Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation

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To proove that these Indians aforenamed came not by the Southeast, Southwest, nor from any other part of Afrike, or America .
Cap. 5.

FIRST, they could not come from the Southeast by the Cape de bona Speranca, because the roughnes of the Seas there is such (occasioned by the currents andgreat winds in that part) that the greatest Armadas the king of Portugal hath, cannot without great difficulty passe that way, much lesse then a Canoa of India could live in those outragious seas without shipwracke (being a vessell of very small burden) and have conducted themselves to the place aforesayd, being men unexpert in the Arte of navigation.

2 Also, it appeareth plainely that they were not able to come from alongst the coast of Afrike aforesayd, to those parts of Europe, because the winds doe (for the most part) blow there Easterly off from the shore, and the current running that way in like sort, should have driven them Westward upon some part of America : for such winds and tides could never have led them from thence to the said place where they were found, nor yet could they have come from any of the countries aforesayd, keeping the seas alwayes, without skilful mariners to have conducted them such like courses as were necessary to performe such a voiage.

3 Presupposing also, if they had bene driven to the West (as they must have bene, comming that way) then they should have perished, wanting supplie of victuals, not having any place (once leaving the coast of Afrike） untill they came to America , nor from America untill they arrived upon some part of Europe, or the Islands adjoyning to it, to have refreshed themselves.

4 Also, if (notwithstanding such impossibilities) they might have recovered Germanie by comming from India by the Southeast, yet must they without all doubt have striken upon some other part of Europe before their arrivall there, as the Isles of the Acores, Portugal , Spaine, France, England, Ireland , &c. which if they had done, it is not credible that they should or would have departed undiscovered of the inhabitants: but there was never found in those dayes any such ship or men but only upon the coasts of Germanie, where they have bene sundry times and in sundry ages cast aland: neither is it like that they would have committed themselves againe to sea, if they had so arrived, not knowing where they were, nor whither to have gone.

5 And by the Southwest it is unpossible, because the current aforesayd which commeth from the East, striketh with such force upon the fret of Magellan, and falleth with such swiftnesse and furie into Mar del Zur, that hardly any ship (but not possibly a Canoa, with such unskilfull mariners) can come into our Westerne Ocean through that fret, from the West seas of America , as Magellans experience hath partly taught us.

6 And further, to proove that these people so arriving upon the coast of Germany , were Indians, & not inhabiters of any part either of Africa or America , it is manifest, because the natives both of Africa and America neither had, or have at this day (as is reported) other kind of boates then such as do beare neither mastes nor sailes, (except onely upon the coasts of Barbarie and the Turkes ships) but do carie themselves from place to place neere the shore by the ore onely.