PREFACE TO THE 



and moderne writers I have perused ; what a number 

 of old records, patents, privileges, letters, &c. I have 

 redeemed from obscuritie and perishing ; into how mani- 

 fold acquaintance I have entred ; what expenses I have not 

 spared ; and yet what faire opportunities of private gaine, 

 preferment, and ease I have neglected ; albeit thy selfe 

 canst hardly imagine, yet I by daily experience do finde 

 & feele, and some of my entier friends can sufficiently 

 testifie. Howbeit (as I told thee at the first) the honour 

 and benefit of this Common weale wherein I live and 

 breathe, hath made all difficulties seeme easie, all paines 

 and industrie pleasant, and all expenses of light value and 

 moment unto me. 



For (to conteine my selfe onely within the bounds of 

 this present discourse, and in the midst thereof to begin) 

 wil it not in all posteritie be as great a renowme unto our 

 English nation, to have bene the first discoverers of a Sea 

 beyond the North cape (never certainly knowen before) 

 and of a convenient passage into the huge Empire of 

 Russia by the bay of S. Nicolas and the river of Duina ; 

 as for the Portugales to have found a Sea beyond the Cape 

 of Buona Esperanza, and so consequently a passage by 

 Sea into the East Indies ; or for the Italians and Spaniards 

 to have discovered unknowen landes so many hundred 

 leagues Westward and Southwestward of the streits of 

 Gibraltar, & of the pillers of Hercules ? Be it granted 

 that the renowmed Portugale Vasques de Gama traversed 

 the maine Ocean Southward of Africke : Did not Richard 

 Chanceler and his mates performe the like Northward of 

 Europe ? Suppose that Columbus that noble and high- 

 spirited Genuois escried unknowen landes to the Westward 

 of Europe and Africke : Did not the valiant English 

 knight sir Hugh Willoughby ; did not the famous Pilots 

 Stephen Burrough, Arthur Pet, and Charles Jackman 

 accoast Nova Zembla, Colgoieve, and Vaigatz to the North 

 of Europe and Asia ? Howbeit you will say perhaps, not 

 with the like golden successe, not with such deductions of 

 Colonies, nor attaining of conquests. True it is, that our 



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