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
Magellan saw that the continent stretched northwards again in a
straight line; wherefore, leaving that huge continent on the right
hand, he ordered them to sail through that vast and mighty sea (which
I do not think had ever seen either our or any one else’s ships) in
the direction whence the wind called Corus[443] generally blows—that
is, ’twixt north and west—so that he might, by going through west to
east, again arrive at the torrid zone; for he thought that it was
proved sufficiently clearly that the Moluccas were in the most remote
east, and could not be far from the equator. They kept this course
uninterruptedly, nor did they ever depart from it, except when rough
weather or violent winds compelled them to diverge; and when they had
in this manner been carried for forty days by a strong and generally
favourable wind, and had seen nothing but sea, and everywhere sea—when
they had almost reached the tropic of Capricorn once more, two islands
were sighted, but small and barren. These they found uninhabited when
they tried to land; still, they stopped there two days for their
health’s sake, and general recruiting of their bodies, for there was
very fair fishing there. They named these the Unfortunate Islands
by common consent. Then they again set sail thence, following their
original course and direction of sailing. And when, for three months
and twenty days, they had been sailing over this ocean with great good
fortune, and had traversed an immense part of the sea—more vast than
mind of man can conceive, for they had been driven almost continuously
by a very strong wind—they were now at last arrived on this side of
the equinoctial line, and at last they saw an island, called, as they
learnt afterwards, Inuagana by the natives. When they had approached
nearer, they discovered the altitude of the Arctic pole to be 11 deg.
The longitude they thought to be 158 deg. west of Gades. Then they
saw other and still more islands, so that they knew they had arrived
at some vast archipelago. When they reached Inuagana, the island was
discovered to be uninhabited. They then approached a rather small
island, where they saw two Indian canoes—for that is the name by which
this strange kind of boat is called by the Indians. The canoes are cut
and hollowed out of a single trunk of a tree, and hold one, or, at
most, two men; and they usually speak by gestures and signs, as if the
dumb were talking with the dumb.
They asked the Indians the names of the islands, and where they could
get provisions, of which they were in great want. They understood that
the island in which they had been was called Inuagana, and that the
one where they now were was Acaca, but both of them uninhabited. They
said that there was an island not far off, which was called Selani, and
which they almost showed with their finger, and that it was inhabited,
and that an abundance of everything necessary for life was to be found
there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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