Antonio Pigafetta

“We were also forced to eat the pieces of leather that were on the main-yard, so that the yard should not break the sail.”

“The captain-general wished to obtain some of the birds of paradise, but they replied that they were never taken alive, but only when they were dead.”

“Patience is the most necessary quality for business, many a man would rather you heard his story than grant his request.”

“We also ate sawdust from boards. Rats were sold for one-half a ducado apiece, and even then we could not get them.”

“The sea is dangerous and its storms terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient to discourage the firm hearts of sailors.”

“I believe of a certainty that no one will ever again make such a voyage.”

“We ate biscuit, which was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuits swarming with worms... It stank strongly of the urine of rats.”

“For the space of three months and twenty days, we had no fresh food.”

“We set out from the strait, engulfing ourselves in the Pacific Sea.”

“On Wednesday morning, the sixteenth of March, 1521, we came upon a high land at a distance of three hundred leagues... an island named Zamal.”

“These people became very familiar with us. They told us many things, their names of some islands that we saw with our eyes before us.”

“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... and therefore died.”

“Had not God and His blessed mother given us so good weather, we would all have died of hunger in that exceeding vast sea.”

“They go naked, both men and women... they are of the color of olive, and they anoint themselves with coconut oil... to preserve them from the sun and the wind.”

“The captain-general, Ferdinand Magellan, had determined to go to the islands of Maluco, because he knew that there were the cloves.”