5. Moreover At The Least Some One Of Those Painful Travellers Which
Of Purpose Have Passed The Confines Of Both
Countries, with intent
only to discover, would, as it is most likely, have gone from the
one to the other,
If there had been any piece of land, or isthmus,
to have joined them together, or else have declared some cause to
the contrary.
6. But neither Paulus Venetus, who lived and dwelt a long time in
Cathay, ever came into America, and yet was at the sea coasts of
Mangia over against it, where he was embarked and performed a great
navigation along those seas; neither yet Veratzanus or Franciscus
Vasquez de Coronado, who travelled the north part of America by
land, ever found entry from thence by land to Cathay, or any part of
Asia.
7. Also it appeareth to be an island, insomuch as the sea runneth
by nature circularly from the east to the west, following the
diurnal motion of the Primum Mobile, and carrieth with it all
inferior bodies movable, as well celestial as elemental; which
motion of the waters is most evidently seen in the sea, which lieth
on the south side of Africa, where the current that runneth from the
east to the west is so strong (by reason of such motion) that the
Portuguese in their voyages eastward to Calicut, in passing by the
Cape of Good Hope, are enforced to make divers courses, the current
there being so swift, as it striketh from thence, all along
westward, upon the straits of Magellan, being distant from thence
near the fourth part of the longitude of the earth:
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