The decades of the newe worlde or west India conteynyng the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes, with the particular description of the moste ryche and large landes and ilandes lately founde in the west ocean perteynyng to the inheritaunce of the kinges of Spayne. ... Wrytten in the Latine tounge by Peter Martyr of Angleria, and translated into Englysshe by Rycharde Eden.

¶ Gronlande.

GRonlande is interpreted greene lande: so cauled for the great increase and frutefulnesse of pasture. By reason wherof, what great plentie of cattayle there is, it may hereby appere that at such tyme as shyppes may passe thyther they set furth great heapes of cheese and butter to bee sould, wherby wee coniecture that the lande is not rowgh with bar¦ren mountaynes. It hath two Cathedrall Churches vnder thordina••ion of Nidrosia. To one of these, was of late yea∣res a bysshop appoynted onely by the tytle of a suffragane in consideration that while the metropolitane dooth neglect the direction of religion for the distance of the place and difficult nauigation, the people is in maner faulne to gentilitie, beinge of them selfe of mouable wyttes and gyuen to magical artes. For it is sayde that they (as also the people of Laponia) doo rayse tempestes on the sea with magical inchauntmentes, and brynge such shippes into daungeour as they int••••de to spoile. They vse lyttle shyppes made of lether, and safe ageynste the brusynge of the sea and rockes, and with them assayle other shippes. Peter Martyr of Angletia, writeth in his Decades

of the Spanisshe nauigations, that Sebastian Cabote sayling from Englande continually towarde the north, folowed that course so farre that he chaunsed vppon greate flakes of Ise in the mooneth of Iuly: and that diuertynge from thense, he folowed the coaste by the shore bendynge towarde the South vntyl he came to the clime of the Ilande of Hispaniola aboue Cuba, an Iland of the Canibales. Which narration hath gi∣uen me occasion to extende Gronlande beyonde the promon∣tory or cape of Huitsarch to the continente or firme lande of Lapponia aboue the castell of Wardhus: which thynge I did the rather for that the reuerende Archebysshoppe of Nidro∣sia, constantely affirmed that the sea bendethe there into the forme of a crooked elbowe. It agreeth herewith also, that the Lapones consent with them in the lyke magical practises and doo neyther imbrase the Christian religion nor refuse it: wherby I haue thowght this lykenesse of customes to bee be∣twene them bycause they ioyne togyther in one continent. The distance lykewyse, seemeth not to disagree. For betwene both these people, the distance is not full twoo hundreth Sch••ni, euery one being a space of grounde conteinyng .lx. furlonges, which make .vii. myles and a halfe. It furthermore agreeth with this coniecture that Cabote chaunsed into such Ise. And albeit as touchynge the mooneth of Iuly, I wyll contend it is not well rehersed, no althowghe he had sayled vnder the pole, for such reasons as wee haue declared before to the con∣trary, neuerthelesse, that at sum tyme he sayled by Ise, this testifieth in that he sayled not by the mayne sea, but in places nere vnto the lande comprehendyng and imbrasyng the sea in forme of a goulfe, wheras for the same cause, the goulfe of Gothland is frosen bycause it is streyght & narow, in the whi¦che also the lyttle quantitie of salt water is ouercoome by the abundance of fresshe water of many and greate ryuers that faule into the goulfe. But betwene Norwaye and Islande, the sea is not frosen for the contrary cause, forasmuch as the poure of fresshe water is there ouercomme of thabundance of the salte water. There is a fame (but of vncerteyne autoritie) that the Spanyardes sayle at this presente to Gronlande, and to an other lande which they caule Terra viridis, that is, the greene lande, bringynge from thense suche wares as are founde in Gronlande. Towarde the north, it reacheth to the

vnknowen lande vnder the pole, from whense also the theues and robbers of th•• Pigmei coomme into this lande. Whiche is an argument that the regions vnder the pole are inhabited and almost enuironed with the sea, as are they whiche the Cosmographers caule Chersonnesi or Peninsula (that is) al∣most Ilandes.

☞ The description of Gronlande. ¶ The description of the East syde whiche lyeth towarde Norway.

Wardhus castell.	54.		70.	50.
Towarde the North.	53.	30.	71.	30.
The fyrst extention.	40.		71.	40.
The seconde extention.	28.		72.
Huitsarch. promont.	22.		67.
The extention.	5.		61.	45.

It is continued from thense by the coastes of the lande of Baccallaos. 356. 60.

Towarde the west and north, it is termined with an vnkno∣wen ende of landes and seas.

Notes

• Frutefull pasture.
• Religion neg∣lected.
• Inchaunters
• The vyage of Sebastian Cabote to the frosen sea
• Gronlande.
• wardhus.
• Lapponia & Gronlande.
• Schoeni.
• Cabote tould me that this Ise is of fresshe wa∣ter, and not of the sea.
• A commixtiō of salt water and fresshe.
• The sea be∣twene Nor∣way and Is∣lande.
• Terra Viridis.
• Pigme.
• Baccalaos.