TO PROVE BY EXPERIENCE OF SUNDRY MEN'S TRAVELS THE OPENING OF SOME PART
OF THIS NORTH-WEST PASSAGE, WHEREBY GOOD HOPE REMAINETH OF THE REST.
1. Paulus Venetus, who dwelt many years in Cathay, affirmed that he had
sailed 1,500 miles upon the coast of Mangia and Anian, towards the
north-east, always finding the seas open before him, not only as far as
he went, but also as far as he could discern.
2. Also Franciscus Vasquez de Coronado, passing from Mexico by Cevola,
through the country of Quiver to Sierra Nevada, found there a great sea,
where were certain ships laden with merchandise, the mariners wearing on
their heads the pictures of certain birds called Alcatrarzi, part whereof
were made of gold and part of silver; who signified by signs that they
were thirty days coming thither, which likewise proveth America by
experience to be disjoined from Cathay, on that part, by a great sea,
because they could not come from any part of America as natives thereof;
for that, so far as is discovered, there hath not been found there any
one ship of that country.
3. In like manner, Johann Baros testifieth that the cosmographers of
China (where he himself had been) affirm that the sea coast trendeth from
thence north-east to fifty degrees of septentrional latitude, being the
farthest part that way, which the Portuguese had then knowledge of; and
that the said cosmographers knew no cause to the contrary, but that it
might continue farther.
By whose experiences America is proved to be separate from those parts of
Asia, directly against the same. And not contented with the judgments of
these learned men only, I have searched what might be further said for
the confirmation hereof.
4. And I found that Franciscus Lopez de Gomara affirmeth America to be
an island, and likewise Greenland; and that Greenland is distant from
Lapland forty leagues, and from Terra de Labrador fifty.
5. Moreover Alvarez Nunmius, a Spaniard, and learned cosmographer, and
Jacques Cartier, who made two voyages into those parts, and sailed five
hundred miles upon the north-east coasts of America.
6. Likewise Hieronimus Fracastorius, a learned Italian, and traveller in
the north parts of the same land.
7. Also Jacques Cartier, having done the like, heard say at Hochelaga,
in Nova Francia, how that there was a great sea at Saguinay, whereof the
end was not known: which they presupposed to be the passage to Cathay.
Furthermore, Sebastian Cabot, by his personal experience and travel, has
set forth and described this passage in his charts which are yet to be
seen in the Queen's Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to
make this discovery by King Henry VII. and entered the same straits,
affirming that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the north,
on the north side of Terra de Labrador, the 11th of June, until he came
to the septentrional latitude of sixty-seven 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.