Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/219

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AND KINGDOMES LYING THAT WAY.
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on the contrary parte of the sayde lande discouered. The sayd maister Antonie wrote furthermore, that by the opinion of men well practised, there was discouered so great a space of that countrey vnto the sayd sea, that it passed 950 leagues, which make 2850 myles. And doubtless if the Frenche men, in this theyr newe Fraunce, would have passed by lande towarde the sayd Northwest and by North, they should also haue founde the sea whereby they myght haue sayled to Cathay. But aboue all thynges, this seemed vnto me most woorthie of commendation, that the sayde maister Antonie wrote in his letter, that he had made a booke of all the naturall and marueylous thinges whiche they founde in searchyng those countreys, with also the measures of landes, and altytudes of degrees: A worke doubtlesse which sheweth a princely and magnificall mynd, wherby we may conceiue that if God had giuen him the charge of the other hemispherie, he would or now haue made it better knowen to vs. The which thing I suppose no man doth greatly esteeme at this tyme: beyng neuerthelesse the greatest and most glorious enterpryse that may be imagined.

The sea from newe Fraunce or Terra Britonum to Cathay.

A great and glorious enterprise.

Cabote, the grand pylot of the west Indies.

And heere makyng a certayne pause, and turnyng himselfe towarde vs, hee sayde: Doe you not vnderstande to this purpose, howe to passe to India towarde the Northwest wynde, as dyd of late a citizen of Venece, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all thinges perteynyng to nauigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this present hee hath not his lyke in Spayne, insomuche that for his vertues hee is preferred aboue all other pylottes that sayle to the West Indies, who may not passe thyther without his lycence, and is therefore called Piloto Maggiore (that is), the graunde pylote.[1] And when we sayde that wee knewe him not, hee proceeded, saying, that beyng certayne yeeres in the citie of

  1. ↑ For much curious matter connected with this incidental, but extremely interesting, reference to Cabot, see Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, by Biddle. London, 1831; 8vo.
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