As in the first voyage of the English to Guinea, I have given rather the
order of the history than the course of navigation, of which I had then
no perfect information; so in this second voyage my chief purpose has
been to shew the course pursued, according to the ordinary custom and
observation of mariners, and as I received it from the hands of an
expert pilot, who was one of the chiefest in this voyage[199], who with
his own hand wrote a brief journal of the whole, as he had found and
tried in all things, not conjecturally, but by the art of navigation,
and by means of instruments fitted for nautical use[200]. Not assuming
therefore to myself the commendations due to another, neither having
presumed in any part to change the substance or order of this journal,
so well observed by art and experience, I have thought fit to publish it
in the language commonly used by mariners, exactly as I received it from
that pilot[201].
[Footnote 198: Hakluyt, II. 470. Astl 1.114. In the first edition of
Hakluyt's collection, this voyage is given under the name of Robert
Gainsh, who was master of the John Evangelist, as we learn by a marginal
note at the beginning of the voyage in both editions. - Astl. I. 144. a.]
[Footnote 199: Perhaps this might be Robert Gainsh, in whose name the
voyage was first published. - Astl. I. 144. b.]
[Footnote 200: Yet the latitudes he gives, if observed, are by no means
exact. - Astl.
In this version we have added the true latitudes and longitudes in the
text between brackets; the longitude from Greenwich always
understood. - E.]
[Footnote 201: This is the exordium, written by Richard Eden, from whose
work it was adopted by Hakluyt, yet without acknowledgement. In the
title, it appears that this expedition was fitted out as the joint
adventure of Sir George Barne, Sir John York, Thomas Lok, Anthony
Hickman, and Edward Castelin. - E.]
* * * * *
On the 11th October 1554, we departed from the river Thames with three
good ships. One of these named the Trinity, was of 140 tons burden; the
second, called the Bartholomew, was 90 tons; and the third, called the
John Evangelist, was 140 tons. With these three ships and two pinnaces,
one of which was lost on the coast of England, we staid fourteen days at
Dover, and three or four days at Rye, and lastly we touched at
Dartmouth. Departing on the 1st November, at 9 o'clock at night, from
the coast of England, off the Start point, and steering due south-west
all that night, all next day, and the next night after, till noon of the
3d, we made our way good, running 60 leagues. The morning of the 17th we
had sight of the island of Madeira, which to those who approach from
N.N.E. seems to rise very high, and almost perpendicular in the west.