For that (said the king) _if England had knowledge and experience thereof_, _it would greatly hinder both the King of Spain and me_.

This friar (as Salva Terra reported) was the greatest discoverer by sea that hath been in our age.

Also Salva Terra, being persuaded of this passage by the friar Urdaneta, and by the common opinion of the Spaniards inhabiting America, offered most willingly to accompany me in this discovery, which of like he would not have done if he had stood in doubt thereof.
And now, as these modern experiences cannot be impugned, so, least it might be objected that these things (gathered out of ancient writers, which wrote so many years past) might serve little to prove this passage by the north of America, because both America and India were to them then utterly unknown; to remove this doubt, let this suffice, that Aristotle (who was 300 years before Christ) named the Indian Sea.

Also Berosus (who lived 330 before Christ) hath these words, _Ganges in India_.
Also in the first chapter of Esther be these words: "In the days of Ahasuerus, which ruled from India to Ethiopia," which Ahasuerus lived 580 years before Christ.

Also Quintus Curtius, where he speaketh of the Conquest of Alexander, mentioneth India.