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A Certeyne caruell saylynge in the weste Ocean a∣bowt the coastes of Spayne, had a forcyble and continuall wynde from the East wherby it was dryuen to a land vnknowen and not descrybed in any mappe or carde of the sea:* 1.1 and was dry¦uen
styl alonge by the coaste of the same for the space of many dayes vntyll it came to a hauen: where in a shorte tyme the most parte of the maryners beinge longe before verye weake and feeble by reason of hunger & trauayle, dyed: So that on¦ly the pylot with thre or foure other remayned alyue. And not only they that dyed dyd not inioy the Indies which they fyrst discouered to theyr mysfortune, but the resydue also that ly∣ued had in maner as lyttle fruition of the same: not leauynge or at the least not openly publyshynge any memorie therof, ney¦ther of the place, or what it was cauled, or in what yeare it was founde. Albeit, the faute was not theyrs, but rather the malice of other, or the enuie of that which wee caule fortune. I doo not therefore marueyle that the auncient hystories af∣firme that great thynges proceade and increase of smaul and obscure be∣gynnynges,* 1.2 syth wee haue seene the same verefyed in this fyndyng of the Indies, being so notable and newe a thynge. Wee neede not bee curious to seeke the name of the pylot syth death made a shorte ende of his doinges. Sum wyl that he came from Andaluzia, and traded to the Ilands of Ca∣naria and the Ilande of Madera when this large and mortal nauigation chaūced vnto hym.* 1.3 Other say that he was a Bys∣cayne, and traded into Englande and Fraunce. Other also, that he was a Portugale: and that eyther he wente or came from Mina or India:* 1.4 which agreeth well with the name of these newe landes as I haue sayde before. Ageyne, sum there bee that say that he browght the carauel to Portugale: or to the Ilande of Madera, or to sum other of the Ilandes cauled delos Azores. Yet doo none of them affirme any thynge, al∣thowgh they all affirme that the pylotte dyed in the house of Chrystopher Colon, with whome remayned al such wrytynges and annotacions as he hadde made of his vyage in the sayde carauell, aswell of such thynges as he obserued both by lande and sea, as also of the eleuation of the pole in those landes whi∣che he had dis∣couered.
A harde be∣gynnyng.
Great thinges proceadyng of smaule and obscure be∣gynnynges.
The pylotte that fyrst founde the Indies.
Mina.