means of the south-west winds, during my stay in Peru, English vessels, excellent sailors it must be owned, came from the Cape of Good Hope to Val Paraiso in Chili, in ninety days, although they had to run from west to east nearly two thirds of the circumference of the globe. In the northern hemisphere, the north-west wind facilitates the passage from the coast of Canada to Europe, as well as that from the east of Asia to the western coast of America.

Formerly the galleon ascended as high as the 35° of north latitude to work for the high mountains of Santa Lucia in New California which rise to the east of the channel of Santa Barbara; but within the last twenty years they have kept much farther to the south; for after falling in with the island of Guadaloupe (lat. 28° 53',) the pilots steer south-east, avoiding the dangers of the shoal called Abreojos, and the two farallons de los Alisos. It is a very convenient circumstance, that in all this long passage, the galleon finds not a single point of shelter from Manilla to the island of Guadaloupe and the coast of California. It is a pity that to the north of the Sandwich Islands no other archipelago has been discovered, which, situated between the Old and New Continent, might have afforded refreshments and a good anchorage.

The value of the goods of the galleon ought not by law to exceed the sum of half a million

of piastres*, but it generally amounts to a million and a half or two millions of piastres †. Next to the merchants of Lima, the ecclesiastical corporations have the greatest share in this lucrative commerce, in which the corporations employ nearly two thirds of their capitals, which employment of their money is designated by the improper phrase of dar a corresponder. Whenever the news arrive at Mexico, that the galleon has been seen off the coast, the roads of Chilpansingo and Acapulco are covered with travellers; and every merchant hastens to be the first to treat with the supercargos who arrive from Manilla. In general, a few powerful houses of Mexico join together for the purpose of purchasing goods; and it has happened that the cargo has been sold before the news of the arrival of the galleon were known at Vera Cruz. This purchase is often made without opening the bales; and although at Acapulco the merchants of Manilla are accused of what is called Trampas de la China, or Chinese fraud, it must be allowed that the commerce between two countries at the distance of three thousand leagues from one another, is carried on perhaps with more honesty than the trade between some nations of civilized Europe, who have

* £105,000 sterling. Trans.

† 315,000, or 420,000 sterling. Trans.

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never had any connection with Chinese merchants.

While the merchandizes of the East Indies are transported from Acapulco to the capital of Mexico to be distributed throughout the kingdom of New Spain, the bars of iron and piastres, intended for the return cargo, descend from the interior to the coast. The galleon generally departs in the month of February or March; and it goes then nearly with ballast; for the lading in the journey from Acapulco to Manilla in general only consists of silver, a very small quantity of cochineal of Qaxaca, cocoa of Guayaquil, and Caraccas wine, oil, and Spanish wool. The quantity of precious metals exported to the Philippine Islands, including what is not registered, amounts in general to a million, and frequently to one million three hundred thousand piastres. The number of passengers is in general very considerable, and augmented from time to time by colonies of monks sent by Spain and Mexico to the Philippine Islands. The galleon of 1804, carried out seventy five monks which gave occasion to the Mexicans for saying that the Nao de China was loaded in return with plata y frayles.

The navigation from Acapulco to Manilla is carried on by means of the trade winds. It is the longest that can be made in the equinoctial region of the seas, being almost triple the

passage from the coast of Africa to the West India Islands. The galleon as we have already observed, takes its route first towards the south profiting by the north west winds, which prevail on the northern coast of Mexico. When it arrives in the parallel of Manilla, it carries full sail to the west, having always a tranquil sea, and refreshing breezes from the point between the east and east north east *. Nothing interrupts the serenity of the heavens in these regions, except sometimes a slight squall, which is felt when the vessel arrives at the zenith. Don Francisco Maurelli a pilot, had the boldness to cross the whole of the great ocean for a length of nearly three thousand marine leagues in a decked launch (lancha de navio ;), this launch, called the Sonora, was dispatched from San Blas, to carry to Manilla the news of the last rupture between Spain and England; and it is preserved in the Port of Cavite, as the boat in which the unfortunate Captain Bligh carried on his memorable navigation from the Society to the Molucca Islands ought to have been preserved at Timor.

,3

In the same proportion that the passage from Manilla to the coast of Mexico, is long and

* Farther north, especially between the, 20° and the Tropic of Cancer, the trade winds are not so constant in the great ocean as in the Atlantic.

painful, the passage from Acapulco to the Philippine Islands is short and agreeable. It generally lasts only from fifty to sixty days. From time to time within these few years the galleon touches at the Sandwich Islands to take in provisions and water, if the priests of the country have not taboued the watering place. As the passage is not long, and the chiefs of these islands are not always friendly disposed towards the whites, this delay, which is seldom necessary, is frequently dangerous. As the galleon advances towards the west the breezes become stronger, but at the same more inconstant. The galleon touches at the island of Guahan or Guam where the governor of the Mariana island resides in the town of Agana*. It has been truly observed that this island is the only point in the vast extent of the South Sea, strewed with innumerable islands, which contains a town built in the European manner, a church and a fortification.

However, this delicious country which nature has enriched with the most varied productions, is one of those numerous possessions from which the court of Spain has never yet derived any advantage. The fanaticism of the monks, and the sordid avarice of the governors, formerly conspired to depopulate this archipelago. The

* Surville Nouveau Voyage au Mar du Sud, p. 176.