The first voyage round the world, by Magellan : $b translated from the accounts of Pigafetta, and other contemporary writersPigafetta, Antonio
History
The first voyage round the world, by Magellan : $b translated from the accounts of Pigafetta, and other contemporary writers
Pigafetta, Antonio
Magalhães, Fernão de, -1521; Voyages around the world -- Early works to 1800
“In the year 1276, Alfonso the Wise had defeated Yussuf, the
Emperor of Marocco, and made peace with him with the assistance of
Guzman: a tournament was held in Seville in celebration of it, and
King Alfonso having asked who had most distinguished himself, was
told D. Alonzo Perez. He asked which of them, and D. Juan Ramirez
de Guzman replied: ‘Alonzo Perez de Guzman, my brother of profit.’
This answer seemed ill to all, and especially to Guzman, who saw
that a slur was cast upon the illegitimacy of his birth, for at
that time they named children of profit (_gananciu_), those who
were born of unmarried women, and his mother had not been married.
Guzman, irritated at being thus spoken of before the king and the
court, then said: ‘You speak truth, I am a brother of profit, but
you are and will be one of loss; and were it not for the respect
due to the presence in which we stand, I would teach you the manner
in which you should treat me; but you are not to blame for it,
but rather he who has brought you up and taught you so ill.’ The
king, against whom this complaint appeared to be directed, then
said: ‘Your brother does not speak ill, for so it is the custom
in Castile to name those who are not children of women married
to their husbands.’ ‘So also,’ he replied, ‘is it the custom of
the nobles of Castile, when they are not well treated by their
sovereigns, to go abroad to seek those who will treat them well; I
will do likewise; and I swear not to return until with truth they
may call me a man of profit. Grant me, therefore, the term which
the privilege of the nobles of Castile gives, that I may go out of
the kingdom, for from this day I disnaturalise myself, and take
leave of being your vassal.’ The king attempted to dissuade him,
but his efforts being in vain, he had to grant him the term which
he asked for; during which Guzman sold all that he had inherited
from his father or acquired in the war, and went out from Castile,
accompanied by thirty of his friends and servants.”—Quintana,
_Vidas de Españoles Celebres_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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