."

Such was the tragic fate of Ferdinand Magellan, "the greatest of
ancient and modern navigators," tragic because, after dauntless
resolution and unwearied courage, he died in a miserable skirmish at
the last on the very eve of victory.

[Illustration: THE FIRST SHIP THAT SAILED ROUND THE WORLD. Magellan's
_Victoria_, from Hulsius's _Collection of Voyages_, 1602.]

With grief and despair in their hearts, the remaining members of the
crew, now only one hundred and fifteen, crowded on to the _Trinidad_
and _Victoria_ for the homeward voyage. It was September 1522 when
they reached the Spice Islands--the goal of all their hopes. Here they
took on board some precious cloves and birds of Paradise, spent some
pleasant months, and, laden with spices, resumed their journey. But
the _Trinidad_ was too overladen with cloves and too rotten to
undertake so long a voyage till she had undergone repair, so the little
_Victoria_ alone sailed for Spain with sixty men aboard to carry home
their great and wonderful news. Who shall describe the terrors of that
homeward voyage, the suffering, starvation, and misery of the weary
crew? Man after man drooped and died, till by the time they reached
the Cape Verde Islands there were but eighteen left.

When the welcome shores of Spain at length appeared, eighteen gaunt,
famine-stricken survivors, with their captain, staggered ashore to
tell their proud story of the first circumnavigation of the world by
their lost commander, Ferdinand Magellan.

We miss the triumphal return of the conqueror, the audience with the
King of Spain, the heaped honours, the crowded streets, the titles,
and the riches. The proudest crest ever granted by a sovereign--the
world, with the words: "Thou hast encompassed me"--fell to the lot
of Del Cano, the captain who brought home the little _Victoria_. For
Magellan's son was dead, and his wife Beatrix, "grievously sorrowing,"
had passed away on hearing the news of her husband's tragic end.

CHAPTER XXVIII

CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO

One would have thought that the revelation of this immense sheet of
water on the far side of America would have drawn other explorers to
follow, but news was slowly assimilated in those days, and it was not
till fifty-three years later that the Pacific was crossed a second
time by Sir Francis Drake.

In the maps of the day, Newfoundland and Florida were both placed in
Asia, while Mexico was identified with the Qu