Read Online Over the Edge of the World: Magellen's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Laurence Bergreen
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was committing. . . . I always told him . . . that he should see that this road has as many dangers as a St. Catherine’s Wheel.” According to the oft-repeated legend, Emperor Maxentius, a fierce pagan, captured a young convert to Christianity named Catherine in A.D. 305. It was said that fifty philosophers tried to persuade her that her belief in Christianity was foolish, but Catherine, despite her youth, confounded their arguments and converted them to the faith. Maxentius ordered those unlucky philosophers put to death, and Catherine was sent to prison, where the emperor’s wife visited her and also converted to Christianity. At that, the emperor decided that Catherine herself must die. He ordered a wheel embedded with razors to be constructed; Catherine was bound to its rim, but instead of slicing her to pieces, the wheel shattered, and its splinters and razors injured the onlookers. In despair, the emperor finally ordered Catherine beheaded. If Magellan did not desire to suffer the fate of Catherine, Álvares urged him to “return to his native country and the favor of your Highness, where he would always receive benefits.”
Magellan replied that he was committed to Spain, and nothing could change his mind.
Álvares’s practiced reply would have unnerved a weaker soul than Magellan. “I said to him, that to acquire honor unduly, and when acquired by such infamy, was neither wisdom nor honor . . . for he might be certain that the chief Castilians of this city, when speaking of him, held him to be a vile man, of low blood, since to the disservice of his true king and lord he accepted such an enterprise.” Furthermore, “He might be sure that he was held to be a traitor in going against the State of your Highness.” Every term of opprobrium that Álvares hurled at Magellan strengthened the mariner’s resolve to carry out his mission. Even Álvares was impressed by Magellan’s conviction. “It seemed to me that his heart was true as to what befitted his honor and conscience.”
Despite his resolve, Magellan suffered pangs of conscience over his decision to abandon his homeland. “He made a great lamentation,” Álvares observed, “but that he did not know of anything by means of which he could reasonably leave a king who had shown him so much favor. I told him . . . that he should weigh his coming to Portugal.”
L eaving Magellan to his torment, Álvares tried to persuade himself and King Manuel that the expedition would never come to pass. He counted on the once brilliant Faleiro’s deteriorating mental state to aid the Portuguese skulduggery. “I spoke to Ruy Faleiro on two occasions,” Álvares reported to his sovereign. “It seems to me that he is like a man deranged in his senses. . . . Its eems to me that, if Ferdinand Magellan were removed, Ruy Faleiro would follow whatever Magellan did.”
If the fleet somehow managed to depart, Álvares advised that the five ships were barely seaworthy. “They are very old and patched up, for I saw them when they were beached for repairs. It is eleven months since they were repaired, and they are now afloat, and they are caulking them in the water. I went on board [one of them] a few times, and I assure Your Highness that I should be ill inclined to sail in them to the Canaries.” These islands were only a few days’ sail from the Iberian coast, and if the ships could not be trusted to sail that far, how could they possibly reach the Indies?
Álvares went on to boast that he knew what course the fleet planned to follow. Once the ships crossed the Atlantic, if they crossed it, Brazil would remain “on their right hand” as they sailed to the line of demarcation dividing the Spanish and Portuguese halves of the world. He erroneously informed the king that the fleet would then sail across open water west and northwest to the Spice Islands. “There are no lands laid down in the maps which they carry with them,” Álvares noted with malicious glee.
Magellan replied that he was committed to Spain, and nothing could change his mind.
Álvares’s practiced reply would have unnerved a weaker soul than Magellan. “I said to him, that to acquire honor unduly, and when acquired by such infamy, was neither wisdom nor honor . . . for he might be certain that the chief Castilians of this city, when speaking of him, held him to be a vile man, of low blood, since to the disservice of his true king and lord he accepted such an enterprise.” Furthermore, “He might be sure that he was held to be a traitor in going against the State of your Highness.” Every term of opprobrium that Álvares hurled at Magellan strengthened the mariner’s resolve to carry out his mission. Even Álvares was impressed by Magellan’s conviction. “It seemed to me that his heart was true as to what befitted his honor and conscience.”
Despite his resolve, Magellan suffered pangs of conscience over his decision to abandon his homeland. “He made a great lamentation,” Álvares observed, “but that he did not know of anything by means of which he could reasonably leave a king who had shown him so much favor. I told him . . . that he should weigh his coming to Portugal.”
L eaving Magellan to his torment, Álvares tried to persuade himself and King Manuel that the expedition would never come to pass. He counted on the once brilliant Faleiro’s deteriorating mental state to aid the Portuguese skulduggery. “I spoke to Ruy Faleiro on two occasions,” Álvares reported to his sovereign. “It seems to me that he is like a man deranged in his senses. . . . Its eems to me that, if Ferdinand Magellan were removed, Ruy Faleiro would follow whatever Magellan did.”
If the fleet somehow managed to depart, Álvares advised that the five ships were barely seaworthy. “They are very old and patched up, for I saw them when they were beached for repairs. It is eleven months since they were repaired, and they are now afloat, and they are caulking them in the water. I went on board [one of them] a few times, and I assure Your Highness that I should be ill inclined to sail in them to the Canaries.” These islands were only a few days’ sail from the Iberian coast, and if the ships could not be trusted to sail that far, how could they possibly reach the Indies?
Álvares went on to boast that he knew what course the fleet planned to follow. Once the ships crossed the Atlantic, if they crossed it, Brazil would remain “on their right hand” as they sailed to the line of demarcation dividing the Spanish and Portuguese halves of the world. He erroneously informed the king that the fleet would then sail across open water west and northwest to the Spice Islands. “There are no lands laid down in the maps which they carry with them,” Álvares noted with malicious glee.
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