Note 14 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

MS. 5,650 reads: “Finally, most illustrious Lordship, after all provisions had been made and the ships were in readiness, the captain-general, a wise and virtuous man, and one mindful of his honor, would not commence his voyage without first making some good and suitable rules, such as it is the approved custom to make for those who go to sea, although he did not entirely declare the voyage that he was about to make lest those men, through astonishment and fear, should refuse to accompany him on the so long voyage that he had determined upon. In consideration of the furious and violent storms that reign on the Ocean Sea where he was about to sail, and in consideration of another reason also, namely, that the masters and captains of the other ships in his fleet had no liking for him (the reason for which I know not, unless because he, the captain-general, was a Portuguese, and they Spaniards or Castilians, who have for a long while been biased and ill-disposed toward one another, but who, in spite of that, rendered him obedience), he made his rules such as follow, so that his ships might not go astray or become separated from one another during storms at sea. He published those rules and gave them in writing to every master in the ships and ordered them to be inviolably observed and kept, unless for urgent and legitimate excuse, and the proof that any other action was impossible.”