A.D. 



1592. 



Westerne 

 whides dis- 

 perse the ice. 



Ice fioateth 

 not 7. or 8. 

 moneihs about 

 Island. 



THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



But you had need wisely to foresee, lest ye Islanders 

 beguile all your countries of the commendation of 

 courage and constancy : namely, as they (for so it pleaseth 

 your writers to report) who both can & will endure 

 the torments of hell, & who are able to breake through 

 & escape them, without any farther hurt : which thing 

 is necessarily to be collected out of that, that hath bin 

 before mentioned. And I am able to reckon up a great 

 many of our countrimen, who in ye very act of hunting, 

 wandring somewhat farre from the shoare (the ice being 

 dispersed by westerne winds) & for the space of many 

 leagues resting upon the ice, being chased with the 

 violence of the tempest, & some whole daies & nights 

 being tossed up & downe in the waves of ye raging 

 sea, & so (for it followeth by good consequence out of 

 this probleme of the historiographers) have had experi- 

 ence of the torments, & paines of this hell of ice. Who 

 at the last, the weather being changed, & the winds 

 blowing at the North, being transported again to the 

 shoare, in this their ship of ice, have returned home in 

 safety : some of which number are alive at this day. 

 Wherefore let such as be desirous of newes snatch up 

 this, & (if they please) let them frame a whole volume 

 hereof, & adde it to their history. Neither do these 

 vaine phantasies deserve otherwise to be handled and 

 confuted, then with such like meriments & sportings. 

 But to lay aside all jesting, let us returne to the matter 

 from whence we are digressed. First of all therfore 

 it is evident enough out of the second section, y* ice 

 fioateth not about this Hand, neither 8. nor 7. moneths 

 in a yere : then, that this ice (although at some times 

 by shuffling together it maketh monstrous soundings & 

 cracklings, & againe at some times with the beating of 

 the water, it sendeth forth an hoarse kind of murmuring) 

 doth any thing at all resound or lament, like unto mans 

 voice, we may in no case confesse. But wheras they say 

 that, both in the Isle, and in mount Hecla we appoint 

 certaine places, wherin the soules of our countrimen 



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