Siquidem Vltra Britannos, Quo Nomine Angli Hodie Dicti & Scoti Veniunt, Nullos Populos Statueret.

Quod vel ex illo Virgilij Eclog I. apparet:

Et penitus toto diuisos orbe Britannos.

Quartus vnam ex Farensibus. Quintus Telemarchiam Noruagia. Sextus Schrichfinniam.

Perpetuo ad Boream adharet.) Illud vero, Glaciem Insula perpetuo, vel vt paulo post asserit Munsterus: Octo continuis mensibus adharere: neutrum verum est. [Sidenote: Glacies Aprili aut Maio soluitur.] Nam vt plurimum in mense Aprili aut Maio soluitur, & Occidentem versus propellitur, nec ante Ianuarium aut Februarium sapissime etiam tardius redit. Quid? quod plurimos annos numerare licet, quibus glaciem illam huius nationis immite flagellum, ne viderit quidem Islandia: Quod etiam hoc anno 1592. compertum est. Vnde constat quam vere a Frisio scriptum sit, nauigationem ad hanc insulam tantum quadrimestrem patere, propter glaciem & frigora, quibus intercludatur iter, Cum Anglica naues quotannis nunc in Martio, nunc in Aprili, quadam in Maio, Germanorum & Danorum in Maio & Iunio, plarumque ad nos redeant, & harum quadam non ante Augustum iterum hinc soluunt. Superiore autem anno 1591. quadam nauis Germanica, cupro onusta, portum Islandia Vopnafiord 14. dies circiter in Nouembri occupauit, quibus lapsis inde foeliciter soluit Quare cum glacies Islandia, nec perpetuo, neque octo mensibus adhareat, Munsterus & Frisius manifeste falluntur.

The same in English.

THE THIRD SECTION.

It is named of the ice which continually cleaueth vnto the North part thereof. [Sidenote: Munsterus Saxo] Another writeth: From the West part of Norway there lieth an Iland which is named of the ice, enuironed with an huge sea, and being a countrey of ancient habitation, &c. Zieglerus. This is Thyle [Footnote: Thule] whereof most of the ancient writers haue made mention.

It is named of ice, &c. Island hath beene called by three names, one after another. [Sidenote: Island first discouered by Naddocus in a tempest.] For one Naddocus a Noruagian borne, who is thought to be the first Discouerer of the same, as he was sailing towards the Faar-Ilands, [Footnote: Faroe Islands.] through a violent tempest did by chance arriue at the East shore of Island; [Sidenote: Sneland.] where staying with his whole company certaine weeks, he beheld abundance of snow couering the tops of the mountaines, and thereupon, in regard of the snow, called this Iland Sneland. [Sidenote: Gardarsholme] After him one Gardarus, being mooued thereunto by the report which Naddocus gaue out concerning Island, went to seeke the sayd Iland who when he had found it, called it after his owne name Gardars-holme, that is to say, Gardars Ile. There were more also desirous to visit this new land. [Sidenote: Island.] For after the two former a certaine third Noruagian, called Flok, went into Island, and named it of the ice, wherewith he saw it enuironed.

Of ancient habitation &c. I gather not this opinion out of these wordes of Saxo (as some men do) that Island hath bene inhabited from the beginning or (to speake in one word) that the people of Island were autochthones, that is, earth-bred, or bred out of their owne soile like vnto trees and herbs: sithens it is euident that this Island scarse began to be inhabited no longer agoe then about 718 yeres since. [Footnote: The Viking Naddodr is said to have discovered Iceland in 860, and it was colonised by Ingulf, a chieftain from the west coast of Norway.]

This is Thyle, &c. Grammarians wrangle about this name, and as yet the controuersie is not decided. Which notwithstanding, I thinke might easily grow to composition, if men would vnderstand that this Iland was first inhabited about the yeere of our Lord 874. Vnlesse some man will say that Thule King of Agypt (who, as it is thought, gaue this name thereunto) passed so farre vnto an Iland, which was at that time vntilled, and destitute of inhabitants. Againe, if any man will denie this, he may for all me, that it may seeme to be but a dreame, while they are distracted into so many contrary opinions. One affirmes that it is Island: another, that it is a certeine Iland, where trees beare fruit twise in a yeere: the third, that it is one of the Orcades, or the last Iland of the Scotish dominion, as Iohannes Myritius and others, calling it by the name of Thylensey, which Virgil also seemeth to haue meant by his vltima Thyle. If beyond the Britans (by which name the English men and Scots onely at this day are called) he imagined none other nation to inhabit. Which is euident out of that verse of Virgil in his first Eclogue:

And Britans whole from all the world diuided.

The fourth writeth, that it is one of the Faar-Ilands: the fift, that it is Telemark in Norway: the sixt, that it is Scrichfinnia.

[Sidenote: The ice of Iseland sets always to the West.] Which continually cleaueth to the North part of the Iland. That clause that ice continually cleaueth &c. or as Munster affirmeth a little after, that it cleaueth for the space of eight whole moneths, are neither of them both true, when as for the most part the ice is thawed in the moneth of April or May, and is driuen towards the West: neither doth it returne before Ianuarie or Februarie, nay often times it commeth later. [Sidenote: No ice at all some yeres in Island.] What if a man should recken vp many yeeres, wherein ice (the sharpe scourge of this our nation) hath not at all bene seene about Island? which was found to be true this present yeere 1592. Heereupon it is manifest how truely Frisius hath written that nauigation to this Iland lieth open onely for foure moneths in a yeere, and no longer, by reason of the ice and colde, whereby the passage is shut vp, when as English ships euery yere, sometimes in March, sometimes in April, and some of them in May; the Germans and Danes, in May and Iune, doe vsually returne vnto vs, and some of them depart not againe from hence till August.

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