On fishing parties from ships, at various times, I have chanced tovisit each of these groups. The impression they give to the strangerpulling close up in his boat under their grim cliffs is, that surely hemust be their first discoverer, such, for the most part, is theunimpaired ... silence and solitude. And here, by the way, the mode inwhich these isles were really first lighted upon by Europeans is notunworthy of mention, especially as what is about to be said, likewiseapplies to the original discovery of our Encantadas.
Prior to the year 1563, the voyages made by Spanish ships from Peru toChili, were full of difficulty. Along this coast, the winds from theSouth most generally prevail; and it had been an invariable custom tokeep close in with the land, from a superstitious conceit on the part ofthe Spaniards, that were they to lose sight of it, the eternaltrade-wind would waft them into unending waters, from whence would be noreturn. Here, involved among tortuous capes and headlands, shoals andreefs, beating, too, against a continual head wind, often light, andsometimes for days and weeks sunk into utter calm, the provincialvessels, in many cases, suffered the extremest hardships, in passages,which at the present day seem to have been incredibly protracted. Thereis on record in some collections of nautical disasters, an account ofone of these ships, which, starting on a voyage whose duration wasestimated at ten days, spent four months at sea, and indeed never againentered harbor, for in the end she was cast away. Singular to tell, thiscraft never encountered a gale, but was the vexed sport of maliciouscalms and currents. Thrice, out of provisions, she put back to anintermediate port, and started afresh, but only yet again to return.Frequent fogs enveloped her; so that no observation could be had of herplace, and once, when all hands were joyously anticipating sight oftheir destination, lo! the vapors lifted and disclosed the mountainsfrom which they had taken their first departure. In the like deceptivevapors she at last struck upon a reef, whence ensued a long series ofcalamities too sad to detail.
