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THE CAPTIVITY OF HANS STADE

large as herrings which had on both sides wings like a bat, these were much pursued by the big ones; when they perceived these behind them, they raised themselves out of the water in great numbers and flew about two fathoms high above the sea, some of them nearly as far as one could see.Then they again fell into the water. We found them often in the morning lying in the ship, where they had fallen in whilst flying during the night. And they were called in Portuguese language, pisce bolador. Thereafter we came under the equinoctial line, where there was great heat, for the sun stood straight above us, when it was noon; there was no wind for several days,[1] then in the night came oftentimes great thunderstorms with rain and wind, they arose quickly and they subsided as quickly. We had to watch diligently that these should not overtake us when under sail.

But as now winds returned, blowing storms during some days, and against us, we conjectured that if they continued long, we should suffer hunger. We prayed to God for favourable wind. Then it came to pass, one night when we had a great storm and were in great trouble, many blue lights appeared to us in the vessel, of which I had seen none before. Where the waves rolled into the forepart of the ship, there the lights also appeared.[2] The Portuguese

    tunny (Thymbus pelamys, Cuv.), a voracious animal, very fond of the peixe voador or flying fish, here called pisce bolador, and the dorado of which Martial writes—"Non omnis pretium laudemque aurata meretur" (Lib. 13).

  1. ↑ These "doldrums" in the calm latitudes of the Atlantic, followed by furious squalls, are chronicled by every old voyager.
  2. ↑ Commonly called Saint Elmo's, or San Telmo's Fires; the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) of the ancients, which "in navigiorum summitatibus visuntur"; known to the middle ages as Sancti Germani Sidus and Corpus Sanctum, whence our Corposant or Corpuzance, through the Italian Corpo Santo or the Spanish Cuerpo Santo; dedicated to Saint Nicholas and to Santa Clara, as well as to St. Elmo (Pigafetta lib. 1); the Peaceable Fires of Nieuhoff's Voyages and Travels into Brazil (A.D.
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