[lit-ideas] Re: Pacific Water Lust (was, on the radio)
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 02 Nov 2004 13:42:43 -0800
on 11/2/04 1:11 PM, Judy Evans at judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Why are you thinking instead of voting?
>
>
Because I'm still a Brit, stranded for the nonce on these sodden Pacific
shores. Today it's absolutely tipping down. I am now passing the time with
Simon Winchester, whose "Pacific Rising," though a little dated, is still a
good read. My favorite discovery-- apart from the fact that the founding
engineer of Nissan was an American, William Gorham, who took the Japanese
name Katsundo Goahamu which Winchester says, "can be taken to mean 'William
the Conquerer'"--is a scene that I must put in any re-write of the sword
book that the dear fellow at Penguin demands. The star of the scene is
Balboa, who has caught his first glimpse of the Pacific. Knowing how things
ought to be done, he unsheathes his sword and strides into the surf, helmet
on his head, shield on his arm, curisass on his breast, banner in non-sword
hand. And he shouts the following mouthful:
"Long live the High and Mighty Sovereigns, Don Fernando and Dona Juana,
Kings of Castille and of Leon and of Aragon, et cetera, in whose names and
for the royal crown of Castile I take and assume royal possession corporal
and present of these austral seas and lands and coasts and islands with
everything annexed to them or which might pertain to them in whatever manner
or by whatever reason or title might or could exist, ancient or modern, in
times past, present or to come, without gainsay whatsoever.
"And should any other prince or captain, Christian or infidel, of whatever
law or sect or condition he may be, pretend to any right to these lands and
seas, I am ready and prepared to deny him and to defend them in the names of
the Kings of Castile present and future, whose is this empire and the
dominion of these Indies, island, and mainland, northern and southern, with
their seas, in the artic pole and in the antarctic, on both sides of the
equinoctrial line, within and without the Tropics of Cancer and
Capricorn--so that each thing and part of it belong and appertain most
completely to Their Highnesses and to their successors, as I declare more at
length by writ setting forth all that may be said or can be said and alleged
in behalf of their royal patrimony, now and for all time so long as the
world shall last until the final universal judgment of all mortals.
No doubt ignorance of gravitational pull prevented him from laying claim to
the moon, connected as it was directly to the waters surrounding his calves.
Like many a bold man, Balboa then lost his head; which is to say that his
rival Pedrarias had him executed soon after, on a trumped up charge of
treason.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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