The Pacific was found! The chroniclers say that the crews wept for joy; and they may well have done so. They gave to the Cape—which made the western end of Tierra del Fuego, on this channel—the name of the “Desired Cape,” “Cabo Deseado,” which it still retains.
The squadron did not at once follow. Magellan put back for the other vessels, and met the “Concepçion” alone. He sent back the “Victoria” this time to search for his faithless consort. If she were not found, his orders were that a standard should be planted on high ground, at the foot of which should be buried a letter, with an account of the destination of the squadron. Two similar signals were left,—one on the shore of the first bay, and one on the Isle of Lions, in the channel. But the “Victoria,” as the reader knows, did not find the “San Antonio;” she was far away. And with three vessels of his squadron only, Magellan passed out from the strait which had detained him so long, into the ocean. They fairly entered upon it on the 28th of November.
Pigafetta, in his joy at leaving this strait, which had been the scene of so much anxiety, describes its natural advantages in glowing colors. “In fine, I do not believe there is a better strait than this in the world,” he says. They gave to it the name of “Strait of the Patagonians;” but the world has long since known it by the name of its discoverer. “There may be found at any half-league a good harbor,”—such is the Italian historian’s statement,—“with excellent water, cedar-wood, sardine-fish, and an abundance of shellfish. There are also herbs on shore, some of which are bitter, but others are good to eat,—especially a sort of celery,[1605] which grows near the springs, of which we made excellent food.” Cook found celery of the same kind two centuries and a half later, as well as abundance of Cochlearia. So great are the advantages of such supplies for the health of crews in danger of scurvy, that he thought the passage into the Pacific by the Straits of Magellan preferable to that by Cape Horn.[1606] In later days his advice has always been followed by vessels having the aid of steam.
Thus ended the only glimpse which Spaniards had of Patagonia for many years. Magellan’s act of possession held, however; for the country has no attractions to make it a stake for wars or other controversy. Magellan looked his last upon it as his squadron gladly steered northward; and after leaving his Cape Victory,—for he gave that name to the southwestern point of America,—neither he nor his landed again on this continent.
The poor giants who had been so cruelly enslaved never reached Spain. One was on the “San Antonio” with Serrano, who deserted his commander in the strait. This one died before they had crossed the Atlantic. The other was on board the “Trinidad,” the flagship, with Magellan and Pigafetta, the historian of the expedition. He became fond of Pigafetta; and when he saw him produce his writing tablet and paper, he knew what was expected of him, and of his own accord began to give the names of different objects in the Patagonian language.[1607] One day when he saw Pigafetta kiss the cross, he told him by signs that Setebos would enter him and make him a coward. But when he was himself dying—of scurvy, most likely, which was decimating the crew—he asked for the cross himself, kissed it, and begged to be baptized. His captors baptized him, gave him the name of Paul, and he died.
It would have been natural for Magellan, now that he had attained the South Sea, to sail by a direct route to the Moluccas, of which he was in search. Till a very late period the geographers have supposed that he did; and his track will be found on most of the large globes, to a period comparatively recent, laid down on a course a little west of northwest,—as, indeed, Pigafetta says they ran.
It was not observed by these globe-makers, and in fact to many of them it was not known, that, if Magellan had taken such a course, he would have run directly into the teeth of those northwest winds which blow with great regularity in that part of the Pacific, and he would have met a steady current in the same direction. In such computations, also, it was forgotten that Magellan supposed the Pacific to be much narrower than it is, and that when he left the straits he did not anticipate so long a voyage as he had. But the fortunate discovery of the log-book of one of the “pilots” now gives us the declination of the sun and the computed latitude for every day of the Pacific voyage. It appears that Magellan held well to the north, not far from the coast of South America, till he had passed, on the west, the islands of Juan Fernandez and Masafuera without seeing them, and only then struck to the northwest, and afterwards to the west.[1608] He thus came out at the equator at a point which, by their mistaken computation of longitude, was 152° W. of the meridian of Ferro, 159° 46’ west of our first meridian of Greenwich.
The Pacific is now known to us as an ocean studded with islands, the inhabitants of which are well provided with food from their own land, and water.[1609]
