142 STEAITS OF MAGELLAN. 



LIB. in. curiositie of men, to communicate the light of his holy 

 Gospell to people that alwaies live in the obscure 

 darkenesse of their errors. But to conclude, the straight 

 of the Artike Pole (if there be any) hath not been yet 

 discovered. It shall not therefore be from the purpose, to 

 speake what we know of the particularities of the Antartike 

 straight, already discovered and knowne, by the report of 

 such as have seene and observed it. 



CHAP. xni. Of the properties of the Straight of Magellan. 



This Straight, as I have said, is iust fiftie degrees to the 

 South, and from one sea to another, fourscore and ten or a 

 hundred leagues, in the narrowest place it is a league and 

 little lesse, where it was intended the King should build a 

 Fort to defend the passage. It is so deepe in some places 

 that it cannot be sounded, and in some places they finde 

 ground at 18, yea, at 15, fadomes. Of these hundred leagues 

 which it containes in length from one sea vnto the other, it 

 is plainely seene that the waves of the South Sea runne 30 

 leagues, and the other 70 are possessed with the billowes 

 and waves of the North Sea. But there is this difference, 

 that the 30 leagues to the South runne betwixt the rockes 

 and most high rnountaines, whose tops are continually 

 covered with snow, so as they seeme, by reason of their 

 great height, to be ioyned together, which makes the entrie 

 of the Straight to the South so hard to discover. In these 

 30 leagues the sea is very deepe, and without bottome, yet 

 may they fasten their ships to the land, the banckes being 

 straight and vneven ; but, in the 70 leagues towards the 

 North, they finde ground, and of either side there are large 

 plaines, the which they call Savannahs. Many great rivers of 

 faire and cleere water runne into this Straight, and there 

 about are great and wonderfull forrests, whereas they finde 



