f seals
were found, and also penguins. As the tides ebbed and flowed
considerably, the ships were put on shore to be careened and graved. No
water, however, being found near the harbour, the people had to go a
considerable distance to fetch it. A man and a boy were thus employed,
when they were set upon by fifty huge savages, who shot their arrows,
and wounded them sorely. They would have been killed had not the
Admiral, with nineteen men, coming up, put the natives to flight.
Though the English followed, so rapidly did the savages run that they
soon made their escape. As they were seen above the rocks they appeared
like giants, and the print mark of one of their feet being measured, was
found, it is asserted, to be eighteen inches in length. This, however,
was not a correct way of judging of their height, and was probably an
exaggeration, as none have since been found much taller than the tallest
Europeans. Cavendish had after this no communication with the natives
of this part of the coast.

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. Soon afterwards lights were seen on the northern shore, which, as
they were supposed to be signals, were answered from the ships.

In the morning Cavendish sent off a boat towards the beach, where three
men were seen making signals with a handkerchief. They were soon
perceived to be Spaniards, who had fancied that the ships were manned by
their countrymen; and great was their disappointment when they found out
their mistake. Their history was a sad one. They were part of a colony
which sailed from Spain in twenty-three large ships, carrying three
thousand five hundred men, under the command of Don Pedro Sarmiento,
with the title of Viceroy, it being the intention of the Spanish
Government to found towns and erect forts on the shores of the narrowest
part of the straits, so as to prevent the English or other nations from
passing through them.

The greater number of vessels had been wrecked or had turned back, but
Pedro Sarmiento at length arrived at the straits in February, 1584,
where he landed the colonists, and the foundations of two towns named
Nombre de Jesus and San F