MARITIME RIVALS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 1, 1 July 1925, Page 3

MARITIME RIVALS

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

A CONTINENTAL CAPTAIN COOK

MAGELLAN'S VOYAGE TO THE SOUTHERN SEAS;

Spain possessed her 'Captain Cook two and a half centuries before Britain's famous navigator saw the light 01. day. It was in the days when Spain and Portugal v;ere the, great maritime rivals. The Italian explorer Marco Polo had removed the veil from tho Asiatic shore of the South Seas;'another Italian, Christopher Columbus, had sailed westward to reach Asia, and had discovered America; and a Spaniard in Nunez de Balboa was the first person to view the Pacific from the American coast. Balboa's discovery was made in 1513. He got no reward. His recompense was the sword of the public executioner. To find a strait through which to pass from ocean ,to ocean, and to explore this "sea .of pitchy darkness," became the task of Fernando Magellan. .This circumnavigator was really a Portuguese by birtli. He was a member of the suite of the Viceroy of the Indian possessions" of the Portuguese. A keen student of geography and of Use maps of the .world, he made. a special study of- the charts of the explorers. The Court of Portugal declined to accept his services. Magellan thereupon threw off his allegiance to the King of Portugal, and proceeded to Spain to offer his services-to'the Emperor Charles V. Charles gladly accepted them, and thus Portugal lost the honour of the circumnavigation of the globe, as she had lost tho honour of the discoveries of Columbus,' who. after, leaving his native Italy to settle in [Lisbon, had been forced snbo Spam to obtain backing for his expedition. Vasco da Gania had doubled ths Cape of Good Hope, and the Portuguese had sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, reaching Calicut and the Moluccas, a group of islands near Celebes. Magellan's plan was ,to reach the Moluccas by the west, and thus. cross unknown seas. He set sail on 20th September, 1519, with five "ships"-^the Trinidad, San Antonio, Vittoria, Con--1 cepcion, and Santiago—and 236 men.: Two of these ships were of 130 tons, two of 90 tons, and one of 60 tons. How tiny these vessels ' were may be understood by comparison with Captain Cook's Endeavour, of: 370 tons,., while a vessel of. equal size to Magellan's largest ship is the schooner Alma Doepel, 131 tdns, which trades between Melbourne and Tasmanian ports, and lies in Little Dock at Spencer street. With the* frail craft Magellan saihfd west: from Spain, reached the mouth of the La Plata, passed along the coast of Patagonia, which he named, sailed through the Strait which, he found and now bears his name, discovered the Pacific" Ocean, to which he gave that name on account of the'fine weather he experienced there,, and sailed northwest, where he reached the Philippine)); otherwise, if he had gone due west, he must have found Australia; Like Captain Cook, he forfeited his life to native treachery, being clubbed to death on tho Island of Matan on 26th April, 1521. His ship alone of the five, that set out on the expedition returned to Spain, thus completing on 6th September, 1522, the first voyage ever made round the world. EXPLORING BRAZIL. "When Magellan landed on the.coast of .Brazil he found ;that the .natives were cannibals. One native of "gigantic the. came down to the shore and began to bellow like a bull; to instil confidence in hiii comrades, and to alarm.the Spaniards. Efforts were made to capture this "Goliath of Brazil," but without success. Passing further to the south, the party again Haded, and another man of gigantic stature, appeared. The heads of the explorers only reached to his waist. His clothing was made of the skin of the guanaco, which is described as having the "head and ears of a mule, tho body of a camel,- the.lees of a stag, and the tail of a horse." The giant wore a kind of short shoe,, and this gave his feet the appearance of a bear's paw. For this reason Magellan named the people Patagonians, or "clumsy footed" (Patagonea). The medical practice of these natives was very simple. If they suffered from what we now term a bilious attack, they simply thrust .an arrow down the throat of the afflicted one, and it acted as an emetic. -Fer a headache they gashed their foreheads, and; wherever they felt pain they cut themselves, to let blood. ■ ••••]■■ , . On ssverai occasions Magellan liaa to counter mutinies. While lie was at San Julian, three of the captains mutinied. They were Spanish, officers, and were jealous of the authority vested in the commander-In-chief.. .The ringleader, however, was a Portuguese. He 'was stabbed while reading a^ letter on his own quarter :deck. One of the captains was flayed alive, and another tvaa' beheaded. Shortly- afterwards Magellan lost his first'vessel.-.;' The Santiago was cast on tho rocks while engaged in surveying work, but the crew was-.sav-ed. The wreck was 100 miles distant from San Julian. Two of the men travelled overland, to acquaint the captaingeneral with th<i disaster. A great deal of energy and determination was displayed by the men,in the circumstances. The merchandise was salvaged, and for two months communication was maintained with the spot over a very bad track, infested . ivith thickets and briars, in a hostile country,' with no other beverage for the bearers of the provisions but the ice they could break and melt. There 1 was some solid stuff among those, explorers. At last, on 21st"October, 1520/ the great object of the expedition was accomplished. On that day Magellan entered the strait that hears his name. The crews were all firmly persuaded that/ the strait had no . western entrance, and there was little disposition among,-the majority to explore it. But Magellan and the bolder spirits were firm. Two of the small vessels were sent to see whether any opening existed. They found some smoking land, which they named Tierva: del_Fuego. The pilot'of the San Antohio cherished a. deep hatred against Magellan,, and., being successful in lecd.ing a mutiny, doubled oh his Cracks, returning to tho Atlantic. With his fleet reduced to three vessels, Magellan passed through to'the Pacific. As they passed tho final headland they named it Wished For Cape. "We wept for joy," the chronicler of tho voyage Wrote. "We" so named the cape, for. 'in truth; we had long wished to. sec it." '".'.■ Entering the calm waters-of the great ocean beyond the strati;,; Magellan named it Pacific. Inorder to reach a milder climate for the winter the expedition sailed northerly, and for nearly four mouths was without fresh provisions" The suffering of tho Spaniards were wry groat. Worms had consumed nearly all the biscuits,, and. the water was putrid. lo keep body ami soul together the men were compelled to cuaw the leather with which i;!,e .inainyart" was .covered. This, after bein X soakod in water for days, was eaten with avidity Other food consisted of sawdust varied with a dinner of mice. In. addition to the pangs of hunger and thirst, scurvy made its appearance. Nineteen of the Lrnndad s crow succumbed Ho it. VOYAGE .TO THE PACIFIC. During this part of the voyago tW ■Southern Crows. was discovered.' Tho «hipa 'were .covering .70 leagues » day.

"I do not think anyone in future will, venture upon a similar voyage," the. chronicler wrote. But fifty years later" ' Sir Francis Drake ventured. Ho was the first after Magellan to make, the circuit. Having reached the Tropic of Cancer the ships were turned . in. , a westerly direction, and some isk-indf-were touched at. '• The Spaniards called these islands thj Ladror.«i,_ or Thieves, out of compliment to the inhurent propensities of the olive-brown com* plexioned inhabitants. Sailing from the Ladrones, the ships came in sight of a "high island" some--300 leagues distant from the ThievesIsle. They called it Bamal, and.it is now included in the Philippines under the name of Samar. At another of these islands, where a king heltl sway, Magellan found that, although they had heard nothing of Christianity, they made tho sign of the cross at their meals, and called the god td whom they prayed Abba, which is. the term used for father in our Bibles.. Magellan endeavoured to develop their religious feeling, -for he* caused, a cross to be erected and made all his men bow down before it in the presence of the king. The. monarch looked upon the banner of the cross as a charm against thunder and lightning,, and willingly consented to have it erected at the top of a hill as a greater security. Later Magellan entered into' a definite trading treaty with the King of Zebu, and the king, the queen, and the islanders, generally embraced . the Christian faith. Shortly afterwards, at the nearby island of Matan, Magellan , was killed by the natives. 'Of him the ' chronicler of the voyage wrote :—" He was adorned with every virtue, and in. the midst of the greatest adversity he constantly possessed an immovable firmness.. At'Bea he subjected himself to the same privations as his men. Better skilled than a.nyone in the knowledge of nautical charts, he was a perfect mnster of-, navigation, as he proved in making it-tour of the world—an attempt {\i%j none before had ventured." How ;remarkably alike were the .maritime lives of our own Captain Cook and this great i Spanish-Portuguese navigator! . '-.''. A Portuguese named Duarte Barbosa, a relative of Magellan's, and a Spaniard named Juan Serrano, were elected to ihe joint command. As the ranks of'the rSpaniards were greatly decimated;,, the ooncepcion was burnt and the crew "was ■livided among,the Trinidad, and Vittoria. \ After a call at Borneo the Moluccas were reached. Among the valuable presents secured hero were innumerable birds of paradise. By the'time the voyage to Spain was resumed via the Cape of Good Hope the Trinidad was found, to be in such a leaky condition, that she had to be abandoned. Th«i" Vittoria. sailed alone to Spain, with a crew of 47 Europeans, •13 Indians, and the; pilots of the district. Variousships were attacked en route, and from the Portuguese traders the Spanish com- ; mander took all that he required with: 'out asking leave. , . The voyage round the world had last-T"i-V hre<s years ' 14,600.1ea f ;ues of Ta tt\ Cea crosal d in "cockleshells," and of thfl crew that had set out bu' eighteen regained to. re-enter Spain ~