They sailed from this river of Santa Cruz on October 18th: they
continued navigating along the coast until the 21st day of the same
month, October, when they discovered a cape, to which they gave the name
of Cape of the Virgins, because they sighted it on the day of the eleven
thousand virgins; it is in 52 deg., a little more or less, and from this
cape, a matter of two or three leagues' distance, we found ourselves at
the mouth of a strait. We sailed along the said coast within that
strait, which they had reached the mouth of: they entered in it a little
and anchored. Ferdinand Magellan sent to discover what there was
farther in, and they found three channels; that is to say, two more in a
southerly direction, and one traversing the country in the direction of
Molucca, but at that time this was not yet known, only the three mouths
were seen.
The boats went thither, and brought back word, and they set sail and
anchored at these mouths of the channels, and Ferdinand Magellan sent
two ships to learn what there was within, and these ships went; one
returned to the captain-major, and the other, of which Alvaro de
Mesquita was captain, entered into one of the bays which was to the
south, and did not return any more. Ferdinand Magellan, seeing that it
did not come back, set sail, and the next day he did not choose to make
for the bays, and went to the south and took another which runs
northwest and southeast and a quarter west and east. He left letters in
the place from which he sailed, so that, if the other ship returned, it
might make the course which he left prescribed.
After this they entered into the channel, which at some places had a
width of three leagues, and two, and one, and in some places half a
league, and he went through it as long as it was daylight, and anchored
when it was night: and he sent the boats, and the ships went after the
boats, and they brought news that there was an outlet, for they already
saw the great sea on the other side; on which account Ferdinand Magellan
ordered artillery to be fired for rejoicing; and before they set forth
from this strait they found two islands, the first one larger, and the
other, nearer toward the outlet, is the smaller one; and they went out
between these islands and the coast on the southern side, as it was
deeper than on the other side.
This strait is a hundred leagues in length to the outlet; that outlet
and the entrance are in 52 deg. latitude. They made a stay in this strait
from October 21st to November 26th, which makes thirty-six days of the
said year of 1520, and as soon as they went out from the strait to the
sea they made their course, for the most part, to west-northwest, when
they found that their needles varied to the northwest almost one-half;
and after they had navigated thus for many days they found an island in
a little more or less than 18 deg. or 19 deg., and also another, which was in
from 13 deg. to 14 deg., and this in south latitude; they are uninhabited.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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