for His Majesty aforesaid. And having obtained Royal grants that he
should have the usufruct of all that he should discover, provided that
the ownership of the same is reserved to the Crown, with a small ship
and eighteen persons he committed himself to fortune. And having set
out from Bristol, a western port of this kingdom, and passed the
western limits of Hibernia, and then standing to the northward, he
began to steer eastwards [meaning westwards], leaving, after a few
days, the North Star on his right hand. And having wandered about
considerably, at last he fell in with _terra firma_, where, having
planted the Royal banner and taken possession in the behalf of this
King; and having taken several tokens, he has returned thence. The
said Master John, as being foreign-born and poor, would not be
believed, if his comrades, who are almost all Englishmen and from
Bristol, did not testify that what he says is true.

"This Master John has the description of the world in a chart, and
also in a solid globe which he has made, and he [or it] shows where
he landed, and that going toward the east [again for west] he passed
considerably beyond the country of the Tansis. And they say that it is
a very good and temperate country, and they think that Brazil wood and
silks grow there; and they affirm that that sea is covered with
fishes, which are caught not only with the net but with baskets, a
stone being tied to them in order that the baskets may sink in the
water. And this I heard the said Master John relate, and the aforesaid
Englishmen, his comrades, say that they will bring so many fish, that
this kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from which country
there comes a very great store of fish called stock-fish
('stockfissi'). But Master John has set his mind on something greater;
for he expects to go further on towards the east [again for west] from
that place already occupied, constantly hugging the shore, until he