Part 16 (2/2)

The King feasted them, and they entered into negotiations of peace with the King of Zubu.

At Zubu Magellan turned missionary with no common zeal.

He told the native princes that his visit was for the sake of peace.

We are told that the ”Captain General sat in a chair of red velvet, and near him were the princ.i.p.al men of the s.h.i.+ps sitting in leather chairs, and the others sat on the ground on mats.

”The Captain,” says the narrative, ”spoke at length on the subject of peace, and prayed G.o.d to confirm it in Heaven. These people replied that they had never heard such words as these which the Captain had spoken to them, and they took great pleasure in hearing them. The Captain, seeing then that those people listened willingly to what was said to them, and that they gave good answers, began to say a great many good things to induce them to become Christians.

”He told them how G.o.d had made Heaven and earth and all other things in the world, and that he had commanded that every one should render honor and obedience to his father and mother, and that whoever did otherwise was condemned to eternal fire.”

His teaching bore immediate fruit.

”The people heard these things willingly, and besought the Captain to leave them two men to teach and show them the Christian faith, and they would entertain them well with great honor. To this the Captain answered that for the moment he could not leave any of his people, but that if they wished to be Christians that his priest would baptize them, and that another time he would bring priests and teachers to teach them the faith.”

His manner of teaching reveals his heart:

”The people told him that they wished to consult their King in regard to becoming Christians.” The friends of the Captain ”wept for the joy which they felt at the good-will of these people, and the Captain told them not to become Christians 'from fear of us, or to please us, but that if they wished to become Christian they must do it willingly, and for the love of G.o.d, for even though they should not become Christian, no displeasure would be done them, but those who became Christian would be more loved and better treated than the others.' Then they all cried out with one voice that they did not wish to become Christians from fear, nor from complaisance, but of their free will.”

Here the true character of the man again appears--few Christian explorers ever made so n.o.ble a record. His sincerity won the hearts of the natives:

”At last they said they did not know what more to answer to so many good and beautiful words which he spoke to them, but that they placed themselves in his hands, and that he should do with them as with his own servants.”

The next scene is ideal:

”Then the Captain, with tears in his eyes, embraced them, and, taking the hand of the Prince and that of the King, said to him that by the faith he had in G.o.d, and to his master the Emperor, and by the habit of St. James which he wore, he promised them to cause them to have perpetual peace with the King of Spain, at which the Prince and the others promised him the same.”

It is a pleasure to follow such a narrative as Pigafetta here writes in ill.u.s.tration of the character of a true Christian Knight. Compare this narrative with the history of Pizarro, Cortes, and De Soto. Magellan was a Las Casas, a Marquette, a La Salle.

The next incident told by Pigafetta has as fine a touch as a portrayal of character. It relates to a message which Magellan sent to the King, with a present.

”When we came to the town we found the King of Zubu at his palace, sitting on the ground on a mat made of palm, with many people about him.

”He had a very heavy chain around his neck, and two gold rings hung in his ears with precious stones.

”He was eating tortoise eggs in two china dishes, and he had four vessels full of palm wine, which he drank with a cane pipe. We made our obeisance, and presented to him what the Captain had sent him, and told him, through the interpreter that the present _was not as a return for his present which he had sent to the Captain, but for the affection which he bore him_. This done, his people told him all the good words and explanations of peace and religion which he had spoken to them.”

We now behold Magellan in a new att.i.tude, as a missionary teacher, a John the Baptist in the wilderness. Pigafetta thus describes the scene:

”On Sunday morning, the fourteenth day of April, we went on sh.o.r.e, forty men, of whom two were armed, who marched before us, following the standard of our King Emperor. When we landed the s.h.i.+ps discharged all their artillery, and from fear of it the people ran away in all directions.

”Magellan and the King embraced one another, and then joyously we went near the scaffolding, where the Captain General and the King sat on two chairs, one covered with red, the other with violet velvet. The princ.i.p.al men sat on cus.h.i.+ons, and others on mats, after the fas.h.i.+on of the country.

”Then the Captain began to speak to the King through the interpreter to incite him to the faith of Jesus Christ, and told him that if he wished to be a good Christian, as he had said the day before, that he must burn all the idols of his country, and, instead of them, place a cross, and that every one should wors.h.i.+p it every day on their knees, and their hands joined to Heaven; and he showed him how he ought every day to make the sign of the Cross.

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