Part 12 (2/2)
He called the opening to the swift channel Cape Virgins, as he discovered it on the day on which the Church commemorated the martyrdom of the ”eleven thousand virgins.”
His lone lantern entered the straits. The way was toward the East.
Magellan sent the s.h.i.+p Antonio, which was commanded by his cousin Alvaro de Mesquita, to explore the bay, of which s.h.i.+p Gormez still held the position of pilot. The mutineer's hour had come.
The pilot entered the bay, but presently a powerful tide carried the s.h.i.+p back, and beyond the sight of the flag and the lantern of Magellan.
The jealous Portuguese had seen enough to know that great perils were before the fleet or that a glory like to that of Columbus was now likely to fall to the lot of Magellan. He determined to be revenged upon the Admiral for supplanting him in accepting the favors of the King.
He called the crew secretly about him.
”You are rus.h.i.+ng on to ruin,” he said. ”I can take you back to Spain.
Put Mesquita in irons, and let us return. Mesquita advised Magellan to execute our comrades!”
The crew, overcome by the perils of the situation, obeyed the pilot.
Mesquita was placed in irons, and the pilot bore the Antonio away from the wintry seas, and turned her prow toward Spain.
But untrue as the sailors were to Magellan, he was true to them. He delayed the expedition for their return, and sent out the Victoria in search of them. The Victoria's crew planted signal standards, under which were letters.
Now perhaps for the first time Magellan was master of the expedition. He supposed at first that the Antonio had become lost in the terrible tides, but he still suspected treachery.
As the fleet entered the straits, the hills at night blazed with fires.
The explorers thought these fires were volcanoes. They were signal fires kindled by the natives. Magellan gave the place the name of ”Tierra del Fuego”--the ”Land of Fire,” a name that it still bears.
The water ran icy cold. Peaks of crystal towered above the straits, and the sublimities of mountain desolations everywhere appeared. So amid awful chasms of the sea, now white with snows, now dark with shadows, the little fleet glided on, the farol in the air at night, and all eyes strained with wonder to see what new disclosure this strait would bring.
What must have been the reflection of Magellan as the mysteries of the new world lifted before his eyes?
Joy is the compensation of suffering, and if his happiness was as great as his trials had been, he must have indeed known thrilling moments. He had dared, and he had achieved.
He wondered at the fate of the Antonio, as the days went by. He indeed thought her lost, but yet hoped that she might appear.
”She has deserted us,” ventured a loyal officer.
”No,” reasoned the Admiral. ”Mesquita would never desert me.”
He was right. There were many true hearts that made the voyage like Del Cano's, but no heart was truer to Magellan than Mesquita's; and true hearts know and love each other.
The s.h.i.+ps glided on slowly, without the Antonio. They had two new pa.s.sengers in the giants whose lives must have been filled with wonder on s.h.i.+p-board.
CHAPTER XIII.
”THE ADMIRAL WAS MAD!”
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