Note 189 — Chapter V

The above is, on the whole, an excellent account of the coast from Panama to Valdivia. It agrees, in all essential points, with Admiral Fitz-Roy’s sailing directions printed in 1851; and Cieza de Leon deserves great credit for his care and diligence in collecting what, in those days, must have been very useful information. Indeed, it is not a little remarkable that, in those early days of the conquest, the old Spanish pilots should have completed a manual of sailing directions such as is contained in the preceding chapters, on a plan very similar to those now issued by the Hydrographic Office.