TO PROVE THAT THOSE INDIANS CAME NOT BY THE NORTH-EAST, AND THAT THERE IS
NO THROUGH NAVIGABLE PASSAGE THAT WAY.
1. It is likely that there should be no through passage by the
north-east whereby to go round about the world, because all seas, as
aforesaid, are maintained by the abundance of water, waxing more shallow
and shelving towards the end, as we find it doth, by experience, in the
Frozen Sea, towards the east, which breedeth small hope of any great
continuance of that sea to be navigable towards the east, sufficient to
sail thereby round about the world.
2. Also, it standeth scarcely with reason that the Indians dwelling
under the Torrid Zone could endure the injury of the cold air, about the
northern latitude of 80 degrees, under which elevation the passage by the
north-east cannot be, as the often experiences had of all the south part
of it showeth, seeing that some of the inhabitants of this cold climate,
whose summer is to them an extreme winter, have been stricken to death
with the cold damps of the air, about 72 degrees, by an accidental
mishap, and yet the air in such like elevation is always cold, and too
cold for such as the Indians are.
3. Furthermore, the piercing cold of the gross thick air so near the
Pole will so stiffen the sails and ship tackling, that no mariner can
either hoist or strike them--as our experience, far nearer the south than
this passage is presupposed to be, hath taught us--without the use
whereof no voyage can be performed.
4. Also, the air is so darkened with continual mists and fogs so near
the Pole, that no man can well see either to guide his ship or to direct
his course.
5. Also the compass at such elevation doth very suddenly vary, which
things must of force have been their destruction, although they had been
men of much more skill than the Indians are.
6. Moreover, all bays, gulfs, and rivers do receive their increase upon
the flood, sensibly to be discerned on the one side of the shore or the
other, as many ways as they be open to any main sea, as the
Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, Sinus Bodicus, the Thames,
and all other known havens or rivers in any part of the world, and each
of them opening but on one part to the main sea, do likewise receive
their increase upon the flood the same way, and none other, which the
Frozen Sea doth, only by the west, as Master Jenkinson affirmed unto me,
and therefore it followeth that this north-east sea, receiving increase
only from the west, cannot possibly open to the main ocean by the east.
7. Moreover, the farther you pass into any sea towards the end of it, of
that part which is shut up from the main sea, as in all those
above-mentioned, the less and less the tides rise and fall. The like
whereof also happeneth in the Frozen Sea, which proveth but small
continuance of that sea toward the east.
8. Also, the farther ye go towards the east in the Frozen Sea the less
soft the water is, which could not happen if it were open to the salt sea
towards the east, as it is to the west only, seeing everything naturally
engendereth his like, and then must it be like salt throughout, as all
the seas are in such like climate and elevation. And therefore it
seemeth that this north-east sea is maintained by the river Ob, and such
like freshets as the Pontic Sea and Mediterranean Sea, in the uppermost
parts thereof by the river Nile, the Danube, Dnieper, Tanais, etc.
9. Furthermore, if there were any such sea at that elevation, of like it
should be always frozen throughout--there being no tides to hinder
it--because the extreme coldness of the air in the uppermost part, and
the extreme coldness of the earth in the bottom, the sea there being but
of small depth, whereby the one accidental coldness doth meet with the
other; and the sun, not having his reflection so near the Pole, but at
very blunt angles, it can never be dissolved after it is frozen,
notwithstanding the great length of their day: for that the sun hath no
heat at all in his light or beams, but proceeding only by an accidental
reflection which there wanteth in effect.
10. And yet if the sun were of sufficient force in that elevation to
prevail against this ice, yet must it be broken before it can be
dissolved, which cannot be but through the long continue of the sun above
their horizon, and by that time the summer would be so far spent, and so
great darkness and cold ensue, that no man could be able to endure so
cold, dark, and discomfortable a navigation, if it were possible for him
then and there to live.
11. Further, the ice being once broken, it must of force so drive with
the winds and tides that no ship can sail in those seas, seeing our
fishers of Iceland and Newfoundland are subject to danger through the
great islands of ice which fleet in the seas, far to the south of that
presupposed passage.
12. And it cannot be that this North-East Passage should be any nearer
the south than before recited, for then it should cut off Ciremissi and
Turbi, Tartarii, with Vzesucani, Chisani, and others from the continent
of Asia, which are known to be adjoining to Scythia, Tartary, etc., with
the other part of the same continent.
And if there were any through passage by the north-east, yet were it to
small end and purpose for our traffic, because no ship of great burden
can navigate in so shallow a sea, and ships of small burden are very
unfit and unprofitable, especially towards the blustering north, to
perform such a voyage.