INTRODUCTION

Summary

— Teucer Salamina patremque

Quum fugeret, tamen uda Lyæo

Tempora populeâ fertur vinxistse coronâ,

Sic tristes affatus amioos:

Quo nos cunque feret tnelior Fortuna parente,

Ibimus, o sooii comitesque!

Nil desperandum Teucro duoe et auspice Teucro;

Certus enim promisit Apollo

Ambiguam tellure novâ Salamina futuram.

O fortes, pejoraque passi

Mecuin seepe viri, nunc vino pellite curas:

Cras ingens iterabimus æquor.

Though Magellan's enterprise was the greatest ever undertaken by any navigator, yet he has been deprived of his due fame by the jealousy which has always existed between the two nations inhabiting the Peninsula: the Spaniards would not brook being commanded by a Portuguese, and the Portuguese have not yet forgiven Magellan for having abandoned them to serve Castile. But Magellan really had no choice; for if the western passage which he expected to discover was to be sought for, it could only be under the auspices of Spain, within whose demarcation those waters lay.

It would seem that D. Manuel had only himself to blame for the loss of Magellan's services; and, as M. Amoretti well observes, D. Manuel ought to have been well aware of the value of those services, since Charles V knew it, and showed his appreciation of them.