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.
