Bernier's voyage to the east indies.

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tcrmiffion, and without florins, always keeping the fame equality as to its ftrength andquarter, unlefs it change or ceafe a day or fo by accident, but then it returns againunto its former place and temper. After that time, for two months or thereabout, theother winds do reign without any rule. Thefe two months being pad, which is calledthe intermediate feafon, or, according to the Hollanders, the v/avering or changing fta-fon, the fea returns back from fouth to north, and the fouth wind rifcth to reign alfo inhis turn for four or five months, as the current of the fea doth ; fo that there pafs twomonths of intermediate feafon ; during which navigation is very difficult and'dangerouswhereas during the two feafons it is very eafy, pleafant, and without peri!, except itbe about the end of the feafon of the fouth-wind. Hence you may find caufe not towonder, if you hear that the Indians, though elfe very timorous and inexpert inthe art of navigation, do notwithftanding make pretty long and confiderable voyages;as when they fail from Bengal to Tanafl'ery, Achem, Malaque, Sian and Makaffar;or to Maflipatan, Ceilan, the Maldives , Moka, and Bender-Abaffy; becaufe they taketheir time to go with one good feafon, and to return with the other. ’Tis true, thatoft enough they are furprized and caft away ; but that is, when they cannot difpatchtheir affairs in good time, or fail of taking their meafures. Our Europeans alfo dofometimes lofe themlelves, though they be far better ieamen, bolder and more under-handing, and their {hips better condition’d and equipp’d.

Of thefe two intermediate feafons, that which maketh the fouth-wind is incompara-bly more dangerous than the other, and much more fubjecl to tempefts and florms :and even in the feafon itfelf this wind is ordinarily much more impetuous and unequalthan that of the north. And here I muff not omit to give you a remark, which is, thatabout the end of the feafon of the fouth-wind, during the time of the rain, althoughthere be a great calm out at fea, yet ’tis very tempetluous near the coafts, to the dif-tance of fifteen or twenty leagues, whence the fhips of Europe , or others, when they'■will approach the Indian coafts, for example, of Surat , or Maflipatan, muft be verycareful of taking their time to arrive juft after the rains ; or elfe they run great hazardof being fplit and loft upon the coaft.

This is very near what I could obferve of the feafons in thefe parts; of which Imuch wifh I could give you a good reafon. I fhall venture to tell you, that it cameinto my thoughts, firft, that the air, v 7 hich environs the globe of the earth, ought tobe efteemed to have a {hare in it, as alfo the water of the fea and rivers, forafmuch asboth the one and the other gravitate upon this globe, tend to the fame centre of it, andfo are in fome manner united and faftened to it; fo that from thefe three bodies, theair, the water and the earth, there refults, as it were, one great globe. Next, that theglobe of the earth being fufpended and balanced, as it is, in fts place, in that free andunreftfted fpace, where the Creator thought good to place it, would be capable to beeafily moved, if fome adventitious body mould come againft it and hit it. Thirdly,that "the fun having paft the line to move towards one of the poles, for example, theArHic, coming to caft its rays that way, maketh there impreffion enough to deprefs alittle the Arctic pole, and to do that more and more according as it advanceth towardsthe Tropic ; letting it rife again by little and little, according as he returns towards theline, until by the force of his rays he do the like on the fide of the Antartic pole.

If thefe fuppofitions, joined to that of the diurnal motion of the earth, were true, itt^ere not, methinks, without reafon what is commonly affirmed in the Indies, viz. thatthe fun conducts and carries with him the fea and wind. For, if it be true, that havingpaflfed the line to go towards one of the poles, he caufeth a change in the direftion ofthe axis of the earth, and a depreffion in .the pole on that fide, the other pole muft needs

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