The 20th, The Admiral Went Ashore To View
The Country, Leaving Orders With Those Who Were Left In Charge Of The
Boats, Not To Leave Them A Moment On Any Account:
But they, having a
mind also to see the country, ventured upon a short ramble, when they
fell into an ambush of the savages, who slew three of their number, and
wounded the fourth.
These savages were very tall portly men, painted,
and armed with short bows, and arrows headed with stone.
Leaving Port Desire on the 29th September, they reached Cape Virgin at
the entrance into the Straits of Magellan on the 24th November. The land
here is low and plain, and from the whiteness of the coast somewhat
resembles the chalk cliffs of England in the channel. In many attempts
to enter the straits, they were beaten back by tempests of wind,
accompanied by rain, hail, and snow. They lost their anchors, and broke
their cables, and sickness, together with contention, which is worse
than any disease, were added to their other calamities. All these so
retarded the progress of the voyage, that it was near fifteen months
after leaving Holland before they could make their way into the straits.
They observed the land to trend from Cape Virgin to the S.W. and the
mouth of the straits to be fourteen miles distant from that cape, and
half a mile wide.[72] On the 25th November, they saw some men on two
islands near Cape Nassau, who shook their weapons at the Hollanders, as
in defiance. The Dutch landed, and pursued the savages into a cave,
which they bravely defended to the last man, and were all slain on the
spot. Going now into this dark cave, the Dutch found the women and
children of the slain savages, when the mothers, expecting present death
to themselves and their infants, covered their little ones with their
own bodies, as if determined to receive the first stab. But the Dutch
did them no other injury, except taking away four boys and two girls,
whom they carried on ship board.
[Footnote 72: These must necessarily be Dutch miles, 15 to the degree,
each equal to nearly 4.66 English miles. By the mouth of the straits in
the text, must be understood what is called the Narrows of the
Hope. - E.]
From one of these boys, after he had learnt the Dutch language, they had
the following intelligence. The larger of the two islands was named
Castemme by the natives, and the tribe inhabiting it Enoo. The
smaller island was called Talche. Both were frequented by great
numbers of penguins, the flesh of which served the natives as food, and
their skins for cloathing. Their only habitations were caves. The
neighbouring continent abounded in ostriches, which they also used as
food. The natives of these dreary regions were distinguished into
tribes, each having their respective residences. The Kemenetes dwelt
in Kaesay; the Kennekin in Karamay; the Karaiks in Morina:
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