The Spaniards think these islands are five thousand leagues from Hayti, that is to say twenty thousand miles according to Italian measure; but I think they are mistaken. They report that the islanders are happy, though they know nothing of our bread, nor wine, nor butchers' meat, contenting themselves with rice, which they prepare in a thousand different styles. They also have another kind of bread in common use, which is made of the old marrow of palms which have fallen from age. It sometimes happens in the thick forests on the mountain slopes far from human habitation, that great trees are felled by the violent storms, or because the roots are deprived of the earth necessary for their nourishment, since as they grow older and increase in size their roots require more strength than the earth can furnish them. It therefore happens that numerous trees fall in the forest and rot where they lie in rows covered with moss. The palm-marrow the natives use for bread comes from this source They divide it into squares, grinding it into flour, which they dry, and then bake in the form of thick, square cakes. I wished to taste some of it, and nothing is sourer or of worse flavour. This bread must only be eaten by miserable creatures who possess no fields and hence cannot cultivate rice.

In certain mountain districts and villages I have seen mountaineers living upon scarcely less tasteless bread, almost black, made from grain called in Spanish centeno,* millet, or other still worse materials. Is it not the rule of inconstant fortune that while few are satisfied many hunger, and that the pleasures and the delicacies of the table are reserved for a small minority? Nevertheless, people live, for nature requires but little, and we may accustom ourselves to live on almost nothing.

The natives are chiefly occupied in raising goats and poultry. They grow canes, similar to those which produce

1 Common rye.

sugar, not to mention the African apples, called by Italians pomegranates, and Median apples of all kinds, among which the Spaniards distinguished lemons, limes, oranges, and citrons. In mentioning the plants growing about the springs, why should I call watercresses Nasturtium aquaticum when they are usually and unaffectedly called berros in Spanish and cresones in Italian? What shall I say concerning the poisonous herb unknown to me which acts as an emetic, and which the Spaniards call anapelo? If we question one who refuses to preserve any intellectual treasure except in the Latin, and ask whether it is permissible to use anapellus for the necessary word wanting in Latin, but which may be easily borrowed from a foreign tongue, he will turn up his nose disdainfully and gravely whisper that the plant had better be called strangle-wolf. It is, however, my opinion, with the favour and leave of such delicate wits, that the islands of Molucca abound with oranges, lemons, citrons, pomegranates, and pot-herbs. Not without reason have I mentioned cresses and aconite, for sometimes at the beginning of a repast we eat this herb served with oil and vinegar, and my friend Fernandez Roderigo, of whose good offices the Emperor sometimes makes use thanks to the recommendation of Your Holiness-found that aconite produced in him the same symptoms as though he had swallowed hemlock, or some other poison. He fell, half dead, and had to be promptly treated with Mithridates' antidote, in spite of which he was half benumbed for several days. Is not the word anapelo as well-formed and pleasing a name as the roundabout term strangle-wolf, upon which captious critics insist?

The wine manufactured by the islanders is not made from grapes, since none grow in the Moluccas, but from different kinds of fruits. One sort is particularly employed. There grows, just as in our continent, a tree resembling Meaning aconite.

the palm but differing strangely by its fruit. Upon this tree a dozen or sometimes more, but never more than twenty, bunches are found; the fruits are formed in bunches just like grapes, but are covered with a bark. When stripped of its bark, each fruit resembles a little oblong lemon. The bark, which serves as its shell, is as hard as that of a turtle; these fruits are called cocoanuts. They are covered with several layers, more numerous than those surrounding edible palms, and are held together by interlaced strings. It requires as much labour to get them out of their covering as to skin the palm-trees. When opened, the cocoanuts are good to eat, and are filled with a delicious juice. The spongy material, two fingers' thick, sticks to the shell, and its white colour and softness cause it to resemble butter or grease; only it has a more delicate taste. When detached from the exterior shell, it is very good to eat. If left in the shell some days, it liquefies, and changes into an oil much preferable to olive-oil, and excellent for sick people. This is not the only service rendered by this tree. Its trunk is bored at the point where the leaves grow, at the top; drop by drop a potable liquor of excellent taste and very wholesome runs into receptacles prepared for the purpose.

The natives also engage in fishing, for their seas produce many varieties of fish. There is one which is a veritable monster. It is a little less than a cubit long, with a large belly, while its back is covered but with a very tough skin instead of scales. Its snout is like a pig's, and its forehead is armed with two bony horns; its back is divided, high, and bony.

The king, on whose territory the Spaniards had landed, imagined they had been brought to him by some supernatural means. He asked them what they wanted, and they answered "spices." He told them to take whatever they wanted and, calling his island subjects

together, he ordered them to show the Spaniards all the clove-trees they possessed. In return, for proper payment, permission was given to them to carry the cloves away. When the cloves are ripe it is customary for the natives to collect them in piles in their houses, and await the arrival of traders; and they do the same with their other products. The cloves are then taken to the markets of Calicut, Cananor, Cochin, or Malacca, in great ships, called junks. The same thing happens with pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and all the other unnecessary delicacies which render man effeminate. The only spice growing in the Molucca Islands is cinnamon, though they are only a short distance from islands which produce other spices. The islanders have brought this fact to the notice of the Spaniards, and it was further confirmed by an act of piracy they committed.

As soon as they left the large island of Borneo and the surrounding islands, on one of which the admiral, Magellan, had been massacred, they encountered by chance on the way to the Moluccas one of those native vessels called junks. This ship was not armed, but was laden with merchandise, including all kinds of spices, besides cloves. The quantity was small but the quality excellent, for they had been recently gathered. These ships do not venture to undertake long voyages, for they are not sufficiently well built to stand tempests as ours do, nor are their crews sufficiently experienced to navigate, unless they have the wind astern. This junk was carrying a cargo of native products to a neighbouring island: rice, cocoanuts, geese, chickens, and numerous other foodstuffs; there was likewise some gold dust. The delight of the Spaniards at the unexpected finding of this treasure was at the expense of the innocent natives, who had not suspected their whereabouts. They promptly decided to load their two remaining vessels with cloves, and as they had not found a sufficient quantity on the island

where they had landed, the King, their host, visited the neighbouring islands thereabouts.

Out of the five Moluccas, four are visible from one another, the fifth being somewhat out of range of human vision. The two vessels were, therefore, laden with freshly picked cloves, the Spaniards having even brought some branches with the fruit still hanging on them. It afforded great pleasure to all the courtiers to see these twigs and feel the fruit still growing on the wood. The odour of freshly gathered cloves is not very different from that of the cloves sold by apothecaries. They gave me many of these branches, and I distributed a number of them in different directions. I still have some which I hold in reserve until I learn whether Your Holiness possesses any.

We shall now describe the remainder of the voyage. One of the two vessels, the Trinidad, was rotten throughout and so full of holes made by the worms called by the Italians bissi and by the Spaniards broma, that the water poured into the hold as through a sieve. They did not venture to send it on such a long voyage without first making repairs, so La Trinidad remained behind. We do not know whether she still exists or not. It follows that out of five ships only two have returned The Victoria arrived this same year in which I am writing, the San Antonio a year before, and of their crews very few men have survived.

It remains for me to describe the return voyage of the Victoria, for it came by another route to its point of departure. The voyage lasted three years less some days, and by a series of misfortunes all the commanders perished. But what is most strange, and what had never before been attempted since the beginning of the world, is that this ship followed the entire parallel and made the circuit of the globe.

If a Greek had accomplished this what would not the Greeks have written about his incredible feat! The ship