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At noon our latitude was 58 degrees 31 minutes south and longitude 70 degrees 7 minutes west, which is near seven degrees to the eastward of our situation on the morning of the 9th instant, when we had advanced the farthest in our power to the westward, being then in 76 degrees 58 minutes west, three degrees to the west of Cape Deseada, the west part of the Straits of Magellan; and at this time we were 3 degrees 52 minutes to the east of it and hourly losing ground.
Mildmay, who still, notwithstanding he was first lieutenant, indulged his poetical fancies, wrote a sonnet on the benign rule of the Emperor, which, unfortunately, having been blown overboard, cannot be given. Touching at the Falkland Islands for a supply of fresh beef and vegetables, the Dragon steered for the Straits of Magellan, which Jack had determined to run through.
"Were you ever on board the Chilian cruiser Angamos?" he inquired, still in the same low and even tones, but with a curious new thrill in his voice. "Yes," replied Jim, looking him straight in the face, "I had the honour to command that ship upon the occasion when she encountered the Union in the Straits of Magellan. If I remember rightly, the Union did not stay to finish our little encounter."
Sailing from Port Desire, the voyagers brought up off another island three leagues away from it, where they salted and dried the penguins they had taken. They now stood on in sight of land, until on the 6th of January they entered the Straits of Magellan. Here the squadron anchored near the first narrow or angostura, as the Spaniards called it.
Most of our readers will be familiar with the exciting story of voyages round the world; with that famous circumnavigation by Magellan, which first found an ocean-way between the West and the East, and carried a furrow across the broad waters of the Pacific; that scarcely less famous circumnavigation of Drake's, which made the English flag known on the southern seas; that great voyage of Cook's, which added so many lands, hitherto unknown, to the map of the inhabited globe, down to later circumnavigations, accomplished for scientific objects by ships equipped with the most perfect appliances.
If they be considered as a nation whose general advancement and acquisitions are to be weighed, they certainly rank very low, even in the scale of savages. They may perhaps dispute the right of precedence with the Hottentots or the shivering tribes who inhabit the shores of Magellan.
It has a population of twelve thousand, and is the capital and centre of the great wool industry of the Territory of Magellan, which comprises a majority of the islands south of the mainland, together with the southern part of Patagonia. A few years ago, in order to encourage the building up of Punta Arenas, the government offered a lot free to any one who would erect a building on it.
Torre went first to the islands named Siria, Gaonala, Bisaia, and many others, in 11° and 12° N. lat. where Magellan and de Castro had both been formerly, and where the latter baptized many of the natives; and the Spaniards called these the Phillipinas, in honour of the prince of Spain . In these islands Torre procured provisions, and wood and water, whence he sailed for several days with a fair wind, edging towards the north-east, till he came right under the tropic of Cancer.
The instructions for this voyage from the owners were, that they were to proceed in the first place for Plymouth, whence they were to sail with the first fair wind for Cape Horn or the Straits of Magellan, as was found most convenient for their passage into the South Sea.
From this account, it was not doubted that this was the admiral of Verhagen's fleet; and dismissing the Japanese vessel, they passed the line a third time, and proceeded for Bantam, in no little fear and danger, for want of an experienced pilot and good charts. We have already had occasion to meet with two of these in the Straits of Magellan.