7© OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 



ference of the efFefts, which they experienced in both feas : but if they had tried that very 

 South-Sea beyond the tropick of Capricorn, they would not fo eafily have named it 

 Pacifick. 



I know that this difcourfe will be approved by thofe who have had experience of 

 the hardfhips which are fuffered by the navigators, from the twenty-fixth degree of 

 latitude on the coaft of Chile, to fifty-three degrees ; for there, as foon as the winter 

 begins, the fea cannot be navigated without manifefl danger, the ftorms being no ways 

 inferior to the greateft in the North-Sea ; and though at that feafon it is not fo dan- 

 gerous for Ihips to fail from Chile to Lima, becaufe they every day get into a lefs latitude, 

 and fo enjoy a quieter fea, yet from Peru to Chile it is extremely dangerous, not only 

 becaufe they come into a greater latitude, and go out further to fea, to avoid the fouth 

 wind's oppofition, but alfo becaufe the vapours of the fea and cold mifts of the earth 

 do raife fuch fogs and dark clouds, that they cover the land fo, that when they make 

 their port, they are in great danger of fplitting upon the rocks. 



This, I fay, is only of thofe coafls of Chile which are in the leafl latitude ; for from 

 the city of the Conception, towards the pole, even in fummer, they are dangerous ; 

 and the fhips which are bound for the iflands of Chiloe have not above two or three 

 months in the year to go in and out conveniently, or they neither go in nor out till the 

 year following : this is underftood as far as forty-four or forty-five degrees, in which 

 this archipelago of^ iflands is placed ; for from thence to the ftraights of Magellan, 

 thofe may relate the dangers who have experienced them, and paiTed thofe ftraights : 

 all that I know of it is, that they all have matter enough to difcourfe of at their 

 return. 



So that we may fay, that the name of Pacifick does not abfolutely belong to the 

 South-Sea, according to its whole extent, but only as to thofe parts of the greateft 

 intercourfe, which, becaufe they are within the tropicks, are the freeft from ftorms ; 

 and yet it cannot be denied, but that the South-Sea has an advantage over the North- 

 Sea, even within the tropicks, which is, that it is free from thofe great fands which 

 are fo common in the North-Sea, about Carthagena, La Havana, and other iflands, 

 nay, even in the canal of Bahama ; which indeed are fo many, that let a ftorm be but 

 moderate, they make it ftill greater, and more dangerous, by fliortening the fea-room, 

 and force the failors to be always heaving the lead, or elfe to fplit upon the rocks, 

 which may be clearly feen and diftinguiflied from the fliip*s fide. 



I find likewife, that the South-Sea may be called Pacifick for another reafon, which 

 is, becaufe of the extreme quiet it enjoys in its navigation, without difturbance from 

 any of its enemies, who are fo frequent on ill fliores of the North- Sea ; for there being 

 no other entrance into the South-Sea, but by the ftraights of Magellan and St. Vincent, 

 which are at fuch diftance, and defended by nature itfelf, the enemies of our quiet do 

 not care to engage in fo ufelefs and dangerous a defign, with fo manifeft a deftruftion, 

 and fo little advantage, as hath happened already to fome hereticks who have attempted 

 it ; for having no fettlement, nor landing-place in all that vaft fea, they have been 

 forced to fail to the Philippinas : therefore the fliips of the South-Sea are free from any 

 fear of enemies, and go and come without any apprehenfion of danger on that fide. 

 Antonio de Herrera, in the fifth decade of his General Hiftory, fol. 319, relates the 

 motive that Magellan had to call this the Pacifick Sea, and that is, becaufe there is 

 not in all that element a more fpacious career for the winds and tides ; and becaufe 

 there reigns between the tropicks fo fteady and ftrong a levant, that in many days the 

 feamen need not hand their fails, nor the fteerfman his helm, failing through thofe vaft 

 feas as if it were in a canal or river. And the fame author adds, that this motion of this 



wind 



