TO PROVE BY CIRCUMSTANCE THAT THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE HATH BEEN SAILED
THROUGHOUT.
The diversity between brute beasts and men, or between the wise and the
simple, is, that the one judgeth by sense only, and gathereth no surety
of anything that he hath not seen, felt, heard, tasted, or smelled: and
the other not so only, but also findeth the certainty of things, by
reason, before they happen to be tried, wherefore I have added proofs of
both sorts, that the one and the other might thereby be satisfied.
1. First, as Gemma Frisius reciteth, there went from Europe three
brethren though this passage: whereof it took the name of Fretum trium
fratrum.
2. Also Pliny affirmeth out of Cornelius Nepos (who wrote fifty-seven
years before Christ) that there were certain Indians driven by tempest
upon the coast of Germany which were presented by the King of Suevia unto
Quintus Metellus Celer, then Pro-Consul of France.
3. And Pliny upon the same saith that it is no marvel, though there be
sea by the north, where there is such abundance of moisture; which
argueth, that he doubted not of a navigable passage that way, through
which those Indians came.
4. And for the better proof that the same authority of Cornelius Nepos
is not by me wrested to prove my opinion of the North-West Passage, you
shall find the same affirmed more plainly in that behalf by the excellent
geographer Dominicus Marius Niger, who showeth how many ways the Indian
sea stretcheth itself, making in that place recital of certain Indians
that were likewise driven through the north seas from India, upon the
coasts of Germany, by great tempest, as they were sailing in trade of
merchandise.
5. Also, whiles Frederick Barbarossa reigned Emperor, A.D. 1160, there
came certain other Indians upon the coast of Germany.
6. Likewise Othon, in the story of the Goths, affirmeth that in the time
of the German Emperors there were also certain Indians cast by force of
weather upon the coast of the said country, which foresaid Indians could
not possibly have come by the south-east, south-west, nor from any part
of Africa or America, nor yet by the north-east: therefore they came of
necessity by this our North-West Passage.