r joy
the tears fell from his eyes."

The expanse of calm waters seemed so pleasant after the heavy tiring
storms that he called the still waters before him the Pacific Ocean.
Before following him across the unknown waters, let us recall the
quaint lines of Camoens--

"Along these regions, from the burning zone
To deepest south, he dares the course unknown.
A land of giants shall his eyes behold,
Of camel strength, surpassing human mould;
And, onward still, thy fame his proud heart's guide,
Beneath the southern stars' cold gleam he braves
And stems the whirls of land-surrounded waves,
For ever sacred to the hero's fame,
These foaming straits shall bear his deathless name.
Through these dread jaws of rock he presses on
Another ocean's breast, immense, unknown,
Beneath the south's cold wings, unmeasur'd, wide,
Received his vessels, through the dreary tide,
In darkling shades, where never man before
Heard the waves howl, he dares the nameless shore."

Three little ships had now emerged, battered and worn, manned by crews
gaunt and thin and shivering. Magellan took a northerly course to avoid
the intense cold, before turning to cross the strange obscure ocean,
which no European had yet realised. Just before Christmas the course
was altered and the ships were turned to the north-west, in which
direction they expected soon to find the Spice Islands. No one had
any idea of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.

[Illustration: "HONDIUS HIS MAP OF THE MAGELLAN STREIGHT." From a map
by Jodocus Hondius, about 1590. It gives a particularly clear picture
of the ideas held by the age following Magellan's discovery of the
land which, it was supposed, enveloped the southern point of South
America.]

"Well was it named the Pacific," remarks the historian, "for during
three months and twenty days we met with no storm."

Two months passed away, and still they sailed peacefully on, day after
day, week after week, across a waste of desolate waters.

"Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea."

At last one January day they sighted a small wooded island, but it
was uninhabited; they named it S. Paul's Island and passed on their
way. They had expected to find the shores of Asia close by those of
America. The size of the world was astounding. Another island was
passed. Again no people, no consolation, only many sharks. There was
bitter disappointment on