of vegetation and the evident marks of ruin along the mountain slopes warn the mariner to avoid the neighborhood. In Gabriel Channel Captain King saw a spot where the williwaws, bursting over the mountains on the south side, had swept down the declivities, and then rushing against the foot of the opposite hills, had again dashed upward with such fury as to carry away with them every thing that could possibly be attached from the bare rock.

It was a memorable day in the annals of maritime discovery (October 20, 1521) when Magellan reached the eastern entrance of the strait that was to lead him, first of all European navigators, from the broad basin of the Atlantic into the still wider expanse of the Pacific Ocean. It was the day dedicated in the Catholic calendar to St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, and he consequently named the promontory which first struck his view "Cabo de las Virgines." The flood tide, streaming violently to the west, convinced him that he was at the mouth of an open channel, but he had scarcely provisions for three months—a short allowance for venturing into an unknown world, and thus before he attempted the passage he convoked a council of all his officers. Some were for an immediate return to Europe, but the majority voted for the continuation of the voyage, and Magellan declared that should they even be reduced to eat the leather of their shoes he would persevere to the last, and with God's assistance execute the commands of his imperial master Charles V. He then at once gave orders to enter the strait full sail, and on pain of death forbade any one to say a word more about a return or the want of provisions.

Fortunately the winds were in his favor, for had the usual inclemencies of this stormy region opposed him, there is no doubt that with such crazy vessels, and such discontented crews, all his heroism would have failed to insure success. It was the spring of the southern hemisphere, and the strait showed itself in one of its rare aspects of calm. Many fish were caught, and, as Pigafetti, the historian of the voyage, relates, the aromatic winter's bark which served them for fuel" wonderfully refreshed and invigorated their spirits."

The fires kindled by the savages on the southern side during the night induced Magellan to give that part of the country the name of Tierra del Fuego, or Fireland; while from their high stature and bulky frames, he called the inhabitants of the opposite mainland Patagonians (patagon being the Spanish augmentative of pata, foot). Although several days were lost in exploring some of the numerous passages and bays of the straits, its eastern mouth was reached on November 28, and Magellan saw the wide Pacific expand before him.

In 1525 Charles V. sent out a new expedition of six vessels, under Garcia de Loaisa, to circumnavigate the globe. The vice-admiral of the squadron was Sebastian el Cano, who, after the death of Magellan, had brought the illustrious navigator's ship safely back to Europe, and as a reward had been ennobled with the globe in his coat of arms, and the motto, " Primus circumdedisti me.". Loaisa entered the strait on January 26, 1526, but he was beaten back by storms as far as the River Santa Cruz. On April 8 he once more attempted the passage, and emerged into the Pacific on May 25. Simon de Alcazaba, who in 1534 attempted to pass the Magellans with a number of emigrants for Peru,

was less successful, but in 1539, Alfonso de Camargo, having lost two vessels in the strait, passed it with the third, and reached the port of Callao.

Until now the Spanish flag had alone been seen in these remote and solitary waters, but the time was come when they were to open a passage to its most inveterate foes. On August 20, 1579, Francis Drake, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to plunder and destroy the Spanish settlements on the west coast of America, ran into the strait, and on December 6 sallied forth into the Pacific.

To meet this formidable enemy, the Viceroy of Peru sent out in the same year two ships under Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. His orders were to intercept Drake's passage through the strait and then to sail on to Spain. Though he failed in the object of his mission, yet Sarmiento displayed in the navigation of the intricate and dangerous passages along the south-west coast of America, the courage and skill of a consummate seaman, and he gave the first exact and detailed account of the land and waters of Fuegia. His voyage, according to the weighty testimony of Captain King, deserves to be noted as one of the most useful of the age in which it was performed.

On his arrival in Spain, Sarmiento strongly pointed out the necessity of establishing a colony and erecting a fort in the strait (at that time the only known passage to the Pacific), so as effectually to prevent the recurrence of a future hostile expedition like that of Drake. Commissioned by Philip II. to carry his plans into execution, he founded a colony, to which he gave the name of Ciudad de San Felipe, but a series of disasters entirely destroyed it; and when, a few years later, Cavendish, who had fitted out three ships at his own expense to imitate the example of Drake, appeared in the strait, he found but three survivors of many hundreds, and gave the scene of their misery the appropriate name of Port Famine, which it has retained to the present day.

After Cavendish and Hawkins (1594), the Dutch navigators De Cordes. (1599), Oliver Van Noort (1599), and Spilberg (1615), attempted, with more or less success, to sail through the strait with the intention of harassing and plundering the Spaniards on the coast of the Pacific

Strange to say, no attempt had been made since Magellan to discover a passage farther to the south, so universal and firmly established was the belief that Fuegia extended without interruption to the regions of eternal ice, until at length, in 1616, the Dutchmen Schouten and Le Maire discovered the passage round Cape Horn. Two years later Garcia de Nodales sailed through the Strait of Le Maire, and, returning through the Magellans into the Atlantic, was thus the first circumnavigator of Fuegia. In 1669, Sir John Narborough having been sent out by King Charles II. to explore the Magellanic regions, furnished a good general chart of the strait, and many plans of the anchorage within it.

More than sixty years now elapsed before any expedition of historical renown made its appearance in the strait. The dangers and hardships which had assailed the previous navigators discouraged their successors, who all preferred the circuitous way round Cape Horn to the shorter but, as it was at that time considered, more perilous route through the strait. After this long pause, Byron (December, 1764) and Bougainville (February, 1765) once more attempted

the Magellans. The difficulties encountered by them were surpassed by those of Wallis and Carteret. The former spent nearly four months (from December 17, 1766, to April 11, 1767) in a perpetual conflict with stormy weather while slowly creeping through the strait; and the latter required eighty-four days for his passage from Port Famine to Cape Pillar. No wonder that the next circumnavigators, Lütke, Krusenstern, Kotzebue, preferred sailing round Cape Horn, and that adventurous seal-hunters became for a long time the sole visitors of these ill-famed waters. At length the British Government came to a resolution worthy of England, and resolved to have the Magellanic regions carefully surveyed, and to conquer them, as it were, anew for geographical science. Under the command of Captain King, the "Adventure" and the "Beagle" were engaged in this arduous task from 1826 to 1830; but such were the dangers they had to encounter, that Captain Stokes, the second in command, after contending for four months with the storms and currents which frequently threatened to dash his vessel against the cliffs, became so shattered in mind and body, that after his return to Port Famine he committed suicide in a fit of melancholy.

From 1831 to 1834 Captain Fitzroy was engaged in completing the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and the result of all these labors was a collection of charts and plans which have rendered navigation in those parts as safe as can be expected in the most tempestuous region of the globe.

While formerly the passage round Cape Horn was universally preferred, the more accurate knowledge of the Strait of Magellan, for which navigation is indebted to the labors of King and Fitzroy, has since then turned the scale in favor of the latter.

For a trading-vessel, with only the ordinary number of hands on board, the passage through the strait from east to west is indeed very difficult, and even dangerous; but in the opposite direction, the almost constant westerly winds render it commodious and easy particularly during the summer months, in which they are most prevalent.

For small vessels-clippers, schooners, cutters-the passage in both directions is, according to the excellent authority of Captain King, much to be preferred. Such vessels have far more reason for fearing the heavy seas about Cape Horn; they can more easily cross against the west winds, as their manœuvres are generally very skillful, and they find in the Sound itself a great number of anchoring-places, which are inaccessible to larger vessels.

For steamers the advantage is entirely on the side of the Strait, and they consequently now invariably prefer this route. Here they find plenty of wood, which enables them to save their coals; and moreover, from Cape Tamar as far as the Gulf of Penas, an easy navigation for about 360 sea miles through the channels along the west coast of America.

As the trade of the Pacific is continually increasing, and the Strait of Magellan more frequented from year to year, we can not wonder that the old project of settling a colony on its shores should have been revived in our days. About the year 1840 the Government of Chili established a penal colony at Punta Arenas and Port Famine, which miserably failed in consequence of a mutiny; but

in 1853 about one hundred and fifty German emigrants were settled at Punta Arenas, and when the " Novara" visited the strait in 1858, they were found in a thriving condition. Should the project of stationing steam-tugs in the strait, and of erecting lighthouses at Cape Virgins and at the entrance of Smyth Channel be executed, the Magellans would become one of the high-roads of commerce, and the dangers which proved so dreadful to the navigators of former days a mere tale of the past.

Difference of Climate between East and West Patagonia.--Extraordinary Aridity of East Patagonia.Zoology.-The Guanaco.-The Tucutuco.—The Patagonian Agouti.—Vultures.-The Turkey-buzzard.—The Carrancha.-The Chimango.-Darwin's Ostrich.-The Patagonians.-Exaggerated Accounts of their Stature.—Their Physiognomy and Dress.—Religious Ideas.--Superstitions.—Astronomical Knowledge.-Division into Tribes.-The Tent, or Toldo.-Trading Routes.-The great Cacique.-Introduction of the Horse.-Industry.-Amusements.-Character.

PAT

ATAGONIA, the southern extremity of the American continent, is divided by the ridge of the Andes into two parts of a totally different character. Its western coast-lands, washed by the cold Antarctic current and exposed to the humid gales of a restless ocean, are almost constantly obscured with clouds and drenched with rain. Dense forests, dripping with moisture, clothe the steep hill-sides; and, from the coldness of the summer, the snow-line is so low that for 650 miles northward of Tierra del Fuego almost every arm of the sea which penetrates to the interior higher chain is terminated by huge glaciers descending to the water's edge.

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East Patagonia, on the contrary, a vast plain rising in successive terraces from the Atlantic to the foot of the Cordillera, is one of the most arid regions of the globe. The extreme dryness of the prevailing westerly winds, which have been totally deprived of their humidity before crossing the Andes, and the well-rounded shingles which compose the soil, have entailed the curse of