rot. XVI.] FHILOSOPHICAI. TRANSACTIOKS. 325 



7. That these contrary winds do not shift all at once ; but in some places the 

 time of the change is attended with calms, in others with variable winds ; and 

 it is particularly remarkable, that the end of the westerly monsoon on the coast 

 of Coromandel, and the last two months of the southerly monsoon in the seas 

 of China, are very subject to be tempestuous ; the violence of these storms is 

 such, that they seem to be of the nature of the West India hurricanes, and 

 render the navigation of these parts very unsafe about that time of the year. 

 These tempests are by our seamen usually termed, the breaking up of the mon- 

 soons. By reason of the shifting of these winds, such as sail in these seas are 

 obliged to observe the seasons proper for their voyages ; of which, if they miss, 

 and the contrary monsoon sets in, they are forced to give up the hopes of ac- 

 complishing their intended voyage till the winds become favourable. 



III. The third ocean, called Mare Pacificum, whose extent is equal to that of 

 the other two, is that which is least known to our own or the neighbour nations ; 

 what navigation there is on it, is by the Spaniards, who go yearly from the 

 coast of New Spain to the Manillas, and that only by one beaten track. What 

 the Spanish authors say of the winds they find in their courses, and which is 

 confirmed by the old accounts of Drake and Cavendish, and since by Schooten, 

 who sailed the whole breadth of this sea in the south latitude of 15 or 16°, is, 

 that there is a great conformity between the winds of this sea, and those of the 

 Atlantic and Ethiopic seas ; that is, that to the northward of the equator, the 

 predominant wind is between the east and north-east ; and to the southward 

 thereof, there is a constant steady gale between the east and south-east ; and 

 that on both sides the line, with so much constancy, that they scarcely ever 

 need to attend the sails ; and with such strength, that it is usual to cross this 

 vast ocean in ten weeks time, which is about 130 miles a day; besides, it is 

 said that storms and tempests are never known in these parts : so that some 

 have thought it might be as short a voyage to Japan and China, to go by the 

 straits of Magellan, as by the Cape of Good-Hope. 



The limits of these general winds are also much the same as in the Atlantic 

 sea, viz. about the 30th degree of latitude on both sides ; for the Spaniards, 

 homeward bound from the Manillas, always take the advantage of the southerly 

 monsoon, blowing there in the summer months, and they run up to the north- 

 ward of that latitude, as high as Japan, before they meet with variable winds, 

 to shape their course to the eastward. And Schooten and others, that have 

 gone about by the Magellan straits, have found the limits of south-east winds, 

 much about the same latitude to the southward ; besides, a further analogy be- 

 tween the winds of this ocean and the Ethiopic, appears from their being always 

 -southerly, as they are found near the shores of Angola. 



