The Story of Magellan and The Discovery of the Philippines Part 8

"It is to be noted that all and as many times as the light which represents St. Anseline shows itself upon a vessel which is in a storm at sea, that vessel never is lost.

"As soon as this light had departed the sea grew calmer and the wings of divers kinds of birds appeared."

Beneficent St. Anseline who manifested his presence by illuminations in the mast and spars in equatorial waters! The beautiful illusion has long been explained and dispelled. It is but an electric fire at the end of atmospheric disturbances. But it is usually a correct prophecy of fair skies and smooth seas. It is now called St. Elmo's Fire.

If ever there was an expedition that the saint of the mariners might favor it would seem to be this.

One can almost envy the pious Italian his imagination in the clearing tropic night.

His next wonders were the sea birds, of which there were flocks and clouds, and with them appeared flying fish.

The s.h.i.+ps were now off the coasts of Brazil and stopped at Verzim.

The people of the Brazilian Verzim were accustomed to paint themselves "by fire." We do not clearly understand how this painting "by fire" was done. The art of scorching has perished with them. But besides these indelible marks, the men had three holes in their lower lips, and hung in them, after the manner of earrings, small round ornamental stones, about a finger in length. The men did not shave, for they _plucked out_ their beard.

Their only clothing was a circle of parrot feathers. How _terribly_ gay they must have looked! And yet such customs were hardly more ridiculous than those of later times, and more civilized countries--earrings, beauty patches, plume, and snuffboxes.

It was the land of parrots. The most beautiful and intelligent parrots still come from Brazil. Columbus saw parrots in "clouds" over the islands of the Antilles.

Parrots were not expensive in these equatorial forests at this time.

"The natives," says Pigafetta, "give eight or ten parrots for a looking gla.s.s," and as a looking gla.s.s would multiply the picture of parrots indefinitely the Verzimans must have thought the exchange a marvelous bargain.

If Brazilian parrots were cheap and so charming as likely to become an embarra.s.sment of riches, so were the little cat monkeys which delighted the men. These little creatures, which looked like miniature lions, still delight the visitors to the coast of Brazil, but they s.h.i.+ver up when brought to the northern atmospheres and piteously cry for the home lands of the sun again.

Very curious birds began to excite the surprise of the voyagers, among such as had a "beak like a spoon," and "no tongue."

The markets of the new land displayed another commodity far more surprising than birds or animals, young slaves, which were offered for sale by their own families. So a family who had many children was rich.

It cost a hatchet to buy one of these, and for a hatchet and a knife one might buy _two_.

The people made bread of the "marrow of trees," and carried victuals in baskets on their heads.

Ma.s.ses were said for the crews on sh.o.r.e, and the natives knelt down with the men.

The people were so pleased with their visitors that they built a common house for them.

A pleasing illusion had made the sailors most welcome here.

It had not rained in Verzim for two months when the expedition landed.

The people were looking to the heavens for mercy day by day. But the copper sun rose as often in a clear sky.

At last Magellan's sails appeared in the burning air. The sight of the sails was followed by that of clouds.

The people thought that the fleet had brought the clouds with them.

"They come from Heaven," said they of the adventurers.

So when they were exhorted to accept Christianity, they at once fell down before the uplifted crosses and believed the teachings of the sea heroes who could command the clouds and bring rain to the parched land.

They thought the s.h.i.+ps were G.o.ds and the small boats the children of such beings, and when the latter approached the s.h.i.+ps they imagined that they were children come home to their fathers or mothers.

The s.h.i.+ps remained in this delightful country of Verzim thirteen weeks.

Pigafetta and Del Cano must have thought that life here was ideal. What scenes would follow?

CHAPTER IX.

PINEAPPLES, POTATOES, VERY OLD PEOPLE.

Other things were there on the wonderful Brazilian coast. There the mariners traded in them and were refreshed with a delicious fruit, called pique--pineapples.

They came to the knowledge here of a nutritious ground fruit called battate. "This," says our Italian, "has the taste of a chestnut and is the length of a shuttle." These ground fruits were potatoes.

The people here seem to have been very liberal in trading.

They would give six fowls for a knife--well they might do so, as they used stone implements.

They gave _two_ geese for a comb--here they were both generous and wise.

They gave as great a quant.i.ty of fish as ten men could eat for a pair of scissors.

And for a bell, they gave a whole basket full of potatoes (battate).

Marvelous indeed as was this same country of Verzim, it also abounded in the conditions and atmospheres of long life.

"Some of these people," says our Italian chronicler, "live to be a hundred or a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and forty or more. They wear little clothing."

Which speaks well for pineapples, potatoes, and easy dress.

"They sleep on cotton nets, which are fastened on large timbers, and stretch from one end of the house to another."

It is good to sleep in ample ventilation. We do not wonder that many of the people pa.s.sed a hundred years.

The boats of these people were as simple as their open houses.

"These are not made with iron instruments, for there are none, but with stones."

The canoes were dug out of one long tree--some giant growth of the forest which would convey from thirty to forty men. The paddles for these canoes resembled shovels. The rowers were usually black men.

The people ate human flesh, but only at feasts of triumph. They then served up their enemies.

Pigafetta draws the following grewsome picture:

"They do not eat up the whole body of a man whom they take prisoner; they eat him bit by bit, and for fear that he should be spoiled, they cut him up into pieces, which they set to dry before the chimney. They eat this day by day, so as to keep in mind the memory of their enemy."

This was indeed the sweet food of revenge, and as barbarous as it seems, the spirit of revenge secretly cherished is hardly less unworthy when it finds expression in words that are bitter, if not carnal.