Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- VOYAGE TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN BY THE CAPTAIN PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBÓA, IN THE YEARS 1579 AND 1580, AND ACCOUNTS OF THE EXPEDITION
- I NARRATIVE AND ROUTE OF THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY OF THE STRAIT OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, FORMERLY CALLED “OF MAGELLAN”
- IV CONCISE NARRATIVE BY PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBÓA
- 1 Fitting Out—Conduct of Diego Flores—Opening Disaster—Voyage to Rio de Janeiro—Wintering—Disgraceful conduct of Diego Flores and the captains
- 2 Incapacity and Villainy of Diego Flores.–Two abortive Voyages
- 3 Desertion of Diego Flores
- 4 The Settlements in the Straits
- 5 Captivity of Sarmiento
- V DECLARATION
- Index
- Index
- Plate section
3 - Desertion of Diego Flores
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- VOYAGE TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN BY THE CAPTAIN PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBÓA, IN THE YEARS 1579 AND 1580, AND ACCOUNTS OF THE EXPEDITION
- I NARRATIVE AND ROUTE OF THE VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY OF THE STRAIT OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, FORMERLY CALLED “OF MAGELLAN”
- IV CONCISE NARRATIVE BY PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBÓA
- 1 Fitting Out—Conduct of Diego Flores—Opening Disaster—Voyage to Rio de Janeiro—Wintering—Disgraceful conduct of Diego Flores and the captains
- 2 Incapacity and Villainy of Diego Flores.–Two abortive Voyages
- 3 Desertion of Diego Flores
- 4 The Settlements in the Straits
- 5 Captivity of Sarmiento
- V DECLARATION
- Index
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Dlego Flores saw the letter of your Majesty, in which reference was made to the favours your Majesty had granted, in which he was incited to the prosecution of the enterprise, and in which the necessity for it was impressed upon him. He was told of the great service to his Majesty that would be secured by doing this work, in words which would have moved even an enemy, and would have put courage into a coward, how much more into a knight who had been ennobled and enriched by the royal hand of your Majesty. But all was not sufficient to make him do his duty, or to undertake that which every well-born man would have looked upon as great good fortune to be entrusted with ; as well as an honour and a felicity to be given the chance of risking a thousand lives, one after the other, to serve your Majesty. All this was not enough to move his torpid and shameless will. He was silent with those who spoke of the enterprise, but he was ready to eat and to dance with those who advised him to return. He was mute on the subject of fighting at sea, but he became a talker on shore. His final answer respecting your Majesty's letter was that he did not want to go to the Strait, but to return to Spain, making an excuse that he wanted to turn the five lame Frenchmen out of Paraiba.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010