Of the ports and rivers on the coast, from the City of the Kings to the province of Chile, and of their latitudes, with other matters connected with the navigation of these seas.
I have myself been in most of the ports and rivers which I have now described, and I have taken much trouble to ascertain the correctness of what is here written, having communicated with the dexterous and expert pilots who know the navigation of these ports, and who took the altitudes in my presence. In this chapter I shall continue my description of the coast, with its ports and rivers from Lima until we arrive at the province of Chile. But I am unable to describe the coast down to the straits of Magellan, having lost a copious narrative which I had from a pilot who came in one of the ships sent by the Bishop of Plazencia.
When ships sail from the port of the City of the Kings, they shape their course south, until they reach the port of Sangalla, which is very good, and at first it was considered certain that the City of the Kings would have been founded near it. Sangalla is thirty-five leagues from Lima, in barely 14° S. of the equinoctial.[164] Near this port there is an island called Seal Island. All the coast, from this point, is low, though in some parts there are naked chains of rocky hills, and the whole is a sandy desert, on which it has never rained, nor does anything fall except a thin mist; but I shall treat of this admirable secret of nature further on.[165] Near this Seal Island there are seven or eight other small islets, some high and others low, uninhabited, and without wood or water, tree, shrub, or anything else, except seals and sand hills. The Indians, according to their own account, used to go to these islands to make sacrifices, and it is presumed that great treasure is buried on them. They are a little more than four leagues from the coast. Further on there is another island, also called Seal Island, from the quantity of those animals that frequent it, which is 14⅓°.[166]