Twenty-Three
Men Quitted It, Endeavouring To Find Their Way By Land To The Spanish
Settlements, But Are Supposed To Have All Perished By The Way, As They
Were Never More Heard Of.
Sarmiento fell into discredit with the king of
Spain, for deceiving him as to the breadth of the straits, which he
asserted did not exceed a mile over; whereas the king was certainly
informed that they were a league broad, and therefore incapable of being
shut up by any fortifications.
However this may be, even supposing the
report of Sarmiento true, and that his fortress could have commanded the
straits, even this could have proved of little or no service to Spain,
as another passage into the South Sea was discovered soon afterwards,
without the necessity of going near these straits.
SECTION VI.
First Supplement to the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake; being on Account
of Part of the foregoing Navigation, by Nuno da Silva.[40]
Nuna da Silva, born in Oporto, a citizen and inhabitant of Guaia, saith,
that on the 19th January, 1578, while at anchor with his ship in the
harbour of St Jago, one of the Cape de Verd islands, he was made
prisoner by the admiral of six English ships, and detained because
discovered to be a pilot for the coast of Brazil. Setting sail,
therefore, with the said admiral from Brava, they held their course for
the land of Brazil, which they descried on the first April, being in the
latitude of 30 deg. S. whence they held on their course for the Rio Plata,
where they provided themselves with fresh water.
[Footnote 40: Hakluyt, IV. 246. - This narrative was written by Nuno da
Silva, the Portuguese pilot who accompanied Sir Francis Drake from the
Cape Verd islands to Guatalco on the western coast of New Spain, and was
sent from the city of Mexico to the viceroy of Portuguese India, in
1579. - E.]
From thence they proceeded to the latitude of 39 deg. S. where they
anchored. They here left two of their ships behind them, and continued
on with four only, that which had formerly belonged to Nuno being one of
these. They next came into a bay, in lat. 49 deg. S. called Bahia de las
Ilhas, or the Bay of Islands, where Magellan is said to have wintered
with his ships, when he went to discover the straits which now bear his
name. They entered this bay on the 20th June, and anchored within
musket-shot of the shore. They here found Indians cloathed in skins,
their legs downwards from the knees, and their arms below the elbows,
being naked. These Indians were a subtle, great, and well-formed race,
strong, and tall in stature, being armed with bows and arrows. Six of
the English going here on shore to fetch water, four of the Indians came
into their boat before they landed, to whom the Englishmen gave bread
and wine; after eating and drinking of which heartily they went on
shore, and when at some distance, one of them cried to them, and said,
Magallanes!
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