The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reached the great ocean in 1520. He called it "Pacific", because he found it calm after his voyage around South America. True, it does have violent storms, but generally fewer than the Atlantic. The mighty Pacific washes the shores of five continents—North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Its waters mingle in the southeast with the Atlantic Ocean and in the southwest with the Indian Ocean. It is not on the shores of continents or in the coastal islands, however, that the soul of the great Pacific is found. It lies far out where the fabled South Sea Islands are scattered over the huge ocean like stars in the sky.