Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage by Richard Hakluyt
page 37 of 168 (22%)
page 37 of 168 (22%)
|
Indians could not possibly have come by the south-east, south-west,
nor from any part of Africa or America, nor yet by the north-east: therefore they came of necessity by this our North-West Passage. CHAPTER V.--TO PROVE THAT THESE INDIANS, AFORENAMED, CAME NOT BY THE SOUTH-EAST, SOUTH-WEST, NOR FROM ANY OTHER PART OF AFRICA OR AMERICA. 1. They could not come from the south-east by the Cape of Good Hope, because the roughness of the seas there is such--occasioned by the currents and great winds in that part--that the greatest armadas the King of Portugal hath cannot without great difficulty pass that way, much less, then, a canoe of India could live in those outrageous seas without shipwreck, being a vessel but of very small burden, and the Indians have conducted themselves to the place aforesaid, being men unexpert in the art of navigation. 2. Also, it appeareth plainly that they were not able to come from along the coast of Africa aforesaid to those parts of Europe, because the winds do, for the most part, blow there easterly or from the shore, and the current running that way in like sort, would have driven them westward upon some part of America, for such winds and tides could never have led them from thence to the said place where they were found, nor yet could they have come from any of the countries aforesaid, keeping the seas always, without skilful mariners to have conducted them such like courses as were necessary |
|