And Therefore, Albeit That Men
Have Greater Cheap In The Isle Of Prester John, Natheles, Men Dread
The Long Way And The Great Perils In The Sea In Those Parts.
For in many places of the sea be great rocks of stones of the
adamant, that of his proper nature draweth iron to him.
And
therefore there pass no ships that have either bonds or nails of
iron within them. And if there do, anon the rocks of the adamants
draw them to them, that never they may go thence. I myself have
seen afar in that sea, as though it had been a great isle full of
tree, and buscaylle, full of thorns and briars, great plenty. And
the shipmen told us, that all that was of ships that were drawn
thither by the adamants, for the iron that was in them. And of the
rotten-ness, and other thing that was within the ships, grew such
buscaylle, and thorns and briars and green grass, and such manner
of thing; and of the masts and the sail-yards; it seemed a great
wood or a grove. And such rocks be in many places thereabout. And
therefore dare not the merchants pass there, but if they know well
the passages, or else that they have good lodesmen.
And also they dread the long way. And therefore they go to Cathay,
for it is more nigh. And yet it is not so nigh, but that men must
be travelling by sea and land, eleven months or twelve, from Genoa
or from Venice, or he come to Cathay.
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