Chilians
from pushing much farther their attacks against the Spaniards. It is to
the furnishing of these means that the English Government are at the
present moment confining their enterprise. A very active contraband trade
is calculated to enable them to carry out their perfidious ends, whilst
at the same time providing a profitable market for the produce of their
manufacturers. Another manner in which they torment the Spaniards of Peru
is by despatching a swarm of pirates to these seas. During the last war
very rich prizes were captured by simple whaling vessels, and you can
judge what attacks of this kind will be like when they are directed and
sustained by the English Government itself.

Their hopes in regard to the Spanish possessions are heightened, and
their projects are encouraged, by the general direction of the winds in
these seas. A happy experience has at length taught the English that the
prevailing wind, that which blows strongest and most constantly, is the
west wind. Determined by these considerations (would you believe it,
General?) the English nowadays, instead of returning to Europe from Port
Jackson by traversing Bass Strait and doubling the Cape of Good Hope,
turn their prows eastwards, abandon themselves to their favourite wind,
traverse rapidly the great expanse of the South Seas, double Cape Horn,
and so do not reach England until they have made the circuit of the
globe! Consequently those voyages round the world, which were formerly
considered so hazardous, and with which are associated so many
illustrious names, have become quite familiar to English sailors. Even
their fishing vessels accomplish the navigation of the globe just as
safely as they would make a voyage from Europe to the Antilles. That
circumstance is not so unimportant as may at first appear. The very idea
of having circumnavigated the globe exalts the enthusiasm of English
sailors. What navigation would not seem to them ordinary after voyages
which carry with them great and terrible associations? Anyhow--and this
is a most unfortunate circumstance for the Spaniards--it is indubitable
that the fact of the constancy of the west wind must facilitate
extraordinarily projects of attack and invasion on the part of the
English, and everything sustains the belief that they will count for much
in the general plan of the establishment in New Holland. Therefore the
English Government appears day by day to take more interest in the
colony. I