INTRODUCTION
and
LIFE OF MAGELLAN.
—— Teucer Salamina patremque
Quum fugeret, tamen uda Lyæo
Tempora populeâ fertur vinxisse coronâ,
Sic tristes affatus amicos:
Quo nos cunque feret melior Fortuna parente,
Ibimus, o socii comitesque!
Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro;
Certus enim promisit Apollo
Ambiguam tellure novâ Salamina futuram.
O fortes, pejoraque passi
Mecum sæpe 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.
b
