Plata, which they investigated sufficiently to convince them that it
was a river's mouth, and not a strait. Three weeks were consumed in
this work. This course through February and March along the coast of
Patagonia was marked by incessant and violent storms; and the cold
became so intense that, finding a sheltered harbor with plenty of fish
at Port St. Julian, they chose it for winter quarters and anchored
there on the last day of March. On the next day, which was Easter
Sunday, the mutiny that so long had smoldered broke out in all its
fury.

The hardships of the voyage had thus far been what stanch seamen
called unusually severe, and it was felt that they had done enough. No
one except Vespucius and Jaques had ever approached so near to the
South Pole; and if they had not yet found a strait, it was doubtless
because there was none to find. The rations of bread and wine were
becoming very short, and common prudence demanded that they should
return to Spain. If their voyage was practically a failure, it was not
their fault; there was ample excuse in the frightful storms they had
suffered and the dangerous strains that had been put upon their
worn-out ships. Such was the general feeling, but when exprest to
Magellan it fell upon deaf ears. No excuses, nothing but performance,
would serve his turn; for him hardships were made only to be despised,
and dangers to be laughed at: and, in short, go on they must, until a
strait was found or the end of that continent reached. Then they would
doubtless find an open way to the Moluccas; and while he held out
hopes of rich rewards for all he appealed to their pride as
Castilians. For the inflexible determination of this man was not
embittered by harshness, and he could wield as well as any one the
language that soothes and persuades.