1. All seas are maintained by the abundance of water, so that the nearer
the end any river, bay, or haven is, the shallower it waxeth (although by
some accidental bar it is sometime found otherwise), but the farther you
sail west from Iceland, towards the place where this strait is thought to
be, the more deep are the seas, which giveth us good hope of continuance
of the same sea, with Mare del Sur, by some strait that lieth between
America, Greenland, and Cathay.
2. Also, if that America were not an island, but a part of the continent
adjoining to Asia, either the people which inhabit Mangia, Anian, and
Quinzay, etc., being borderers upon it, would before this time have made
some road into it, hoping to have found some like commodities to their
own.
3. Or else the Syrians and Tartars (which oftentimes heretofore have
sought far and near for new seats, driven thereunto through the necessity
of their cold and miserable countries) would in all this time have found
the way to America and entered the same had the passages been never so
strait or difficult, the country being so temperate, pleasant, and
fruitful in comparison of their own. But there was never any such people
found there by any of the Spaniards, Portuguese, or Frenchmen, who first
discovered the inland of that country, which Spaniards or Frenchmen must
then of necessity have seen some one civilised man in America,
considering how full of civilised people Asia is; but they never saw so
much as one token or sign that ever any man of the known part of the
world had been there.
4. Furthermore, it is to be thought, that if by reason of mountains or
other craggy places the people neither of Cathay or Tartary could enter
the country of America, or they of America have entered Asia if it were
so joined, yet some one savage or wandering-beast would in so many years
have passed into it; but there hath not any time been found any of the
beasts proper to Cathay or Tartary, etc., in America; nor of those proper
to America in Tartary, Cathay, etc., or in any part of Asia, which thing
proveth America not only to be one island, and in no part adjoining to
Asia, but also that the people of those countries have not had any
traffic with each other.
5. Moreover at the least some one of those painful travellers which of
purpose have passed the confines of both countries, with intent only to
discover, would, as it is most likely, have gone from the one to the
other, if there had been any piece of land, or isthmus, to have joined
them together, or else have declared some cause to the contrary.
6. But neither Paulus Venetus, who lived and dwelt a long time in
Cathay, ever came into America, and yet was at the sea coasts of Mangia
over against it, where he was embarked and performed a great navigation
along those seas; neither yet Veratzanus or Franciscus Vasquez de
Coronado, who travelled the north part of America by land, ever found
entry from thence by land to Cathay, or any part of Asia.
7. Also it appeareth to be an island, insomuch as the sea runneth by
nature circularly from the east to the west, following the diurnal motion
of the _Primum Mobile_, and carrieth with it all inferior bodies movable,
as well celestial as elemental; which motion of the waters is most
evidently seen in the sea, which lieth on the south side of Africa, where
the current that runneth from the east to the west is so strong (by
reason of such motion) that the Portuguese in their voyages eastward to
Calicut, in passing by the Cape of Good Hope, are enforced to make divers
courses, the current there being so swift, as it striketh from thence,
all along westward, upon the straits of Magellan, being distant from
thence near the fourth part of the longitude of the earth: and not having
free passage and entrance through that frith towards the west, by reason
of the narrowness of the said strait of Magellan, it runneth to salve
this wrong (Nature not yielding to accidental restraints) all along the
eastern coasts of America northwards so far as Cape Frido, being the
farthest known place of the same continent towards the north, which is
about four thousand eight-hundred leagues, reckoning therewithal the
trending of the land.
8. So that this current, being continually maintained with such force as
Jacques Cartier affirmeth it to be, who met with the same, being at
Baccalaos as he sailed along the coasts of America, then, either it must
of necessity have way to pass from Cape Frido through this frith,
westward towards Cathay, being known to come so far only to salve his
former wrongs by the authority before named; or else it must needs strike
over upon the coast of Iceland, Lapland, Finmark, and Norway (which are
east from the said place about three hundred and sixty leagues) with
greater force than it did from the Cape of Good Hope upon the strait of
Magellan, or from the strait of Magellan to Cape Frido; upon which coasts
Jacques Cartier met with the same, considering the shortness of the cut
from the said Cape Frido to Iceland, Lapland, etc. And so the cause
efficient remaining, it would have continually followed along our coasts
through the narrow seas, which it doeth not, but is digested about the
north of Labrador by some through passage there through this frith.
The like course of the water, in some respect, happeneth in the
Mediterranean Sea (as affirmeth Contorenus), where, as the current which
cometh from Tanais and the Euxine, running along all the coasts of
Greece, Italy, France, and Spain, and not finding sufficient way out
through Gibraltar by means of the straitness of the frith, it runneth
back again along the coasts of Barbary by Alexandria, Natolia, etc.
It may, peradventure, be thought that this course of the sea doth
sometime surcease and thereby impugn this principle, because it is not
discerned all along the coast of America in such sort as Jacques Cartier
found it, whereunto I answer this: That albeit in every part of the coast
of America or elsewhere this current is not sensibly perceived, yet it
hath evermore such like motion, either the uppermost or nethermost part
of the sea; as it may be proved true, if you sink a sail by a couple of
ropes near the ground, fastening to the nethermost corners two gun
chambers or other weights, by the driving whereof you shall plainly
perceive the course of the water and current running with such like
course in the bottom. By the like experiment you may find the ordinary
motion of the sea in the ocean, how far soever you be off the land.
9. Also, there cometh another current from out the north-east from the
Scythian Sea (as Master Jenkinson, a man of rare virtue, great travel,
and experience, told me), which runneth westward towards Labrador, as the
other did which cometh from the south; so that both these currents must
have way through this our strait, or else encounter together and run
contrary courses in one line, but no such conflicts of streams or
contrary courses are found about any part of Labrador or Newfoundland, as
witness our yearly fishers and other sailors that way, but is there
separated as aforesaid, and found by the experience of Barnarde de la
Torre to fall into Mare del Sur.
10. Furthermore, the current in the great ocean could not have been
maintained to run continually one way from the beginning of the world
unto this day, had there not been some through passage by the strait
aforesaid, and so by circular motion be brought again to maintain itself,
for the tides and courses of the sea are maintained by their
interchangeable motions, as fresh rivers are by springs, by ebbing and
flowing, by rarefaction and condensation.
So that it resteth not possible (so far as my simple reason can
comprehend) that this perpetual current can by any means be maintained,
but only by a continual reaccess of the same water, which passeth through
the strait, and is brought about thither again by such circular motion as
aforesaid, and the certain falling thereof by this strait into Mare del
Sur is proved by the testimony and experience of Barnarde de la Torre,
who was sent from P. de la Natividad to the Moluccas, 1542, by
commandment of Anthony Mendoza, then Viceroy of Nova Hispania, which
Barnarde sailed 750 leagues on the north side of the Equator, and there
met with a current which came from the north-east, the which drove him
back again to Tidore.
Wherefore this current being proved to come from the Cape of Good Hope to
the strait of Magellan, and wanting sufficient entrance there, is by the
necessity of Nature's force brought to Terra de Labrador, where Jacques
Cartier met the same, and thence certainly known not to strike over upon
Iceland, Lapland, etc., and found by Barnarde de la Torre, in Mare del
Sur, on the backside of America, therefore this current, having none
other passage, must of necessity fall out through this strait into Mare
del Sur, and so trending by the Moluccas, China, and the Cape of Good
Hope, maintaineth itself by circular motion, which is all one in Nature
with motus ab oriente in occidentem.
So that it seemeth we have now more occasion to doubt of our return than
whether there be a passage that way, yea or no: which doubt hereafter
shall be sufficiently removed; wherefore, in my opinion reason itself
grounded upon experience assureth us of this passage if there were
nothing else to put us in hope thereof. But lest these might not
suffice, I have added in this chapter following some further proof
thereof, by the experience of such as have passed some part of this
discovery, and in the next adjoining to that the authority of those which
have sailed wholly through every part thereof.