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LIFE OF MAGELLAN.
xxxix
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,[1] 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- ↑ Literally, the road to Coimbra.
