Note 127 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

Of the river Santa Cruz and the stay there, Albo (Navarrete, iv, p. 215) says: “We left that place [i.e., Port San Julian] on the 24th of the said month [of August] and coasted along to the southwest by west. About 30 leguas farther on, we found a river named Santa Cruz, which we entered on the 26th of the same month. We stayed there until the day of San Lucas, the 18th of the month of October. We caught many fish there and got wood and water. That coast extends northeast by east and southwest by west, and is an excellent coast with good indentations.” The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 4) places the river Santa Cruz twenty leagues from San Julian and in about 50°. That narrative says that the four remaining boats continued to pick up the wreckage of the “Santiago” until September 18. The name Santa Cruz was said to have been given to the river because they entered it on September 14, the day of the exaltation of the holy cross (see Stanley, p. 4, note 4, and Mosto, p. 60, note 7), but Kohl (Mosto, ut supra) attributes the name to João Serrão who was near that river on May 3, 1520, the day on which the church celebrates the feast of the finding of the holy cross. Navarrete (iv, p. 41) cites Herrera as authority for an eclipse of the sun that happened while at this river on October 11, 1520. Guillemard (ut supra, pp. 187, 188) is disinclined to believe the report, although he mentions an annular eclipse of the sun on October 20, 1520, which was however not visible in Patagonia. Navarrete (ut supra) says that Magalhães gave instructions to his captains here “saying that he would follow those coasts until finding a strait or the end of that continent, even if he had to go to a latitude of 75°; that before abandoning that enterprise, the ships might be twice unrigged; and that after that he would go in search of Maluco toward the east and east northeast, by way of the cape of Buena Esperanza and the island of San Lorenzo.”