Chapter II: Part 2

“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:

The King:

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.

I, the King.
By order of the King,
+Frᶜᵒ de los Covos+.

(_Docket_).—In order that those of the fleet may follow the opinion
and determination of Magallan̄s, 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.

+Alvaro da Costa.+

_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 da 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 do 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, O 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,
Despuces 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 book-seller, 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 Christian 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 out trouue audict voyage, des Roys
dicelles, de leur gouuernment & maniere de viure, auec plusieurs
aultres choses.”

“Cum Priuilegio, ¶ on les vend a Paris en la maison de 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’s 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.