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and the Easter services were performed on one of the islands. A cross and a crown of thorns was set upon the
top of the highest mountain that all might see it and worship. Thus April passed away and Magellan was still
busy with Christians and gold. But his enthusiasm carried him too far. A quarrel arose with one of the native
kings. Magellan landed with armed men, only to be met by thousands of defiant natives. A desperate fight
ensued. Again and again the explorer was wounded, till "at last the Indians threw themselves upon him with
iron-pointed bamboo spears and every weapon they had and ran him through--our mirror, our light, our
comforter, our true guide--until they killed him."
Such was the tragic fate of Ferdinand Magellan, "the greatest of ancient and modern navigators," tragic
because, after dauntless resolution and unwearied courage, he died in a miserable skirmish at the last on the
very eve of victory.
[Illustration: THE FIRST SHIP THAT SAILED ROUND THE WORLD. Magellan's Victoria, from Hulsius's
Collection of Voyages, 1602.]
With grief and despair in their hearts, the remaining members of the crew, now only one hundred and fifteen,
crowded on to the Trinidad and Victoria for the homeward voyage. It was September 1522 when they reached
the Spice Islands--the goal of all their hopes. Here they took on board some precious cloves and birds of
Paradise, spent some pleasant months, and, laden with spices, resumed their journey. But the Trinidad was too
overladen with cloves and too rotten to undertake so long a voyage till she had undergone repair, so the little
Victoria alone sailed for Spain with sixty men aboard to carry home their great and wonderful news. Who
shall describe the terrors of that homeward voyage, the suffering, starvation, and misery of the weary crew?
Man after man drooped and died, till by the time they reached the Cape Verde Islands there were but eighteen
left.
When the welcome shores of Spain at length appeared, eighteen gaunt, famine-stricken survivors, with their
captain, staggered ashore to tell their proud story of the first circumnavigation of the world by their lost
commander, Ferdinand Magellan.
We miss the triumphal return of the conqueror, the audience with the King of Spain, the heaped honours, the
crowded streets, the titles, and the riches. The proudest crest ever granted by a sovereign--the world, with the
words: "Thou hast encompassed me"--fell to the lot of Del Cano, the captain who brought home the little
Victoria. For Magellan's son was dead, and his wife Beatrix, "grievously sorrowing," had passed away on
hearing the news of her husband's tragic end.
CHAPTER XXVIII 104
CHAPTER XXVIII
CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO
One would have thought that the revelation of this immense sheet of water on the far side of America would
have drawn other explorers to follow, but news was slowly assimilated in those days, and it was not till
fifty-three years later that the Pacific was crossed a second time by Sir Francis Drake.
In the maps of the day, Newfoundland and Florida were both placed in Asia, while Mexico was identified
with the Quinsay of Marco Polo. For even while Magellan was fighting the gales of the Atlantic en route for
his long-sought strait, another strange and wonderful country was being unveiled and its unsurpassed wealth
laid at the feet of Spain. The starting-place for further Spanish exploration had been, from the days of
Columbus, the West Indies. From this centre, the coast of Florida had been discovered in 1513; from here, the
same year, Balboa had discovered the Pacific Ocean; from here in 1517 a little fleet was fitted out under
Francisco Hernando de Cordova, "a man very prudent and courageous and strongly disposed to kill and
kidnap Indians." As pilot he had been with Columbus on his fourth voyage some fourteen years before. He
suggested that his master had heard rumours of land to the West, and sure enough, after sailing past the
peninsula of Yucatan, they found signs of the Eastern civilisation so long sought in vain.
"Strange-looking towers or pyramids, ascended by stone steps, greeted their eyes, and the people who came
out in canoes to watch the ships were clad in quilted cotton doublets and wore cloaks and brilliant plumes."
They had heard of the Spaniards. Indeed, only one hundred miles of sea divided Yucatan from Cuba, and they
were anything but pleased to see these strangers off their coast.
"Couez cotoche" (Come to my house), they cried, for which reason Cordova called the place Cape Catoche, as
it is marked in our maps to-day. Along the coast sailed the Spaniards to a place called by the Indians [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]