[342] “Thence to Puerto del Principe are more than a hundred leagues, and from it to the Rio Jordan, seventy, and thence to Cabo de Santa Elena, which is in 32°, there are forty leagues.”—Primera y segunda parte de la historia general de las Indias. Gomara. cap. xii.
[343] Pigafetta writes the name “Magaglianes,” the Portuguese “Magalhaens,” the Spaniards “Magallanes,” and the French “Magellan.” The English follow the French spelling.
[344] Fernam de Magalhaens was born at Oporto, about the year 1470. After entering the Portuguese navy, he sailed to the East Indies and served under Affonso d’Albuquerque. He returned to Spain about the year 1517.
[345] Before Brazil was discovered, red wood was brought to Europe from Asia and Africa.
[346] In the edition of Ptolemy’s geography, printed at Rome in 1508, it is said: “The Land of the Holy Cross diminishes all the way to south latitude 37°; although, according to navigators who have explored it, it is said all the way to south latitude 50°; of which remaining part no description is found.—Terra Sanctæ Crucis decrescit usque ad latitudinem 37° aust.; quamquam ad Archiploi usque ad 50° austr., navigarint, ut ferunt; quam reliquam portionem descriptam non reperi.” cap. xiv.
[347] The eastern entrance to the strait lies between the Cape of the Virgins, on the north, and the Cape of the Holy Spirit, on the south, and is about twenty miles wide. The strait is three hundred and fifteen miles long.
[348] On the Maiollo map of 1527, the following inscription is placed near the delineated strait: “Streito doute pasas Magaianes Portogese per andare in le isole de Maluchi de le spesarie de Re de Spania,” the strait passed by Magaianes, a Portuguese, to go to the Molucca Islands for spices for the king of Spain.
[349] “Il capitano-generale, che sapeva de dover fare la sua navegazione per uno streto molto ascoso, como vite ne la thesararia del re de Portugal in una carta fata per quello excellentissimo huomo Martino di Boemia.”
The chart was evidently one drafted to exhibit the field of the explorations of Cabral and other Portuguese navigators along the eastern coast of Brazil.
[350] The fifth vessel, the Santiago, while exploring the coast, when the other ships were at anchor in the harbor of St. Julian, was wrecked.