causes in the first obiection alledged, or cleane shut vp from vs in Europe
by Groenland: the South ende whereof Moletius maketh firme land with
America, the North part continent with Lappeland and Norway.

[Sidenote: Ob. 3.] Thirdly, the greatest fauourers of this voyage can not
denie, but that if any such passage be, it lieth subiect vnto yce and snow
for the most part of the yeere, whereas it standeth in the edge of the
frostie Zone. Before the Sunne hath warmed the ayre, and dissolued the yce,
eche one well knoweth that there can be no sailing: the yce once broken
through the continuall abode the sunne maketh a certaine season in those
parts, how shall it be possible for so weake a vessel as a shippe is, to
holde out amid whole Ilands, as it were of yce continually beating on eche
side, and at the mouth of that gulfe, issuing downe furiously from the
north, and safely to passe, when whole mountaines of yce and snow shall be
tumbled downe vpon her?

[Sidenote: Ob. 4.] Well, graunt the West Indies not to continue continent
vnto the Pole, grant there be a passage betweene these two lands, let the
gulfe lie neerer vs then commonly in cardes we finde it set, namely,
betweene the 61. and 64. degrees north, as Gemma Frisius in his mappes and
globes imagineth it, and so left by our countryman Sebastian Cabot in his
table which the Earle of Bedford hath at Cheinies: Let the way be voyde of
all difficulties, yet doeth it not follow that wee haue free passage to
Cathayo. For examples sake: You may trend all Norway, Finmarke, and
Lappeland, and then bowe Southward to Saint Nicholas in Moscouia: you may
likewise in the Mediterranean Sea fetch Constantinople, and the mouth of
Tanais: yet is there no passage by Sea through Moscouia into Pont Euxine,
now called Mare Maggiore. Againe, in the aforesaid Mediterranean sea, we
saile to Alexandria in Egypt, the Barbarians bring their pearle and spices
from the Moluccaes vp the Red sea or Arabian gulph to Sues, scarcely three