Ferdinand Magellan, a portuguese explorer mandated by Charles V of Spain to find a western route to the Spice Islands (Moluccas), discovered the entrance to this sea passage in 1520. Despite an attempted mutiny by the crew, he sailed the length of the strait in 38 days. He named the largest island Tierra del Fuego –Land of Fire—because the native indians lit bonfires on the mountains at night. He also gave the name Patagones (Big Feet) to the mainland Indians he met in Port San Julian; their land was subsequently known as Patagonia. In fact, the aboriginal natives had rather small hands and feet compared with their large, bulky bodies, but they wrapped their feet up in rough guanaco skin and probably left large footprints in the sand. Only one of Magellan’s five ships, the Victoria, made the journey back to Spain; Magellan himself was killed by natives on the island of Mactan in the Philippines (see Philippines pages for more), in the year following the discovery. The Spanish were determined to keep the strait a closely guarded secret, for they valued the strategic importance of this route through to the west coast of South America. However Sir Francis Drake (see Caribbean pages for more), the English seafarer, had other ideas, and sailed the strait in just 16 days in the Golden Hind, on his way to raid the Chilean and Peruvian coasts in 1578. He returned to England by way of Java and the Cape of Good Hop, thus becoming the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. After his odyssey, English ships continued to use the narrows until 1594, when the Spanish navy wrested control over the region’s seas.
Spanish and Portuguese dominion lasted until the Napoleonic Wars, when it collapsed, causing great political unrest in South America. The British Foreign Secretary, George Canning, realized that considerable commercial advantage could be gained if trade between Britain and South America were expanded, as no manufactured goods were available on that continent. Therefore, in 1824 he recognized the rebel regimes of Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. By 1825 over 250 British merchant ships were carrying on a thriving trade exporting manufactured goods, necessitating a British naval presence in South American waters and detailed, accurate charts of the coastline.
Captain Philip Parker King was assigned to map the coasts, harbours and channels, and he set out in 1825 with the Adventure and the Beagle. By 1830 he had completed his task and the Admiralty published his charts of the Magellan Strait. A year later, Sir Francis Beaufort, of Britain’s Hydrographic Department, required further information, and commisioned Robert Fitzroy to return to the area in the Beagle, to improve and complete King’s charts. (The former Beagle captain, Stokes, was so depressed at the idea of returning to desolate Tierra del Fuego that he shot himlself.) Captain Fitzroy took a lively interest in meteorology and natural history, and decided to take with him an artist and a naturalist, who happened to be Charles Darwin. His name has been linked with the Beagle ever since, as the scientific observations he made in South America inspired his theory On the Origin of Species.
Many of the islands and bays of the Patagonian coast and Tierra del Fuego have English names, bequeathed by these early adventurers –York Minster Mountain, Good succes Bay, Cutfinger Cove (recording an incident when one of Fitzroy’s sailors almost deprived himself of two fingers when chopping wood), Packsaddle Bay, and many more.

The Beagle itself left its name to the Beagle Channel, the strait that separates the mainland to the north from Navarino. Hoste and other smaller islands to the south. In 1871 a handful of English settlers chose an attractive spot along the strait to establish an Anglican mission. Their settlement grew into Ushuaia, now capital of Tierra del, Fuego, and the southernmost city in the world. As gateway to the Parque Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, the town has become very popular with tourists; tax-free shops line the main street. The inhabitants of the original settlers –live from sheep-raising, lumbering, fishing and trapping. The Museo territorial – the museum of the end of the world – displays photos and artefacts of the Fuegian indians and the early settlers.