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Page 30
Meanwhile, on the 16th of May, the little _Victoria_, with starvation
and scurvy already thinning the ranks, with foretopmast gone by the
board and fore-yard badly sprung, cleared the Cape 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 buying
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 18th of July, and eight weeks of ocean remained. At last,
on the 6th of September--the thirtieth anniversary of the day when
Columbus weighed anchor for Cipango--the _Victoria_ sailed into the
Guadalquivir, 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,[2] 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.
[1] From Fiske's "Discovery of America." Copyright, 1892, by John
Fiske. Reprinted by arrangement with the publishers, Houghton,
Mifflin Co. Ferdinand Magellan was born at Saborosa in Portugal,
about 1480, and died in the Philippines in 1521. Before discovering
the strait that bears his name he had served with the Portuguese
in the East Indies and in Morocco. Becoming dissatisfied he had
gone to Spain, where he proposed to find a western passage to the
Moluccas, a proposal which Charles V accepted, fitting out for him
a government squadron of five ships and 265 men. Magellan sailed
from San Lucar September 20, 1519, and, after passing through the
strait as here described by Fiske, proceeded to the Philippines,
where, in an attack on unfriendly natives, he, with several of his
men, was killed. One of his ships afterward completed the voyage
by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and thus made the first
circumnavigation of the globe.
[2] A reference to Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman who
circumnavigated the globe.
THE DISCOVERY OF NEW YORK HARBOR BY VERAZZANO
(1524)
VERAZZANO'S OWN ACCOUNT[1]
Having remained in this place[2] three days, anchored off the coast,
we decided on account of the scarcity of ports to depart, always
skirting the shore, which we baptized Arcadia on account of the beauty
of the trees.
In Arcadia we found a man who came to the shore to see what people we
were: who stood hesitating and ready to fight. Watching us, he did not
permit himself to be approached. He was handsome, nude, with hair
fastened back in a knot, of olive color.
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