^64 tJLLOA*S VOYAdE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 



fliallow. In others we could perceive rays of fea or green water, intermixed with 

 that of the flioal. No chart has taken any notice of it ; nor was it indeed before 

 known to any of the pilots of thefe feas, as they themfelves acknowledged, notwith- 

 ftanding their repeated voyages. We Ihould therefore have been guilty cf a great 

 indifference with regard to the public fafety, had we neglected to. have given this ac- 

 count of it. 



The general winds, between the iflands of Juan Fernandes and this place, are the 

 fame as thofe which reign in the gulph ; and which have been already defcribed ; but 

 the currents are different, fetting north-wefl ; and this becomes the more perceivable 

 in proportion as you approach nearer to the coaft. From the illand De Tierra de 

 Juan Fernandes eaflward, the water is greenifh, and weftward blueifh. This I have 

 myfelf obferved feveral times, even when not in fight of the ifland ; and alfo that the 

 colour of the water changes with the meridian. Between the iflands and the continent 

 I have frequently feen the water fpouted up by the whales ; an appearance which has 

 been often taken for breakers. 



Within twenty or thirty leagues of the coafl, we met with large flights of curlews ; 

 but this diftance is the utmofl limit of their excurfions. Thefe birds are of a middling 

 bignefs, moflly whif:^ except the breafl and upper part of the wings, which are of a 

 rofe colour. Their heads are proportionate to their bodies, but their bill very long, 

 (lender and crooked j and as fmall at the root as at the point. They fly in vaft troops, 

 and confequently are eafily known. 



The coafts in general of this fea, from Guayaquil to the fouthward, are very diffi- 

 cult to be feen, except in fummer time, being the whole winter covered with fuch 

 thick fogs, that no object can be difcerned at half a league diflance. And this dan- 

 gerous hazinefs extends often to the diflance of fifteen or twenty leagues off to fea. 

 But during the night, and till about ten or eleven in the morning, the fog is only on 

 the land. At that time it moves farther to fea ward, with a prodigious denfity, re- 

 fembling a wall, totally concealing every objeQ: on the other fide of it : and the cautious 

 mariner forbears to make his way through it, being uncertain whether he fhall meet 

 with clearer weather, as he approaches nearer to the coafl. 



Thefe winter fogs on the coafl of Chili, feem to be occafioned by the north winds ; 

 they being obferved always to thicken when thofe winds blow, and though the atmo- 

 fphere be clear when the wind ihifts to that quarter, it is inflantaneoufly filled with 

 thofe vapours ; which continue without any diminution, till the fouth winds fet in, and 

 have blown frefh for two or three days fucceflively. But as in winter they are ufually 

 interrupted by the winds at north-wefl and fouth -wefl, thefe vapours, fo inconvenient to 

 commerce, are feldom totally difperfed ; and it is a common phrafe among the mariners 

 of thefe parts, that the north is a filthy wind on account of the difagreeable vapours, 

 with which it is loaded, and the fouth is a cleanly wind, fweeping thefe nuifances from 

 the coafl and country, and purifying the air. I call thefe winter fogs, as they are 

 equally common all along the coafl from the parallel of twenty to the equinox, wheie 

 no north winds are known. And as I have already related of Lima, all the inhabi- 

 tants of the coafl live, during the winter, in a perpetual fog. 



I fhall 



