Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 57 



water looked like a reef, but they found twenty-six fathoms and 

 proceeded on their way. 



John Davis (1550-1603) had a similar experience during his 

 second voyage to the East Indies, near Ascension Island, in 7° 5' 

 south latitude. He wrote: ^ " in which place at night, I thinke I 

 saw the strangest Sea, that euer was seene: Which was. That the 

 burning or glittering light of the Sea did shew to us, as though all 

 the Sea ouer had beene burning flames of fire; and all the night 

 long, the Moone being downe, you might see to read in any booke 

 by the light thereof." All other navigators must have noticed a sea 

 afire but did not take the trouble to record it. 



The sea was not the only luminescent phenomenon encountered. 

 Tropical fireflies of the East Indies were seen by Sir Francis Drake 

 (1540-1596) during the circumnavigation of the earth.* The expedi- 

 tion started from " Plimmouth " on December 13, 1577. The obser- 

 vation was made next year on a certain little island south of Celebes, 

 covered with trees having leaves not much different from broom. 

 Drake wrote: " Amongst these Trees, night by night, through the 

 whole Land, did shew themselues an infinite swarme of fierie 

 Wormes flying in the Ayre, whose bodies being no bigger than our 

 common English Flyes, make such a shew and light, as if euery 

 Twigge or Tree had beene a burning Candle." Nevertheless, this 

 casual statement is mild compared to the accounts of luminous 

 insects brought back by explorers of the New World. 



Oviedo, Martyr, and New World Discoveries 



The most important record of the natural history of the New 

 World was made by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (1478-1557) , 

 official chronicler of Indian affairs, who witnessed the return of 

 Columbus from his first voyage. He later visited the New World, 

 was an officer at Darien (Panama) , Governor of Cartagena, and 

 Alcaide of the fort at Santo Domingo. Oviedo's first short work, De 

 Summario de la Natural y General Istoria de las Indias was pub- 

 lished at Toledo in 1526. It has been translated into English by 

 Richard Eden (died 1577) , together with the writings of Peter 

 Martyr d'Anghera and others as The Decades of the Newe Worlde, 

 etc. published in London in 1555. These works are also included 

 in Purchas his Pilgrimes. The first twenty volumes of the fifty- 

 volume complete Historia General y Natural de las Indias of Oviedo 



* From Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus posthumus or Purchas his pilgrimes 1, Lib. Ill, 

 cap. 6, p. 132, 1625. 



* From Purchas his pilgrimes 1, Lib. II, cap. 3, p. 56, 1625. 



