DEATH OF MAGELLAN. 



251 



replied that they had lances too. The invaders waited for day- 

 light, and then, jumping into the water up to their thighs, waded 

 to shore. The enemy was fifteen hundred in number, formed 

 into three battalions : two of these attacked them in the flank, 

 the third in the front. The musketeers fired for half an hour 

 without making the least impression. Trusting to the superiority 

 of their numbers, the natives deluged the Christians with showers 

 of bamboo lances, staves hardened in the fire, stones, and even 

 dirt. A poisoned arrow at last struck Magellan, who at once 

 ordered a retreat in slow and regular order. The Indians now 

 perceived that their blows took effect when aimed at the nether 

 limbs of their foe, and profited by this observation with telling 

 effect. Seeing that Magellan was wounded, they twice struck his 

 helmet from his head. He and his small band of men continued 

 fighting for more than an hour, standing in the water up to their 

 knees. Magellan was now evidently failing, and the islanders, 

 perceiving his weakness, pressed upon him in crowds. One of 

 them cut him violently across the left leg, and he fell on his 

 face. He was immediately surrounded and belabored with 

 sticks and stones till he died. His men, every one of whom 

 was wounded, unable to afford him succor or avenge his death, 

 escaped to their boats upon his fall. 



"Thus," says Pigafetta, " perished our guide, our light, and 

 our support. But his glory will survive him. He was adorned 

 with every virtue : in the midst of the greatest adversity, he 

 constantly possessed an immovable firmness. At sea he sub- 

 jected himself to the same privations as his men. Better skilled 

 than any one in the knowledge of nautical charts, he was a 

 perfect master of navigation, as he proved in making the tour of 

 the world, — an attempt on which none before him had ventured." 

 Though Magellan only made half the circuit of the earth on this 

 occasion, yet it may be said with reason that he was the first to 

 circumnavigate the globe, from the fact that the way home from 



