ovalle's historical relation of chile. ^e 



^eath was very much lamented, and he much miffed in the difcoveries of that new 

 world ; for, without doubt, if he had lived longer, he would have made great difcove- 

 ries in the Terra Firma and iflands. 



To give a more certain account of this ftraight of Magellan, I will make ufe of the 

 memoirs of thofe who have paffed it, and left relations of it, who, as eye-witneffes, 

 were lefs fubje£t to miftake. And firft I will give thofe fworn relations given in Caftilla 

 by thofe who fet fail from the Corunna, by the Emperor Charles the Fifth's order, in 

 fix (hips under the command of Fray Garcia Jofre de Loayfa, a knight of Malta, and 

 born at Civedad Real. 



They fay in their report, that the faid ftraight is a hundred leagues in length, 

 from the cape of Eleven Thoufand Virgins, which is at the entrance of the North-Sea 

 to the cape of Defire, which is at the entrance of the South-Sea; and they fay more, 

 that they found in the ftraight three great bays, of about feven leagues wide from 

 land to land, but the entrances of them are not much more than half a league over ; 

 the firft is about a league deep ; the fecond about two leagues ; the third, they fay, is 

 «ncompaffed with mountains of fuch a height, that they feem to be in competition 

 with the ftars, and the fun does not enter within them in the whole year ; which was 

 the caufe of their enduring there an extreme cold ; for it fnows almoft continually, 

 ^nd the fnow never melting by the fun-beams, it looked with a kind of bluifli colour. 

 They fay, moreover, that the nights were twenty hours long ; they met with good 

 water, and trees of feveral forts, among which many cinnamon-trees ; and that the 

 leaves and boughs of the trees, though they appeared green, yet burnt in the fire as if 

 they were dry ; that they found many good fifhing-places, and faw many whales, (fome 

 mermaids) many of the tunny-fifti, fharks, cods, great ftore of pilchards and anchovies, 

 very great oyfters, and other ftiell-fifli. That there were alfo very good harbours, with 

 fifteen fathom water ; and in the ftraights itfelf above five hundred fathom, and no 

 where any fands or ftioals. They obferved feveral pleafant rivers and ftreams, and faw 

 that the tides of both feas came each of them above fifty leagues up the ftraight, and 

 meet about the middle of it with a prodigious noife and formidable ftiock. Though a 

 Portuguefe captain, who had paffed this ftraight, told me, that thefe tides were only 

 fome high floods, which laft a month, or thereabouts, as the winds blow ; which makes 

 the fea fometimes rife to a great height, and at other times fall as much, leaving the 

 ftiore dry for a great way ; and the ebbing is fometimes fo faft, that (hips are left dry, 

 as this captain's (hip was, fo that he was forced to dig his way out to get into deeper 

 water. They found feveral other entrances in this ftraight ; but for want of provifion 

 they could not ftay to fearch them. They loft one (hip off the Virgins Cape ; and they 

 had fcarce entered the ftraights when a ftorm blew them back to the river of St. Ildefonfo, 

 •and to the port of Sanda Croce, where they found ferpents of various colours, and 

 ^ones that were good for ftanching of blood ; all this may be feen in Antonio de Her- 

 rera, in the fecond tome, dec. 3, and in the ninth book, fol. 335, and it does not 

 difagree with the other relation of Magellan's voyage, though this makes the ftraighteft 

 part yet lefs, allowing it not above a mufquet-(hot over, and from one entrance to 

 another it reckons a hundred leagues, the land on both fides being very rich and 

 beautiful. 



This is, in (hort, the relation given in to the king. There are fome other authors 

 who neither make the ftraight fo long, nor do they make the narroweft part fo ftraight; 

 for fome allow but fourfcore and ten leagues, or lefs, to its length ; but yet it is 

 probable, that the firft give the moft credible account, becaufe they examined it with 

 iuch care and punctuality, in order to inform His Majefty. All agree in one thing, 



which 



\^i 



