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Society, from Rome to the borders of the known world, and for each place the local time was marked.
Thus, Father Caspar explained, he had not had to bear in mind the hour at the beginning of the voyage
but only at the last outpost of the Christian world, whose longitude was beyond debate. Then the margins
for error were greatly reduced, and between one station and the next they could also use methods that, in
the absolute sense, offered no guarantee, such as the variation of the needle or calculation from lunar
spots.
Fortunately he had brethren just about everywhere, from Pernambuco to Goa, from Mindanao to Porto
Sancti Thomae, and if winds prevented theDaphne from mooring in one port, there would soon be
another. For example, at Macao ... ah, Macao! At the very thought of that adventure, Father Caspar
glowered. It was a Portuguese possession; the Chinese called the Europeans men of long noses precisely
because the first to land on their shores were the Portuguese, who truly do have long noses, and also the
Jesuits, who came with them. So the city was a single garland of blue and white fortresses on the hill,
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controlled by the fathers of the Society, who had to con-cern themselves also with military matters, since
the city was threatened by the Dutch heretics.
Father Caspar had decided to head for Macao, where he knew a fellow Jesuit very learned in the
astronomical sciences, but he had forgotten that he was sailing on a fluyt.
What did the good fathers of Macao do? Sighting a Dutch ship, they manned their cannons and
colubrines. In vain Father Caspar waved his arms at the prow and immediately had the Society s
standard run up; those cursed long-noses, his Portuguese brothers in the Society, wrapped in the warrior
smoke that invited them to a holy massacre, did not even notice, and they rained balls around the
Daphne. It was the pure grace of God that the ship was barely able to strike its sails, come about, and
escape to sea while the captain in his Lutheran language hurled anathema at those fathers of scant
consideration. And this time he was right: sinking the Dutch is all very well, but not when there is a Jesuit
on board.
Luckily it was fairly easy to reach other missions not far away, and they turned their bowsprit towards
the more hos-pitable Mindanao. And so, from one port to the next, they kept watch over their longitude
(and God help them, I add, considering that, having ended up practically in Australia, they must have lost
track of every point of reference).
Et hora we must novissima experimenta make, ut claris-sime et evidenter demonstrate that we are on
meridian one hundred eighty. Otherwise the fratres of the Collegium Ro-manum will think I am a
Mamelukke.
New experiments? Roberto asked. Did you not just tell me that the Specula gave you the utmost
assurance of being on the one-hundred-eightieth meridian, off the Island of Solomon?
Yes, the Jesuit replied, he was certain: he had set in com-petition the various imperfect methods found
by others, and the accord of all these weak methods supplied a very strong certitude, as happens in the
proof of God s existence byconsensus gentium, for while it is true that many men inclined to err also
believe in God, it is impossible that all should be mistaken, from the forests of Africa to the deserts of
China. So it happens that we believe in the movement of the sun and the moon and of the other planets,
or in the hidden power of Chelidonium, or that at the center of the earth there is a fire; for thousands and
thousands of years men have believed these things, and while believing them, they have been able to live
on this planet and achieve many useful results from their read-ing of the great book of Nature. But an
important discovery like this had to be confirmed by further proof, so that even the sceptics would
surrender to the evidence.
Besides, science must be pursued not only for the love of learning but in the desire to share it with our
brothers. So, since it had cost him such an effort to find the correct lon-gitude, he now had to seek
confirmation through other, easier methods, so that this knowledge could become the patrimony of all our
brothers, or at least of the Christian ones, or, rather, the Catholic brothers, because, as for the Dutch or
English heretics or worse, the Moravians it would be far better if they never came to learn of these
secrets.
Now, of all the methods of taking longitude, two seemed sure to him. One, good for terra firma, was
that treasure of all methods, namely the Specula Melitensis; the other, appro-priate for observation at
sea, was the Instrumentum Arcetri-cum, which lay below but had not yet been set up, because he first
had to obtain through the Specula the certitude of their position, then see if the Instrumentum confirmed it,
which was the most reliable way to proceed.
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Father Caspar would have carried out this experiment long before if what happened had not happened.
But the moment now had come, and it would be on that very night: the sky and the ephemerides said that
now was the right occasion.
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