Any ship - but not possibly a canoe,
with such unskilful mariners - can come into our western ocean
through that strait from the west seas of America, as Magellan's
experience hath partly taught us.
6. And further, to prove that these people so arriving upon the
coast of Germany were Indians, and not inhabiters of any part either
of Africa or America, it is manifest, because the natives, both of
Africa and America, neither had, or have at this day, as is
reported, other kind of boats than such as do bear neither masts nor
sails, except only upon the coasts of Barbary and the Turks' ships,
but do carry themselves from place to place near the shore by the
oar only.
CHAPTER VI. - TO PROVE THAT THOSE INDIANS CAME NOT BY THE NORTH-EAST,
AND THAT THERE IS NO THROUGH NAVIGABLE PASSAGE THAT WAY.
1. It is likely that there should be no through passage by the
north-east whereby to go round about the world, because all seas, as
aforesaid, are maintained by the abundance of water, waxing more
shallow and shelving towards the end, as we find it doth, by
experience, in the Frozen Sea, towards the east, which breedeth
small hope of any great continuance of that sea to be navigable
towards the east, sufficient to sail thereby round about the world.
2. Also, it standeth scarcely with reason that the Indians dwelling
under the Torrid Zone could endure the injury of the cold air, about
the northern latitude of 80 degrees, under which elevation the
passage by the north-east cannot be, as the often experiences had of
all the south part of it showeth, seeing that some of the
inhabitants of this cold climate, whose summer is to them an extreme
winter, have been stricken to death with the cold damps of the air,
about 72 degrees, by an accidental mishap, and yet the air in such
like elevation is always cold, and too cold for such as the Indians
are.
3. Furthermore, the piercing cold of the gross thick air so near
the Pole will so stiffen the sails and ship tackling, that no
mariner can either hoist or strike them - as our experience, far
nearer the south than this passage is presupposed to be, hath taught
us - without the use whereof no voyage can be performed.
4. Also, the air is so darkened with continual mists and fogs so
near the Pole, that no man can well see either to guide his ship or
to direct his course.
5. Also the compass at such elevation doth very suddenly vary,
which things must of force have been their destruction, although
they had been men of much more skill than the Indians are.
6. Moreover, all bays, gulfs, and rivers do receive their increase
upon the flood, sensibly to be discerned on the one side of the
shore or the other, as many ways as they be open to any main sea, as
the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, Sinus Bodicus, the
Thames, and all other known havens or rivers in any part of the
world, and each of them opening but on one part to the main sea, do
likewise receive their increase upon the flood the same way, and
none other, which the Frozen Sea doth, only by the west, as Master
Jenkinson affirmed unto me, and therefore it followeth that this
north-east sea, receiving increase only from the west, cannot
possibly open to the main ocean by the east.
7. Moreover, the farther you pass into any sea towards the end of
it, of that part which is shut up from the main sea, as in all those
above-mentioned, the less and less the tides rise and fall. The
like whereof also happeneth in the Frozen Sea, which proveth but
small continuance of that sea toward the east.
8. Also, the farther ye go towards the east in the Frozen Sea the
less soft the water is, which could not happen if it were open to
the salt sea towards the east, as it is to the west only, seeing
everything naturally engendereth his like, and then must it be like
salt throughout, as all the seas are in such like climate and
elevation. And therefore it seemeth that this north-east sea is
maintained by the river Ob, and such like freshets as the Pontic Sea
and Mediterranean Sea, in the uppermost parts thereof by the river
Nile, the Danube, Dnieper, Tanais, etc.
9. Furthermore, if there were any such sea at that elevation, of
like it should be always frozen throughout - there being no tides to
hinder it - because the extreme coldness of the air in the uppermost
part, and the extreme coldness of the earth in the bottom, the sea
there being but of small depth, whereby the one accidental coldness
doth meet with the other; and the sun, not having his reflection so
near the Pole, but at very blunt angles, it can never be dissolved
after it is frozen, notwithstanding the great length of their day:
for that the sun hath no heat at all in his light or beams, but
proceeding only by an accidental reflection which there wanteth in
effect.
10. And yet if the sun were of sufficient force in that elevation
to prevail against this ice, yet must it be broken before it can be
dissolved, which cannot be but through the long continue of the sun
above their horizon, and by that time the summer would be so far
spent, and so great darkness and cold ensue, that no man could be
able to endure so cold, dark, and discomfortable a navigation, if it
were possible for him then and there to live.
