240 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



permitted by the cardinal to form part of Magellan's suite. He 



afterwards became the historian of the voyage. 



The fleet set sail from Seville on the 10th of August, 1519, 

 its departure being announced by a discharge of artillery. 

 Seville is nearly one hundred miles from the sea, by the river 

 Guadalquivir, the seaport of which is San Lucar, whence they 

 finally departed on the 20th of September. It would be difficult 

 to imagine circumstances more inauspicious than those under 

 which Magellan left the shores of Europe. The course he was 

 to follow was unexplored : so rash was the attempt considered, 

 that he dared not communicate to his men the real object of the 

 expedition. The season was already advanced, and he would in 

 all probability arrive in high southern latitudes at the coldest 

 period of the year. To the perils naturally incident to such a 

 voyage was to be added the unfortunate fact that the commanders 

 of the other four ships were Spaniards, and consequently inimi- 

 cal to Magellan, who, though in the service of Spain, was of 

 Portuguese birth. 



In six days the squadron reached Teneriffc ; of this island 

 Pigafetta relates several curious legends current at that time. 

 It never rained there, he says, and there was neither river nor 

 spring in the island. The leaves of a tree, however, which was 

 constantly surrounded by a thick mist, distilled excellent water, 

 which was collected in a pit at its foot, whither the inhabitants 

 and wild beasts repaired to quench their thirst. Early in 

 October the fleet passed between Cape Verd and its islands, and 

 coasted along the shores of Guinea and Sierra Leone. Here 

 they met with contrary winds, sharks, and dead calms. One 

 dark night, during a violent tempest, the St. Elmo fire blazed 

 for two hours upon their topmast. This, which is now known to 

 be an effect of electricity, which the ancient idolaters believed 

 to be Castor and Pollux, which Catholics in Magellan's time 

 regarded as a saint, and which English sailors call Davy Jones, 

 was a great consolation to the Portuguese during the storm. 



