Periegesis, hath this verse, "So doeth the ocean sea run round about
the world:" speaking only of Europe, Africa, and Asia, as then Asia
was travelled and known. With these doctors may you join Pomponius
Mela, Pliny, Pius, in his description of Asia. All the which
writers do no less confirm the whole eastern side of Asia to be
compassed about with the sea; then Plato doth affirm in is Timaeus,
under the name Atlantis, the West Indies to be an island, as in a
special discourse thereof R. Eden writeth, agreeable unto the
sentence of Proclus, Marsilius Ficinus, and others. Out of Plato it
is gathered that America is an island. Homer, Strabo, Aristotle,
Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, Pius, affirm the continent of Asia, Africa,
and Europe, to be environed with the ocean. I may therefore boldly
say (though later intelligences thereof had we none at all) that
Asia and the West Indies be not tied together by any isthmus or
strait of land, contrary to the opinion of some new cosmographers,
by whom doubtfully this matter hath been brought in controversy.
And thus much for the first part of my answer unto the fourth
objection.

The second part, namely, that America and Asia cannot be one
continent, may thus be proved:- "The most rivers take down that way
their course, where the earth is most hollow and deep," 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