Departing From This Place On The 8th December, They Came To The Island
Of Anobon On The 16th, Where They Procured Some Provisions By Force.
By The Scurvy And Fever They Lost Thirty Men, Among Whom Was Thomas
Spring, A Young Englishman Of Promising Parts.
In the beginning of the
year 1599, they departed from Anabon, steering for the straits of
Magellan, being too late for passing the Cape of Good Hope.
The 10th
March they observed the sea all red, as if mixed with blood, occasioned
by being full of red worms, which when taken up leapt like fleas. They
entered the straits on the 6th April, supplying themselves at Penguin
islands with thirteen or fourteen hundred of these birds. On the 18th of
that month they anchored in Green bay within the straits, where they got
fresh water and large mussels. They remained at this place till the 23d
of August, in a perpetually stormy winter, and lost a hundred of their
men. The storm found them continual labour, without any furtherance of
their intended voyage; suffering continual rain, wind, snow, hail,
hunger, loss of anchors, and spoiling of their ships and tackling,
sickness, death, and savages, want of stores and store of wants, so that
they endured a fulness of misery. The extreme cold increased their
appetites, which decreased their provisions, and made them anxious to
look out for more.
On the 7th May, going in their boats to take gudgeons on the south side
of the straits, opposite Green bay, they descried seven canoes with
savages, who seemed ten or eleven feet high, with red bodies and long
hair.[47] The Dutch were much amazed at these men, who likewise
terrified them with stones and loud cries.
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