Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
end_n land_n north_n south_n 1,641 5 9.2757 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A28569 A discourse concerning the origine and properties of vvind with an historicall account of hurricanes and other tempestuous winds / by R. Bohun ... Bohun, R. (Ralph), d. 1716. 1671 (1671) Wing B3463; ESTC R18477 75,446 324

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

of America an Eruption of a Burning Mountain and an Earthquake near the same time which for the memorableness of the event I shall set down in a few lines Thirty five leagues on the South of Lima is situate a Famous Port call'd Hisco and a Town in which most of Noblesse and persons of Qualitie doe reside who perceiving one day that the Sea retir'd all at once from their shoars and left the River dry great Numbers of people flock't together on the shoare to behold so extraordinary a sight little suspecting the ill destiny which was to attend them For presently after they saw a great and suddain tumour of the Sea and perceiv'd the Water to boyl and the waves to swell and rowle one upon another not like Waves but Mountains of water so high that there remain'd no hope of saving their lifes by flight expecting every moment when they should be Swallow'd up by the Sea so that the Ocean quitting it's ordinary Bounds made an excursion for three Hundred leagues overturn'd the houses and trees and left the Country desolate the ships sail'd over the highest walls during this wonderfull Inundation Canama a noted Village distant 230 leagues from Lima was destroy'd with it's Port and many other places more especially the Town of Arica which lost in the Harbour many ships richly laden to the value of a Million in Gold The Mountain Onerate which some years since had vomited out a great quantity of Ashes began a very terrible Conflagration and was follow'd by a suddain Trembling of the Earth which in lesse then a quarter of an hour swallow'd up severall Villages that there was scarce ever a more Dreadfull Earthquake It is not unusuall to have Inundations of the Seas Eruptions of Burning Mountains Earthquakes and then Violent Tempests like Hurricanes to happen about the same time and probably from the same Cause For the Nitro-Sulphureous spirit which causes the Trembling of the Earth and that stupendious commotion of the Seas may afterward break loose into the most Horrid conflagrations and Winds especially in such places that abound with these Thundring Minerals which if we consider their Active nature are the fittest Materials for Hurricanes I know not how farre it may be thought a confirmation of this that Bray-Brook in Northampton-Shire where as was at large describ'd in the last of the Philosophicall Transactions there happen'd that dangerous Whirlwind the last year has been a place much subject to Earthquakes But I return from this digression to the Hurricanes of the West-Indies where it seems to me very odd that they should be so dreadfull in some places of the Caribbe-Islands insomuch that Mevis and St. Christophers have severall times been almost depopulated by them when they never reach to Jamaica on the one side happily as lying without the Vortex of the Whirlwind nor on the other beyond Barbados where they have seldome more then the Tail of an Hurricane though it is not farre situate from St. Christophers Porto Rico Gardaloupe and other Islands where they rage with the greatest violence They are no strangers to the Moluccas and Philippines and we have most incredible relations of the storms in the way to Japan which have carry'd ships a considerable distance from the Sea up the Dry-Land Some have been miserably wrackt buryed in the waves others split in a thousand pieces against the Rocks that scarce one ship in five escapes these diasters in the Tempestuous Months about Autumn or at the change of the Monsoons From hence we may collect this considerable remarque That they never happen but on the Eastern Shoars where they are Fatall to the Chinese and Caribbe-Seas and so as farr as the River of Plate likewise to that part of Afric from the Cape to St. Lawrence the Adjacent Isles when they are altogether unknown to the African Ocean from the Canaries to Cape Bon Esperance are never heard of at New Spain or the Coasts of Peru nor towards any other western parts of America because there the VVinds which blow off from Land make no opposition against the Generall Brise but comply with the Constant motion of the Air between the Tropiques from East to West For the shifting of the Trade-Wind from the Easterly Points is usually the first On-set of an approaching Hurricane Yet however these suspicious of mine be receiv'd I think it cannot be rationally disputed but that those direfull Tempests have their first rise from the Western Continent for we seldome encounter them very remote from Land and the experienc'd Masters-of-ships are never jealous of Hurricanes in the Spacious Ocean or if they perceive them coming immediately make out to Sea where their fury is much lesse then near the Shoars They are most to be dreaded about the end of Summer in the Months of July and August For both the Winds and Seas imitate the Motions of the Sun and being dilated by the Celestiall heat annually revert from North to South and from South to North again so that the Sun hasting from one Tropique to another causes the like suddain Conversions in the Currents and Winds and being the most Universall Efficient must needs be principally concern'd in all vicissitudes of the Sublunary World Hurricanes are usually preceded by an extraordinary Tranquillity of the Heavens and Seas possibly some Counter-Winds may for a short space ballance another bring the Air to an Equal poise So that those who happen to be in the Center of the Whirl-Wind are at first sensible of no disturbance as we see in Eddys or Whirl-pools of water that while the Circumference is violently agitated in the middle it continues for some time quiet and calme I have already too long digres'd from my first design which was to contribute what I could to their History for this end I have collected severall relations which may be of greatest importance to make a fuller discovery of their nature the Miraculous Effects of Hurricanes The first is out of Battista Ramusio and though I am assur'd that the best accounts are to be had from Oviedo and other Spaniards the descriptions they have made of the New-World yet their books are so rarely to be met with that very few of the Spanish Journalls come to our hands but what were first translated into other Modern languages as this of two severall Hurricanes at the Island of Hispaniola I made diligent enquiry after Gonzalo D' Oviedo which is a book fit to be consulted upon this occasion which I at last found in the University Library done into Italian by Gio Battista Ramusio with severall other Portugal and Spanish Journals where I met with the following descriptions of these Hurricanes in one of the Caribbe-Islands Hurricane in the Language of this Island signifies properly a most excessive Tempestuous storme and in effect is nothing else but an extraordinary great Wind and Raine together It happened on Wednesday the third of August in the year 1508 Don Francisco
often suspected that all these species of Winds arise from the difference between the density of the Land and Sea Air For Air if it chance to be much compres'd in one place more then another the naturall Elasticity thereof endeavours a restitution and oftentimes repells it back again with extreme violence so that almost any unequall density of the Atmosphere may occasion Winds But whatever be the particular mode of their generation they seeme to be universally govern'd by the motion of the sun When first he salutes our Horizon they begin insensibly to fanne and agitate the Air blowing fresher by degrees as the Celestiall heat prevayles and are highest at 12 of the clock and so continue till 2 or 3 and then slacken and as it were decline with the Sun The Brises in the Levant cease all the winter when the Sun is banisht into the Southern Tropique and returne again in the spring when he likewise reverts towards the Northerne signs beside they often intermit in the Summer when the Levant Winds blow through the Mediterranean and it would questionlesse prove very obliging to the learned world to make a complete collection of such observations as might any way contribute to a more perfect history of Brises For example first how they differ according to the severall Latitudes and meridians 2 ly whether they are perenniall as between the Tropiques or last only the Summer Months as most in the temperate Zones 3 ly what obstructions they meet with from the Universall Brise or other crosse VVinds. And Lastly the nature of the shoars Currents and hills where they happen In the foremention'd Isle of Jamaica the Land Winds depend so much on the situation of the mountain that they reach to all parts at an equall distance from thence and therefore an ingenious person has observ'd in his voyage to the Caribbes Islaid that at Port-morant on the Easterly side of the Country there is little land Brise because the mountain is more remote from thence so that the exhalation spends it self in the way In these parts of the West Indies the Sea Winds are coolest and most refreshing which the people receive with their windows open the fronts of their houses being generally built on purpose for their reception and they find themselves no lesse quickend by the pleasurable gale which is as great a Luxury to those Regions as bathing with us and so cherishing to the inhabitants that sick persons if they can possibly creep out of their Hammocks or beds neglect not this opportunity of reviving their spirits In so much that wee may judge concerning the salubrity of many African and American climats from the nature of the Brises for those which want the gentle salutes of the Sea Wind are scarce inhabitable by the excesse of heat In the mean time though I despaire of reconciling the various Hypotheses to which the Phaenomena may referre I shall set down certain Historicall remarques taken from our Journals voyages into the Levant Guiny the East and West Indies and may hereafter promise a fuller account of all other parts wherever the English ships have spread their Triumphant streamers in the Old or New world In the first place wee must note that the Terreinhos and Brises of all sorts succeed a calme wherein happily the matter of which they consist forms it selfe They come in the day time from the Seaward yet not always from one poinr of the compasse but severall as the land lyes On the coast of Carthagene from the East on the Island of Trinidad and so likewise at Guiana in America from the North At Jamaica South upon one side of the Island and North upon the other In Guiny and from 6. degrees of N. Latitude to the Aequinoctiall the Sea Brises arrive at S. S. W. to the S. W. Their beginning is at 9 or 10 of the clock in the morning and they continue till 10 11 or 12 at night blowing a fresh gale which extremely cherishes the Natives white men At 10 11 or 12 at night they cease giving place to the Land Winds which continue till morning from the North to the N. W. points This I was inform'd by a skillfull Master of a ship who had made severall voyages to Guiny whom I shall have occasion to mention more particularly hereafter On the coasts of Malabar if wee may rely upon Linschoten and Varenius who pretends in such cases to have diligently consulted the Sea mens journalls from September to Aprill which is the time of their Summer the Easterly Winds blow off the land about 12 at night continue till 12 at noone reaching 10 miles into the Ocean Then the VVestern make to shoar as it were the former reflected back again the Vapors and clouds being alternately resolv'd into VVinds by the rising and setting Sun In Brasile Madagascar and many of the Caribbe-Islands they have no Land Brise especially if the shoars lye low as at Barbados where the Generall or Levant Wind blows from one end of the Isle to the other and servs instead of the Viracoins or Sea-brise Here as I was inform'd by one of the chiefe Planters who liv'd severall years upon the place it begins to rise about 7 or 8 in the morning rising higher with the Sun till 12 when it blows with a very strong Gale and so lasts at the same height till towards 3 in the afternoon and then slackens at Sun setting As the Trade VVind generally blows fresher by day then night On the Coasts of Madagascar and Brasile they have the aforesaid Generall or Trade VVinds all the yeare round from 9 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon It would be further enquir'd into whether there be any Terreinhos but from high lands for at Barbados they have rarely any Land Brise the Levants being sole Monarchs of the Island but at Jamaica which lyes not above 4 or 5 degrees from thence and within the Tropiques they have also the Land Winds constantly every Night which drive a way the Levants from their shoars In other Places they want the Sea-Brise and for the most part where the Ocean lyes VVesterly between the Tropiques as the Western Kingdomes of Afric Gualata Hoden about Cape Verde and the river Niger Malaguta Congo so in America on the Coasts of New Spain Chiapa Hondura c. where the Trade VVind raigns perpetually and suffers not the Sea-Brise to approach their Coasts But where ever long ridges of Mountains guard them from the East as in part of Guiny Angola and so on the Western Countrys of Peru they have the refreshing Brises from the Ocean which renders them fruitfull and pleasant I made no further enquiry of our Sea men concerning the Brises of the East Indies finding them already set down by Hughen Van Linschoten in his Instuction for the Navigation of the Indies The Land Winds blowing into the Sea last from Midnight and the Viracoius which arrive at the West and sometimes N.