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The 6th of April, the fleet got into the Straits of Magellan, and towards evening cast anchor under the smaller of the two Penguin isles, fourteen leagues within the mouth of the straits. They here saw vast numbers of those birds called plongeons or divers, because they dive into the water to catch fish.
This last attempt failed miserably, and three statutes of the 30th of March, and 6th and 30th of April, fixed the composition of the crews and named the staff; while a final official document dated from Barcelona the 26th of July, 1519, confided the sole command of the expedition to Magellan. What had meanwhile been happening to Rey Faleiro? We cannot exactly say.
Moluccas or Spice islands recently discovered by the Portuguese, and which, he affirmed, were within the limits assigned to Spain by the line of demarkation. The way which he proposed then to take is not mentioned. At the same juncture Magellan also arrived in Spain and tendered his services to find a new route to the Moluccas, specifically by the west, as delineated on a globe which he produced.
Then he encountered the ill-will of the employés of the Casa de contratacion at Seville, who were jealous of a stranger being entrusted with the command of such an important expedition, and envious of the least token of favour which had been accorded to Magellan and Rey Faleiro, who had been named commanders of the order of St. James.
Being desirous to make prisoners of some of these giants, Magellan gave orders for this purpose to some of his crew. Accordingly, while amusing them with toys, they put iron shackles on their legs, which at first they conceived had been fine ornaments like the rest, and seemed pleased with their jingling sound, till they found themselves hampered and betrayed.
Magellan sailed from San Lucar September 20, 1519, and, after passing through the strait as here described by Fiske, proceeded to the Philippines, where, in an attack on unfriendly natives, he, with several of his men, was killed. One of his ships afterward completed the voyage by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and thus made the first circumnavigation of the globe.
Soon, Uncle Jack landed, and he had a long tale to tell of the jolly- boat losing her sail, and being tossed about on the ocean till picked up by an American whaler, which first took a cruise down the South Seas, there detaining him many weary months before landing him at Sandy Point, in the Straits of Magellan, from whence he got finally to Valparaiso after awaiting a passage for weeks.
On the 20th of August, the fleet, now reduced to three vessels two of the ships having been so much damaged that they were at once destroyed by the admiral entered the strait, which had not been traversed since the time of Magellan.
As you may suppose, after continuing this work for some time Drake's ships were very well loaded, and he and his companions began to think about returning to England. Drake felt that it would not be safe for him to return through the Strait of Magellan, as he knew the Spaniards would be expecting him.
There he had taken the steamer by the Straits of Magellan back to Buenos Ayres. There, within the first hour, he heard a report that his man had gone on to Rio Janeiro, caught the cholera, and died there. Undaunted by the epidemic, Frawley took the next boat and entered the stricken city by swimming ashore. For a week he searched the hospitals and the cemeteries.
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