Chapter II: Preface (1)

Perhaps there never was brought together, in so small a compass, in any language, a more copious collection of rational entertainment, than will be met with in the following sheets. To trace the progress of the discoveries that have successively been made, in passing round the globe, must fill the reader’s mind with such a variety of new objects, as cannot fail to raise his wonder, and entertain him with infinite delight.

He will, in this work, be safely conducted through regions that were once thought inaccessible, and be made acquainted with countries altogether different from that in which he dwells. Every page he reads will furnish him with novelties, and every Voyage will bring him nearer to that unknown country, in search of which so many able commanders have been sent in vain.

The discovery of the western continent by Columbus, gave geographers reason to believe, that a like continent existed somewhere in the south. Without such an equipoise they could not conceive how the globe could preserve its balance.

Magellhaens, a Portuguese mariner, was the first who attempted to immortalize his name by the discovery. He passed the Streights, that to this day bear his name, and entered the Pacific Ocean, where no European vessel had ever sailed before. He discovered the Ladrone and Phillippine Isles, and returned by the Cape of Good Hope, having surrounded the whole earth, and proved, to demonstration, the spherical figure of the globe.

He was followed by navigators of different nations, who, emulous of his glory, sought to pursue the track, which he had pointed out, with better success; but the dangers they encountered, and the disasters they met with, rendered the difficulties that attended the prosecution insurmountable; many perished, and those who survived were glad to return home after a fruitless search.

The ill success which attended these first attempts threw a damp upon the enterprize, and it remained long unnoticed, except in the writings of the learned. Some French geographers, fully persuaded of the reality of such a continent, endeavoured, a few years ago, to revive in their countrymen the spirit of enterprize, with a view to derive honour to their country, by compleating the discovery; but the taste for great navigations among the French seemed entirely extinct, and it was not till the Dolphin and Tamar had sailed from England that they thought of renewing it.

We have been told that his Majesty, our most gracious Sovereign, very early in life, formed the design of distinguishing himself by patronizing the prosecution of new discoveries in the unknown regions of the southern hemisphere; and that he declared his intention, soon after he came to the crown, of appropriating a part of his revenue for that particular purpose. Nothing can more endear a British monarch to his maritime people, than a steady perseverance in this laudable resolution.

The love of glory is a passion natural to Kings; the conquerors of the world are placed before them as patterns, and they are encouraged by example to seek occasions for war to acquire a name. But how much more glorious is it to enlarge the earth with a new region, than to triumph in the conquest of some rival state!--to extend protection to a remote, and it may be, a defenceless people, than to boast of levelling fortresses, and, by a general carnage of friends and foes, become master of a few desolated towns, purchased at an expence, a thousand times greater than what is necessary to insure the success of new discoveries.

Can there be any comparison between the glory of a successful enterprize, founded on the laudable motives of diffusing happiness through regions, whose inhabitants, for ought we know, are yet immersed in savage darkness; and that of engaging in a hazardous war, by which millions of treasure must be expended, and thousands of lives sacrificed? Is not the chance of succeeding in the first case much more probable than that of conquering in the other? And does not success in the discovery of the long sought region of the south, promise much greater advantages to a trading nation, than the conquest of any part of the earth on this side the globe? Did not the little Phœnician state reap a more glorious harvest from the discoveries of its merchants, than Alexander could boast from all his conquests? Was it not the perseverance of the Princes Henry, John, and Emanuel, in supporting the charges of prosecuting new discoveries in the fifteenth century, that laid the foundation of the Portuguese greatness, whose territories in Europe are of no considerable extent?

If the glory of aggrandizing a state, and perpetuating a name to posterity be the first object of human ambition, where, among all the tyrants who have depopulated the earth, can be produced a conqueror, whose name will be remembered, when that of Christopher Columbus is forgotten? Or where shall we look for a monarch, who, after having spread murder and desolation throughout the world, descended to the grave with that heart-felt satisfaction that attended the Florentine merchant Americus Vespucius, when he saw all Europe agreeing, with one consent, to transfer his name to more than a third part of the terrestrial globe?

The success which has attended our gracious Monarch’s first essays in the Voyages we are now about to relate, though it has yet produced no solid advantages to compensate the sums expended in the prosecution of them, yet it has been such as to open the way to new islands, from whose inhabitants new arts may be learnt, and from whose productions new acquisitions may be made, both to the vegetable and fossil kingdoms, by which the regions of science may be enlarged, and the gardens of the curious enriched and beautified.

It is no small satisfaction to an inquisitive mind (were there no other advantage to be gained from these Voyages) to be made acquainted with the genius, the arts, the various pursuits, the customs, the manners, the religious notions, the distinctions of rank, and the subordination that is to be met with among the people of various islands and countries, distinct from each other, and from us, in language, habits, learning, and ways of living. Who is it that can read of the poverty and misery of the wretched inhabitants of _Terra del Fuego_, who have nothing but the skins of beasts loosely thrown over them, to defend them from the severity of the cold, in a climate so dreadful, that two out of twelve of the attendants of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, being overtaken in a storm, in a clear evening, in the middle of summer, perished at the foot of a mountain, though they had but two miles to go to receive succour? Nor are they, in any respect, better provided with food than with raiment. The woods that are three parts in four of the year impenetrable on account of the snow, and the sea-coast and rivers that are equally inaccessible, are their only resources. Who then, I say, can read the story of these forlorn creatures, without lamenting the condition of human beings, destitute, as these appear to be, of every comfort and convenience, and exposed every moment to the piercing rigour of the climate, and the still severer cravings of unsatisfied hunger!

On the contrary, who can think of these, while, at the same time, he is told of the pleasurable lives of the happy islanders in the new-discovered countries, who abound in flesh, fish, and fruits, even to profusion! without admiring the ways of Providence, that, for purposes unknown to us, has so unequally bestowed its dispensations.

When we read in these Voyages of men that eat men, not for hunger, but from savage ferocity, we shudder to think of the depravity of our nature, and are convinced of the necessity of bounding our passions by wholesome laws, and of correcting the irregularities of our appetites by the restraints of religion.

But what can we think of those civilized Barbarians, of those polished monsters, who, with all the advantages of religion and enlightened education, could yet be so wantonly cruel, as to introduce a disease among a happy people, odious in its nature, and, to them, more pernicious than a pestilence in its effects; who could carry the venereal taint between the tropics, and entail it as a curse upon those by whom they were most highly favoured?

Who but must regret the friendly hospitality of these honest, unsuspecting islanders to strangers, the very best of whom but ill-deserved their favours? But who can with-hold his indignation at the ingratitude of the meaner sort, with which their benefactors were requited?

The variety of incidents that happened in the course of these Voyages, when they come to be historically recited, unencumbered with the jargon of sea-phrases, will afford a fund of entertainment, seldom to be met with in the productions of the press. The many singular adventures, unforeseen dangers, and providential escapes, that every ship experienced in passing round the globe, can only be conceived by those who read, and believed by those who have seen the wonders of the deep.

Nothing can excite or gratify curiosity more than relations of marvellous events that happen in succession, and in circumstances equally critical and important. The moment a ship launches into the ocean to proceed on new discoveries, every man on board demands his share of attention as well as the commanding officer. The story of the black, who, with his two companions, perished on the mountains of _Terra del Fuego_, is no less affecting than that of the murder of the poor Indians, who set the Endeavour at defiance, and bravely opposed the landing of the crew.

There is not an object that presents itself either by sea or land, but affords some degree of use or speculation. The fish that swarm about the ship, and the fowls that present themselves in the ocean, are indications by which the skilful mariner avails himself, either to guard against the storm, or to prepare for land; and the reader, as circumstances arise, either shares his danger, or partakes of his refreshment.

When the Endeavour is encircled in the wide ocean with rocks of coral, her sheathing beaten off, and her false keel floating by her side, a hole in her bottom, and the men alternately fainting at the pumps, what heart is so callous, as not to sympathize with the despairing crew, and, anxious for their safety, drop a tear for their deliverance?

And what must be the joy of every feeling heart, when, after sailing many hundred leagues, and arriving safe at Batavia, it was found that two of her planks next the keel, and part of a third in the ship’s bottom, were, for six feet together, rubbed thinner, by her friction against the rocks, than the ordinary sole of a man’s shoe!

Who that shall interest himself in the fate of Toobaiah, an Indian priest, who voluntarily offered himself as a guide against the attacks of the neighbouring islanders, and of the Indian youth Tayota, who accompanied him, but must regret the death of the last, and admire the more than Christian friendship of the former, who could not long survive the loss of his companion?

It is to bring together a vast variety of interesting events, and to relate them in a narrow compass, that the present work is undertaken. The Writers of Voyages, having a more important object in view than mere amusement, are under the necessity of interrupting the thread of their narrations by the workings of the ship, the bearings and distances of the capes and bays, the latitudes and longitudes of the various stations in which their ships cast anchor, the variations of the needle, and the soundings of the shores; matters, though of infinite concern to future navigators, and without which the Voyages themselves would be useless, yet are of no moment to the generality of readers, who are curious only to know what dangers were encountered, what adventures were met with, what lands discovered, what people possessed them, what novelties were seen, what new arts were practised, what wars were carried on, what weapons and utensils were in use, and, above all, by what laws, religion, and forms of government, the various nations were distinguished that lie scattered round the globe.

These subjects of entertainment the reader will find amply reported in the course of the Volumes now presented to his view. And as the relations are authenticated by gentlemen of known veracity, who were eye-witnesses, and bear testimony to the truth of the facts, the reader will find uncommon pleasure in the perusal.

THE
INTRODUCTION.

Previous to our entering upon the detail of the discoveries and adventures of the English navigators who have surrounded the globe, it may, perhaps, afford some entertainment to the curious reader, to be made acquainted with the first steps that led to so bold an undertaking, and with the characters of those happy geniuses, who not only conceived the plan, but contributed not a little by their example to facilitate the execution.

We are told that the shadow seen in the moon in the time of her eclipse, first pointed out to the early navigators the true figure of the earth; and that, from this simple observation, Columbus, by revolving it in his mind, deduced the possibility of passing round its surface, or, to speak with more precision, of sailing from one side of the continent to the other; for as yet one great continent, and one great ocean, with their appendages, were thought to compose the whole material world.

Full of this idea, he was naturally led to conclude, that, by sailing in a direct course from any given point of land on one side, he must of necessity arrive at another point of land in the same parallel on the opposite side, provided his provisions were proportioned to the voyage, and no accident from tempests or shipwreck intervened to interrupt his progress. It was on this obvious principle that Columbus founded the certainty of his discovery, the infallibility of which served to support his hopes, when absolute despair had seized the greatest part of his followers.

It is true, that, though the figure of the earth was in effect conceived, yet its dimensions were wholly unknown: but as the road over-land to the eastern coasts of the continent was no secret, Columbus was persuaded that a passage by sea by a western course, if no intermediate lands prevented, would assuredly bring him to the same coasts. From his knowledge, therefore, of the position of those countries, from whence the rich productions of the East were circulated thro’ all the kingdoms of the West, he was led to steer, first, a south-west, and then a direct west course, which brought him among those broken fragments of the western continent, which he at first mistook for the islands of the Indian Ocean, and to the richest of which he imagined another voyage would certainly open a passage.

The discovery being once made, the principle upon which it was grounded could no longer be concealed. Those belonging to the naval department about the Court of Spain, who had been most violent in opposing the undertaking, as appearing to them in no better light than as the visionary conceit of some crack-brained projector, now assumed another tone, and affected to speak of it as a discovery that required no extraordinary talents to accomplish; that it was not the result of science, but a thing that must follow of course to the first adventurer; and that it was fortunate for Columbus that he could prevail upon their Majesties to furnish the means to undertake it, as with such encouragement there were not wanting officers in the royal navy much better qualified to have conducted the enterprize, tho’ by his unparallelled assurance he had obtained the preference. In this slight and contemptuous manner it was the humour at Court to speak of the new discovery; and though Columbus, after his return, was for a while caressed by the Royal Family, yet the frequent repetition of these indignities could not fail in time to lessen the idea of the merit of a man who had no advocate to support his credit but the evidence of his own superior abilities. At a court-entertainment, however, to which he was invited, an incident happened that contributed not a little to heighten his character, and mortify his enemies. The conversation at table turned, as was usual, upon the importance of the new discoveries; and though all seemed to agree that the advantages would be immense that must inevitably result to Spain, yet little they thought was due to the first discoverer, because any ordinary seaman, by keeping his ship’s head to the westward, must have fallen in with the same countries. Columbus, without seeming to regard their discourse, when dinner was over, and the table uncovered, called for an egg, and twirling it about with his hand, as if by way of amusement, asked if any of the company could make that egg stand upon its little end without additional support. The company, after trying their skill, pronounced _the thing impossible_; when Columbus, taking it again in his hand, and bruising the shell a little at bottom with his nail, produced it upon the table standing upright. The company all fell a-laughing, and one cried out, that any fool could do as much as that. I doubt not, replied Columbus, but any of you may do it, now you have seen it done; and so may any miserable pilot in the navy sail to the Indies, now that I have pointed out the track; but till the issue had shewn it practicable, addressing himself to the naval gentlemen, that, too, you pronounced an _impossible thing_. The King and his Royal Consort, particularly the latter, were highly pleased when they were told this story, admiring the promptness of a mind which, ever collected, neither malice nor envy could disconcert.

Other navigators, equally enterprizing, tho’ less sagacious, were now inflamed with the desire of immortalizing their names by new undertakings; so that it is no wonder that the business of discovery went rapidly on for a succeeding century.

It was in 1492 that Columbus made his first expedition to the Bahama Islands; and in 1496, John Cabbot, in the service of England, discovered the continent of North America.

Columbus, in his first voyage, had not yet conceived the idea of a double continent, but believed, as we have already noted, that he had discovered a passage by sea to those islands in the East that were already known by the name of the East Indies; in conformity to which he gave to the islands that he discovered the appellation of the _West Indies_, which they retain to this day.

In 1493, having made a second voyage, and carried his discoveries considerably farther to the South, it is said, he received some faint notions of a sea beyond a great land, by which the islands he had first discovered were bounded; but it was not till after his third voyage in 1497, that he attained a sight of that continent which Cabbot had discovered the year before.

It may seem, from what has just been said, that the eastern passage to the Indian Ocean had been discovered by the Portuguese; and that the East Indies were known to that people before this western discovery by Columbus: but, though several journies by land had been made, with a view to the opening an advantageous commerce with the eastern countries, by Portuguese Ambassadors well instructed in the Arabian language, by whose address some progress had been made in that business, yet it was not till 1495 that Bartholomew Diaz doubled the Cape of Good Hope, nor till the year 1497 (the same year that the American continent was discovered by Cabbot), that Don Vasquez de Gama, by steering the nearest course, passed the Cape which Diaz had discovered, and sailed into the Indian Ocean, where he afterwards made considerable conquests, and by his prudent management very suddenly diverted the current of Indian commerce into an entire new channel. The notion, therefore, that Columbus borrowed his idea of a western passage from the discoveries made by the Portuguese towards the East, is ill founded. These last had, indeed, made a considerable progress in their discoveries by land; but the passages to the Eastern and Western Indies by sea were discovered about the same time, without the least connection or intelligence between the respective discoverers. And here we cannot help entering our protest against the honour ascribed to Columbus by Mr. Campbell, and other judicious naval historians, as being the first circumnavigator, because, as Mr. Campbell observes, “it was his [Columbus’s] opinion, that there was a passage from the North Sea into the South, and from thence it might be very possible to sail to the East Indies.”----That it was the opinion of Columbus, that there was a western passage to the East Indies is readily granted; it was his original idea: but that there was a passage from the East Indies to Europe, without returning the same way he went, he could have no conception of, till after the passage by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by the Portuguese. Had he dreamt of an eastern passage _by sea_ to the East Indies, he would most certainly have preferred it to a western passage, because it might have been performed without losing sight of land; and therefore, with much less risque than by launching into an immense unknown ocean, of which no one could tell the extent. But his notion was, that the earth, like a bowl, inclosed the sea, and that it could only be traversed from side to side by water, and then from shore to shore by land. Many irrefragable proofs of his having no conception of _sailing_ round the globe might be adduced; but that of his returning the same way back a second time, without his _knowing_ for certainty, or _believing_ there was any other sea to sail upon, or having even determined the extent of that sea on which he had already ventured so far, may serve without farther proof to convince the intelligent reader, that Columbus had never thought of but one sea when he undertook his discovery, and that that sea was only to be crossed from West to East, and _vice versâ_.

But to proceed:--Soon after the eastern passage to the Indies was laid open, the coast of Brazil, opposite to the Cape of Good Hope, was discovered by Cabral, a Portuguese pilot, who was driven out of his course by stress of weather. The same coast was likewise discovered the same year by Yannez Pinçon, who commanded a carvel that accompanied Columbus in his first expedition to the West Indies. This man contested the honour of the first discovery with Columbus, and insisted that it was through his perseverance alone that land was descried, the crew of Columbus having absolutely determined to steer back before the discovery took place. Be that as it may, this able mariner afterwards examined the coast from the Bay of Mexico to the Equinoctial Line, and, in the year 1500, discovered the great river of Amazons, which it was thought would have opened a passage to the South Sea.

In 1502, Columbus made his fourth and last expedition, when he fully satisfied himself that the islands he had discovered were totally disconnected from those he went in quest of, and that another continent existed besides that which was known to Europeans. He was still, however, of opinion, that a western passage to the old continent from the new would be practicable, whenever a way was found to the Great Sea by which it was surrounded: and now it is not at all improbable but that he might foretel what afterwards came to pass, that one day or other the whole globe might be circumnavigated, though he did not live to see it executed.

In 1509, the Portuguese first found the way to Sumatra, and from thence extended their discoveries to the Moluccas.

About this time a contest arose between the Spaniards and Portuguese, concerning the right of possessing countries, to which neither of them had any other claim than that of being the first Europeans who happened to land upon their coasts: a claim of the same kind his Otaheitean Majesty may pretend to the western part of Europe, his subject Aotourou being incontestibly the first Tropical inhabitant that ever set foot on that continent. This contest, however, the Pope took upon him to decide; and, to prevent the bloody consequences that might ensue between two such powerful competitors, he published a bull, which, at that time of blind obedience, was held decisive, decreeing, that whatever discoveries were made to the westward should belong to Spain, and such as were made to the eastward, to Portugal. This seemed for a while to content both parties; but, in 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, or Magellhanes, as Mr. Dalrymple affects to call him, having made his famous discovery to the Molucca Islands by a new passage, the contest was again revived, and the competitors claimed a second time the Pope’s interposition to settle the limits of their respective claims by more precise and determinate boundaries. The claims of the Spaniards were now extended to near three parts of the globe; and those of the Portuguese, which by a false representation had been much diminished, were now to be restored, or rather regulated by a more exact standard. The two contending powers were to divide the globe between them, by what was then stiled a line of demarkacion. This _line_ was to cut the globe into two hemispheres, and was to be acknowledged a _first_ meridian: all the discoveries in the western hemisphere were to belong to Spain; and all in the eastern to Portugal. But still there arose a dispute about the precise spot where this meridian line should be fixed. By the Pope’s bull it had been placed 100 leagues to the westward of St. Antonio, one of the islands of Cape Verde; but, by this new regulation, it was removed 270 leagues farther to the west. This alteration was intended to deprive Portugal of the possession of the Moluccas; but the Portuguese pilots were not to be thus deceived: they suffered the line of demarkacion to be fixed; but, when it was finally determined, they insisted on their right to the Moluccas, as still within their limits, and future observations have since confirmed their claims. But, notwithstanding the justice of their claims (if justice can at all be admitted to exist in cases of usurpation), the Spaniards held the Moluccas till 1529, when the Portuguese purchased an exclusive right of trading to them by a loan of 350,000 ducats.----But to return from this digression:

We have already observed, that the coast of Brazil, and the river of Amazons, was first discovered by Yannez Pinçon, in 1500; but it was not till twelve years afterwards that John de Solis discovered the river Plate.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Bilboa got sight of the Great South Sea, from the mountains of Pancas in the province of Panama and from that time Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese officer, conceived the design of surrounding the globe, by finding a passage by which he might enter that sea. He now began to consider the earth as divided into two continents, with their concomitant seas; and, as a promontory was found, by the doubling of which one continent might be visited on both sides, he made no doubt but that another promontory existed, by which the other might be visited in like manner. Perhaps the idea of a strait might not at first strike his mind, till the opening at Cape Virgin suggested it. His original thought was to coast along to the southward, as the land trended; and by perseverance, he persuaded himself, that a boundary would be found, by which the land of the new continent would be terminated, though he did not, nor could not then ascertain to what height it might reach. He had in view a nearer way to the Moluccas than that by the Cape of Good Hope; and he at first imparted his views to the Ministers of his Court, who, probably suspecting that by such a passage the right to the Moluccas might be brought in question by Spain, treated his project with a contemptuous neglect. To a man full of the importance of such a discovery, nothing could be more mortifying. He determined, since he was so coolly received at home, to try his fortune abroad. For this purpose he repaired to the Court of Spain, where, after making himself known to the leading Minister, he undertook to prove the Moluccas, and other rich islands then reputed in the East, to be within the Spanish line of demarkacion to the West, and by a new passage to them he engaged to confirm the truth of what he advanced incontestibly.

These propositions, after being properly examined, and approved by the ablest astronomers and geographers at that time in Spain, was eagerly embraced by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, an enterprizing Prince, who then held the kingdom, and who gave him audience in the council-chamber at Saragossa, and conferred upon him, and his companion Ruy Falero, the order of St. Jago, both of whom, his Imperial Majesty honoured with the title of _his Captains_.

This encouragement, and these honours, could not fail to alarm the Court of Portugal; but all the interest and opposition which Alvaro de Acasio, the Portuguese Ambassador, could make, had no effect; the preparations for the voyage were prosecuted with more than ordinary diligence, and five ships were soon got in readiness to put to sea.

But, previous to their setting sail, a difference arose concerning the necessary forms of command, which had well nigh ruined the voyage before it was undertaken; the honour of carrying the royal standard was contested by Ruy Falero, and some other indignities were offered to Magellan on account of his country. These, however, were redressed by the interposition of the imperial authority; Ruy Falero was persuaded to suspend his departure on account of his health, and Magellan was declared General of the squadron, which was now committed to his sole direction.

On the 10th of August, 1519, this little fleet, consisting of the Admiral’s ship; the St. Antonio, Capt. Juan de Cartagena, Vice-Admiral; the Victoria, Capt. Luys de Mendoça, Rear-Admiral; the St. Jago, Capt. Juan Rodriguez Serrano; and the Conception, of which Gasper de Quezada was Master; left Cadiz, and proceeded to Teneriff, from whence they took their departure, on the 2d of September, and on the 13th of December arrived at Rio de Janeiro, on the coast of Brazil, where they staid till the 27th; and, after being plentifully supplied with all necessary refreshments at a very moderate price, they weighed anchor, and continued their voyage, in the course of which much discontent arose concerning the track they were to steer; but on Easter evening they entered St. Julian river, and were next day ordered on shore by the General to hear mass. Three of the Captains refused to obey; namely, Luys de Mendoça, Gasper de Quezado, and Juan de Cartagena, this last being already in arrest for disrespect to his General.

Their disobedience put Magellan on his guard. He perceived that the majority both of officers and men were averse to the undertaking, and that a general murmuring prevailed throughout the whole squadron. Only a few trusty friends were ready to support their General, and willing to follow wherever he should lead. The weather was now set in very severe, and the Spaniards, unused to the rigour of such a climate, were hardly to be restrained. They represented the inutility of proceeding, as they were already in a climate too boisterous and inclement to be navigated by Spaniards; that it could never be the Emperor’s intention to sacrifice the lives of his subjects, without the least prospect of advantage to the State; and that now it was manifest, though the discovery were certain, the navigation would be impracticable, and therefore useless. To these representations, and others more full of asperity, Magellan coolly made answer, “that he was determined to die rather than return back; that he should pass the winter where he then was; and that neither provisions nor wine should be wanting to those who would be contented with a moderate allowance; but that if any persisted in spreading discontents, and encouraging disobedience, he knew how to punish as well as to reward.”

Barros says, that the three Captains _Cartagena_, _Quezada_, and _Mendoça_, conspired together to kill Magellan, and to return and make their report of the usage they had met with, and the hardships they had endured in the voyage; but Magellan, considering the danger, and that in certain circumstances _temerity_ is better than _caution_, ordered the people of his own ship to arms; and, manning his boat with thirty trusty friends, he clapt the Victoria aboard; and while Mendoça was reading a letter directed to him from the General, the messenger that delivered it stabbed him to the heart.--The moment the order was executed, the thirty men entered to the assistance of the assassin, and quietly took possession of the ship. This done a council of war was called, and a conspiracy was detected, in which more than forty of the principal people on board the several ships were found to be deeply concerned; but Magellan, that he might not appear too sanguinary or vindictive, sentenced _Quezada_ only to be executed, and _Cartagena_ to be left on shore, accompanied by a French Priest; a punishment that probably was worse than immediate death, as it subjected the criminals to hardships which instant execution would have prevented. Mendoça and Quezada, he ordered to be quartered as traitors, to strike the disaffected with the greater terror. This put an end to all opposition for the present.

When the winter months drew towards a conclusion, Magellan was vigilant to hasten the departure of his fleet; and, as soon as the cold abated, he dispatched Serrano to coast along the shore to make observations. Serrano, at about twenty leagues distance, found a river a league broad at the entrance, which he named St. Cruz, because he fell in with it on that Saint’s day. In examining this river, and in fishing for seals, he spent six days, at the end of which a furious storm arose, which split his sails, and drove his ship on shore, where she bulged, and was beaten to pieces. The crew, however, were saved, but reduced to the last extremity for want of food. Two of the company undertook to travel over land, to give the General notice of the miserable situation of their fellow-sufferers; and, after 11 days fatigue, they at length surmounted every difficulty, and accomplished their purpose. Magellan, pitying their distresses, sent a vessel with provisions, which came seasonably to their relief.

The time for sailing being now come, and the ships in readiness, they left the bay of St. Julian on the 24th of August, 1520, after setting Juan de Cartagena, and Pedro Sanchez de Revora, the Priest, who was also found deep in the plot, ashore on that desolate coast. They supplied them plentifully with bread and wine; but as they were never afterwards heard of, there can be no doubt of their perishing miserably.

The squadron, consisting now of four ships, kept coasting along to the southward, with imminent danger of shipwreck, till towards the latter end of October, when they fell in with a promontory, which the General named Cape Virgin, because it was discovered on St. Ursula’s-day. This Cape opened an inlet, which Magellan judged favourable to his design. He cast anchor at the entrance of the inlet, and ordered two ships to examine its course. In five days these ships returned, and one of them affirmed it was a strait, because the flood was greater than the ebb; the other reported that they saw nothing but inlets and breakers. The General, on these different relations, determined to sail into the opening, in order to be more precisely informed. He accordingly weighed, and came to an anchor in a commodious bay, where he first sent his skiff with 10 men to reconnoitre the shore, and then the St. Antonio to trace out the inlet to a certain distance. When the men returned from the shore, they said, they had found a burying-place with more than 200 graves, and had seen the skeleton of a whale in a cove upon the beach, but had seen neither house nor inhabitant. The Captain of the St. Antonio on his return gave a more flattering account. He said, he had followed the inlet for more than 50 leagues; that its course was due east and west; and that he made not the least doubt but that it was the passage so much desired. This news was received with repeated acclamations. A council was called of the chief officers and pilots, in which a very warm debate arose, whether, in the circumstances the ships were then in, it were better to return to Spain, having obtained the main object of the voyage, or to proceed to complete what the General had undertaken to perform, namely, to trace out a western passage to the Molucca Islands. Estevan Gomez, the pilot of the St. Antonio, a man of excellent parts and sound judgment, insisted on returning back, and bringing another squadron to complete the discovery, alledging, that they had still a great and unknown sea to pass, and that, if either tempests or calms intervened to retard their passage over it, the whole fleet must inevitably perish. His opinion was supported by the whole council, Magellan only excepted, who declared, that, if he were sure to be reduced to the necessity of eating the hides that covered the yards, he would persevere in the discovery. He accordingly gave orders for weighing anchor immediately; and, proceeding down the strait, sent the Antonio to examine some inlets that promised a nearer passage to the main ocean than that they were pursuing; but the pilot Gomez, and the purser Guerra, seized and stabbed Alvara de Mesquita, the Commander, and carried home the ship. In the mean time, Magellan supposing some disaster had befallen her, went himself in pursuit of her; but after six days fruitless search, he determined to continue his voyage; “and it pleased God, says my author, that, at the end of twenty days, he entered into the Great South Sea, and was the first who had found the passage so much sought after, whereby the memory of this excellent Captain shall be eternally celebrated.”

Finding that the land trended northwards, Magellan directed his course accordingly, that he might as soon as possible clear those cold and dreary coasts that had caused so much murmuring among the mariners, and so much caballing among the officers; but before he reached the Tropic he met with most tempestuous weather, by which the three remaining ships were very much shattered in their sails and rigging. In this passage they discovered two uninhabited islands, St. Pedro and Tiburon, about the situation of which mariners are still divided; and it has been questioned, whether either of them have since been seen.

As they approached the Line, they found the wind to stand fair. Magellan then ordered the ships to change their course, and steer N. W. and W. N. W. till he reached the Line.

Harris takes notice that it was on the 28th of December when Magellan entered the Great South Sea, and that in this wide ocean the ships that accompanied him sailed three months and twenty days without seeing any other land than the two islands just mentioned, which afforded them no refreshment. At length, when they had undergone all the miseries that human nature is capable of sustaining, from hunger, thirst, and sickness, they fell in with the Ladrone islands, where they landed; but where the inhabitants were such thieves that they were in fear lest their ships should be pulled to pieces and carried away before their faces, the crews not having strength enough left to defend either their lives or their properties. They therefore shortened their stay among these plunderers; and were more fortunate in their next attempt.

On the 10th of March, landing on the island of Zamal, they found springs of delicate water, which to them were more precious than fountains of the choicest wines; fruit in abundance, that surpassed any they had till then tasted; and inhabitants humane and civil, who, pitying their distresses, brought their richest productions to relieve them. From this island they continued to steer between the west and south-west, till they arrived at Buthuan, or, as it has since been called, Buton, the King of which gave them honourable entertainment. They visited several other isles, and in all of them were well received; till at length coming to the Isle of Mathan, they were attacked by an army of Indians, against whom the General himself being engaged was shot with a poisoned arrow, and afterwards pierced in the head with a lance; and thus ended the life and actions of this gallant Commander, whose name will be perpetuated with honour to latest posterity. After his death, a company of his followers being invited to an entertainment on shore, were treacherously murdered by a pretended friendly King, and only Don Juan Serrano, of all who landed, was reserved alive, in order to procure a large supply of fire-arms and ammunition by way of ransom; but those who remained on board, fearful of being trepanned, would have no farther intercourse with the perfidious infidels so that poor Serrano was left to their mercy. Those on board the ships, 80 in number, directed their course towards the Moluccas, and arrived at Teridore, one of the principal of those islands, on the 8th of November, 1521. Here they were hospitably received, and here they staid till the middle of January, 1522; and, being now come into well known seas, we shall accompany them no farther; only remarking, that, of the whole squadron only one ship, namely the Victoria, had the good fortune to return to Spain; and of 234 officers and seamen, the complement at first setting out, if we except those who returned in the St. Antonio, of whom we have no account, only 13 Spaniards survived to return to Seville. Their Commander John Sebastian Cano was received with extraordinary marks of favour by the Emperor, who gave him for arms the Terrestrial Globe, with this motto, _Primus me circumdedistis_, and otherwise liberally rewarded him. The voyage he lived to make took up three years and thirty-seven days, and is, perhaps, the most remarkable that ever was performed.

This voyage opened a new field for discovery; the Spaniards, who were already settled on the western coasts of America, were very curious to examine what countries might be situated along that vast space which divided the new continent from the old; and accordingly Cortez, the celebrated conqueror of Peru, fitted out two ships for the purpose, the command of one of which he gave to Ferdinand Grijalva, the other to Don Alvarado.

Grijalva departed from Pageta, in 6 deg. N. lat. about the beginning of April, 1537, and steered W. and S. W. into 29 deg. S. lat. where his ship springing her mast, he stood again to the Line, in which tract a mutiny happening among the crew, Grijalva and his nephew were both assassinated; and the ship, after a passage of four months, was carried to Papua, where falling to pieces, the crew, reduced by famine and fatigue to seven men, took to their boat and coasted along the shore, till being boarded by a number of Indians, it was sunk. The Spaniards, however, were saved by the humanity of the captors, and sold for slaves. This ship, it is affirmed, sailed 1000 leagues on both sides the Line without seeing land. Among the islands, however, which they afterwards fell in with before they came to Papua, was that called Isla de los Pescadores, called in the late voyages BYRON’S ISLAND, and supposed to be a new discovery.

Alvarado was instructed to pursue his discoveries along the Line, without deviating either to the right or left, farther than the most advantageous method of navigating his ship required; and in that direction he discovered the islands of Papua. He also discovered other islands, named the Guelles, in 1 deg. N. lat. east and west from Teronate, and 125 leagues from that of Moro, with Hamei, 170 leagues from Tidore, and many others that have since been thought new discoveries. After his return, he was again employed upon services of the like kind, and was instrumental in establishing the trade of Manilla.

But of all the Spanish discoveries that have been made, or pretended to have been made, in the South Seas, that of Juan Fernandez, who first pointed out the way from Lima to Chili by sailing to the westward, _if real_, is by far the most important. This pilot, (the same who discovered the island which still bears his name) in the latitude of 40 deg. S. was brought, as it is said, in courses between west and south-west, upon the coast of a continent, from what he could judge, very fertile and delightful, inhabited by white people, hospitable, and well-disposed, of a middle stature, dressed in very fine cloaths, and so peaceable and civil, that, in every way they could express, they endeavoured to gratify the strangers, and to accommodate them with the best things their country afforded, the fruits whereof were excellent and abounding in the greatest profusion. It is added, that, being over-joyed with having discovered the coast of that great continent so much talked of, and so ardently sought after, he returned to Chili intending to make a second voyage properly fitted out to improve this fortunate discovery to his own and his country’s enrichment; but before he could persuade his friends to give entire credit to his report, he died, and the secret of the precise situation of his new continent perished with him, for it has never since been found; though Mr. Alexander Dalrymple, author of an Historical Collection of Voyages to the South Pacific Ocean, whose opinion is of no small weight, is persuaded that Fernandez did discover the SOUTHERN CONTINENT, and that, whenever it is again visited, it will be no new discovery, but a confirmation of the existence of that land which has already been found.

But, besides this dubious discovery, there is still another, which has not yet been clearly ascertained, and about which geographers are much divided. This discovery is attributed to Alvaro Mendana, who, in 1567, is said to have fallen in with a cluster of islands abounding with gold and pearl, which were named by him the Isles of Salomon; and for the settling of which an unsuccessful attempt was made by Mendana himself; and a second strongly solicited by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, the chief pilot who accompanied that General, and who afterwards made a voyage thither on his own account, in which he made many discoveries.

It was in April, 1595, that Mendana left Callao, in Peru, to settle the Salomon Isles. He had with him two large ships, a galleasta, and a frigate, on board of which were embarked from Lima 400 followers, including women and children. Of this embarkation Lope de la Vega, his brother-in-law, was Admiral; Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, chief pilot; and Pedro Merino Manriquez, Maitre de Campo. According to Figueroa, who wrote an account of this voyage, the Admiral’s ship was named the St. Isabella; Mendana’s ship, the St. Jerome; the galleasta, St. Philippe; and the frigate, St. Catalina: of the two last the Commanders were Capt. Philip Corço, and Lieut. Alonzo de Leyla. In this expedition Mendana was accompanied by his Lady Donna Isabella Barretos, with her three brothers; and, after parting company with the Admiral’s ship the very night they came in sight of the island on which they settled, Mendana cast anchor in a bay which he called _la Graciosa_, and the island he named Santa Cruz. Here on the 8th of October, the Maitre de Campo, and Thomas de Ampuero, were hanged, and Ensign Jean de Buy beheaded, for mutinous behaviour; and here Mendana himself died the 18th of the same month. Don Lorenzo, brother to Donna Isabella, who, by the loss of the Admiral, had succeeded as Captain-General, died also on the 2d of November; and, in less than seven days after, Father Antonio de Serra, Chief Priest, and Juan de Espinosa, his Vicar. In short, from change of climate, food, and customs; from labour, going in the sun, being wet without having wherewithal to shift themselves, sleeping on the ground, and from other disorders and sufferings, dangerous diseases attacked the whole company; they began to die a-pace, it being lamentable to see them in their distress creeping into huts, some delirious, and others at the last gasp; some going to the ships to seek health; others shifting from the ships to the shore; but no remedy, nor any physician to apply to for relief. In this calamitous state things were, when Donna Isabella, on the 18th of October, broke up the settlement; and embarking the few people that remained alive, on board the St. Jerome, the frigate, and the galleasta, they set sail, intending to pursue their course to Manilla: but the frigate soon lost company, and, it is said, was afterwards found on a desart coast with all her sails set, and the people on board dead and rotten and the galleasta put into an island near the coast of Mindanao. The St. Jerome, however, after suffering unspeakable hardships, got to Manilla, where Donna Isabella married Don Ferdinando de Castro, and returned in his ship to New Spain the very next year. The Admiral’s ship was never heard of.--Thus ended this unfortunate expedition.

The island of Santa Cruz, in which this settlement was attempted, is said to be 100 leagues in circumference, and to lie E. S. E. and W. N. W. in lat. 10 deg. 20 min. S. distant from Lima 1800 leagues. They cast anchor on the north side of it, in a harbour, to the north of which is a volcano, or burning mountain, that from its top frequently casts forth fire, and from the inside of which proceeds a noise sometimes louder than thunder. To the west of it the harbour is a small island about four leagues in compass, separated from the great island by sunken rocks and banks of sand. The port is formed at the bottom of the bay by a great river, and the country round it is fine and plentiful. A more exact description than this, one would think, could not have been given.