Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 12, 2025
Among the stories which Pigafetta relates, without entirely believing them, is one which is most curious. It concerns a gigantic bird the Epyornis, of which the bones and the enormous eggs were discovered in Madagascar about the year 1850.
An account of the voyage was written by PIGAFETTA, an Italian volunteer in the expedition, who accompanied the fleet to Brunai after MAGELLAN'S death, and published a glowing account of its wealth and the brilliancy of its Court, with its royally caparisoned elephants, a report which it is very difficult to reconcile with the present squalid condition of the existing "Venice of Hovels," as it has been styled from its palaces and houses being all built in, or rather over, the river to which it owes its name.
Dumont d'Urville, Voyage to the South Pole, v. 206, remarks that the natives call their island Gouap or Ouap, but never Yap; and that the husbandry in that place was superior to anything he had seen in the South Sea. The voyages of the Polynesians were also caused by the tyranny of the victorious parties, which compelled the vanquished to emigrate. Pigafetta, p. 51. Morga, f. 127.
But before entering on the narrative of this memorable campaign, we must give a few particulars of the man who has left us the most complete account of it, Francesco Antonio Pigafetta or Jerome Pigaphète as he is often called in France.
At last on the 21st of October, according to Pigafetta, the 27th of November according to Maximilian Transylvain, the flotilla penetrated by a narrow entrance into a gulf, at the bottom of which a strait opened, which as they soon saw passed into the sea to the south. First they called this the Strait of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, because this was the day dedicated to them.
"The Bisayans cover their teeth with a shining varnish, which is either black, or of the color of fire, and thus their teeth become either black, or red like cinnabar; and they make a small hole in the upper row, which they fill with gold, the latter shining all the more on the black or red ground." Pigafetta, p. 66; and compare also Carletti, Voyages, i. 153. 42 and 30 Cent. or 108 and 86 Fahr.
This legend has been current ever since the ninth century, among the Persians and Arabs, and this bird plays a wonderful part in Arabian tales under the name of the roc. It is not surprising, therefore, that Pigafetta found an analogous tradition among the Malays.
Although Pigafetta tells us of it, he mentions it only in Paragua, and not in Cebu nor in any other island of the south, where he stayed long time. Morga does not speak of it, in spite of his having spent seven years in Manila, and yet he does describe the kinds of fowl, the jungle hens and cocks.
Passing beyond Dungeness, they entered a large open bay, which some hailed as the long-sought strait, while others averred that no passage would be found there. "It was," says Pigafetta, "in Eden's bredth. On both the sydes of this strayght are Magellanus, beinge in sum place C.x. leaques in length: and in breadth sumwhere very large and in other places lyttle more than halfe a leaque in bredth.
I may be allowed to point out that, seeing only the King's house and those of some of the nobles were on terra firma, there could have been little use for elephants in the city and probably the two elephants PIGAFETTA mentions were the only ones there, kept for State purposes.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking