made by order of Commodore Anson on board the Centurion, and those by
Captain Legg on board the Severn, another ship of our squadron.

I have been in some measure drawn into this digression, by the
consideration of the fine weather we experienced on the coast of
Peru, even under the equinoctial, but I have not yet described the
particularities of this weather. I shall now therefore observe, that
every circumstance concurred, in this climate, that could render the
open air and the day-light desirable: For, in other countries, the
scorching heat of the sun in summer renders the greater part of the
day unapt either for labour or amusement, and the frequent rains are
not less troublesome in the more temperate parts of the year: But, in
this happy climate, the sun rarely appears. Not that the heavens
have at any time a dark or gloomy aspect; for there is constantly a
cheerful gray sky, just sufficient to screen the sun, and to mitigate
the violence of its perpendicular rays, without obscuring the air, or
tinging the light of day with an unpleasant or melancholy hue. By this
means, all parts of the day are proper for labour or exercise in
the open air; nor is there wanting that refreshing and pleasing
refrigeration of the air which is sometimes produced by rains in
other climates; for here the same effect is brought about by the fresh
breezes from the cooler regions to the southward. It is reasonable to
suppose, that this fortunate complexion of the heavens is principally
owing to the neighbourhood of those vast mountains called the Andes,
which, running nearly parallel to the shore, and at a small distance
from it, and extending immensely higher than any other mountains upon
the globe, form upon their sides and declivities a prodigious tract of
country, where, according to the different approaches to the summit,
all kinds of climates may be found at all seasons of the year.

These mountains, by intercepting great part of the eastern winds,
which generally blow over the continent of South America, and by
cooling that part of the air which forces its way over their tops, and
by keeping besides a large portion of the atmosphere perpetually cool,
from its contiguity to the snows by which they are always covered,
and thus spreading the influence of their frozen crests to the
neighbouring coasts and seas of Peru, are doubtless the cause of the
temperature and equability which constantly prevail there. For, when
we had advanced b