Gonzalo threw his few belongings, the sharpened rocks and wooden tools he had made with his own hands, into the cave entrance and hurried inside the safety of his hidden cavern.

Lying on the floor he peered back out through the opening. With his telescope, cobbled together with the glass frontispiece of his watch,  a clear stone it had taken him a week to file down and leaves from the native trees, he looked out to sea. The picture was blurry but he could make out the red, white and yellow Spanish Naval ensign flag flying from the topmast.

Surely Magellan hadn’t turned around and come to find him. He had lost track of the number of days since he had been cast ashore on the small island. Magellan and his expedition may well have circumnavigated the entire globe by now. Gonzalo had seen no soul since he had been…