THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE ad. 



1576. 

 Geographer Strabo followeth, yeelding him in this Lib. Geog. 

 facultie the price. The authour of that booke likewise 

 irepl koct/ulov to Alexander, attributed unto Aristotle, is 

 of the same opinion that Homer and Strabo be of, in 

 two or three places. Dionisius in SiKovimevr]? irepihywt- 

 hath this verse cqtcos wiceavos TrepiSeSpo/me ycuav diracrav. 

 So doth the Ocean Sea runne round about the worlde : 

 speaking onely of Europe, Afrike and Asia, as then Asia 

 was travelled and knowen. With these Doctours may Note. 

 you joyne Pomponius Mela. cap. 2. lib. I. Plinius lib. 

 2. cap. 67. and Pius 2. cap. 2. in his description of 

 Asia. All the which writers doe no lesse confirme the 

 whole Easterne side of Asia to be compassed about with 

 the sea, then Plato doeth affirme in Timaso, under the 

 name Atlantis, the West Indies to be an Island, as in 

 a special discourse thereof R. Eden writeth, agreeable RkhardEden. 

 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, 

 Plinie, Pius 2. affirme the continent of Asia, Afrike, 

 & Europe, to be environed with the Ocean. I may 

 therfore boldly say (though later intelligences therof 

 had we none at all) that Asia & the West Indies be 

 not tied together by any Isthmos or straight of land, 

 contrary to the opinion of some new Cosmographers, 

 by whom doubtfully this matter hath bin brought in 

 controversie. And thus much for the first part of my 

 answere unto the fourth objection. 



The second part, namely that America and Asia 

 cannot be one continent, may thus be proved, Kara Lib. 2. Me- 

 Tr\v tt}<s ytjg KoiXoTrjra pet kcu tcov irora/xoov to irXfjOog. The r ' ca ?' '* 

 most Rivers take downe that way their course, where 

 the earth is most hollow and deepe, writeth Aristotle : 

 and the Sea (sayth he in the same place) as it goeth 

 further, so is it found deeper. Into what gulfe doe the 

 Moscovian rivers Onega, Duina, Ob, powre out their 

 streames Northward out of Moscovia into the sea ? 

 Which way doeth that sea strike ? The South is maine 



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