They reached Cape Gonçalves on the 25th, where the wind usually blows from the land all night, and from the sea all day. Here they found two Dutch ships, which informed them of the loss of Captain Sleerhagen and most of his company at Princes Island; as also of the voyage of Peter Verhagen, who had entered the river of Congo, and had afterwards buried thirty-eight of his company at Cape Gonçalves, whence he had gone some time before their arrival to Annobon.
January 1st, 1589, they passed the island of Annobon, in lat. 2° S. [1° 30' S.] and on the 28th of that month had the sun in their zenith. The 5th of March they reached Cape St Thomas on the coast of Brazil, in lat. 22° S. [21° 15']. The 6th they passed Cape Fair, and came that evening to Cape Frio, and on the 9th reached Rio de Janeiro. After some loss of time, and having several of their men cut off by their grand enemy the Portuguese, they went to the island of St Sebastian, in lat. 24° S. where the comforts of a good harbour, plenty of fresh water, and an abundant supply of wood gave them much satisfaction; but no fruits were to be had at that season.
They encountered a heavy storm on the 14th of March, by which the vice-admiral and the Hope were separated from the admiral, but they met again on the 17th. The scurvy now began to make rapid progress among the company; which, together with the approach of the antarctic winter, determined them to put in at St Helena. Missing that island, they next endeavoured to fall in with the island of Ascension, or some other island where they might procure refreshments; but their hard fortune brought them to a very barren and desolate island in the lat. of 20° 30' S.[70] where they could procure no refreshments, except a few fowls called Malle Mewen,[71] which they knocked down with clubs.
[Footnote 70: The island of Trinidad is nearly in the indicated latitude.--E.]
[Footnote 71: These were probably young unfledged sea-gulls, called in provincial English Malls, Maws, and Mews, not unlike the Dutch names in the text; where perhaps we ought to read Malle or Mewen.--E.]
Soon leaving this inhospitable place, they put to sea again, and on the 1st of June, while endeavouring to reach Ascension, they got back to the coast of Brazil. Not being suffered to land any where on the continent, they sailed to the isle of Santa Clara, an island of about a mile round, and as much from the continent, in lat. 21° 15' S. This island afforded little else beyond herbs, but they found here a sour fruit resembling plums, which cured all their sick men in fifteen days. They sailed from thence for Port Desire, in lat 47° 40' S. on the 16th June, and reached that place on the 20th September, after enduring much bad weather. They procured abundance of penguins and fish, at an island three miles south from Port Desire; killing to the number of 50,000 penguins, which are nearly as large as geese, and procured a vast quantity of their eggs, by which their people were greatly refreshed, and the sick restored. Going up the river on the 5th October, and landing in the country, they found animals resembling stags, together with buffaloes, and ostriches in great numbers, and even found some of the nests of these birds, in which were as far as nineteen eggs. The 20th, the admiral went ashore to view the country, leaving orders with those who were left in charge of the boats, not to leave them a moment on any account: But they, having a mind also to see the country, ventured upon a short ramble, when they fell into an ambush of the savages, who slew three of their number, and wounded the fourth. These savages were very tall portly men, painted, and armed with short bows, and arrows headed with stone.
Leaving Port Desire on the 29th September, they reached Cape Virgin at the entrance into the Straits of Magellan on the 24th November. The land here is low and plain, and from the whiteness of the coast somewhat resembles the chalk cliffs of England in the channel. In many attempts to enter the straits, they were beaten back by tempests of wind, accompanied by rain, hail, and snow. They lost their anchors, and broke their cables, and sickness, together with contention, which is worse than any disease, were added to their other calamities. All these so retarded the progress of the voyage, that it was near fifteen months after leaving Holland before they could make their way into the straits. They observed the land to trend from Cape Virgin to the S.W. and the mouth of the straits to be fourteen miles distant from that cape, and half a mile wide.[72] On the 25th November, they saw some men on two islands near Cape Nassau, who shook their weapons at the Hollanders, as in defiance. The Dutch landed, and pursued the savages into a cave, which they bravely defended to the last man, and were all slain on the spot. Going now into this dark cave, the Dutch found the women and children of the slain savages, when the mothers, expecting present death to themselves and their infants, covered their little ones with their own bodies, as if determined to receive the first stab. But the Dutch did them no other injury, except taking away four boys and two girls, whom they carried on ship board.
[Footnote 72: These must necessarily be Dutch miles, 15 to the degree, each equal to nearly 4.66 English miles. By the mouth of the straits in the text, must be understood what is called the Narrows of the Hope.--E.]
From one of these boys, after he had learnt the Dutch language, they had the following intelligence. The larger of the two islands was named Castemme by the natives, and the tribe inhabiting it Enoo. The smaller island was called Talche. Both were frequented by great numbers of penguins, the flesh of which served the natives as food, and their skins for cloathing. Their only habitations were caves. The neighbouring continent abounded in ostriches, which they also used as food. The natives of these dreary regions were distinguished into tribes, each having their respective residences. The Kemenetes dwelt in Kaesay; the Kennekin in Karamay; the Karaiks in Morina: All these are of the ordinary size, but broad-breasted, and painted all over; the men tying up their pudenda in a string, and the women covering their parts of shame with the skins of a penguin; the men wearing their hair long, while that of the women was kept very short; and both sexes going naked, except cloaks made of penguin skins, reaching only to the waist. There was also a fourth tribe, called Tirimenen, dwelling in Coin, who were of a gigantic stature, being ten or twelve feet high,[73] and continually at war with the other tribes.
[Footnote 73: This absurdity might be pardoned in the ignorant savage boy, who knew neither numerals nor measures; but in the grave reporters it is truly ridiculous, and yet the lie has been renewed almost down to the close of the eighteenth century.--E.]