Chap. I.—That it is not out of purpose, but necessarie, to treate of the nature of the Equinoctiall

For the well conceiving of things at the Indies, it is necessarie to know the nature and disposition of that Region, which the Ancients did call the burning Zone, the which they held uninhabitable, seeing the greatest part of this new world, which hath bin of late discovered, lies and is scituate vnder this region. And it seemes to me greatly to purpose which some do say, that the knowledge of things at the Indies depends on the well vnderstanding the nature of the Equinoctiall; for that the difference which is betwixt the one and the other world proceeds in a manner from the qualities of this Equinoctiall. And we must note that all the space betwixt the two Tropickes must be properly taken and held for this middle line, which is the Equinoctiall; so called, for that the Sunne running his course therein, makes the daies and nights even throughout the world; yea, they that dwell vnder this line, inioy, throughout the yeare, the same equalitie of daies and nights. In this Equinoctiall line we finde so many admirable qualities, that with great reason man's vnderstanding doth studie and labour to search out the causes, not moved therevnto so much by the doctrine of ancient Philosophers, as by reason and certaine experience.