," writeth Aristotle; and the sea
(saith he in the same place), as it goeth further, so is it found deeper.
Into what gulf do the Moscovian rivers Onega, Dwina, Ob, pour out their
streams? northward out of Moscovy into the sea. Which way doth that sea
strike? The south is main land, the eastern coast waxeth more and more
shallow: from the north, either naturally, because that part of the earth
is higher, or of necessity, for that the forcible influence of some
northern stars causeth the earth there to shake off the sea, as some
philosophers do think; or, finally, for the great store of waters
engendered in that frosty and cold climate, that the banks are not able
to hold them. From the north, I say, continually falleth down great
abundance of water; so this north-eastern current must at the length
abruptly bow toward us south on the west side of Finmark and Norway, or
else strike down south-west above Greenland, or betwixt Greenland and
Iceland, into the north-west strait we speak of, as of congruence it
doth, if you mark the situation of that region, and by the report of
Master Frobisher experience teacheth us. And, Master Frobisher, the
further he travelled in the former passage, as he told me, the deeper
always he found the sea. Lay you now the sum hereof together, the rivers
run where the channels are most hollow, the sea in taking his course
waxeth deeper, the sea waters fall continually from the north southward,
the north-eastern current striketh down into the strait we speak of and
is there augmented with whole mountains of ice and snow falling down
furiously out from the land under the North Pole. Where store of water
is, there is it a thing impossible to want sea; where sea not only doth
not want, but waxeth deeper, there can be discovered no land. Finally,
whence I pray you came the contrary tide, that Master Frobisher met
withal, after that he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there
be any isthmus or strait of land betwixt the aforesaid north-western gulf
and Mare del Sur, to join Asia and America together? That conclusion
arrived at in the schools, "Whatsoever land doth neither appertain unto
Africa, nor to Europe, is part of Asia," was meant of the parts of the
world then known, and so is it of right to be understood.

The fifth objection requireth for answer wisdom and policy in the
traveller to win the barbarians' favour by some good means; and so to arm
and strengthen himself, that when