Note 12 — Chapter I · LAND AND PEOPLE; AND GOTHIC SWAY

Morales,u fell, he says, into the water at Port St. Martin, enveloped in his cloak. As he could not swim, he called on God and “his glorious saint” for his soul’s salvation, being hopeless of bodily safety. He had sunk twice, when a sailor from an adjoining vessel stretched out a pole on which he laid hold, and was thereby extricated from death. On measuring the pole afterwards, he found it so short that it could not reach the water! No doubt the saint had lengthened it, and when its service was done, permitted it to regain its natural dimension. He assures us that he could enumerate many mercies vouchsafed to him “through the intercession of this holy prince.” In honour of his patron this author has a poem in Latin hexameters, equal in extent to a book of the Æneid.