PACIFIC

The name given by Magalhaens, the first European who traversed it, to the ocean which extends between America on the east and Asia and Australia on the west, in consequence of his enjoying fair weather on entering it, after having previously experienced a track of bad weather and tempestuous gales in the straits which bear his name. The Pacific is the greatest expanse of water on the globe. PACIFICATION, EDICTS OF, The term usually applied to the edicts i ued by the French monarchs in favour of their Protestant subjects, in the view of allaying the commotions occasioned by their previous persecutions. The first edict of this nature was promulgated by Charles IX. in 1562; but the most celebrated was the edict of Nantes (which see), i ued by Henry IV. in 1598, and revoked by Louis XI V. in 1685. PACKET, in Navigation, meant originally a ve el appointed by government to carry the mails between the mother country and foreign countries or her own dependencies. It is now used as nearly synonymous with an ordinary ve el, chiefly of small burden, that freights goods or pa engers. [s. 879]