34 Crossing the Line 



1690, continued 



Note that this Venice text chooses to give what it calls the standardized French routine. Was 

 there nothing similar in Venetian or ItaUan tradition? Note that nothing is said about the passing 

 of Gibraltar, nor of a visit from Neptune. The Portolano is part of it all, but not a word as to 

 what is done with it. Probably held out as the Bible to be sworn on? The ducking and the tribute 

 exacting seem general if not universal. Clerical opposition to the "baptising" seems to be lessened 

 by bringing in the phrases calling it all superstitious and profane and ridiculous. Or, was clerical 

 frowning the reason for its non-use by Italian seamen? 



1695 



Le 26. [of June] sur les 3. heures après minuit nous passâmes le Tropique du 

 Cancer; à la pointe du jour nous reconnûmes la terre de Praya, & après midy 

 se passa à faire les ceremonies du Baptême, que les Mariniers pratiquent en 

 ces sortes d'endroits. 



(François Froger. Relation d'un voyage fait en 1695. 1696. & 1697. aux 

 côtes d'Afrique, détroit de Magellan, Brazil, Cayenne & isles Antilles, 

 par une escadre des vaisseaux du roy, commandée par M. de Gennes. Faite 

 par le sieur Froger ingenieiu- volontaire sur le vaisseau le Faucon Anglois. 

 Paris, 1698, p. 4-5.) 



No details about the ceremony, nor mention of repetition at the equator. An English translation 

 was pubhshed the same year in London, the reference there being "the Ceremonies of the 

 Tropical Baptism or Ducking, which are commonly us'd by the Mariners in those places." 



Notes and Queries, London, March 14, 1891, series 7, v. 11, p. 205, quotes the English text 

 in full, and American Notes à- Queries, v. 1, no. 4, p. 62-3, July 1941, quotes the London version 

 of 1891 as providing "some interesting information from the point of view of distribution of the 

 practice and terminology involved." 



