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Updated: June 17, 2025
The thirtieth of May we passed the Equinoctiall with contentation, directing our course as well as we could to passe the promontory, but in all that gulfe, and in all the way beside, we found so often calmes, that the expertest mariner wondred at it.
Againe, by the position of the sphere vnder the pole, the horizon, and the equinoctiall are all one.
And in conclusion, it is nowe thought that no where else but vnder the Equinoctiall, or not farre from thence, is the earthly Paradise, and the onely place of perfection in this worlde.
Neuertheless, taking our voyage betweene Guinea and the Ilands of Capo Verde, without seeing of any land at all, we arriued at length vnto the coast of Guinie, which the Portugals so call, chiefly that part of the burning Zone, which is from the sixt degree vnto the Equinoctiall, in which parts they suffered so many inconueniences of heats, and lacke of windes, that they thinke themselues happy when they haue passed it: for sometimes the ship standeth there almost by the space of many dayes, sometimes she goeth, but in such order that it were almost as good to stand still.
Right ouer against Sumatra, on the South side of the Equinoctiall lyeth the Islande of Iaua Maior, or great Iaua, and these two Islandes are deuided by a straight commonly called the straight of Sunda, which lyeth between these two Islands, bearing the name of the principall hauen of Iaua called Sunda: In this channel there runneth a great streame, and course of narrow waters, through this straight M. Condlish an Englishman passed with his ship, comming out of the South sea from new Spaine.
From hence thus hauing doubled this Cape, we directed our course for the Ilands of Nicubar, which lie North and South with the Westerne part of Sumatra, and in the latitude of 7 degrees to the Northward of the Equinoctiall. From which Cape of Comori vnto the aforesayd Ilands we ranne in sixe days with a very large wind though the weather were foule with extreme raine and gustes of winde.
And thus haue wee measured the force of the Sunnes greatest heate, the hottest dayes in the yeere, vnder the Equinoctiall, that is in March and September, from sixe till after tenne of the clocke in the morning, and from two vntill Sunne set.
But that these voyages may be more plainly vnderstood of all men, I haue thought good for this purpose, before I intreat hereof, to make a briefe description of Africa, being that great part of the world, on whose West side beginneth the coast of Guinea at Cabo Verde, about twelue degrees in latitude, on this side the Equinoctiall line, and two degrees in longitude from the measuring line, so running from the North to the South, and by East in some places, within 5, 4, and 3 degrees and a halfe vnto the Equinoctiall, and so foorth in maner directly East and by North, for the space of 36 degrees or thereabout, in longitude from the West to the East, as shall more plainly appeare in the description of the second voyage.
And so the Kinge of Spaine hath no footinge beyonde the said tropicke; which is contrary to the opinion of the vulgar sorte, which ymagine, and by some are borne in hande, that all is his from the equinoctiall as farr as the lande stretcheth towardes the pooles.
To come more neere vnto particulars, I haue here set downe the very originals and infancie of our trades to the Canarian Ilands, to the kingdomes of Barbarie, to the mightie riuers of Senega and Gambia, to those of Madrabumba, and Sierra Leona, and the Isles of Cape Verde, with twelue sundry voyages to the sultry kingdomes of Guinea and Benin, to the Ile of San Thome, with a late and true report of the weake estate of the Portugales in Angola, as also the whole course of the Portugale Caracks from Lisbon to the barre of Goa in India, with the disposition and qualitie of the climate neere and vnder the Equinoctiall line, the sundry infallible markes and tokens of approaching vnto, and doubling of The Cape of good Hope, the great variation of the compasse for three or foure pointes towards the East between the Meridian of S. Michael one of the Islands of the Azores, and the aforesaid Cape, with the returne of the needle againe due North at the Cape Das Agulias, and that place being passed outward bound, the swaruing backe againe thereof towards the West, proportionally as it did before, the two wayes, the one within and the other without the Isle of S. Laurence, the dangers of priuie rockes and quicksands, the running seas, and the perils thereof, with the certaine and vndoubted signes of land.
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