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
After dinner our chaplain and some of us went on shore to baptise
the queen. She came with forty ladies, and we conducted them on to
the scaffolding; then made her sit down on a cushion, and her women
around her, until the priest was ready. During that time they showed
her an image of our Lady, of wood, holding her little child, which
was very well made, and a cross. When she saw it, she had a greater
desire to be a Christian, and, asking for baptism, she was baptised and
named Jehanne, like the mother of the emperor. The wife of the prince,
daughter of this queen, had the name of Catherine, the Queen of Mazzava
Isabella, and the others each their name. That day we baptised eight
hundred persons of men, women, and children. The Queen was young and
handsome, covered with a black and white sheet; she had the mouth and
nails very red, and wore on her head a large hat made of leaves of
palm, with a crown over it made of the same leaves, like that of the
Pope. After that she begged us to give her the little wooden boy to put
in the place of the idols.[320] This we did, and she went away. In the
evening the king and queen, with several of their people, came to the
sea beach, where the captain had some of the large artillery fired, in
which they took great pleasure.[321] The captain and the king called
one another brother.
At last, in eight days, all the inhabitants of this island were
baptised, and some belonging to the neighbouring islands. In one of
these we burned a village because the inhabitants would not obey either
the king or us. There we planted a cross because the people were
Gentiles: if they had been Moors, we should have erected a column, as a
sign of their hardness of heart, because the Moors are more difficult
to convert than the Gentiles. The captain-general went ashore every
day to hear mass, to which there came many of the new Christians, to
whom he explained various points of our religion. One day the queen
came with all her state. She was preceded by three damsels, who carried
in their hands three of her hats: she was dressed in black and white,
with a large silk veil with gold stripes, which covered her head and
shoulders. Very many women followed her, with their heads covered with
a small veil, and a hat above that: the rest of their bodies and feet
were naked, except a small wrapper of palm cloth which covered their
natural parts. Their hair fell flowing over their shoulders. The queen,
after making a bow to the altar, sat upon a cushion of embroidered
silk, and the captain sprinkled over her and over some of her ladies
rose water and musk, a perfume which pleases the ladies of this country
very much. The captain on that occasion approved of the gift which I
had made to the queen of the image of the Infant Jesus, and recommended
her to put it in the place of her idols, because it was a remembrancer
of the Son of God. She promised to do all this, and to keep it with
much care.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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