Elcano and the First Circumnavigation of the World
Copyright© 2024 by Mark West
Chapter 23
Throughout the summers of 1513 and 1514, Sean and Mari worked together and succeeded in selling almost all of her crop to the royal court. She also began to sell some in the market of Getaria, and slowly these sweet red tomatl gained fame that spread throughout Euskal Herria. I had thought that as they had to work so closely together there might be some romantic attraction between them, but Sean’s heart was won by the young widow he lodged with. She had no children by her dead husband, but soon after she and Sean were married, she delivered a fine healthy boy. They named the boy Juan Sebastián and I was proud to be his godfather. When they married, Sean had to confess that he thought that his family name would sound strange in Getaria as it was a name in his native Gaelic language. Instead, he decided that he would adopt a name in Euskara that described his situation. So, the boy was baptised Juan Sebastián Urrunekogizona which means ‘man from far away.’
Sean and I also made some trade in the Santa Maria carrying small shipments of cargo to and from ports along the north coast of Spain between Donostia, Bilbao, Santander, Aviles and A Coruna, but avoiding all contact with France for fear of being discovered by the French merchants who Gaston had attempted to cheat. However, we were never absent from Getaria for more than two weeks as Sean did not want to leave his new wife and son alone for too long, and I also wanted to be present as Domingo grew.
I travelled once to Hondarribia to visit my old captain Juan, but when I arrived in the port, the tavern was shuttered and my enquiries revealed that Juan had become too feeble to continue as tavern keeper and had died some months previously. I had no interest in becoming the owner of a tavern, so I departed quietly without explaining why I was enquiring about Juan.
This was how my life continued until 1515 when there was a sudden threat of an invasion by France as Spain and France were at war in Italy again. The Royal Corregidor (representative of the King in Gipuzkoa) asked for 500 men to form a militia and march to Hondarribia to prevent any French force from invading Spain. I joined along with 11 other men from Getaria, and we were paid 30 maravedís per day for our service. We stayed in Hondarribia for two months, but the French invasion remained a threat and never took place, so at the end of the period, we were paid and dismissed to return home.