A.D. 

 1592. 



Krantzius. 

 Munsterus. 



[1. 556.] 



Island 144 

 Germaine 

 miles in com- 

 passe. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



The fourth section. 



The Hand is so great that it conteineth many people. 

 Item Zieglerus sayth : The situation of the Hand 

 is extended betweene the South and the North almost 

 200 leagues in length. 



SO great, &c. One Wilstenius schoolemaster of 

 Oldenburg, in the yere 1591, sent unto mine Uncle 

 in West-Island, a short treatise which he had gathered 

 out of the fragments of sundrie writers, concerning 

 Island. Where we found thus written : Island is twise 

 as great as Sicilie, &c. But Sicilie, according to Munster, 

 hath 150 Germaine miles in compasse. As for the 

 circuit of our Hand, although it be not exactly knowen 

 unto us, yet the ancient, constant, and received opinion 

 of the inhabitants accounteth it 144 leagues; namely by 

 the 12 promontories of Island, which are commonly 

 knowen, being distant one from another 12 leagues or 

 thereabout, which two numbers being multiplied, produce 

 the whole summe. 



Many people. &c. One Gysserus about the yere of 

 our Lord 1090, being bishop of Schalholten in Island, 

 caused all the husbandmen, or countreymen of the Hand, 

 who, in regard of their possessions were bound to pay 

 tribute to the king, to be numbred (omitting the poorer 

 sort with women, and the meaner sort of the com- 

 munalty) and he found in the East part of Island 700, 

 in the South part 1000, in the West part iioo, in the 

 North part 1200, to the number of 4000 inhabitants 

 paying tribute. Now if any man will trie, he shall 

 finde that more then halfe the Hand was at that time 

 unpeopled. 



104 



