I, Antonio Pigafetta, nobleman of Vicenza, <br />highly recommended, I joined the crew of Maggelan <br />on the way to Mollucs, towards the target of spice. <br /> <br />Beginning in the dark, ending in black Green Cape, <br />we lost souls, ships, then our captain in Philippines. <br />We cried, starved, insulted, but we kept the belief <br />from warrior Pacific down to the Cape of Good Hope. <br /> <br />We, eighteen souls saved out of two hundred fifty <br />did what? Only to save the honoured name of Spain. <br />Aboard Victoria we bring home the triumphant spice; <br />though bitter, is sweet on the palate, albeit as ash <br />of a dead, earns golden bars for our home treasury. <br /> <br />I fetch a fortune in the harbour Sanlukar de Barrameda <br />after three years, not twenty as Odysseus who came <br />back with empty hands. It's the spice, our daily bread. <br />Your Majesty, I confess: in the beginning it was spice. <br />Yet, what lands and titles you counterbalance for me? <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />© JosephJosephides<br /><br />Joseph S. Josephides<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-beginning-it-was-spice/