Juan da Silva, son of Nuno da Silva, of the island of Madeira. This man has always told me that he would not go unless, if your Highness held it to be for your service, and he behaves as a concealed friend.
Faleiro has got here his father and mother, and brothers, one of whom he takes with him.
Other small people of the servants of these also say that they are going, of which I will make a report to your Highness, if you command it, when they go.
The fifth part of this armament is from Cristoval de Haro, who has spent on it four thousand ducats. They say here that your Highness had ordered to take from him there [in Portugal] twenty thousand cruzados of property. He gives here information about the fleets of your Highness, both of what is done, and of what is to be done. I learned that by a servant of his whom he has got there; by obtaining from him the letters, your Highness might be able to know by what means he learns these secrets.
The goods which they take are copper, quicksilver, common cloths of colours, common coloured silks, and jackets made of these silks.
It is assured that this fleet will start down the river at the end of this July; but it does not seem so to me, nor before the middle of August, even though the courier should come more quickly.
The course which it is said they are to take is straight to Cape Frio, Brasil remaining on their right hand, until they reach the line of the demarcation; from thence they are to navigate to the west and west-north-west, straight to Maluco, which land of Maluco I have seen laid down on the sphere and map, which the son of Reynell made here, which was not completed when his father came here for him; and his father finished it all, and placed these lands of Maluco; and after this pattern all the maps are made, which Diogo Ribeiro makes, and he makes the compasses, quadrants, and globes, but he does not go in the fleet, nor does he wish to do more than gain his living by his skill.[17]
From this Cape Frio, until the islands of Maluco throughout this navigation, there are no lands laid down in the maps which they carry with them. Please God the Almighty that they may make such a voyage as did the Cortereals,[18] and that your Highness may be at rest, and for ever be envied, as you are, by all princes.
Sire, another fleet is being prepared of three small rotten ships, in which Andres Niño goes as captain; he takes out, inside these old ships, two other small vessels built in pieces; he goes to the mainland which Pedre Ayres discovered, to the port of Larym, and from thence he is to go by land twenty leagues to the South Sea, whither he is to carry by land the newly-built ships, with the rigging of the old ones, and to fit them out on that South Sea, and with these vessels he is to discover for a thousand leagues, and not more, towards the west of the coasts of the land which is named Gataio; and in these Gil Gonzalez, the accountant of the Island of Hispaniola, is to go as captain-major, and they are going for two years. When these fleets have sailed, another of four ships will then be made to go, as it is said, on the track of Magellan; but, as this is not yet put into gear for performance, nothing certain is known: and this is arranged by Christoval de Haro. Whatever more may occur, I will make known to your Highness.
As to the news of the fleet which the King Don Carlos orders to be built to defend himself from, or to attack France, or to go to the Empire, as it is said, I excuse myself from writing of it to your Highness, since your Highness will obtain them with more certainty from Nuno Ribeiro, who is in Cartagena. But there is certain news in this city by letters, that the King of France announces that the King Don Carlos is not going to be emperor, and that he will be it. The Pope assists the King of France in an honest way. He grants to him four cardinal's hats for him to give to whomsoever he pleases. It is said that the King of France keeps them to give to those whom the electors of the empire might wish. There it is assured that either the King of France will be emperor or else the person he may choose. I will take especial care to inform your Highness of what more happens with these fleets, although I had become cool in this matter, because it seemed to me that your Highness wished to learn it from some one else; for I saw here Nuno Ribeiro and other persons who spoke to me in a dissembling manner, and seeking to learn about me. I kiss the hands of your Highness. From Seville, the 18th of July, of 1519. Sebastian Alvarez.The long interval which elapsed before the example set by Magellan was followed by Drake and Van Noort (for the expedition of the Comendador Loaysa in 1527, and two others having failed, this voyage was not again attempted in those times by the Spaniards) is a proof that greater hardihood was displayed in Magellan's voyage than in those of Columbus and Gama; and the fortitude and constancy of Magellan appear strongly from the foregoing despatches, since in addition to the physical difficulties of his enterprise, he had to struggle against intrigues, jealousy, and the alternate upbraiding and cajolery of the King of Portugal's agents. The despatch of Sebastian Alvarez to Dom Manuel, though biassed as it naturally is, shows that whatever he and the Portuguese of that day thought of Magellan's design, he himself did not consider that he was doing anything injurious to his king or country, and Camoens, though he repeats the hackneyed accusation of disloyalty against Magellan, yet boasts of his achievements as a lasting honour to Portugal, in the following lines:
"Fired by thy fame,[19]and with his king in ire,
To match thy deeds shall Magalhaens aspire:
In all but loyalty, of Lusian soul,
No fear, no danger shall his toils controul.
Along these regions from the burning zone
To deepest south he dares the course unknown.
While to the kingdoms of the rising day,
To rival thee he holds the western way,
A land of giants shall his eyes behold,
Of camel strength, surpassing human mould:
And onward still, thy fame, his proud heart's guide,
Haunting him unappeased, the dreary tide
Beneath the southern star's cold gleam he braves,
And stems the whirls of land-surrounded waves.
For ever sacred to the hero's fame
These foaming straits shall bear his deathless name.
Through these dread jaws of rock he presses on;
Another ocean's breast, immense, unknown,
Beneath the south's cold wings, unmeasured, wide,
Receives his vessels; through the dreary tide
In darkling shades where never man before
Heard the waves howl, he dares the nameless shore.
Thus far, favoured Lusians, bounteous heaven
Your nation's glories to your view has given.
What ensigns, blazing to the morn, pursue
The path of heroes, opened first by you!
Still be it your's the first in fame to shine:
Thus shall your brides[20] new chaplets still entwine,
With laurels ever new your brows enfold,
And braid your wavy locks with radiant gold."[21]
The poet of the Lusiad, who had said that the Muses sang of Gama unwillingly, here concludes his praises of Magellan with a promise to the Portuguese of ever renewed praise—a promise which will be fulfilled by posterity whenever the character and enterprise of Magellan are compared with those of his contemporaries; for whilst the cruelty and violence of Gama, and the difficulty his companions had in restraining him, were very serious defects in his character, Magellan gave many noble examples of the opposite virtues and of other qualities of a very high order. His conduct on the occasion of the shipwreck near the Maldive Islands has been already described; the clemency with which he tempered justice when he put down the mutiny in Port St. Julian—a mutiny which Sebastian Alvarez, the King of Portugal's agent, would appear to have been privy to, if indeed he did not prepare it, shows great self-restraint, and the whole of his conduct in the islands of Sebu and Matan, where he fell, defending the retreat of his companions, is more like that of the knights errant of an earlier date, than that of his contemporaries. Pigafetta, who was with him at his death, was deeply affected by it, and recounts his many virtues and qualities in an appeal to the Grand Master of Rhodes not to allow Magellan's memory to be lost.
Most of the captains of ships at this time, and long afterwards, were soldiers put into naval commands; but Magellan, besides being a military officer, was also an experienced and learned navigator, and Pigafetta's Treatise of Navigation may be taken as the result of Magellan's instruction in that art.[22] The voyage of Columbus, which employed only thirty-three days out and twenty-eight homeward-bound, cannot be compared with that of Magellan, and if Columbus was as good a seaman and navigator as Magellan, yet a certain superiority must be allowed to the latter on account of his numerous military exploits in India and Africa.
I have not been able to ascertain who was Juan Serrano, who remained in the hands of the Sebu islanders after the massacre of Duarte Barbosa and his companions, and in Navarrete he is sometimes spoken of as an inhabitant of Seville and sometimes as a Portuguese. Pigafetta speaks of him as a Spaniard, but the despatch of Sebastian Alvarez leaves no doubt as to his being Portuguese, which otherwise might have been inferred from his being a compadre of Joan Carvalho. It is probable that he was a relation of Francisco Serrano, the friend and correspondent of Magellan, who died in Ternate about eight months before the arrival at Tidore of Magellan's ships: it is also probable that he was the same Juan Serrano whose voyage with Francisco Serrano in 1512 from Malacca to the Java Seas is related in the book of Duarte Barbosa on the coasts of East Africa and Malabar (Hakluyt Society).
Sebastian de Elcano, a native of Guetaria in Biscay, had the good fortune to be in command of the Victoria on her return to Seville, and though his name is not mentioned during the voyage in any of the narratives, he reaped the principal rewards of the expedition, and on his arrival at Court, received from Charles V a pension of five hundred gold crowns, and was authorised to take for arms a globe, with the motto "Primus me circumdedisti". Amongst other sonnets to his memory, are the following:
Por tierra y por mar profundo
Con iman y derrotero,
Un Vascongado, el primero
Dió la vuelta á todo el mundo.
Conchita
Entraba en el breado y hueco pino,
Tomando el dulce y suspirado puerto,
Juan Sebastian del Cano, Vizcaino,
Piloto de este mundo el mas esperto,
Despues de haber andado en su camino
Cuanto del mar se halla descubierto,
En una nave dicha la Victoria:
Hazaña digna de inmortal memoria.
Mosquera
This volume contains six contemporary accounts of
Magellan's voyage for the circumnavigation of the
globe: one was written by a Genoese pilot of the fleet;
the second by a Portuguese companion of Duarte
Barbosa, which has been preserved by Ramusio; the
third by Antonio Pigafetta of Vicenza: and the fourth
is a letter of Maximilian Transylvanus, a Secretary of
the Emperor Charles V; the fifth a log book of a pilot
named Francisco Albo or Alvaro: the sixth is taken
from Gaspar Correa's Lendas da India.
Of Pigafetta's account, four manuscripts are known, three of them are in French, and one in Italian. Two of the French manuscripts are in the Bibliothèque Impériale of Paris; one of these, numbered 5,650, is on paper; the other, numbered 68, of the Lavallière collection, is on vellum, and is richly illuminated; it does not contain the Brazilian and Patagonian vocabularies given in No. 5,650, and some rather indecent details are omitted or softened down, which leads to the conclusion that this copy was the one presented by Pigafetta to the Regent, Louise of Savoy. The third French manuscript, and the most complete, was in the possession of M. Beaupré of Nancy till 1855, it then passed into the Solar collection, and in 1861 was sold for 1,650 francs to a London bookseller, and, later, was bought by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Libri's sale.
M. Rd. Thomassy published a memoir in the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie of Paris, September 1843, in which he examines the question whether Pigafetta composed his account of his voyage in French. He has come to a conclusion (which M. Ferdinand Denis has also adopted) in favour of the French manuscript having been originally composed by Pigafetta, and not translated from the Italian, on the grounds of its being addressed to the grand master of Rhodes, Villiers de l'Ile-Adam, who was himself a Frenchman, and that Pigafetta had recently been made a Knight of Rhodes; and that Pigafetta used the French language for the device which he set up over his paternal house in the street of la Luna in Vicenza, "Il n'y a pas de roses sans épines"; that other Italians of the time had written in French; that the Italian MS. of the Ambrosian Library of Milan, published in 1800 by Amoretti, is in bad Italian, mixed with Venetian and Spanish, so that M. Amoretti saw in it rather a copy than the original of the relation presented to the Pope or to the Grand Master; these defects M. Amoretti removed by translating them into good Italian: also that the French edition of Fabre, though stated to be a translation from the Italian, was used in 1536 to publish an Italian edition; whereas if an Italian edition had existed before, that of Fabre would not have been required. Fabre's edition, moreover, is very imperfect: and he puts what Pigafetta says in the third person. M. Thomassy concludes, therefore, that the version of Fabre was made from some Italian resumé.
In addition to the motives urged by M. Thomassy for believing that Pigafetta himself composed the French manuscripts, there is evidence of it in the phraseology of the MSS.; had these been translations from the Italian, every word would have been translated into French, whereas, instead of that, we find a great many Italian words used, especially in the vocabularies, also some Italian idioms. It was natural that Pigafetta, if he had not the French word at command, should write down an Italian one, such as "calcagno" for "talon".
For the same reason, I should be inclined to believe that the Ambrosian MS., with its mixture of Spanish words, was composed by Pigafetta himself, in whom such a mixture of words would be more natural after so long a voyage in a Spanish ship, than in an Italian scribe.
That Pigafetta did compose a work in Italian appears from a document in the archives of Venice, containing a petition of Pigafetta to the Doge and Council of Venice, dated August 5th, 1524, applying for leave to print his account of his circumnavigation of the globe, and to have a privilege for twenty years. This is followed by a statement that the prayer of the petition was granted by the Doge and 152 of the Council, six members of which voted against Pigafetta. The text of this document is given in the Appendix; it was communicated to me by the Geographical Society of Paris, which has published a translation of it in its bulletin of February 1869.
Until M. Amoretti published his edition of Pigafetta from the Ambrosian MS. in 1800, there never was a complete or an original Italian edition of Pigafetta; for the quarto edition of 1536 (Grenville, 6,977), without name of author or printer, is, as is mentioned in the address to the reader, a translation from the edition of Jacques Fabre. This edition of 1536 had a privilege for fourteen years; it must be by Ramusio, for the address to the reader is almost the same as his more abridged "discourse" in his collection of travels of Venice, 1550, and Venice, 1613, folio, 346 v. In Ramusio's collection, and in the edition of 1536, Pigafetta's voyage is preceded by the letter of Maximilian Transylvanus, Secretary of the Emperor Charles V, to the Cardinal of Salzburg. This letter of Maximilian's is not quite the same in the two books in the division of the paragraphs; in Pigafetta's voyage there is greater similarity, and the paragraphs are numbered identically in the edition of 1536 and in Fabre's French edition. Ramusio says:
"Magellan's voyage was written, with details, by Don Pietro Martire, of the Council of the Indies of the Emperor, and that he had examined all those who had survived the voyage, and returned to Seville in the year 1522; but, having sent it to be printed at Rome, in the miserable sack of that town it was lost, and it is not yet known where it is. One who saw it and read it gives testimony of it, and amongst the other things worthy of recollection which the above-named Don Pietro noted in this voyage, was that the Spaniards having navigated about three years and a month, and the greater part of them (as is the custom of those who navigate on the ocean) having noted down each day of each month, when they rejoined Spain they found they had lost one day; that is, when they reached the port of Seville, which was on the 7th of September, by the account which they had kept it was the 6th. Don Pietro having related this particularity to an excellent and rare man, Sig. Gasparo Contarino,[23] a Venetian senator, who was then in Spain as ambassador to his Majesty from his Republic, and having asked him how it could be, he, as a very great philosopher, shewed him that it could not be otherwise, as they had navigated three years, always accompanying the sun, which was going westwards; and he said that the ancients had observed that those who navigated to the west greatly lengthened their day."
This book of Don Pietro's having been lost, says Ramusio, he thought of translating the Latin letter of Maximilian, and of adding to it the summary of a book which was written by the valiant knight of Rhodes, Messer Antonio Pigafetta, a Vicentine; and this said book was abridged and translated into French by a very learned philosopher, named Messer Jacopo Fabri, of Paris, at the instance of the most serene mother of the most Christain King Francis, Madame Louisa the Regent, to whom the aforesaid knight had made a present of one [of his books].
This French epitome by Fabre is a small octavo of seventy-six leaves, in Gothic type (Grenville, 7,065); it is without date; the title is as follows:
"Le Voyage et Navigation, faict par les Espaignolz es Isles de Mollucques, des isles quilz ont trouue audict voyage, des Roys dicellea, de leur gounernment ৳ maniere de viure, auec plusieurs aultres choses.
"Cum Priuilegio, ¶ on les vend a Paris en la maison do Simon de Colines, libraire iure de luniuersite de Paris, demeurāt en la rue sainct Jehan de Beauluais, a lenseigne du Soleil Dor."
Simon de Colines, the printer, issued his last work in 1546, and his heirs are mentioned on a work of 1550.[24]
In 1801, a French translation of Amoretti's edition of Pigafetta was published by H. J. Jansen, who added a translation from the German of M. de Murr's Notice on the Chevalier M. Behaim. In this translation, some liberties have been taken with the text; and it is to be regretted that this translation was published instead of the French text contained in the two MSS. of the Bibliothèque Impériale; these, even were they not Pigafetta's own composition, possess a philological interest of their own.
An English translation of Pigafetta by Richard Wren, London, 1625, is mentioned in l'Art de Vérifier les Dates, depuis 1770, folio, vol. iii, p. 333. There is no copy of this in the British Museum Library.
The other contemporaneous account of Magellan's voyage, a translation of which precedes that of Pigafetta's account, is by a Genoese pilot. This pilot probably was named Mestre Bautista, since Barros mentions him as a Genoese who, on the death of the pilot Joan Carvalho, was charged with piloting the Trinidad, which got as far as Ternate. Correa (tom, ii, p. 632) also mentions that Mestre Joan Bautista was made captain instead of Carvalho, after he had allowed the son of the King of Luzon to escape at Borneo. Of this account, three manuscripts exist; all three are in Portuguese. From two of these MSS. a printed edition was published in the Noticias Ultramarinas, No. ii, by the Academy of History of Lisbon. The text which served for this publication was a MS. which belonged to the library of the monks of S. Bento da Saude; and it has been supplemented and annotated from another manuscript, which is in the Bibliothèque Impériale at Paris, numbered 7158⁄33, a copy of which was made by Dr. Antonio Nunes de Carvalho in 1831. A third manuscript of this pilot's narrative exists in the library of the Academy of History of Madrid, No. 30, Est. 11a, grada 2a.
After the Genoese pilot's narrative follows that of an anonymous Portuguese taken from Ramusio.
The letter of Maximilian, the Transylvanian, follows Pigafetta'a account; this has been translated from the Latin by Mr. James Baynes, of the Printed Book Department of the British Museum. After that comes the log-book of Francisco Albo or Alvaro, translated from a MS. in the British Museum, which is a copy from a document in Simancas. This log-book has been printed, in Navarrete's collection, apparently from the British Museum MS., and it appears to have escaped the notice of Captain Burney. It is especially valuable because it helps to fix the position of the "Unfortunate Islands", and because it establishes that the Island of Amsterdam in the Southern Indian Ocean to the North of St. Paul's Island, the discovery of which is usually attributed to the Dutch navigator Vlaming, in 1696, was discovered March 18th, 1522, by the Victoria, the first ship which went round the world.
There is a confusion as to the names of these two islands, which are rightly named in the Admiralty and other sea charts, but which are wrongly named in common English maps, which place St. Paul to the north of Amsterdam. The southern island is bare and arid, and the northern island has bushes and a high peak visible eighteen or twenty leagues off. Francisco Albo says this Island had no trees; but the Victoria may not have approached near enough to see the bushes, which, from the views of the island, appear to be near its base; it is clear that the Victoria approached the northern island, or Amsterdam, because not only does the latitude given by F. Albo differ from that of modern observation by only eight miles, but also because from the course steered by the Victoria on leaving this island, she must have sighted the northern island had the one discovered by her been the southern one. Plates are given of these two islands, taken from Valentyn's Dutch work on the East Indies. A French Geographical Dictionary sets up a claim to these islands as belonging to the government of the Isle of France or Mauritius; it does not say on what grounds; but if ever they were dependencies of Mauritius, they will have passed with that island into the possession of Great Britain.
Correa's narrative contains two details not given in any of the other accounts, viz., the warning given to Magellan at Tenerife by Diogo Barbosa of the intended mutiny; and the incident of the Portuguese ship speaking the Victoria off the Cape of Good Hope. Correa's having been in India at the time, and relating what he heard from the Portuguese, would account for his misplacing the death of Magellan as having happened at the same time as that of Duarte Barbosa. His narrative also contains additional evidence of the violent animosity of the Portuguese against Magellan, though he himself is more favourable than other Portuguese historians to him who is one of the most renowned of their countrymen, as he undoubtedly is the greatest of ancient and modern navigators.
September 1874.
CHRONOLOGY
OF THE
FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
| Magellan arrives at Seville | October 20 | 1518 | ||
| Magellan's fleet sails from Seville | Monday,[25] | August 10, | 1519 | |
| Magellan | sails from San Lucar de Barrameda, | Tuesday, | September 20, | „ |
| „ | arrives at Tenerife | September 26, | „ | |
| „ | sails from Tenerife | Monday, | October 3, | „ |
| „ | arrives at Rio de Janeiro | December 13, | „ | |
| „ | sails from Rio | December 26, | „ | |
| „ | sails from Rio de la Plata | February 2, | 1520 | |
| „ | arrives at Port St. Julian | March 31, | „ | |
| Eclipse of Sun | April 17, | „ | ||
| Loss of Santiago | ||||
| „ | Magellan sails from Port St Julian | August 24, | „ | |
| „ | sails from river of Santa Cruz | October 18, | „ | |
| „ | makes Cape of the Virgins, entrance of Straits | October 21, | „ | |
| „ | Desertion of San Antonio | November | „ | |
| Magellan | issues from Straits into the Pacific, | Wednesday, | November 28, | „ |
| „ | fetches San Pablo Island | January 24, | 1521 | |
| „ | fetches Tiburones Island | February 4, | „ | |
| „ | reaches the Ladrone Islands, | Wednesday, | March 6, | „ |
| „ | reaches Samar Island of the Philippines | Saturday, | March 16, | „ |
| „ | reaches Mazzava Island, | Thursday, | March 28, | „ |
| „ | arrives at Sebu Island | April 7, | „ | |
| Death of Magellan at Matan | Saturday, | April 27, | „ | |
| Burning of Conception | May, | „ | ||
| Arrival of San Antonio at Seville | May 6, | „ | ||
| Arrival of Victoria and Trinity at Tidore, | Friday, | November 8, | „ | |
| Victoria | sails from Tidore | December 21, | „ | |
| „ | discovers Amsterdam Island, | Tuesday, | March 18, | 1522 |
| „ | doubles the Cape of Good Hope | May 18,[26] | „ | |
| „ | arrives at Cape Verde Islands, | Wednesday,[27] | July 9, | „ |
| „ | arrives at San Lucar | Saturday,[27] | September 6, | „ |
| „ | casts anchor at Seville | Monday,[27] | September 8, | „ |
| Thanksgiving at Church of Our Lady of Victory | Tuesday,[27] | September 9, | „ | |
- ↑ See Appendix V, pp. 392-396, to De Morga's Philippine Islands, Hakluyt Society, with respect to the negotiations about the Moluccas.
- ↑ This opinion may be recommended to those who war on "pious founders".
- ↑ Thus Hazelrigg, Hampden, Cromwell, and Pym, are said to have been prevented by the Government from emigrating to New England in 1638. See Palfrey's Hist. of New England, vol. i, pp. 502, 503.
- ↑ "Escoras."
- ↑ "Perdeo sua pobreza"
- ↑ "Moradia."
- ↑ Albuquerque did not arrive before Goa till the 24th November. Correa, tom. ii, p. 145.
- ↑ A facsimile of this signature is given in the plate.
- ↑ This document has been abridged here; it is taken from a copy in the Torre do Tombo, made from another copy, which is very illegible. The Spanish is rather antiquated, and much debased, apparently by Portuguese copyists, who have mixed up their own orthography. The Secretary's name was Francisco, not Fernan.
- ↑ From this it appears that Magellan anticipated that America would end like Africa.
- ↑ D. Jorge of Portugal, Bishop of Siguenza
- ↑ The date of the year is not given; however, as the despatch mentions this year as the year of the marriage, it must be assumed to have been written in 1518. D. Manuel married the daughter of Philip I, Da. Leonor, in Villa do Crato, 24th November, 1518. The treaty of the marriage was made at Saragossa 22nd May, 1518, and ratified in Saragossa 16th July, 1518.
- ↑ Literally, the road to Coimbra.
- ↑ Meaning, he could become a hermit.
- ↑ This contemporary document confirms Osorio as to the cause of Magellan's being disgusted with the King of Portugal; some historians have represented the quarrel as arising from a distribution of plundered cattle. Gaspar Correa uses a similar phrase to that in this despatch, "a hundred reis, more or less".
- ↑ Compare this statement with that in the second line of the fifth paragraph of this despatch.
- ↑ Diego Ribeiro was, later, the cosmographer of Charles V, and, with Martin Centurion in 1524, he translated into Spanish the Book of Duarte Barbosa and Magellan on the coasts of the Indian Ocean.
- ↑ Id est, never be heard of again. See Major's Pce. Henry, p. 374.
- ↑ The fame of Vasco da Gama.
- ↑ The nymphs of the Ilha namorada, or Fame.
- ↑ From the rather free translation of Mickle.
- ↑ A fuller treatise of navigation, as then practised, is contained in a book written by Francisco Faleiro, probably a brother of Ruy Faleiro, thus described by Barbosa Machado, in his Biblioteca Lusitana:—"Francisco Faleiro, who was equally well versed in astronomy and navigation, gave a clear statement of his science in those arts in the following work: Tratado de la Esfera y del Arte de Marear, con el Regimento de las Alturas. Sevilla, por Juan Cronberger, 1535. 4to." This book is very rare; there is a copy in the Hydrographer's office at Madrid.
- ↑ This name is omitted in the prologue of the edition of 1536.
- ↑ Greswell, A View of the Early Parisian Greek Press, vol. i, p. 94.
- ↑ The 10th of August was a Wednesday, and Monday was the 8th of August: all the other dates of the week and month agree and are consistent with each other.
- ↑ According to Albo's Log-Book; according to Pigafetta, May 6,
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 These dates are according to the ship's time, which differed by a day from the time at the Cape Verde Islands and Seville.