Part 19 (2/2)

”And, as this s.h.i.+p let in water, being much knocked about by this long voyage, the sailors, many of whom had died by hards.h.i.+ps by land and by sea, could not clear the s.h.i.+p of water. Wherefore they landed upon one of the islands, which is named after Saint James, to buy slaves.

”But as our men had no money, they offered, sailor fas.h.i.+on, cloves for the slaves. This matter having come to the ears of the Portuguese who were in command of the island, thirteen of our men were thrown into prison. The rest were eighteen in number.

”Frightened by the strangeness of this behavior, they started straight for Spain, leaving their s.h.i.+pmates behind them. And so, in the sixteenth month after leaving Thedori, they arrived safe and sound on the 6th of September, at the port near Hispalis (Seville). Worthier, indeed, are our sailors of eternal fame than the Argonauts who sailed with Jason to Colchis. And much more worthy was their s.h.i.+p of being placed among the stars than that old Argo; for that only sailed from Greece through Pontus, but ours from Hispalis to the South; and after that, through the whole West and the Southern hemisphere, penetrating into the East, and again returned to the West.”

His subscription is interesting:

”I commend myself most humbly to your reverence. Given at Vallisoleti, on the 23d of October, 1522.

”Your most reverend and ill.u.s.trious lords.h.i.+p's ”Most humble and constant servant, ”MAXIMILIa.n.u.s TRANSYLVa.n.u.s.”

When the spice s.h.i.+p began to fill with water, the officers sent for native divers. But these, although very skillful, could not find the place or the cause of the leak.

Let us change our view to a different scene, across the wide tropical world.

CHAPTER XXII.

MESQUITA IN PRISON.

While the little s.h.i.+p Victoria, which had sought for Mesquita in vain, was sailing around the world, and was returning laden with spice, Mesquita himself remained shut out from the sun by the shadows of prison walls. His lite became more and more silent and neglected.

We know not by what authority he was held in a dungeon for advising the supposed crimes of his cousin Magellan. It could not have been that of Juana, who was still watching over the tomb from which she expected her husband to rise, nor by good Cardinal Ximenes, and possibly not by Charles V himself, but perhaps by one of his ministers. It may have been by the direction of Charles, for his imprisonment implies doubt; otherwise with such an array of testimony against him, we might expect he would have been executed.

Two years had pa.s.sed over beautiful Seville, and the India House there must have began to doubt the story of Gormez as not one of the other s.h.i.+ps returned. These s.h.i.+ps might have been cast away in the wintry seas that Gormez and his crew described, or the flag of Spain that the daring Portuguese had set toward the Spice Islands of the East by the way of the South might be seen again some day, rising over the Guadalquivir.

Mesquita believed in his cousin Magellan; not only in him as a true man, but as one who had a divine calling to fulfill; as one whom destiny had allotted to lead the decisive events of mankind. He still felt that he would prove another Columbus or Vasco da Gama.

The two priests whom Magellan had marooned had honestly thought Magellan mad. But Mesquita had his own confessor, and we can easily fancy how the prisoner must have opened his heart to him.

”Padre, I am misunderstood,” we can hear him say. ”Time tells the truth about all men. Time vindicates all.

”Padre, some messenger from Magellan will come back again. Time weighs all events, and life is self revealing. The heralds will blow their trumpets then, and the bells will ring.

”Padre, they do well to prolong my life. Some day my prison doors will open wide, and I shall ride through the streets of Seville, and those who doubt me now will hail me as a heart that, was always true to a Knight whose heart will be found true to the Emperor!”

The lamp of his faith burned clear and odorous oil. He had a quiet conscience. But how must the conspirators have felt during these uncertain months? The s.h.i.+ps did not return. That seemed to favor one view of the madness of Magellan, and yet it did not leave them at ease.

There were some who reasoned: If Magellan were indeed mad on his own s.h.i.+p, why might not one or more of the other s.h.i.+ps have returned? If the other s.h.i.+ps had been loyal to the lantern of Magellan, and had kept together, might the fleet not return again? Should it return what a stigma would be cast on the characters of the cowardly mutineers! In such a case Mesquita would become a hero, and the latter would have to flee from their own names.

Charles V was in his promise of glory now. In 1519, as we have before stated, he had been elected Emperor of Germany; and in 1520 he had been crowned at Aix la Chapelle, amid great rejoicings, and the Pope had bestowed upon him the t.i.tle of Caesar or Emperor of the Roman world. He was called ”Caesar” in the chronicles of the times.

Poor Juana took no interest in any of these pomps of her son, as they shook the world. Her ears were deaf to them, her heart was dead to them all. The mother of ”Caesar” was almost the only person in Spain who hailed not the glory of Caesar.

Amid all the splendors of his court the dream of Magellan must still have haunted the mind of the new Caesar. He had accepted the story brought by the returned s.h.i.+p; but Magellan the madman might come back again. Madmen had returned before.

The period was a wonderful one. Printing, the art of which had been but recently developed after the discovery of Gutenberg, was revealing its great possibilities. These were the times of Francis in France, and of Henry VIII in England. The Reformation was overturning Germany. The whole world seemed to be changing.

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