230 A VOYAGE TO Book VIII. 



to any of the pilots of these seas, as they themselves 

 acknowledged, notwithstanding their repeated voy- 

 ages. We sliould therefore have been guilty of a great 

 indifferenee M'ith regaid to the public safety, had we 

 neglected to have given this account of it. 



The general winds, between the islands of Juan 

 Pernanck's and this place, are the same as those which 

 reign in the gulph; and which have been already de- 

 scribed ; but the currents are different, setting N. W. ; 

 and this becomes the more perceivable in propor- 

 tion as you approach nearer to the coast. From the 

 island de Tierra de Juan Fernandes eastward, the wa- 

 teris greenish, and westward blueish. This I have my- 

 self observed several times, even when not in sight 

 of the island ; and also that the colour of the water 

 changes with the meridi<.n. Between the islands and 

 the continent, I have frequently seen the water spout- 

 ed up by the whales ; an appearance which has been 

 often taken for breakers. 



Within twenty or thirty leagues of the coast, we 

 met with large flights of curlews ; but this distance is 

 the utmost limit of tlieir excursions. These birds are 

 of a middling bigness, mostly white except the breast 

 and upper part of the wings, which are of a rose co- 

 lour. Their heads are proj)ortionate to their bodies, 

 but their bill very long, slender, and crooked; andas 

 small at the root as at the point. They fly in vast 

 troops, and consequently are easily known. 



The coasts in general of this sea from Guayaquil to 

 the southward are very difficult to be seen, except in 

 summer time, being the whole winter covered with 

 such thick fogs, that no object can bediscerned at half 

 a league distance. And this dangerous haziness ex- 

 tends often to the distance of hfteen or t\venty leagues 

 off to sea. But during the night, and till about ten 

 or eleven in the morning, the tog is only on the land. 

 At that time it moves farther to seaward, with a pro- 

 digious density, resembling a wall, totally concealing 

 ^ every 



