Chapter 12

I had expected that Magellan would deal harshly with all who had taken part in the mutiny or who had been involved in some manner. I thought that he would show no mercy just as he had shown none to Salamon. So, I was surprised that, although Cartagena, Quesada, de Coca and I were confined to the cabin on the San Antonio that was shared by the pilot and the maestre, we were not immediately tried for mutiny. Instead, Magellan ordered the body of Luis de Mendoza to be brought from the Victoria to the San Antonio. I did not understand why he would do this, as Mendoza had been killed on his command. However, when we four were made to leave the cabin and stand shackled, we saw what Magellan had planned.

Mendoza’s corpse was ritually cut into pieces by Gómez de Espinosa in the same way that the bodies of Juan Díaz de Solís and his companions had been dismembered by the cannibals so many years before. I thought that Magellan had ordered this barbaric act as a way to make all members of the crews of the five naos fear him and never attempt to mutiny against him again, or even question his judgement or leadership. For me, it had the opposite effect. It made me convinced that we were not dealing with a man who was driven by logic, but by someone who was only interested in glory for himself.

I imagined that Magellan would follow this act by executing our group of four senior officers to reinforce his hold over the crews. I had already faced death in my life, so I had no fear of dying. The shipwreck on the shores of the Grand Banks; the attack in the Mayan village; and the storms that I had survived had impressed me with the fact that death could come at any time, so it was useless to worry about it or to fear it. I fully expected that my last hour was about to come, and my only regret was that I would not live to see my son, Domingo, grow to manhood. I was sure that I would die, but I was not sure if Magellan would begin the execution of our group by selecting Cartagena as the force behind the mutiny or me as an officer who could have refused to participate.

But it was Quesada who was brought forward and forced to kneel. There was no attempt to stage a trial; what Magellan wanted was to make people fear him. Speaking without emotion, with a voice as cold as the weather that we had to face on a daily basis, Magellan condemned Quesada to death for mutiny. Much later, I understood why Magellan had chosen Quesada to make an example of instead of Cartagena. Although Cartagena had shown complete contempt for Magellan, he was still the son of Bishop Fonseca, and Magellan was afraid of what might happen to himself if he returned to Spain to face the wrath of that powerful man. So, Quesada was chosen to serve as an example of what would happen to anyone who harboured thoughts of mutiny in the future.