A verie late and great probabilitie
of a passage, by the Northwest
part of America in 58. degrees
of Northerly latitude.
N excellent learned man of portingale, of singuler grauety, authoritie and experience tolde mee very lately, that one Anus Cortereal, captayne of the yle of Tercera about the yeere 1574, which is not aboue eight yeres past, sent a Shippe to discover the Northwest passage of America, & that the same shippe arriuing on the coast of the saide America in fiftie eyghte degrees of latitude, founde a great entrance exceeding deepe and broade, without all impediment of ice, into whiche they passed aboue twentie leagues, and found it alwaies to trende towarde the South, the lande lying lowe and plaine on eyther side: And that they perswaded them selues verely, that there was a way open into the south sea. But their victailes fayling them, and being but one shippe, they returned backe agayne with ioy. This place seemeth to lie in equal degrees of latitude, with the first entrance of the sounde of Denmark betweene Norway and the head land, called in latin Cimbrorum promontorium, and therefore like to bee open and nauigable a great part of the yeere. And this report may bee well annexed unto the other eight reasons mentioned in my epistle dedicatorie, for proofe of the likelihood of this passage by the Northwest.
