Magellan's journey had resumed. The help of…
November 1520 CE
Magellan's journey had resumed.
The help of Duarte Barbosa had been crucial in facing the riot in Puerto San Julian; Magellan has appointed him as captain of the Victoria.
The Santiago, sent down the coast on a scouting expedition, had been wrecked in a sudden storm.
All of its crew survived and made it safely to shore.
Two of them returned overland to inform Magellan of what had happened, and to bring rescue to their comrades, who are taken aboard the other four vessels.
At 52° S latitude on October 21, the fleet had reached Cape Virgenes and concluded they had found the passage, because the waters were brine and deep inland.
The four ships had begun an arduous trip through the three hundred and seventy-three-mile (six hundred kilometers) long passage that Magellan calls the Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos, ("All Saints' Channel"), because the fleet travels through it on November 1, or All Saints' Day.
The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan.
He first assigns Concepcion and San Antonio to explore the strait, but the latter, commanded by Gómez, deserts the expedition on November 20 and returns to Spain.
Wind, fog, tidal rips, and a tidal range of sixty feet (eighteen meters) make the strait, which is surrounded by snow-covered mountains, often difficult to navigate.
The three remaining ships enter the South Pacific on November 28.
Magellan names the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness.
Magellan and his crew are the first Europeans to reach Tierra del Fuego at the tip of Patagonia just east of the Pacific side of the strait.
The large archipelago, sparsely populated by three tribes, has a land mass of about 28,470 square miles (73,740 square kilometers).
The name Tierra del Fuego derives from Magellan’s belief that he is seeing the many fires (fuego in Spanish) of the Yaghan, which were visible from the sea, and that the "Indians" Are waiting in the forests to ambush his armada.
Originally called the "Land of Smoke", the name is later changed to "Land of Fire".