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.
