It was the famous pilot, Juan Fernandez, immortalized by the islandnamed after him, who put an end to these coasting tribulations, byboldly venturing the experiment--as De Gama did before him with respectto Europe--of standing broad out from land. Here he found the windsfavorable for getting to the South, and by running westward till beyondthe influences of the trades, he regained the coast without difficulty;making the passage which, though in a high degree circuitous, proved farmore expeditious than the nominally direct one. Now it was upon thesenew tracks, and about the year 1670, or thereabouts, that the EnchantedIsles, and the rest of the sentinel groups, as they may be called, werediscovered. Though I know of no account as to whether any of them werefound inhabited or no, it may be reasonably concluded that they havebeen immemorial solitudes. But let us return to Redondo.

Southwest from our tower lies all Polynesia, hundreds of leagues away;but straight west, on the precise line of his parallel, no land risestill your keel is beached upon the Kingsmills, a nice little sail of,say 5000 miles.