BIBLIOTHECA AUGUSTANA

 

Ferdinando Magellano

1480 - 1521

 

Relazione del primo viaggio

intorno al mondo

 

1519 - 1522

 

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Novembre 1520

 

Mercore a 28 de nouembre 1520 Ne disbucasemo da questo strecto ingolfandone neL mare pacifico stessemo tre mesi et vinti Jorni sensa pigliare refrigerio de cosa alguna mangiauamo biscoto non piu biscoto ma poluere de qello cō vermi apugnate þ che essi haueuano māgiato iL buono puzaua grā damẽte de orina de Sorzi et beueuamo hacqua Jalla gia putrifata per molti giorni et mangiauamo certe pelle de boue ɋ erano sopa Lantena mangiore açio ɋ Lantena nō rompesse la sarzia durissime þ iL Solle piogia et vento Le lasciauamo þ quato ho cinque giorni neL mare et poi le meteua vno pocho sopa le braze et cosi le mangiauamo et ancora assay volte segature de ase li sorgi se vendeuano mezo ducato lo vno et se pur ne hauessemo potuto haueȓ ma soura tute le alti squiagu re Questa era la pegiore. Cressiuano le gengiue ad alguni sopa li denti Cosi de Soto Como de soura ɋ þ modo alguno nō poteuamo māgiare et cossi moriuano þ questa infirmita morirono 19. homini et iL gigāte cō vno Jndio de La terra deL verzin vinti cinque ho trenta homini se infirmorono ɋ neli brazi neli gambe o in alto loco sicque poqi resta rono sani þ La gratia de dio yo nō hebi algunna infirmitade. Jn Questi tre mesi et vinti giorni andasemo circa de quatro millia legue in vn golfo þ questo mar pacifico in vero he benne pacifico þ ɋ in qƺsto tempo nō hauessemo fortuna Sensa vedere tera alcuna sinō due ysolete deshabitate nelle qaL nō trouassemo alto senon vcelli et arbori la chiamassemo ysolle infortunate Sono longi luna da lalta ducento legue nō trouauamo fondo apresso de loro se nō vedeuamo molti ti buroni La pima Jzolla sta in quindisi gradi de latitudine aL haustralle, et lalta in noue ogni Jorno faceuamo cinquanta sesanta et setanta Legue a La catena ho apopa et se ydio et sala sua madre bennedeta nō ne daua cosi bō tempo moriuamo tucti de fame in questo mare grandissimo Credo certamẽte nō si fara may piu taL viagio.

 

Wednesday, November 28, 1520, we debouched from that strait, engulfing ourselves in the Pacific Sea. We were three months and twenty days without getting any kind of fresh food. We ate biscuit, which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuits swarming with worms, for they had eaten the good. It stank strongly of the urine of rats. We drank yellow water that had been putrid for many days. We also ate some ox hides that covered the top of the mainyard to prevent the yard from chafing the shrouds, and which had become exceedingly hard because of the sun, rain, and wind. We left them in the sea for four or five days, and then placed them for a few moments on top of the embers, and so ate them; and often we ate sawdust from boards. Rats were sold for one-half ducado apiece, and even then we could not get them. But above all the other misfortunes the following was the worst. The gums of both the lower and upper teeth of some of our men swelled, so that they could not eat under any circumstances and therefore died. Nineteen men died from that sickness, and the giant together with an Indian from the country of Verzin. Twenty-five or thirty men fell sick [during that time], in the arms, legs, or in another place, so that but few remained well. However, I, by the grace of God, suffered no sickness. We sailed about four thousand leguas during those three months and twenty days through an open stretch in that Pacific Sea. In truth it is very pacific, for during that time we did not suffer any storm. We saw no land except two desert islets, where we found nothing but birds and trees, for which we called them the Ysolle Infortunate [i.e., the Unfortunate Isles]. They are two hundred leguas apart. We found no anchorage, [but] near them saw many sharks. The first islet lies in fifteen degrees of south latitude, and the other in nine. Daily we made runs of fifty, sixty, or seventy leguas at the catena or at the stern. Had not God and His blessed mother given us so good weather we would all have died of hunger in that exceeding vast sea. Of a verity I believe no such voyage will ever be made [again].

 

Biblioteca ambrosiana di Milano, Ms. L 103 Sup., fol. 15r