2. The Bay of St. Julian, forty Leagues Northward of the former.
3. El Puerto Desseado; 4. Puerto de los Leones; 5. The Bay of Anegada, all of them good and capacious Havens for the security of Shipping upon these Coasts, and lying at a distance of thirty or forty Leagues one from another, up towards Rio de la Plata, and the Countrey of Paraguay, of which we are next to speak.
Description of the Magellan Straights.
As for the Straights themselves, so much spoken of, and likewise so necessary to be known by those who frequent these parts of the World, they are a narrow Sea or Frith, by which the Atlantick Ocean, or rather some parts of it, doth fall into Mare de Zur, or the South Sea: the Passage is long, running, as ’tis commonly suppos’d, well nigh a hundred Leagues together, almost in a paralel Line, or in the same Degree of Latitude from one end to the other; and likewise extreamly difficult by reason of the many windings and turnings of the Sea, which force them to be ever and anon altering of their Course, and a mountainous high Countrey on both sides of it, from whence it is almost continually beaten with Storms, both dangerous and terrible: They were first discover’d by Ferdinand Magellan, by Nation a Portuguese, but in the Service of the King of Spain, and by him nam’d Magellan’s Straights; who although himself liv’d not to return into Spain, being slain in the Conquest of the Molucca Islands, yet his Companions did, in the Ship call’d Vittoria, from whence the Cape De la Vittoria abovesaid took its Name. The Mouth or Entrance of them, by the Atlantick Ocean, lies in fifty two Degrees of Southern Latitude, and hath not above fifty three and some Minutes at the Exit or opening into the South Sea.
The Straights of Le Maire.
There is likewise since this, and but of late times, viz. about the Year 1615. another Straight discover’d by the Dutch, and call’d from the Discoverer Fretum Mairi, or The Straights of le Maire, four or five Degrees more to the Southward than those of Magellan, and suppos’d to be a much earlier and safer Passage.
The Intention by the discovery of these Straights, was to have found a shorter Way to the East-Indies and the Kingdoms of Cathay and China, than that which was then onely us’d, viz. by the Cape de Buena Speranza, and the Coast of Africk, but by reason of the great difficulty, as ’tis to be suppos’d, and uncertainty of the Passage, neither the one nor the other is much frequented, the Spaniards for the most part serving themselves of their American Ports upon the South Sea, from whence they make their Voyages and Returns to and from the other Indies, and from thence home to Spain; and the English, with other Nations of Europe, Trading still by the Coast of Africk and Cape of Good Hope, or else by the way of Alexandria and the Persian Gulf, as heretofore.
