The first, via the Cape of Good Hope, was basically the same route that Portuguese sailors had found two centuries earlier. The second – passing by Cape Horn and crossing the Pacific – was much more ambitious. It was part of an enormous triangular pattern which combined so-called "South Sea" trading (along the coasts of Chile and Peru) with trade in China. The route measured 39,000 nautical miles there and back, or 72,000 kilometres, and it required captains and crews who were experts at sailing the high seas. It demanded both courage and patience. In the early 18th century, it was thus entrusted only to experience sailors.