However, on the last day of the month we flattered ourselves with the
hopes of soon terminating all our sufferings, for we that day found
ourselves in the latitude of 52 degrees 13 minutes, which, being to the
northward of the Straits of Magellan we were assured that we had
completed our passage, and had arrived in the confines of the Southern
Ocean; and this ocean being nominated Pacific,* from the equability of
the seasons which are said to prevail there, and the facility and
security with which navigation is there carried on, we doubted not but we
should be speedily cheered with the moderate gales, the smooth water, and
the temperate air, for which that tract of the globe has been so
renowned. And under the influence of these pleasing circumstances we
hoped to experience some kind of compensation for the complicated
miseries which had so constantly attended us for the last eight weeks.
But here we were again disappointed; for in the succeeding month of May
our sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than they had ever yet done,
whether we consider the violence of the storms, the shattering of our
sails and rigging, or the diminishing and weakening of our crew by deaths
and sickness, and the probable prospect of our total destruction.
(*Note. Peace-making. So named by Magellan from the fine weather he
experienced there in 1520 and 1521. He was the first European to enter
that ocean. The name was scarcely deserved.)
CHAPTER 7.
OUTBREAK OF SCURVY*--DANGER OF SHIPWRECK.
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