THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE ad. 



1576. 



So that it resteth not possible (so farre as my simple The flowing is 



reason can comprehend) that this perpetuall current can occasioned by 



by any meanes be maintained, but onely by continuall ^telfthe 



reaccesse of the same water, which passeth thorow the moone boykth, 



fret, and is brought about thither againe, by such cir- and maketh 



cular motion as aforesayd. And the certaine falling the water 



thereof by this fret into Mar del Sur is prooved by the l f ne t y ™ y 



• j • r r> jji-r 1 of rarefaction. 



testimonie and experience, or Bernard de la lorre, who An experience 



was sent from P. de la Natividad to the Moluccas, Anno toproovethe 



domini 1542. by commandement of Anthony Mendoza, fi®W °f thls 



then Viceroy of Nova Hispania, which Bernard sayled ^rU/^r 



750. Leagues, on the Northside of the Aequator, and 



there met with a current, which came from the Northeast 



the which drove him backe againe to Tidore. 



Wherfore, this current being proved to come from 

 C. de buona Speranca to the fret of Magellan, and want- 

 ing sufficient entrance there, by narrownes of the straite, 

 is by the necessitie of natures force, brought to Terra 

 de Labrador, where Jaques Cartier met the same, and 

 thence certainly knowen, not to strike over upon Island, 

 Lappia, &c. and found by Bernard de la Torre in Mar 

 del Sur, on the backeside of America: therefore this 

 current (having none other passage) must of necessity, 

 fall out thorow this our fret into Mar del Sur, and so 

 trending by the Moluccas, China, and C. de buona 

 Speranca, maintaineth it selfe by circular motion, which 

 is all one in nature, with Motus ab Oriente in Occi- 

 dentem. 



So that it seemeth, we have now more occasion to 

 doubt of our returne, then whether there be a passage 

 that way, yea or no : which doubt, hereafter shall be 

 sufficiently remooved. Wherefore, in mine opinion, 

 reason it self, grounded upon experience, assureth us of 

 this passage, if there were nothing els to put us in hope 

 thereof. But least these might not suffice, I have added 

 in this chapter following, some further proofe hereof, by 

 the experience of such as have passed some part of this 

 discoverie : and in the next adjoining to that the authority 



169 



