634 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW 



But evidently all mariners were not so eager to escape from the 

 country that they were willing to take low wages. For it is also 

 provided as follows: 



Here let us suppose that the managing owner of a ship agrees with 

 a mariner, be he bad or good, skilful or unskilful, he has to pay him his 

 wages, nevertheless under this condition, that if the mariner has repre- 

 sented himself to be a caulker or a carpenter or a mate, and the manag- 

 ing owner has hired him upon that reliance, if the mariner knows noth- 

 ing, the managing owner of the ship or vessel is not bound to give him 

 anything beyond what the mate and the ship's clerk adjudge upon 

 their oath that he ought to have. 14 



A mariner who shipped for wages by the mile was bound to 

 go wherever the ship went, even "to the end of the world". But 

 if he signed for a voyage, then he was bound only for the partic- 

 ular voyage agreed upon. And if the vessel should be sold 

 before returning, it was the duty of the owner to provide him 

 with a ship to return to his home port. 15 



A customary scale of rations, enumerated in considerable 

 detail, is called for by the Consulado: 



. . . the managing owner of a ship or vessel, which is decked, 

 ought to give to eat to the mariners on three days a week flesh-meat, 

 that is to say on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and on the other 

 days of the week porridge, and every evening of every day accompani- 

 ment with bread, and also on the same three days in the morning he 

 ought to give them wine, and also he ought to give them the same quan- 

 tity of wine every evening. And the accompaniment of the bread 

 ought to be such as follows, that is, cheese or onions or sardines or 

 some other fish. . . . Further the managing owner of the ship 

 or vessel is bound to double the ration of the mariners upon the solemn 

 feast days. Further, he ought to have servants to prepare the food 

 for the mariners. 16 



Compared" to the sea code of the Hanse Towns (which autho- 

 rized branding on the forehead), the penalty for desertion stipu- 



14 Ibid., Ch. Ixxix. in Black book, III. 187. 



15 Ibid., Ch. cxvi. in Black book, III. 225. 

 18 Ibid., Ch. c. in Black book, III. 211, 213. 



