THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



Gilberfs Dis- 

 course on the 

 North West 

 passage. 



The cunning 

 ignorance of 

 Spain. 



and in a period of enforced idleness, about 1574, he 

 wrote the Discourse to prove a Passage by the North-west to 

 Cathaia and the East Indies ; which was published in 1576, 

 and begat the voyages of Frobisher and Davis. 



Gilbert's argument is so full and reasonable, so fair in 

 its treatment of objections, and so strong in its appeal to 

 tradition and authority, that it is no wonder if many were 

 convinced by it. America, he says, is an island, and was 

 known by report to Plato and the ancients, who called it 

 Atlantis. If it be joined at its northern extremity with 

 the continent of Asia, how comes it that no civilised man 

 has ever found his way to America by land, and that the 

 animals of America differ wholly from the animals of 

 Asia.'' Need makes the old wife to trot, and the 

 Scythians and Tartars would have found their way there, 

 if any way had been by land. The current of the sea 

 is known to run westward from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and on striking America is deflected along the 

 coast to the North. If it found no outlet there, it would 

 run eastward again to the coast of Europe, which it does 

 not do ; therefore there is a fair and broad waterway from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, somewhere between the 62 nd 

 and the 72nd parallels of latitude. But if a passage had 

 existed, it may be said, it would have been discovered 

 long ago by the navigators of Spain and Portugal. This 

 objection is met in triumphant fashion by Gilbert. It is 

 against the interest of these nations that a passage should 

 be found ; and he repeats a tale of Ulloa, that the King 

 of Portugal gave the Emperor Charles V three hundred 

 and fifty thousand crowns to leave the discovery un- 

 attempted. 'It is to be thought,' he adds, 'that the 

 King of Portugal would not have given to the Emperor 



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