Chapter 11
The Eleven Thousand Virgins
Cape of the Virgins
On 21 October 1520, the feast of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins, the ships round a headland of white cliffs at 52 degrees south, at the mouth of the strait.
21 October 1520
On the 21st of October, the feast of St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, the ships round a headland of white cliffs at 52 degrees south. They name it the Cape of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. Beyond it the coast falls back into a great bay, with an opening at its far end that runs west between the hills.
Everyone in the fleet, Pigafetta says, believes it is closed on all sides, just another dead end. Everyone except Magellan. According to Pigafetta, Magellan knew there was a hidden strait here because he had seen it drawn on a map in the treasury of the king of Portugal, made by “that excellent man, Martin de Boemia.”
This is one of the voyage’s great puzzles. No map showing such a strait before 1520 has ever been found. Magellan may have seen a map that guessed at a passage, or he may simply have wanted his men to believe he knew more than he did. Either way, he orders the San Antonio and the Concepción to go in and see where the opening leads.
22–24 October 1520
That night a great storm comes down on the bay. It lasts until midday. The Trinidad and the Victoria have to raise their anchors and let themselves drift around the bay to avoid being driven ashore.
The two scouting ships are caught in a worse place. They are near the end of the bay, heading into the wind, unable to round a headland to get back. The men think they are going to be wrecked. Then, near the end of the bay, they see a small opening that barely looks like one, more like a sharp corner in the shore. “Like desperate men they hauled into it,” Pigafetta writes, “and thus they discovered the strait by chance.”
Beyond the corner there is a channel. Beyond the channel is a bay, then another narrows and another, larger bay. The water is still salt, and the tide still runs hard. It goes on.
For two days the flagship hears nothing, and the men fear the scouts have been lost. Then they see the two ships coming back towards them, “with sails full and banners flying to the wind.” As they come near, they fire their guns and the crews burst into cheering. “Then all together thanking God and the Virgin Mary,” Pigafetta writes, “we went to seek the strait farther on.”