The eastern mouth of the straits is in lat. 52 deg.  S. From thence to the narrowest part is fourteen leagues W. by N. From thence to Penguin Island is ten leagues W.S.W. by S. They anchored at Penguin Island on the 8th January, where they killed and salted a great store of seals, to serve as sea provisions in case of need.  Leaving this place on the 9th, they sailed S.S.W.  The fortress built in these straits by the Spaniards, called Ciudad del Rey Felippe, had four bulwarks or bastions, in each of which was one large cannon, all of which had been buried, and their carriages left standing.  The English dug them all up, and carried them away.  Tins city seemed to have been well contrived, especially in its situation in regard to wood and water; but miserable was the life this forlorn remnant of Spaniards had endured for the last two years, during which they had hardly been able to procure any other food than a scanty supply of shell-fish, except when they had the good fortune to surprise a deer, coming down from the mountains in search of water.

The object of the Spaniards, in erecting this fortress, was to have fortified the straits, so as to have excluded all other nations from any passage into the South Sea:  but, besides the barrenness of the soil, and excessive severity of the climate their most implacable enemies, the Indians, frequently assailed them, so that they were reduced to the last extremity of distress.  All the stores they had brought from Spain were expended, and none could be procured in the country, which produced nothing but deer, and when hunting these for the preservation of their lives, they were sure to be fallen upon by the Indians.  At length almost all the Spaniards died in their houses, and the stench of the putrefying carcasses became so intolerable to the few survivors, that they were forced to quit the fortress, and to range along the seacoast living upon roots, leaves, and sea weeds, or any animals they could occasionally fall in with.  In this miserable extremity they had determined to attempt exploring their way to the Rio Plata, and were already on their way, when this Spaniard was taken by the English.

Mr Candish named the haven where the fortress stood Port Famine, owing to the utter want of all necessaries.  It is in lat. 53 deg.  S. Leaving this place on the 14th, they ran five leagues S.W. to Cape Froward, in the southernmost part of the straits, in lat. 54 deg.  S. Sailing five leagues W. by N. from this cape, they put into a bay, called Muscle Cove, from the great quantities of muscles found there.  Leaving that place on the 21st, and sailing N. by W. ten leagues, they came to a fair bay, which Candish named Elizabeth Bay.  Leaving that place on the 22d, they found a good river two leagues farther on, up which a boat was towed for three miles.  The country about this river was pleasant and level, but all the other land on both sides of the straits was rugged, mountainous, and rocky, inhabited by a strong and well-made, but very brutish kind of savages, who are said to have eaten many of the Spaniards, and seemed much disposed to have feasted also on English flesh; but they failed in their attempts to circumvent them.  Discovering a plot laid by these savages to entrap him and his men, Candish gave them a volley of musquetry, which slew several of them, and the rest ran away.