Part 7 (1/2)
”Two lights,” he said, ”shall mean for the s.h.i.+p to tack.
”Three lights that the sails shall be lowered. Four, that they shall stop.
”Five lights, or more, that we have discovered land, when the flags.h.i.+p shall discharge a bombard. Follow my lantern always; you can trust it wherever it may fare. My farol shall be my star!”
The men sat there long. There sprung up a breeze at last, and the sea began to ripple in the moon.
Most expeditions that have made successful achievements have carried men of great hope. Such a man was Del Cano. He was loyal to the heart of Magellan; and happy is any leader who has such a companion, whose steel rings true.
Magellan hung out the farol. The sails were spread, and the fleet pa.s.sed on over the solitary ocean.
Whither?
CHAPTER VIII.
”THE WONDERS OF NEW LANDS.”--PIGAFETTA'S TALES OF HIS ADVENTURES WITH MAGELLAN.--THE STORY OF ”THE FOUNTAIN TREE.”--”ST. ELMO'S FIRE.”
The s.h.i.+ps moved on, bearing the hopeful Del Cano, the frowning Gormez, the two prisoners, and the happy Italian Pigafetta.
Our next chapters will be a series of wonder tales which reveal the South Temperate Zone and its inhabitants as they appeared to the young and susceptible Italian, Pigafetta, nearly four hundred years ago.
Pigafetta, as we have shown, desired to accompany Magellan that he might ”see the wonders of the new lands.” He saw them indeed, and he painted them with his pen so vividly that they will always live. We get our first views of the strange inhabitants of the Southern regions of the New World from him. We are to follow his narratives, as printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, making some omissions, and changing its form in part, hoping thereby to render the text more clear. We closely follow the spirit of events. Pigafetta addresses his narrative ”To the very ill.u.s.trious and very excellent Lord Philip de Villiers Lisleaden, Grand Master of Rhodes,” of whom we have spoken.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Interior of the Alcazar of Seville.]
He says, by way of introduction:
”Finding myself in Spain in the year of the nativity of our Lord, 1519, at the court of the most serene King of the Romans (Charles V), and learning there of the great and awful things of the ocean world, I desired to make a voyage to unknown seas, and to see with my own eyes some of the wonderful things of which I had heard.
”I heard that there was in the city of Seville an armada (armade) of five s.h.i.+ps, which were ready to perform a long voyage in order to find the shortest way to the Islands of Moluco (Molucca) from whence came the spices. The Captain General of this armada was Ferdinand de Magagleanes (Magellan), a Portuguese gentleman, who had made several voyages on the ocean. He was an honorable man. So I set out from Barcelona, where the Emperor was, and traveled by land to the said city of Seville, and secured a place in the expedition.
”The Captain General published ordinances for the guidance of the voyage.
”He willed that the vessel on which he himself was should go before the other vessels, and that the others should keep in sight of it. Therefore he hung by night over the deck a torch or f.a.ggot of burning wood which he called a farol (lantern), which burned all night, so that the s.h.i.+ps might not lose sight of his own.
”He arranged to set other lights as signals in the night. When he wished to make a tack on account of a change of weather he set two lights.
Three lights signified ”faster.” Four lights signified to stop and turn.
When he discovered a rock or land, it was to be signalled by other lights.
”He ordered that three watches should be kept at night.
”On Monday, St. Lawrence Day, August 10th, the five s.h.i.+ps with the crews to the number of two hundred and thirty-seven[A] set sail from the n.o.ble city of Seville, amid the firing of artillery and came to the end of the river Guadalcavir (Guadalquivir). We stopped near the Cape St. Vinconet to make further provisions for the voyage.
[A] The number was larger, about 270.
”We went to hear ma.s.s on sh.o.r.e. There the Captain commanded that all the men should confess before going any further.
”On Tuesday, September 20th, we set sail from St. Lucar.