nt to Cologne, where he remained a
fortnight, distributing his engravings with generous hand, visiting
the churches and their pictures, and buying all manner of odd things.
Early in November, by the aid of the Nuremberg ambassadors, he
obtained from the Emperor his _Confirmatia_, "with great trouble and
labor." This coveted document, which formed one of the main objects
of his journey to the North, confirmed him in the pension which
Maximilian had granted him, and made him painter to the Emperor.

From Cologne he returned with all speed down the river to Antwerp,
being entertained at Bois-le-Duc, "a pretty town, which has an
extraordinarily beautiful church," by the painter Arnold de Ber and
the goldsmiths, "who showed me very much honor." On arriving at
Antwerp, he resumes his accounts of the sales and gifts of his
engravings, and the enumeration of his domestic expenses. Soon
afterward he heard of a monstrous whale being thrown up on the
Zealand coast, and posted off in December to see it, taking a vessel
from Bergen-op-Zoom, of whose well-built houses and great markets he
speaks. "We sailed before sunset by a village, and saw only the points
of the roofs projecting out of the water; and we sailed for the island
of Wohlfaertig [Walcheren], and for the little town of Sunge in another
adjacent island. There were seven islands; and Ernig, where I passed
the night, is the largest. From thence we went to Middleburg, where I
saw in the abbey the great picture that Johann de Abus [Mabuse] had
done. The drawing is not so good as the painting. After that we came
to Fahr, where ships from all lands unload: it is a fine town. But at
Armuyden a great danger befell me; for just as we were going to land,
and our ropes were thrown out, there came a large ship alongside of
us, and I was about to land, but there was such a press that I let
every one land before me, so that nobody but I, Georg Kotzler, two old
women, and the skipper with one small boy, were left in the ship. And
when I and the above-named persons were on board, and could not get on
shore, then the heavy cable broke, and a strong wind came on, which
drove our ship powerfully before it. Then we all cried loudly for
help, but no one ventured to give it; and the wind beat us out again
to sea.... Then there was great anxiety and fear; for the wind was
very great, and not more than six persons on board. But I spoke to the
skipper, and told him to take heart, and put his trus