SPANISH SEAMEN IN THE NEW WORLD 659 



This picture of the Court of Signs, and others of amusements 

 for crew and passengers cockfighting, plays, dancing, and other 

 entertainments show that there was a lighter side to the life of 

 the sailor aboard ship. But from the viewpoint of today, the 

 balance seems to have been all the other way. 



His very calling was hazardous in the extreme. It was not at 

 all uncommon for men to be washed overboard and drowned by 

 the huge waves which at times swept over, and well-nigh 

 submerged the small craft of that day. More than one galleon 

 was wrecked and went down, or was driven back to Manila by 

 storms with half the crew lost. Then, too, the galleons often 

 sailed poorly repaired through the fault of the shore workers. 138 

 Pirates of all nations were active in preying upon such rich 

 treasure ships, and the sailors and seamen might at any time be 

 called upon to defend the ship with their lives against capture 

 by these buccaneers or sea-dogs. 



A worse enemy of the seamen, particularly the Indians, was 

 the severe cold encountered on the voyage. They come from a 

 hot climate, and when, without protection, they were exposed 

 to the severities of weather in the higher latitudes, they died in 

 large numbers. They used to come aboard the galleon without 

 clothes, and until the king provided clothing to be issued them 

 as a protection, they had nothing to shelter them. They had no 

 quarters other than the deck, often. Navarrete, describing the 

 situation aboard his ship which was "not convenient nor big 

 enough to celebrate that high mystery " [mass], said: "We had 

 hardly room to stand. No body could live under deck, it was so 

 full of provisions and commodities. All men lay exposed to the 

 sun and air." 139 



So it happened that many were frozen to death, or died of 

 exposure. The lot of the Indian seamen was especially cruel. 

 As Los Rios said, they were "treated like dogs". 



. . . They are embarked without clothes to protect them against 

 the cold, so that when each new dawn comes there are three or four 



138 Los Rios, op. cit., in Blair and Robertson, XVIII, 322. 



139 Fernandez Navarrete, op. cit., in Churchill, 1. 213. 



