Evening star., 1924-08-31
Traveller
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

CEBU.
AM travelling in the footsteps of
Magellan. MY steamer is an
chored at almost the exact spot
where, after his long trip across
the Pacific, he first set foot on
Philippine soil. Within a few yards
OF where I am writing stands little
pavilion of brick about 20 feet in
diameter and Is feet high, in the CEN
ter Of which is a great black cross
OF wood marking the spot where Ma
gellan celebrated his first mass in
lIis attempt to civilize the natives.
The spot is considered sacred by the
Filipinos to this day. They throw
coins through the bars of the gates
by which the pavilion is entered and
the brick floor is now peppered with
coppers. with here and there 10 or
20 centavoS in silver.
In front of the cross candles are al
ways kept burning. sold by a half
dozen old Filipino women who sit or
lie on bamboo beds outside the shrine.
They gathered around me as ! looked
in at the cross, and I bought two
candles of them. lighted them. and by
this time they hHV" burned almost to
the floor. giving my tribute To the an
cicnt diScoVCrcr. or perhaps they
may have fallen over in the breeze
from the ocean. and joined the great
assemblage of other candles that like
many rorncobS, are scattered
there amid the coins.
The cross is now 12 feet in height
and reaches almost to the top of the
pavilion. The people say it is grow
ing, but to my eyes it is only two
sticks of wood painted black. set in
concrete foundation. and as dead as
Magellan himself.
Within few steps of the plaza
containing this cross is the Church
of st, Augustine. a great stone stEuc-
ture that contains another relic OF
Ferdinand the famous. This is the
black wooden image of the child
Jesus which he brought with him
from Spain. 1t was left behind when
he was killed. and when the great
I.egaspi came about 40 years later he
found it in the hands of native. He
then selected this place for the first
Spanish settlement in the Philippine
Islands. and called it the City of the
Most Holy Name of Jesus. This was
the foundation of the town of Cebu
established 70 years before Boston
WAS founded, and AZ years before
capt John Smith established his little
colony at Jamestown. For some years
the town was the capital of the
islands.
tried to imagine myself in the place
of Magellan when l sailed up to the
Shores of Cebu in the Old transport.
Alba, this morning. standing beside my
Spanish captain, Pedro Careaza, a.
BASQUE from Bilboa, far north Of the
Guadalquivir River, out of which Ma
gellan sailed or the 10th of August.
1919 now more than four hundred
years ago. My ship weighs thirteen
hundred tons: il is an old coasting
vessel that plies between the islands
taking cocoanuts, hemp, sugar and
other wares from Manila by way of
Cebu to Negros, Mindanao and Jolo
1T is less than one-fortieth as dig as
the Majestic, in which 1 crossed the
Atlantic to France two years ago, but
it is. l venture. ten times as large as the
fla apship of the Magellan fleet that
started out from Spain to discover a
new way to Asia and the island of
eo,ces. AS / remember, the flagship of
columbus had only 90 tons, and it is
hardly possible that that of Magellan,
urIy 81 years later. could have had
-.1oIe Than 13o.
Nd what wonderful voyage was
"A that of Magellan! I can only give
it in brief He started out from Spain
and crossed the Atlantic to South
America, going south along the coast,
passing the mouth of the Rio de la
Plata, and finally discovering the great
strait that now bears his name. He
had a mutiny in that strait and some OF
his ships left him and went back to
Spain. But he sailed on into the
Pacific, and after a voyage of year
and four months, on the 18th of
Msruh. 1921, just 403 years ago, caught
his drst sight Of this wonderful
RrchtpeIagu -. -