EAST INDIA BY THE NORTHWESTW[ARD].

Captayn hath now allready and hath put that matter owt of [all dowbt] that he there hath found the same seas [passing from] the one into the other. Neither nede I [say anythi]ng touching the naturall riches and infinit t[reas]or and the great traffik of rich merchandise th[at] is in those cuntries of Kathay, China, India, and [other] cuntries therabouts, for that every boke of histo[ry or] cosmography of those parts of the world, which a[re] to be had in euery prynters shop, doo declare [the] same at large: and the cuntries of Spayn and Portingale doo fynde and feele the same to their great ioy. But of the matters that chiefly moved me to enterprise and avance this new voyage, and to venture my mony therein so largely: I will say briefly that three things chiefly moved me thereto. First: The great hope to fy[nde] our English seas open into the seas of East India by that way, which I conceved by the great likelyhood therof which I found in reading the histories of many mens travailes toward that parte of the world, whereby we might have passage by sea to those rich cuntries for traffik of merchandize, which was the thing I chiefly desyred.