Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage [27]
Asia, nor can these two lands jointly be one continent. The first part of my answer is manifestly allowed by Homer, whom that excellent geographer, Strabo, followeth, yielding him in this faculty the prize. The author of that book likewise On the Universe to Alexander, attributed unto Aristotle, is of the same opinion that Homer and Strabo be of, in two or three places. Dionysius, in his Periegesis, hath this verse, "So doeth the ocean sea run round about the world:" speaking only of Europe, Africa, and Asia, as then Asia was travelled and known. With these doctors may you join Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Pius, in his description of Asia. All the which writers do no less confirm the whole eastern side of Asia to be compassed about with the sea; then Plato doth affirm in is Timaeus, under the name Atlantis, the West Indies to be an island, as in a special discourse thereof R. Eden writeth, agreeable unto the sentence of Proclus, Marsilius Ficinus, and others. Out of Plato it is gathered that America is an island. Homer, Strabo, Aristotle, Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, Pius, affirm the continent of Asia, Africa, and Europe, to be environed with the ocean. I may therefore boldly say (though later intelligences thereof had we none at all) that Asia and the West Indies be not tied together by any isthmus or strait of land, contrary to the opinion of some new cosmographers, by whom doubtfully this matter hath been brought in controversy. And thus much for the first part of my answer unto the fourth objection.
The second part, namely, that America and Asia cannot be one continent, may thus be proved:- "The most rivers take down that way their course, where the earth is most hollow and deep," writeth Aristotle; and the sea (saith he in the same place), as it goeth further, so is it found deeper. Into what gulf do the Moscovian rivers Onega, Dwina, Ob, pour out their streams? northward out of Moscovy into the sea. Which way doth that sea strike? The south is main land, the eastern coast waxeth more and more shallow: from the north, either naturally, because that part of the earth is higher, or of necessity, for that the forcible influence of some northern stars causeth the earth there to shake off the sea, as some philosophers do think; or, finally, for the great store of waters engendered in that frosty and cold climate, that the banks are not able to hold them. From the north, I say, continually falleth down great abundance of water; so this north-eastern current must at the length abruptly bow toward us south on the west side of Finmark and Norway, or else strike down south-west above Greenland, or betwixt Greenland and Iceland, into the north-west strait we speak of, as of congruence it doth, if you mark the situation of that region, and by the report of Master Frobisher experience teacheth us. And, Master Frobisher, the further he travelled in the former passage, as he told me, the deeper always he found the sea. Lay you now the sum hereof together, the rivers run where the channels are most hollow, the sea in taking his course waxeth deeper, the sea waters fall continually from the north southward, the north-eastern current striketh down into the strait we speak of and is there augmented with whole mountains of ice and snow falling down furiously out from the land under the North Pole. Where store of water is, there is it a thing impossible to want sea; where sea not only doth not want, but waxeth deeper, there can be discovered no land. Finally, whence I pray you came the contrary tide, that Master Frobisher met withal, after that he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there be any isthmus or strait of land betwixt the aforesaid north-western gulf and Mare del Sur, to join Asia and America together? That conclusion arrived at in the schools, "Whatsoever land doth neither appertain unto Africa, nor to Europe, is part of Asia," was meant of the parts of the world then known, and so is it of right to be understood.
The fifth objection requireth for answer wisdom and policy in the traveller to win the barbarians'
The second part, namely, that America and Asia cannot be one continent, may thus be proved:- "The most rivers take down that way their course, where the earth is most hollow and deep," writeth Aristotle; and the sea (saith he in the same place), as it goeth further, so is it found deeper. Into what gulf do the Moscovian rivers Onega, Dwina, Ob, pour out their streams? northward out of Moscovy into the sea. Which way doth that sea strike? The south is main land, the eastern coast waxeth more and more shallow: from the north, either naturally, because that part of the earth is higher, or of necessity, for that the forcible influence of some northern stars causeth the earth there to shake off the sea, as some philosophers do think; or, finally, for the great store of waters engendered in that frosty and cold climate, that the banks are not able to hold them. From the north, I say, continually falleth down great abundance of water; so this north-eastern current must at the length abruptly bow toward us south on the west side of Finmark and Norway, or else strike down south-west above Greenland, or betwixt Greenland and Iceland, into the north-west strait we speak of, as of congruence it doth, if you mark the situation of that region, and by the report of Master Frobisher experience teacheth us. And, Master Frobisher, the further he travelled in the former passage, as he told me, the deeper always he found the sea. Lay you now the sum hereof together, the rivers run where the channels are most hollow, the sea in taking his course waxeth deeper, the sea waters fall continually from the north southward, the north-eastern current striketh down into the strait we speak of and is there augmented with whole mountains of ice and snow falling down furiously out from the land under the North Pole. Where store of water is, there is it a thing impossible to want sea; where sea not only doth not want, but waxeth deeper, there can be discovered no land. Finally, whence I pray you came the contrary tide, that Master Frobisher met withal, after that he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there be any isthmus or strait of land betwixt the aforesaid north-western gulf and Mare del Sur, to join Asia and America together? That conclusion arrived at in the schools, "Whatsoever land doth neither appertain unto Africa, nor to Europe, is part of Asia," was meant of the parts of the world then known, and so is it of right to be understood.
The fifth objection requireth for answer wisdom and policy in the traveller to win the barbarians'