A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Towards the latter end of February, Pizarro and his squadron got into
the latitude of Cape Horn, and then stood to the westwards in order
to double that southern promontory. But, in the night of the last of
February O.S. while turning to windward with this view, the Guipuscoa,
Hermiona, and Espranza were separated from the admiral. On the 6th
March following, the Guipuscoa was separated from the other two; and
next day, being that after we passed the Straits of Le Maire, there
came on a most furious storm at N.W. which, in spite of all their
efforts, drove the whole squadron to the eastward, and, after several
fruitless attempts, obliged them to bear away for the river of Plate.
Pizarro arrived there in the Asia about the middle of May, and was
followed a few days after by the Esperanza and Estevan. The Hermiona
was supposed to have foundered, as she was never more heard of; and
the Guipuscoa was run on shore and destroyed on the coast of Brazil.
The calamities of all kinds which this squadron underwent in their
unsuccessful attempt to double Cape Horn, can only be paralleled by
what we ourselves experienced in the same climate, when buffeted by
the same storms. There was indeed some diversity in our distresses,
rendering it difficult to decide whose situation was most worthy of
commiseration; for, to all the miseries and misfortunes we experienced
in common, as shattered rigging, leaky ships, and the fatigues and
despondency necessarily attendant on these disasters, there was
superadded on board our squadron the ravages of a most destructive
and incurable disease; and in the Spanish squadron the devastation of
famine.
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