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From the accession of Charles V. to the throne, Spain was either so much occupied in a multiplicity of operations in which it was engaged by the ambition of that monarch, and of his son Philip II., or so intent on prosecuting its own discoveries and conquests in the New World, that although by the successful enterprize of Magellan, its fleets were unexpectedly conducted by a new course to that remote region of Asia, which was the seat of the most gainful and alluring branch of trade carried on by the Portuguese, it could make no considerable effect to avail itself of the commercial advantages which it might have derived from that event.
"Though not a circumnavigation, it seems necessary to give an account of this voyage of Sebald de Weert, by way of supplement to that of Oliver de Noort; because De Weert was fitted out with the intention of sailing by the Straits of Magellan to India, and because it is difficult to find so good a description of these famous straits as he has given.
Peace be to his ashes!" And the doctor lifted his glass of red wine with a quasi-masonic ritual which lent solemnity to his discourse. "You are a long way ahead of your toast," said Isobel. "Just as Magellan was ahead of his times," was the rejoinder. "Yet he was a man of leisurely habit," put in Elsie, who found Dr. Christobal's old-world manners full of charm and repose.
"Well, the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, the Leipzig,, the Dresden and the Nurnberg met a British fleet under Admiral Craddock, away down off Coronel, Chile. The British were cleaned for fair." "You don't tell me!" "I do tell you. And I'll bet my immortal soul that German fleet is heading for the entrance to Magellan this minute.
The 24th August, they came to an island in the straits, where they found vast quantities of penguins, a sort of water fowl, as large as a goose, but which does not fly, and of which they killed 3000 in less than a day. Incidents of the Voyage, from the Straits of Magellan to New Albion.
During the discussions which this unexpected and embarrassing difficulty produced, Francis Magellan came to the court of Spain, to offer his services as a navigator, suggesting a mode by which he maintained that court would be able to decide the question in its own favour.
As Japanese ships were cruising in the Straits of Magellan, the route via Suez was chosen, and in due course the steamers arrived safely at Hampton Roads. Wherever the conscience of the Anglo-Saxon race was not wrapped in bales of cotton and in stock quotations, wherever the feeling of Anglo-Saxon solidarity still inspired the people, there was a stir.
Homeward bound with an abundant treasure, the rovers pressed merrily on. To return by the Straits of Magellan seemed too risky a venture with the Spaniards keenly on the alert, and the adventurous Englishman decided to sail north, expecting to be able to find a passage through the seas north of the American continent.
Here then our progress was stopped, and we wore ship, and once more stood to the northward and eastward; not for the straits of Magellan, but to make another attempt to double the Cape, still farther to the eastward; for the captain was determined to get round if perseverance could do it; and the third time, he said, never failed.
This was of importance to him, on account of its geological relation to Smythe's Channel and the Strait of Magellan. In the absence of any good charts of the channel, the Captain, after examining the shoals at the entrance, was forced to decide, almost as much to his own regret as to that of Agassiz, not to attempt the further passage.
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