Note 79 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

This passage in Stanley reads as follows: “A beautiful young girl came one day inside the ship of our captain, where I was, and did not come except to seek for her luck: however, she directed her looks to the cabin of the master, and saw a nail, of a finger’s length, and went and took it as something valuable and new, and hid it in her hair, for otherwise she would not have been able to conceal it, because she was naked, and, bending forwards, she went away; and the captain and I saw this mystery.” The matter between the words “length” and “naked” is taken from MS. 24,224 (wrongly declared by Stanley to be the copy of his travels presented to the regent Louise by Pigafetta, the conclusion being based on the fact that some of the details are softened down), as Stanley considered the incident as told in MS. 5,650, the Italian MS. and the first French edition, as unfit for publication. Stanley cites the following (in the original) from the edition of 1536 which omits the above story: “At the first land at which we stopped, some female slaves whom we had brought in the ships from other countries and who were heavy with child, were taken with the pains of childbirth. Consequently, they went alone out of the ships, went ashore, and after having given birth, returned immediately to the ships with their infants in their arms.” He also cites the following passage from the first French printed edition, which also narrates the above story of the girl: “At the first coast that we passed, some slave women gave birth. When they were in travail, they left the boat, after which they immediately returned, and nursed their children.” Stanley adds that this story of the slave women is improbable, as women were not allowed to come aboard ship.