ickness and starvation, and, after two months, at
length sighting the Cape de Verde Islands, when nature being unable
longer to hold out, rather than risk death from famine, they put into
the harbour of Santiago, and threw themselves on the mercy of their
rivals. To their surprise, they found that although, according to their
reckoning, it was Wednesday, the 9th of July, it was in reality
Thursday, the 10th, showing that they had lost a day. This was in
consequence of their having sailed west with the sun. Had they gone
round in the opposite direction, they would, in the same way, have
gained a day. The Spaniards had no difficulty in obtaining provisions,
and a supply of food was got on board.

The men had been strictly enjoined not to say where they came from, but
one of them, who with twelve more had gone ashore, offered some spices
in exchange for food and drink, when it was suspected that they had
visited the Moluccas. On this the Portuguese immediately seized them;
but, by some means, Sebastian del Cano, who was now captain, observing
the preparations for attacking his vessel, ordered the cable to be cut,
and, all sail being made, he carried the _Vittoria_ out of the harbour
in safety.

He now, with his diminished crew, continued his progress to the
northward. After a farther voyage of nearly two months, the successful
commander, who was to reap the chief benefits of the voyage, brought the
_Vittoria_ safe into the harbour of Saint Lucar on the 6th of September,
1522; the whole circumnavigation having occupied nearly three years,
during which fourteen thousand six hundred leagues of sea had been
traversed. On the 8th he took the vessel up the river to Seville. The
eighteen survivors of the crew of sixty who sailed from the Moluccas,
landing, walked barefooted in their shirts, carrying tapers in their
hands, to offer thanks for their safe return.

Sebastian del Cano, escaping the fate which befell so many Spanish
navigators, was handsomely received and rewarded, letters patent of
nobility being bestowed upon him, with a globe for a crest, having the
motto, "Primus me circum dedisti"--"You first encompassed me."

The vessel herself, after becoming the theme of poets and historians,
who declared that she deserved a shrine of gold, was ignominiously lost
on her passage from Saint Domingo.

Putting aside the conduct on many occasions of the explorers, we must
give due praise to the leader of the expedition