What I saw on the west coast of South and North America, and at the Hawaiian Islands.: By H. Willis Baxley, M.D.

ETYMOLOGY OF VALPARAISO.
supposed to have no equal alternative dilemma. The heavy
blow made it necessary last night to stand further off the coast
than usual; and as the steamer's course this morning is southeast to make our destination, she is struck by cross-seas from
the southwest with such force that her port state-room lights are
sunk under water. All things movable are lashed, and even
man descends from his high estate, or has to submit to the
humiliation of being "floored." Oh! that I were a pendulum
for a time, that the perpendicular, which is my anatomical riglt,
might be maintained! Better the monotony of merely apparent
oscillation, with conscious rectitude than the largest latitude of
motion resulting in a sense of actual degradation.
There is a difference of opinion about the origin of the name
Valparaiso, the chief seaport of Chile, for which we are bound.
Wile some say that the Spaniards who entered Chile from
Peru, across the desert of Ataeama, while seeking the sea down
the valley of Quillota, first beheld here the beautiful harbor in
a setting of verdure, which called forth the exclamation Val
Paraiso-VYale of Paradise; others refer it to the early mariners,
who, after a weary voyage were rejoiced by the surpassing scene
of surrounding hills and quebradas clad in the livery of early
spring, when, doubling the rocky bluff which shields the little
bay on the west, they cast anchor in its welcome haven. The
inspiration which so baptized the spot may be comprehended, if
these bold men were as mercilessly buffeted as we were for the
day before we made the port. But why this ocean should have
been called El Pacyfco, by Fernando de Magelhaens, who first
entered it by the strait that bears his name, is not as easily
understood, especially when it is remembered that in that famious
voyage he sailed wite great storms —" con gran tormenta "-even
as far as latitude 32~ 20'.
As we neared our destination, steering southerly, Concon
Point was passed lying on the left, and Valparaiso Point, surmounted by its light-house, on the right; the semicircular bay
stretching before us about two and a half miles long and two
miles wide, with eighty merchantmen and men-o'-war riding at
anchor in the port next in commercial importance to Callao on
this coast. The city of Valparaiso was seen occupying a narrow
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