EFFECT OF WINDS IN THE TROPICS. 99 



rate and to correct the violent lieate of the Sunne, but rather LlB - IT - 

 this burning Zone receives so sweet a temperature by the 

 benefite of the fresh and pleasant aire, as, notwithstanding 

 it were held by the Ancients to be more hotte then a burn 

 ing furnace, yet those which inhabite there take it for a de- 

 lightfull spring. It appeares by arguments and very appa- 

 rant reasons that the cause heereof consistes principally 

 in the qualitie of the winde. We see in one climate some 

 regions and Citties hotter then others, onely for that they 

 feele lesse wiade to refresh them. The like is in other 

 Countries where no winde blowes, the which are all on fire 

 like vnto a furnace. There are many of these Villages and 

 Townes in Bresill, Ethiopia, and Paraguay, as every one 

 knoweth; and that which is more considerable, wee see 

 these differences, not only on the Land, but also on the Sea. 

 There are some seas where they feele great heat, as they 

 report of that of Mozambique and Ormus in the East, and 

 of the Sea of Panama in the West, the which for this reason 

 engenders and brings forth great Lizards (called Cayamans), 

 as also in the sea of Bresill. There are other seas in the 

 same degree of height very colde, as that of Peru, in the 

 which wee were a cold, as I have said before, when we first 

 sailed it, which was in March, when the Sunne was directly 

 over vs. In truth, on this continent, where the land and sea 

 are of one sort, wee cannot imagine any other cause of this 

 so great a difference but the qualitie of the winde which doth 

 refresh them. If wee shall iieerely look into the considera 

 tion of the winde, whereof we have spoken, wee may resolve 

 many doubts which some obiect, and which seeme strange 

 and wonderful!. Wherefore the Sunne casting his beames 

 vppon the burning Zone, and particularly at Peru, and that 

 more violently then in Spaine in the Canicular daies, yet 

 they defend the heat with a light covering, so as with a 

 slender covering of mats or straw they are better preserved 

 from the heate then in Spaine vnder a roofe of wood or a 



