78 DISCOVERIES OF 1576. 



Indies, was revived with greater ardour than at 

 any former period, and the pens of the most 

 learned men in the nation were employed to prove 

 the existence, the practicability, and the great 

 advantages of such a passage. Among others, 

 Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Mr. Lichard Willes 

 composed very learned and ingenious discourses 

 on the subject. That of the former, in particular, 

 contains much curious argument in favour of such 

 a passage, and was well calculated to infuse a 

 spirit of practical inquiry and discovery among his 

 countrymen ; and although it appears not to have 

 been printed until the year 1576, being that in 

 which Frobisher made his first voyage, yet, having 

 been written many years before, while Sir Hum- 

 phrey was serving in Ireland, it was undoubtedly 

 very well known to the promoters of Frobisher's 

 voyage.* 



Among other matters adduced in proof of a 

 north-west passage between the Atlantic and 

 Pacific, Sir Humphrey states, that " there was one 

 Salvaterra, a gentleman of Victoria in Spain, who 

 came to Ireland in 1568, out of the West Indies, 

 and reported that the north-west passage from 

 Europe to Cathaia was constantly believed in 

 America ; and further said, in presence of Sir 

 Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland, in Sir H. 

 Gilbert's hearing, that a ' friar of Mexico, called 

 Andrew Urdaneta, more than eight years before 



* A DiscoursebySirHumphrcyGilbert,&c.Hakluyt,vol,iii.p. 19' 



