18 Crossing the Line 



1583, continued 



principall beginners being punished and layd in irons, by which meanes 

 they were quiet. 



( The voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies. From 

 the old Enghsh translation of 1598. The first book, containing his descrip- 

 tion of the East in two volumes. Edited, the first volume by the late Arthvur 

 Coke Bumell, Ph.D., CLE., of the Madras civil service. London: Hakluyt 

 Society, 1885. Works, no. 70. v. 1, p. 15-18.) 



Worth more than passing note is this classic in the tales of the expansion of western Europe into 

 the Far East by way of the sea. We get here a vivid picture of the discomforts of equatorial cross- 

 ings. The '"ancient custome" of choosing "an Emperour" and changing "all the officers in the ship" 

 gives more detail about the performance than we get otherwise. So too the holding of "a great 

 feast, which continuetli three or foure days together" is imusual, most of the stories saying clearly 

 and plainly that the affair was over quickly with prompt return to normal ship's life and routine. 

 With the good humored give-and-take of the dinner table turning into a drunken brawl, with the 

 captain lying "imder foote," it is scarcely surprising to hear that they nearly "tliereby had cast 

 the ship away." 



This Hakluyt Society edition (p. 17) has the following footnote to the part the Archbishop 

 played in quieting tlie riot and ordering "euery man on paine of death" to stack his side arms in 

 the Archbishop's cabin: 



"This is mistranslated, no doubt for political reasons. It should be: 'Had not the Arch- 

 bishop come out of his cabin into the crowd with great lamentations and gestures, on 

 which they began to be quiet, and he ordered them, on pain of excommunication, to 

 bring all rapiers, poniards, and arms to his cabin, which was at once done, with which 

 all was again at peace.' The Archbishop's threat of 'pain of death' is absurd, but was 

 probably thought quite correct in England in 1598. Excommunication by Rome was 

 then practically known, and death was a common punishment for trifling offences, 

 and the threat ( as really made ) would not have made the good Portuguese prelate look 

 so odious. Linschoten's original Dutch is: 'So den Aerts-bisschop met en hadde 

 ghecomen uyt zijn camer onder den hoop met groot ghecrijt ende ghebeyr, waerover 

 zy begosten stü te houden, den welcken terstont gheboodt op de verbuerte van den 

 Ban, datse alle Rappieren, Pongiarden, ende al 'tgheweer souden brenghen in zyn 

 Camer, 'twelck terstondt gheschiede, waer mede alle dinck weder in vrede quam.' These 

 foolish doings on crossing the Line continued down to quite recent times. 



"The Latin (1599) has: 'nisi Archiepiscopus ex cubiculo erumpens, magnis cla- 

 moribus seditionem composuisset, ensesque omnes ac pugiones abstulisset, commi- 

 natus excommunicationis notam in eos, qui novas res moliri conarentur. 



There is neither need nor space here for anything more than a few notes about early editions 

 of this best seller of four centuries ago. The Dutch original Itinerario, uoyage ofte Schipvaert . . . 

 naer Oost ofte Portugaeh Indien is dated Amsterdam, 1596, with later issues of 1605, 1614, 

 1623, 1644. The Latin Navigatio ac itinerarivm in orientalem sive Lvsitanorvm Indiam came 

 out at The Hague, 1599; the French Histoire de la navigation bears Amsterdam for place and 

 1610, 1619, 1638 for dates. There are many later reprints in whole or in part. 



