Perraro Enim Vultures, Cum Glacie Marina, Sicut Etiam Vrsos (Sed Hos Sapius Quam Vultures) Et Cornicum Quoddam Genus, Islandis Isakrakur, Aduenire Obseruatum Est.

Picas vero et lepores, vt et coruos albos, nunquam Islandia habuit.

Atque hac fere sunt, qua de prima commentarij nostri parte per quotidianas oocupationes, in prasentia, affere licuit. Qua in hunc finem a me scripta sunt, (quod etiam prius testatus sum,) vt scriptorum de terra ignota errores, et quorundam etiam affectata vanitas, patefierent: Neque enim eorum fama quicquam detractum cupio: Sed quod veritati et patria, operam meam consecraram, ilia, qua hactenus dicta sunt a multis, de Insula, fidem valde exiguam mereri, necesse habui ostendere: ac ita mihi viam ad sequentia de Incolis sternere.

Commentarij prima partis Finis.

The same in English.

THE FOURETEENTH SECTION.

[Sidenote: Munster] There be seen sometimes neere vnto Island huge Whales like vnto mountains, which ouerturne ships, vnlesse they be terrified away with the sound of trumpets, or beguiled with round and emptie vessels, which they delight to tosse vp and downe. It sometimes falleth out that Mariners thinking these Whales to be Ilands, and casting out ankers vpon their backs, are often in danger of drowning. They are called in their tongue Trollwal Tuffelwalen, that is to say, the deuilish Whale.

Like vnto mountains. Loe here once againe (gentle Reader) Munsters falsifying eccho, and (as the prouerbe saieth) his blind dreame. Such a false and sencelesse ouer reaching doeth exceedingly disgrace an historie, and that by so much the more, by how much the lesse necessary it is. For to what purpose should an Historiographer make leasings, if history be a report of plaine trueth? Why should he vse such strange surmountings? What is it that he would perswade, or whither would he rauish the reader, if he propoundeth vnto himselfe nothing but the simple declaration of things:

Poets and Painters had leaue of old, To feigne, to blaze, in all things to be bold. But not Historiographers.

The backs of Whales which they thinke to be Ilands. This fable, like all the rest, was bred of an old, ridiculous and vaine tale, the credite and trueth whereof is not woorth a strawe. [Sidenote: Certain letters sent by Brandan bishop of Breme, to preach Christian faith in the North.] And it is this that foloweth, namely, that the bishop of Breme (called by the ancient Norwaies Brandan, and by Krantzius, if I be not deceiued, Alebrandus) in old time sent certanie Legates with a Couen of Friers to preach and publish in the North the popish faith, which was then thought to bee Christian, and when they had spent a long iourney in sailing towards the North, they came vnto an Iland, and there casting their anker they went a shore, and kindled fiers (for it is very likely that the Mariners were not a litle vexed with the nipping cold which they felt at sea) and so prouided victuals for the rest of their iourny. But when their fires grew very hote, this Iland sanke, and suddenly vanished away, and the Mariners escaped drowning very narowly with the boate that was present.

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