FRANCISCO DE GUALLE a.d. 



1584. 

 scene certaine men of a very small stature, with great 

 rolles of linnen cloth about their heads, that brought 

 golde in small pieces, and some white Cangas of cotton, 

 (which are pieces of cotton-linnen so called by the 

 Chinars) as also salte-fish like the Spanish Atun, or 

 Tunney, which hee sayde came out of other Ilandes East- ^^her Hands 

 ward from Japon : and by the tokens and markes which ^^^^'^^^^'^f 

 hee shewed mee, I gessed whereabout those Hands should * 



bee, and found them not farre from whence he sayd 

 they lay. Hee sayd likewise that all the Hands of Japon 

 have good havens and chanels, being a Countrey full of 

 Rice, Corne, Fish, and flesh, and that they are an in- 

 different and reasonable people to traffique with, and 

 that there they have much silver. 



Running thus East, and East and by North about 

 three hundred leagues from Japon, wee found a very 

 hollowe water, with the streame running out of the 

 North and Northwest, with a full and very broad Sea, 

 without any hinderance or trouble in the way that wee 

 past : and what winde soever blewe, the Sea continued 

 all in one sort, with the same hollow water and streame, 

 untill wee had passed seven hundred leagues. About ^^P^^ 9^^- 

 two hundred leagues from the coast and land of newe ^^J^S.^^^ d.istant 

 Spaine wee beganne to lose the sayd hollow Sea and of^jmerkain 

 streame : whereby I most assuredly thinke and beleeve, 37 degrees 

 that there you shall finde a channell or straight passage, ^«^ ^^^ halfe. 

 betweene the firme lande of newe Spaine, and the 

 Countreys of Asia and Tartaria. Likewise all this way 

 from the aforesayde seven hundred leagues, we found a 

 great number of Whale-fishes and other fishes called by 

 the Spaniards Atuns or Tunnies, whereof many are 

 found on the coast of Gibraltar in Spaine, as also Alba- 

 coras and Bonitos, which are all fishes, which commonly 

 keepe in chanels, straights, and running waters, there to 

 disperse their seede when they breede : which maketh 

 mee more assuredly beleeve, that thereabouts is a chanell 

 or straight to passe through. 



Being by the same course upon the coast of newe 



335 



