The ships being ready, the squadron set sail on the 10th of August, 1519, and steering south, they arrived on the 3rd of October off the Cape de Verde Islands. Getting into the region of calms, they were detained for the long space of seventy days without making any progress; but at last a breeze springing up, they got to the south of the line, then steered a course which brought them about twenty degrees south in sight of the coast of Brazil. Putting into harbour, they obtained an abundant supply of fruits, sugar-canes, and animals of various kinds, differing greatly in appearance from those of Europe. Proceeding about two and a half leagues farther south, they again came to an anchor, at the mouth of a large fresh water river, probably that of the Rio de la Plata, as no other of the size mentioned exists in the south of the continent. Here, soon after they arrived, a number of persons of wild and furious aspect and prodigious stature, making strange noises, rather resembling the bellowing of bulls than the voices of human beings, came down to the beach. Notwithstanding their enormous size, these people when they ran were so nimble, that none of the Spaniards or Portuguese could overtake them. They had not, however, much intercourse with these savages; they here, however, obtained some pearls from oyster-shells which they fished up. Proceeding south, they in a short time came off two islands, so thickly covered with seals and penguins that they might easily, in the course of a few hours, have laden all their ships with them. The penguins were black, heavy-looking, unwieldy fowl, extremely fat, covered with a sort of down instead of feathers, having bills like those of ravens. Fish appeared to be their only food. Continuing south until they reached latitude 49 degrees 30 minutes, the weather becoming very tempestuous, with a contrary wind, they put into harbour, hoping that the wind would soon change, when they might continue their course. In this, however, they were disappointed. Day after day went by, and the weather only grew worse and worse. It was evidently the winter of that region, though on the other side of the line it was summer. This caused no small astonishment to the crews. They went on shore, but finding no inhabitants, believed that they had arrived at some desert region of the world. The wind blew fearfully hard, with sleet and rain, and being ill provided to meet the inclemency of the season, they preferred living on board.