4. And I found that Franciscus Lopez de Gomara affirmeth America to
be an island, and likewise Greenland; and that Greenland is distant
from Lapland forty leagues, and from Terra de Labrador fifty.
5. Moreover Alvarez Nunmius, a Spaniard, and learned cosmographer,
and Jacques Cartier, who made two voyages into those parts, and
sailed five hundred miles upon the north-east coasts of America.
6. Likewise Hieronimus Fracastorius, a learned Italian, and
traveller in the north parts of the same land.
7. Also Jacques Cartier, having done the like, heard say at
Hochelaga, in Nova Francia, how that there was a great sea at
Saguinay, whereof the end was not known: which they presupposed to
be the passage to Cathay. Furthermore, Sebastian Cabot, by his
personal experience and travel, has set forth and described this
passage in his charts which are yet to be seen in the Queen's
Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to make this
discovery by King Henry VII. and entered the same straits, affirming
that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the north, on the
north side of Terra de Labrador, the 11th of June, until he came to
the septentrional latitude of sixty-seven and a half degrees, and
finding the seas still open, said, that he might and would have gone
to Cathay if the mutiny of the master and mariners had not been.
Now, as these men's experience have proved some part of this
passage, so the chapter following shall put you in full assurance of
the rest by their experiences which have passed through every part
thereof.
CHAPTER IV. TO PROVE BY CIRCUMSTANCE THAT THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE
HATH BEEN SAILED THROUGHOUT.
The diversity between brute beasts and men, or between the wise and
the simple, is, that the one judgeth by sense only, and gathereth no
surety of anything that he hath not seen, felt, heard, tasted, or
smelled: and the other not so only, but also findeth the certainty
of things, by reason, before they happen to be tried, wherefore I
have added proofs of both sorts, that the one and the other might
thereby be satisfied.
1. First, as Gemma Frisius reciteth, there went from Europe three
brethren though this passage: whereof it took the name of Fretum
trium fratrum.
2. Also Pliny affirmeth out of Cornelius Nepos (who wrote fifty-
seven years before Christ) that there were certain Indians driven by
tempest upon the coast of Germany which were presented by the King
of Suevia unto Quintus Metellus Celer, then Pro-Consul of France.
3. And Pliny upon the same saith that it is no marvel, though there
be sea by the north, where there is such abundance of moisture;
which argueth, that he doubted not of a navigable passage that way,
through which those Indians came.
4. And for the better proof that the same authority of Cornelius
Nepos is not by me wrested to prove my opinion of the North-West
Passage, you shall find the same affirmed more plainly in that
behalf by the excellent geographer Dominicus Marius Niger, who
showeth how many ways the Indian sea stretcheth itself, making in
that place recital of certain Indians that were likewise driven
through the north seas from India, upon the coasts of Germany, by
great tempest, as they were sailing in trade of merchandise.
5. Also, whiles Frederick Barbarossa reigned Emperor, A.D. 1160,
there came certain other Indians upon the coast of Germany.
6. Likewise Othon, in the story of the Goths, affirmeth that in the
time of the German Emperors there were also certain Indians cast by
force of weather upon the coast of the said country, which foresaid
Indians could not possibly have come by the south-east, south-west,
nor from any part of Africa or America, nor yet by the north-east:
therefore they came of necessity by this our North-West Passage.
CHAPTER V. - TO PROVE THAT THESE INDIANS, AFORENAMED, CAME NOT BY THE
SOUTH-EAST, SOUTH-WEST, NOR FROM ANY OTHER PART OF AFRICA OR
AMERICA.
1. They could not come from the south-east by the Cape of Good
Hope, because the roughness of the seas there is such - occasioned by
the currents and great winds in that part - that the greatest armadas
the King of Portugal hath cannot without great difficulty pass that
way, much less, then, a canoe of India could live in those
outrageous seas without shipwreck, being a vessel but of very small
burden, and the Indians have conducted themselves to the place
aforesaid, being men unexpert in the art of navigation.
2. Also, it appeareth plainly that they were not able to come from
along the coast of Africa aforesaid to those parts of Europe,
because the winds do, for the most part, blow there easterly or from
the shore, and the current running that way in like sort, would have
driven them westward upon some part of America, for such winds and
tides could never have led them from thence to the said place where
they were found, nor yet could they have come from any of the
countries aforesaid, keeping the seas always, without skilful
mariners to have conducted them such like courses as were necessary
to perform such a voyage.
3. Presupposing also, if they had been driven to the west, as they
must have been, coming that way, then they should have perished,
wanting supply of victuals, not having any place - once leaving the
coast of Africa - until they came to America, north of America, until
they arrived upon some part of Europe or the islands adjoining to it
to have refreshed themselves.
4. Also, if, notwithstanding such impossibilities, they might have
recovered Germany by coming from India by the south-east, yet must
they without all doubt have struck upon some other part of Europe
before their arrival there, as the isles of Madeira, Portugal,
Spain, France, England, Ireland, etc., which, if they had done, it
is not credible that they should or would have departed undiscovered
of the inhabitants; but there was never found in those days any such
ship or men, but only upon the coasts of Germany, where they have
been sundry times and in sundry ages cast ashore; neither is it like
that they would have committed themselves again to sea, if they had
so arrived, not knowing where they were, nor whither to have gone.
