126 
FROM HONG-KONG TO YOKOHAMA. 
a farewell visit to the Jesuit Fathers, who presented the Expedition with a collection of their 
meteorological observations, commencing with the year 1865 ; but we noticed that the beautiful 
copy of Vandyke—if indeed it was a copy, for it seemed the work of a master hand had 
disappeared from the walls of the staircase. 
On the 14th, H.M.S. “Challenger” began to retrace her course through the Philippines, 
passing through the Strait of St. Bernardino on the 15th, with the island of Mindoro and 
Mount Halcon this time fully in sight, and sailing down between the islands of the 
picturesque inland sea until, on the afternoon of the 17th, the conical peak of the “ Pan de 
Azucar ” (Sugarloaf), which overlooked the scene of our former labours, and the coast of the 
island of Panay, were visible to the westward. Here we lost sight of our old track, and, 
making for the channel between Leyte and Zebu, we arrived about noon on the 18th, after 
a pleasant run past the cultivated shores of the latter island, before the ancient capital of the 
Philippines. We were anchored in the narrow passage between the town of Zebu and the island 
of Mactan—the latter the scene of the miserable death of the illustrious navigator Magallanes, 
the first European who, in one of the small and ill-found ships of his day, crossed the 
immense expanse of the Pacific Ocean from the Straits of Patagonia, which now bear 
his name, to the islands whence he was never to return. According to old writers, 
Magallanes, after discovering the Mariana or Ladrone Islands, arrived off Samar on the 
16th March, 1521. On the 28th of the same month he is supposed to have anchored off the 
southern end of Leyte, and thence, sailing up between the islands of Bohol and Leyte on the 
5th and 6th April, he arrived, on Sunday the 7th April, 
at the port of Zebu. The walls of a ruined castle, called 
Canit Castle, attached to a piece of rock now entirely 
surrounded by water, were shown to us as marking the 
spot where the discoverer of the Philippines first stepped 
on land. This point is situated a little to the southward 
of Zebu, and when leaving the port the “Challenger” 
passed close to the ruins, tilted over to one side, and 
lighted up by a golden sunset; and imagination could easily picture the scene of three 
centuries and a-half since—the glittering armour of the Spaniards as they clambered over 
the ship’s side, the first white men ever seen in these regions. 
Having prevailed upon the King of Zebu to allow himself to be baptised, Magallanes, 
in an unlucky moment, took part in a quarrel between the King and the chiefs of the opposite 
island of Mactan. It is reported of the navigator that he was in the habit of counting upon 
the terror inspired by the appearance of men clad in full armour, and never hesitated to 
present himself in this fashion, even before overwhelming numbers of natives. On this 
occasion, accompanied by his Spaniards, reduced to a small band after their long voyage 
across the Pacific, he landed on the island of Mactan, and attacked the natives. Whether 
it was that his enemies were more than usually skilled in the art of war, or more accustomed 
. to the sight of strange men, he had to give way before superior numbers, and in the retreat 
