As for that commander, in Richard Eden's words, "when the capitayne
Magalianes was past the strayght and sawe the way open to the other
mayne sea, he was so gladde thereof that for joy the teares fell from
his eyes, and named the point of the lande from whense he fyrst sawe
that sea Capo Desiderato. Supposing that the shyp which stole away had
byn loste, they erected a crosse uppon the top of a hyghe hyll to
direct their course in the straight yf it were theyr chaunce to coome
that way." The broad expanse of waters before him seemed so pleasant
to Magellan, after the heavy storms through which he had passed, that
he called it by the name it still bears, Pacific. But the worst
hardships were still before him. Once more a sea of darkness must be
crossed by brave hearts sickening with hope deferred. If the
mid-Atlantic waters had been strange to Columbus and his men, here
before Magellan's people all was thrice unknown.

"They were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea";

and as they sailed month after month over the waste of waters, the
huge size of our planet began to make itself felt. Until after the
middle of December they kept a northward course, near the coast of the
continent, running away from the antarctic cold. Then northwesterly
and westerly courses were taken, and on the 24th of January, 1521, a
small wooded islet was found in water where the longest plummet-lines
failed to reach bottom. Already the voyage since issuing from the
strait was nearly twice as long as that of Columbus in 1492 from the
Canaries to Guanahani. From the useless island, which they called San
Pablo, a further run of eleven days brought them to another
uninhabited rock, which they called Tiburones, from the quantity of