From the cover:
In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1519, a jester named Juanillo joins an expedition for the Spice Islands and circles the entire world. Huge sails unfurl in the breeze, church bells fill the air, and five black ships embark, their crews infected with dreams: dreams of gold, adventure, and the unknown to make them rich and bring them titles and honors. Their leader is cold, stern Captain General don Fernando Magellan. Always in his armor, he paces the deck. In his cabin the crucifix is replaced by an astrolabe, and he carries with him soil from his native Portugal to cover him should he die during the voyage.
In rich, sensuous, robust prose, Napoleon Baccino Ponce de Leon spins a yarn of men and ships; of fog, jungle mazes, thirst, fear, illness, scorching sun, icy winds, bad omens, mutiny, and madness. A tale of the real men behind history's list of names. A marvelous novel about the first circumnavigation of the globe, about explorers who face suffering and death, and about the life giving power of the imagination.
In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1519, a jester named Juanillo joins an expedition for the Spice Islands and circles the entire world. Huge sails unfurl in the breeze, church bells fill the air, and five black ships embark, their crews infected with dreams: dreams of gold, adventure, and the unknown to make them rich and bring them titles and honors. Their leader is cold, stern Captain General don Fernando Magellan. Always in his armor, he paces the deck. In his cabin the crucifix is replaced by an astrolabe, and he carries with him soil from his native Portugal to cover him should he die during the voyage.
In rich, sensuous, robust prose, Napoleon Baccino Ponce de Leon spins a yarn of men and ships; of fog, jungle mazes, thirst, fear, illness, scorching sun, icy winds, bad omens, mutiny, and madness. A tale of the real men behind history's list of names. A marvelous novel about the first circumnavigation of the globe, about explorers who face suffering and death, and about the life giving power of the imagination.
