s of gold, and praised the pleasantness
of the country; reporting that there were many good harbours on the coast,
and they presented to Cortes a beautiful cloth of cotton, on which the
coast, with all its harbours and creeks, was distinctly represented. But
at this time, by the coming of Pamphilus de Narvaez, the whole kingdom of
Mexico was thrown into confusion.

On the 10th August 1519, Fernando de Magellanes went from Seville with
five ships, on a voyage for the islands of, Malacca[34]. Going along the
coast of Brazil, he came to the Rio Plata, which had been previously
discovered by the Spaniards. Thence prosecuting his voyage of discovery,
he came to Port St Julians, in lat. 49 deg. S. where he lost one of his ships.
With the remaining four he came to the straits named after himself, in
52 deg. 80' S. and wintered in that place, where he and his people endured
much distress from snow and ice, and extreme cold. They found the people
of the country of extraordinary stature and great strength, insomuch that
they took men by the legs, and rent them asunder as easily as one of us
could tear a hen in two. These people, named _Pataganes_, but called
_Morcas_ by the Brazilians, live on fruits and by the produce of the
chase. In the beginning of September of the following year, 1520, the
weather became somewhat temperate, and leaving Port St Julian, Magellanes
went to the straits which now bear his name; whence one of the ships
returned to Spain, of which Stephen de Porto, a Portuguese, was captain
and pilot. The other three passed through into a vast sea called the
_Pacific_; where they found no inhabited land till they arrived in lat.
13 deg. N. when they came to certain islands named _Los Jardines_. They
sailed thence to the archipelago of St Lazarus, where, in an island named
_Matan_, Magellanes was slain and his ship burnt. The remaining two ships
went to Borneo, and thence to the Moluccas, leaving many others
discovered, which I do not mention, because I have not seen any exact
account of this voyage[35].

About this time Pope Leo X. sent Paulus Centurio on an embassy to the
great duke of Muscovy, requiring him to send an army along the coast of
Tartary into India; and the duke was almost persuaded to have made the
attempt, if certain inconveniencies had not hindered[36].

In February 1520, Diego Lopez de Sequeira, governor of India, sailed by
the strait of Mecca[37], carrying with him the ambassador of Prester John