J 32 OVALLE*S HISTORICAL RELATION OF CHILE. 



incompatible ; and that he could not but be informed of that great and priiicipal part 

 of the world j fo that we may conclude he knew how to fend his fleets thither, and 

 bring home the riches of thofe parts ; and this may be more probable, if we confider 

 fhe great defire he had of gathering together all the precious things from feveral parts 

 of the earth, and the pureft gold, for the ornament of the temple and houfe of 

 God ; for the gold of Valdivia and Carabay being the pureft in the world, and the 

 precious woods of odours that are in thofe kingdoms, and Paraguay and Brafil, the 

 fined, it appears hard he fhould not ufe all diligence to have them, they makmg fo 

 much to his end, which was to gather treafure and precious things. 



That he could do it, there feems no reafon to doubt, fmce we know he had a great 

 and powerful fleet ; and if this fleet fpent always three years from the time of its 

 fetting out in the Red-Sea, to the time of its return, as the interpreters of the fcripture 

 all fay, in what could they fpend fo much time, but in going to the utmoft bounds 

 of the eaft and weft ? and, it is poflible, went round the world, as the fhip Vi6lory did 

 fince, in the fame time ; in which the great Captain Magellan difcovered and pafled 

 the ftraights of his name ; and fmce we know that the fleets of the Catholic kings do, 

 in our days, penetrate to the utmoft parts of the eaft and weft in lefs than a year's 

 time, why could not the fame be done by thofe of fo powerful and fo wife a king as 

 Solomon, who may be fuppofed to have underftood himfelf, and inftrufted his cap- 

 tains and pilots in the art of navigation ? neither is it. improbable, but he might know 

 the ufe of the loadftone, and the fea-compafs, as fome authors do affirm he did. 

 This is yet more confirmed by what we have obferved already about the knowledge 

 and conjeftures which the antients had of this new world, of which he likewife could 

 not be ignorant, but rather have a more particular infight into them, being himfelf 

 fo perfed in the fciences of cofmography and geography, as well as hydrography : 

 all which he had by infufion from God Almighty, that he might fee into the errors 

 of thofe who believed there were no antipodes, nor that the torrid zone could be inha- 

 bited, denying the roundnefs of the earth, and other fuch miftakes. 



Laftly, we know, that his fleets came to Syria, Phoenicia, Africa, and Europa ; 

 and to come to thofe coafts, it is certain, that if they fet out at the Red-Sea, it was 

 neceflary for them to fail fouthward to double the cape of Good Hope, and then north, 

 and pafs the equinocStial line a fecond time, as the Portuguefe do now in their voyages 

 from India to Portugal. This being fuppofed, and that Solomon had the knowledge 

 of America, it is probable he was not unacquainted with the communication of the 

 North and South-Seas, by the ftraights of Magellan and St. Vincent ; for Solomon 

 being fo powerful, both by fea and land ; and fo well inftru6ted in all things, it is 

 probable he caufed thofe fhores to be fearched, to find the communication of both ^eas, 

 as it was fmce done by men much inferior to him in every thing, which \%ere Magellan, 

 and Jacob le Maire ; or, it might be difcovered by fome ftiips driven by ftorms into 

 thofe parts, as fome fay it befel the firft difcoverers of America. 



This once fuppofed, thofe who underftand any thing of navigation, and the art 

 of the fea, cannot but know how much more eafily a fleet, being placed at the Cape 

 of Good Hope in thirty-fix, may fail fouth to the fifty-fourth degree, where the 

 ftraights of Magellan lie, than to fail to the north above feventy-two degrees, which it 

 muft do from the Cape to Europe : From whence may be inferred what I fay, that if it 

 was true that his fleet came to Africa and Europe, and entered the Mediterranean fea, 

 it was much eafier to go to Chile and Peru ; for from the ftraights it might run before 

 the wind all along that coaft ; and having taken in the gold, precious woods, filver, 

 and other commodities, it might return by the fame ftraights, as Pedro Sarmiento, 



and 



