The rations of bread and wine were becoming very short, and
common prudence demanded that they should return to Spain.
common prudence demanded that they should return to Spain.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v06 to v10 - Cal to Fro
Fiske
made one original contribution in support of the Darwinian theory,
which is now recognized to be of high importance. This concerns
the subject of infancy. The idea is that actions which in the case of
the simpler animals are matured before birth, must in the higher and
more complex animals be acquired after birth. Hence the necessity
of a period of infancy, to be prolonged in proportion to the degree
of elevation of the animal in the scale of existence.
-
Since the publication of his 'Cosmic Philosophy,' Mr. Fiske's la-
bors have been given almost entirely to history. That his attention
has been turned to American history seems to have been due to
chance. If it had been left to him to select a subject, he would
probably have chosen the conflicts of Christianity and Mohammedan-
ism on the shores of the Mediterranean- a theme that has always had
a special attraction for him. But this was not to be. In the late
seventies an effort, which proved to be successful, was made to save
the Old South Meeting-House in Boston. Had the attempt been made
earlier it would probably have failed. But the fate of John Hancock's
house had served as an example, and by 1879 people were begin-
ning to feel that this country had a history that deserved attention.
Mr. Fiske was invited to deliver a course of lectures on American
political ideas at the Old South Meeting-House. Since that time he
has been writing American history. He has written The Beginnings
of New England,' 'The American Revolution,' 'The Critical Period
of the American Revolution,' etc. The book which perhaps has had
the widest attention is 'The Discovery of America. ' The first part
of this work is taken up with a description of the aboriginal society
which Columbus and his successors found on this continent. This
subject is closely connected with that of prehistoric society in Europe,
which attracted the writer very early in his career.
In 1869 he had sketched out a work on the early Aryans, when he
was turned aside for five years to write his 'Cosmic Philosophy. '
During that period he also wrote Myths and Myth-Makers,' as a side
work to his projected book on the Aryans. He again took up his
task in 1874, but laid it aside after he had reached the conclusion
that the subject could not be rightly treated without widening the
field of study. It was necessary to know more of the barbaric world.
With this view he set about the study of aboriginal American society,
with which, he contends, no other field can be compared for fruitful-
ness. The part of the 'Discovery of America' which treats of this
subject has great interest; but it is less generally attractive than his
narration of the romantic incidents and characters of the period of
discovery. Here we have at its best the writer's talent for clear
exposition and attractive narration. There is no better example of
## p. 5779 (#363) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5779
his literary powers than his account of the first voyage of Columbus.
It is worthy of the possibilities of the story. Of all stories with a
good ending, that, to an American mind at any rate, is perhaps the
best. If there is a piece of American literature which has taken a
strong hold of the popular mind, it is that chapter on the voyage of
Columbus in 'Peter Parley' now known to have been written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is high praise of Mr. Fiske, to say that his
more elaborate version of the ever-delightful story is worthy of the
ideal of dramatic interest left by that youthful reading.
Besides his investigations upon history and politics, science and phi-
losophy, Mr. Fiske has also been an inquirer upon religious themes.
Perhaps none of his writings have attracted more attention or been
read with a livelier interest than two little books which set forth his
views on this subject. They were first delivered as addresses before
the Concord School of Philosophy. The aim of The Destiny of Man'
is to show that the theory of natural selection consists perfectly with
the highest conception that can be formed of the dignity of human
nature. It is true that the Darwinian theory made some such altera-
tion in the position of man in the creation as had been done by the
Copernican theory. With the establishment of the Copernican theory,
man ceased to be the center of the universe. Darwin's theory taught
him that even on this planet he had not a separate origin from the
rest of animal existence. This view was at first regarded as a great
derogation from human dignity. But Mr. Fiske claims that it accords
with the highest conception of man's position in the universe. Man,
and especially his spiritual part, is by this view made the goal to
which nature has been all the while tending. The origin of man is
fixed at that moment when psychical variations become of more use
than physical ones. With this period is connected consciousness, the
great increase of brain surface, and the necessity of a period of in-
fancy. To the length of infancy of the human being Mr. Fiske attrib-
utes the rise of the family. Then comes the rise of the clan. Then
comes the period when during some time of peace, the clan learns
to obtain food by agriculture instead of by hunting; and we have the
beginnings of the State.
Again, the gentler sentiments which we recognize in men, the altru-
istic feelings, are due to the existence of infancy. These sentiments
can have, however, only a very feeble and narrow existence during
the period when man is a nomad and hunter, and when the strife
for life is necessarily ferocious. Agriculture, on the other hand, has
been a great educator of the milder qualities of mankind. So long
as strife raged over food already in existence, such as game, the
supply of which was limited, the battle must necessarily be to the
uttermost. But from the soil mankind could get food without strife.
## p. 5780 (#364) ###########################################
5780
JOHN FISKE
War, however, still does not cease. The strife which formerly raged
among families and clans continues between nations. But strife is
nevertheless on the wane. This sentence of Mr. Fiske, written twelve
years ago, is of especial interest in view of recent discussions:-
"Sooner or later it [strife] must come to an end, and the pacific prin-
ciple of federacy, whereby the questions between States are settled
like questions between individuals, by due process of law, must reign
supreme over all the earth. " Original sin is, according to Mr. Fiske,
that brute inheritance which we have received from our warring and
selfish ancestors. The disciple of Darwin finds new meanings in the
beatitude "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. "
A concluding chapter asserts a belief in a future life, while admitting
that it cannot be proved from the facts of nature. The creation of
man, and of the perfected man, is thus the goal towards which, dur-
ing all these ages, nature has been tending through natural selection.
When asked to make a second address before the Concord School
of Philosophy, he took for his subject 'The Idea of God as Affected
by Modern Knowledge. ' In this address he contends that science is
not atheistic, that there is no conflict between science and religion,
and that the notion that science substitutes force for the idea of a
God is a mistake. There has been, he says, a metaphysical miscon-
ception of the term "force. "
This brief reference to Mr. Fiske's philosophy is necessary to ac-
quaint the reader to whom the works of this able writer may not be
well known with the scope of his inquiries and the range of his sym-
pathies. The field of his investigations embraces the history of the
material universe, of organic life and of the mind of man. Man's
course he follows from the moment of dawning intelligence, studies
him in his prehistoric stage, and lastly, as a member of highly civil-
ized communities on this continent, at the same time throwing a
strong glance forward upon his individual and social destiny.
## p. 5781 (#365) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5781
FERDINAND MAGELLAN
From The Discover of America. Copyright 1892, by John Fiske. Re-
printed by permission of and special agreement with Houghton, Mifflin
& Co. , publishers, Boston.
F
ERDINAND MAGELLAN, as we call him in English, was a Portu-
guese nobleman of the fourth grade, but of family as old
and blood as blue as any in the peninsula. He was born
at Sabrosa, near Chaves, in one of the wildest and gloomiest
nooks of Tras-os-Montes, in or about the year 1480. The people
of that province have always been distinguished for a rugged
fidelity, combined with unconquerable toughness of fibre, that
reminds one of the Scotch; and from those lonely mountains
there never came forth a sturdier character than Ferdinand
Magellan. Difficulty and danger fit to baffle the keenest mind
and daunt the strongest heart only incited this man to efforts
well-nigh superhuman. In his portrait, as given in Navarrete,
with the great arching brows, the fiery black eyes, the firm-set
lips and mastiff jaw, covered but not concealed by the shaggy
beard, the strength is almost appalling.
Yet in all this power
there was nothing cruel. Magellan was kind-hearted and unself-
ish, and on more than one occasion we see him risking his life
in behalf of others with generosity worthy of a paladin.
Nothing is known of his childhood and youth except that at
an early age he went to Lisbon and was brought up in the royal
household. In 1505 he embarked as a volunteer in the armada
which the brilliant and high-souled Almeida, first Portuguese
viceroy of India, was taking to the East. There followed seven
years of service under this commander and his successor Albu-
querque. Seven years of anxious sailing over strange waters,
checkered with wild fights against Arabs and Malays, trained
Magellan for the supreme work that was to come. He was in
Sequeira's expedition to Malacca in 1508-9, the first time that
European ships had ventured east of Ceylon. While they were
preparing to take in a cargo of pepper and ginger, the astute
Malay king was plotting their destruction. His friendly overtures
deceived the frank and somewhat too unsuspicious Sequeira.
Malay sailors and traders were allowed to come on board the
four ships, and all but one of the boats were sent to the beach,
under command of Francisco Serrano, to hasten the bringing of
the cargo.
Upon the quarter-deck of his flagship Sequeira sat
## p. 5782 (#366) ###########################################
5782
JOHN FISKE
absorbed in a game of chess, with half a dozen dark faces intently
watching him, their deadly purpose veiled with polite words and
smiles. Ashore the houses rose terrace-like upon the hillside,
while in the foreground the tall tower of the citadel-square
with pyramidal apex, like an Italian bell-tower-glistened in the
September sunshine. The parties of Malays on the ships and
down on the bustling beach cast furtive glances at this summit,
from which a puff of smoke was presently to announce the fatal
moment. The captains and principal officers on shipboard were
at once to be stabbed and their vessels. seized, while the white
men ashore were to be massacred. But a Persian woman in love
with one of the officers had given tardy warning, so that just
before the firing of the signal the Portuguese sailors began chas-
ing the squads of Malays from their decks, while Magellan, in
the only boat, rowed for the flag-ship, and his stentorian shout
of "Treason! » came just in time to save Sequeira. Then in
wild confusion, as wreaths of white smoke curled about the fatal
tower, Serrano and a few of his party sprang upon their boats
and pushed out to sea. Most of their comrades, less fortunate,
were surrounded and slaughtered on the beach. Nimble Malay
skiffs pursued and engaged Serrano, and while he was struggling
against overwhelming odds, Magellan rowed up and joined battle
with such desperate fury that Serrano was saved. No sooner
were all the surviving Portuguese brought together on shipboard
than the Malays attacked in full force; but European guns were
too much for them, and after several of their craft had been
sent to the bottom they withdrew.
This affair was the beginning of a devoted friendship between
Magellan and Serrano, sealed by many touching and romantic
incidents, like the friendship between Gerard and Denys in 'The
Cloister and the Hearth'; and it was out of this friendship that
in great measure grew the most wonderful voyage recorded in
history. After Albuquerque had taken Malacca in 1511, Serrano
commanded one of the ships that made the first voyage to the
Moluccas. On his return course his vessel, loaded with spices,
was wrecked upon a lonely island which had long served as a
lair for pirates. Fragments of wreckage strewn upon the beach
lured ashore a passing gang of such ruffians; and while they
were intent upon delving and searching, Serrano's men, who had
hidden among the rocks, crept forth and seized the pirate ship.
The nearest place of retreat was the island of Amboina, and this
## p. 5783 (#367) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5783
accident led Serrano back to the Moluccas, where he established
himself as an ally or quasi-protector of the king of Ternate, and
remained for the rest of his short life. Letters from Serrano
aroused in Magellan a strong desire to follow his friend to that
new world" in the Indian waves, the goal so long dreamed of,
so eagerly sought by Columbus and many another, but now for
the first time actually reached and grasped. But circumstances
came in to modify most curiously this aim of Magellan's. He
had come to learn something about the great ocean intervening
between the Malay seas and Mundus Novus, but failed to form.
any conception of its width at all approaching the reality. It
therefore seemed to him that the line of demarcation antipodal
to Borgia's meridian must fall to the west of the Moluccas, and
that his friend Serrano had ventured into a region which must
ultimately be resigned to Spain. In this opinion he was wrong,
for the meridian which cuts through the site of Adelaide in
Australia would have come near the line that on that side of the
globe marked the end of the Portuguese half and the beginning
of the Spanish half; but the mistake was easy to make and hard
to correct.
About this time some cause unknown took Magellan back to
Lisbon, where we find him in the midsummer of 1512.
His hope
of a speedy return to India was disappointed. Whether on
account of a slight disagreement he had once had with Albu-
querque, or for some other reason, he found himself out of favor
with the King. A year or more of service in Morocco followed,
in the course of which a Moorish lance wounded Magellan in the
knee and lamed him for life. After his return to Portugal in
1514, it became evident that King Emanuel had no further em-
ployment for him. He became absorbed in the study of naviga-
tion and cosmography, in which he had always felt an interest.
It would have been strange if an inquiring mind, trained in the
court of Lisbon in those days, had not been stirred by the fas-
cination of such studies. How early in life Magellan had begun
to breathe in the art of seamanship with the salt breezes from
the Atlantic, we do not know; but at some time the results of
scientific study were combined with his long experience in East-
Indian waters to make him a consummate master. He conceived
the vast scheme of circumnavigating the globe. Somewhere upon
that long coast of Mundus Novus, explored by Vespucius and
Coelho, Jaques and Solis, there was doubtless a passage through
་
## p. 5784 (#368) ###########################################
5784
JOHN FISKE
which he could sail westward and greet his friend Serrano in the
Moluccas!
Upon both of Schöner's globes, of 1515 and 1520, such a strait
is depicted, connecting the southern Atlantic with an ocean to
the west of Mundus Novus. This has raised the question whether
any one had ever discovered it before Magellan. That there was
in many minds a belief in the existence of such a passage seems
certain; whether because the wish was father to the thought, or
because the mouth of La Plata had been reported as the mouth
of a strait, or because Jaques had perhaps looked into the strait
of Magellan, is by no means clear. But without threading that
blind and tortuous labyrinth, as Magellan did, for more than 300
geographical miles, successfully avoiding its treacherous bays and
channels with no outlet, no one could prove that there was a
practicable passage there; and there is no good reason for sup-
posing that any one had accomplished such a feat of navigation.
before Magellan.
The scheme of thus reaching the Moluccas by the westward
voyage was first submitted to King Emanuel. To him was
offered the first opportunity for ascertaining whether these islands.
lay within his half of the heathen world or not. He did not
smile upon the scheme, though he may have laughed at it.
papal bulls and the treaty of Tordesillas prohibited the Spaniards
from sailing to the Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope;
and unless they could get through the barrier of Mundus Novus.
there was no danger of their coming by a westerly route. Why
not let well enough alone? Apparently Emanuel did not put
much faith in the strait. We are told by Gaspar Correa that
Magellan then asked the royal permission to go and offer his
services to some other master. "The King said he might do
what he pleased. Upon this Magellan desired to kiss his hand
at parting, but the King would not offer it. "
The alternative was thus offered to Magellan of abandoning
his scheme of discovery or entering the service of Spain, and he
chose the latter course. For this he has been roundly abused,
not only by Portuguese writers from that day to this, but by
others who seem to forget that a man has as clear a right to
change his country and his allegiance as to move his home from
one town to another. In the relations between State and in-
dividual the duty is not all on one side. As Faria y Sousa,
more sensible than many of his countrymen, observes, the great
## p. 5785 (#369) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5785
>
navigator did all that honor demanded, when by a special clause.
in his agreement with Spain, he pledged himself to do nothing
prejudicial to the interests of Portugal.
It was in October 1517 that Magellan arrived in Seville and
became the guest of Diego Barbosa, alcaide of the arsenal there,
a Portuguese gentleman who had for several years been in the
Spanish service. Before Christmas of that year he was married
to his host's daughter Beatriz de Barbosa, who accompanied him
to the court. Magellan found favor in the eyes of the boy king
Charles V. , and even obtained active support from Bishop Fon-
seca, in spite of that prelate's ingrained hostility to noble schemes
and honorable men. It was decided to fit out an expedition to
pursue the search in which Solis had lately lost his life. More
than a year was consumed in the needful preparations; and it
was not until September 20th, 1519, that the little fleet cleared
the mouth of the Guadalquivir and stood out to sea.
There were five small ships, commanded as follows:
I. Trinidad, 110 tons, captain-general Ferdinand Magellan,
pilot Estevan Gomez.
2. San Antonio, 120 tons, captain Juan de Cartagena.
3. Concepcion, 90 tons, captain Gaspar Quesada.
4. Victoria, 85 tons, captain Luis de Mendoza.
5.
Santiago, 75 tons, captain Juan Serrano.
It is a striking illustration of the shiftlessness with which
things were apt to be done by the government, and the diffi-
culties under which great navigators accomplished their arduous
work, that these five ships were all old and decidedly the worse
for wear.
All seem to have been decked, with castles at the
stern and fore. About 280 men were on board, a motley crew
of Spaniards and Portuguese, Genoese and Sicilians, Flemings
and French, Germans and Greeks, with one Englishman from
Bristol, and a few negroes and Malays. Of Portuguese there
were at least seven-and-thirty, for the most part men attached to
Magellan and who had left their country with him. It was for-
tunate that he had so many such, for the wiles of King Emanuel
had pursued him into Spain and out upon the ocean. When
that sovereign learned that the voyage was really to be made,
he determined that it must not be allowed to succeed. Hired
ruffians lurked about street corners in Seville, waiting for a
chance that never came for rushing forth and stabbing the wary
navigator; orders were sent to captains in the East Indies -
## p. 5786 (#370) ###########################################
5786
JOHN FISKE
among them the gallant Sequeira whom Magellan had saved-
to intercept and arrest the fleet if it should ever reach those
waters; and worst of all, the seeds of mutiny were busily and
but too successfully sown in Magellan's own ships. Of the four
subordinate captains only one was faithful. Upon Juan Serrano,
the brother of his dearest friend, Magellan could absolutely rely.
The others, Cartagena, Mendoza, and Quesada, sailed out from
port with treason in their hearts. A few days after their start
a small caravel overtook the Trinidad, with an anxious message
to Magellan from his wife's father, Barbosa, begging him to be
watchful, since it had come to his knowledge that his captains.
had told their friends and relations that if they had any trouble
with him they would kill him. " For reply the commander coun-
seled Barbosa to be of good cheer, for be they true men or
false he feared them not, and would do his appointed work all
the same. For Beatriz, left with her little son Rodrigo, six
months old, the outlook must have been anxious enough.
«<
-
Our chief source of information for the events of the voyage
is the journal kept by a gentleman from Vicenza, the Chevalier
Antonio Pigafetta, who obtained permission to accompany the
expedition, "for to see the marvels of the ocean. " After leaving
the Canaries on the 3d of October the armada ran down toward
Sierra Leone and was becalmed, making only three leagues in
three weeks. Then "the upper air burst into life" and the frail
ships were driven along under bare poles, now and then dipping
their yard-arms. During a month of this dreadful weather, the
food and water grew scarce, and the rations were diminished.
The spirit of mutiny began to show itself. The Spanish captains
whispered among the crews that this man from Portugal had
not their interests at heart and was not loyal to the Emperor.
Toward the captain-general their demeanor grew more and more
insubordinate; and Cartagena one day, having come on board the
flag-ship, faced him with threats and insults. To his astonish-
ment Magellan promptly collared him, and sent him, a prisoner
in irons, on board the Victoria (whose captain was unfortunately.
also one of the traitors), while the command of the San Antonio
was given to another officer. This example made things quiet
for the moment.
On the 29th of November they reached the Brazilian coast
near Pernambuco; and on the 11th of January they arrived at
the mouth of La Plata, which they investigated sufficiently to
## p. 5787 (#371) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5787
convince them that it was a river's mouth and not a strait.
Three weeks were consumed in this work. Their course through
February and March along the coast of Patagonia was marked
by incessant and violent storms; and the cold became so intense
that, finding a sheltered harbor with plenty of fish at Port St.
Julian, they chose it for winter quarters and anchored there on
the last day of March. On the next day, which was Easter Sun-
day, the mutiny that so long had smoldered broke out in all its
fury.
The hardships of the voyage had thus far been what stanch
seamen called unusually severe, and it was felt that they had
done enough. No one except Vespucius and Jaques had ever
approached so near to the South Pole; and if they had not yet
found a strait, it was doubtless because there was none to find.
The rations of bread and wine were becoming very short, and
common prudence demanded that they should return to Spain.
If their voyage was practically a failure, it was not their fault;
there was ample excuse in the frightful storms they had suffered
and the dangerous strains that had been put upon their worn-out
ships. Such was the general feeling, but when expressed to
Magellan it fell upon deaf ears. No excuses, nothing but per-
formance, would serve his turn; for him hardships were made
only to be despised and dangers to be laughed at: and in short,
go on they must, until a strait was found or the end of that
continent reached. Then they would doubtless find an open way
to the Moluccas; and while he held out hopes of rich rewards.
for all, he appealed to their pride as Castilians. For the inflex-
ible determination of this man was not embittered by harshness,
and he could wield as well as any one the language that soothes
and persuades.
So long as all were busy in the fight against wind and wave,
the captain-general's arguments were of avail. But the delib-
erate halt to face the hardships of an antarctic winter, with
no prospect of stirring until toward September, was too much.
Patience under enforced inactivity was a virtue higher than these
sailors had yet been called upon to exhibit. The treacherous
captains had found their opportunity, and sowed distrust broad-
cast by hinting that a Portuguese commander could not better
serve his king than by leading a Spanish armada to destruction.
They had evidently secured their men and prepared their blow
before the fleet came to anchor. The ringleaders of the mutiny
## p. 5788 (#372) ###########################################
5788
JOHN FISKE
were the captains Quesada of the Concepcion and Mendoza of
the Victoria, with Juan de Cartagena, the deposed captain of the
San Antonio, which was now commanded by Magellan's cousin
Alvaro de Mesquita. On the night of Easter Sunday, Cartagena
and Quesada, with thirty men, boarded the San Antonio, seized
Mesquita and put him in irons; in the brief affray the mate of
the San Antonio was mortally wounded. One of the mutineers,
Sebastian Elcano, was put in command of the ship, such of the
surprised and bewildered crew as were likely to be loyal were
disarmed, and food and wine were handed about in token of
the more generous policy now to be adopted. All was done so
quickly and quietly that no suspicion of it reached the captain-
general or anybody on board the Trinidad.
On Monday morning the traitor captains felt themselves mas-
ters of the situation. Three of the five ships were in their
hands, and if they chose to go back to Spain, who could stop
them? If they should decide to capture the flag-ship and murder
their commander, they had a fair chance of success; for the faith-
ful Serrano in his little ship Santiago was no match for any one
of the three. Defiance seemed quite safe; and in the forenoon,
when a boat from the flag-ship happened to approach the San
Antonio she was insolently told to keep away, since Magellan no
longer had command over that ship. When this challenge was
carried to Magellan he sent the boat from ship to ship as a test,
and soon learned that only the Santiago remained loyal. Pres-
ently Quesada sent a message to the Trinidad requesting a con-
ference between the chief commander and the revolted captains.
Very well, said Magellan, only the conference must of course
be held on board the Trinidad; but for Quesada and his accom-
plices thus to venture in the lion's jaws was out of the ques-
tion, and they impudently insisted that the captain-general should
come on board the San Antonio.
Little did they realize with what a man they were dealing.
Magellan knew how to make them come to him. He had reason
to believe that the crew of the Victoria was less disloyal than
the others, and selected that ship for the scene of his first coup
de main. While he kept a boat in readiness, with a score of
trusty men armed to the teeth and led by his wife's brother
Barbosa, he sent another boat ahead to the Victoria, with his
alguazil or constable Espinosa, and five other men. Luis de Men-
doza, captain of the Victoria, suffered this small party to come.
## p. 5789 (#373) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5789
on board. Espinosa then served on Mendoza a formal sum-
mons to come to the flag-ship; and upon his refusal, quick as
lightning sprang upon him and plunged a dagger into his throat.
As the corpse of the rebellious captain dropped upon the deck,
Barbosa's party rushed over the ship's side with drawn cutlasses,
the dazed crew at once surrendered, and Barbosa took command.
The tables were now turned, and with three ships in loyal
hands Magellan blockaded the other two in the harbor. At night
he opened fire upon the San Antonio, and strong parties from
the Trinidad and the Victoria boarding her on both sides at
once, Quesada and his accomplices were captured. The Concep-
cion thereupon, overawed and crestfallen, lost no time in surren-
dering; and so the formidable mutiny was completely quelled in
less than four-and-twenty hours. Quesada was beheaded; Carta-
gena and a guilty priest, Pero Sanchez, were kept in irons until
the fleet sailed, when they were set ashore and left to their fate;
all the rest were pardoned, and open defiance of the captain-
general was no more dreamed of. In the course of the winter
the Santiago was wrecked while on a reconnoissance, but her
men were rescued after dreadful sufferings, and Serrano was
placed in command of the Concepcion.
At length on the 24th of August, with the earliest symptoms
of spring weather, the ships, which had been carefully over-
hauled and repaired, proceeded on their way. Violent storms
harassed them, and it was not until the 21st of October (St.
Ursula's day) that they reached the headland still known as Cape
Virgins. Passing beyond Dungeness they entered a large open
bay, which some hailed as the long-sought strait, while others
averred that no passage would be found there.
It was, says
Pigafetta, in Eden's version, "the straight now cauled the straight
of Magellanus, beinge in sum place C. x. leaques in length: and
in breadth sumwhere very large and in other places lyttle more
than halfe a leaque in bredth. On both the sydes of this strayght
are great and hygh mountaynes couered with snowe, beyonde the
whiche is the enteraunce into the sea of Sur.
Here one
of the shyppes stole away priuilic and returned into Spayne. "
More than five weeks were consumed in passing through the
strait, and among its labyrinthine twists and half-hidden bays
there was ample opportunity for desertion. As advanced recon-
noissances kept reporting the water as deep and salt, the convic-
tion grew that the strait was found, and then the question once
## p. 5790 (#374) ###########################################
5790
JOHN FISKE
more arose whether it would not be best to go back to Spain,
satisfied with this discovery, since with all these wretched delays
the provisions were again running short. Magellan's answer,
uttered in measured and quiet tones, was simply that he would
go on and do his work "if he had to eat the leather off the
ship's yards. " Upon the San Antonio there had always been a
large proportion of the malcontents, and the chief pilot, Estevan
Gomez, having been detailed for duty on that ship, lent himself
to their purposes.
The captain, Mesquita, was again seized and
put in irons, a new captain was chosen by the mutineers, and
Gomez piloted the ship back to Spain, where they arrived after
a voyage of six months, and screened themselves for a while by
lying about Magellan.
As for that commander, in Richard Eden's words, "when the
capitayne Magalianes was past the strayght and sawe the way
open to the other mayne sea, he was so gladde therof that for
ioy the teares fell from his eyes, and named the poynt of the
lande from whense he fyrst sawe that sea Capo Desiderato. Sup-
posing that the shyp which stole away had byn loste, they erected
a crosse uppon the top of a hyghe hyll to direct their course
in the straight yf it were theyr chaunce to coome that way. "
The broad expanse of waters before him seemed so pleasant to
Magellan, after the heavy storms through which he had passed,
that he called it by the name it still bears, Pacific. But the
worst hardships were still before him. Once more a Sea of
Darkness must be crossed by brave hearts sickening with hope
deferred. If the mid-Atlantic waters had been strange to Colum-
bus and his men, here before Magellan's people all was thrice
unknown.
«< They were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea;"
and as they sailed month after month over the waste of waters,
the huge size of our planet began to make itself felt. Until
after the middle of December they kept a northward course, near
the coast of the continent, running away from the antarctic cold.
Then northwesterly and westerly courses were taken, and on the
24th of January, 1521, a small wooded islet was found in water
where the longest plummet-lines failed to reach bottom. Already
the voyage since issuing from the strait was nearly twice as long
as that of Columbus in 1492 from the Canaries to Guanahani. .
## p. 5791 (#375) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5791
From the useless island, which they called San Pablo, a further
run of eleven days brought them to another uninhabited rock,
which they called Tiburones, from the quantity of sharks observed
in the neighborhood. There was neither food nor water to be
had there, and a voyage of unknown duration, in reality not less
than 5,000 English miles, was yet to be accomplished before a
trace of land was again to greet their yearning gaze. Their
sufferings may best be told in the quaint and touching words in
which Shakespeare read them:-"And hauynge in this tyme con-
sumed all theyr bysket and other vyttayles, they fell into such
necessitie that they were inforced to eate the pouder that re-
mayned therof beinge now full of woormes.
Theyre
freshe water was also putrifyed and become yelow. They dyd
eate skynnes and pieces of lether which were foulded abowt cer-
teyne great ropes of the shyps. [Thus did the captain-general's
words come true. ] But these skynnes being made verye harde
by reason of the soonne, rayne, and wynde, they hunge them by
a corde in the sea for the space of foure or fiue dayse to mollifie
them, and sodde them, and eate them. By reason of this famen
and vnclene feedynge, summe of theyr gummes grewe so ouer
theyr teethe [a symptom of scurvy], that they dyed miserably
for hunger. And by this occasion dyed xix. men, and
besyde these that dyed, xxv. or. xxx. were so sicke that they
were not able to doo any seruice with theyr handes or arms for
feeblenesse: So that was in maner none without sum disease. In
three monethes and xx. dayes, they sayled foure thousande
leaques in one goulfe by the sayde sea cauled Pacificum (that is)
peaceable, whiche may well bee so cauled forasmuch as in all
this tyme hauyng no syght of any lande, they had no misfortune
of wynde or any other tempest.
So that in fine, if god
of his mercy had not gyuen them good wether, it was necessary
that in this soo greate a sea they shuld all haue dyed for hun-
Whiche neuertheless they escaped soo hardely, that it may
bee doubted whether euer the like viage may be attempted with
so goode successe. "
ger.
One would gladly know-albeit Pigafetta's journal and the
still more laconic pilot's log-book leave us in the dark on this
point-how the ignorant and suffering crews interpreted this
everlasting stretch of sea, vaster, said Maximilian Transylvanus,
"than the human mind could conceive. " To them it may well
have seemed that the theory of a round and limited earth was
·
1
## p. 5792 (#376) ###########################################
5792
JOHN FISKE
wrong after all, and that their infatuated commander was leading
them out into the fathomless abysses of space, with no welcom-
ing shore beyond. But that heart of triple bronze, we may be
sure, did not flinch. The situation had got beyond the point
where mutiny could be suggested as a remedy. The very des-
perateness of it was all in Magellan's favor; for so far away had
they come from the known world that retreat meant certain
death. The only chance of escape lay in pressing forward. At
last, on the 6th of March, they came upon islands inhabited by
savages ignorant of the bow and arrow, but expert in handling
their peculiar light boats. Here the dreadful sufferings were
ended, for they found plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables,
besides meat. The people were such eager and pertinacious
thieves that their islands received the name by which they are
still known, the Islas de Ladrones, or isles of robbers.
On the 16th of March the three ships arrived at the islands
which some years afterward were named Philippines, after Philip
II. of Spain. Though these were islands unvisited by Europeans,
yet Asiatic traders from Siam and Sumatra, as well as from
China, were to be met there, and it was thus not long before
Magellan became aware of the greatness of his triumph. He
had passed the meridian of the Moluccas, and knew that these
islands lay to the southward within an easy sail. He had accom-
plished the circumnavigation of the earth through its unknown
portion, and the remainder of his route lay through seas already
traversed. An erroneous calculation of longitudes confirmed him
in the belief that the Moluccas, as well as the Philippines,
properly belonged to Spain. Meanwhile in these Philippines of
themselves he had discovered a region of no small commercial
importance. But his brief tarry in these interesting islands had
fatal results; and in the very hour of victory the conqueror
perished, slain in a fight with the natives, the reason of which
we can understand only by considering the close complication of
commercial and political interests with religious notions so com-
mon in that age.
As the typical Spaniard or Portuguese was then a persecutor
of heresy at home, so he was always more or less of a missionary
abroad, and the missionary spirit was in his case intimately
allied with the crusading spirit. If the heathen resisted the
gospel, it was quite right to slay and despoil them. Magellan's
nature was devoutly religious, and exhibited itself in the points.
## p. 5793 (#377) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5793
of strength and weakness most characteristic of his age. After
he had made a treaty of alliance with the king of the island of
Sebu, in which, among other things, the exclusive privilege of
trading there was reserved to the Spaniards, Magellan made the
unexpected discovery that the king and his people were ready
and even eager to embrace Christianity! They had conceived an
exalted idea of the powers and accomplishments of these white
strangers, and apparently wished to imitate them in all things.
So in less than a week's time a huge bonfire had been made of
the idols, a cross was set up in the market, and all the people
on the island were baptized! Now, the king of Sebu claimed
allegiance from chieftains on neighboring islands, who were slow
to render it; and having adopted the white man's "medicine," he
naturally wished to test its efficacy. What was Christianity good
for, if not to help you to humble your vassals? So the Christian
king of Sebu demanded homage from the pagan king of Matan;
and when the latter potentate scornfully refused, there was a
clear case for a crusade! The steadfast commander, the ally and
protector of his new convert, the peerless navigator, the knight
without fear and without reproach, now turned crusader as
quickly as he had turned missionary. Indeed, there was no
turning. These various aspects of life's work were all one to
him; he would have summed up the whole thing as "serving God
and doing his duty. " So Magellan crossed over to the island
of Matan on the 27th of April, 1521, and was encountered by
the natives in overwhelming force. After a desperate fight the
Spaniards were obliged to retreat to their boats; and their com-
mander, who years before had been the last man to leave a sink-
ing ship, now lingered on the brink of danger, screening his men,
till his helmet was knocked off and his right arm disabled by a
spear thrust.
A sudden blow brought him to the ground; and
then, says the Chevalier Pigafetta, "the Indians threw themselves
upon him with iron-pointed bamboo spears and scimitars, and
every weapon they had, and ran him through-our mirror, our
light, our comforter, our true guide-until they killed him. ”
In these scenes, as so often in life, the grotesque and the
tragic were strangely mixed. The defeat of the white men con-
vinced the king of Sebu that he had overestimated the blessings
of Christianity; and so, by way of atonement for the slight he
had cast upon the gods of his fathers, he invited some thirty of
the leading Spaniards to a banquet and massacred them. Among
X-363
## p. 5794 (#378) ###########################################
5794
JOHN FISKE
the men thus cruelly slain were the faithful captains Barbosa and
Serrano. As the ships sailed hastily away, the natives were seen
chopping down the cross and conducting ceremonies in expiation
of their brief apostasy. The blow was a sad one. Of the 280
men who had sailed out from the Guadalquivir, only 115 re-
mained. At the same time the Concepcion, being adjudged no
longer seaworthy, was dismantled and burned to the water's
edge. The constable Espinosa was elected captain of the Vic-
toria; and the pilot Carvalho was made captain-general, but
proving incompetent, was presently superseded by that Sebastian
Elcano who had been one of the mutineers at Port St. Julian.
When the Trinidad and Victoria, after visiting Borneo, reached
the Moluccas, they found that Francisco Serrano had been mur-
dered by order of the king of Tidor at about the same time that
his friend Magellan had fallen at Matan. The Spaniards spent
some time in these islands, trading. When they were ready to
start, on the 18th of December, the Trinidad sprang a leak. It
was thereupon decided that the Victoria should make for the
Cape of Good Hope without delay, in order not to lose the
favorable east monsoon. The Trinidad was to be thoroughly
repaired, and then take advantage of the reversal of monsoon to
sail for Panama. Apparently it was thought that the easterly
breeze which had wafted them so steadily across the Pacific was
a monsoon and would change like the Indian winds,-a most dis-
astrous error. Of the 101 men still surviving, 54 were assigned
to the Trinidad and 47 to the Victoria. The former ship was
commanded by Espinosa, the latter by Elcano.
When the Trinidad set sail, April 6, 1522, she had the west-
erly monsoon in her favor; but as she worked up into the
northern Pacific she encountered the northeast trade-wind, and
in trying to escape it groped her way up to the fortieth parallel
and beyond. By that time, overcome with famine and scurvy,
she faced about and ran back to the Moluccas. When she
arrived, it was without her mainmast. Of her 54 men, all but 19
had found a watery grave; and now the survivors were seized by
a party of Portuguese, and a new chapter of misery was begun.
Only the captain Espinosa and three of the crew lived to see
Spain again.
Meanwhile on the 16th of May the little Victoria, with starva-
tion and scurvy already thinning the ranks, with foretopmast
gone by the board and fore-yard badly sprung, cleared the Cape
## p. 5795 (#379) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5795
of Good Hope, and thence was borne on the strong and friendly
current up to the equator, which she crossed on the 8th of June.
Only fifty years since Santarem and Escobar, first of Europeans,
had crept down that coast and crossed it. Into that glorious
half-century what a world of suffering and achievement had
been crowded! Dire necessity compelled the Victoria to stop at
the Cape Verde Islands. Her people sought safety in deceiving
the Portuguese with the story that they were returning from a
voyage in Atlantic waters only, and thus they succeeded in buy-
ing food.
But while this was going on, as a boat-load of thirteen
men had been sent ashore for rice, some silly tongue, loosened
by wine in the head of a sailor who had cloves to sell, babbled
the perilous secret of Magellan and the Moluccas. The thirteen
were at once arrested, and a boat called upon the Victoria, with
direful threats, to surrender; but she quickly stretched every
inch of her canvas and got away. This was on the 13th of July,
and eight weeks of ocean remained. At last, on the 6th of Sep-
tember-the thirtieth anniversary of the day when Columbus
weighed anchor for Cipango-the Victoria sailed into the Gua-
dalquivir, with eighteen gaunt and haggard survivors to tell the
proud story of the first circumnavigation of the earth.
The voyage thus ended was doubtless the greatest feat of
navigation that has ever been performed, and nothing can be
imagined that would surpass it except a journey to some other
planet. It has not the unique historic position of the first voyage
of Columbus, which brought together two streams of human life
that had been disjoined since the Glacial Period. But as an
achievement in ocean navigation that voyage of Columbus sinks
into insignificance by the side of it; and when the earth was a
second time encompassed by the greatest English sailor of his
age, the advance in knowledge, as well as the different route
chosen, had much reduced the difficulty of the performance.
When we consider the frailness of the ships, the immeasurable
extent of the unknown, the mutinies that were prevented or
quelled, and the hardships that were endured, we can have no
hesitation in speaking of Magellan as the prince of navigators.
Nor can we ever fail to admire the simplicity and purity of that
devoted life, in which there is nothing that seeks to be hidden or
explained away.
It would have been fitting that the proudest crest ever granted
by a sovereign—a terrestrial globe belted with the legend Primus
## p. 5796 (#380) ###########################################
5796
JOHN FISKE
circumdedisti me (Thou first encompassed me) — should have been
bestowed upon the son and representative of the hero; but
when the Victoria returned there was none to receive such recog-
nition. In September 1521, Magellan's son, the little Rodrigo,
died; and by March 1522 the gentle mother Beatriz had heard,
by way of the Portuguese Indies, of the fate of her husband and
her brother. In that same month-"grievously sorrowing," as
we are told-she died. The coat-of-arms with the crest just
mentioned, along with a pension of five hundred ducats, was
granted to Elcano, a weak man who had ill deserved such honor.
Espinosa was also, with more justice, pensioned and ennobled.
$
## p. 5797 (#381) ###########################################
5797
EDWARD FITZGERALD
(1809-1883)
BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
DWARD FITZGERALD was the third son of John Purcell, and
Mary Frances Fitzgerald his cousin. He was born March
31st, 1809, at Bredfield House near Suffolk. When the boy
was five years old, Mr. Purcell took his family to France. In Paris
they occupied the house in which Robespierre had once lived. The
following year Mrs. Purcell's father died, and her husband assumed
the name and arms of the Fitzgeralds. Edward frequently referred
to his Irish blood: he called himself "a scatter-brained Paddy! "
In 1821 he was sent to King Edward VI. 's
School at Bury St. Edmunds, where his two
brothers were. He was there five years, and
then went to Trinity College. Fitzgerald
obtained his degree somewhat to his own
surprise, for he had taken his course in a
characteristically comfortable manner; as Mr.
Wright says, amusing himself with music
and drawing and poetry. " After a brief visit
at Paris, he returned to England and began
to carry out the experiment of his semi-
misanthropic retreat from the world; he be-
came a vegetarian: "The great secret of it
all," he said, "is not eating meat! " He
wrote his friend Allen:-"I cannot stand see-
ing new faces in the polite circles. You must know I am going to
become a great bear, and have got all sorts of Utopian ideas into my
head about society. " As he lived, he grew shyer and shyer even with
his friends.
«<
EDWARD FITZGERALD
He went to live near Naseby, where his father had an estate
which included a large part of the celebrated battle-field. It was
there in 1831 that he wrote his earliest known poem; it was printed
in Hone's Year Book, and shortly afterwards in the Athenæum.
The dates of his letters to Frederic Tennyson and other friends
show the pleasant rounds of his residences: now at Southampton,
now in London, where his mother kept up great style, driving her
four horses; now at Geldestone, now at Wherstead Lodge near Ips-
wich, where his parents lived for ten years; then at Boulge Hall,
Woodbridge. At Boulge he lived in a one-story thatched cottage,
## p. 5798 (#382) ###########################################
5798
EDWARD FITZGERALD
just outside his father's park. The Rev. George Crabbe gives this
picture of him: :-
"He used to walk by himself, slowly, with a Skye terrier. I was rather
afraid of him. He seemed a proud and very punctilious man.
. He
seemed to me when I first saw him as he was when he died, only not stoop-
ing: always like a grave middle-aged man; never seemed very happy or
light-hearted, though his conversation was most amusing sometimes. »
In 1847 he contributed a number of notes and illustrations to
Singer's edition of Selden's Table Talk,' but refused to allow his
services to be acknowledged. He also wrote what he calls "a little
dapper memoir" as a preface to the posthumously published 'Poems
and Letters' of Bernard Barton the Quaker, whose daughter he mar-
ried. In 1851 he published anonymously a little volume of less than
a hundred pages, called 'Euphranor. ' Couched in exquisite English,
it appealed to a small but cultured audience. A second edition was
called for, and then the demand for it ceased.
Under the stimulating friendship of the learned Professor E. B.
Cowell, he took up the study of Spanish, and in 1863 published a
translation of Six Dramas from Calderon. ' This was the only book
to which he ever put his name. The same year he was amusing him-
self with poking out some Persian which E.
made one original contribution in support of the Darwinian theory,
which is now recognized to be of high importance. This concerns
the subject of infancy. The idea is that actions which in the case of
the simpler animals are matured before birth, must in the higher and
more complex animals be acquired after birth. Hence the necessity
of a period of infancy, to be prolonged in proportion to the degree
of elevation of the animal in the scale of existence.
-
Since the publication of his 'Cosmic Philosophy,' Mr. Fiske's la-
bors have been given almost entirely to history. That his attention
has been turned to American history seems to have been due to
chance. If it had been left to him to select a subject, he would
probably have chosen the conflicts of Christianity and Mohammedan-
ism on the shores of the Mediterranean- a theme that has always had
a special attraction for him. But this was not to be. In the late
seventies an effort, which proved to be successful, was made to save
the Old South Meeting-House in Boston. Had the attempt been made
earlier it would probably have failed. But the fate of John Hancock's
house had served as an example, and by 1879 people were begin-
ning to feel that this country had a history that deserved attention.
Mr. Fiske was invited to deliver a course of lectures on American
political ideas at the Old South Meeting-House. Since that time he
has been writing American history. He has written The Beginnings
of New England,' 'The American Revolution,' 'The Critical Period
of the American Revolution,' etc. The book which perhaps has had
the widest attention is 'The Discovery of America. ' The first part
of this work is taken up with a description of the aboriginal society
which Columbus and his successors found on this continent. This
subject is closely connected with that of prehistoric society in Europe,
which attracted the writer very early in his career.
In 1869 he had sketched out a work on the early Aryans, when he
was turned aside for five years to write his 'Cosmic Philosophy. '
During that period he also wrote Myths and Myth-Makers,' as a side
work to his projected book on the Aryans. He again took up his
task in 1874, but laid it aside after he had reached the conclusion
that the subject could not be rightly treated without widening the
field of study. It was necessary to know more of the barbaric world.
With this view he set about the study of aboriginal American society,
with which, he contends, no other field can be compared for fruitful-
ness. The part of the 'Discovery of America' which treats of this
subject has great interest; but it is less generally attractive than his
narration of the romantic incidents and characters of the period of
discovery. Here we have at its best the writer's talent for clear
exposition and attractive narration. There is no better example of
## p. 5779 (#363) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5779
his literary powers than his account of the first voyage of Columbus.
It is worthy of the possibilities of the story. Of all stories with a
good ending, that, to an American mind at any rate, is perhaps the
best. If there is a piece of American literature which has taken a
strong hold of the popular mind, it is that chapter on the voyage of
Columbus in 'Peter Parley' now known to have been written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is high praise of Mr. Fiske, to say that his
more elaborate version of the ever-delightful story is worthy of the
ideal of dramatic interest left by that youthful reading.
Besides his investigations upon history and politics, science and phi-
losophy, Mr. Fiske has also been an inquirer upon religious themes.
Perhaps none of his writings have attracted more attention or been
read with a livelier interest than two little books which set forth his
views on this subject. They were first delivered as addresses before
the Concord School of Philosophy. The aim of The Destiny of Man'
is to show that the theory of natural selection consists perfectly with
the highest conception that can be formed of the dignity of human
nature. It is true that the Darwinian theory made some such altera-
tion in the position of man in the creation as had been done by the
Copernican theory. With the establishment of the Copernican theory,
man ceased to be the center of the universe. Darwin's theory taught
him that even on this planet he had not a separate origin from the
rest of animal existence. This view was at first regarded as a great
derogation from human dignity. But Mr. Fiske claims that it accords
with the highest conception of man's position in the universe. Man,
and especially his spiritual part, is by this view made the goal to
which nature has been all the while tending. The origin of man is
fixed at that moment when psychical variations become of more use
than physical ones. With this period is connected consciousness, the
great increase of brain surface, and the necessity of a period of in-
fancy. To the length of infancy of the human being Mr. Fiske attrib-
utes the rise of the family. Then comes the rise of the clan. Then
comes the period when during some time of peace, the clan learns
to obtain food by agriculture instead of by hunting; and we have the
beginnings of the State.
Again, the gentler sentiments which we recognize in men, the altru-
istic feelings, are due to the existence of infancy. These sentiments
can have, however, only a very feeble and narrow existence during
the period when man is a nomad and hunter, and when the strife
for life is necessarily ferocious. Agriculture, on the other hand, has
been a great educator of the milder qualities of mankind. So long
as strife raged over food already in existence, such as game, the
supply of which was limited, the battle must necessarily be to the
uttermost. But from the soil mankind could get food without strife.
## p. 5780 (#364) ###########################################
5780
JOHN FISKE
War, however, still does not cease. The strife which formerly raged
among families and clans continues between nations. But strife is
nevertheless on the wane. This sentence of Mr. Fiske, written twelve
years ago, is of especial interest in view of recent discussions:-
"Sooner or later it [strife] must come to an end, and the pacific prin-
ciple of federacy, whereby the questions between States are settled
like questions between individuals, by due process of law, must reign
supreme over all the earth. " Original sin is, according to Mr. Fiske,
that brute inheritance which we have received from our warring and
selfish ancestors. The disciple of Darwin finds new meanings in the
beatitude "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. "
A concluding chapter asserts a belief in a future life, while admitting
that it cannot be proved from the facts of nature. The creation of
man, and of the perfected man, is thus the goal towards which, dur-
ing all these ages, nature has been tending through natural selection.
When asked to make a second address before the Concord School
of Philosophy, he took for his subject 'The Idea of God as Affected
by Modern Knowledge. ' In this address he contends that science is
not atheistic, that there is no conflict between science and religion,
and that the notion that science substitutes force for the idea of a
God is a mistake. There has been, he says, a metaphysical miscon-
ception of the term "force. "
This brief reference to Mr. Fiske's philosophy is necessary to ac-
quaint the reader to whom the works of this able writer may not be
well known with the scope of his inquiries and the range of his sym-
pathies. The field of his investigations embraces the history of the
material universe, of organic life and of the mind of man. Man's
course he follows from the moment of dawning intelligence, studies
him in his prehistoric stage, and lastly, as a member of highly civil-
ized communities on this continent, at the same time throwing a
strong glance forward upon his individual and social destiny.
## p. 5781 (#365) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5781
FERDINAND MAGELLAN
From The Discover of America. Copyright 1892, by John Fiske. Re-
printed by permission of and special agreement with Houghton, Mifflin
& Co. , publishers, Boston.
F
ERDINAND MAGELLAN, as we call him in English, was a Portu-
guese nobleman of the fourth grade, but of family as old
and blood as blue as any in the peninsula. He was born
at Sabrosa, near Chaves, in one of the wildest and gloomiest
nooks of Tras-os-Montes, in or about the year 1480. The people
of that province have always been distinguished for a rugged
fidelity, combined with unconquerable toughness of fibre, that
reminds one of the Scotch; and from those lonely mountains
there never came forth a sturdier character than Ferdinand
Magellan. Difficulty and danger fit to baffle the keenest mind
and daunt the strongest heart only incited this man to efforts
well-nigh superhuman. In his portrait, as given in Navarrete,
with the great arching brows, the fiery black eyes, the firm-set
lips and mastiff jaw, covered but not concealed by the shaggy
beard, the strength is almost appalling.
Yet in all this power
there was nothing cruel. Magellan was kind-hearted and unself-
ish, and on more than one occasion we see him risking his life
in behalf of others with generosity worthy of a paladin.
Nothing is known of his childhood and youth except that at
an early age he went to Lisbon and was brought up in the royal
household. In 1505 he embarked as a volunteer in the armada
which the brilliant and high-souled Almeida, first Portuguese
viceroy of India, was taking to the East. There followed seven
years of service under this commander and his successor Albu-
querque. Seven years of anxious sailing over strange waters,
checkered with wild fights against Arabs and Malays, trained
Magellan for the supreme work that was to come. He was in
Sequeira's expedition to Malacca in 1508-9, the first time that
European ships had ventured east of Ceylon. While they were
preparing to take in a cargo of pepper and ginger, the astute
Malay king was plotting their destruction. His friendly overtures
deceived the frank and somewhat too unsuspicious Sequeira.
Malay sailors and traders were allowed to come on board the
four ships, and all but one of the boats were sent to the beach,
under command of Francisco Serrano, to hasten the bringing of
the cargo.
Upon the quarter-deck of his flagship Sequeira sat
## p. 5782 (#366) ###########################################
5782
JOHN FISKE
absorbed in a game of chess, with half a dozen dark faces intently
watching him, their deadly purpose veiled with polite words and
smiles. Ashore the houses rose terrace-like upon the hillside,
while in the foreground the tall tower of the citadel-square
with pyramidal apex, like an Italian bell-tower-glistened in the
September sunshine. The parties of Malays on the ships and
down on the bustling beach cast furtive glances at this summit,
from which a puff of smoke was presently to announce the fatal
moment. The captains and principal officers on shipboard were
at once to be stabbed and their vessels. seized, while the white
men ashore were to be massacred. But a Persian woman in love
with one of the officers had given tardy warning, so that just
before the firing of the signal the Portuguese sailors began chas-
ing the squads of Malays from their decks, while Magellan, in
the only boat, rowed for the flag-ship, and his stentorian shout
of "Treason! » came just in time to save Sequeira. Then in
wild confusion, as wreaths of white smoke curled about the fatal
tower, Serrano and a few of his party sprang upon their boats
and pushed out to sea. Most of their comrades, less fortunate,
were surrounded and slaughtered on the beach. Nimble Malay
skiffs pursued and engaged Serrano, and while he was struggling
against overwhelming odds, Magellan rowed up and joined battle
with such desperate fury that Serrano was saved. No sooner
were all the surviving Portuguese brought together on shipboard
than the Malays attacked in full force; but European guns were
too much for them, and after several of their craft had been
sent to the bottom they withdrew.
This affair was the beginning of a devoted friendship between
Magellan and Serrano, sealed by many touching and romantic
incidents, like the friendship between Gerard and Denys in 'The
Cloister and the Hearth'; and it was out of this friendship that
in great measure grew the most wonderful voyage recorded in
history. After Albuquerque had taken Malacca in 1511, Serrano
commanded one of the ships that made the first voyage to the
Moluccas. On his return course his vessel, loaded with spices,
was wrecked upon a lonely island which had long served as a
lair for pirates. Fragments of wreckage strewn upon the beach
lured ashore a passing gang of such ruffians; and while they
were intent upon delving and searching, Serrano's men, who had
hidden among the rocks, crept forth and seized the pirate ship.
The nearest place of retreat was the island of Amboina, and this
## p. 5783 (#367) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5783
accident led Serrano back to the Moluccas, where he established
himself as an ally or quasi-protector of the king of Ternate, and
remained for the rest of his short life. Letters from Serrano
aroused in Magellan a strong desire to follow his friend to that
new world" in the Indian waves, the goal so long dreamed of,
so eagerly sought by Columbus and many another, but now for
the first time actually reached and grasped. But circumstances
came in to modify most curiously this aim of Magellan's. He
had come to learn something about the great ocean intervening
between the Malay seas and Mundus Novus, but failed to form.
any conception of its width at all approaching the reality. It
therefore seemed to him that the line of demarcation antipodal
to Borgia's meridian must fall to the west of the Moluccas, and
that his friend Serrano had ventured into a region which must
ultimately be resigned to Spain. In this opinion he was wrong,
for the meridian which cuts through the site of Adelaide in
Australia would have come near the line that on that side of the
globe marked the end of the Portuguese half and the beginning
of the Spanish half; but the mistake was easy to make and hard
to correct.
About this time some cause unknown took Magellan back to
Lisbon, where we find him in the midsummer of 1512.
His hope
of a speedy return to India was disappointed. Whether on
account of a slight disagreement he had once had with Albu-
querque, or for some other reason, he found himself out of favor
with the King. A year or more of service in Morocco followed,
in the course of which a Moorish lance wounded Magellan in the
knee and lamed him for life. After his return to Portugal in
1514, it became evident that King Emanuel had no further em-
ployment for him. He became absorbed in the study of naviga-
tion and cosmography, in which he had always felt an interest.
It would have been strange if an inquiring mind, trained in the
court of Lisbon in those days, had not been stirred by the fas-
cination of such studies. How early in life Magellan had begun
to breathe in the art of seamanship with the salt breezes from
the Atlantic, we do not know; but at some time the results of
scientific study were combined with his long experience in East-
Indian waters to make him a consummate master. He conceived
the vast scheme of circumnavigating the globe. Somewhere upon
that long coast of Mundus Novus, explored by Vespucius and
Coelho, Jaques and Solis, there was doubtless a passage through
་
## p. 5784 (#368) ###########################################
5784
JOHN FISKE
which he could sail westward and greet his friend Serrano in the
Moluccas!
Upon both of Schöner's globes, of 1515 and 1520, such a strait
is depicted, connecting the southern Atlantic with an ocean to
the west of Mundus Novus. This has raised the question whether
any one had ever discovered it before Magellan. That there was
in many minds a belief in the existence of such a passage seems
certain; whether because the wish was father to the thought, or
because the mouth of La Plata had been reported as the mouth
of a strait, or because Jaques had perhaps looked into the strait
of Magellan, is by no means clear. But without threading that
blind and tortuous labyrinth, as Magellan did, for more than 300
geographical miles, successfully avoiding its treacherous bays and
channels with no outlet, no one could prove that there was a
practicable passage there; and there is no good reason for sup-
posing that any one had accomplished such a feat of navigation.
before Magellan.
The scheme of thus reaching the Moluccas by the westward
voyage was first submitted to King Emanuel. To him was
offered the first opportunity for ascertaining whether these islands.
lay within his half of the heathen world or not. He did not
smile upon the scheme, though he may have laughed at it.
papal bulls and the treaty of Tordesillas prohibited the Spaniards
from sailing to the Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope;
and unless they could get through the barrier of Mundus Novus.
there was no danger of their coming by a westerly route. Why
not let well enough alone? Apparently Emanuel did not put
much faith in the strait. We are told by Gaspar Correa that
Magellan then asked the royal permission to go and offer his
services to some other master. "The King said he might do
what he pleased. Upon this Magellan desired to kiss his hand
at parting, but the King would not offer it. "
The alternative was thus offered to Magellan of abandoning
his scheme of discovery or entering the service of Spain, and he
chose the latter course. For this he has been roundly abused,
not only by Portuguese writers from that day to this, but by
others who seem to forget that a man has as clear a right to
change his country and his allegiance as to move his home from
one town to another. In the relations between State and in-
dividual the duty is not all on one side. As Faria y Sousa,
more sensible than many of his countrymen, observes, the great
## p. 5785 (#369) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5785
>
navigator did all that honor demanded, when by a special clause.
in his agreement with Spain, he pledged himself to do nothing
prejudicial to the interests of Portugal.
It was in October 1517 that Magellan arrived in Seville and
became the guest of Diego Barbosa, alcaide of the arsenal there,
a Portuguese gentleman who had for several years been in the
Spanish service. Before Christmas of that year he was married
to his host's daughter Beatriz de Barbosa, who accompanied him
to the court. Magellan found favor in the eyes of the boy king
Charles V. , and even obtained active support from Bishop Fon-
seca, in spite of that prelate's ingrained hostility to noble schemes
and honorable men. It was decided to fit out an expedition to
pursue the search in which Solis had lately lost his life. More
than a year was consumed in the needful preparations; and it
was not until September 20th, 1519, that the little fleet cleared
the mouth of the Guadalquivir and stood out to sea.
There were five small ships, commanded as follows:
I. Trinidad, 110 tons, captain-general Ferdinand Magellan,
pilot Estevan Gomez.
2. San Antonio, 120 tons, captain Juan de Cartagena.
3. Concepcion, 90 tons, captain Gaspar Quesada.
4. Victoria, 85 tons, captain Luis de Mendoza.
5.
Santiago, 75 tons, captain Juan Serrano.
It is a striking illustration of the shiftlessness with which
things were apt to be done by the government, and the diffi-
culties under which great navigators accomplished their arduous
work, that these five ships were all old and decidedly the worse
for wear.
All seem to have been decked, with castles at the
stern and fore. About 280 men were on board, a motley crew
of Spaniards and Portuguese, Genoese and Sicilians, Flemings
and French, Germans and Greeks, with one Englishman from
Bristol, and a few negroes and Malays. Of Portuguese there
were at least seven-and-thirty, for the most part men attached to
Magellan and who had left their country with him. It was for-
tunate that he had so many such, for the wiles of King Emanuel
had pursued him into Spain and out upon the ocean. When
that sovereign learned that the voyage was really to be made,
he determined that it must not be allowed to succeed. Hired
ruffians lurked about street corners in Seville, waiting for a
chance that never came for rushing forth and stabbing the wary
navigator; orders were sent to captains in the East Indies -
## p. 5786 (#370) ###########################################
5786
JOHN FISKE
among them the gallant Sequeira whom Magellan had saved-
to intercept and arrest the fleet if it should ever reach those
waters; and worst of all, the seeds of mutiny were busily and
but too successfully sown in Magellan's own ships. Of the four
subordinate captains only one was faithful. Upon Juan Serrano,
the brother of his dearest friend, Magellan could absolutely rely.
The others, Cartagena, Mendoza, and Quesada, sailed out from
port with treason in their hearts. A few days after their start
a small caravel overtook the Trinidad, with an anxious message
to Magellan from his wife's father, Barbosa, begging him to be
watchful, since it had come to his knowledge that his captains.
had told their friends and relations that if they had any trouble
with him they would kill him. " For reply the commander coun-
seled Barbosa to be of good cheer, for be they true men or
false he feared them not, and would do his appointed work all
the same. For Beatriz, left with her little son Rodrigo, six
months old, the outlook must have been anxious enough.
«<
-
Our chief source of information for the events of the voyage
is the journal kept by a gentleman from Vicenza, the Chevalier
Antonio Pigafetta, who obtained permission to accompany the
expedition, "for to see the marvels of the ocean. " After leaving
the Canaries on the 3d of October the armada ran down toward
Sierra Leone and was becalmed, making only three leagues in
three weeks. Then "the upper air burst into life" and the frail
ships were driven along under bare poles, now and then dipping
their yard-arms. During a month of this dreadful weather, the
food and water grew scarce, and the rations were diminished.
The spirit of mutiny began to show itself. The Spanish captains
whispered among the crews that this man from Portugal had
not their interests at heart and was not loyal to the Emperor.
Toward the captain-general their demeanor grew more and more
insubordinate; and Cartagena one day, having come on board the
flag-ship, faced him with threats and insults. To his astonish-
ment Magellan promptly collared him, and sent him, a prisoner
in irons, on board the Victoria (whose captain was unfortunately.
also one of the traitors), while the command of the San Antonio
was given to another officer. This example made things quiet
for the moment.
On the 29th of November they reached the Brazilian coast
near Pernambuco; and on the 11th of January they arrived at
the mouth of La Plata, which they investigated sufficiently to
## p. 5787 (#371) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5787
convince them that it was a river's mouth and not a strait.
Three weeks were consumed in this work. Their course through
February and March along the coast of Patagonia was marked
by incessant and violent storms; and the cold became so intense
that, finding a sheltered harbor with plenty of fish at Port St.
Julian, they chose it for winter quarters and anchored there on
the last day of March. On the next day, which was Easter Sun-
day, the mutiny that so long had smoldered broke out in all its
fury.
The hardships of the voyage had thus far been what stanch
seamen called unusually severe, and it was felt that they had
done enough. No one except Vespucius and Jaques had ever
approached so near to the South Pole; and if they had not yet
found a strait, it was doubtless because there was none to find.
The rations of bread and wine were becoming very short, and
common prudence demanded that they should return to Spain.
If their voyage was practically a failure, it was not their fault;
there was ample excuse in the frightful storms they had suffered
and the dangerous strains that had been put upon their worn-out
ships. Such was the general feeling, but when expressed to
Magellan it fell upon deaf ears. No excuses, nothing but per-
formance, would serve his turn; for him hardships were made
only to be despised and dangers to be laughed at: and in short,
go on they must, until a strait was found or the end of that
continent reached. Then they would doubtless find an open way
to the Moluccas; and while he held out hopes of rich rewards.
for all, he appealed to their pride as Castilians. For the inflex-
ible determination of this man was not embittered by harshness,
and he could wield as well as any one the language that soothes
and persuades.
So long as all were busy in the fight against wind and wave,
the captain-general's arguments were of avail. But the delib-
erate halt to face the hardships of an antarctic winter, with
no prospect of stirring until toward September, was too much.
Patience under enforced inactivity was a virtue higher than these
sailors had yet been called upon to exhibit. The treacherous
captains had found their opportunity, and sowed distrust broad-
cast by hinting that a Portuguese commander could not better
serve his king than by leading a Spanish armada to destruction.
They had evidently secured their men and prepared their blow
before the fleet came to anchor. The ringleaders of the mutiny
## p. 5788 (#372) ###########################################
5788
JOHN FISKE
were the captains Quesada of the Concepcion and Mendoza of
the Victoria, with Juan de Cartagena, the deposed captain of the
San Antonio, which was now commanded by Magellan's cousin
Alvaro de Mesquita. On the night of Easter Sunday, Cartagena
and Quesada, with thirty men, boarded the San Antonio, seized
Mesquita and put him in irons; in the brief affray the mate of
the San Antonio was mortally wounded. One of the mutineers,
Sebastian Elcano, was put in command of the ship, such of the
surprised and bewildered crew as were likely to be loyal were
disarmed, and food and wine were handed about in token of
the more generous policy now to be adopted. All was done so
quickly and quietly that no suspicion of it reached the captain-
general or anybody on board the Trinidad.
On Monday morning the traitor captains felt themselves mas-
ters of the situation. Three of the five ships were in their
hands, and if they chose to go back to Spain, who could stop
them? If they should decide to capture the flag-ship and murder
their commander, they had a fair chance of success; for the faith-
ful Serrano in his little ship Santiago was no match for any one
of the three. Defiance seemed quite safe; and in the forenoon,
when a boat from the flag-ship happened to approach the San
Antonio she was insolently told to keep away, since Magellan no
longer had command over that ship. When this challenge was
carried to Magellan he sent the boat from ship to ship as a test,
and soon learned that only the Santiago remained loyal. Pres-
ently Quesada sent a message to the Trinidad requesting a con-
ference between the chief commander and the revolted captains.
Very well, said Magellan, only the conference must of course
be held on board the Trinidad; but for Quesada and his accom-
plices thus to venture in the lion's jaws was out of the ques-
tion, and they impudently insisted that the captain-general should
come on board the San Antonio.
Little did they realize with what a man they were dealing.
Magellan knew how to make them come to him. He had reason
to believe that the crew of the Victoria was less disloyal than
the others, and selected that ship for the scene of his first coup
de main. While he kept a boat in readiness, with a score of
trusty men armed to the teeth and led by his wife's brother
Barbosa, he sent another boat ahead to the Victoria, with his
alguazil or constable Espinosa, and five other men. Luis de Men-
doza, captain of the Victoria, suffered this small party to come.
## p. 5789 (#373) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5789
on board. Espinosa then served on Mendoza a formal sum-
mons to come to the flag-ship; and upon his refusal, quick as
lightning sprang upon him and plunged a dagger into his throat.
As the corpse of the rebellious captain dropped upon the deck,
Barbosa's party rushed over the ship's side with drawn cutlasses,
the dazed crew at once surrendered, and Barbosa took command.
The tables were now turned, and with three ships in loyal
hands Magellan blockaded the other two in the harbor. At night
he opened fire upon the San Antonio, and strong parties from
the Trinidad and the Victoria boarding her on both sides at
once, Quesada and his accomplices were captured. The Concep-
cion thereupon, overawed and crestfallen, lost no time in surren-
dering; and so the formidable mutiny was completely quelled in
less than four-and-twenty hours. Quesada was beheaded; Carta-
gena and a guilty priest, Pero Sanchez, were kept in irons until
the fleet sailed, when they were set ashore and left to their fate;
all the rest were pardoned, and open defiance of the captain-
general was no more dreamed of. In the course of the winter
the Santiago was wrecked while on a reconnoissance, but her
men were rescued after dreadful sufferings, and Serrano was
placed in command of the Concepcion.
At length on the 24th of August, with the earliest symptoms
of spring weather, the ships, which had been carefully over-
hauled and repaired, proceeded on their way. Violent storms
harassed them, and it was not until the 21st of October (St.
Ursula's day) that they reached the headland still known as Cape
Virgins. Passing beyond Dungeness they entered a large open
bay, which some hailed as the long-sought strait, while others
averred that no passage would be found there.
It was, says
Pigafetta, in Eden's version, "the straight now cauled the straight
of Magellanus, beinge in sum place C. x. leaques in length: and
in breadth sumwhere very large and in other places lyttle more
than halfe a leaque in bredth. On both the sydes of this strayght
are great and hygh mountaynes couered with snowe, beyonde the
whiche is the enteraunce into the sea of Sur.
Here one
of the shyppes stole away priuilic and returned into Spayne. "
More than five weeks were consumed in passing through the
strait, and among its labyrinthine twists and half-hidden bays
there was ample opportunity for desertion. As advanced recon-
noissances kept reporting the water as deep and salt, the convic-
tion grew that the strait was found, and then the question once
## p. 5790 (#374) ###########################################
5790
JOHN FISKE
more arose whether it would not be best to go back to Spain,
satisfied with this discovery, since with all these wretched delays
the provisions were again running short. Magellan's answer,
uttered in measured and quiet tones, was simply that he would
go on and do his work "if he had to eat the leather off the
ship's yards. " Upon the San Antonio there had always been a
large proportion of the malcontents, and the chief pilot, Estevan
Gomez, having been detailed for duty on that ship, lent himself
to their purposes.
The captain, Mesquita, was again seized and
put in irons, a new captain was chosen by the mutineers, and
Gomez piloted the ship back to Spain, where they arrived after
a voyage of six months, and screened themselves for a while by
lying about Magellan.
As for that commander, in Richard Eden's words, "when the
capitayne Magalianes was past the strayght and sawe the way
open to the other mayne sea, he was so gladde therof that for
ioy the teares fell from his eyes, and named the poynt of the
lande from whense he fyrst sawe that sea Capo Desiderato. Sup-
posing that the shyp which stole away had byn loste, they erected
a crosse uppon the top of a hyghe hyll to direct their course
in the straight yf it were theyr chaunce to coome that way. "
The broad expanse of waters before him seemed so pleasant to
Magellan, after the heavy storms through which he had passed,
that he called it by the name it still bears, Pacific. But the
worst hardships were still before him. Once more a Sea of
Darkness must be crossed by brave hearts sickening with hope
deferred. If the mid-Atlantic waters had been strange to Colum-
bus and his men, here before Magellan's people all was thrice
unknown.
«< They were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea;"
and as they sailed month after month over the waste of waters,
the huge size of our planet began to make itself felt. Until
after the middle of December they kept a northward course, near
the coast of the continent, running away from the antarctic cold.
Then northwesterly and westerly courses were taken, and on the
24th of January, 1521, a small wooded islet was found in water
where the longest plummet-lines failed to reach bottom. Already
the voyage since issuing from the strait was nearly twice as long
as that of Columbus in 1492 from the Canaries to Guanahani. .
## p. 5791 (#375) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5791
From the useless island, which they called San Pablo, a further
run of eleven days brought them to another uninhabited rock,
which they called Tiburones, from the quantity of sharks observed
in the neighborhood. There was neither food nor water to be
had there, and a voyage of unknown duration, in reality not less
than 5,000 English miles, was yet to be accomplished before a
trace of land was again to greet their yearning gaze. Their
sufferings may best be told in the quaint and touching words in
which Shakespeare read them:-"And hauynge in this tyme con-
sumed all theyr bysket and other vyttayles, they fell into such
necessitie that they were inforced to eate the pouder that re-
mayned therof beinge now full of woormes.
Theyre
freshe water was also putrifyed and become yelow. They dyd
eate skynnes and pieces of lether which were foulded abowt cer-
teyne great ropes of the shyps. [Thus did the captain-general's
words come true. ] But these skynnes being made verye harde
by reason of the soonne, rayne, and wynde, they hunge them by
a corde in the sea for the space of foure or fiue dayse to mollifie
them, and sodde them, and eate them. By reason of this famen
and vnclene feedynge, summe of theyr gummes grewe so ouer
theyr teethe [a symptom of scurvy], that they dyed miserably
for hunger. And by this occasion dyed xix. men, and
besyde these that dyed, xxv. or. xxx. were so sicke that they
were not able to doo any seruice with theyr handes or arms for
feeblenesse: So that was in maner none without sum disease. In
three monethes and xx. dayes, they sayled foure thousande
leaques in one goulfe by the sayde sea cauled Pacificum (that is)
peaceable, whiche may well bee so cauled forasmuch as in all
this tyme hauyng no syght of any lande, they had no misfortune
of wynde or any other tempest.
So that in fine, if god
of his mercy had not gyuen them good wether, it was necessary
that in this soo greate a sea they shuld all haue dyed for hun-
Whiche neuertheless they escaped soo hardely, that it may
bee doubted whether euer the like viage may be attempted with
so goode successe. "
ger.
One would gladly know-albeit Pigafetta's journal and the
still more laconic pilot's log-book leave us in the dark on this
point-how the ignorant and suffering crews interpreted this
everlasting stretch of sea, vaster, said Maximilian Transylvanus,
"than the human mind could conceive. " To them it may well
have seemed that the theory of a round and limited earth was
·
1
## p. 5792 (#376) ###########################################
5792
JOHN FISKE
wrong after all, and that their infatuated commander was leading
them out into the fathomless abysses of space, with no welcom-
ing shore beyond. But that heart of triple bronze, we may be
sure, did not flinch. The situation had got beyond the point
where mutiny could be suggested as a remedy. The very des-
perateness of it was all in Magellan's favor; for so far away had
they come from the known world that retreat meant certain
death. The only chance of escape lay in pressing forward. At
last, on the 6th of March, they came upon islands inhabited by
savages ignorant of the bow and arrow, but expert in handling
their peculiar light boats. Here the dreadful sufferings were
ended, for they found plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables,
besides meat. The people were such eager and pertinacious
thieves that their islands received the name by which they are
still known, the Islas de Ladrones, or isles of robbers.
On the 16th of March the three ships arrived at the islands
which some years afterward were named Philippines, after Philip
II. of Spain. Though these were islands unvisited by Europeans,
yet Asiatic traders from Siam and Sumatra, as well as from
China, were to be met there, and it was thus not long before
Magellan became aware of the greatness of his triumph. He
had passed the meridian of the Moluccas, and knew that these
islands lay to the southward within an easy sail. He had accom-
plished the circumnavigation of the earth through its unknown
portion, and the remainder of his route lay through seas already
traversed. An erroneous calculation of longitudes confirmed him
in the belief that the Moluccas, as well as the Philippines,
properly belonged to Spain. Meanwhile in these Philippines of
themselves he had discovered a region of no small commercial
importance. But his brief tarry in these interesting islands had
fatal results; and in the very hour of victory the conqueror
perished, slain in a fight with the natives, the reason of which
we can understand only by considering the close complication of
commercial and political interests with religious notions so com-
mon in that age.
As the typical Spaniard or Portuguese was then a persecutor
of heresy at home, so he was always more or less of a missionary
abroad, and the missionary spirit was in his case intimately
allied with the crusading spirit. If the heathen resisted the
gospel, it was quite right to slay and despoil them. Magellan's
nature was devoutly religious, and exhibited itself in the points.
## p. 5793 (#377) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5793
of strength and weakness most characteristic of his age. After
he had made a treaty of alliance with the king of the island of
Sebu, in which, among other things, the exclusive privilege of
trading there was reserved to the Spaniards, Magellan made the
unexpected discovery that the king and his people were ready
and even eager to embrace Christianity! They had conceived an
exalted idea of the powers and accomplishments of these white
strangers, and apparently wished to imitate them in all things.
So in less than a week's time a huge bonfire had been made of
the idols, a cross was set up in the market, and all the people
on the island were baptized! Now, the king of Sebu claimed
allegiance from chieftains on neighboring islands, who were slow
to render it; and having adopted the white man's "medicine," he
naturally wished to test its efficacy. What was Christianity good
for, if not to help you to humble your vassals? So the Christian
king of Sebu demanded homage from the pagan king of Matan;
and when the latter potentate scornfully refused, there was a
clear case for a crusade! The steadfast commander, the ally and
protector of his new convert, the peerless navigator, the knight
without fear and without reproach, now turned crusader as
quickly as he had turned missionary. Indeed, there was no
turning. These various aspects of life's work were all one to
him; he would have summed up the whole thing as "serving God
and doing his duty. " So Magellan crossed over to the island
of Matan on the 27th of April, 1521, and was encountered by
the natives in overwhelming force. After a desperate fight the
Spaniards were obliged to retreat to their boats; and their com-
mander, who years before had been the last man to leave a sink-
ing ship, now lingered on the brink of danger, screening his men,
till his helmet was knocked off and his right arm disabled by a
spear thrust.
A sudden blow brought him to the ground; and
then, says the Chevalier Pigafetta, "the Indians threw themselves
upon him with iron-pointed bamboo spears and scimitars, and
every weapon they had, and ran him through-our mirror, our
light, our comforter, our true guide-until they killed him. ”
In these scenes, as so often in life, the grotesque and the
tragic were strangely mixed. The defeat of the white men con-
vinced the king of Sebu that he had overestimated the blessings
of Christianity; and so, by way of atonement for the slight he
had cast upon the gods of his fathers, he invited some thirty of
the leading Spaniards to a banquet and massacred them. Among
X-363
## p. 5794 (#378) ###########################################
5794
JOHN FISKE
the men thus cruelly slain were the faithful captains Barbosa and
Serrano. As the ships sailed hastily away, the natives were seen
chopping down the cross and conducting ceremonies in expiation
of their brief apostasy. The blow was a sad one. Of the 280
men who had sailed out from the Guadalquivir, only 115 re-
mained. At the same time the Concepcion, being adjudged no
longer seaworthy, was dismantled and burned to the water's
edge. The constable Espinosa was elected captain of the Vic-
toria; and the pilot Carvalho was made captain-general, but
proving incompetent, was presently superseded by that Sebastian
Elcano who had been one of the mutineers at Port St. Julian.
When the Trinidad and Victoria, after visiting Borneo, reached
the Moluccas, they found that Francisco Serrano had been mur-
dered by order of the king of Tidor at about the same time that
his friend Magellan had fallen at Matan. The Spaniards spent
some time in these islands, trading. When they were ready to
start, on the 18th of December, the Trinidad sprang a leak. It
was thereupon decided that the Victoria should make for the
Cape of Good Hope without delay, in order not to lose the
favorable east monsoon. The Trinidad was to be thoroughly
repaired, and then take advantage of the reversal of monsoon to
sail for Panama. Apparently it was thought that the easterly
breeze which had wafted them so steadily across the Pacific was
a monsoon and would change like the Indian winds,-a most dis-
astrous error. Of the 101 men still surviving, 54 were assigned
to the Trinidad and 47 to the Victoria. The former ship was
commanded by Espinosa, the latter by Elcano.
When the Trinidad set sail, April 6, 1522, she had the west-
erly monsoon in her favor; but as she worked up into the
northern Pacific she encountered the northeast trade-wind, and
in trying to escape it groped her way up to the fortieth parallel
and beyond. By that time, overcome with famine and scurvy,
she faced about and ran back to the Moluccas. When she
arrived, it was without her mainmast. Of her 54 men, all but 19
had found a watery grave; and now the survivors were seized by
a party of Portuguese, and a new chapter of misery was begun.
Only the captain Espinosa and three of the crew lived to see
Spain again.
Meanwhile on the 16th of May the little Victoria, with starva-
tion and scurvy already thinning the ranks, with foretopmast
gone by the board and fore-yard badly sprung, cleared the Cape
## p. 5795 (#379) ###########################################
JOHN FISKE
5795
of Good Hope, and thence was borne on the strong and friendly
current up to the equator, which she crossed on the 8th of June.
Only fifty years since Santarem and Escobar, first of Europeans,
had crept down that coast and crossed it. Into that glorious
half-century what a world of suffering and achievement had
been crowded! Dire necessity compelled the Victoria to stop at
the Cape Verde Islands. Her people sought safety in deceiving
the Portuguese with the story that they were returning from a
voyage in Atlantic waters only, and thus they succeeded in buy-
ing food.
But while this was going on, as a boat-load of thirteen
men had been sent ashore for rice, some silly tongue, loosened
by wine in the head of a sailor who had cloves to sell, babbled
the perilous secret of Magellan and the Moluccas. The thirteen
were at once arrested, and a boat called upon the Victoria, with
direful threats, to surrender; but she quickly stretched every
inch of her canvas and got away. This was on the 13th of July,
and eight weeks of ocean remained. At last, on the 6th of Sep-
tember-the thirtieth anniversary of the day when Columbus
weighed anchor for Cipango-the Victoria sailed into the Gua-
dalquivir, with eighteen gaunt and haggard survivors to tell the
proud story of the first circumnavigation of the earth.
The voyage thus ended was doubtless the greatest feat of
navigation that has ever been performed, and nothing can be
imagined that would surpass it except a journey to some other
planet. It has not the unique historic position of the first voyage
of Columbus, which brought together two streams of human life
that had been disjoined since the Glacial Period. But as an
achievement in ocean navigation that voyage of Columbus sinks
into insignificance by the side of it; and when the earth was a
second time encompassed by the greatest English sailor of his
age, the advance in knowledge, as well as the different route
chosen, had much reduced the difficulty of the performance.
When we consider the frailness of the ships, the immeasurable
extent of the unknown, the mutinies that were prevented or
quelled, and the hardships that were endured, we can have no
hesitation in speaking of Magellan as the prince of navigators.
Nor can we ever fail to admire the simplicity and purity of that
devoted life, in which there is nothing that seeks to be hidden or
explained away.
It would have been fitting that the proudest crest ever granted
by a sovereign—a terrestrial globe belted with the legend Primus
## p. 5796 (#380) ###########################################
5796
JOHN FISKE
circumdedisti me (Thou first encompassed me) — should have been
bestowed upon the son and representative of the hero; but
when the Victoria returned there was none to receive such recog-
nition. In September 1521, Magellan's son, the little Rodrigo,
died; and by March 1522 the gentle mother Beatriz had heard,
by way of the Portuguese Indies, of the fate of her husband and
her brother. In that same month-"grievously sorrowing," as
we are told-she died. The coat-of-arms with the crest just
mentioned, along with a pension of five hundred ducats, was
granted to Elcano, a weak man who had ill deserved such honor.
Espinosa was also, with more justice, pensioned and ennobled.
$
## p. 5797 (#381) ###########################################
5797
EDWARD FITZGERALD
(1809-1883)
BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
DWARD FITZGERALD was the third son of John Purcell, and
Mary Frances Fitzgerald his cousin. He was born March
31st, 1809, at Bredfield House near Suffolk. When the boy
was five years old, Mr. Purcell took his family to France. In Paris
they occupied the house in which Robespierre had once lived. The
following year Mrs. Purcell's father died, and her husband assumed
the name and arms of the Fitzgeralds. Edward frequently referred
to his Irish blood: he called himself "a scatter-brained Paddy! "
In 1821 he was sent to King Edward VI. 's
School at Bury St. Edmunds, where his two
brothers were. He was there five years, and
then went to Trinity College. Fitzgerald
obtained his degree somewhat to his own
surprise, for he had taken his course in a
characteristically comfortable manner; as Mr.
Wright says, amusing himself with music
and drawing and poetry. " After a brief visit
at Paris, he returned to England and began
to carry out the experiment of his semi-
misanthropic retreat from the world; he be-
came a vegetarian: "The great secret of it
all," he said, "is not eating meat! " He
wrote his friend Allen:-"I cannot stand see-
ing new faces in the polite circles. You must know I am going to
become a great bear, and have got all sorts of Utopian ideas into my
head about society. " As he lived, he grew shyer and shyer even with
his friends.
«<
EDWARD FITZGERALD
He went to live near Naseby, where his father had an estate
which included a large part of the celebrated battle-field. It was
there in 1831 that he wrote his earliest known poem; it was printed
in Hone's Year Book, and shortly afterwards in the Athenæum.
The dates of his letters to Frederic Tennyson and other friends
show the pleasant rounds of his residences: now at Southampton,
now in London, where his mother kept up great style, driving her
four horses; now at Geldestone, now at Wherstead Lodge near Ips-
wich, where his parents lived for ten years; then at Boulge Hall,
Woodbridge. At Boulge he lived in a one-story thatched cottage,
## p. 5798 (#382) ###########################################
5798
EDWARD FITZGERALD
just outside his father's park. The Rev. George Crabbe gives this
picture of him: :-
"He used to walk by himself, slowly, with a Skye terrier. I was rather
afraid of him. He seemed a proud and very punctilious man.
. He
seemed to me when I first saw him as he was when he died, only not stoop-
ing: always like a grave middle-aged man; never seemed very happy or
light-hearted, though his conversation was most amusing sometimes. »
In 1847 he contributed a number of notes and illustrations to
Singer's edition of Selden's Table Talk,' but refused to allow his
services to be acknowledged. He also wrote what he calls "a little
dapper memoir" as a preface to the posthumously published 'Poems
and Letters' of Bernard Barton the Quaker, whose daughter he mar-
ried. In 1851 he published anonymously a little volume of less than
a hundred pages, called 'Euphranor. ' Couched in exquisite English,
it appealed to a small but cultured audience. A second edition was
called for, and then the demand for it ceased.
Under the stimulating friendship of the learned Professor E. B.
Cowell, he took up the study of Spanish, and in 1863 published a
translation of Six Dramas from Calderon. ' This was the only book
to which he ever put his name. The same year he was amusing him-
self with poking out some Persian which E.
