his course for the Cape of Good Hope, again encountering the
most fearful hardships. Out of his slender crew he lost twenty-one men.
He doubled the Cape at last; and on September 7, 1522, in the port of
St. Lucar, near Seville, under his orders, the good ship San Vittoria
came safely to an anchor. She had accomplished the greatest achievement
in the history of the human race. She had circumnavigated the earth.

[Sidenote: Elcano, the lieutenant of Magellan.] Magellan thus lost his
life in his enterprise, and yet he made an enviable exchange. Doubly
immortal, and thrice happy! for he impressed his name indelibly on the
earth and the sky, on the strait that connects the two great oceans, and
on those clouds of starry worlds seen in the southern heavens. He also
imposed a designation on the largest portion of the surface of the
globe. His lieutenant, Sebastian d'Elcano, received such honours as
kings can give. Of all armorial bearings ever granted for the
accomplishment of a great and daring deed, his were the proudest and
noblest--the globe of the earth belted with the inscription, "Primus
circumdedisti me!"

[Sidenote: Results of the circumnavigation.] If the circumnavigation of
the earth by Magellan did not lead to such splendid material results as
the discovery of America and the doubling of the Cape, its moral effects
were far more important. Columbus had been opposed in obtaining means
for his expedition because it was suspected to be of an irreligious
nature. Unfortunately, the Church, satisfying instincts impressed upon
her as far back as the time of Constantine, had asserted herself to be
the final arbitress in all philosophical questions, and especially in
this of the figure of the earth had committed herself against its being
globular. Infallibility can never correct itself--indeed, it can never
be wrong. Rome never retracts anything; and, no matter what the
consequences, never recedes. It was thus that a theological
dogma--infallibility--came to be mixed up with a geographical problem,
and that problem liable at any moment to receive a decisive solution. So
long as it rested in a speculative position, or could be hedged round
with mystification, the real state of the case might be concealed from
all except the more intelligent class of men; but after the
circumnavigation had actually been accomplished, and was known to every
one, there was, of course, nothing more to be said. It had now become
altogether usele