Page 94
An. 1684
Pacifick Sea.
whofe Ship I was in, and who here took the Sick- nefs of which he dy'd a while after; and Captain Eaton's. Our paffage lay now along the Pacifick Sea, properly fo called. For though it be ufual with our Map-makers to give that Name to this whole O- cean, calling it Mare Auflrale, Mar del Zar, or Mare Pacificum; yet, in my opinion, the Name of the Pacifick Sea ought not to be extended from South to North farther than from 30 to about 4 degrees South Latitude, and from the American Shore Weftward indefinitely, with refpect to my Obfervation; who have been in thefe parts 250 Leagues or more from Land, and ftill had the Sea very quiet from Winds. For in all this Tract of Water, of which I have fpoken, there are no dark rainy Clouds, though often a thick Horizon, fo as to hinder an Obferva- tion of the Sun with the Quadrant; and in the morning hazy weather frequently, and thick Mifts, but fcarce able to wet one. Nor are there in this Sea any Winds but the Trade-wind, no Tempefts, no Tornado's, or Hurricanes (though North of the Equator, they are met with as well in this Ocean as in the Atlantick) yet the Sea it felf at the new and full of the Moon, runs with high, large, long Surges, but fuch as never break out at Sea, and fo are fafe enough; unlefs that where they fell in and break upon the fhore, they make it bad landing.
In this Sea we made the beft of our way toward the Line, till in the lat. of 24 S. where we fell in with the main Land of the South America. All this courfe of the Land, both of Chili and Peru is vaftly high; therefore we kept 12 or 14 leagues off from fhore, being unwilling to be feen by the Spaniards dwelling there. The Land (efpecially beyond this, from 24 deg. S. Lat. to 17, and from 14 to 10) is of a moft prodigious heighth. It lies generally in ridges parallel to the Shore, and 3 or 4 ridges one within another, each furpaffing other in heighth, and