AN EAR FOR A BLANKET. 



255 



every thing with which the ships could dispense on their return- 

 voyage was bartered for cloves. They were soon so deeply 

 laden that they hardly had room in which to stow their water. 

 The Trinidada, becoming leaky, was left behind, Juan Carvajo, 

 her pilot, and fifty-three of the crew, remaining with her. The 

 Yittoria bade adieu to her consort on the 21st of December, 

 the two vessels exchanging a parting salute. The number of 

 Europeans on board of the Yittoria was now reduced to forty- 

 six ; and the fleet, which formerly consisted of five sail, was now 

 reduced to one. 



As the Yittoria made her way through the thick archipelagoes 

 of islands which dot the seas in these latitudes, her Molucca 

 pilot told Pigafetta amazing stories of their inhabitants. In 

 Aracheto, he said, the men and women were but a foot and 

 a half high ; their food was the pith of a tree ; their dwellings 

 were caverns under ground; their ears were as long as their 

 bodies, so that when they lay down one ear served as a mat- 

 tress and the other as a blanket ! 



In order to double the Cape of Good Hope, the captain 

 ascended as high as the forty-second degree of south latitude : 

 he remained wind-bound for nine weeks opposite the Cape. 

 The crew were now suffering from sickness, hunger, and thirst. 

 After doubling the Cape, they steered northwest for two 

 months, losing twenty-one men on the way. Pigafetta noticed 

 that, on throwing the dead into the sea, the Christians floated 

 with their faces turned towards heaven, while the Moham- 

 medans they had engaged turned their faces the other way ! At 

 last, on the 9th of July, 1522, the vessel made the Cape Yerds. 

 These were in the possession of the Portuguese ; and it was a 

 very hazardous thing for the Spaniards to put themselves in 

 their power. However, they represented themselves as coming 

 from the west and not from the east, and made known their 

 necessities. Their long-boat was laden twice with rice in ex- 

 change for various articles. On its third trip the crew was 



