[315] “Pardeça;” that is to say, “Par de ça la Loire,” or
“Langue d’oil.” Languedoc was called “Par de la.” The Milan edition
describes the scales as a wooden pole suspended in the middle, with a
basin suspended by three cords at one end, and a cord at the other end
with a weight equal to the basin to which weights are attached.
[319] The Milan edition says he was before named Raja Humabon.
[320] After the death of Magellan the image of the Infant
Jesus was preserved as an idol until the year 1598, in which the
Spaniards returned to that place with missionaries, who, having found
it, not only placed it in veneration, but gave to the city which they
founded there the name of City of Jesus, which it still preserves. Note
of Milan edition.
[321] Here ends the translation made from the French MS.; what
follows is from the Milan edition.
[322] “Si” is a prefix of honour to a proper name.
[323] Spear, like a partisan, but larger. French MS. of Nancy.
[324] The text of this appeal has been given by M. Denis in
the Univers Pittoresque, from the MS. of Nancy, now of Sir
Thomas Phillipps’ library.
[343] The Portuguese introduced Christianity into this
country, which lasted till 1590. Now the Gentiles have been obliged
to abandon the sea-coast, and have retired to the mountains.
Sonnerat, Note of Milan edition.
[344] Here some details are omitted, which, with the whole
of this paragraph, have been written by Pigafetta, because he was an
Italian, and not a Spaniard or Portuguese, in which case he would have
been better informed.
[347] “Pitis”, small coin, 600 to a dollar at Achin.
[348] The Milan edition has added to the text, “which
project outside for a counterpoise”; and supposes this refers to an
outrigger. Junks have no outriggers; prahus have projecting gunwales,
which widen the deck.
[349] This latitude is that of the northern point of Borneo;
the longitude is much diminished, as usual. Pigafetta has taken care to
mark in his map of the island of Borneo, his voyage of fifty leagues
from the point to the port, and has placed Laöe at the southern point
of the island. Note, Milan edition.
[353] Other travellers have seen similar leaves, and being
more versed in natural history than our Pigafetta, soon knew that
the motion of these leaves came from the insect which lived inside.
(Hist. Gén. des Voy., tom. xv, p. 58.) Note, Milan
edition.
[359] From this probably comes the word “Cinnamomum”.
[360] This receipt was recently attributed, in some newspaper
paragraph, to the Battas of Sumatra, 1874.
[361] Cape Benaian is the most northern cape of the island,
and has still the same name. Note, Milan edition.
[362] The islands here mentioned belong to that group in which
modern geographers reckon Kararotan, Linop, and Cabrocana; after which
is found Sanghir, the beautiful island of the author: others name it
Sanguil. This island has many islets to the S.W., which Pigafetta
mentions later. Cabiu, Cabalussu, Limpang, and Nussa, are mentioned
in the list of islands which in 1682 belonged to the King of Ternate.
Note, Milan edition.
[363] In the list of islands belonging to the King of Ternate,
are found Karkitang, Para, Sangaluhan, Siau.
[364] Pangazara, Talaut, and Mahono, are in the above quoted
list.
[379] S. Barbara is the patroness of powder magazines, which
on board French ships are called Sainte Barbe.
[380] “Frixeto,” “nastro” or “settuccia,”
“ribbon,” is so called now in Genoese. Note, Milan edition.
[381] Marcello, a coin struck at Venice by the Doge Nicolò
Marcello in 1473, of silver, weighing as much as a sequin, and worth
about sixpence. Note, Milan edition.
[386] The longitude is wrong, as usual. Note, Milan edition.
[387] The volcanoes of Ternate and Machian, which caused such
havoc in the last century by their explosions, did not then emit flames
or smoke, since Pigafetta would not have omitted to mention them.
[388] Laboan, an islet considered now as part of Bachian.
Note, Milan edition.
[389] “Xulla” of Robert’s Atlas, and “Xoula” of the Dutch.
Note, Milan edition.
[390] Comparing this with what the author writes a little
further on, there is another proof that he took down the names of the
islands, and laid down their positions, as he thought he understood the
pilots who spoke a language which he little understood. He here notes
ten islands, and he has drawn six without names to the North of Sulach,
where other geographers also lay down a few islets; but of these ten,
Tenetum, Kalairuru, Mandan, and Benaia, are again named and drawn
further on; and Leytimor is a peninsula attached to Amboina. Note,
Milan edition.
[391] The jack fruit, called Nangka throughout the Malay seas.
[392] Amboina. Pigafetta appears to refer to the large island
of Ceram. Note, Milan edition.
[393] The Milan MS. says “longitude”, which must be an error
of the scribe. Note, Milan edition.
[399] Bomare says that those who cut sandal wood fall ill from
the miasma exhaled by the wood. Note, Milan edition.
[400] A note to the Milan edition suggests that it was too
early in the century for this to be the Frank disease, and that it must
have been leprosy. This is more probable.
[407] Pigafetta has confounded rhubarb with the decayed wood
of a tree found in Siam, which, when burnt, gives a very sweet perfume,
and which sells at a high price.
[415] “Harimau,” a tiger; not a lion. All these words are
Malay, the language in which the whole of this information must have
been conveyed to Pigafetta.
[419] Now the declination of the ecliptic, which answers to
the poles of the eighth sphere of Pigafetta, is 23 deg. 28 min. 30 sec.
Note, Milan edition.
[420] Supposing that the surface of the globe under the
equator were half land and half sea, and then giving to each
league three and a half miles, we should have 22,050 miles for the
circumference of the earth: a measure very little differing from that
which results from giving to each degree at the equator sixty Italian
miles, by which the circumference is 21,600 miles. Note, Milan edition.
[421] The guard stars are β and γ of Ursa Minor, which form a
triangle with the pole and pole star; now γ of the belt of Cassiopeia
is used. Note, Milan edition.
[422] This means the arm of the instrument used; it might be
the meteoroscope of Regiomontano, which had a cross in the middle:
or an astrolabe like it; or the common astrolabe with a dioptron, or
mediclino, as Pigafetta calls it, placed on the equator. Note, Milan
edition.
[423] That is the meridian line from the pole to the equator.
Note, Milan edition.
[424] Though the radius of the circle which the pole star
goes round is now little more than a degree and a half, in the time of
Pigafetta it was 3 deg. 17 min. 37 sec., so that if he reckoned it at
3 deg. 30 min. it is wonderful that he should have made so small an
error, notwithstanding the imperfection of his instruments. Note, Milan
edition.
[425] These three methods are probably those which, according
to Castañeda, Faleiro taught to Magellan. Note, Milan edition.
[426] That is to say, the knot where the orbit of the moon
cuts the ecliptic. Note, Milan edition.
[431] I do not find any mention of the mediclino in
any writer of the times near that of Pigafetta who have treated of
the astrolabe, such as Regiomontanus, Appianus, Gimma Frisius, Danti,
Clavius, etc.; but from what our author says here and elsewhere, it
appears that the mediclino is that movable rule, fixed on the centre of
the astrolabe, which turns round it, and is named sometimes albidade,
or dioptron, or traguardo, or linea di fiducia. Note, Milan edition.
[432] Amoretti, in his introduction to this Treatise of
Navigation, in the Milan edition, observes that Pigafetta was misled
by a false theory when he supposes that there is in the heavens a
point in repose to which the magnetic needle tends, but that the exact
direction of the magnetic needle coincided, or at least approximated,
to the meridian of the isle of Ferro, which is not now the case; and
that in some other places the variations of the compass had been
observed to correspond with that of the longitude. By the table of
variations of the compass published by Lambert in the Ephemerides of
Berlin (Astronomische Jahrbuch) for the year 1779, it is seen
by an easy calculation that at the beginning of the sixteenth century
the magnetic equator or zero of deviation was very near the isle of
Tenerife. Now it is further off, and the distance increases. M. de
Bougainville found there the deviation to the west to be 14 deg. 41
min.; and Staunton, the companion of Lord Macartney, found it to be 17
deg. 35 min.
[433] We have two astrolabes in our museum constructed with
several plates: one is of brass, and another of card, for more easy
manipulation. Note, Milan edition.
[441] Literally, with funereal or lugubrious state;
but Maximilian and his translators appear to have thought that
feralis is derived from fera. Ramusion translates: “Dando
loro a mangiar carne di fiere;” and the Spanish version in Navarrete
has: “Con su aparato y cerimonias bestiales.” Ducange has an adverb,
feraliter, with the sense of beastly.
[450] It is 37° 52′. This is the northernmost of the two
islands, St. Paul’s and Amsterdam. The Dutch call the N. Island
Amsterdam, and the English call it St. Paul’s in ordinary maps.
[451] The Great Fish River or the Keiskamma River.
[452] This Gomez was the alguazil who assisted Magellan so
much in putting down the mutiny in the port of St. Julian.
[455] Correa seems to have made a mistake here. Quesada helped
to make Alvaro de Mezquita, Magellan’s relation, and captain of the
S. Antonio, a prisoner; but what Correa relates may have been
part of the plot and a stratagem of Juan de Carthagena.
[456] His name was Gonzalo Gomes de Spinosa; he returned to
Spain.