The Story of Magellan and The Discovery of the Philippines

Gormez now waited his opportunity. A jealous man seeks for a principle of life to ease his conscience and justify evil deeds. Gormez had two principles to sustain him in his disloyalty. The one was that he could lead a better expedition, and the other the merciful rescue of his two companions who had been marooned for the same opinions that he had from the first carried in his heart. So calling treachery, loyalty and sympathy, he awaited an hour favorable to his plan.

If he could return to Spain he would offer his services to Portugal or to Spain to lead an expedition to the Spice Islands that should be conducted in some more promising way than by the winter seas.

As the ships sailed on into the clouds and cold, the sailors were filled with apprehension. But the farol still shone at night like a star in the changing atmosphere. They had expected that the extremity of South America would point West, but this was not the case. Whither were they tending?

It was the middle of October. The water grew colder and the land became more desolate. Suddenly a bay appeared and the continent seemed to part. The sea poured its tides to the East amid towering mountains, and a strait appeared, which now bears the name of Magellan.

The soul of the Admiral thrilled. It was the fulfillment of his visions. 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 ship Antonio, which was commanded by his cousin Alvaro de Mesquita, to explore the bay, of which ship 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 ship 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 rushing 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 ships glided on slowly, without the Antonio. They had two new passengers in the giants whose lives must have been filled with wonder on ship-board.

CHAPTER XIII

"THE ADMIRAL WAS MAD!"

Grave as was the act of treachery that the jealousy of Gormez led him to commit, he was true to the two marooned priests who had opposed the daring schemes of Magellan.

"We must not leave them to perish," he said.

So with Mesquita in irons he steered his ship toward the lonely islands where the crew had passed the winter.

They found Carthagena and his brother monk still living, and never could two men have been more glad to escape from exile. To live among naked giants, whom they could not civilize, must have become a horror to them. But their lives had been spared, though their biscuits and wine, we fancy, were gone.

"The Admiral has gone mad," said the men who had come to rescue them. "He knows not the way to the Moluccas, nor to anywhere."

The marooned men asked them where they were now going.

"To Spain," was the answer. "We have come to rescue you. Our Captain has never forgotten you. He will need you as witnesses. You must testify that the Admiral is mad."

They were ready to testify that.

The ship sailed back to Spain.

The tales that they carried back to beautiful Seville caused a great disappointment in Spain. They must have stricken the heart of the wife of Magellan.

Gormez related there that the Admiral had become mad; that he had marooned the two priests whom they had brought back as witnesses of the truth of what he asserted; that Magellan had sailed into winter seas, and quite lost his reason, and knew not where he was going.

Then he told a terrible story of the execution of the mutinous Spaniards, friends of the King, at St. Julian. He said:

"His cousin, Mesquita, our captain, advised these crimes, and so we put him in irons, and have brought him back to receive justice in Spain."

Mesquita protested his innocence and tried to gain credence for his case. But no one cared to listen to him. The court and the popular feeling were against him. He was consigned to a prison. It was useless for him to protest, and to say that Magellan had made a great discovery; that he had found straits which were leading to the South Sea, and which were likely to prove that the ocean that Balboa had beheld was continuous.

He was placed in a lonely dungeon, and there brooded over his wrongs and dreamed.

He had one hope; it was that Magellan would return triumphant, a second Columbus or Vasco da Gama. If that day were to come, he would be released, and the court would honor him, and he would be hailed as a hero.

"I have been made a prisoner by treachery," he said to a few men. "I believe that the day of my vindication will one day dawn."

Cardinal Ximenes died. Juana still watched by the tomb of her husband, and took no interest in the world. Charles V was entering upon his career as a conqueror who was to subdue the Roman world to his will.

As for Magellan in Spain he was to be but little more remembered now. Spain believed the story of the jealous Gormez, and the mariners of Seville said:

"The Admiral was mad!"

In the common view the mad Admiral had gone down in Antarctic seas. Like Faleiro, his friend, who had been sent to the mad house, it was thought that his brain had become unsettled, and that his bright visions had failed.

The two mutineers ate bread and drank wine again in the convent bowers of Seville.

Gormez had schemes of his own. He desired the authority of the throne to make an expedition to the Spice Islands, which he believed he could find by sailing West. Strangely enough, as we have said, this jealous, treacherous man was afterward made a pilot in an expedition that visited Florida, Cape Cod, and Massachusetts Bay. But he did not find the way to the Spice Islands on the voyage.

Mesquita, still believing in the success of the expedition of Magellan, said to a few whom he could reach:

"Magellan is not mad. He executed those who had planned to murder him. He had to put to death these men for the sake of the expedition. He will return again!"

Few believed his story, and fewer his prophecy.

Still there were some who hoped that the prisoner's prophecy might prove true. Columbus was deemed mad, and quelled a mutiny, but he returned again. Vasco da Gama faced doubt and destruction, but he returned again. There were not wanting some who asked, "Will Magellan ever return again?" Such usually received the answer, "The Admiral was mad!"

The poor wife of Magellan, who had hoped much from him for the sake of her child, as well as for Spain, heard these reports in an agony of grief. But she still hoped. She must have believed in her husband's destiny.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PACIFIC. – THE DEATH OF THE GIANTS

The four ships glided along the wonderful straits which Magellan named the "Virgins," but which will always bear his own name. The scenery continued wild and fierce, and in some places overawing and sublime; they sailed amid domes of crystal and almost under the roofs of a broken world. They still moved slowly – the scenery growing more and more wonderful.

The air grew bright again. The ships were in the sea. They had entered a sea broad and glorious, but which Magellan could have hardly dreamed to be nearly ten thousand miles long, and more than that wide! Its waters were placid – an ocean plain. Columbus had heard of this vast sea, and Balboa had seen it from the peak of Darien.

All the joy that Magellan had anticipated in his visions of years now burst upon him.

"The Pacific!"

This was the name that came to him as he surveyed the new ocean world. He was the discoverer of the South Pacific, which was continuous with the ocean discovered by Balboa. What did it contain? Whither might he sail over the new serenity of waters?

His soul had stood against his own country; his name had been cast out by his countrymen. But in the splendors of the sunset sea he had found his faith to be reality. It is said that the sailors wept when they beheld the Pacific.

We may fancy the joy of Del Cano.

We may imagine how the heart of Pigafetta, the young Italian, which had always been true to the Admiral, must have overflowed with delight when the Pacific opened before his eyes! There is a strong heart beat in the happiness of one who has been true to a successful man in the hour of his need.

He may have sung the song that cheered Columbus and his men – the mariners' hymn to the Virgin:

"Gentle Star of Ocean!Portal of the sky!Ever Virgin MotherOf the Lord most high!"

"Wednesday, the 20th of November, 1520," says the original narrative, "we came forth out of the same strait, and entered the Pacific Sea."

The ships sailed on into the calm mystery of the ocean, the soul of Magellan glowing. But though the Admiral had risen superior to so many obstacles, there were others to be met. The sea was indeed placid and full of promise, but starvation now stared him in the face, and after the spectre of Treason had departed that of Famine appeared.

Day after day the sun arose on the same serenity of sea. One month passed, and still there spread before the ships the same infinite ocean. Another month passed, and another, and twenty days more.

How did the crews live on this long voyage of silence and calms?

The narrative says: "We only ate old biscuit reduced to powder, and full of grubs, and we drank water that had turned yellow and smelled."

But a more perilous diet had to be followed.

They ate the "ox hides that were under the main yard." To eat these hides they had to soak them for some days in the sea, and then cook them on embers.

They ate sawdust; then the vermin on the ships.

A worse condition came. The gums of the men swelled from such food, so that many of them could not eat at all, and nineteen died. Beside those who died, twenty-five fell ill of "divers sicknesses."

Kind-hearted Pigafetta, who was always true to the Portuguese Admiral, formed an intimacy with the poor young giant, presumably with the giant whose wife had been left behind. This giant was imprisoned on the flagship of Magellan.

One day the giant said to him, helplessly:

"Capac."

Our Italian understood that this must be the Patagonian word for bread. So he wrote it down, and the giant saw that he was interested in the meaning of his native words.

So the young giant began to teach the young Italian.

"Her-dem" meant a chief.

"Holi" meant water.

"Ohone," a storm.

"Setebos," the Unseen Power.

They studied together for a time, and shared each other's good will.

One day the Italian drew a cross on paper. The young giant raised it to his lips and kissed it, as he had seen Pigafetta kiss the sign of the Cross.

But he said by signs: "Do not make the Cross again, else Setebos will enter into you and kill you."

The meaning of the cross was explained to him.

The poor giant fell ill at last, amid all the misery.

"Bring me the Cross," he said by signs.

He kissed it again.

He knew that he would soon die.

"Make me a Christian," he said.

They named him "Paul," and baptized him.

One day found him dead, and they cast his great frame into the sea. He was probably the first convert to the faith among Patagonians, and his so-called conversion was the heart's cry in helplessness.

The other giant may have lived to see the days of famine, when men shrank and death threatened all. Then he, too, famished and died, and found a grave in the sea. Another account, makes this giant die on the Antonio before that ship went back to St. Julian.

Two islands only appeared in the months of steady sailing. They were uninhabited except by birds. The sky in all this time brought no storm.

In these days of ocean solitude, hunger, and death, Magellan was sure always of the faith of two true hearts – the susceptible Italian and Del Cano.

Magellan dreamed of the fate of Mesquita in these strange experiences, and Mesquita in his lonely prison thought continually of him. Would Magellan ever return? the latter must have asked daily.

If so, his prison doors might swing open. He had no other hope, but this hope was a star. Magellan's wife must have shared this hope with the prisoner.

CHAPTER XV

WELCOME TO THE PHILIPPINES!

On Wednesday, March 6th, Magellan sighted islands. His lantern had crossed the Pacific Ocean. Here he hoped to find food. He approached the shores eagerly. So hungry were the crews that one of the sick men begged that if any of the natives were killed human flesh might be brought him.

But the natives here were not only wild men, they were robbers; they sought to kill the voyagers and to steal everything. Hence, Magellan called the islands the Ladrones (robbers).

The robbers threw stones at the famishing mariners as the ships turned away in search of more hospitable shores. The women were dressed in bark.

The ships moved on into unknown seas.

On Saturday, March 16, 1521, a notable sight appeared in the dawn of the morning. It was a high bluff, some three hundred leagues distant from the Thieves' Islands. The island was named Zamal, now called Samar.

Magellan saw another island near. It was inhabited by a friendly people. He determined to land there for the sake of security, as he could there gather sea food and care for the sick. He planted his tents there, and provided the sick with fresh meat.

Where was he?

Here surely was a new archipelago which had found no place on a map. March 16, 1521, was to be a notable date of the world.

He had discovered the Philippine Islands, though they were not then known by that name. They were the door to China from the West – this he could hardly have known.

The islands as now known consist of Luzon, fifty-one thousand three hundred square miles in extent; and Mendanao, more than twenty-five thousand miles in extent. The islands lying between Luzon and Mendanao are called the Bissayas, of which Samar has an area of thirteen thousand and twenty miles. Magellan visited Mendanao and then sailed for Zebu, a small island where the first Spanish settlement was made, before Manila, which was founded in 1581.

This archipelago was a new world of wonder. The small islands are now computed to number fourteen hundred. Magellan never knew the extent of his discovery.

Here he was to find the happiest days of his life, after the serene but famishing voyage.

The people here were to receive him with open arms; to feast him; to raise his expectations and to bow down before the Cross. We must describe in detail – thanks to the Italian who was true to the heart of the Admiral – this golden age of the troubled life of Magellan.

After all the struggle for so many years against many overwhelming oppositions, Magellan now rose into the vantage ground of success, and fulfilled the vision which had illumined his soul in his darkest hours.

Every man has a right to his record, and whatever might happen now, his record no power could destroy; he had discovered the Pacific Ocean, and a new way around the world. Whatever might be his fate, the world must follow his lantern.

On the 18th of March, 1521, after dinner on shore, the Admiral saw a boat coming out from a near island toward his ship. There were men in it.

"Let no one move or speak," said Magellan.

The crews awaited the coming of the strangers in the blazing sunlight of the tropic sea. The Indians landed, led by a chief.

They were friends. They signified by signs their joy at seeing them. Magellan feasted the Indians and gave them presents.

When these people saw the good disposition of the Captain, they gave him palm wine and figs "more than a foot long." On leaving they promised to return with fruits.

Pigafetta, our Italian Chevalier, vividly describes the scenes that followed between Magellan and the friendly people of the newly-discovered islands, which we call the Philippines, but which were not so named at that time.

He tells us in a wonderfully interesting narrative a translation of which we closely follow:

"That people became very familiar and friendly, and explained many things in their language, and told the names of some islands which they beheld. The island where they dwelt was called Zuluam, and it was not large. As they were sufficiently agreeable and conversible the crews had great pleasure with them. The Captain seeing that they were of this good spirit, conducted them to the ship and showed them specimens of all his goods – that he most desired – cloves, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, and gold.

"He also had shots fired with his artillery, at which they were so much afraid that they wished to jump from the ship into the sea. They made signs that the things which the Captain had shown them grew there.

"When they wished to go they took leave of the Captain and of the crew with very good manners and gracefulness, promising to come back.

"The island where the ships had moored was named Humunu; but because the men found there two springs of very fresh water it was named the Watering Place of Good Signs. There was much white coral there, and large trees which bear fruit smaller than an almond, and which are like pines. There were also many palm trees both good and bad. In this place there were many circumjacent islands, on which account the archipelago was named St. Lazarus. This region and archipelago is in ten degrees north latitude, and a hundred and sixty-one degrees longitude from the line of demarcation.

"Friday, the 22d of March, the above-mentioned people, who had promised to return, came about midday with two boats laden with the said fruit, cochi, sweet oranges, a vessel of palm wine, and a cock, to give us to understand that they had poultry in their country." The Italian thus describes the habits of the people:

"The lord of these people was old, and had his face painted, and had gold rings suspended to his ears, which they name 'schione,' and the others had many bracelets and rings of gold on their arms, with a wrapper of linen round their head. We remained at this place eight days; the Captain went there every day to see his sick men, whom he had placed on this island to refresh them; and he gave them himself every day the water of this said fruit, the cocho, which comforted them much."

Pigafetta tells us that near this isle is another where there is a kind of people "who wear holes in their ears so large that they can pass their arms through them" – a very remarkable statement – "and these people go naked, except that round their middles they wear cloth made of the bark of trees. But there are some of the more remarkable of them who wear cotton stuff, and at the end of it there is some work of silk done with a needle. These people are tawny, fat, and painted, and they anoint themselves with the oil of cocoanuts and sesame to preserve them from the sun and the wind. Their hair is very black and long, reaching to the waist, and they carry small daggers and knives, ornamented with gold."

Pigafetta fell into the sea here, and he gives a vivid account of the personal accident:

"The Monday of Passion week, the 25th of March, and feast of our Lady, in the afternoon, and being ready to depart from this place, I went to the side of our ship to fish, and putting my feet on a spar to go down to the storeroom, my feet slipped, because it had rained, and I fell into the sea, without any one seeing me; and being near drowning, by luck I found at my left hand the sheet of the large sail which was in the sea, I caught hold of it and began to cry out till some came to help and pick me up with the boat. I was assisted not by my merits, but by the mercy and grace of the Fountain of Pity. That same day we took the course between west and southwest, and passed amid four small islands; that it to say, Cenalo, Huinanghar, Ibusson, and Abarien."

The Italian describes in an interesting way the visit of the King of one of the islands to the ships. He says of this first visit of a Philippine King to the Europeans:

"Thursday, the 28th of March, having seen the night before fire upon an island, at the morning we came to anchor at this island, where we saw a small boat which they call boloto, with eight men inside, which approached the ship of the Captain General. Then a slave of the Captain's, who was from Sumatra, otherwise named Traprobana, spoke from afar to these people, who understood his talk, and came near to the side of the ship, but they withdrew immediately, and would not enter the ship from fear of us.

"So the Captain, seeing that they would not trust to us, showed them a red cap and other things, which he had tied and placed on a little plank, and the people in the boat took them immediately and joyously, and then returned to advise their King. Two hours afterward, or thereabout, we saw come two long boats, which they call ballanghai, full of men.

"In the largest of them was their King sitting under an awning of mats; when they were near the ship of the Captain General, the said slave spoke to the King, who understood him well, because in these countries the kings know more languages than the common people. Then the King ordered some of his people to go to the Captain's ship, while he would not move from his boat, which was near enough to us.

"This was done, and when his people returned to the boat, he went away at once. The Captain made a good entertainment to the men who came to his ship, and gave them all sorts of things, on which account the King wished to give the Captain a rather large bar of solid gold, and a chest full of ginger. However, the Captain thanked him very much, but would not accept the present. After that, when it was late, he went with the ships near to the houses and abode of the King."

The Captain in refusing the offer of gold and ginger from his guest, showed indeed a true sense of hospitality. The incident pictures the life of Magellan. He obeyed his moral sense and his heart was true. He was a Portuguese gentleman of the old type, and presented an example worthy of imitation in any age.