January 1st, 1589, They Passed The Island Of Annobon, In Lat.

2 deg.

S. [1 deg. 30' S.] and on the 28th of that month had the sun in their zenith. The 5th of March they reached Cape St Thomas on the coast of Brazil, in lat. 22 deg. S. [21 deg. 15']. The 6th they passed Cape Fair, and came that evening to Cape Frio, and on the 9th reached Rio de Janeiro. After some loss of time, and having several of their men cut off by their grand enemy the Portuguese, they went to the island of St Sebastian, in lat. 24 deg. S. where the comforts of a good harbour, plenty of fresh water, and an abundant supply of wood gave them much satisfaction; but no fruits were to be had at that season.

They encountered a heavy storm on the 14th of March, by which the vice-admiral and the Hope were separated from the admiral, but they met again on the 17th. The scurvy now began to make rapid progress among the company; which, together with the approach of the antarctic winter, determined them to put in at St Helena. Missing that island, they next endeavoured to fall in with the island of Ascension, or some other island where they might procure refreshments; but their hard fortune brought them to a very barren and desolate island in the lat. of 20 deg. 30' S.[70] where they could procure no refreshments, except a few fowls called Malle Mewen,[71] which they knocked down with clubs.

[Footnote 70: The island of Trinidad is nearly in the indicated latitude. - E.]

[Footnote 71: These were probably young unfledged sea-gulls, called in provincial English Malls, Maws, and Mews, not unlike the Dutch names in the text; where perhaps we ought to read Malle or Mewen. - E.]

Soon leaving this inhospitable place, they put to sea again, and on the 1st of June, while endeavouring to reach Ascension, they got back to the coast of Brazil. Not being suffered to land any where on the continent, they sailed to the isle of Santa Clara, an island of about a mile round, and as much from the continent, in lat. 21 deg. 15' S. This island afforded little else beyond herbs, but they found here a sour fruit resembling plums, which cured all their sick men in fifteen days. They sailed from thence for Port Desire, in lat 47 deg. 40' S. on the 16th June, and reached that place on the 20th September, after enduring much bad weather. They procured abundance of penguins and fish, at an island three miles south from Port Desire; killing to the number of 50,000 penguins, which are nearly as large as geese, and procured a vast quantity of their eggs, by which their people were greatly refreshed, and the sick restored. Going up the river on the 5th October, and landing in the country, they found animals resembling stags, together with buffaloes, and ostriches in great numbers, and even found some of the nests of these birds, in which were as far as nineteen eggs.

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