WILLIAM ADAMS.

Sec.3. Letter of William Adams to his Wife.[61]

Loving wife, you shall hereby understand how all things have passed with me since I left you.  We sailed from the Texel with five ships, on the 24th June, 1598, and took our departure from the coast of England the 5th July.  The 21st August we came to St Jago, one of the Cape Verd Islands, where we remained twenty-four days.  In this time many of our men fell sick, through the unwholesomeness of the air, and our general among the rest.  We abode so long among these islands, because one of the captains of our fleet made our general believe that we should find plenty of refreshments there, as goats and other things, which was not the case.  I and all the pilots in the fleet were here called to council; but as we all declared ourselves much averse to the place, our opinions were so much disliked by the captains, that they agreed among themselves to call us no more to council.

[Footnote 61:  Although this fragment relates to the same circumstances that are detailed in the former letter, these are frequently given more at large, and it has therefore been retained.—­E.]

The 15th September we departed from St Jago, and passed the equator; and in the lat. of 3 deg.  S. our general died.  The season being much too late, we were forced upon the coast of Guinea, falling in with a headland called Cabo de Spiritu Santo.  The new general commanded us to bear up for Cape Lopo Gonsalves, to seek refreshments for our men, which was done accordingly.  We landed all our sick at that place, where they did not find much benefit, as we could get no store of provisions.  The 29th December we resumed our voyage, and on our way fell in with an island called Anobon, where we landed our sick men, taking possession of the island by force, the town containing about eighty houses.  Having here refreshed our men, we again set sail, our general giving out in orders, that each man was only to have the allowance of one pound of bread in four days, being a quarter of a pound daily, with a like reduced allowance of wine and water.  This scarcity of victuals made our men so feeble, that they fell into great weakness and sickness for very hunger, insomuch that they eat the calf-skins with which our ropes were covered.

The 3d April, 1599, we fell in with port St Julian,; and on the 6th we entered the Straits of Magellan, which are at first narrow.  The 8th day we passed the second narrows with a fair wind, and came to anchor at Penguin Island, where we landed, and loaded our boat with penguins.  These are fowls larger than ducks, and proved a great refreshment to us.  The 10th we weighed anchor, having much wind, yet fair for our passage; but our general insisted upon taking in wood and water for all our ships, of which there is great abundance in all parts of the straits, and good anchoring grounds every three or four leagues.  In the mean time the wind changed, and became southerly;