The same in English.
THE FOURETEENTH SECTION.
[Sidenote: Munster] There be seen sometimes neere vnto Island huge Whales
like vnto mountains, which ouerturne ships, vnlesse they be terrified
away with the sound of trumpets, or beguiled with round and emptie
vessels, which they delight to tosse vp and downe. It sometimes falleth
out that Mariners thinking these Whales to be Ilands, and casting out
ankers vpon their backs, are often in danger of drowning. They are called
in their tongue Trollwal Tuffelwalen, that is to say, the deuilish Whale.
Like vnto mountains. Loe here once againe (gentle Reader) Munsters
falsifying eccho, and (as the prouerbe saieth) his blind dreame. Such a
false and sencelesse ouer reaching doeth exceedingly disgrace an historie,
and that by so much the more, by how much the lesse necessary it is. For to
what purpose should an Historiographer make leasings, if history be a
report of plaine trueth? Why should he vse such strange surmountings? What
is it that he would perswade, or whither would he rauish the reader, if he
propoundeth vnto himselfe nothing but the simple declaration of things:
Poets and Painters had leaue of old,
To feigne, to blaze, in all things to be bold.
But not Historiographers.
The backs of Whales which they thinke to be Ilands. This fable, like all
the rest, was bred of an old, ridiculous and vaine tale, the credite and
trueth whereof is not woorth a strawe.
