THE PACIFIC OCEAN ITS NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE The fine weather that favoured Magellan in his voyage across the Pacific, and induced him to designate the newly discovered sea " Ocean° Pacifico," is not by any means cha racteristic of this ocean. Frequently terrific storms sweep over its broad expanse, and this, together with an imperfectly known and complicated system of currents, and the numerous reefs and shallows, combine to make its navigation difficult. The most frequented routes are—(1) from San Francisco to China and Japan, by way of the Sandwich Islands ; (2) round Cape Horn to the Pacific ports of America, from Concepcion to San Francisco ; (3) from Panama to Australia ; and (4) the homeward route from Australia and New Zealand, south of the fiftieth parallel, and round Cape Hone into the Atlantic. A vast trade is also carried on by England, the United States, &c., with the numerous fertile and productive islands scattered over the Pacific. The following table shows the principal articles exported from, and imported by, the various countries bordering on the shores of the Pacific.
Of the numerous islands scattered over the Pacific, the following are commercially the most important : — The Sandwich Islands, on the route between North America and China, producing coffee, sugar, arrowroot, cotton, &c. ; chief port, Honolulu. The Ladrone, Caroline, Marshall, and Pelew Islands produce sugar, indigo, cotton, rice, &c. ; the Fiji, or Viti Islands, producing fruits', bread fruit, banana, sugar, tobacco, coffee, &c. ; the Friendly Islands, exporting chiefly cocoa-nut oil ; Samoa or Navigator's, Society, Cook, Austral, Gambier Islands, and the Low Archipelago and Marquesas, largely export cocoa-nut oil, sugar, arrowroot, fine fruits, &c. ; Queen Charlotte Islands, New Britain, New Hebrides, Admiralty, and Arao Islands, and New Guinea, have similar productions, and also export birds of paradise, tortoise-shell, pearls, gold, spices, sago, &c.