290 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



his flag-ship, — a name which it still retains. He seems to have 

 considered the savages to be giants, and asserts that he saw 

 footprints eighteen inches long. He entered the Strait at the 

 commencement of January, 1587, and soon discovered a mise- 

 rable and forlorn settlement of Spaniards. These numbered 

 twenty-three men, being all that remained of four hundred who 

 had been left there three years before, by Sarmiento, to colonize 

 the Strait. They had lived in destitution for the last eighteen 

 months, being able to procure no other food than a scanty sup- 

 ply of shell-fish, except when they surprised a thirsty deer or 

 seized an unsuspecting swan. They had built a fortress, in 

 order to exclude all other nations but their own from the passage 

 of the Strait, but had been compelled to leave it, owing to the 

 intolerable stench proceeding from the carcasses of their un- 

 happy companions who died of want or disease. Cavendish 

 took the survivors on board, and named the spot upon which 

 the fortress was built Port Famine. 



* 



PORT FAMINE. 



Cavendish entered the Pacific late in February, after a tem- 

 pestuous passage from the Atlantic side. Landing upon the 

 Chilian coast, in the country of the Araucanians, he received 

 a warm reception from the natives, who mistook his men for 

 Spaniards, by whom the territory had been repeatedly invaded 

 in search of gold. He afterwards undeceived them, and found 

 them willing to satisfy his wants when convinced that they did 

 not belong to that avaricious and cruel people. In another 



