Evening star., 1929-12-19
BY JUNIUS B. WOOD.

MAGALLANES formerly Punta Are
nas), Chile.-In the dining salon a pho
nograph was playing my Old Kentucky
Home" when our good ship made a
sharp right turn around Cape Virgin and
entered te Strait of Magellan. When Ad-
miral Magellan, properly fernando de
Magallanes and pronounced 'Maag-al-
yan-ees," arrived here on the Spring
morning of October 81, 1920, he chris
tened the turning point, which now has
a lighthouse, Point Of Eleven Thousand
Virgins" That even part Of the name
has survived is surprising when the
number of explorers, whalers and sheep
herders who stopped here in succeed
ing centuries is considered.
Whether the Portuguese explorer
was the discoverer of the strait which
bears his name is doubtful, as he di-
rected his course by map of Martin
ence, while another map of the geog-
rapher Schooner showed it in 1915.
However, he was the first to go through
and reach the Pacific, which in these
tortuous windy passages is a feat sail
ing ships do not attempt today. The
local historian, Manuel Zorrilla, starting
with one which Magellan lost, enunler-
ates 349 ships which have been wrecked
in this perilous crossing, most OF them
since the first steam vessel went through
in 1910.
IF Magellan had phonograph which
played a tune of sunny Spain, there Is
small wonder that one OF his SHIPS de-
serted when this inhoSpitable coast was
reached and sailed for home. Cold ap-
ple-green water shut in by damp ollVe.
green plains or barren snoW-streaKed
hills without a habitation or sign OF
life does not take the place OF either
Kentucky or Spain.
Puerto st. Julian, $50 miles up the
coast, with its tin houses ana Dig,
emptv streets, is drab and peaceful now,
but in the three months that Magellan
wintered there that year 1t had lotS OF
excitement. His sailors talked OF gong
home then, but after one captain hau
been carved into quarters, another lead
or beheaded and another buried allVe
with a priest, they were more guarded
in expressing their opinions. Sir Fran
els Drake, the English pirate, had the
same trouble in st. Julian in 1873, TOOK
similar measures to enforce silence. and
continued through the strait with warm
er weather. st. JULIAN, even today,
would make anybody homeslck, but
with a phonograph the Strait OF Magel-
Ian Is worse.
X
Both these doughty mariners crossed
to the Pacific, each losing a ship IN the
strait, and many others followed them.
An occasional steamer goes through
now, One comes from the United States
with tourists every year, and coastal
lines to Buenos Aires and Valparaiso
have fortnightly sailings, but the Pam
ANA Canal opened a new route 1or
world commerce. A late afternoon sun
is breaking through the slaty clouds
and Magallanes, in the distance blotch
of dark before a background OF snow
Speckled hills, seems silent and deserted.
Hulks and a half dozen little ships are
bobbing at anchor in the bay. No for
eign flag flies from any masthead in the
harbor which once sheltered the trade
between Orient and the West. Squeak
ing gulls are the only sign of life, city
sleeping in the haze with black, straight
streets running back over the hill.
Until February l, 1928, Magallanes
was Punta Arenas. Then Chile changed
the name Of the province, which is one
fourth the total area of Chile, from
Magallanes to Patagonia, and to pre-
serve the name gave it to the city.
Commodore John Byron, English ex-
plorer, christened the spot Sandy Point
in 1851. In 1849, when Chile founded
a city and prison camp here, the name
was retained, only changed into the
Spanish - Punta Arenas. The nine
women in the colony were all married
and. as the governor reported, "for the
most part living IN good harmony with
thAr hlsbandS." Tha territory noW