Ribero's map, 1529.]

It is melancholy to learn that the man who made this really great
discovery was publicly hanged four years later in Darien. But his news
had reached Magellan. There was then a great Southern Ocean beyond
the New World. He was more certain than ever now that by this sea he
could reach the Spice Islands. Moreover, he persuaded the young King
of Spain that his country had a right to these valuable islands, and
promised that he would conduct a fleet round the south of the great
new continent westward to these islands. His proposal was accepted
by Charles V., and the youthful Spanish monarch provided Spanish ships
for the great enterprise. The voyage was not popular, the pay was low,
the way unknown, and in the streets of Seville the public crier called
for volunteers. Hence it was a motley crew of some two hundred and
eighty men, composed of Spaniards, Portuguese, Genoese, French,
Germans, Greeks, Malays, and one Englishman only. There were five
ships. "They are very old and patched," says a letter addressed to
the King of Portugal, "and I would be sorry to sail even for the Canaries
in them, for their ribs are soft as butter."

Magellan hoisted his flag on board the _Trinidad_ of one hundred and
ten tons' burden. The largest ship, _S. Antonio_, was captained by
a Spaniard--Cartagena; the _Conception_, ninety tons, by Gaspar
Quesada; the _Victoria_ of eighty-five tons, who alone bore home the
news of the circumnavigation of the world, was at first commanded by
the traitor Mendoza; and the little _Santiago_, seventy-five tons,
under the brother of Magellan's old friend Serrano.

What if the commander himself left a young wife and a son of six months
old? The fever of discovery was upon him, and, flying the Spanish flag
for the first time in his life, Magellan, on board the _Trinidad_,
led his little fleet away from the shores of Spain. He never saw wife
or child again. Before three years had passed all three were dead.

Carrying a torch or faggot of burning wood on the poop, so that the
ships should never lose sight of it, the _Trinidad_ sailed onwards.

"Follow the flagship and ask no questions."

Such were his instructions to his not too loyal captains.

CHAPTER XXVII

MAGELLAN SAILS ROUND THE WORLD

They had left Seville on 20th September 1519. A week later they were
at the Canaries. Then past Cape Verde, and land faded from their sight
as they made for the south-west. For some tim