74 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



Magellan man of steel, Portuguese commander of a Spanish fleet, drove 



strait into through the strait that bears his name, plunged into " a sea 



Ptolemy's so vast that the human mind can scarcely grasp it," and, 



Ocean and a ^ ter tne mst prodigious voyage recorded in history, broken 



sailed to the only by a few " unfortunate islands," he reached at length 



Islands the " new world larger and richer than that found by Gama, ' ' 



of which his friend Serrano had written ! The existence of 



the huge Southern Pacific was revealed, and map-makers 



gradually came to understand that Hayti was not Japan, 



and that Cuba was not Cathay. 



The voyage Magellan arrived, not at the Moluccas, but at the Philip- 

 Victoria pines, where, like a good Portugal, he lost his life in mad 

 from Timor crusade against the heathen. But the Spaniards sailed on, 

 " ape " under Sebastian del Cano, and touching at Borneo, Batuan 

 and Gilolo, they at length reached the Moluccas. Serrano 

 was dead ; but the Portuguese were in possession of the 

 " New World " he had discovered, doing a big trade in 

 Banda for mace and nutmeg, and in the Moluccas for cloves. 

 They had been so anxious " to keep these countries from, 

 and unknown to the Spaniards," says the very fascinating 

 journalist, Pigafetta, " that they had spread reports that 

 the seas about the Moluccas could not be navigated on 

 account of the shoals and the foggy atmosphere, and that 

 fresh water had to be imported from distant countries." 

 The Spaniards, however, " bought cloves like mad," and 

 then in the Victoria they sailed for home. 1 " Sailing as far 

 as possible from the coast of India, lest they should be seen 

 by the Portuguese," they sought a passage through the 

 tangle of the island barrier which stretched from Sumatra 

 to Timor, trying to find the way by use of the map of 

 Ptolemy ; they made for Cattigara, they say, but couldn't 

 find it ! They touched at Ombaya and Timor, and our 

 journalist writes a full account of the latter island, so near 

 to Australia, and especially of its great trade with Malacca 

 and Java and the Philippines in wax and sandal-wood, 

 " for white sandal-wood only grows in this country." He 

 then tells how the Victoria sailed from Timor to the Cape, 

 on a track that must have been fairly near to the North- 

 1 See map, p. 75. 



