264 



DISCOVERY 



and, leaving a guard on his boats, advanced inland 

 with forty-nine men, only to be attacked by 1,500 

 islanders in three squadrons, who assailed them on front 

 and flank. Vollevs from musketeers and crossbowmen 

 did not stop the islanders, nor did a diversion in the 

 form of an attempt to burn the villages succeed any 

 better. 



" Thev came down upon us with the greater fury. 

 The captain had his right leg pierced by a poisoned 

 arrow, on which account he gave orders to retreat by 

 degrees. We were oppressed by the lances and stones 

 the enemy hurled at us, and we could make no more 

 resistance. Retreating little by little and still fighting, 

 we had already got to the distance of a crossbow-shot 

 from the shore, ha\-ing the water to our knees, the 

 islanders following and picking up the spears which 

 they had already cast, and they threw the same spear 

 five or six times : as they knew the captain, they aimed 

 specially at him and twice they knocked the helmet off 

 his head. He, with a few of us, like a good knight 

 remained at his post without choosing to retreat 

 further. Thus we fought for more than an hour, 

 until an Indian succeeded in thrusting a cane lance 

 into the captain's face. He then, being irritated, 

 pierced the Indian's breast with his lance and left it 

 in his bodv, and, trying to draw his sword, he was 

 unable to draw it more than half-way on account of a 

 javelin wound which he had received in the right 

 arm. The enemies, seeing this, all rushed against him, 

 and one of them with a great sword like a great scimetar 

 gave him a great blow on the left leg which brought 

 the captain down upon his face; then the Indians 

 threw themselves upon him and ran him through with 

 lances and scimetars so- that they deprived of life our 

 mirror, light, comfort, and true guide. . . . This fatal 

 battle was fought on April 27, 1521, on a Saturday: 

 a day which the captain had chosen himself because 

 he had a special devotion to it." ^ 



With great difficulty Pigafetta and the others, 

 leaving the body of their leader in the hands of the 

 enemv, managed to get back to their ships and the 

 '■ Christian king " of Cebu with the sad news. The 

 survivors, having with some difficulty and loss foiled a 

 plan of the " Christian king" to exterminate the lot of 

 them, left the scene of their disaster to sail on west- 

 wards. They were now too few to man three ships, 

 so off Bohol they burned the Conception, and, having 

 touched at Borneo, sailed over the Celebes Sea. On 

 November 6 they sighted the Moluccas, the lure of which 

 had drawn Magellan from Seville to his death, and 

 " we gave thanks to God and to comfort ourselves 

 discharged all our artillery. It need not cause wonder 

 that we were so much rejoiced since we had passed 

 twentj'-seven months less two days always in search of 

 ' Stanley (vide note on references at end of article), p. 101. 



Maluco, wandering for that object among the immense 

 number of islands." - 



They landed at Tidore, where they had hoped to 

 find a Portuguese adventurer named Serrano, a relative 

 of Magellan, whose letters had been one of the inspira- 

 tions of the latter's quest ; but he was already dead, a 

 victim to native treachery. But they found a Euro- 

 pean, the Portuguese de Lorosa, who had helped to 

 discover the islands ten years before and had taken 

 upon himself the duty of trying to intercept and 

 destroy Magellan's fleet ere it reached the Indies. 

 This was a reminder that they were now in hostile 

 waters, although the Portuguese were in no great 

 strength east of Singapore. But west of that the 

 enemv were both equipped and prepared, and thev 

 learned to their great apprehension that squadrons 

 were cruising off the Indian coast and off the Cape of 

 Good Hope with express instructions that none of the 

 Spaniards who had saUed into the King of Portugal's 

 waters were to be allowed to return to Spain. On 

 December 11 they prepared to leave Tidore, but 

 found that the Trinity had sprung a leak. So they 

 left her there with her crew, and the tiny Victoria, 

 the sole sur\'ivor, went on her lonely way. Past 

 Timor they sailed, and, leaving Sumatra to the north, 

 steered straight across the Indian Ocean towards the 

 Cape of Good Hope. Long before the journey was 

 accomplished the crew were in a parlous state. The ship 

 was making water and the weather was bitterly cold, 

 while thev had nothing but rice and water for food. 

 For nine weeks they remained off the Cape delayed by 

 westerlv gales, but at last on May 9, 1522, succeeded 

 in rounding it, and then for two months sailed north- 

 west. On July 9 they reached the Cape Verde Islands 

 and had to touch at one of them, where they were 

 amazed to discover, like Jules Verne's hero, that it 

 was Thursdav, while with them it was only Wednesday. 

 At last, concludes Pigafetta, " on Saturday the 6th of 

 September of the year 1522. we entered the bay of 

 San Lucar and of the sixty men w'no composed our 

 crew when we left Maluco we were reduced to only 

 eighteen, and these for the most part sick." ^ 



Thus ended the greatest \-oyage the world has ever 

 seen — a voyage most of the incidents in which have 

 been lost to history for want of an e.xpert chronicler. 

 Little, too, is known of its remarkable leader, and 

 only at the end of recounting a great career does even 



- Ibid., p. 1-4. 



^ Ibid., p. 1 02. Eighteen is Pigafetta's figure, but others 

 who had been arrested by the Portuguese at Cape Verde 

 returned later (vide Stanley, p. 175, and Markham, p. 25). The 

 captain of the Victoria was a Spaniard, Juan Sebastian del 

 Cano. He was originally master of the Conception, and took 

 part in the mutiny at St. Julian. He was pardoned and was 

 elected captain of the Victoria in the Philippines. He died on 

 an expedition in 1526. 



