or arms for feeblenesse:  So that was in maner none without sum disease.  In three monethes and xx. dayes, they sayled foure thousande leaques in one goulfe by the sayde sea cauled Paciflcum (that is) peaceable, whiche may well bee so cauled forasmuch as in all this tyme hauyng no syght of any lande, they had no misfortune of wynde or any other tempest....  So that in fine, if god of his mercy had not gyuen them good wether, it was necessary that in this soo greate a sea they shuld all haue dyed for hunger.  Whiche neuertheless they escaped soo hardely, that it may bee doubted whether euer the like viage may be attempted with so goode successe.”

One would gladly know—­albeit Pigafetta’s journal and the still more laconic pilot’s logbook leave us in the dark on this point—­how the ignorant and suffering crews interpreted this everlasting stretch of sea, vaster, said Maximilian Transylvanus, “than the human mind could conceive.”  To them it may well have seemed that the theory of a round and limited earth was wrong after all, and that their infatuated commander was leading them out into the fathomless abysses of space, with no welcoming shore beyond.  But that heart of triple bronze, we may be sure, did not flinch.  The situation had got beyond the point where mutiny could be suggested as a remedy.  The very desperateness of it was all in Magellan’s favor; for so far away had they come from the known world that retreat meant certain death.  The only chance of escape lay in pressing forward.  At last, on the 6th of March, they came upon islands inhabited by savages ignorant of the bow and arrow, but expert in handling their peculiar light boats.  Here the dreadful sufferings were ended, for they found plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables, besides meat.  The people were such eager and pertinacious thieves that their islands received the name by which they are still known, the Islas de Ladrones, or isles of robbers.

On the 16th of March the three ships arrived at the islands which some years afterward were named Philippines, after Philip II of Spain.  Tho these were islands unvisited by Europeans, yet Asiatic traders from Siam and Sumatra, as well as from China, were to be met there, and it was thus not long before Magellan became aware of the greatness of his triumph.  He had passed the meridian of the Moluccas, and knew that these islands lay to the southward within an easy sail.  He had accomplished the circumnavigation of the earth through its unknown portion, and the remainder of his route lay through seas already traversed.  An erroneous calculation of longitudes confirmed him in the belief that the Moluccas, as well as the Philippines, properly belonged to Spain.  Meanwhile in these Philippines of themselves he had discovered a region of no small commercial importance.  But his brief tarry in these interesting islands had fatal results; and in the very hour of victory the conqueror perished, slain in a fight with the natives, the reason of which we can understand only by considering the close complication of commercial and political interests with religious notions so common in that age....