In this state of distress they set sail for the coast of Brazil; but falling in soon after with the island of Annabon, in the Gulf of Guinea, they landed, took the town, which contained eighty houses, and obtained a supply of oxen, and of oranges and other fruits; but still the men continued to die, of whom they buried more than thirty on this island.
Two months were thus spent on the African coast. The ships, setting sail again about the middle of November, were greatly delayed by one of the vessels losing her mainmast, and it was five months before they reached the Straits of Magellan, the crews during most of that time on short allowance, and driven to such extremity as to eat the calf-skins with which the ropes were covered.
Having entered the straits the beginning of April, 1599, they obtained a good supply of penguins for food; but the commander stopping to wood and water, they were overtaken by the winter then just setting in, during which they lost more than a hundred men by cold and hunger, and were thus detained—though, according to Adams, there were many times when they might have gone through—till the 24th of September, when at last they entered the South Sea.
A few days after, they encountered a violent storm, by which the ships were separated. Captain Wert, with the “Faith” and “Fidelity,” was driven back into the straits, where he fell in with Oliver Noort, who had left Holland a few days after the Verhagen fleet, had followed in the same track, had encountered many of the same difficulties, but who, more fortunate, not only passed the strait, but succeeded in completing the fourth circumnavigation of the globe,—a feat accomplished before his voyage only by the ships of Magellan, Drake, and Cavendish. As Noort was unable to afford him any aid, Wert abandoned the enterprise, and returned with his two ships to Holland.
The other three ships steered separately for the coast of Chili, where a rendezvous, in the latitude of forty-six degrees, had been appointed. The “Charity,” in which Adams was, on reaching the place of rendezvous found some Indian inhabitants, who at first furnished sheep in exchange for bells and knives, with which they seemed well satisfied, but who shortly after disappeared, probably through Spanish influence. Having waited twenty-eight days, and hearing nothing of her consorts, the “Charity” ran by Valdivia to the island of Mocha, and thence toward the neighboring island of Santa Maria. Seeing on the mainland near by a number of people, boats were sent for a parley; but the people would suffer none to land from the boats, at which they shot a multitude of arrows. “Nevertheless,” says Adams, “having no victuals in our ship, and hoping to find refreshing, we forcibly landed some seven-and-twenty or thirty of our men, and drove the wild people from the water-side, having the most of our men hurt with their arrows. Having landed, we made signs of friendship, and in the end came to parley, with signs that our desire was to have victuals for iron, silver, and cloth, which we showed them. Whereupon they gave our folks wine, with batatas (sweet potatoes) and other fruits, and bade them, by signs and tokens, to go aboard, and the next day to come again, and they would bring us victuals.”
The next day, after a council, in which it was resolved not to land more than two or three men at once, the captain approached the shore with all the force he had. Great numbers of people were seen, who made signs for the boats to land; and in the end, as the people would not come near the boats, twenty-three men landed with muskets, and marched up toward four or five houses; but before they had gone the distance of a musket-shot they found themselves in an ambush, and the whole, including Thomas Adams, a brother of William, the chief pilot, were slain or taken. “So our boats waited long,” says Adams, “to see if any of them would come again; but seeing no hope to recover them, our boats returned, with this sorrowful news, that all our men that landed were slain, which was a lamentable thing to hear, for we had scarce so many men left as could wind up our anchor.”
After waiting a day longer, they went over to the neighboring island of Santa Maria, where they found the “Hope,” which had just arrived, but in as great distress as themselves, having, at the island of Mocha, the day before the “Charity” had passed there, lost their commander and twenty-seven men in an attempt to land to obtain provisions. Some provisions were finally got by detaining two Spaniards, who came to visit the ships, and requiring them to pay a ransom in sheep and oxen. It was proposed to burn one of the ships, as there were not men enough for both; but the new captains, of whom the one in command of the “Charity” was named Quackernack, could not agree which of the ships to burn.
At length, the men being somewhat refreshed, a council was called to consider what should be done to make the voyage as profitable as possible to the merchants. It was stated by one of the sailors, who had been to Japan in a Portuguese ship, that woollen cloth, of which they had much on board, was good merchandise there; and considering that the Moluccas, and most parts of the East Indies, were not countries in which woollen cloths would be likely to be very acceptable; hearing also from the people on shore that Spanish cruisers were after them,—by whom, in fact, their third vessel was captured, news of their intentions and force having been sent from Spain to Peru about the time of their departure from Holland,—it was finally resolved to stand away for Japan. Leaving the coast of Chili on the 27th of November, and standing northwesterly across the equator for three or four months, they had the trade-wind and pleasant weather. In their way they encountered a group of islands somewhere about sixteen degrees of north latitude (perhaps the Sandwich Islands), to which eight of their men ran off with the pinnace, and were eaten, as was supposed, by the islanders, who, by the report of one who was taken, were cannibals.
In the latitude of twenty-seven degrees north, the vessels, encountering variable winds and stormy weather, were separated. The “Hope” was never more heard of; the “Charity” still kept on her course, though with many of her men sick and others dead, when, on the 11th of April, being then in great misery, with only four or five men out of a company of four-and-twenty able to walk, and as many more to creep on their knees, the whole expecting shortly to die, at last they made the hoped-for land, which proved to be the eastern coast of Shimo. They were immediately boarded by numerous boats, which they had no force to resist; but the boatmen offered no injury beyond stealing what they could conveniently lay their hands on. This, however, was put a stop to the next day by the governor of the neighboring district, who sent soldiers on board to protect the cargo, and who treated the crew with great kindness, furnishing them with all necessary refreshments, and giving them a house on shore for their sick, of whom nine finally died.
For some days the only conversation was by signs; but before long a Portuguese Jesuit, with some other Portuguese, arrived from Nagasaki, on the opposite western coast of the island.