PAYTA. 



141 



state of perfection, the beating to windward 

 from Payta and Panama to Lima and Valpa- 

 raiso, was very difficult and tedious. The 

 winds and currents near the coast are found to 

 add much to the length of these passages ; 

 whereas, by sailing out to sea, to meet the wind 

 more to the westward, the passage from Payta 

 to Lima may be performed in fifteen or twenty 

 days. There is a story mentioned in UUoa^s 

 Travels, that the captain of a ship, bound from 

 Payta to Lima, took his wife, just after their 

 marriage, on that voyage; but that he could 

 make so little progress to windward, and was 

 obliged so often to enter intermediate ports 

 for provisions, that his first child had learned 

 to read before he arrived at Lima. There may 

 be some exaggeration in this, but formerly a 

 six months^ passage from Panama to Lima 

 was not at all uncommon. Now it is performed 

 in five or six weeks, and sometimes less. Since 



