The Sixteenth Century 17 



behind them dare not try to stand against it. He goes back to the Psabnist and to Job as he talks 

 about seafaring folk and the terrors of the deep. With real glee he tells how Jean de Meun, the 

 pilot, quite illiterate, but by experience wise about sea charts and astrolabes and Jacob's stafiFs, 

 roundly put to shame a passenger puffed up with and proud of his book learning as he talked 

 about the weather and life at sea. 



The same text with minor variations of spelling and punctuation is found in other editions: 

 French at Geneva, 1585, 1586, 1599, 1600, 1611; Dutch at Amsterdam, 1597; Latin at Geneva, 

 1586, 1594; German at Münster, 1794. A translation into Portuguese "integral e notas de Sergio 

 Müliet, segundo a ediçâo de Paul Gaffarel com o Coloquio na lingua brasihca e notas tupinolôgicas 

 de Plinio Ayrosa" came out at Sao Paulo in 1941 as v. 7 of the Biblioteca historica Brasileira, edited 

 by Rubens Borba de Moraes. 



158S 



The 24. of Aprill we fell upon the coaste of Guinea, which begitmeth at nine 

 degrees, and stretcheth untiU wee come under the EquinoctiaU, where wee 

 have much thunder, lightning, and many showers of raine, with stormes of 

 wind, which passe swiftly over, & yet fall with such force, that at every shower 

 we are forced to strike sayle, and let the maine yeard fall to the middle of the 

 mast, and many times cleane down, sometimes ten or twelve times every day: 

 there wee finde a most extreame heate, so that all the water in the ship 

 stinketh, whereby men are forced to stop their noses when they drinke, but 

 when wee are past the EquinoctiaU it is good againe, and the nearer wee are 

 unto the land, the more it stoiTneth, raineth, thundreth and calmeth: so that 

 most commonly the shippes are at the least two monthes before they can 

 passe the line: . . . 



The 26 of May wee passed the EquinoctiaU line which runneth through 

 the middle of the Hand of Saint Thomas, by the coast of Guinea, and then 

 wee began to see the south star, and to loose the north star, and founde the 

 sunne at twelve of the clocke at noone to be in the north, and after that we had 

 a south east [wind, caUed a] general wind, which in those partes bloweth aU 

 the yeare through. 



The 29 of May being Whitsonday, the ships of an ancient custome, doe 

 use to chuse an Emperour among themselves, and to change aU the officers 

 in the ship, and to hold a great feast, which continueth three or foure 

 days together, which wee observing chose an Emperour, and being at our 

 banket, by meanes of certaine words tliat passed out of some of their mouthes, 

 there feU great strife and contention among us, which proceeded so farre, 

 that the tables were throwne downe and lay on the ground, and at the least a 

 hundred rapiers drawne, without respecting the Captaine or any other, for he 

 lay under foote, and they trod upon him, and had killed each other, and 

 thereby had cast the ship away, if the Archbishop had not come out of his 

 chamber among them, wiUing them to cease, wherewith they stayed their 

 hands, who presently commaunded every man on paine of death, that aU 

 their Rapiers, Poynyardes, and other weapons should bee brought into his 

 chamber, which was done, whereby aU thinges were pacified, the first and 



