3 2i
the third bay *, on which we faw a number of fea-wolves and birds. The captain-
general, with the Conception , awaited the return of the Victory, near the river ofSardines, and erefted a crofs on a fmall ifland, at the foot of two mountains, covered■with fnow, where the river had its fource.
Had we not difcovered this ftrait, leading from one fea to the other, it was theintention of the captain-general to continue his courfe towards the fouth, as highas feventy-five degrees, where in fummer there is no night, or very little, asin winter there is fcarcely any day. While we were in the ftrait, in the month ofOctober, there were but three hours night.
The fhore in this ftrait, which, on the left, turns to the fouth-eaft, is low. Wecalled it the Strait of the Patagonians f. At every half league it contains a fafe port,with excellent water, cedar-wood, fardines, and a great abundance of fhell-fifh.There were here alfo fome vegetables, part of them of bitter tafte, but others fit toeat, efpecially afpecies of fweet celery |, which grows on the margin of fprings, andwhich, for want of other, ferved us for food. In Ihort, I do not think the worldcontains a better ftrait than this.
At the very inftant of our launching into the ocean we witneffed a Angular chace,of fifh, purfued by others. There are three fpecies, that is to fay, dorados, albicoresand bonitos, which purfue the fifh called colondrins, a kind of flying-fifh §. Thefe,when followed clofe, iffue from the water, extend their fins, of fufficient length toferve them as wings, and fly the diftance of a crofs-bow’s fhot; after this they returninto the water. In the mean time their enemies, directed by the fhadow of them,continue the purfuit, and inftantly as they re-enter the water, make them their prey.Thefe flying-fifh are upwards of a foot in length, and are excellent bating.
During the voyage I talked with the Patagonian giant on board our {hip, and bymeans of a fpecies of pantomime, enquired of him the Patagonian name of a numberof objefts, and was thus enabled to form a fmall vocabulary. He had accuftorriedhimfelf fo perfe&ly to this practice, that no fooner did he fee me take my pen inhand, than he came immediately to tell the name of the different things before him,and of what was pafiing. Among other things he fhewed us the manner of kindlingfire in his country; that is to fay, by rubbing one piece of pointed wood againftanother, until fire catches to a kind of pith of a tree, placed between the two pieces°f wood. One day when I fhewed him and kiffed the crofs, he gave me to underftandby his geftures that Setebos would enter into my body, and caufe me to burft. Whenat death’s door, on his laft illnefs, he called for the crofs, which he kiffed j he alfo to be baptifed, which was done j he receiving the name of Paul.
* The ifle of Lions.
f This ftrait, it is needlefs to mention, afterwards received the name of Magellan, from that navigator.
t Apium dulce. Cook alfo found this vegetable here, as well as abundance of fcurvy-grafs; and,°wing to the plenteoufnefs of anti-fcorbutic vegetables, deemed the paffage of the ftrait preferable to thatround Cape Horn . (Firft Voy. book ill.)
$ Trigla volitans, Linn. Perhaps the fifh alluded to by the author is the Exocetus volitans.
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