The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1920-12-04
MAGHLLAEs fame

W oi8ntooh yum
tries gathered in Chile last Sunday
to attend the festivities incident to
the celebration Of the four hundredth
anniversary of the discovery Of the
Straits OF Magellan. The celebration
was observed in Santiago. the Chill
can metropolis. and at Punta Arenas.
the fartherest south settlement OF
civilization, on the waters named at
ter the. intrepid Portuguese naviga-
tor who was the first to find the pas
sageway to the Indies and whose
crew, after the death Of their COM
mander, completed circumnavigation
Of the globe.
Portugal will be represented at the
celebration by a distinguished group.
1t was Portuguese sea daring that in
spired Columbus to make his cele-
brated voyage of discovery which re-
suited in giving his name to a new
world. Indeed. the history of early
navigation is the history Of Portu-
guese adventure. One may almost
say that the Portuguese were the pio-
neers in the work of uncovering the
unknown continents Of the new world
and the distant lands of the far east.
Years before Columbus was born, the
son of a king of Portugal, Prince
Henry, became interested in ships and
sailors and maps, and he did so much
to encourage explorers to search the
high seas that he won for himself
the name Of Prince Henry the Navi-
gator. He died In 1850.
1t "a the Portuguese sailors who
| dispelled the notion that the earth
was fat and that whoever ventured
far out at sea was in peril of falling
into the bottomless abyss. BY grad
ually extending their voyages the
hardy adventures disproved theories
stoutly held by the scientific men of
that age. The dream of the Portu-
guese, as, indeed, the sailors of other
European nations, was to find a pas
sageway to the Indies. Then, as now,
it was the trade spirit which con-
quered the cas- and inspired the voy-
ages. In 1S47 Bartholomew Diaz
had rounded the cap which bears the
name Of Good Hope. He had per-
formed the remarkable feat of sue
cessfully negotiating a voyage of 49,
900 miles.
The exploits of the Portuguese fred
the Genoese, Columbus, to essay a
voyage westward to find the famed
Cathay. The landing at San Saliva
dor marked his triumph. The fam
GUS Italian subsequently extended his
explorations of the coast of America.
but he did not push farther west.
That was reserved for others. In
1899 vasco da Cana, another Portu-
guese, sailed directly around Cape of
Good Hope, crossed the Indian ocean
to Calicut-whence the term calico"
and returned with a cargo of much
desired silks and other commodities.
Then came the adventurous Vespucci,
a F~lorentine, who pushed his vessels
across the Atlantic and sailed along
the eastern shores Of what is now
South America. 1t was Vespucci's
explorations which gave rise todoubts
that Columbus had reached Asia and
| settled the conviction that what he
had found was the coasts of a wider
continent which barred the way to
India.
To find a sea passage to the Indies
was the purpose Of the navigators of
| that day. Balboa in 1913 pushed
through the swamps and jungles OF
| the Isthmus of Panama, climbed the
mountains to the westward and beheld
the cleaning waters of the Pacific.
| Two lines Of enterprise now began.
Some adventures sought a way
around the continent to the Indies.
Others explored the new continent OF
| America itself. In the former group
| the Portuguese sailor, Magellan. takes
highest rank. for it was he who first
sailed directly to the Pacific by cross
ing the Atlantic.
In 1919 this energetic captain, then
in the service of the king of Spain,
set out for the new world. He skirted
the coast Of South America, pushed
through the straits at the southern
end which now bear his name and
perpetuate his daring, and then spread
his sails on the broad Pacific. little
dreaming what vast stretches of wat
or lay between America and the In
dies. He sailed bravely on, week at
ter week. rivaling the daring endur-
ance of Columbus on his first voyage
ftor q daenerata with star.