Voyages in Search of the North-West PassageHakluyt, Richard
History
Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage
Hakluyt, Richard
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration; Northwest Passage; Voyages and travels
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.
CHAPTER IV.
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.
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