From The North, I Say, Continually Falleth Down
Great Abundance Of Water; So This North-Eastern Current Must At The
Length abruptly bow toward us south on the west side of Finmark and
Norway, or else strike down south-west
Above Greenland, or betwixt
Greenland and Iceland, into the north-west strait we speak of, as of
congruence it doth, if you mark the situation of that region, and by
the report of Master Frobisher experience teacheth us. And, Master
Frobisher, the further he travelled in the former passage, as he
told me, the deeper always he found the sea. Lay you now the sum
hereof together, the rivers run where the channels are most hollow,
the sea in taking his course waxeth deeper, the sea waters fall
continually from the north southward, the north-eastern current
striketh down into the strait we speak of and is there augmented
with whole mountains of ice and snow falling down furiously out from
the land under the North Pole. Where store of water is, there is it
a thing impossible to want sea; where sea not only doth not want,
but waxeth deeper, there can be discovered no land. Finally, whence
I pray you came the contrary tide, that Master Frobisher met withal,
after that he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there be
any isthmus or strait of land betwixt the aforesaid north-western
gulf and Mare del Sur, to join Asia and America together? That
conclusion arrived at in the schools, "Whatsoever land doth neither
appertain unto Africa, nor to Europe, is part of Asia," was meant of
the parts of the world then known, and so is it of right to be
understood.
The fifth objection requireth for answer wisdom and policy in the
traveller to win the barbarians' favour by some good means; and so
to arm and strengthen himself, that when he shall have the repulse
in one coast, he may safely travel to another, commodiously taking
his convenient times, and discreetly making choice of them with whom
he will thoroughly deal. To force a violent entry would for us
Englishmen be very hard, considering the strength and valour of so
great a nation, far distant from us, and the attempt thereof might
be most perilous unto the doers, unless their park were very good.
Touching their laws against strangers, you shall read nevertheless
in the same relations of Galeotto Perera, that the Cathaian king is
wont to grant free access unto all foreigners that trade into his
country for merchandise, and a place of liberty for them to remain
in; as the Moors had, until such time as they had brought the Loutea
or Lieutenant of that coast to be a circumcised Saracen: wherefore
some of them were put to the sword, the rest were scattered abroad;
at Fuquien, a great city in China, certain of them are yet this day
to be seen. As for the Japanese, they be most desirous to be
acquainted with strangers.
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