140 SUPPOSED FLORIDA STRAIGHT. 



LIB. in. North and South, doe ioyne together, or that it did runne 

 vppe towardes the East, and ioyne with the land of Yista 

 as they call it, which answers to the Cape of Good Hope (as 

 it is the opinion of some). The trueth hereof is not to this 

 day well known e, neither is there any one found that hath 

 discovered that land. The Viceroy Don Martin Henriquez 

 said vnto me, that he held this report for an invention of 

 the English, that the Straight should presentlie make an 

 Hand, and that the two seas did ioyne together; for that 

 (beeing Viceroy of Xew Spaine) hee had diligently 

 examined the Portugall Pilote, who had bin left there by 

 Francis Drake, and yet had no knowledge of any such 

 matter by him. But that was a very Straight, and a maine 

 land on either side. Returning then to the saide Vice- 

 admirall, they discovered this Straight (as the saide 

 Hernando Lamero reported vnto mee) but by another 

 mouth or entrie, and in a greater height, by reason of a 

 certaine great Hand which is at the entrie of the Straight, 

 which they call the Bell, for the forme it carries. And, as 

 he saide, hee woulde have passed it ; but the Captaine and 

 souldiers woulde not yeelde therevnto, supposing that the 

 time was too farre spent, and that they were in great 

 daunger. And so they returned to Chille and Peru, without 

 passing it. 



CHAP. XTI. Of the Straight ivhich some holde to be in 

 Florida. 



Even as Magellan found out this Straight vppon the 

 South, so some have pretended to discover another Straight, 

 which they say is in the north, and suppose it to be in 

 Florida, whose coast runs in such sort, as they knowe no 

 end thereof. Peter Melendez, the Adelantado, a man very 

 expert at sea, affirmeth for certaine that there is a Straight, 



