Volume 3

A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts, others now first published in English. To which is prefixed, an introductory discourse (supposed to be written by the celebrated Mr. Locke) intitled, the whole history of navigation from its original to this time / Illustrated with maps and cuts, curiously engraved.

  • Awnsham Churchill
Date:
1744-1746
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A collection of voyages and travels, some now first printed from original manuscripts, others now first published in English. To which is prefixed, an introductory discourse (supposed to be written by the celebrated Mr. Locke) intitled, the whole history of navigation from its original to this time / Illustrated with maps and cuts, curiously engraved. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/940 (page 45)
    tenders. I omit the {hooting of wild-fowl with fine nets, in which they involve them,Ovalle. in the fens and waters, which is neverthelefs that they may not hurt their wings. '^46* very entertaining, as are likewife the In- This is fufficient about the birds*, and dians vinys with nets, noofes, arrows, night- fince we are in the region of the air, fo near lights*, nay, the manner^of catching the heaven, let us fay fomething of it before we themfelvesis as diverting: ’tis done come down to the eardi again.. CHAP. XX. ’■;-n Of the heaveny and' jldrs^. which are proper rio f he liingiom and , region of , Chile. ‘ “F”' IS the common opinion of all thofe L that have feen apLd^elled in Chile, that its foil and heaven, if they j have their equal, have not their fuperior in the world *, and though fome fay the ftars of the artick pole are larger than thofe of the antartick, yet as to their brightnefs and beauty, and the light they give, and as to their numbers, with the clearnefs of the heavens where they are, there is none but mult own the advantage on the fide of the' mtartick. We may give, as a natural rea- fon of this, the temper of the climate, both as to the air and earth *, for though there are in it fo many rivers, as we have obferved, yet they being rapid, and fwift in their courfe, do not caufe overmuch humidity by their day, but afford only what is ncceffa- ry for its fertility *, and, of the two ex¬ tremes, the country is rather dry than moifi, particularly as far as thirty-four or thirty- five degrees, as is manifeftly made out by two experiments: firft, by the fitcihty with which all wounds are cured, which ufe to be much longer in wet countries *, and, fe- condly, ’tis proved from the habitations and houfes, where the befl apartments are repu¬ ted to be on the firfl floor, they being look¬ ed upon in fummer for cooled, and in win¬ ter for warmed; and, though they are wa¬ tered every day in the year, and the floors mod commonly but of earth, not at all up¬ on vaults, yet they are never unhealthy *, and there is no need of board-flooring, or mats, let the winter be never fo fharp. This is a convincing argument, that the country inclines to drynefs rather than to humidity *, from whence it follows, that the fun raifes fewer vapours; and therefore the air being clearer, the brightnefs of the dars is more * conlpicupus *, and for this reafon the fun fets and rifes fo glorious, cading out refplendent beams of light, which is not fo on the other fide of the Cordillera *, for there I have feen the fun pretty high, and its whole body vi- fible, attd yet no ways dazzling, the vapours of the earth taking away the radLint beauty of its beams. The ^experience of this is yet more ad¬ mirable: to thofe who fail from Peru [oxChile', for though they keep out a great way from Voi.. III. • ■ . ... :u -nt ; .,;j ■ . . • : ' , I'! _ ■ land, yet they know pr^fently by,.the hori- ,./ zon when ^they comp to tjie,height, of Chile *, , for they begin to fee it all riifengaged from clouds and ferene, gilded and glorious, and its beauty increafing upon them every day, as they gain more heighth towards the pole. On the contrary, when they fail for the line from Chile, the nearer they grow to the tropick, that light and fplen- dor , grows duller and duller j -fo that in my voyage for Panama, I law all the ho¬ rizon muddy, lad, and clouded, which con¬ tinued till I got to the Havanna *, where be¬ ing in eighteen degrees north latitude, the horizon cleared up and grew every day bet¬ ter and better, till we got to Spain. So much for the clearnefs and beauty of the heavens and ftars, which may be con¬ firmed by all thofe who have feen the place; but it is not fo of the bignefs of the ftars. The aftrologers pretend, that the contem¬ plation of them, and their meafure, be¬ longs entirely to their art, as underftand- ing beft the difpofition of the celeftial fphere ; but, in my judgment, they who can beft fpeak of this matter, are thofe who have feen both poles, as is well obferved by John and 'Theodore de Brye, in the eighth and ninth part of their twelve curious books, where they relate variety of hiftories, ob- fervations, and voyages, which have been in the North and South America, as far as the ftreights of Magellan. They report then the opinions of learned men, who, in failing on the South-Sea, obferved what I fhall here produce, tranflated faithfully from their elegant Latin into our vulgar tongue, in thefe words: The learned of our nation, who have fail-]ohn and ed on the South-Sea, do relate to us things of that sly, and its Jlars, as well of^ their number, as beauty and I'ignef *, and my opinion is, that the Jiars we Jee Jxre, are no ways preferable to the meridional ones *, hut rather do affirm, without difpute, that thofe ftars which are near the antartick pole are more in number, and brighter and big- ger. ^ . He adds, befidcs, fpeaking of the ftars of the conftellation of the Cruzero, that their fpiendors and beauty is extraordinary, M and