Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/233

 Chap. TX] THORNE'S MEMORIAL TO HENRY VIIL 199

" Now I, considering tliis your noble courage and desire, and also per- ^ d 1527. ceiving that yoiu' grace may, at your pleasiu-e, to your greater glory, by a " godly raeane, with little cost, perill, or labour to your grace, or any of your subjects, amplifie and inrich this youi* sayd realme, I know it is my bounden Thorne«

•/>!• i'ii-i T memorial to

duety to mamfest this secret unto your grace, which hitherto, as I suppose, Henry vi 11. hath beene hid; which is, that with a small number of ships there may be discovered divers new lands and kingdomes, in which without doubt your grace shall winne perj3etual glory, and your subjects infinite profite.".

The so-called " secret," thus announced rather more pompously than the com- paratively trite ideas composing it seem to justify, was simply the possibility of reaching the East by a voyage northwards. The memorial accordingly thus continues: — "There is left one way to discover, which is into the Northe; for' that of the foure partes of the worlde, three partes are discovered by other princes. For out of Spaine they have discovered all the Indies and Seas Occidental!, and out of Portingall all the Indies and Seas Orientall; so that by this part of the Orient and Occident they have encompassed the worlde."

Tiie North being thus the only field of maritime discovery not foreclosed, the memorial, after adducing several pithy reasons why Henry sliould imme- diately occupy it, enters into an explanation of the different courses which vessels fitted out for discovery might take, and the results that might be anti- cipated. The first object, of course, is to pass the pole ; but of this, though really the crowning difficulty, Mr. Thome makes light, and then proceeds: —

"If they will go toward the Orient, they shall injoy the region of all the ins views as

, to a iiorth-

Tartarians that extend toward the mid - day, and from thence they may em passage goe and proceede to the land of the Chinas, and from tlience to the land of Cathaio Orientall, which is of all the maine land most Orientall that can be reckoned from our habitation. And if from thence they doe continue their navigation, following the coasts that retume toward the Occident, they shall fsill in with Malaca, and so with all the Indies which we call Orientall, and fol- lowing tiie way may retume hither by the Cape of Buona Speransa ; and thus they shall compass the whole worlde. And if they will take their course after they be past the Pole toward the Occident, they shall goe to the backe side of the New found land, which of late was discovered by your grace's subjects, untill they come to the backe side and South Seas of the Indies Occidentall. And so continuing their voyage, they may retume through the Streight of Magellan to this countrey ; and so they compass also the world by tliis way. And if they goe the thirde way, and after they be past the Pole, goe right toward the Pole Antartique, and then decline toward the lands and islands situated between the Tropikes and under the Equinoctiall, without doubt they shall find there the riciiest lands and islands of the world, of golde, precious stones, balmes, spices, and other thinges that we here esteeme most ; which come out of strange countries, and may returne the same way." The conclusion is: —