The 28th November, the navigators went over to the continent, or north side of the straits, seeing some whales at a distance, and observed a pleasant river, about which were some beautiful trees with many parrots. Owing to this fine prospect, they called the mouth of this river Summer Bay. The 29th they made sail for Port Famine, where the land trends so far to the south, that the main land of Patagonia and the islands of Terra del Fuego seemed, when seen afar off, to join together. They found here no remains of the late city of King Philip, except a heap of stones. The straits are here four miles wide, having hills of vast height on both sides, perpetually covered with snow. At Port Famine they cut down wood to build a boat, and found the bark of the trees to be hot and biting like pepper.[74] Not finding good water at this place, and indeed doubting if it were Port Famine, they proceeded onwards, and found a good river two miles farther west on the 1st December. Next day they doubled Cape Froward, with some danger, on account of bad anchorage and contrary winds.
[Footnote 74: The Wintera aromatica, the bark of which is called Winter's bark, said to have been first discovered by Captain Winter in 1567, on the coast of Terra Magellanica. The sailors employed this bark as a spice, and found it salutary in the scurvy.--E.]
Passing four miles beyond this cape, they anchored in a large bay, where was a plant resembling sneezwort, which they found serviceable in the scurvy; also another plant, which rendered those who eat of it distracted for a time. They here fell in with two ships belonging to the fleet under Verhagen, which had been driven back out of the South Sea, one of which was commanded by Sebaldt de Weert, who told them he had been five months in the straits, and had only thirty-eight remaining out of 110 men, and not being able to bear up against the storms in the South Sea, had been forced to put in here, while the rest of the fleet under Verhagen held on their course.[75] These ships wished to have joined the expedition under Van Noort, but were forced to remain in the straits for want of provisions, which the others could not spare. They afterwards got back to Holland on the 13th July, 1600.
[Footnote 75: The voyage of Verhagen, or so much of it rather as relates to the adventures of Sebaldt de Weert, follows the present voyage of Van Noort in the Collection by Harris, vol. I. pp. 37-44; and is, therefore, retained in the same situation on the present occasion.--E.]
Van Noort and his ships left this bay on the 2d January, 1600, directing their course for Maurice bay, which they found to extend far to the eastwards, and to receive several rivers, the mouths of which were filled with vast quantities of ice, which seemed never to melt. It was now near midsummer of this southern clime, and the ice was so thick that they could not find its bottom with a line of ten fathoms. The land here seemed a congeries of broken islands, yet appearing like one continued mass, owing to the height of the mountains. They were here much distressed by hunger and continual rains, and two of their men were slain by the savages, while gathering muscles, which formed their chief subsistence. After weathering many storms in Meniste bay, and having several encounters with the savages, they set sail on the 17th, and were driven into Penguin bay, or Goose bay, three miles from Meniste bay, and receiving its name from the vast multitude of penguins found there. At this place, James Claas van Ulpenda, the vice-admiral, was arraigned before a council of war, for various breaches of the articles sworn to before proceeding on the voyage. Having a fair trial, and sufficient time allowed him for his defence, he was condemned to be turned ashore in the straits, with a small supply of provisions, and allowed to shift for himself among the wild beasts and more savage inhabitants, which sentence was accordingly executed, so that he doubtless soon fell a prey either to hunger or the natives, who are implacable enemies to all strangers.
They entered another bay on the 1st February, which they called Popish bay, probably owing to some cross erected on its shore, and in which they were exposed to much danger. On the 27th, they saw at a distance a huge mountain of ice in Penguin bay. The 28th they passed Cape Deseado, or Desire, into the South Sea, bidding adieu to the many dismal prospects of the Straits of Magellan. Their company, originally 248 men, was now reduced to 147, but was soon still farther lessened by losing company of the Henry Frederick, which never rejoined. Waiting for that ship in vain till the 12th March, they sailed to the island of Mocha on the coast of Chili, in lat. 38° 22' S. and six miles [twenty English] from the continent. This island is remarkable by a high mountain in the middle, which is cloven at the top, and whence a water-course descends into the vale land at its foot. They here bartered knives and hatchets with the natives for sheep, poultry, maize, bartulas,[76] and other fruits. The town consisted of about fifty straw huts, where the Dutch were regaled with a sour kind of drink, called cici, made of maiz steeped in water, which is the favourite drink of the Chilese at their feasts. Polygamy is much practised among these people, who buy as many wives as they can afford to maintain; so that a man who has many daughters, especially if they be handsome, is accounted rich. If one man kill another, he is judged by the relations of the deceased, as they have no laws or magistrates among them, so that the murderer may sometimes buy off his punishment by giving a drinking-bout of cici. Their cloathing is manufactured from the wool of a large kind of sheep, which animal they also employ to carry burdens. They would not sell any of these, but parted freely with another kind, not very different.
[Footnote 76: This probably means battatas or potatoes, a native production of Chili.--E.]
From thence they went to the island of St Mary, in lat. 37° S. eighteen miles [ninety-five English] from Mocha, where they fell in with a Spanish ship carrying lard and meal from Conception to Valdivia in Araucania, which they chased and took. The pilot of this ship informed them that they would not be able to return to the island of St Mary, owing to the south wind, and that two Spanish ships of war were waiting for them at Arica. Upon this information they resolved to sail for Valparaiso, and by that means quite lost all chance of being rejoined by the Henry Frederick, which might otherwise have got up with them. Besides, they concluded that the missing ship had failed to find St Mary's isle, owing to its being wrong placed in the map of Plancius, in lat. 38° S. which error they themselves had fallen into, had they not been set right by the observations of Mr Mellish. They were farther confirmed in the resolution of not returning to the island of St Mary, by hearing of the misfortune which had there befallen Simon de Cordes, who was there butchered with twenty-three of his men, after being invited on shore in a friendly manner by the Indians, owing to the treachery of the Spaniards endeavouring to get possession of his two ships, and sending intelligence to Lima and all about the country of the arrival of the Dutch in these seas, with a list of their ships, and the names of all their commanders. For these reasons they proceeded to Valparaiso, where they took two ships and killed some Indians, but all the Spaniards escaped on shore. Valparaiso is in lat. 35° 5' S. And about eighteen miles inland, [100 English miles] is the town of St Jago, abounding in red wine and sheep. They kill these animals merely for the sake of their tallow, with which alone they load many vessels. Here they received letters from the captain of the Flying Hart, one of the squadron under Verhagen, who had been treacherously captured by the Spaniards; owing, as he alleged, to the wrong placement of the island of St Mary in the map, by which he had been misled.
At Valparaiso they intercepted some letters giving an account of the wars in Chili between the Spaniards and the Indians, who it seems were in rebellion, had sacked the town of Valdivia, putting vast numbers of Spaniards to the sword, and carrying off many captives. They burnt the houses and churches, knocking off the heads of the popish images, crying, "Down go the gods of the Spaniards." They then crammed the mouths of these images with gold, bidding them satisfy themselves with that, for the sake of which their votaries had committed so many barbarous massacres of their nation. They afterwards laid close siege to the city of Imperial, and had almost starved the Spanish garrison into a surrender. The valiant Indians who undertook this enterprise were about 5000, of whom 5000 were cavalry, 100 were armed with muskets, and 70 had corslets, all of which were plunder they had taken from the Spaniards. They so mortally hate the Spaniards, that they rip up the breasts of all they overcome, tearing out their hearts with their teeth, and they delight to drink their favourite liquor from a cup made of a Spaniard's skull.
These Indians [the Araucans] are for the most part very stout, and skilful soldiers, and commit the management of all their military affairs to the direction of one supreme general, whose orders are implicitly obeyed. Their method of election to this high dignity is very singular; for he who carries a certain log of wood on his shoulders the longest, and with the smallest appearance of weariness, is saluted general by the army. In this trial several carried the log four, five, and six hours; but at length one carried it twenty-four hours on end, and this person was now general. The whole of Chili, from St Jago to Valdivia, is one of the most fertile and most delightful countries in the world. It abounds in all kinds of cattle and fruit, has many rich gold mines, and its climate is so sweet and salubrious as to exclude the use of medicine, being health and life in itself.