[Footnote 39:  The Narrows of the Hope are eighteen leagues of Castile, or about forty-eight English miles from Cape Virgin, the northern cape at the eastern mouth of the straits, in lat. 52 deg. 5’ S. long. 69 deg.  W. from Greenwich.—­E.]

The Spanish garrison, having consumed all their provisions, died mostly of hunger, perhaps aided by the scurvy, in their new city.  Twenty-three men quitted it, endeavouring to find their way by land to the Spanish settlements, but are supposed to have all perished by the way, as they were never more heard of.  Sarmiento fell into discredit with the king of Spain, for deceiving him as to the breadth of the straits, which he asserted did not exceed a mile over; whereas the king was certainly informed that they were a league broad, and therefore incapable of being shut up by any fortifications.  However this may be, even supposing the report of Sarmiento true, and that his fortress could have commanded the straits, even this could have proved of little or no service to Spain, as another passage into the South Sea was discovered soon afterwards, without the necessity of going near these straits.

SECTION VI.

First Supplement to the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake; being on Account of Part of the foregoing Navigation, by Nuno da Silva.[40]

Nuna da Silva, born in Oporto, a citizen and inhabitant of Guaia, saith, that on the 19th January, 1578, while at anchor with his ship in the harbour of St Jago, one of the Cape de Verd islands, he was made prisoner by the admiral of six English ships, and detained because discovered to be a pilot for the coast of Brazil.  Setting sail, therefore, with the said admiral from Brava, they held their course for the land of Brazil, which they descried on the first April, being in the latitude of 30 deg.  S. whence they held on their course for the Rio Plata, where they provided themselves with fresh water.

[Footnote 40:  Hakluyt, IV. 246.—­This narrative was written by Nuno da Silva, the Portuguese pilot who accompanied Sir Francis Drake from the Cape Verd islands to Guatalco on the western coast of New Spain, and was sent from the city of Mexico to the viceroy of Portuguese India, in 1579.—­E.]

From thence they proceeded to the latitude of 39 deg.  S. where they anchored.  They here left two of their ships behind them, and continued on with four only, that which had formerly belonged to Nuno being one of these.  They next came into a bay, in lat. 49 deg.  S. called Bahia de las Ilhas, or the Bay of Islands, where Magellan is said to have wintered with his ships, when he went to discover the straits which now bear his name.  They entered this bay on the 20th June, and anchored within musket-shot of the shore.  They here found Indians cloathed in skins, their legs downwards from the knees, and their arms below the elbows, being naked.  These Indians were a subtle, great, and well-formed race,