Our country in story . islands. Here fruit, vegetables, and meatwere plentiful. The natives were friendly but proved tobe such expert thieves that Magellan called the islandsLadrones, or islands of robbers, by which name they arestill known. Another week of sailing westward brought the naviga-tors to a second group of islands. And for the first timein history did the eyes of white men gaze upon what arenow our Philippines. These islands were thus namedsome years later after King Philip II of Spain. Magellanwas overjoyed to meet here traders from China andother parts of the mainland of Asia. In
Our country in story . islands. Here fruit, vegetables, and meatwere plentiful. The natives were friendly but proved tobe such expert thieves that Magellan called the islandsLadrones, or islands of robbers, by which name they arestill known. Another week of sailing westward brought the naviga-tors to a second group of islands. And for the first timein history did the eyes of white men gaze upon what arenow our Philippines. These islands were thus namedsome years later after King Philip II of Spain. Magellanwas overjoyed to meet here traders from China andother parts of the mainland of Asia. India had at length 70 OUR COUNTRY IN STORY been reached by a westward route. The great sea cap-tain now knew that he had crossed the meridian of theSpice Islands, which must, accordingly, lie to the intense joy he realized that he could now completehis sail around the world without any further difficul-ties; for the remainder of his route would be throughseas which were familiar to him and which he had often. MAGELLAN MEETING WITH THE NATIVES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS traversed for Portugal. Already he saw himself back inSpain, the hero of the greatest achievement in the historyof the world. Poor Magellan! Instead of pushing on tothe Moluccas at once, he first tried to win over the nativesof the various islands to promise that they would obey theSpanish King and trade only with the people of Spain. He found all the chiefs friendly and willing, except onthe little island of Mactan. Here tht ruler would not yieldto his wishes. Magellan tried to conquer the island, buthe and a number of his men were most cruelly killed bythe natives. Not for an enormous reward and all the FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD 71 glittering trinkets the Spaniards could offer would thesavages give up the body of Magellan. A monument nowstands on the spot on which the greatest of sailors,Magellan, is supposed to have been slain. The Spaniards were now too few in number to take careof three ships. H
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