[3] The date of this view of the Pacific by Balboa was September 25, 1513.  Readers of the poems of Keats are familiar with the error in his sonnet “On First Looking Into Chapman’s ‘Homer,’” where, by a curious error, never corrected, he makes Cortez, instead of Balboa, the Spaniard who stood “silent upon a peak in Darien.”

THE VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN TO THE PACIFIC

(1520)

John Fiske’s account[1]

Our chief source of information for the events of the voyage is the journal kept by a gentleman from Vicenza, the Chevalier Antonio Pigafetta, who obtained permission to accompany the expedition, “for to see the marvels of the ocean.”  After leaving the Canaries on the 3d of October, the armada ran down toward Sierra Leone, and was becalmed, making only three leagues in three weeks.  Then “the upper air burst into life” and the frail ships were driven along under bare poles, now and then dipping their yard-arms.  During a month of this dreadful weather, the food and water grew scarce, and the rations were diminished.  The spirit of mutiny began to show itself.  The Spanish captains whispered among the crews that this man from Portugal had not their interests at heart, and was not loyal to the Emperor.  Toward the captain-general their demeanor grew more and more insubordinate; and Cartagena one day, having come on board the flag-ship, faced him with threats and insults.  To his astonishment, Magellan promptly collared him, and sent him, a prisoner in irons, on board the Victoria (whose captain was unfortunately also one of the traitors), while the command of the San Antonio was given to another officer.  This example made things quiet for the moment.

On the 29th of November they reached the Brazilian coast near Pernambuco; and on the 11th of January they arrived at the mouth of La Plata, which they investigated sufficiently to convince them that it was a river’s mouth, and not a strait.  Three weeks were consumed in this work.  This course through February and March along the coast of Patagonia was marked by incessant and violent storms; and the cold became so intense that, finding a sheltered harbor with plenty of fish at Port St. Julian, they chose it for winter quarters and anchored there on the last day of March.  On the next day, which was Easter Sunday, the mutiny that so long had smoldered broke out in all its fury.

The hardships of the voyage had thus far been what stanch seamen called unusually severe, and it was felt that they had done enough.  No one except Vespucius and Jaques had ever approached so near to the South Pole; and if they had not yet found a strait, it was doubtless because there was none to find.  The rations of bread and wine were becoming very short, and common prudence demanded that they should return to Spain.  If their voyage was practically a failure, it was not their fault; there was ample excuse in