THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 16Y 



of the land on either side of us, which by degrees assumed 

 a much bolder and more elevated character, exhibiting 

 many mountain-peaks covered with perpetual snow. The 

 sky also became altered in appearance, being covered with 

 black clouds, which, at intervals, descended in heavy showers, 

 and caused us to realise that we were approaching the con- 

 fines of the rainy region of the west. At three p.m. we 

 reached Port Famine, situated about thirty miles to the 

 south, and somewhat to the westward of Sandy Point, on 

 the Patagonian coast, and here we came to a halt for the 

 day. The port was thus named by Cavendish in 1587, in 

 commemoration of the sad fate of a colony of Spaniards 

 left there by Sarmiento, between three and four years pre- 

 viously. Sarmiento, having been despatched by the Spanish 

 government to fortify the Strait, in order to prevent the 

 English from passing through it, established two settlements 

 — one at Cape Possession, which he named ISTombre de 

 Jesus ; and the other at Port Famine, calling it King Philip's 

 City. But, on the " Approach of Winter," in the words of 

 Wood's succinct narrative, he " took five-and-twenty sea- 

 men along with him, and departed for Spain ;" but in his 

 way thither, being captured by Sir Walter Ealeigh and 

 brought prisoner to England, the unfortunate Spaniards were 

 left to starve in the Strait. Their fate appears to have 

 remained unknown until Cavendish visited these parts some 

 years later, when he found only four-and-twenty survivors 

 out of the original four hundred colonists. The following 

 account of their sufferings occurs in the narrative of his 

 voyage : — 



" The ninth day wee departed from Penguin Island, and ranne 

 South South West to King Philip's Citie, which the Spaniards had 

 built : which Towne or Citie had foure Forts, and every Fort had in 



