14 



A copy of this translation (if such it can be called) exists 

 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. On reference to it, I 

 find various passages of the original have been retrenched, 

 enlarged, or otherwise altered, according to the fancy of the 

 translator, who was certainly a most whimsical pedant. 

 From certain " Instructions" which he gives " to his read- 

 ers," it appears that the book passed through two editions.* 



No other version has yet been published in our language. 



Without presuming to attempt what Mr. Pratt justly 

 declares to be surrounded with difficulties, I now propose 

 to give such extracts from the work as may convey to the 

 English reader some faint idea of its humour and moral 

 tendency . 



Before entering on the description of the countries which 

 he has discovered, the author, in a preliminary discourse, 

 entitled " The occasion of the voyage," informs us that it 

 arose out of a long conference held between himself and his 

 two friends, Peter Beroalde, of France, aifd Adrian Corne- 

 lius Droge, of Holland. These three scholars were all in- 

 spired with an ardent desire to explore that great region 

 which they had observed to be laid down by the geographers 

 of the day in the southern hemisphere under the name of 

 " Terra Australis incognita." They considered that the 

 oft- quoted verses of Seneca — 



" Veuient minis 

 " Secula seris, quaudo oeeauus vincula rerum 

 " Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus " — 



were not intended to shadow forth the discovery of America 

 by Columbus, hut to j>redict the exploration of this great 

 Australasian continent by themselves. As for America, 



» The copy in tlie Bodleian is the second. It has no date, but is 

 "imprinted fur Ed. Blount and W. Barrett," It is dedicated to William 

 Earl of Pembroke, and upon its tide-page appears the identical engraved 

 figure of Mercury, which is given in the Frankfort edition already mentioned. 

 The same John Healey likewise published iin English translation of Epic 

 tetus's Enchiridion ;ind the Table of Cebes. Eondon, 1610. 



