3 23
pigafetta’s voyage round the world.
BOOK II.
Departure from the Strait, and thence to the Death of Captain Magellan , and our
leaving Zubu.
ON Wednefday, 28th November, we left the (trait, and entered the ocean to whichwe afterwards gave the denomination of Pacific, and in which we failed the fpace ofthree months and twenty days, without tailing any frefh provifions. The bifcuit wewere eating no longer deferved the name of bread; it was nothing but duft, andworms which had confumed the fubftanee; and what is more, it fmelled intolerably,being impregnated with the urine of mice. The water we were obliged to drink wasequally putrid and offenfive. We were even fo far reduced, that we might not die ofhunger, to eat pieces of the leather with which the main-yard was covered to preventit from wearing the rope. Thefe pieces of leather, conflantly expofed to the water,fun, and wind, were fo hard that they required being foaked four or five days in thefea in order to render them fupple; after this we broiled them to eat. Frequentlyindeed we were obliged to fubfifl on faw-duft, and even mice, a food fo difgufling,were fought after with fuch avidity that they fold for half a ducat a piece *.
Nor was this all, our greatefl misfortune was being attacked by a malady in whichthe gums fwelled fo as to hide the teeth, as well in the upper as the lower jaw,whence thole affe&ed thus were incapable of chewing their food f. Nineteen of ournumber died of this complaint, among whom was the Patagonian giant, and aBrazilian, whom we had brought with us from his own country. Befides thofe whodied, we had from twenty-five to thirty failors ill, who fuffered dreadful pains in theirarms, legs, and other parts of the body ; but thefe all of them recovered. As formyfelf, I cannot be too grateful to God for the continued health I enjoyed j thoughfurrounded with fick I experienced not the flighted ilinefs.
In the courfe of thefe three months and twenty days we traverfed nearly fourthoufand leagues in the Ocean denominated by us Pacific, on account of our not havingexperienced throughout the whole of this period any the lead tempeduous weather j."We did not either in this whole length of time difcover any land, except two defertillands ; on thefe we faw nothing but birds and trees, for which reafon we named themLas Idas Defdichados (the Unfortunate Idands.) We found no bottom along theirfhores, and faw no fifn but (harks. The two idands are two hundred leagues apart. Thefirft lies in latitude fifteen degrees fouth, the fecond in latitude nine degrees §. From
* It i»no uncommon tiling for failors, from hunger, to he obliged to eat mice, or even leather. Ina moufe on board the fquadron of Pizarro fold for four crowns, The crews of Bougainville (tom. u*p. 173.) and of Cook, (Third Voyage, b. I. p. 23 .) were fain to eat leather.
j Quiros, Bougainville , and Cook afl'uredly were not equally fortunate.
^ Pigafetta does not prcfent us with fufficient documents to determine exadtly the polition of Las ImpDefdichados. Our manufeript merely points out the one to lay north-well of the other. But from m.narrative, allowing it to-be corredl, they belong to the Society Iflands, north and north-eaft of Otaheite >for Pigafetta fays that on leaving the ftrait they /ailed north-well by weft; afterwards north weft to tnequinoctial line, which they pafled, one hundred and twenty two degrees well from the line of demarcation,that is to fay, in one hundred and fifty-two degrees weft from the firft meridian. Now, if from this p°‘ ^we trace a line from north-weft to fouth eall, it will pafs between the Society Iflands on the north, * nOtaheite on tbeeaft. On this line therefore Ihould the Unfortunate Iflands lie Jaillot and Nolin haeonfequently placed them out of their true geographical lite. It is not improperly, however, that t. Jhave given them the names, one of St.Peter, and the other of Tiburon, for the anonymous Portuguefe g'them the fame names. The Tranfylvanian fays, our navigator flayed here two days to filh.
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the