A.D. 



1576. 



Luc. lib. 1. 

 Pharsal. 



What the 

 Easterne cur- 

 rent is. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



Magellans straight at the Southwest, or to be in danger 

 of the Portingals for the Southeast : they may returne 

 by the Northwest, that same way they doe goe foorth, 

 as experience hath shewed. 



The reason alleadged for proofe of the contrary may 

 be disproved after this maner. And first it may be called 

 in controversie, whether any current continually be forced 

 by the motion of Primum mobile, round about the world, 

 or no ? For learned men doe diversly handle that ques- 

 tion. The naturall course of all waters is downeward, 

 wherefore of congruence they fall that way where they 

 flnde the earth most lowe and deepe : in respect whereof, 

 it was erst sayd, the seas doe strike from the Northren 

 landes Southerly. Violently the seas are tossed and 

 troubled divers wayes with the windes, encreased and 

 diminished by the course of the Moone, hoised up & 

 downe through the sundry operations of the Sunne and 

 the starres : finally, some be of opinion, that the seas be 

 caried in part violently about the world, after the dayly 

 motion of the highest moveable heaven, in like maner as 

 the elements of ayre and fire, with the rest of the heavenly 

 spheres, are from the East unto the West. And this 

 they doe call their Easterne current, or levant streame. 

 Some such current may not be denied to be of great force 

 in the hot Zone, for the neerenesse thereof unto the 

 centre of the Sunne, and blustring Easterne windes 

 violently driving the seas Westward : howbeit, in the 

 temperate climes, the Sunne being further off, & the 

 windes more divers, blowing as much from the North, 

 the West and South, as from the East, this rule doeth 

 not effectually withholde us from travailing Eastward, 

 neither be we kept ever backe by the aforesaid Levant 

 windes and streame. But in Magellans streight wee are 

 violently driven backe Westward : Ergo, through the 

 Northwesterne straight or Anian frette shall we not be 

 able to returne Eastward ? It folio weth not. The first, 

 for that the northwesterne straight hath more sea roome 

 at the least by one hundreth English myles, then 



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