[Footnote 224: Meaning the Decades of Peter Martyr, part of which book
was translated and published by Richard Eden. - Astl I. 149. b.]
In this voyage, though they sailed to Guinea in seven weeks, they took
twenty to return; owing to this cause, as they reported, that about the
coast at Cape Verd the wind was continually east, so that they were
obliged to stand far out into the ocean, in search of a western wind to
bring them home. In this last voyage about twenty-four of the men died,
many of them between the Azores and England, after their return into the
cold or temperate region. They brought with them several black
slaves[225], some of whom were tall strong men, who could well agree
with our meats and drinks. The cold and moist air of England somewhat
offended them; yet men who are born in hot regions can much better
endure cold, than those of cold regions can bear heat; because violent
heat dissolves the radical moisture of the human body, while cold
concentrates and preserves it. It is to be considered as among the
secrets of nature, that while all parts of Africa under the equator, and
for some way on both sides, are excessively hot, and inhabited by black
people, such regions in the West Indies [America], under the same
parallels, are very temperate, and the natives are neither black, nor
have they short curled wool on their heads like the Africans; but are of
an olive colour, with long black hair. The cause of this difference is
explained in various places of the _Decades_. Some of those who were
upon this voyage told me that on the 14th of March they had the sun to
the north of them at noon.
[Footnote 225: In a side note, _five blacke moors_. - E.]
SECTION IV.
_Voyage to Guinea in 1555, by William Towerson, Merchant of
London_[226].
On Monday the 30th of September 1555, we sailed from the harbour of
Newport, in the Isle of Wight, with two good ships, the Hart and the
Hind, both belonging to London, of which John Ralph and William Carters
were masters, bound on a voyage for the river Sestos, in Guinea, and
other harbours in that neighbourhood. Owing to variable winds, we could
not reach Dartmouth before the 14th of October; and having continued
there till the 20th of that month, we warpt out of the harbour, and set
sail to the S.W. and by next morning had run 30 leagues. On the 1st
November, by the reckoning of our master, we were in lat. 31 deg. N. and
that day we ran 40 leagues. The 2d we ran 36 leagues; and on the 3d we
had sight of Porto Santo, a small island about three leagues long and
one and a-half broad, belonging to the Portuguese, and lying in the
ocean. As we came towards it from the N.N.W. it seemed like two small
hills near each other.
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