IN THE YEAR 1613. 
63 
gether destitute of necessaries wherwithall a man might be 
preserued in the time of winter. 
I liaue thought good here to sett downe what was written 
concerning this country by one of Amsterdam, that was this 
yeare in Greenland (w th whom I ther sometimes conuersed), 
as it is sett forth in printe by some of Holland, and (w th other 
things concerning this present voyage) is inserted in a late 
edition of Hudson’s Discoueries : — 
“ Hsec pessima et frigidissima est regio mundi, nndique rupes, 
montes, lapides: tanta ibi aquarum terram inundantium copia, vt ves¬ 
tigia hominum non admittat; maxima glaciei ibi copia, tantaque mon- 
tium glacialium multitudo, nt ab ipsa natiuitate Christi, concreuisse 
videantur ; tanta enim niuium abundantia, vt fidem superet. Ceruis 
abundat et vrsis, et vulpibus ; cerui plane sunt albi coloris. Admiror 
tantos ceruorum greges, vnde viuant, cum regio niuibus tegatur, et 
plane sit sterilis. Auibus luxuriat, maxime anseribus minoribus qui 
turmatim conueniunt.” 6 
The Manner of Killing the Whale , and of the whole Proceedings 
for performing of the Voyage. 
The whale is a fish, or sea-beast, of a huge bignesse, about 
60 feet long, and 18 feet thick. His head seemes to be 
one-third parte of his whole quantitie. His finnes (w ch wee 
call whalebone in England) doe growe, and are wholie in¬ 
cluded w th in, his spacious mouth ; being fastened, and, as it 
6 The title of the book here referred to is “ Descriptio ac Delineatio geographica 
Detectionis Freti, sive Transitus ad Occasum, supra Terras Americanas, in Chinam et 
Japonem,” &c. Amst. 1613. 4to. In it the above passage occurs as a quotation, in 
Italics, preceded by the following remark: “ Heec vera esse, fidem faciunt testes ocu- 
lati reduces, etiam literae Navarchi Thomas Bonaert et Semmij, cujus haec verba, sub 
finem, in literis ad patrem de qualitate hujus regionis.” * 
This Thomas Bonaert may be no other than Thomas Bonner , who commanded a 
Dutch ship at Spitsbergen, which was captured by the English, and sent northward 
for discovery, under Master Marmaduke. (Baffin’s Narrative, in Purchas, vol. iii. 
pp. 717, 719. 
