Of ancient habitation &c. I gather not this opinion out of these wordes of Saxo (as some men do) that Island hath bene inhabited from the beginning or (to speake in one word) that the people of Island were autochthones, that is, earth-bred, or bred out of their owne soile like vnto trees and herbs: sithens it is euident that this Island scarse began to be inhabited no longer agoe then about 718 yeres since. [Footnote: The Viking Naddodr is said to have discovered Iceland in 860, and it was colonised by Ingulf, a chieftain from the west coast of Norway.]
This is Thyle, &c. Grammarians wrangle about this name, and as yet the controuersie is not decided. Which notwithstanding, I thinke might easily grow to composition, if men would vnderstand that this Iland was first inhabited about the yeere of our Lord 874. Vnlesse some man will say that Thule King of Ægypt (who, as it is thought, gaue this name thereunto) passed so farre vnto an Iland, which was at that time vntilled, and destitute of inhabitants. Againe, if any man will denie this, he may for all me, that it may seeme to be but a dreame, while they are distracted into so many contrary opinions. One affirmes that it is Island: another, that it is a certeine Iland, where trees beare fruit twise in a yeere: the third, that it is one of the Orcades, or the last Iland of the Scotish dominion, as Iohannes Myritius and others, calling it by the name of Thylensey, which Virgil also seemeth to haue meant by his vltima Thyle. If beyond the Britans (by which name the English men and Scots onely at this day are called) he imagined none other nation to inhabit. Which is euident out of that verse of Virgil in his first Eclogue:
And Britans whole from all the world diuided.
The fourth writeth, that it is one of the Faar-Ilands: the fift, that it is
Telemark in Norway: the sixt, that it is Scrichfinnia.
[Sidenote: The ice of Iseland sets always to the West.] Which continually cleaueth to the North part of the Iland. That clause that ice continually cleaueth &c. or as Munster affirmeth a little after, that it cleaueth for the space of eight whole moneths, are neither of them both true, when as for the most part the ice is thawed in the moneth of April or May, and is driuen towards the West: neither doth it returne before Ianuarie or Februarie, nay often times it commeth later. [Sidenote: No ice at all some yeres in Island.] What if a man should recken vp many yeeres, wherein ice (the sharpe scourge of this our nation) hath not at all bene seene about Island? which was found to be true this present yeere 1592. Heereupon it is manifest how truely Frisius hath written that nauigation to this Iland lieth open onely for foure moneths in a yeere, and no longer, by reason of the ice and colde, whereby the passage is shut vp, when as English ships euery yere, sometimes in March, sometimes in April, and some of them in May; the Germans and Danes, in May and Iune, doe vsually returne vnto vs, and some of them depart not againe from hence till August. [Sidenote: Nauigation open to Island from March till the midst of Nouember.] But the last yere, being 1591, there lay a certeine shippe of Germanie laden with Copper within the hauen of Vopnafiord in the coast of Island about fourteene dayes in the moneth of Nouember, which time being expired, she fortunately set saile. Wherefore, seeing that ice, neither continually, nor yet eight moneths cleaueth vnto Iland, Munster and Frisius are much deceiued. [Footnote: The mean temperature of Iceland is said to be 40 degrees.]
SECTIO QUARTA
[Sidenote: Kranzius. Munsterus.] Tam grandis Insula, vt populos multos contineat. Item, Zieglerus. Situs Insulæ extenditur inter austrum & boream ducentorum prope Schænorum longitudine.
Grandis.) Wilstenius quidam, rector Scholæ OLDENBVRGENSIS Anno 1591. ad auunculum meum in Islandia Occidentali misit breuem commentarium, quem ex scriptorum rapsodijs de Islandia collegerat. Vbi sic reperimus Islandia duplo maior Sicilia,&c. Sicilia autem secundum Munsterum 150. milliaria Germanica in ambitu habet. [Sidenote: Magnitudo Islandiæ.] Nostræ verò Insulæ ambitus etsi nobis non est exactè cognitus, tamen vetus & constans opinio, & apud nostrates recepta 144. milliaria numerat per duodecim videlicet promontoria Islandiæ insigniora, quæ singula 12. inter se milliaribus distent, aut circiter, quæ collecta prædictam summam ostendunt.
Populos multos.) Gysserus quidam, circa annum Domini 1090, Episcopus Schalholtensts in Islandia, omnes Insulæ colonos seu rusticos qui tantas facultates possiderent, vt regi tributum soluere tenerentur (reliquis pauperibus cum foeminis & promiscuo vulgo omissis) lustrari curauit, reperítque in parte Insulæ Orientali 700, meridionali 1000, Occidentali 1100, Aquilonari 1200. Summa 4000. colonorum tributa soluentium. Iam si quis experiatur, inueniet Insulam plus dimidio fuisse inhabitatam.
The same in English.