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 this island there are some very large wild boars. Whilst we were in
a boat we killed one which was crossing from one island to another.
Its head was two and a half spans long, and its tusks were exceedingly
long.[351] Here also are crocodiles; those of the land are larger than
those of the sea-coast. There are oysters and very large turtles; of
these we caught two. The flesh alone of one of them weighed twenty
pounds, and of the other forty-four pounds. We caught a kind of fish
with a head like that of a pig, and which had two horns; its body was
all covered with bone, and on its back it had a kind of saddle: this
was a small one. In this island are also found certain trees, the
leaves of which, when they fall, are animated, and walk. They are like
the leaves of the mulberry tree, but not so long; they have the leaf
stalk[352] short and pointed, and near the leaf stalk they have on each
side two feet. If they are touched they escape, but if crushed they
do not give out blood.[353] I kept one for nine days in a box. When I
opened it the leaf went round the box. I believe they live upon air.
The island in which we were is called Pulaoan.
On leaving this island—that is to say, the port which is at the
extremity of it—we met a junk which was coming from Borneo. We made
signals to it to strike its sails; but as it would not obey we overtook
it, captured and pillaged it. It had on board the Governor of Pulaoan,
with a son and a brother of his. We made them all prisoners, and put
them to ransom to give within seven days four hundred measures of
rice, twenty pigs, as many goats, and four hundred and fifty fowls.
They caused all this to be given us, and besides added spontaneously
cocoanuts, figs, sugar-canes, and vessels full of palm wine. We, in
consequence of his generosity, restored to him some of his daggers and
arquebuses; we also gave him a flag, a garment of yellow damask, and
fifteen ells of linen. We gave to his son a cloak of blue cloth, and to
his brother a garment of green cloth, and to the others other things,
and we parted good friends.
We turned backwards, passing between the island of Cagayan and the port
of Cipit,[354] taking a course east and a quarter south-east, to seek
the islands of Maluco. We passed between certain little mountains,[355]
around which we found many weeds, although there was there a great
depth. Passing between these islets it seemed that we were in another
sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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