MEMOIR
OP
SEBASTIAN CABOT;
WITH
A REVIEW
HISTORY OF MARITIME DISCOVERY.
ILLUSTRATED BY DOCUMENTS FROM THE ROLLS,
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON: SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER,
1832.
A^
HARJKTTK AND SAVILL, PRINTERS, 10/, ST. MARTIN'S I.ANK, CHARING CR
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION ..... 1
BOOK I.
CHAP. I.
The highest Northern Latitude reached by Cabot — Authorities collected by Hakluyt — Attempt to explain their supposed discrepance . 7
CHAP. II. The subject continued — Gomara . . . . .20
CHAP. III. Cabot penetrated into Hudson's Bay . . . . .27
CHAP. IV.
First Work of Hakluyt— Maps and Discourses left by Sebastian Cabot at his death ready for Publication . . . . .38
CHAP. V.
Comparative Agency of John and Sebastian Cabot . . .42
CHAP. VI.
First point seen by Cabot — Not Newfoundland . . .52
CHAP. VII.
Cabot did not confer the name Prima Vista . . . -58
CHAP. VIII.
Richard Eden's " Decades of the New World" — Cabot's own Statement as to the Place of his Birth . . . . . .62
CHAP. IX.
Patents of 5th March, 1496, and 3rd February, 1498— The latter now first published from the Rolls — Total misconception heretofore as to its Terms ........ 71
CHAP. X.
Name of the English Ship which first reached the Continent of America — How far Cabot proceeded to the Southward along the Coast — Subse quent Voyage of 1498 . . . . . .79
IV CONTENTS.
CHAP. XI.
Voyage to Maracaibo, in 1499 . . . . -91
CHAP. XII.
Correspondence between Ferdinand of Spain and Lord Willoughby de Broke — Cabot enters the service of Spain 13th September, 1512 — Revision of Maps and Charts in 1515 — Appointed a Member of the Council of the Indies — Projected Expedition to the North under his Command to Sail in March, 1516 — Death of Ferdinand in January, 1516 — Intrigues — Cabot returns to England . . .97
CHAP. XIII. Cabot's Voyage of 1517 from England in search of the North -West
103
CHAP. XIV.
Hakluyt's error with regaid to the Voyage of 1517 • • .110
CHAP. XV. Voyage of 1517, the one referred to by Cabot in his Letter to Ramusio . 117
CHAP. XVI.
Cabot appointed, in 1518, Pilot-Major of Spain — Summoned to attend the Congress at Badajos, in 1524 — Projected Expedition under his Command to the Moluccas ..... . 102
CHAP. XVII.
Jealousy of the contemplated Expedition on the part of Portugal — Mis sion of Diego Garcia, a Portuguese . . . .125
CHAP. XVIII.
Interference with the arrangements for the Voyage- — Mendez appointed second in Command contrary to the wishes of Cabot — De Rojas — The Sealed Orders — Prejudices of the Spanish Historians — Expedition sails . .... 131
CHAP. XIX.
Complaints in the Squadron — Pretended Causes of Dissatisfaction — / Mutiny — Quelled by the Energy of Cabot — Happy Results — His con
duct justified to the Emperor — Ridiculous charges suggested by Diego Garcia . . . " * ' ~ . . . . 136
CHAP. XX.
Cabot enters the La Plata — Necessity for eaution — His Predecessor as Pilot-Major killed in attempting to explore that River — Carries the Island of St. Gabriel — His progress to St. Salvador, where a Fort is erected — Its position — Loss in taking possession . . . 145
CHAP. XXI.
Cabot proceeds up the Parana — Erects another Fort, called Santus Spiritus, and afterwards Fort Cabot — Its Position — Continues to ascend — Curiosity of the Natives as to the Expedition — Passes the Mouth of the Parana — Enters the Paraguay — Sanguinary Battle thirty-four leagues up that River — Three Hundred of the Natives killed, with a loss to Cabot of Twenty-five of his Party— Maintains his Position — Garcia enters the River — Interview with Cabot — Mis takes of Charlcvoix, &c. — Cabot returns to the Fort Santus Spiritus 152
CONTENTS. V
CHAP. XXII. PAGE
Report -to Charles V. — Its Contents — Prospect which it held out — Peru contemplated in Cabot's original Plan of 1524 — Specimens found by him of the precious metals obtained thence by the Guaranis — Emperor resolves on a great Expedition — His pecuniary embarrass ments — Pizarro offers to make the Conquest of Peru at his own Ex pense — Reflections — The Name Rio de La Plata not conferred by Cabot — Misrepresentation on this and other points . .158
CHAP. XXIII.
Cabot's residence in the La Plata — Subjection of remote tribes — Claims of Spain rested on this Expedition — Treaty with the Guaranis — Detailed Report to the Emperor as to the productions, &c. of the country — Misconduct of the followers of Garcia — Leads to a general attack from the Natives — Return to Spain . . . . . . .165
CHAP. XXIV.
Employment of Cabot after his return — Resumes his functions as Pilot- Major — Makes several voyages — Fame for bravery and skill — Visit of a learned Italian — Cabot's allusion to Columbus . . . .169
CHAP. XXV.
Perversion of facts and dates by Harris and Pinkerton — Cabot's return to England — Probable inducements — Erroneous reason assigned by Mr. Barrow — Charles V. makes a demand on the King of England for his return — Refused — Pension to Cabot — Duties confided to him — More extensive than those belonging to the office of Pilot-Major . 173
CHAP. XXVI.
Public explanation by Cabot to Edward VI. of the phenomena of the Va riation of the Needle — Statement of Livio Sanuto — Point of No Variation fixed by Cabot — Adopted afterwards by Mercator for his Great Meridian — Reference to Cabot's Map — Early testimonials — Al lusion to the English discoveries in the edition of Ptolemy published at Rome in 1508 — Fournier — Attention to note the Variation by the seamen of Cabot's school — His theory, if a narrow one, would have been thus exposed ....... 177
CHAP. XXVII.
Mistake of Purchas, Pinkerton, Dr. Henry in his History of GreatBritain, Campbell in the Lives of the Admirals, and other writers, as to the Knighting of John or Sebastian Cabot . , . . 181
CHAP. XXVIII.
Stagnation of trade in England — Cabot consulted by the Merchants — Urges the enterprise which resulted in the trade to Russia — Prelimi nary difficulties — Struggle with the Stilyard — That Monopoly broken down — Earnestness of Edward VI. on the subject — His munificent donation to Cabot after the result was declared 184
VI CONTENTS.
CHAP. XXIX. PAGE
Preparations for the Expedition — Precautions as to Timber — Sheathing of the vessels now first resorted to in England — Examination of two Tartars — Chief command given to Sir Hugh Willoughby — Richard Chancellor — Stephen Burrough — William Burrough — Arthur Pet — This Expedition confounded with another by Strype and Campbell . 188
CHAP. XXX.
Instructions prepared by Cabot for Sir Hugh Willoughby . .192
CHAP. XXXI.
The Expedition drops down to Greenwich — Salutes — Animating scene — Proceeds to sea — Vessels separated — Fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby — Chancellor reaches Wardhouse — Earnestly dissuaded from proceeding further — His gallant resolution — Confidence of the Crew in him — Reaches Archangel — Excellent effect of observing Cabot's Instructions as to deportment towards the Natives — Success of Chancellor . .195
CHAP. XXXII.
Charter to the Company of Merchant Adventurers — Sebastian Cabot named Governor for Life — Grant of Privileges by the Emperor of Russia to Sebastian Cabot and others — An Ambassador from the Emperor embarks with Richard Chancellor — Shipwreck — Chancellor perishes — Reception and entertainment of the Ambassador in London . .199
CHAP. XXXIII.
View of the Trade opened with Russia from the Letters of the Company to the Agents — Prices of English manufactured goods — Articles ob tained in return — Extensive establishment of Englishmen at Moscow when that city was destroyed by the Tartars . . .202
CHAP. XXXIV.
The Charter of Incorporation — Recites preparations actually made for voyages to the North, North-East, and North- West — How frustrated — Whale Fishery — Newfoundland Fishery — The Ambassador of the Sophy of Persia at Moscow — His information to the Emperor of Russia about England — Followed up by a Messenger to Persia from England with a Letter proposing commercial intercourse . .211
CHAP. XXXV.
The Search-thrift despatched to the North in 1556, under Stephen Burrough — Cabot's entertainment at Gravesend — Influence of the death of Edward VI. on his personal fortunes — Reviving hopes of the Stilyard Merchants — their insolent reference to the Queen in a me morial addressed to Philip — The latter reaches London 20th May, 1557 — New arrangement as to Cabot's Pension 29th May, 1557 — William Worthington in possession of his papers — Account of that person- Manner in which the Maps and Discourses have probably disappeared — Cabot's Illness — Affecting Account of his Last Moments, by the Friend who attended him . . .216
CONTENTS. VU
BOOK II.
CHAP. I. PAGE
Review of the History of Maritime Discovery, so far as may be necessary to exhibit the pervading influence of Cabot — Patent of 19th March 1501, now first published from the Rolls, to three Merchants of Bristol, and three Portuguese — Natives bi ought to England and exhibited at Court — Erroneous reference of this incident to Cabot — Hakluyt's per version—Second Patent 9th December, 1502— Dr. Robertson's mis conceptions — Probable reasons for the abandonment of the enterprise, 225
CHAP. II.
First visit of Columbus to Terra Firma on his third voyage — Apprised before leaving Spain of Cabot's Discovery of the Continent — 'Projected Expedition to the North from Spain . . . . .235
CHAP. III.
Expedition from Portugal — Cortereal — The work entitled Paesi nova- mente ritrovati, &c. — Letters of the Venetian Ambassador at Lisbon eleven days after the return of Cortereal — Reference to the previous voyage of Cabot — Trinkets found amongst the Natives — French Trans lation of the Paesi, &c. in 1516 ..... 237
CHAP. IV.
The region visited by Cortereal — Statements of the three Portuguese Historians, Damiano Goes, Osorius, and Galvano — Of Gornara, Her- rera, and Furnee — Edition of Ptolemy, published at Basle, 1540 — The name Labrador, i. e. Labourer ..... 245
CHAP. V.
Circumstances which have led to errors as to the voyage of Cortereal — The Portuguese Maps — Isle of Demons — The fraud of Madrignanon in the Itincrarium Portityallensium — Mr. Barrow's Chronological History of Voyages, &c. — Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia — The Edinburgh Cabinet Library . . . . 7 ' . . . 249
CHAP. VI.
Diffusive mischief of the Itiuerarium Portugallensium — Grynoeus — Meusel— Fleurieu — Hurnboldt, &c. . . ';. ; . . 256
CHAP. VII.
Project of Cortes in 1524 . '. .; -. ••;'-'•' . 262
CHAP. VIII.
Voyage of Stephen Gomez in the service of Spain J . • . ' . 265
CHAP. IX.
Expedition from England in 1527 — Erroneous statement that one of the vessels was named Dominus Vobiscum — Their names, The Samson and The Mary of Guilford — Letters from the Expedition dated at New foundland, addressed to Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey — The Ita lian Navigator, Juan Verrazani, accompanies the Expedition and is killed by the Natives — Loss of the Samson — The Mary of Guilford visits Brazil, Porto Rico, &c. — Arrives in England October 1527 — Robert Thorne of Bristol — His letter could not "have led to this Expe dition ........ 272
Vlll CONTENTS.
CHAP. X. PAGE
Voyage from England in 1536 ...... 283
CHAP. XL
Expedition of Cortereal in 1574, and retrospect to a pietended voyage by a person of the same name in 1464 ..... 28G
CHAP. XII. Frobisher ........ 290
CHAP. XIII. Hudson 300
APPENDIX.
(A.) Fabyan's Chronicle — Allusion to Cabot
(B.) English Expedition said to have been found by Hojeda at Caquibacoa . 307
(C.) Was Cabot appointed Grand Pilot ? . . . . .311
(D.)
Letters Patent now first published, dated IQth March 1501, from Henry VII. to Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst, John Thomas, of Bristol, and John Fernandus, Francis Fernandus, and John Gunsolus, Por tuguese . . 312
(E.)
Possible origin of the misconception as to the name Dominus vobiscum erroneously associated with the voyage of 1527 from England — Fors- ter's mistake as to Norumbega — Error as to the period at which New foundland was first frequented for Fishing . . . .321
(F.) Portrait of Sebastian Cabot by Holbein . . . .323
(G.)
Error in attributing to Cabot the work entitled " Navigatione nelle parte Settentrionale," published at Venice in 1583 . . . 326
INTRODUCTION.
THE following pages lay claim to the share of merit that may be due to a spirit of diligent research which took nothing at second hand where an original writer, or document, could be consulted, and would not be turned aside, by any authority, from the anxious pur suit, and resolute vindication, of the Truth. They are offered, therefore, with the confidence inspired by a consciousness of good faith. Yet the author is suffi ciently aware that the public has nothing to do with the integrity of his purpose, or the patient industry with which it has been followed up, except so far as a valua ble result may have been achieved.
What is now submitted made part, originally, of a much more extensive plan. But there was found, at every turn, so much to clear up, and the materials for rectification so multiplied, that it seemed impossible to treat the subject satisfactorily without giving to it, in connexion with any other, a cumbrous and dispropor- tioned air. To hazard assertions, and to venture on the requisite plainness of criticism, without producing the evidence which justified a departure from received
ii
opinions could have effected no good purpose, and \vouli have justly incurred the charge of presumption. Erro was too deeply intrenched to permit a hope of dislodging it, unless through the regular, though tedious, forms o investment.
The author is very sensible of the dry and argumenta tive manner here imparted to topics which have usuall; been viewed, and treated, as susceptible of the highes embellishment. He can only hope that others ma; catch a feeling, such as gained on himself at every step which, in the disentanglement of facts, rejects impati ently, rather than solicits, whatever does not conduc directly to the result. The mind seems to demand, wit sternness, that this labour shall first be gone through as the eye requires a solid foundation, and an assure elevation, before it can rest with complacency on th decorative acanthus.
Amidst a great deal of undeniably fine writing on th subject with which the present volume is connected, i would seem to have secured to itself less than any othe of patient and anxious labour. The task of settiii facts right has been regarded as an unworthy drudger) while an ambitious effort is witnessed to throw thei before the public eye in all the fantastic shapes, an deceptive colouring, of error. Gibbon remarks of Till* mont, that his inimitable Accuracy " almost assumes th character of Genius." Many writers of the present da seem to have constantly in view the tendency of th public mind to a classification" of powers, and to drea lest any remarkable display of the quality in questior might be artfully seized on as characteristic, and thu
Ill
prejudice their claims to the highest honours of authorship.
A new and urgent motive may be suggested for en deavouring to clear up, as speedily as possible, the con fusion which has hence been suffered to gather round the best established facts, and left their recognition or denial at the mercy of chance or caprice. While a salutary jealousy of extensive Combinations, in the Political World, distinguishes the present age, there has been organised in that of Letters, almost unobserved in this country, a confederacy which has gradually drawn to itself, and skilfully consolidated, a power that may now be pro nounced truly formidable. It has already begun to speak out plainly the language of dictation. The great literary achievement of modern France — the " Biogra- phie Universelle" — is at length brought to a close, com pleting by the fifty-second volume its triumph over the alphabet. It is a work destined, unquestionably, to exercise an important influence over the Rights of the Dead of all Nations. When it stated that the list of contributors contains the names of more than three hundred writers of the highest literary eminence in France, from the year 1810, when the first volume appeared, to the present time, that every article is accompanied by the name of the author to whom it had been assigned in reference to his habitual studies, and that not a line appeared without having been pre viously submitted to several contributors in succession, it must be obvious that the character of such a work is matter of deep and universal interest.
B 2
11
opinions could have effected no good purpose, and would have justly incurred the charge of presumption. Error was too deeply intrenched to permit a hope of dislodging it, unless through the regular, though tedious, forms of investment.
The author is very sensible of the dry and argumenta tive manner here imparted to topics which have usually been viewed, and treated, as susceptible of the highest embellishment. He can only hope that others may catch a feeling, such as gained on himself at every step, which, in the disentanglement of facts, rejects impati ently, rather than solicits, whatever does not conduce directly to the result. The mind seems to demand, with sternness, that this labour shall first be gone through, as the eye requires a solid foundation, and an assured elevation, before it can rest with complacency on the decorative acanthus.
Amidst a great deal of undeniably fine writing on the subject with which the present volume is connected, it would seem to have secured to itself less than any other of patient and anxious labour. The task of setting facts right has been regarded as an unworthy drudgery, while an ambitious effort is witnessed to throw them before the public eye in all the fantastic shapes, and deceptive colouring, of error. Gibbon remarks of Tille- mont, that his inimitable Accuracy " almost assumes the character of Genius." Many writers of the present day seem to have constantly in view the tendency of the public mind to a classification of powers, and to dread lest any remarkable display of the quality in question, might be artfully seized on as characteristic, and thus
iii
prejudice their claims to the highest honours of authorship.
A new and urgent motive may be suggested for en deavouring to clear up, as speedily as possible, the con fusion which has hence been suffered to gather round the best established facts, and left their recognition or denial at the mercy of chance or caprice. While a salutary jealousy of extensive Combinations, in the Political World, distinguishes the present age, there has been organised in that of Letters, almost unobserved in this country, a confederacy which has gradually drawn to itself, and skilfully consolidated, a power that may now be pro nounced truly formidable. It has already begun to speak out plainly the language of dictation. The great literary achievement of modern France — the " Biogra- phie Universelle" — is at length brought to a close, com pleting by the fifty-second volume its triumph over the alphabet. It is a work destined, unquestionably, to exercise an important influence over the Rights of the Dead of all Nations. When it stated that the list of contributors contains the names of more than three hundred writers of the highest literary eminence in France, from the year 1810, when the first volume appeared, to the present time, that every article is accompanied by the name of the author to whom it had been assigned in reference to his habitual studies, and that not a line appeared without having been pre viously submitted to several contributors in succession, it must be obvious that the character of such a work is matter of deep and universal interest.
B 2
IV
A Supplement is announced, in which notice will be taken of any inaccuracy, after which doubt and con troversy must cease.
" Les assertions ou les faits qu'on n'y pas rectifies ou dementis devront par ce moyen etre regardes comme a peu-pres incontestables et sans replique."
Thus The Dead, of the most remote age, are summoned to appear before this tribunal, and a charge is to be taken for confessed, unless an Answer be put in before the period (which yet is left indefinite) when the Supplement shall go to press. We may smile at this sally of self- importance, but ought not to forget that the authority of these volumes, whether for good or evil, will un questionably be extensive and commanding. Facts, and with them reputation, cannot, it is true, be irre vocably stereotyped; yet a perilous circulation may be given to the erroneous version, and a work which will influence, directly or indirectly, a majority of those whose opinions constitute fame, it were idle to treat with contempt, and unjust not to attempt to rectify, where its statements disparage a national benefactor.
It must be conceded that an omission of names can not fairly be laid to the charge of the Biographic Uni- verselle. The stream of time has been dragged with humane perseverance, and many who, it was supposed, had sunk to rise no more, are made to reappear at the surface. As to the more important question, how far there are manifested, in general, extent and accuracy of knowledge, and skill in its display, it might be unjust to offer an opinion without going into much greater detail than is here practicable. But it is quite fair to
assert that the many shameful marks of haste, heedless- ness and gross ignorance which it falls within the pre sent limited inquiry to expose — and more particularly in bibliography which is the subject of especial vaunt — may suffice to shew how idle must be considered its claim to infallibility, even after the appearance of the Supplement. In the article devoted to the subject of the present Memoir, the generous conclusion is an nounced, after a tissue of errors, that although no evi dence exists to establish the scene of his discoveries, yet they ought not to be deemed altogether fabulous, as some historians would represent, (" comme fabuleuses ainsi que quelques historiens out ete tentes de lepenser.") An effort is now made finally to secure his fame from the effects of either carelessness or malevolence.
BOOK I.
CHAP. I.
THE HIGHEST NORTHERN LATITUDE REACHED BY CABOT- — AUTHORITIES COL LECTED BY HAKLUYT — ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THEIR SUPPOSED DIS CREPANCE.
WITH a view to greater clearness, it is proposed to attempt, in the first instance, the settlement of certain points around which confusion has been suffered to gather, and which, demanding only a careful examination of authorities, may be advantageously con sidered apart from the narrative.
The first question — as one affecting materially the claim of Cabot to the character of an intrepid Navigator — is as to the point to which he urged his way in the North, a fact with regard to which statements exist seemingly quite irreconcilable.
The volumes of Hakluyt, usually regarded as of the highest authority, are supposed to present, on this subject, a chaos which, so far from lending assistance to clear up difficulties, rather dims, and threatens every moment to extinguish, the feeble light sup plied from other quarters. In the " Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions, 8cc., by John Barrow, F. R. S.," it is said, (p. 32,) " There is no possible way of reconciling the various accounts collected by Hakluyt, and which amount to no
8
less a number than six, but by supposing John Cabot to have made one voyage at least previous to the date of the patent, and some time between that and the date of the return of Columbus." The hypothesis thus declared to be indispensable is directly at variance with the terms of the original patent, and with the lan guage of every original writer ; and an effort will, therefore, now be made to shew, that the confusion complained of, does not exist in the materials for forming an opinion, but arises from the hasty and superficial manner in which they have been considered.
Taking up the accounts in the order in which they stand, they may be thus stated, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 6.)
1. " An extract from the map of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams, concerning his discovery of the West Indies, which is to be seen in his Majesty's Privy Gallery, at West minster, and in many other ancient merchants' houses." Nothing is said in this as to the latitude reached.
2. " A discourse of Sebastian Cabot," &c., wherein the narra tor asserts, that he heard the pope's legate say, that he had heard Cabot state, that he sailed only to the 56° of latitude, and then turned about.
3. A passage in the Preface to the third volume of Ramusio's Collection of Voyages. In this, the author says that in a written communication to him Sebastian Cabot stated that he reached the latitude of 67° and a half.
4. Part of the sixth chapter of the third decade of Peter Martyr, d'Angleria, in which nothing is said of the latitude reached, but the fact is stated, that he proceeded so far North, that it was " in manner continually day-light."
5. The statement of Francis Lopez Gomara, who, according to Hakluyt, represents Cabot to have " sailed beyond the Cape of Labrador, until he found himself in 58° and better." Cabot is here also said to have found " the days very long, in a man ner without any night, and for that short night that they had it was very clear."
6. An extract from Robert Fabyan's Annals, and from a letter
of Robert Thorn of Bristol, containing nothing as to the point under consideration.
Thus it is apparent, that the discrepance exists on a comparison of the second, third, and fifth items.
Postponing Gomara for the present, we pause on the two pas sages of Ramusio which are supposed to embody contradictory statements.
It is obvious, that if the present were an enquiry in a Court of Justice affecting the reputation, or property, of a living person, the evidence which limits Cabot to 56° would be at once rejected as incompetent. The alleged communication from him is exposed, in its transmission, not only to all the chances of misconception on the part of the pope's legate, but, admitting that personage to have truly understood, accurately remembered, and faithfully reported what he heard, we are again exposed to a similar series of errors on the part or our informant, who furnishes it to us at second hand. But the dead have not the benefits of the rules of evidence ; and we must, therefore, look to the circumstances which affect its credibility. It appears thus in Hakluyt : —
" A discourse of Sebastian Cabot touching his discovery of part of the West India out of England in the time of King Henry the Seventh, used to Galeacius Butrigarius, the Pope's Legate in Spaine, and reported by the sayd Legate in this sort :
" Doe you not understand, sayd he (speaking to certaine gentlemen of Venice,) how to passe to India toward the North-west, as did of late a citizen of Venice, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things pertaining to navigations, and the science of cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he is preferred above all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither without his licence, and is therefore called Piloto Mayor, that is, the grand pilot ? And when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Sivil, and desirous to have some knowledge of the naviga tions of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne, named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make cardes for the sea with his owne hand, and that by this report, seeking his acquaint ance, he found him a very gentle person, who entertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a large mappe of the world, with
10
certaine particuler navigations, as well of the Portugals as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further unto him to this effect : —
"When my father departed from Venice many yeeres since to dwell in Eng land, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie, and of the sphere. And when my father died in that time when newes were brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genoese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the court of king Henry the Seventh, who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine then humane, to saile by the West into the East, where spices growe, by a way that was neuer knowen before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the sphere, that if I should saile by way of the North-west, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the king to be advertised of my devise, who imme diately commanded two caravels to bee furnished with all things appertaining to the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496, in the be ginning of sommer. I began therefore to saile toward the North-west, not think ing to finde any other land then that of Cathay, and from thence to turn toward India ; but after certaine dayes I found that the land ranne towards the North, which was to mee a great displeasure. Neverthelesse, say ling along by the coast to see if I coulde finde any gulfe that turned, I found the lande still con tinent to the 66 degree under our pole. And seeing that there the coast turned toward the East, despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe, and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the equinoctiall (ever with intent to finde the said passage to India,) and came to that part of this firme lande which is nowe called Florida, where my victuals failing, I de parted from thence and returned into England, where I found great tumults among the people, and preparation for warres in Scotland: by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage.
" Whereupon I went into Spaine to the Catholique King, and Queene Eliza beth, which being advertised what I had done, entertained me, and at their charges furnished certaine ships, wherewith they caused me to saile to dis cover the coastes of Brasile, where I found an exceeding great and large river, named at this present Rio de la Plata, that is, the river of silver, into the which I sailed and followed it into the firme land,, more then six score leagues, find ing it every where very faire, and inhabited with infinite people, which with admiration came running dayly to our ships. Into this river runne so many other rivers, that it is in maner incredible.
" After this I made many other voyages, which I nowe pretermit, and wax ing olde, I give myself to rest from such travels, because there are nowe many yong and lustie pilots and mariners of good experience, by whose forwardnesse I doe rejoyce in the fruit of my labours, and rest with the charge of this office, as you see."
11
In giving this conversation to his readers, Hakluyt professes to have derived it from the second volume of Ramusio, and sub sequent compilers have assumed the accuracy of the reference. It seems, for the first time, to have occurred to the writers of the " Biographic Universelle," to look into the original, and they declare that no such passage is to be there found !
" Hakluyt dans sa collection nous a transmis la piece ou Ton trouve le plus de details sur la navigation et la vie de Sebastian Cabot. II dit Favoir tiree du second volume de la collection de Ramusio ; mais nous I'y avons cherchee en vain. Cette piece est attribute a Galearius Butrigarius Icgat du Pape en Espagne qui dit tenir les particularites qu'elle contient d'un habitant de Cadiz lequel avait eu plusieurs conversations avec Sebastian." " Ramusio, connu par son exactitude n'a donne aucun extrait des navigations de Sebastian Cabot ; il se contente de citer dans la preface de son 3e volume un passage d'une Lettre qu'il avoit re£ue de lui."
A striking proof here occurs of the facility with which errors are fallen into in reporting even the written expressions of another when memory is relied on. The Collaborateurs of the Biographic Universelle, are supposed to have just turned from the page of Hakluyt, and yet, in this brief statement, mark the changes ! Butrigarius has no longer the conversation with Cabot, but gets his information at second hand> and this, too, from an inhabitant of Cadiz ; thus utterly confounding both place and person, and making, also, the communication to have been the result of "many" conversations held with Cabot by this new member of the dramatis persona — the " habitant de Cadiz." All this too, from those who bitterly denounce their predecessors for carelessness and inac curacy !
But we have a yet more serious complaint to urge. When the charge is preferred against Hakluyt, of having made a fraudulent citation, we may be permitted to say, with some plainness, that after the lofty eulogium passed on Kamusio, by the associates of the Biographic Universelle, not only incidentally here, but in the article subsequently devoted to him, it is to the last degree dis creditable, that a mere mistake of reference to the proper Volume, should have so completely baffled their knowledge of the work.
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Nor is the mention of Cabot confined, as they suppose, to the preface of the third volume : it occurs in five different places, as will be hereafter shewn.
The passage immediately in question will be found not in the second but in the first volume of Ramusio. It is part of the interesting article entitled, " Discorso notabile sopra varii viaggi per liquali sono state condotte fino a tempi nostri le spetiarie," beginning at fol. 414. D. of the edition of 1554, and referred to in the index of all the editions under the titles " Plata" and " Florida." Before proceeding to note the circumstances under which this conversation took place, it is proper to correct some of the errors of the translation found in Hakluyt.
And first, surprise must have been felt at the manner in which Cabot speaks as to the date of his own celebrated voyage. The "so farre as I remember" seems to indicate a strange indifference on the subject. The expression has passed Into Purchas, (vol. iii. p. 808.) and all the subsequent authorities. In Harris's account, (Voyages, vol. ii.p. 190.) adopted by Pinkerton, (vol. xii. p. 158.) it is said, " The next voyage made for discovery, was by Sebastian Cabot, the son of John ; concerning which, all our writers have fallen into great mistakes, for want of comparing the several accounts we have of this voyage, and making proper allowances for the manner in which they were written, since I cannot find there was ever any distinct and clear account of this voyage published, though it was of so great consequence. On the contrary, I believe that Cabot himself kept no journal of it by him, since in a letter he wrote on this subject, he speaks doubt fully of the very year in which it was undertaken." The same unlucky phrase continues down to Barrow, (p. 33) and to a work published during the present year, (Lardner's Cyclopaedia, His tory of Maritime Discovery, vol. ii. p. 137.) North West Foxe, (p. 16) had changed it to what seemed, to that critical personage^ more correct, " as neere as I can remember."
Now there is not a syllable in the original to justify any such expression.
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" Feci intender questo mio pensiero alia Maesta del Re il qual fu molto contento et mi armd due caravelle di tutto cio che era dibisogno etfu del 1496 nel principio della state."
It will not be understood, that we consider Cabot to have named the year 1496 ; but it is only important here to negative an expression which seems to argue such a looseness of feeling as to this memorable incident.
It may not be without interest to shew the source of Hakluyt's error.
The first English writer on this subject, is RICHARD EDEN, who published, in 1555, a black-letter volume, of which a good deal will be said hereafter, entitled, " Decades of the New World, &c." It consists of a translation of the three first Books of Peter Martyr d' Angleria, to which he has subjoined extracts from various other works of an early date on kindred subjects ; and amongst the rest, this passage of Ramusio is given, (fol. 251) as found in "The Italian Hystories of Navigations," Eden was, as appears from his book, a personal friend of Cabot ; and when he came to the round assertion as to the date, 1496, which he knew to be incorrect, he qualified it by introducing (fol. 255) the words in question.
It is the less excusable for Hakluyt and the rest, to have blindly adopted such an interpolation, as there were other translations within reach in which, a correct and elegant version is given of the passage. The " Biographic Universelle" considers Hakluyt as first bringing it forward, but the whole is found in the cele brated Collection of De Bry, published ten years before. At the end of the second part of the Grand Voyages, is a cento of autho rities on the subject of the discovery of America, in which the passage from Ramusio is correctly given. It is needless to say, that the "as farre as I remember" finds no place ; "anno igitur 1496, in principio veris ex Anglia solvi,"
Bare justice to Ramusio demands a reference to another pas sage in which the English translators have made him utter nonsense. The reader must have been struck with the absurd
14
commencement of the passage in Hakluyt — " Do you not under stand how to pass to India towards the North-West, as did, of late, a citizen of Venice, &c. ;?> after which, we are informed that this citizen of Venice abandoned the effort at 56° " despairing to find the passage !" Ramusio must not be charged with this blunder, for the original is, •' Et fatto alquanti di pauso voltatosi verso di noi disse, Non sapete a questo proposito d'andare a trovar P Indie per il vento di maestro quel che fece gia un vostro cittadino," (" and making somewhat of a pause, he turned to us and said — Do you not know, on this project of going to India by the N. W., what did formerly your fellow-citizen, &c.") not at all asserting the success .of the enterprise, but only that it was sug gested by the subject of the previous conversation. A correct translation is found in De Bry : — "An ignoratis inquit (erat autem sermo institutus de investiganda orientali India qua Thracias ventus flat) quid egerit civis quidam vester, &c."
A more material error remains to be pointed out. The speaker in Ramusfr says, that finding himself some years ago in the City of Seville, and desiring, See. (" che ritrovandosi gia alcuni anni nella Citta di Siviglia, et desirando, &c.") ; but on the page of Hakluyt this becomes, " being certain years in the City of Seville, and desiring, &c." The Latin version in De Bry is correct, " Quern ante aliquot annos invisi cum essem Hispali." The importance of the error is apparent. As truly translated the words confess the great lapse of time since the conversation, and of course the liability to error, while the erroneous version conveys only the idea of multiplied opportunities of communication, and a conse quent assurance of accuracy. The same form of expression occurs in another part of the paragraph, and the meaning is so obvious, that it has not been possible to misunderstand it. When the Legate represents Cabot as stating that his father left Venice many years before the conversation, and went to settle in London to carry on the business of merchandise, the original runs thus, " partito suo padre da Venetia gia molti anno et andato a stare in Inghiltcra a far mercantie." Again, in that passage, in the
15
third volume, which is properly translated, " as many years past it was written unto me by Sebastian Cabot," the original is, " come mi fu scritto gia mold anno sono."
Having thus ascertained what is, in reality, the statement of Ramusio, we proceed to consider the circumstances under which the conversation took place. It occurs, as has been seen, in the course of a Treatise on the trade in Spices. After expatiating on the history of that trade, and the revolution caused by the dis covery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, Ramusio says, (Edit, of 1554, torn. iii. fol. 413 A.), that he cannot forbear to add a report of a conversation which he had heard at the house of his excellent friend Hieronimus Fracastor. He then proceeds to give the discourse, which is a very long one, on the subject of Cosmography, the conjectures of the ancients as to a Western World, and the discoveries which had taken place in the speaker's own time. It is only incidentally that Cabot's name is intro duced, and with regard to the whole, Ramusio makes this candid prefatory remark, " Which conversation I do not pre tend to be able to relate circumstantially as I heard it, for that would require a talent, and a memory beyond mine ; nevertheless, I will strive briefly, and as it were by heads, to give what I am able to recollect — (" II qual ragionainento non mi basta F animo di poter scriver cosi particolarmente com' ie le udi, perche visaria dibisogno altro ingegno et altra memoria che non e la mia; pur mi sforzero sommariamente et come per Capi di recitar quel che io me potro ricordare.")
Now what is there to oppose to a report coming to us by a route so circuitous, and expressed at last in a manner thus hesi tating ? The positive and explicit information conveyed in Cabot's own letter. Nor does Ramusio confine himself to the statement contained in the Preface to his third volume, for in the same volume, (fol. 417,) is a discourse on the Northern Regions of the New World ; in which, speaking of the Baccalaos, he says, that this region was intimately known to Sebastian Cabot, " Ilquale a spese del Re Henrico VII., d* Inghiltera, scorsc tutta la detto.
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costa fino a gradi 67° (" Who at the cost of Henry VII., king of England, proceeded along the whole of the said coast, as far as 67°.") It is plain, therefore, that the communication from Cabot had completely satisfied the mind of Ramusio, when we find him in this separate treatise assuming the fact asserted in the letter as conclusively settled.
This last consideration is strengthened by another circum stance. The passage in the third volume which refers to Cabot's letter, and which Hakluyt quotes as from the " Preface," is, in fact, part of a Discourse addressed to Hieronimus Fracastor, the very personage at whose house the conversation had taken place. Ramusio, in conveying the deliberate statement of Cabot, whose correspondent he had intermediately become, and whom he designates as "huomo di grande esperienza et raro nelP arte del navigare et nella scienza di cosmografia," does not think it necessary, even to advert to his own former representation. He is not found balancing, for a moment, between this written and direct information, and what he had before stated from a casual conversation with a third person, which had rested, for some time, insecurely, in his own confessedly bad memory, aside from the peril to which it had been subjected, before reaching him, of misconception on the part of Butrigarius, or of his forget- fulness during the years which elapsed between the interview with Cabot and the incidental allusion to what had passed ori that occasion.
A comparison of the two passages shews further that no great importance was attached to the latitude reached; for in the latter, Ramusio is found to drop the half degree. It furnishes, too, an additional item of evidence, as to the scrupulous accuracy with which the language of the Letter is reported. In giving us that, he is exact even to the minutes ; but when his eye is taken from the letter, and he is disengaged from the responsibility of a direct quotation, he slides into round numbers.
When we add, that in every fact capable of being brought to the test, the statement of the conversation is erroneous, and that
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the limited latitude is inconsistent with the continued day-light — a circumstance more likely to be remembered than a matter of figures — what can be more absurd, than, at the present day, to dwell on that which Ramusio himself, two hundred and seventy- five years ago, is plainly seen to abandon ? Yet such has been the course pursued by every writer on the subject, and the only dif ference discoverable is in the shades of perversion.
To the account of the voyage to Hudson's Bay by the Dobbs and California, drawn up by Henry Ellis, Esq., is prefixed a sketch of the previous attempts in pursuit of -a North-West passage. After Ramusio's statement that Cabot reached the latitude of 67° and-a-half the writer complacently adds, (p. 6) —
" There is an error in the latitude of ten degrees ; but, however, it is plain from this account that the voyage was made for the discovery of a North-west passage, which was the reason I produced it. But in a letter written by Sebas tian Cabot himself to the Pope's Legate in Spain (!) he gives a still clearer ac count of this matter, for therein he says, that it was from the consideration of the structure of the globe, the design was formed of sailing to the Indies by a North-west course. He observes further, that falling in with land unexpectedly (for he thought to have met with none till he had reached the coasts of Tar- tary,) he sailed along the coast to the height of 56°, and finding the land there run eastward, he quitted the attempt, and sailed southward."
Forster remarks, (Northern Voyages, p. 267,) " some say, he went to 67° 30' N. lat. ; others reckon his most southerly track to have been to 58° N. lat. He himself informs us, that he reached only to 56° N. lat."
Mr. Barrow (Chronological History of Voyages, &c. p. 33) says, "If there be any truth in the report made to the pope's legate in Spain, and printed in the collection of Ramusio" " It would appear by this document ," &c. He then gives the conversation, not as " printed in the collection of Ramusio," for Mr. Barrow could not have looked into that — but with all the absurd perver sions of Hakluyt — and then, in official language, confers the title of " a Report," " a Document," on an unguarded error into which Ramusio had been betrayed, and which that honest personage hastened to correct !
c
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The same absurd phraseology, with its train of errors, is copied into Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, (History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. 2. p. 137.) Foxe, who made a voyage into Hudson's Bay, in the reign of Charles I., says, (p. 13,) " As concerning Sebastian Cabot, I cannot find that he was any fur ther northward than 58°, and so returned along the land of America to the South, but for more certainty ! hear his own rela tion to Galeatius Butrigarius, the pope's legate in Spain." After the " as neare as I can remember," &c. Foxe gravely adds, " Thus much from himself!"
In the " Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, by William Stevenson, Esq.," which forms the eighteenth volume of Kerr's Collection of Voyages, published in 1824, it is said, (p. 353,) " The course he steered, and the limits of his voyage are, how ever, liable to uncertainty. He himself informs us that he reached only 56° N. lat., and that the coast of America at that part tended to the East; but there is no coast of North America that answers to this description. According to other accounts he reached 67° and-a-half N. lat., but," &c. " It is most probable he did not reach further than Newfoundland."
It is impossible not to feel indignant at such statements from those who vie with each other in complaints of all preceding- writers.
Though a matter of little moment, it may be noted that the conjecture is erroneous which connects the pope's legate, Galea tius Butrigarius, with the conversation at the house of Fracastor. Ramusio does not mention any name ; withholding it, as he says, from motives of delicacy. The interview with Cabot at Seville, took place many years after his return, in 1531, from the La Plata ; and the speaker, whoever he may have been, represents himself to have been led to make the call by a desire to " have some knowledge of the navigations of the Spaniards." Now, Galeatius Butrigarius, more than twenty years before this visit could have been made, is found on terms of intimacy with Peter Martyr, (dec. 2. cap. 1,) and not only well informed on the
19
subject, but urging the historian to pursue his narrative, and the ensuing Decade is addressed in consequence to the Pope. It seems impossible, that the legate so long afterwards — fifteen years, at least, subsequently to the publication of Peter Martyr's volume, describing the enterprise of Cabot — should have been actuated by this vague impulse of curiosity, and have been in debted for a knowledge of the discoverer of Baccalaos to the reports current at Seville during this his, apparently, first visit.
c2
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CHAP. II.
THE SUBJECT CONTINUED GOMARA.
OF the passage in Gomara, Hakluyt presents the following ver sion : —
" The testimonie of Francis Lopez de Gomara, a Spaniard, in the fourth chapter of the second booke of his general! history of the West Indies concerning the first discoverie of a great part of the West Indies, to wit, from 58 to 38 degrees of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England.
" He which brought most certaine newes of the countrey and people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was Sebastian Cabote, a Venetian, which rigged up two ships at the cost of king Henry the Seventh of England, having great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portugals did. He carried with him three hundred men, and tooke the way towards Island from beyond the Cape of Labrador, untill he found himselfe in 58 degrees and better. He made rela tion, that in the moneth of July it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not passe any further : that the dayes were very long in a maner with out any night, and for that short night that they had, it was very cleare. Cabot feeling the cold, turned towards the West, refreshing himselfe. at Bac calaos ; and afterwards he sailed along the coast unto 38 degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to returne into England."
There is to be noted here another of Hakluyt's loose and sus picious references. The Spanish work is not divided into " Books," and the passage quoted occurs in the first part. This is said, after consulting the Saragossa edition of 1552 — that of Medina del Campo, 1553 — that of Antwerp, 1554 — and the reprint of the work in Barcia's " Historiadores Primitives" in 1749. A ready conjecture presents itself as to the source of Hakluyt's error. The work of Gomara was, at an early period, translated into French, by FUM£E, in whose version, published in 1578, the matter is distributed into "Books," and the passage in question really becomes, according to his arrangement, the fourth chapter of the
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second Book. That Hakluyt was ignorant of the Spanish lan guage, may be inferred from the circumstance, that when he has occasion (vol. iii. p. 499) to quote Oviedo, he gives us not the original but an Italian version of it by Ramusio. He was at Paris shortly after the appearance of Fumee's Translation, and remained there for some time, as is stated in the Dedication of his first volume to Lord Charles Howard. We shall see, presently, how far he has been misled by relying on that translation. The following is Gomara's own language —
" Qui en mas noticia traxo desta tierra fue Sebastian Gaboto Veneciano. El qual armo dos navios en Inglaterra do tratava desde pequeno, a costa del Rey Enrique Septimo, que desseava contratar en la especiera como hazia el rey d'Portugal. Otros disen que a su costa, y' que prometio al rey Enrique de ir por el norte al Catayo y traer de alia especias en menos tiempo que ^Por tugueses por el Sur. Y va tambien por saber que tierra eran las Indias para poblar. Llevo trezientos hombres y camino la buelta de Islandia sobre cabo del Labrador, hasta se poner en cinquenta y echo grados. Aunque el dize mucho mas contando como avia por el mes de Julio tanto frio y pedagos de yelo que no oso passar mas adelante, y que los dios eran grandissimos y quasi sin noche y las noches muy claras. Es cierte que a sesenta grados son los dias de diez y ocho horas, Diendo pues Gabota la frialdad y estraneza dela tierra, dio la buelta hazia poniente y rehaziendose en los Baccalaos corrio la costa hasta treynta y ochos grados y tornose de alii a Inglaterra/'
" Sebastian Cabot was the first that brought any knowledge of this land. For being in England in the days of king Henry the Seventh, he furnished two ships at his own charges, or, as some say, at the king's, whom he persuaded that a passage might be found to Cathay by the North Seas, and that spices might be brought from thence sooner by that way than by the viage the Por- tugales use by the sea of Sur. He went also to know what manner of landes those Indies were to inhabit. He had with him 300 men, and directed his course by the tract of island upon the Cape of Labrador, at fifty-eight degrees, affirming, that in the month of July there was such cold and heaps of ice, that he durst pass no further ; also, that the days were very long, and in man ner without night, and the nights very clear. Certain it is, that at the three score degrees, the longest day is of eighteen hours. But considering the cold, and the strangeness of the unknown land, he turned his course from thence to the west, following the coast unto the thirty- eight degree from whence he returned to England." (Eden's Translation, see Decades, fol. 318.)
The unwarrantable liberties taken by Hakluyt will appear at a glance. He drops, entirely, the passage of Gomara as to the
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length of the day in the latitude of 60% though it stands in the middle of the paragraph. Again, Gomara states the contra dictory assertions which he found, as to whether the expedition was fitted out at the cost of Henry VII., or of an individual. In Hakluyt's day, this was deemed a matter of great importance ; for in the passages in the third volume which relate to the North- West passage, and the colonization of America, considerable stress is laid, with a view to repel the pretensions of Spain, on the direct agency of the king^ of England. Hakluyt, therefore, boldly strikes out the words which shew that Gomara had arrived at no conclusion on the point ; and by this mutilation exhibits an unqualified averment, that the whole was at the cost of Henry VII. No English reader would hesitate to cite the Spanish author, as candidly conceding that the enterprise was a national one, at the king's expense ; and Mr. Sharon Turner, in his " History of England during the Middle Ages," asserting anxiously the merits of Henry VII., declares, (vol. iv. of second ed. p. 163, note 54,) with a reference to Hakluyt, " Gomara also mentions that the ships were rigged at Henry's costs" Hakluyt wants here even the apology of having been misled by Fumee, as the French writer, and Richard Eden, fairly state the matter in the alternative.
As to the course pursued by Cabot, Hakluyt has strangely misunderstood the author. The words of Gomara are — " Llevo trezientos hombres y camino la buelta de Islandia y hasta se poner en cinquanta y ochos grados." The predecessors of Hakluyt in the work of translation, were so numerous, as to leave him without apology for mistake. Richard Eden says, " He had with him 300 men, and directed his course by the tract of Island, [Iceland] upon the Cape of Labrador, at 58°." In the Italian translation of Augustin de Cravaliz, published at Rome in 1556, it is rendered " ' Meno seco trecento huomini et navico alia volta d' Islanda sopra Capo del Lavoratore finchesi trovo in cinquanta otto gradi;' and in a reprint at Venice, in 1576, 'Meno seco trecento huomini et camino la volta de Islandia sopra del Capo del Lavoratore et fino a mettersi in cinquunta otto gradi.'"
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That Cabot really took the route of Iceland is very probable. A steady and advantageous commerce had for many years been carried on between Bristol and Iceland, and is referred to in the quaint old poem, called, " The Policie of keeping the Sea/' reprinted in Hakluyt, (vol. i. p. 201) —
" Of Island to write is little nede,
Save of Stockfish : yet, forsooth indeed, Out of Bristowe, and costes many one, Men have practised by needle, and by stone Thitherwards," &c.
Seven years before, a treaty had been made with the king of Denmark, securing that privilege. (Selden's Mare clausum lib . 2. c. 32.) The theory in reference to which Cabot had projected the voyage would lead him as far North as possible, and it would be a natural precaution to break the dreary continuity at sea, which had exercised so depressing an influence on the sailors of Columbus, by touching at a point so far on his way and yet so familiarly known. Hudson, it may be remarked, took the same route.
We turn now to the translation of Fumee ; " II mena avec soy trois cens hommes et print la route d' Island au dessus du Cap de Labeur, jusques a ce qui il se trouva a 58 degrez et par dela. II racomptoit," &c. Acquainted as we are with the original, it seems difficult to mistake even the French version. Hakluyt, however, had no such previous knowledge, and he confesses (Dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. iii. p. 301) that he was not a perfect master even of the French language. Obliged thus to grope after a meaning, his version is as follows, (vol. iii. p. 9) — " He carried with him 300 men, and took the way towards Island from beyond the Cape of Labrador, (!) until he found himself in 58° and better. He made relation," &c. The timid ser vility with which Hakluyt strove to follow Fumee is apparent even in the structure of the sentences, for it is improbable that two independent versions of Gomara would concur in such a distri bution of the original matter.
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It is difficult to understand how Hakluyt could consent to put forth such palpable nonsense. He is evidently quite aware that the word " Island" in the French could mean nothing but Iceland ; and, indeed, it is the designation which he himself uniformly employs, particularly at p. 550, &c. of his first volume, where is given at great length — " The true state of Island," being a trans lation from a Latin work, entitled, " Brevis Commentarius do Islandia." Yet with this knowledge, and with all the means of
O '
a correct version, he represents Cabot as first reaching America and then proceeding onward to Iceland.
The version of Hakluyt is adopted by every subsequent English writer except LEDIARD, who, in his Naval History, seems to have paused over language seemingly so enigmatical. Not per ceiving that a proper name was intended, he asked himself, in vexation, what " Island" could possibly be meant. Besides, the expression was ungrammatical, for it is not said " an Island," or "the Island," but simply, "towards Island." He therefore ventures on an amendment (p. 88) — " He took the way towards the Islands, (!) from beyond the Cape of Labrador, till he was beyond 58°." Having made grammar of the passage, he leaves the reader to make sense of it.
Wearisome as the examination may be, we have not yet reached the principal error of Hakluyt in reference to this short passage. It will be noted that the Spanish writer, after saying that Cabot reached the lat. of 58°, adds, " annque el dize mucho mas con- tando como avia por el mes de Julio tante frio," &c. (" although he says much further, relating, how he had in the middle of July, such cold," &c.) Here, too, Hakluyt might have taken advan tage of previous translations. In the Italian version of 1576, it is, " finchesi trovo in 58 gradi benche egli dice di piu et narrava come," &c. ; and in that of 1556, "et fino a mettersi in 58 gradi anchor che lid dice molto piu il quale diceva." Hakluyt, however, relying on Fumee — "jusques a. ce qu'il ce trouva a 58 degrez et par dela" renders the passage " until he found himself in 58° and better" Thus the Spanish writer, who had peremptorily
25
fixed the limit of 58°, is made, without qualification, to carry Cabot to an indefinite extent beyond it.*
The true version of the passage, not only renders it harmless, but an auxiliary in establishing the truth. That Gomara should speak slightingly of Cabot was to be expected. His work was published in 1552, not long after our Navigator had quitted the service of Spain, and is dedicated to the Emperor Charles V., whose overtures for the return of Cabot, had been, as will be seen hereafter, rejected. Of the discoveries of Cabot, none, he says, were made for Spain (" ninguno fue por nuestros Reyes"), and we shall have repeated occasion to expose his disparaging com ments on every incident of Cabot's life while in the service of that country. He is of little authority, it may be remarked, even with his own countrymen, and is most notorious for having, from a paltry jealousy of foreigners, revived and given currency to the idle tale that Columbus was guided in his great enterprise by the charts of a pilot who died in his house. We know, from Peter Martyr (Dec. 3. cap. 6), that, as early as 1515, the Spaniards were jealous of the reputation of Cabot, then in their service ; and Gomara, writing immediately after the deep offence which had been given by the abandonment of the service of Spain, and the slight of the emperor's application, was disposed to yield an eager welcome to every falsehood. With regard to an account, then, from such a quarter, we would attach importance to it only from the presumed acquiescence of Cabot in the representation of a contemporary. Now, so far is this from the fact, the very passage, as at length redeemed from a perversion no less absurd than flagitious, furnishes, in itself, a triumphant proof, that the writer's assertion is in direct conflict with that of the Navigator. The importance of this argument is increased by the conside ration that Gomara's work was published two years before Ramusio's third volume in the preface to which appears the
* Campbell, in his Lives of the Admirals, changes Hakluyt's phrase into " somewhat more than fifty-eight degrees," for which he quotes Gomara.
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extract from Cabot's letter. This shews that other means of information, and probably Cabot's map amongst the rest, were before Gomara. All that we care to know, under such circum stances, is the real statement of Cabot ; and in answer to that enquiry we have the clear and precise language of his letter to Ramusio.
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CHAP. III.
CABOT PENETRATED INTO HUDSON'S BAY.
ON quitting the authorities which have so long been supposed to involve irreconcilable contradictions, the only remaining diffi culty is that of selection from the numerous testimonials which, offer as to the real extent of the voyage. A few are referred to which speak in general terms of the latitude reached, before pro ceeding to such as describe particularly the course pursued.
In De Bry (Grand Voyages iv. p. 69,) is the following pas sage : —
"Sebastianus Gabottus, sumptibus Regis Anglise, Henrici VII., per septentrionalem plagam ad Cataium penetrare voluit. I lie primus Cuspidem Baccalaos detexit (quam hodie Britones et Nortmanni, nautse la coste des Molues hoc est Asselorum marino' rum oram appellant) atque etiam ulterius usque ad 67 gradum versus polum articum."*
Belle-forest, in his Cosmographie Universelle, which appeared at Paris, in 1576, (torn. ii. p. 2175,) makes the same statement.
In the treatise of Chauveton, " Du Nouveau Monde," pub lished at Geneva, in 1579, he says, (p, 141,) " Sebastian Gabotto, entreprit aux despens de Henry VII., Rex d' Angleterre, de cer- cher quelque passage pour alter en Catay par la Tramontaine. Cestuy la descouvrit la pointe de Baccalaos, (que les mariniers de Bretaigne, et de Normandie appellent La Coste des Molues) et plus haut jusqiia soixante sept degrez du Pole."
* " Sebastian Cabot attempted, at the expense of Henry VII., King of England, to find a way by the north to Cataia. He first discovered the point of Baccalaos, which the Breton and Norman sailors now call the Coast of Codfish ; and, proceeding yet further, he reached the latitude of sixty-seven degrees towards the Arctic Pole."
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There is a volume entitled, " A Prayse and Reporte of Martyne Frobisher's voyage to Meta Incognita, by Thomas Churchyard," published at London, in 1578, (in Library of British Museum, title Churchyard^) wherein it is said, " I find that Gabotta was the first, in king Henry VI I .'s days, that discovered this frozen land or seas from sixty-seven towards the North, and from thence towards the South, along the coast of America to 36 degrees and a half," &c.
Herrera, (dec. i. lib. 6. cap. 16,) in rejecting the fraction adopts the higher number, and states Cabot to have reached 68°.
We proceed now to establish the proposition which stands at the head of this chapter, but must first disclaim for it a character of novelty, since in Anderson's History of Commerce, (vol. i. p. 549,) is found the following passage : —
" How weak then are the pretensions of France to the prior discovery of North America, by alleging that one John Verazzan, a Florentine, employed by their King, Francis I., was the first discoverer of those coasts, when that king did not come to the crown till about nineteen years after our Cabot's discovery of the whole coast of North America, from sixty-eight degrees north, down to the south-end of Florida? So that, from beyond Hudson's Bay (into which Bay, also, Cabot then sailed, and gave English names to several places therein) southward to Florida, the whole compass of North America, on the Eastern coast thereof, does, by all the right that prior discovery can give, belong to the Crown of Great Britain : excepting, however, what our monarchs have, by subsequent treaties with other European powers, given up or ceded."
The same assertion appears in the work as subsequently en larged into Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, (vol. ii. p. 12.)
The statement is sufficiently pointed ; and it is not impossible, that Anderson, who wrote seventy years ago, and whose employ ments probably placed within his reach many curious documents connected with the early efforts to discover a North-West pas sage to India, may have seen one of Cabot's maps. As he is silent with regard to the source of his information, it is necessary to seek elsewhere for evidence on the subject.
A conspicuous place is, on many accounts, due to the testimony of Lord Bacon. Every student of English History is aware of
29
the labour and research he expended on the History of Henry VII. He himself, in one of his letters, speaking of a subsequent tract, says, " I find Sir Robert Cotton, who poured forth what he had in my other work, somewhat dainty of his materials in this." We turn, then, with eagerness, to his statement as to Sebastian Cabot.
" He sailed, as he affirmed at his return, and made a card thereof, very far westward, with a quarter of the North on the North side of Terra de Labrador, until he came to the latitude of sixty-seven degrees and a Afl/f finding the seas still open."
It would be idle to accompany this statement with any tiling more than a request that a map of that region may be looked at in connexion with it.
The Tract of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on the North West-passage, was originally published in 1576. It is reprinted, with mutila tions which will be mentioned hereafter, in Hakluyt. Referring* for the present, to the latter work, we find at page 16 of the third volume, the following passage : —
" Furthermore, Sebastian Cabot, by his personal experience and travel, hath set forth and described this passage in his Charts, which are yet to be seen in the Queen's Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to make this dis covery by King Henry the VII., and entered the same fret, affirming that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the north on the north side of Terra de Labrador the 1 1 th of June, until he came to the septentrional latitude of sixty-seven degrees and a half, and finding the sea still open, said, that he might and would have gone to Cataia, if the mutiny of the master and mari ners had not been."
In the " Theatrum Orbis Terrarum," of the celebrated Geo grapher Ortelius, will be found a map designated as <e America sive Novi Orbis descriptio ;" in which he depicts, with an accu racy that cannot be attributed to accident, the form of Hudson's Bay, and a channel leading from its Northern extremity towards the Pole. The publication preceded not only Hudson but Fro- bisher ; and Ortelius tells us that he had Cabot's Map before him. Prefixed to his work is a list, alphabetically arranged, (according to the Christian names,) of the authors of whose labours he was
30
possessed, and amongst them is expressly mentioned Sebastian Cabot. The map was of the World, " Universalem Tabulam quam impressam seneis formis vidimus."
The statement of the Portuguese writer, Galvano, translated by Hakluyt, is curious, and though there is reason in many places to apprehend interpolation by Hakluyt, yet the epithet Deseado is plainly retained from the Portuguese ; signifying the desired, or sought for. It is unquestionable, that this account, though not perfectly clear, represents Cabot's extreme northern labour to have been the examination of a bay and a river ; and from the name conferred, we may suppose, that they were deemed to be immediately connected with the anxious object of pursuit. On the map of Ortelius, the channel running from the northern part of the bay has really the appearance of a river. After reaching the American coast, the expedition is said, by Galvano, to have gone " straight northwards till they came into 60° of latitude, where the day is eighteen hours long, and the night is very clear and bright. There they found the aire colde, and great Islands of Ice, but no ground in an hundred fathoms sounding ; and so from thence, rinding the land to turn eastwards, they trended along by it, discovering all the bay and river named Deseado, to see if it passed on the other side. Then they sailed back againe, till they came to 38° toward the Equinoctial Line, and from thence returned into England." (p. 33.)
A writer whose labours enjoyed in their day no little celebrity, and may be regarded, even now, as not unworthy of the rank they hold in the estimation of his countrymen, is the noble Venetian, Livio Sanuto, whose posthumous " Geografia," ap peared at Venice, in 1588. The work, of which there is a copy in the Library of the British Museum, owes its chief interest, at present, to certain incidental speculations on matters connected with Naval Science, of which the author was deeply enamoured. Repeated allusions occur to the map of " il chiarissimo Sebastiano Caboto." Having heard, moreover, from his friend, Guido Gianeti <ia Fano, at one time ambassador at London, that Sebastian Cabot
31
had publicly explained to the King of England the subject of the Variation of the Needle, Sanuto became extremely anxious, in reference to a long meditated project of his own, to ascertain where Cabot had fixed a point of no variation. The ambassador could not answer the eager enquiry, but wrote, at the instance of Sanuto, to a friend in England, Bartholomew Compagni, to ob tain the information from Cabot. It was procured accordingly, and is given by Sanuto, (Prima Parte, lib. i. fol. 2,) with some curious corollaries of his own. The subject belongs to a different part of our enquiry, and is adverted to here only to shew the author's anxious desire for accurate and comprehensive informa tion and the additional value thereby imparted to the passage, (Prima Parte, lib. ii. fol. 17,) in which he gives an account of Cabot's voyage corresponding, minutely, with that which Sir Humphrey Gilbert derived from the map hung up in Queen Elizabeth's Gallery.*
Some items of circumstantial evidence may be adverted to : Zeigler, in his work on the Northern Regions, speaking of the voyage of Cabot, and the statement of his falling in with so much ice, remarks, (Argent ed. of 1532. fol. 92. b.) —
" Id testatur quod non per mare vastum, sed propinquis littoribus in sinus formam comprehensum navigarit, quando ob eadem caussam sinus Gothanus concrescat quoniam str ictus est, et fluviorum plurium et magnorum ostia sal- sam naturam in parva copia superant. Inter autem Norduegiara et Islandiam non concrescit ex diversa causa, quoniam vis dulcium aquarum illic superatur a vastitate naturae salsas." " This testifieth that he had sailed not by the main sea, but in places near unto the land, comprehending and embracing the sea in form of a gulph ; whereas for the same cause the Gulph of Gothland is frozen, because it is straight and narrow, in the which also, the little quantity
* " E quivi a punto tra questi dui extremi delle due Continenti giunto che fu il chiarissimo Sebastiano Caboto in gradi sessenta sette e mezo navigando allora per la quarta di Maestro verso Ponente ivi chiaro vide essere il mare aperto e spatiosissima senza veruno impedimento. Onde giudico fermamente potersi di la navigare al Cataio Orientale il che ancho haverche a mano a mano fatto se la malignata del Padrone e de i marinari sollevati non lo haves- sero fatto ritornari a dietro."
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of salt water is overcome by the abundance of fresh water, of many and great rivers that fall into the gulph. But between Norway and Iceland, the sea is not frozen, for the contrary cause, forasmuch, as the power of fresh water is there overcome of the abundance of the saltwater." (Eden's Decades, fol. 268.)
Eden says, in a marginal note, " Cabot told me that this Ice is of fresh water and not of the sea."
Great perplexity has been caused by the statement that the expedition under Cabot found the coast incline to the North-East. " lie himself informs us that he reached only to 56° N. lat., and that the coast in that part tended to the East. This seems hardly probable, for the coast of Labrador tends neither at 66° nor at 58° to the East." (Forster, p. 267.) So Navarette (torn. iii. p. 41) thinks that Ramusio's statement cannot be correct, because the latitude mentioned would carry the vessel to Greenland.
It is to be remembered, that the language of Cabot suggests that at the immediate point of arrest he was cheered by the prospect of success. We are led, then, to infer that the san guine adventurer was, for some reason, inspired with fresh con fidence in which his associates refused to participate ; and that, terrified by the perils they had encountered, their dissatisfaction came to a head when they found a new career of peril suggested by what they deemed, the delusive hopes of their youthful com mander. Let us look into the subject with the aid which these suggestions afford. Bylot, who, after penetrating into Hudson's Bay, proceeded up its Northern channel on the west side, as far as 65° and-a-half, represented the coast as tending to the North- East. The Quarterly Review (vol. xvi. p. 158), in an article urging a new expedition in search of the North-West passage, refuses its belief to this statement. We turn then to Captain Parry's Narrative of his Second Voyage. It is apparent from an inspection of the map that the course pointed out by Cabot, for passing through the Strait, would conduct a Navigator, without fail, to Winter Island. Now from the very outset of Captain Parry's course from that point, we find him engaged in a struggle with the North-Eastern tendency of the coast. On 13th July, he
33
was off Barrow's River, which is in lat. 67U 18' 45"; and having visited the falls of that river, his narrative is thus continued : —
" We found, on our return, that a fresh southerly breeze, which had been blowing for several hours, had driven the ice to some distance from the land ; so that at four p. M., as soon as the flood tide had slackened, we cast off, and made all possible sail to the northward, steering for a headland, remarkable for having a patch of land towards the sea insular in sailing along shore. As we approached this headland, which I named after my friend Mr. Edward Leycester Fenrhyn, the prospect became more and more enlivening ; for the sea was found to be navigable in a degree very seldom experienced in these regions, and the land trending two or three points to the westward of north, gave us reason to hope, we should now be enabled to take a decided and final twn in that anxiously desired direction."
Another remark is suggested by Captain Parry's Narrative. Every one who has had occasion to consider human testimony, or to task his own powers of recollection, must have observed how tenaciously circumstances remain which had affected the imagi nation, even after names and dates are entirely forgotten. The statement of Peter Martyr exhibits a trophy of this kind. He recalls what his friend Cabot had said of the influence of the sun on the shore along which he was toiling amidst mountains of ice ; " vastas repererit glaciales moles pelago natantes et lucem fere perpetuam tellure tamen libera gelu liquefacto," ( Decades iii. lib. 6,) a passage which Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 8,) borrowing Eden's version, renders, " he found monstrous heaps of ice swimming on the sea, and in manner continual day-light ; yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, which had been molten by the heat of the sun." Where do we look for this almost con tinual day-light, and this opportunity of noticing the appearance of the land ? In that very channel, we would say, leading North from Hudson's Bay, where Captain Parry, later in the summer, whilst between 67° and 68°, and threatened every moment with destruction, thus records his own impressions, (p. 261,) " Very little snow was now lying upon the ground, and numerous streams of water rushing down the hills and sparkling in the beams of the
34
morning sun, relieved in some measure the melancholy stillness, which otherwise reigned on this desolate shore."
There has been held in reserve, the piece of evidence which goes most into detail.
In the third volume of Hakluyt, (p. 25,) is found a Tract, by Richard Willes, Gentleman, on the North-West passage. It was originally published in an edition, that Willes put forth in 1577, of Richard Eden's Decades, and forms part of an article therein, which Hakluyt has strangely mangled, addressed to Lady War wick daughter of the Earl of Bedford. It was drawn up, as we shall have occasion to shew, for the use of Sir Martin Frobisher. In this tract Willes combats the various arguments urged at that time against the practicability of the enterprize; and his state ment of one of the objections advanced furnishes an all impor tant glimpse at the map of Cabot. In the following passage, (3 Hakluyt, p. 25,) the enemies of the enterprize are supposed to say : —
" Well, grant the West Indies not to continue continent unto the Pole. Grant there be a passage between these two lands ; let the gulf lie nearer us than commonly in Gardes we find it, namely, between 61 and 64 degrees North, as Gemma Frisius, in his Maps and Globes, imagineth it, and so left by our countryman, Sebastian Cabot, in his Table, which the Earl of Bedford hath at Cheynies ;* let the way be void of all difficulties yet, &c. &c."
And, again, Willes, speaking in his own person, says, (3 Hak- luyt, p. 26)-
" For that Caboto was not only a skilful seaman but a long traveller, and such a one as entered personally that straight, sent by King Henry VII. to make this aforesaid discovery as in his own Discourse of Navigation you may read in his Card, drawn with his own hand, that the mouth of the North Western Straight lieth near the 318 meridian, between 61 and 64 degrees in the elevation, continuing the same breadth about ten degrees West, where it opcneth southerly more and more."
It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that, until a com paratively recent period, Longitude was measured, universally,
* On application, in the proper quarter, it has been ascertained that this Document cannot, after diligent search, be found.
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from Ferro, once supposed to be the most western part of the World ; and that the computation of degrees from that point proceeded first over the old World and thus made its journey of 360 degrees. Adding together, then, the 42 degrees which com plete the circuit, and the distance between Ferro and Greenwich, we have, within a few minutes, 60° West from Greenwich as the longitude named ; and if we note, on a modern Map, where that degree of longitude crosses Labrador, it will be seen how little allowance is necessary for the "about 318," which Willes, some what vaguely, states as the commencement of the strait. He, probably, judged by the eye of that fact, and of the distance at which the strait began to " open southerly."
A pause was, designedly, made in the midst of Willes's state ment in order to separate what refers to Cabot's Map from his own speculations. The paragraph quoted, concludes thus : —
" Where it openeth southerly more and more until it come under the tropic of Cancer, and so runneth into Mar del Sur, at the least 18 degrees more in breadth there, than it was where it first began ; otherwise, I could as well imagine this passage to be more unlikely than the voyage to Moscovia, and more impossible than it, for the far situation, and continuance thereof in the frosty clime"
That Cabot represented the strait as continuing in the degree mentioned, or as presenting a southern route, is incredible, be cause we know that he was finally arrested at 67° and-a-half whilst struggling onward. But the object of Willes was, to meet the objection of those who contended that even supposing a passage could be found so far to the North yet the perils of the navigation must render it useless for the purposes of commerce. He represents them as saying, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 25) —
" If any such passage be, it lieth subject unto ice and snow for the most part of the year. Before the sun hath warmed the air and dissolved the ice each one well knoweth that there can be no sailing. The ice once broken through, the continual abode the sun maketh a certain season in those parts how shall it be possible for so weak a vessel, as a ship is, to hold out amid
D2
36
whole islands, as it were, of ice continually beating on each side, and at the mouth of that gulf issuing down furiously from the North, &c."
Willes, therefore, artfully concedes, as has been seen, the force of the objection, but attempts to elude it by adverting to the form of the Bay, and arguing that the break to the South held out the prospect of a safer route. In this effort he derived im portant assistance from the maps of Gemma Frisius and Trame- zine, both of which are yet extant, and really do make the strait expand to the South, and fall into the Pacific precisely in the manner he describes. He, therefore, couples the delineation of Cabot, from actual observation, with the conjectures of the others, and draws certain inferences, " if the Gardes of Cabota and Gemma Frisius, and that which Tramezine imprinted be true," (3 Hakluyt, p. 28.) There is no difficulty, as has been said, in making the separation, when we advert to the fact that Cabot was actually at 67* and-a-half, when the alarm of his associates compelled him to turn back.
The representation of Cabot may, in point of accuracy, be advantageously contrasted with that of more recent maps. Thus, on the one found in Purchas, (vol. iii. p. 852,) the 318th degree of longitude passes through nearly the middle of the " Fretum Hudson." In the " Voyages from Asia to America, for com pleting the discoveries of the North-West Coast of America," pub lished at London, in 1764, with a translation of S. Muller's Tract, as to the Russian discoveries, there is a map by " Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to his Majesty," taken from that published by the Royal Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh. The old mode of computation is observed, and the 318th degree of longitude does not touch Labrador, but passes to the eastward of it.
Such is the evidence which exists, to establish the fact assumed as the title of this chapter. There remains one obvious and strik ing consideration. Had Cabot been disposed to fabricate a tale to excite the wonder of his contemporaries, not only were the means of detection abundant, but he, assuredly, would not have
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limited himself to 67° and-a-half. To a people familiar with the navigation to Iceland, Norway, &c., there was nothing mar vellous in his representation ; nay, Zeigler, as we have seen, will not believe that great mountains of ice could have been en countered in that latitude. It is only by knowing the navigation of the Strait, and Bay, and northern channel, that we can appre ciate the difficulties he had to overcome, and the dauntless intre pidity that found a new impulse in perils before which his ter rified companions gave way.
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CHAP. IV.
FIRST WORK OF HAKLUYT MAPS AND DISCOURSES LEFT BY SEBASTIAN
CABOT AT HIS DEATH READY FOR PUBLICATION.
AN early work of Hakluyt, to which frequent reference will be made, contains a great deal of curious information, not to be found elsewhere, and is exceedingly important as a check on his sub sequent volumes. It furnishes, moreover, honourable evidence of the zeal with which he sought to advance, on every occasion, the interests of navigation and discovery. The following is its title: —
" Divers voyages touching the discoverie of America and the Islands adjacent unto the same, made first of all by an English man, and afterwards by the Frenchmen, and Britons: and certain notes of advertisements, for observations necessary for such as shall hereafter make the like attempt, with two mappes annexed hereunto, for the plainer understanding of the whole matter. Imprinted at London, for Thomas Woodcock, dwelling in Paule's Churchyard, at the signe of the Black Beare, 1582."
A reference will be found to it in the margin of p. 174. vol. iii. of Hakluyt's larger work. Dr. Dibdin, in his Library Companion, (2d ed. p. 392,) says, " I know of no other copy than that in the collection of my neighbour, Henry Jadis, Esq., who would brave all intervening perils between Indus and the Pole, to possess him self of any rarity connected with Hakluyt."* There is a copy in the Library of the British Museum, arranged, however, in the
* It may be inferred that we are not quite such enthusiasts as the gentle man referred to ; those who are will find amongst the Harleian MSS. (No. 288, Art. 111.) a very curious autograph letter from Hakluyt, dated Paris, July 1588, relative to an overture from France.
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Catalogue, not to the title, Hakluyt, but, " America." It is dedicated to " The Right Worshipful, and most vertuous Gentle man, Master Philip Sydney, Esq." Zouch, in his Life of Sir Philip Sydney, (p. 317,) thus refers to it: "Every reader con versant in the annals of our naval transactions, will cheerfully acknowledge the merit of Richard Hakluyt," Sec. " His incom parable industry was remunerated with every possible encourage ment, by Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Philip Sydney. To the latter, as a most generous promoter of all ingenious and use ful knowledge, he inscribed his first collection of voyages and discoveries, printed in 1582."
In a passage of the dedication, he adverts to the English title to America : —
" I have here, right worshipful, in this hastie work, first put downe the Title which we have to that part of America, which is from Florida to 67 degrees northward, by the letters patent, granted to John Gabote and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius, with Sebastian's own certificate to Baptista Ramu- sio, of his discovery of America."
One Tract preserved in this volume, and which does not appear in the work as afterwards enlarged, is of great curiosity. It is a translation, published originally in 1563, of the detailed report made to Admiral Coligny by Ribault who commanded the French expedition, in 1562, to Florida, with a view to a settle ment, and who actually planted in that year a French colony in what is now the State of South Carolina. Subsequently to the publication of this volume, Hakluyt was instrumental in causing to be published at Paris, in 1587, the volume of Basanier con taining the Narrative of Laudonniere, who was second in com mand under Ribault. A comprehensive view is there given of all the voyages, and Hakluyt, therefore, in his larger work, omits the interesting report made by the chief of the expe dition.
It is not a little remarkable, in reference to an incident so memorable, that the woik of Ribault seems to be quite unknown
40
in France. The " Biographic Universelle," (title Ribault) has a long article which manifests an entire ignorance of its existence, and is, indeed, written in a very careless manner. Thus, it is stated that Ribault, after reaching Florida, proceeded northward along the coast, and landed at the mouth of a river where he placed a Pillar with the Arms of France, and that to the next river he gave the name of May. This is not only contrary to Ribault's account, but to that of Laudonniere, (Basanier's Paris ed. of 1587, fol. 8. also, 3 Hakluyt, p. 308,) and to the theory of the Biographic Universelle itself which identifies the May with the present St. John. The mistake throws into confusion what in the original cannot be mistaken. It was on the river where he planted the Pillar that the name of May was conferred. Ribault, in this Tract, referring to the several navigators who had visited America, speaks of the " very famous" Sebastian Cabot, "an excellent pilot, sent thither by King Henry VII., in the year 1498." Hakluyt speaks of it as " translated by one Thomas Hackit," and remarks, " The Treatise of John Ribault, is a thing that hath been already printed, but not nowe to be had unless I had caused it to be printed againe." The work, however, as ori ginally published by Hackit, in London, in 1563, is in the Library of the British Museum, (title in Catalogue, Ribault.) It is more excusable in the French Biographer of Ribault, not to know of an important Memoir prepared by him, and which is found in the Lansdowne Manuscripts, on the policy of preserving peace with England, and of delivering up to her certain ports of France. It was, doubtless, prepared under the eye of Coligny, and trans mitted by him to shew the views of his party ; and has an inti mate connexion with the history of France at that period.
Passing, however, at present, from various items of this cu rious volume, to which occasion will be taken hereafter to refer, there is to be noticed a passage of the deepest interest in reference to the subject of this memoir. Great surprise has been expressed that Cabot should have left no account of his voyages, and this circumstance has even been urged against him as a matter of
41
reproach. " Sebastian, with all his knowledge, and in the course of a long life, never committed to writing any narrative of the voyage to North America. The curious on the Continent, how ever, drew from him in conversation various particulars which gave a general idea," &c. (Historical account of North America, &c., by Hugh Murray, Esq., vol. i. p. 66.) Let us see how far the reproach on Cabot may be retorted on his country. In this work of 1582, after citing the patent granted by Henry VII. and the testimony of Ramusio, Hakluyt says : —
" This much concerning Sebastian Cabote's discoverie may suffice for a present taste, but shortly, God willing, shall come out in print ALL HIS OWN MAPPES and DISCOURSES drawne and written by himselfe, which are in the custodie of the worshipful Master William Worthington, one of her Majesty's Pensioners, who (because SO WORTHIE MONUMENTS should not be buried in perpetual oblivion) is very willing to suffer them to be overseene, and published in as good order as may be to the encouragement and benefite of our countrymen."
It may be sufficient here to say of William Worthington, that he is joined with Sebastian Cabot, in the pension given by Philip and Mary, on the 29 May, 1557, (Rymer, vol. xv. p. 466.) The probable fate of the Maps and Discourses will be considered on reaching the painful part of Cabot's personal history which be longs to this association.
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CHAP. V.
COMPARATIVE AGENCY OF JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT.
IT has been seen, that by all the early writers, heretofore cited, who speak of the discoveries effected under the auspices of Henry VII. Sebastian Cabot is exclusively named. An inclination has, in consequence, sprung up at a more recent period to dwell on the circumstances which seem to indicate that injustice had been done to the father ; and the alleged testimony of Robert Fabyan, the venerable annalist, is particularly relied on.
The feeling which prompts this effort to vindicate the preten sions of the father is entitled to respect ; and certainly there can exist, at this late day, no other wish on the subject than to reach the truth. It is proposed, therefore, to look with this spirit into the various items of evidence which are supposed to establish the prevailing personal agency of John Cabot. They may be ranked thus :
1. The alleged statement of Robert Fabyan.
2. The language of more recent writers as to the character of the father.
3. The appearance of his name on the map cut by Clement Adams, and also in the- patents.
As to the first, the authority usually referred to is found in Hakluyt (vol. 3. p. 9)—
" A note of Sebastian Cabot's first discoverie of part of the Indies taken out of the latter part of Robert Fabian's Chronicle, not hitherto printed, which is in the custodie of M. John Stow, a diligent preserver of antiquities."
" In the 13 yeere of K. Henry the 7, (by meanes of one John Cabot, a Vene tian, which made himselfe very expert and cunning in knowledge of the cir cuit of the world, and islands of the same as by a sea card, and other demon strations reasonable he shewed,) the king caused to man and victuall a ship at
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Bristow to search for an island, which he said he knew well was rich, and re plenished with great commodities : which shippe thus manned and victualled at the King's costs, divers marchants of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her, as chief patron, the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship sailed, also, out of Bristow, three or foure small ships, fraught with sleight and grosse marchandizes, as course cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles, and so departed from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in this Maior's time returned no tidings."
There is added, by Hakluyt, a note of three savages brought from the newly-discovered region, " mentioned by the foresaid, Robert Fabian."
It may be remarked, in the first place, that the history of this " latter part of Robert Fabyan's Chronicle," well deserves the attention of antiquaries. Both Stow, in his Annals, subsequently published, and after him, Speed, (p. 744,) and Purchas, (vol. iii. p. 808,) speak of the exhibition in 1502 of savages brought from the Newfoundland, and cite Fabyan, as authority for what is not to be found in his work as we now have it.* Assuming, however, as we may safely do, that Stow was possessed of a manuscript which he had reason to believe the work of a contemporary, the question remains as to its precise language. The passage in Hakluyt, would evidently appear to be not an exact transcript from such a work. The expression, " of whom in this Mayor's time returned no tidings," is not in the manner of a Chronicler making a note of incidents as they occurred, but is very natural in a person looking over the materials in his possession for infor mation on a particular point, and reporting to another the result of that examination. It is probable, therefore, that Hakluyt had asked Stow what light he could throw on the expeditions in the time of Henry VII., and that we have here the answer given to the enquiry. From what has already been seen, it may be con ceived that Hakluyt would not hesitate to run his pen through whatever struck him as irreconcilable with the leading facts in his possession. The wealthy Prebendary would approach with
* See Appendix (A.)
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no great reverence the labours of poor Stow, who having aban doned his business as a tailor, for the unrequited labours of an antiquary, was reduced to such distress, that, through the royal munificence, a special license was granted to him to beg at the church doors. If, therefore, Hakluyt found the son's name intro duced, he would not hesitate to make it give way to what he deemed the better evidence supplied by the record. Fortunately, however, we are not left to mere conjecture. In 1605, appeared Stow's own " Annals.'' The simplicity and good faith of this writer are so well known, as well as his intense reverence for what ever bore the stamp of antiquity, that we have no fear of his having committed what in his eyes would have been sacrilege, by changing one syllable of the original. Let it be remembered, then, that Hakluyt relies exclusively on what he obtained from Stow ; and in reading the following passage from the Annals, we find what, doubtless, passed into Hakluyt's hands before it was sub jected to his perilous correction. It occurs at p. 804, of the edi tion of 1605, and at p. 483, of that of 1631. " This year one Sebastian Gaboto, a Genoa's somie borne in .Bristol, professing himself to be expert in the knowledge of the circuit of the world and islands of the same, as by his charts and other reasonable demonstrations he shewed, caused the king to man and victual a ship,"&c. The rest corresponds with the passage in Hakluyt, but there is not added, " of whom in this Mayor's time," &c. ; thus confirming the conjecture as to the meaning of those words in the memorandum given to Hakluyt. Under the year 1502, we find the passage as to the exhibition of the savages, beginning, " This year were brought unto the king three men taken in the Newfoundland, by Sebastian Gaboto, before named, in anno 1498." As authority for this last fact, he cites Robert Fabyan. Thus we have the best evidence that the contemporary writer, whoever he may have been, made not the slightest allusion to the father. Bacon, Speed, Thuanus, &c., all furnish the same statement.
The very phrase, " a Genoa's son," employed to designate Sebastian Cabot, may be considered as the not unnatural mistake
45
of a contemporary, referring as it does to the country of Colum bus with whose fame all Europe was ringing from side to side.
It happens that we can trace the progress of Hakluyt's perver sion. The communication from Stow first appears in the " Divers Voyages to America," &c. published in 1582. When given at that early period, as derived from " Mr. John Stow, citizen," Hakluyt merely changes the words "a Genoa's son," into "a Venetian," without giving any name. He had not then heard of the patent of February 3, 1498, naming John Cabot exclusively, for the only document he quotes is the original patent of March 1496, in which both father and son are mentioned, and which de scribes the father as a Venetian. He struck out, therefore, only what he then knew to be incorrect. Subsequently, he received information of the second patent in favour of John Cabot, and in his enlarged work he not only furnishes a reference to that patent, but makes a further alteration of what he had received from Stow. Instead of "a Venetian," as in 1582, when he had the memo randum first before him, it becomes " one John Cabot, a Vene tian," thus effecting, at the two stages of alteration, a complete change of what he had received, and yet for the statement as thus finally made Fabian and Stow continue to be cited !
Hakluyt has, incautiously, suffered to lie about the evidence of his guilty deed, which should have been carefully buried. Thus there is retained the original title of the passage — " A note of Se bastian Cabot's first discovery of part of the Indies, taken out of the latter part of Robert Fabyan's Chronicle, not hitherto printed, which is in the custody of Mr. John Stow, a diligent preserver of Antiquities." Now it is highly probable that all this, with the exception of the compliment, was the explanatory memo randum at the head of Stow's communication. It is incredible that Hakluyt himself should prefix it to a passage which does not contain the slightest allusion to Sebastian Cabot. Thus we see that in indicating to the printer the alterations in the new edition, the pen of Hakluyt, busied with amendment at the critical point, has
46
spared, inadvertently, what betrays him by its incongruity with that which remains, and, like the titles of many acts of parliament, serves to shew the successful struggle for amendment after the original draught.
As to the second paragraph, about the exhibition of the three savages, Hakluyt's conduct has been equally unjustifiable, but an exposure of it belongs to a different part of the subject.
Thus it i* established by the testimony of the contemporary An nalist, that it was on a young man — the son of the rich merchant from Italy — that the public eye was turned in reference to the projected shemes of discovery.
The explanation that has been given furnishes at the same time an answer to the second ground adverted to in support of the "father's pretensions — the encomiums bestowed on him by respectable writers. Singular as it may appear, they have all arisen out of the misconception as to Fabyan's meaning. Beyond this supposed allusion, there is not the slighest evidence that the father was a seaman, or had the least claim to nautical skill or the kindred sciences. We hear only of his going " to dwell in England to follow the trade of merchandise." Yet out of Hak luyt's perversion, mark how each successive writer has delighted to draw the materials for eulogy on this old gentleman.
"Thus it appears, from the best authority that can be desired, that of a contemporary writer, this discovery was made by Sir John Cabot, the father of Sebastian." (Campbell's Lives of The Admirals.) " Sir John Cabot was the original discoverer, of which honour he ought not to be despoiled, even by his son." (ib.) The same language is found in M'Pherson's Annals of Commerce, (vol. ii. p. 13. note,) and in Chalmer's Political Annals of The Colonies, (p. 8, 9,) though it happens, singularly enough, that in correcting the supposed error, this last writer not only mistakes the name of the annalist (making him to be John Fabyan), but cites a work which does not contain the slightest allusion to these enterprises.
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" He was, it seemsr a man perfectly skilled in all the sciences requisite to form an accomplished seaman or a general trader !" (Campbell's Lives of the Admirals.)
"The father was a man of science, and had paid particular attention to the doctrine of the spheres. His studies, &c. He seems to have applied to Henry VII., who accordingly empowered him to sail," &c. (vol. xviii. Kerr's Voyages, p. 353. Essay by W. Ste venson, Esq.)
" John Caboto, a citizen of Venice, a skilful Pilot and intrepid Navigator." (Barrow, p. 32.)
" Henry VII., disappointed in his hopes of forming an engage ment with Columbus, gladly extended his protection to the Ve netian, John Gavotta or Cabot, whose reputation as a skilful pilot was little inferior to that of the celebrated Genoese." (Dr. Lard- ner's Cabinet Cyclopsedia, Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 136.)
We come now to the assertion, that on the map " hung up in the Queen's Privy Gallery /' the discoveries indicated, are referred to the joint agency of the father and son. And here, the first consideration is, of course, as to the evidence that such a repre sentation was made.
The map itself has disappeared, and we approach the state ment of Hakluyt with a conviction that he would not hesitate, for a moment, to interpolate the name of John Cabot, if he thought that, thereby, was secured a better correspondence with the language of the original patent. No additional confidence is derived from Purchas, who copies all Hakluyt's perversions, and even repeats the citation of Fabyan, as found in Hakluyt's last work, though Stow's Annals had intermediately appeared, and the discrepance between Hakluyt's first and last work ought to have put him on his guard.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert makes not the slightest allusion to the Father.
" Furthermore, Sebastian Caboto, by his personal experience and travel, hath set forth and described this passage in his charts,
48
which are yet to be seen in the Queen Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to make this discovery by king Henry VII."
It would certainly require less audacity to associate here the name of the father, as it is found in the patent, than to do that of which Hakluyt has already been convicted. Richard Willes, who, in the treatise already cited, and which is given in Hakluyt, addresses Lady Warwick " from the court," and speaks familiarly of Sebastian Cabot's map, makes no allusion to the father.
There is a treatise on " Western planting" copied into Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 165,) as "written by Sir George Peckham, Knt., the chief adventurer and furtherer of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's voyage;" in which, speaking of the English title to America, he says, (p. 173,) " In the time of the Queen's grandfather of worthy memory, king Henry VII., Letters Patent were, by his Majesty, granted to John Cabota, an Italian, to Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, his three sons, to discover remote, barbarous, and heathen countries; which discovery was afterwards executed to the use of the Crown of England, in the said king's time, by Sebastian and Sancius, his sons, who were born here in England" Thus, with a full knowledge of the introduction of the name of the father and the eldest brother into the Patent, Sir George seems to negative the idea that they took any part in the execution of the enterprise. Yet it must be admitted that this piece of evidence, strong as it seems, is weakened by noticing the statements coupled with it. He continues, (p. 173,) "In true testimony whereof, there is a fair haven in Newfoundland, knowen and called until this day by the name of Sancius Haven, which proveth that they first discovered upon that coast, from the height of 63 unto the cape of Florida, as appeareth in the Decades." The reference here is to the Decades of Peter Martyr, which certainly do not bear out the conclusion. The writer probably determined the question of latitude by observing that Cabot, according to Willes, fixed the mouth of the Strait between 61° and 64°; and as to the Haven, the allusion is probably to Placentia Bay, or as it is written on
49
the old maps of Newfoundland, Plasancius, a title which, as found in the mouths of seamen, might readily suggest to the ear the name of the youngest patentee.
There is one account that mentions John Cabot, but it was written subsequently to the publication, by Hakiuyt in 1582, of the patent containing the father's name which would, of itself, suggest the association. It is the narrative, by Haies, of the Ex pedition of 1583, (see Hakiuyt, vol. iii. p. 144,) which we cite on the possibility that it may do no more than an act of justice, and because it serves to shew how uniformly the claims of Eng land in America have been rested on the discoveries in the time of Henry VII.
" The first discovery of these coasts (never heard of before) was well begun by John Cabot the father, and Sebastian his son, an Englishman born, &c. all which they brought and annexed unto the crown of England." " For not long after that Christopher Columbus had discovered the Islands and Conti nent of the West Indies for Spain, John and Sebastian Cabot made discovery also of the rest from Florida Northwards to the behoof of England." " The French did but review that before discovered by the English Nation usurping upon our right." " Then seeing the English Nation only hath right unto these countries of America, from the Cape of Florida Northward, by the privi lege of first discovery, unto which Cabot was authorised by regal authority, and set forth by the expense of our late famous King Henry VII. which right, also, seemeth strongly defended on our behalf by the bountiful hand of Al mighty God, notwithstanding the enterprises of other nations, it may greatly encourage us upon so just ground as is our right," &c.
The fact that the father is named in the Patent does not fur nish conclusive evidence that he embarked in either of the expeditions. The original grant conveys to the father and his three sons, " and to the heirs of them and their Deputies" full power to proceed in search of regions before unknown, and the exclusive privilege of trading. Now it has never been supposed that all the sons engaged in the voyage, and yet the presump tion is just as strong with regard to each of them as to the father, and even more so if we look to the appropriate season of life for perilous adventure. The truth seems to be this : — as it is probable that all the means of the family were embarked in this
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enterprise, it was no unnatural precaution that the patent should be coextensive in its provisions. It created them a trading cor poration with certain privileges, and it might as well be con tended, for a similar reason, that the Marquis of Winchester, the Earl of Arundel, and the other patentees of the Muscovy Company (1 Hakluyt, p. 268) actually sailed in the north-eastern voyages. The second patent is to the father alone. If we seek a reason for this departure from the original arrangement, it may be conjec tured that some of the sons chose to give a different direction to a parental advance and their personal exertions ; and that the head of the family thought fit to retain, subject to his own discretionary disposal, the proposed investment of his remaining capital. It is said* that one of the sons settled at Venice, and the other at Genoa. The recital of the discovery by the Father would, of course, be stated, under the circumstances, as the consideration of the second patent in his favour.
Another reason for the introduction of the father's name, con currently at first with his son's and afterwards exclusively, may perhaps be found in the wary character of the King, whose own pecuniary interests were involved in the result. He might be anxious thus to secure the responsibility of the wealthy Venetian for the faithful execution of the terms of the patent, and finally think it better to have him solely named, rather than commit powers, on their face assignable, to young men who had no stake in the country, and who were not likely to make it even a fixed place of residence.
On the whole, there may at least be a doubt whether the father really accompanied the expedition. Unquestionably, the great argument derived from the pretended language of a contemporary annalist is not only withdrawn, but thrown into the opposite scale.
Supposing, however, John Cabot to have been on board, we must, in enquiring what were his functions, carefully put aside the thousand absurdities which have had their origin in miscon-
* Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, vol. i. p. 310, on the authority of MS. remarks en Haklnyt.
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ception as to the person intended by Fabyan ; and remember, that we have not a tittle of evidence as to his character or past pur suits, except, as has been remarked, that he came to London " to follow the trade of merchandise." All that is said about his knowledge of the sphere — his perfect acquaintance with the sciences, &c., is merely an amplification of the remarks of Fabyan, as to Sebastian Cabot. If, then, he went at all, it was in all pro bability merely for the purpose of turning to account his mercan tile skill and sagacity in the projected traffic which formed one of the objects of the expedition. There is nothing to control, in the slighest degree, the idea which presses on us from so many quarters, that the project had its origin with the son, and that its great object was to verify his simple, but bold, proposition that by pushing to the north a shorter route might be opened to the treasures of Cataya.
If the youth of Sebastian Cabot be objected to, as rendering his employment by Henry improbable, we must remember that the project was suggested to the English monarch at a period pe culiarly auspicious to its reception. He had just missed the oppor tunity of employing Columbus, and with it the treasures of the New World. Instead of cold and cheerless distrust, there was a reaction in the public mind, with a sanguine flow of confidence towards novel speculations and daring enterprises. When, therefore, one-fifth of the clear gain was secured to the king, by the engagement of the wealthy Venetian, Henry yielded a ready ear to the bold theory and sanguine promises of the accomplished and enthusiastic young navigator.
CHAP. VI.
FIRST POINT SEEN BY CABOT NOT NEWFOUNDLAND.
THE part of America first seen and named by Cabot, is generally considered to have been the present Newfoundland. This, how ever, will be far from clear if we look closely into the subject.
The evidence usually referred to as establishing the fact con sists of an " extract taken out of the map of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams," quoted by Hakluyt and Purchas.
This would seem to have been a broad sheet, on which an attempt was made to exhibit the substance of Cabot's statement as to the country he had discovered. From the stress laid by Hakluyt and Purchas on the Extract, hung up in the privy gallery at Whitehall,* we may infer that they had never seen the original map. It would seem to have been executed after Cabot's death, and without any communication with him, for it offers con jectures as to his reasons for giving names to particular places which probably would not have been hazarded with the means so readily at hand, during his life, of attaining certainty on such points. The explanation was in Latin, and is thus given by Hakluyt, with a translation, (vol. iii. p. 6) —
" Anno Domini 1497, Joannes Cabotus Venetus, et Sebastianus illius filius earn terram fecerunt perviam, quam nullus prius adire ausus fuit, die 24 Junii, circiter horam quintam bene mane. Hanc autem appellavit Terram primum visam, credo quod ex mari in earn partem primum oculos injecerat. Namque
* The disappearance of this curious document may probably be referred, either to the sales which took place after the death of Charles I., or to the fire in the reign of William III.
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ex adverse sita est insula, earn appellavit insulam Divi Joannis, hac opinor ratione, quod aperta fuit eo qui die est sacer Diuo Joanni Baptistae: Hujus incolae pelles animalium exuviasque ferarum pro induraentis habent, casque tanti faciunt, quanti nos vestes preciosissimas. Cum bellum gerunt, utuntur arcu, sagittas, hastis, spiculis, clavis ligneis et fundis. Tellus sterilis est, neque ullos fructus affert, ex quo fit, ut ursis albo colore, et cervis inusitatse apud nos mag- nitudinis referta sit : piscibus abundat, iisque sane magnis, quales sunt lupi marini et quos salmones vulgus appellat ; solese autem reperiuntur tarn longae, ut ulnae mensuram excedant. Imprimis autem magna est copia corum pis- cium, quos vulgari sermone vocant Bacallaos. Gignuntur in ea insula accipi- tres ita nigri, ut corvorum similitudinem minim in modum exprimant, perdices autem et aquilse sunt nigri coloris."
The same in English.
" In the year of our Lord, 1497, John Cabot a Venetian, and his sonne Se bastian, (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll,) discovered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24th of June, about five of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista, that is to say, first scene ; because, as I suppose, it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That island which lieth out before the land he called the Island of St. John upon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discovered upon the day of John the Baptist. The inhabitants of this island use to weare beasts' skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as we have our finest garments. In their warres they use bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soil is barren in some places, and yeeldeth little fruit, but it is full of white bears, and stagges far greater than ours. It yeeldeth plenty of fish, and those very great as seales, and those which we commonly call salmons ; there are soles, also, above a yard in length, but especially there is great abun dance of that kind of fish which the savages call baccalaos. In the same island also there breed hauks, but they are so black that they are very like to ravens, as also their partridges and eagles, which are in like sort blacke."
As usual, it is necessary here, in the first place, to notice the passages in which Hakluyt has acted unfaithfully to the text. He was under an impression that Cabot first visited Newfound land, and in this same volume that region is spoken of in very flattering terms, and its colonization earnestly recommended. At p. 153, we hear of Newfoundland — "There is nothing which our East and Northerly countries of Europe do yield, but the like also may be made in them as plentifully by time and industry, namely, rosin, flax, hemp, corn, and many more, all which the countries will afford, and the soil is apt to yield." "The soil along the coast is not deep of earth, bringing forth abundantly peason,
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small, yet good feeding for cattle. Roses, passing sweet," &c. In the letter of Parmenius from Newfoundland (p. 162), the passage beginning " But what shall I say my good Hakluyt," &c., con veys a similar representation.
Mark now the liberties taken by Hakluyt. Cabot, in the Ex tract, is made to say, that the country called "Terra primum visa" was absolutely sterile — " tellus sterilis est." This Hakluyt renders "the soil is barren in some places;" and when Cabot says, " neque ullos fructus affert," the translator has it, " and yieldeth little fruit ;" thus perverting, without hesitation, the original, which is yet audaciously placed beneath our eyes !
While on the subject of these efforts to obscure a document so little satisfactory in itself, reference may be made to another, of a date subsequent to the time of Hakluyt but which has had an extensive influence on modern accounts. The country discovered is designated in the Latin, as " Terra primum visa," and distin guished from the " Imula," or Island of St. John, standing oppo site to it. Hakluyt preserves the distinction, but in the well-known book of Captain Luke Foxe, who professes to transfer to his pages the several testimonials on the subject of Cabot's discoveries so as to present them to his readers in a cheap form, the passage is thus put, (p. 15) —
"In the year of grace 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, and Se bastian his son, with an English fleet from Bristol, discovered that Island, which before that time, no man," &c. With a view to economy of space, Foxe omits to copy Hakluyt's statement, that the " Extract" spoken of was hung up "in the Queen's Privy Gallery," and from this omission a hasty reader is led to infer that he speaks of a map in his own possession. Here was a fine trap for those who came after him ; and the following passage from M'Pherson's Annals of Commerce, (vol. ii. p. 13, note,) may shew how successful it proved. " Foxe quotes the fol lowing inscription engraven near Newfoundland, in a map, pub lished by Sebastian, the son of John Cabot — ' A. D. 1497, John Cabot a Venetian, and Sebastian, his son, with an English
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fleet, set sail from Bristol, discovered that Island, which before that time no man had attempted/ " Thus we have — Foxe in possession of Cabot's map — on that map, " Newfoundland" marked — and, on the map, published by Sebastian Cabot, an inscription near Newfoundland, to the purport mentioned. It will be asked, with surprise, whether Foxe, culpable as he is, affords no greater countenance to M'Pherson. Posi tively not. So far from pretending to have any original docu ments, he says expressly, in his address to the reader, " It will be objected that many of these abstracts are taken out of other books, and that those are the voyages of other men. I answer, it is true that most of them are, for what are all those of Mr. Hakluyt and Mr. Purchas, but the collections and preservations of other mens' labours," &c. " I have abstracted those works of my prede cessors, yet I have interlaced my own experience !" &c. Chal mers adopts, like M'Pherson, the perversion of Foxe.
We are bound, therefore, to look closely to the original language of this document, which is itself, unfortunately, a mere abstract ; and in endeavouring to ascertain the country intended, we natu rally pause on the very expressions which have been perverted, in order to accommodate them to the modern hypothesis. The unqualified language as to the sterility of the region, is certainly more applicable to Labrador than Newfoundland, and the dis tinction taken between the " Terra" and the " Insula," is calcu lated to strengthen the presumption that the former was intended.
As to the animals of this "Terra primum visa" we are told, it is "full of white bears, and deer larger than ours" — ("ursis albo colore et cervis inusitatse apud nos magnitudinis referta") Now the haunts of the white bear are on the coast of Labrador, and they do not come so far South as Newfoundland in numbers to war rant such a description. The account, too, given by Peter Martyr, of the manner in which these bears catch the fish, which is their favourite food, strikingly recalls the lively description of similar scenes by Mr. Cartvvright, in his " Journal, during a residence of nearly sixteen years on the coast of Labrador." It is remarkable,
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that most English writers have been rather reluctant to copy Cabot's representation on this point, supposing it inapplicable to Newfoundland, where, though white bears may be occasionally seen, they are not " native here and to the manner born."
The introduction of an island, " St. John" into the "Extract," has contributed to mislead, the reader naturally referring it to the one of that name in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. If we recollect, however, that the Terra primum visa was discovered on the 24th June, and the island on the same day (St. John's day), it will seem improbable that Cabot, on the very day of discovery, could have penetrated so far. The description, also, is inapplicable, " qu9B ex adverse sita est Insula," — " that island which lieth out before the land." We must remark, further, that the present St. John, was so named by Cartier, in 1534, (3 Hakluyt, p. 204,) he having been employed from the 10th May, when he reached Newfoundland, to 24th June, in making a circuit of the gulf which he entered through the strait of Belle Isle. But the most important, and conclusive, piece of testimony, is furnished by Ortelius, who had the map of Cabot before him, and who places an island of St. John in the latitude of 56° immediately on the coast of Labrador. This is, doubtless, the one so designated by Cabot.
Thus, without calling to our aid the terms of the second patent to Cabot, which recites the discovery of & Land and islands on the first voyage, we reach the conclusion, that the main discovery — the " Terra," as distinguished from the " Insula " — could not have been the present island of Newfoundland.
There is little difficulty in tracing the history of this epithet. The whole of the northern region is designated, on the old maps, as Terra Nova, or New Land, and it has the appellation of " Newland," in the statute 33 Henry VIII. cap. ii.* Robert Thorne of Bristol, in 1527, speaking (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 214) of the North-West passage, says, " and if they will take this course
* Ruffhead's Statutes at large, vol. ii. p, 304.
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after they be past the Pole towards the West, they should go in the back of the Newfoundland which of late was discovered by your 'Grace's subjects, until they come to the back side and South Seas of the Indies Occidental;" and again, (p. 219,) " if between our Newfoundlands, or Norway, or Island, the seas toward the North be navigable, we should go to these islands a shorter way by more than 2000 leagues." On the same page, he mentions the circumstance of his father having been one of the " discoverers of Newfoundland;" — at p. 216, refers to " the land that we found, which is called here (in Spain) Terra de Labrador," — and in another part of the same document speaks of " the Newfound island that we discovered."
The term, then, was employed, in the first instance, as a designation of all the English discoveries in the North. That it should afterwards settle down upon an inconsiderable portion, and come to be familiarly so applied, will not appear surprising if we recollect, that for almost a century the whole region was known only as a fishing station, and regarded as an appendage to the Grand Bank, and that the island was used, exclusively, in connexion with such pursuits. When long established, these designations are beyond the reach of considera tions of taste or propriety. Thus, the term West Indies, once covering the whole of America, is now limited to groups of islands on its eastern side, even after a Continent and the Pacific Ocean are known to be interposed between them and that India in a supposed connexion with which the name had its origin. Parks and Squares may be laid out and named at will, but the familiar appellation of a thronged place of business will not yield even to ^ Act of Parliament ; " expellas furca tamen usque recurret."
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CHAP. VII.
CABOT DID NOT CONFER THE NAME " PRIMA VISTA."
THE question as to the name Prima Vista stands apart from that which has just been dismissed, and is in itself sufficiently curious.
It is to be remembered, that the description, in Latin, is not only the highest but the only authority on the subject, and that Hakluyt had no better materials for conjecture than we now possess. From this document we gather that John and Sebastian Cabot,
" Earn terrain fecerunt perviam quam nullus prius adire ausus fuit die 24 Junii circiter horam quintain bene mane. Hanc autem appellavit Terram pri- mum visam credo quod ex mari in earn partem primum oculos injecerat."
A passage thus translated by Hakluyt —
" They discovered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24th June, about five of the clock, early in the morning. This land he called Prima Vista, that is to say, first seen, because as I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea."
It is plain, that the original map could have furnished no clew to the motive for conferring the appellation, because the suggestion of the person who prepared the " Extract," is of fered, confessedly, as a conjecture. We know only that there was something on the map which led him to consider the region as designated, " Terra primum visa." This bare state ment will shew how utterly gratuitous is Hakluyt's assump tion, that the name given was Prima Vista ; for it is obviously impossible to determine, whether it was in Latin, Italian, or English.
If the name Prima Vista, or Terra primumVisa, or First Sight,
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was conferred, why is nothing said of it in the various conversa tions of Sebastian Cabot ? We hear continually of Baccalaos, and. find that name on all the old maps, but not a word of the other, which yet is represented as the designation applied to the more important item of discovery — to the " terra/' as distinguished from the " insula."
The origin of the misconception is suspected to have been this : The Map of the New World which accompanies the copy of Hakluyt's work, in the King's- Library, has the following inscrip tion on the present Labrador, " This land was discovered by John et Sebastian Cabote, for Kinge Henry VII., 1497." Now, the " Extract" which we are considering, says, that John and Sebastian Cabot first discovered the land " which no man before that time had attempted," ("quam nullus prius adire ausus fuit.") These expressions are, of course, intended to convey an assertion found on the original map, of which it professes to give an abstract — an assertion equivalent, doubtless, to the language quoted from the map in Hakluyt. How would such an inscription run ? Probably, thus : " Terra primum visa Joanne Caboto et Sebas- tiano illius filio die, 24 Junio, 1497, circiter horam quintam bene mane." To us who have just been called on to expose the absurd mistakes committed by men of the highest reputation for learning and sagacity, is it incredible, that the artist who prepared the broad sheet, should have hastily supposed the initial words to be intended as a designation of the country discovered — particularly, when in the Law, we have to seek at every turn a similar explana tion of such titles, as Scire-facias, Mandamus, Quo Warranto, &c. &c. ?
Such a designation might even have got into use without ne cessarily involving misconception. There is a tendency, in the absence of a convenient epithet, to seize, even absurdly, on the leading words of a description, particularly when couched in a foreign language. Thus, the earliest collection of voyages to the New World, is entitled, " Paesi novamente retrovati et Novo Hondo da Alberico Vespucio Florentine intitulato." It
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is usually quoted as the " Paesi novamente retrovati," and a bookseller, therefore, when asked for " Land lately discover ed," exhibits a thin quarto volume, published at Vicenza, in 1507. The same is the case with the " Novus Orbis," the " Fcedera," &c.
Another consideration may be mentioned. The island which " stands out from the land," was discovered on the 24th June, and named from that circumstance. One would suppose this to have been first encountered ; and if so, the designation of " First Sight," would hardly be given to a point subsequently seen on the same day. Not only were the chances in its favour from its posi tion, but we cannot presume that Cabot would have quitted im mediately his main discovery, had that been first recognized, and stood out to sea to examine a small island, or that he would have dedicated to the Saint the inferior, and later, discovery of the day.
We repeat, all that is known on the subject is the appearance of the three Latin words in question on the original map. The rest is mere conjecture; first, of the artist, as to the meaning of the words, and then, of Hakluyt, yet wilder, that " Terra primum visa," must have been a translation of something in Italian. This solution explains why there is no reference to any such title in the conversations of Cabot, or in Ortelius who had the map of that navigator before him.
It is not improbable, that Hakluyt was assisted to his conclu sion by the prominence given on the early maps of Newfoundland to a name conferred by the Portuguese. Though he has not put into words the reflection which silently passed through his mind, it becomes perceptible in others who have adopted his hypo thesis. Thus, for example, we recognise its vague influence on Forster, (p. 267,) who supposes " that Sebastian Cabot had the first sight of Newfoundland off Cape Bonavista"
The subject seems, indeed, on every side, the sport of rash and even puerile conceits. Dr. Robertson tells us, (Hist, of Ame rica, book ix.) " after sailing for some weeks due West, and
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nearly on the parallel of the port from which he took his de parture, he discovered a large Island, which he called Prima Vista, and his sailors, Newfoundland ! — and in a few days, he descried a smaller Isle, to which he gave the name of St. John." Thus is presented, gratuitously, to the imagination, a sort of contest about names, between the commander of the expedition and the plain-spoken Englishmen under his command !
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CHAP. VIII.
RICHARD EDEN'S " DECADES OF THE NEW WORLD" — CABOT'S STATEMENT AS TO THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH.
As reference has already been made, more than once, to the volume of Eden, and there will be occasion to draw further on its statements, a few remarks may not be out of place as to the claims which that rare and curious work presents to credit and respect. In selecting from the various tributes to its merits, that of Hakluyt, it is difficult to forbear a somewhat trite reflec tion on the fortuitous circumstances which influence the fate of books, as frequently as they are arbiters of fame and success in the pursuits of active life. Eden has, in our view, far stronger claims to consideration as an author, and to the grateful recollec tion of his countrymen, than the writer whose testimony it is pro posed to adduce in his favour. He preceded the other half-a- century, and was, indeed, the first Englishman who undertook to present, in a collective form, the astonishing results of that spirit of maritime enterprise which had been everywhere awakened by the discovery of America. Nor was he a mere compiler. We are indebted to him for several original voyages of great curiosity and value. He is not exempt, as has been seen, from error, but in point of learning, accuracy, and integrity, is certainly superior to Hakluyt ; yet it is undoubted, that while the name of the former, like that of Vespucci, has become indelibly associated with the new World, his predecessor is very /ittle known. Hak luyt has contrived to transfer, adroitly, to his volumes, the labours of others, and to give to them an aspect artfully attractive to those for whom they were intended. The very title — " Naviga tions, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English 'Nation"
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is alluring, however inappropriate to the contents such an exclu sive designation may be found ; and as the size and typographical execution of the work conspire to render the enterprise a very creditable one, for the early era of its appearance, the national complacency has rallied round it as a trophy, with a sort of enthusiasm. " It redounds/' says Oldys, " as much to the glory of the English nation as any book that ever was published in it;" and Dr. Dibdin, in the passage of his Library Companion, beginning " All hail to thee, Richard Hakluyt !" employs, in his way, a still higher strain of panegyric. For a decayed gentleman, then, like Eden, it may not be wise to slight a patronising glance of recognition from one who stands so prosperously in the world's favour.
To establish him, therefore, in the high confidence of most readers, it will be sufficient to find Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 498) quoting a passage from " that learned and painefull writer, Richard Eden ;" and again (vol. i. p. 242) adverting to the sanc tion which Eden gives to the account of Chancellor's voyage. In the second volume (part ii. p. 10) other passages are copied from Eden's work. The extract from Peter Martyr d'Angleria, rela tive to Sebastian Cabot, given in the third volume, (p. 8,) is taken, without acknowledgement, from Eden's Translation, (fol. 118, 119.) As to the " Discourse" relative to the same navigator, given in Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 6,) he takes from Eden, (fol. 255,) every thing but the erroneous reference to the second volume of Ra- musio, which is a blunder of his own, into which also he has led his copyist Purchas. The voyages to Guinea, found in Eden, (fol. 343,) are original, and were drawn up, as he says, "that sum me- morie thereof might remayne to our posteritie, if eyther iniquitie of tyme, consumynge all things, or ignorance creepynge in by bar- barousnesse, and contempte of knowledge, should hereafter bury in oblivion so woorthy attemptes." Hakluyt, in making the transfer to his work, (vol. ii. part ii. p. 9,) .retains the introductory expressions, without the slighest acknowledgement, so that our gratitude is directed to him, for having preserved an account of
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these voyages, and for the patriotic zeal which prompted the un dertaking. This is the more calculated to mislead, as, immedi ately after these voyages, credit is given to Eden, (p. 10,) for a description of Africa ; and the reader, noting a temper apparently so fair and candid, at once pronounces original, whatever is not expressly referred to others. There is a voyage in Hakluyt, (vol. ii. part ii. p. 14,) designated at the head of the page, as that of "M.John Lok," and the writer says, "my chief intent hath been to shew the course of the same, according to the observation and ordinary custom of the Mariners; and as I received it at the hands of an expert Pilot, being one of the chief in this voyage." No one, unacquainted with Eden, would suppose, that this is copied, verbatim, from his volume, (fol. 349.) So, in reference to the unfortunate Portuguese, Pinteado, who sailed from Ports mouth, when we find in Hakluyt, (vol. ii. part ii. p. 14,) " all these aforesaid writings, I saw under seal in the house of my friend, Nicholas Liete, with whom Pinteado left them," there is no intimation, that he is merely repeating the language of Eden, (fol. 349.) Again, in Eden, (fol. 357,) is a curious account, which Chancellor gave him, of a waterspout, by which Cabot had been placed in imminent peril. This also is found in Hakluyt, (vol. ii. part ii. p. 21,) without acknowledgement, and wears there the ap pearance of a direct communication to himself.
Somewhat less than one-half of Eden's work, is occupied with an English version of Peter Martyr. Then come translations from the most rare and curious accounts of voyages and travels, Oviedo, Gomara, Ramusio, Pigafeta, Americus Vesputius, Munster, Bastaldus, Ziglerus, Cardanus, Paulus Jovius, Sigis- mondus Liberus, Vannuccius Biringuczius Amongst the articles most worthy of attention, may be mentioned those on metals and the working of mines in ancient and modern times, (fol. 326, to 342,) on the prices of precious stones and spices, and the trade in spices, (fol. 233, 244,) on Russia, (fol. 249, to 263,) and on the manners and customs of the Tartars, (fol. 299, &c.)
The circumstances which first inspired the. author with a reso-
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lution to prepare the work, are told with much simplicity. He was a spectator of the public entry into London of Philip and Mary. As the splendid pageant swept by, in all its pomp, pride, and circumstance, amidst the tumultuous acclamations of the populace, the array of functionaries civil and military, and the deafening bursts of martial music, he describes himself as almost lifted out of self-command by the excitement of the scene, and at the crisis when the royal pair actually passed near him he was ready to break out into some wild sally of enthusiasm. Re strained, happily, from this piece of indiscretion, he resolved to set about some work which he might, in due season, exhibit as the offspring of his teeming loyalty, arid humbly crave for it the royal blessing.*
Of the success of the work, on its appearance, we know no thing; but it seems to have struggled with many difficulties in its progress to the light, and of these not the least mortifying to Eden must have been the disheartening timidity of his publishers. It were injustice not to render a passing tribute of gratitude to the liberality of one of them, " Master Toy," without, however, at tempting to lift the veil which a gentle and generous temper has thrown over the infirmity of his associates. Eden's pecuniary disinterestedness, his earnest hope that his labours might be useful to others, and his honest anxiety for merited reputation serve to heighten our indignation at the manner in which he
* " Cum in primo vestro ingressu in hanc celeberriman Londini urbem (illustrissimi Principes) cernerem quanto omnium applausu, populi concursu, ac civium frequentia, quanto insuper spectaculorum nitore, nobilium virorum splendore, equoram multitudine, tubarum clangore, cceterisque magnificis pompis ac triumphis, pro dignitate vestra accepti estis dum omnes quod sui est officii facere satagebant, ubi in tanta hominum turba vix unus reperitatur qui non aliquid agendo adventum vestrum gratulabatur, ccepi et ego quoque aliorum exemplo (proprius prsesertim ad me accedentibus Celsitudinibus vestris) tanto animi ardore ad aliquid agendum accendi ne solus in tanta hominum corona otiosus viderer quod vix me continebam quin in aliquant extcmporariam orationem temere crupuissem, nisi et prsesentiae vestrse majestas et mea me ob- scuritas a tarn audaci facinore deteruissent. Verum cum postea penitius de hac re mecum cogitassem, &c."
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has been undeservedly supplanted and thrust from the public view.
" The partners at whose charge this booke is prynted, although the coppy, whereof they have wrought a long space have cost them nought, doo not, never theless, cease, dayly, to caule uppon me to make an end and proceede no further ; affirmynge that the booke will bee of so great a pryce, and not every man's money ; fearying rather theyr losse and hynderance than carefull to be beneficial to other, as is now in manner the trade of all men, which ordinarie respecte of private commoditie hath at thys time so lyttle moved me, I take God to witness that for my paynes and travayles taken herein, such as they bee, I may uppon just occasion thynke myself a looser manye wayes, except such men of good inclination as shall take pleasure and feele sum commoditie in the knowledge of these thinges shall thynke me woorthy theyr goode worde, wherewith I shall repute myselfe and my travayles so abundantly satisfyed, that I shall repute other men's gains a recompense for my losses/' (fol. 303.) Again, " and to have sayde thus much of these vyages it may suffice ; for, (as I have sayd before) wheras the partners at whose charges thys booke is prynted, wolde long since have me proceaded no further, I had not thought to have wrytten any thynge of these viages, [to Guinea] but that the liberalise of Master Toy encouraged me to attempt the same, whiche I speake not to the reproache of other in whom I thynke there lacked no good wyll, but that they thought the booke would be too chargeable." (fol. 360.)
Compare the modest and ingenuous language of this excellent personage with that of the well-fed and boastful Hakluyt, who, in the dedication of his translation of Galvano to Sir Robert Cecil, says, " And for ought I can see, there had no great matter yet come to light if Myselfe had not undertaken that heavie burden, being never therein entertained to any purpose, until I had re course unto yourself, of whose special favour and bountiful patro nage T have been often much encouraged, Sec. &c."
But the work is rendered yet more precious by information scattered through it, derived from the great seamen of that day with whom the author's turn of mind led him to associate. Se bastian Cabot he seems to have known familiarly, and one chapter (fol. 249) has, for part of its title, " lykewyse of the vyages of that woorthy ovvlde man Sebastian Cabote, yet Uvyngein England, and at this present the governor of the Company of the Marchantes of Cathay, in the citie of London/'
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In one of his marginal notes (fol. 268) he gives us Cabot's statement to him, that the icebergs were of fresh, and not of salt water ; and again in the marginal note (fol. 255), we have what Cabot said as to the quantity of grain raised by him in the La Plata, corrected afterwards at fol. 317. Speaking of the voyage to the North-East projected by Cabot, in which Richard Chancellor, as pilot major, accompanied Sir Hugh Willoughby, and succeeded, after the death of his gallant but unfortunate commander, in open ing the trade to Russia, Eden says, (fol. 256,) " And wheras I have before made mention howe Moscovia was in our time discovered by Richard Chancellor, in his viage toward Cathay, by the di rection and information of the sayde master Sebastian, who longe before had this secreate in his mynde, I shall not neede here, &c." The account of Cabot's escape from the waterspout (fol. 357) has been already adverted to.
We may note here, that Forster, in his " Voyage and Discove ries in the North," (p. 269,) gravely considers, and almost sanc tions, a doubt of the French writer Bergeron whether the Sebas tian Cabot so conspicuous in the reign of Edward VI. could have been the same who discovered the continent of America. It may serve to shew the very slight preparation with which many works of reputation on these subjects have been got up, that in the course of the argument no reference is made to Eden, who con veys from the lips of the " good owlde man" himself, interesting particulars of his earlier voyages! So also, in a more recent work,* the following expressions are found, (p. 361,) "We must now return to the period of the first attempt to find out a North- East passage to India. A society of merchants had been formed in London for this purpose. Sebastian Cabot, either the son or the grandson of John Cabot, and who held the situation of grand pilot of England, under Edward VI., was chosen governor of this society !"
* Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Com merce, from the earliest records to the beginning of the nineteenth century. By William Stevenson, Esq., forming vol. xviii. of Kerr's Collection of Voy ages, &c.
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Another of Eden's personal friends seems to have been Richard Chancellor. At fol. 284, we find that celebrated mariner giving an account of the ingenuity of the Russians in the construction of their buildings ; and at fol. 298, a further account of that people. He tells Eden (ib.) of an ambassador whom he saw there from the " province of Sibier," who gave him some curious information about the " Great Chan." He met also with the Ambassador of " the Kinge of Persia, called the Great Sophie," who was not only civil, but very useful to him.
But it is time to turn to the more immediate object of this chapter — the birth-place of Cabot.
In order to comprehend the full value of the information sup plied by Eden, it may be well to shew, in the first place, how the matter has been treated by others.
" Sebastian Cabote is, by many of our writers, affirmed to be an Englishman, born at Bristol, but the Italians as positively claim him for their countryman, and say he was born at Venice, which, to speak impartially, I believe to be the truth, for he says himself, that when his father was invited over to England, he brought him with him, though he was then very young." (Harris' Collection of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 191.) These expressions are copied, verbatim, by Pinkerton, (Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. xii. p. 1 60.) In the history of Navigation, prefixed to Churchill's Collection of Voyages, (vol. i. p. 39,) said to have been drawn up by* Locke, and found in his works, (vol. x. Lond. ed. of 1823, p. 428,) refe rence is made to " Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian, but residing in England." Purchas says of him, (vol. iii. Pilgrims, p. 901,) " He was an Englishman by breeding, borne a Venetian, but spending most part of his life in England, and English em ployments." Even when he states, (vol. iii. p. 807,) that on the " Effigies" of Sebastian Cabot hung up in the Royal Gallery, that personage is called an Englishman, he adds — " for his Eng lish breeding, condition, affection and advancement, termed an Englishman," and referring on another occasion to the same docu* ment, says, " He was born at Venice, and serving Henry VII.,
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Henry VIII., and Edward VI., was accounted English. Galpano says, he was born at Bristol." By Galpano, he means the Por tuguese writer Galvano, or Galvam, in whose work, translated by Hakluyt, that statement is made, (p. 66,) as it is also by Herrera, (Dec. i. lib. ix. cap. 13,) whom Purchas himself quotes (vol. iv. p. 1177) to that point.
In defiance of the contemporary " Effigies," and of these foreign authorities, most modern writers, Hume, Forster, Charlevoix, &c. have been led astray. The Quarterly Review (vol. xvi. p. 1 54, note) informs us that Henry VII. engaged " the Cabots of Venice in the discovery of Newfoundland;' and Mr. Barrow, in his " Chronological History of Voyages, &c." (p. 36 — 7,) speaks of the credit due to England, for having " so wisely and honourably enrolled this deserving foreigner in the list of her citizens."
Now it will scarcely be credited, that we have in Eden, a posi tive statement on the subject, from the lips of Sebastian Cabot himself. The following marginal note will be found at fol. 255 — " SEBASTIAN CABOTE TOULD ME that he w-as borne in Brystowe, and that at iiii. yeare ould he was carried with his father to Venice, and so returned agayne into England with his father after certayne years, whereby he was thought to have been born in Venice." Thus, then, was the question conclusively settled 275 years ago! It is needless to repeat what has been already said, in another place, as to the slight credit due to the report of the conversation relied on by Harris, Pinkerton, and the rest, for there is, in fact, no discrepance to be reconciled. Cabot there states the circum stances which more immediately preceded the commission from Henry VII. ; and the occasion did not lead to any detail of his own earlier history. Should Sir Edward Parry be recalled to embark on a new voyage of discovery, he might very naturally advert, hereafter, to the period of his return, and would scarcely deem it necessary to add that he had been in the country before. For the future, then, it is to be hoped that no per verse efforts will be made to obscure the claim of England to this Great Seaman. He owed to her his birth, and the Ian-
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guage and associations of childhood. He returned thither while yet a boy, ("pene infans" is the expression of Peter Martyr,) and grew up there to manhood, when he was commissioned to go in quest of new regions, wherein he " set up the banner" of England. Under this banner, he was the first European who reached the shores of the American Continent. He ended, as he had begun, his career in the service of his native country, infusing into her Marine a spirit of lofty enterprise — a high moral tone — a system of mild, but inflexible discipline, of which the results were, not long after, so conspicuously displayed. Finally, he is seen to open new sources of commerce, of which the influence may be distinctly traced on her present greatness and prosperity. Surely it is as absurd as it is unnatural, to deny to such a man the claim which he seems to have anxiously preferred, and which has been placed on record under his direct sanction.
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CHAP. IX.
THE PATENTS OF 5TH MARCH, 1496, AND 3RD FEBRUARY, 14Q8.
BEFORE proceeding to a close examination of the documents which establish the real history of these voyages, it may be well to advert to the reckless manner in which facts have been made to yield to any hypothesis which a short-sighted view has sug gested as indispensable.
The following passage is found in Harris' Voyages, (ed. of 1744 — 8, vol. ii. p. 190,) and in Pinkerton's Collection, (vol. xii. p. 158.)
" But the year before that patent was granted, viz. in 1494, John Cabot, with his son Sebastian, had sailed from Bristol upon discovery, and had actually seen the Continent of Newfoundland, to which they gave the name of Prima Vista, or first seen. And on the 24th of June, in the same year, he went ashore on an Island, which, because it was discovered on that day, he called St. John's ; and of this Island, he reported, very truly, that the soil was barren, that it yielded little, and that the people wear bearskin cloathes, and were armed with bows, arrows, pikes, darts, wooden clubs, and slings ; but that the coast abounded with fish, and upon this report of his, the before-mentioned patent (of 5th March, 1495J ivas granted."
Mr. Barrow also says, (p. 32,)
" There is no possible way of reconciling the various accounts collected by Hakluyt, and which amount to no less a number than six, but by supposing John Cabot to have made one voyage, at least, previous to the date of the patent, and some time between that and the date of the return of Columbus, either in 1494 or 1495."
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It must by this time be apparent, that the hypothesis thus started, is not only uncalled for, but would contradict every au thentic account which has come down to us.
It is altogether irreconcilable with that very document which stands foremast of the " six," on the pages of Hakluyt — the extract from the map cut by Clement Adams, and hung up in the Privy Gallery — for it is there declared expressly, that at five o'clock in the morning, of the 24th June, 1497, was discovered that land, which no man before that time had attempted to ap proach, (" quam nullus prius adire ausus fuit.") What possible motive can be imagined, on the part of Cabot, for disguising the fact of a discovery made so long before ? The supposition is as absurd, as it is gratuitous. How, again, does it agree with the statement of Sebastian Cabot, that on the voyage made under the royal authority, he was surprised by the sight of land, " not thinking to find any other land than that of Cathay ?" This is one of the " six" accounts which it is proposed to reconcile by assuming a discovery of the same region three years before !
The first patent bears date the 5th March, in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry VII. It is found in Rymer, (Fcedera, vol. xii. p. 595,) who correctly refers it to 5th March, 1496, the computation of this monarch's reign being from August, 1485. Hakluyt states it to be of 1495, (vol. iii. p. 5.) looking, as we may infer, not to the Historical, but to the Legal or Civi] year, which commenced, prior to 1752, on the 25th of March.
The patent is in favour of John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius ; and authorises them, their heirs, or deputies, to " sail to all parts, countries, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensigns, with five ships of what burthen or quantity soever they be, and as many mariners or men as they will have with them in the said ships, upon their own proper costs and charges, to seek out, dis cover, and find whatsoever isles, countries, regions, or provinces of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they be, and in what
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part of the world soever they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians" It is plain, that a previous dis covery, so far from being assigned as the ground for the patent, as Harris, Pinkerton, &c. assert, is negatived by its very terms. The patent would be inapplicable to any region previously visited by either of the Cabots, and confer no right. Assuming, what is obviously absurd, that the discovery could have been made without becoming at once universally known, yet the patentees must have been aware that they exposed themselves, at any mo ment when the fact should come out, to have the grant vacated on the ground of a deceptive concealment.
The patentees are authorised to set up the Royal banner, " in every village, town, castle, isle, or main land, by them newly found," and to subdue, occupy, and possess all such regions, and to exercise jurisdiction over them in the name of the King of England. One-fifth of the clear profit of the enterprise is re served to the King, and it is stipulated that the vessels shall return to the port of Bristol. The privilege of exclusive resort and traffic is secured to the patentees.
The Second Patent is dated the third of February, in the thir teenth year of the reign of Henry VII., corresponding with 3rd February, 1498. The only evidence heretofore published on the subject, is contained in a brief memorandum found in Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 6,) who, we are persuaded, never saw the original. The person, also, who gave him the information of its existence, probably did not go beyond a list of the titles of instruments of that description kept for convenient reference. The memorandum of Hakluyt, is as follows : —
" The King, upon the third day of February, in the thirteenth year of his reign, gave license to John Caboto to take six English ships in any haven or havens of the realm of England, being of the burden of two hundred tons or under, with all necessary furniture, and to take also into the said ships, all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the King as willingly would go with him," &c.
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Such being the whole of the information supplied, it is no wonder, that the most erroneous conjectures have been started.
Dr. Robertson (History of America, book ix.) adopts the dates of Hakluyt. " This Commission [the first] was granted on March 5th, 1495, in less than two years after the return of Columbus from America. But Cabot (for that is the name he assumed in England, and by which he is best known) did not set out on his voyage for two 'years." Dr. Robertson makes no express refer ence to the second commission, and having followed Hakluyt in referring that of the eleventh Henry VII. to 1495, he doubtless regarded the order of the thirteenth year of Henry VII. as merely a final permission for the departure of the expedition, made out in 1497 on the eve of its sailing.
In " The Naval History of England in all its Branches," by Lediard, it is said (p. 85) after giving the first patent —
" Hakluyt, from whom I have taken this commission, places in the margin, A.D. 1495. But, according to Rymer's Fosdera, it was dated March 5, 1496. To the ship granted by the king, of which, however, this commission makes no mention, some mer chants of London added three more, laden with such slight com modities as were thought proper for commerce with barbarous people. By an extract from a record of the rolls, it appears, that though Cabot's commission was signed in March, 1495, or 1496, he did not go to sea on this expedition till the begin ning of the year 1497. This record is in the following words." He then gives Hakluyt's notice of the patent of February 3, 1498.
The same notion that the second patent preceded discovery has found its way across the Atl antic, but with an observance of the historical computation as to dates. Thus, in the valuable In troduction to Marshall's Life of Washington, the first patent is correctly referred to March 5, 1496 ; and it is said, " The Ex pedition contemplated at the date of the commission appears not then to have been made, but in May, (1498,) Cabot, with his second son/' &c.
Forster (p. 266) says, " In the 13th year of this king's reign, John Cabot obtained permission to sail with six ships of 200 tons burthen and under, on new discoveries. He did not sail, how ever, till the beginning of May, 1497 (!) and then, by his own account, had but two ships fitted out and stocked with provisions at the king's expense, &c."
In Harris' Voyages, &c. (Ed. of 1744—8, vol. ii. p. 190,) and in Pinkerton, (vol. xii. p. 158,) after stating, not conjecturally but as an unquestionable fact, that the first voyage was in 1494, it is added,
" The next voyage made for discovery was by Sebastian Cabot, the son of John, concerning which, all our writers have fallen into great mistakes, for want of comparing the several accounts we have of this voyage, and making proper allowances for the manner in which they were written ; since I cannot find there was ever any distinct and clear account of this voyage published, though it was of so great consequence. On the contrary, I believe that Cabot himself kept no journal of it by him ; since in a letter he wrote on this subject, he speaks doubtfully of the very year in which it was undertaken, though, from the circumstances he relates, that may be very certainly fixed. On the 3rd of February, in the 13th year of the reign of King Henry VII. a new grant was made to John Cabot, by which he had leave given him to take ships out of any of the Ports of England, of the burthen of 200 tons, to sail upon discoveries ; but before this could be effected, John Cabot died, and Sebastian, his son; applied himself to the king, proposing to discover a North- West Pas sage, as he himself tells us ; and for this purpose, he had a ship manned and victualled at the king's expense, at Bristol, and three or four other ships were fitted out, at the expense of some merchants of that city, particularly Mr. Thorne, and Mr. Hugh Elliot. But whereas Sebastian Cabot himself says that he made this voyage in the summer of 1496, he must be mistaken ; and he very well might, speaking from his memory only : and to prove this, I need only observe, that this date will not at all agree, even with his own ac count of the voyage ; for he says expressly, it was undertaken after his father's death, who, as we have shewn, was alive in the February following ; so that it was the summer of the year 1497, in which he made this voyage, and what he afterwards relates of his return, proves this likewise."
It is scarcely necessary to remark, that, aside from all other considerations, the whole of their statement is in direct colli sion with the fact, that the discovery of the 24th June, 1497, is
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referred, on evidence which these writers do not undertake to question, to the joint agency of father and son. That, there fore, which should decisively control speculation, is blindly sa crificed to an effort to get over some minor difficulties which, in reality, have their origin only in the kindred misconceptions of preceding compilers.
All this obscurity will now disappear. After a tedious search there has been found, at the Rolls Chapel, the original Patent of 3rd February, 1498. The following is an exact copy :
" Memorandum quod tertio die Februarii anno regni Regis Henrici Septimi xiii. ista Billa delibata fuit Domino Cancellario Anglise apud Westmonas- terium exequenda.
" To the Kinge.
" Please it your Highnesse of your most noble and habundaunt grace to graunte to John Kabotto, Venetian, your gracious Lettres Patents in due fourme to be made accordyng to the tenor hereafter ensuyng, and he shall continually praye to God for the preservation of your moste Noble and Roiall astate longe to endure.
" II. R.
" Rex.
" To all men to whom theis Presenteis shall come send Gretyng: Knowe ye that We of our Grace especiall, and for dyvers causis us movying, We Have geven and graunten, and by theis Presentis geve and graunte to our welbeloved John Kabotto, Venetian, sufficiente auctorite and power, that he, by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficient, may take at his pleasure VI Englisshe Shippes in any Porte or Portes or other place within this our Realme of England or obeisance, so that and if the said Shippes be of the bourdeyn of CC. tonnes or under, with their apparail requisite and necessarie for the safe conduct of the said Shippes, and them convey and lede to the Londe and Isles of late founde by the seid John in oure name and by our commaundemente. Paying for theym and every of theym as and if we should in or for our owen cause paye and noon otherwise. And that the said John, by hym his Deputie or De puties sufficiente, maye take and receyve into the said Shippes, and every of theym all such maisters, maryners, Pages, and other subjects as of
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their owen free wille woll goo and passe with him in the same Shipper to the seid Londe or lies, without anye impedymente, lett or pertur- bance of any of our officers or ministres or subjects whatsoever they be by theym to the seyd John, his Deputie, or Deputies, and all other our seid subjects or any of theym passinge with the seyd John in the said Shippes to the seid Londe or lies to be doon, or suffer to be doon or attempted. Geving in commaundement to all and every our officers, ministres and subjects seying or herying thies our Lettres Patents, without any ferther commaundement by Us to theym or any of theym to be geven to perfourme and socour the said John, his Deputie and all our said Subjects so passyng with hym according to the tenor of theis our Lettres Patentis. Any Statute, Acte or Ordennance to the contrarye made or to be made in any wise notwithstanding."
Surely the importance of this document cannot be exaggerated. It establishes conclusively, and forever, that the American conti nent was first discovered by an expedition commissioned to " set up the banner" of England. * It were idle to offer an argument to connect this recital of 3rd February, 1498, with the discovery of the 24th June, 1497, noted on the old map hungup at Whitehall. Will it not be deemed almost incredible that the very Document in the Records of England, which recites the great discovery, and plainly contemplates a scheme of colonization, should, up to this moment have been treated by her own writers as the one which first gave permission to go forth and explore ?
Nay, this very instrument has been used as an argument against the pretensions of England ; for it has been asked by foreigners who have made the computation, and seen through the mistake of
* A passage in the " Interlude of the Nature of the Four Elements," given in Mr. Collier's recent "Annals of the Stage," supplies a curious allusion to this fact. The Interlude is by some antiquarians referred to the year 1510, and by others to 1517 : —
" And also what an honorable thynge, Bothe to the Realme and to the Kynge, To have had his domynyon extendynge There into so far a grounde Whiche the noble Kynge of late memory, The most wyse prynce, the VII. Herry Caused furst for to beefounde"
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Pinkerton and the rest, why the patent of 3rd February, 1498, took no notice of discoveries pretended to have been made the year before. The question is now triumphantly answered.
The importance of negativing a notion that the English disco veries were subsequent to the patent of the 13th Henry VII., will strikingly appear, on reference to the claim of Americus Vespucius. The truth, as now established, places beyond all question — even crediting the doubtful assertions of Vespucius — the priority of Cabot's discovery over that of the lucky Florentine. The map in Queen Elizabeth's gallery made no false boast in declaring, that on the 24th June, 1497, the English expedition discovered that land " quam nullus prius adire ausus fuit."*
* The manner in which the precious Document referred to, and others of a similar kind, are kept, cannot be adverted to without an expression of regret. They are thrown loosely together, without reference even to the appropriate year, and are unnoticed in any Index or Calendar. It required a search of more than two weeks to find this patent of 3rd February, 1498, although the year and day of its date were furnished at the outset. Another do cument which appears in the present volume — the patent of Henry VII. to three Portuguese and others, dated 19 March, 1501, authorising them to follow up the discoveries of Cabot — has never before been published. This also was discovered, after a long search, not even folded up, but lying with one-half of the written part exposed, and, in consequence, so soiled and discoloured that it was with the greatest difficulty it could be decyphered, and some words finally eluded the most anxious scrutiny. And this of two documents indispensable to the history of Maritime Discovery, and for want of which, the account of these voyages has been completely unintel ligible ! An extraordinary compensation is claimed at the Rolls Chapel on account of the trouble attending a search amidst such a confused mass. For finding the documents, two guineas were demanded in addition to the cost of copies. The applicant is informed, that the charge must be paid, whether the document be discovered or not ; so that the officer has no motive to continue perseveringly the irksome pursuit.
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CHAP. X.
NAME OF CABOT'S SHIP — HOW FAR HE PROCEEDED ALONG THE COAST TO THE SOUTHWARD SUBSEQUENT VOYAGE OF 1498.
THE name of the vessel which first touched the shores of the Ame rican continent is not without interest. The Matthew , of Bristol, had that proud distinction. A respectable writer* furnishes the following passage from an ancient Bristol manuscript in his possession : —
" In the year 1497, the 24th June, on St. John's day, was New foundland found by Bristol men, in a ship called The Matthew."
The question, how far Cabot, on quitting the north, proceeded along the coast of the Continent, has been the subject of contra dictory statements. By some his progrees is limited to a latitude corresponding with that of the straits of Gibraltar, while others insist on carrying him to the extreme point of the Atlantic sea coast. We can hardly be at a loss to decide, when it is recollected that while there is no direct authority for the latter opinion, and it is one which would readily be adopted, in mistake, from the vague use, originally, of the title Florida, the former has the direct sanc tion of Peter Martyr, (Dec. iii., cap. vi.)
" Tetenditque tantum ad merediem, littore sese incurvante, ut Herculei freti latitudinis fere gradus equarit; ad occidentemque profectus tantum est ut Cubam Insulara a laeva longitudine graduum pene parem habuerit." " He was thereby brought so far into the South, by reason of the land bending so much
* " The History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol, compiled from original Records and authentic Manuscripts in public offices or private hands. By William Barrett, Bristol, 1789," p. 172. The same fact is stated in The His tory of Bristol by John Corry and the Rev. John Evans, vol. i. p. 213. (In King's Library, title in Catalogue Corry.}
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to the southward, that it was there almost equal in latitude with the sea Fre- tum Herculeum having the North Pole elevate in manner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so far towards the West, that he had the Island of Cuba on his left hand in manner, in the game degree of longitude." (Hak- luyt, vol. iii. p. 90
Gomara, more definitely but perhaps only determining by con jecture the circumstantial statement of Peter Martyr, names, as has been seen, 38°. Hakluyt, in the dedication of his second vo lume to Sir Robert Cecil, boasts of the universal acknowledgment, even by foreigners, "that all that mighty tract of land, from 67 degrees northward, to the latitude almost of Florida, was first dis covered out of England, by the commandment of King Henry VII. ;" and again, in a marginal note of his third volume, (p. 9,) he states, that Cabot discovered "the northern parts of that land, and from thence as far almost as Florida."
Peter Martyr informs us that a failure of provisions at this point compelled an abandonment of the further pursuit of the coast, and a return to England.
O
It has been preferred to settle the question before quitting the first voyage, because the progress to the southward may have taken place on that occasion, as a discovery of both "Londe and Isles" is recited in the second patent. Should a further develop ment of the subject lead to an opinion that this incident, men tioned first by Peter Martyr, belongs to another voyage which that writer more probably had in view, there will be no difficulty in adjusting it hereafter to its proper place.*
* One piece of evidence has lately been brought to light from which it may be inferred that Cabot returned to England immediately after the discovery of the 24th June, 1497. In the account of the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII., is the following entry : — " 10th August, 1497. To hym that found uie New Isle, 10Z."
The document referred to, which forms one of the Additional MSS. in the British Museum, is in the hand- writing of Ciaven Orde, Esq., for merly one of the Secondaries of the office of the King's Remembrancer of the Court of Exchequer, and has recently been given to the public by Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Esq., in his valuable Excerpta Historica. Mr. N. remarks " The originals, doubtless, form part of the muniments of the King's
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The interesting enquiry now arises as to subsequent voyages, made after the death of John Cabot which is supposed to have taken place shortly after the date of the second patent of 3rd February, 1498.
It cannot be supposed, for a moment, that Sebastian Cabot would lightly abandon what had been so hardly won. He was named in the original patent ; and a right under the discovery vested in him, aside from his claim as the son of John Cabot. A large sum had been expended on the first voyage, and was now represented solely by the title to the newly-discovered region. He must have been strangely insensible to his interests, as well as suddenly deficient in enterprise, to turn away, without further effort, from a pursuit which had thus far been crowned with the most flattering success.
The first item of evidence on the subject, is that supplied by Stow. Under the year 1498, and in the Mayoralty of William Purchas, there occurs, in the Annals, the following statement : —
" This yeere, one Sebastian Gaboto, a Genoas sonne, borne in Bristow, professing himselfe to be expert in knowledge of the cir cuit of the world and islands of the same, as by his charts and other reasonable demonstrations he shewed, caused the King to man, and victuall a ship at Bristow to search for an island, which he knew to be replenished with rich commodities : in the ship divers merchants of London adventured small stocks, and in the company of this ship, sailed also out of Bristow, three or foure
Remembrancer's Office, and though the great exertions which have been made to collate these extracts with them received every assistance from the King's Remembrancer and the other Officers, they failed, because these MSS. are presumed to be in some of the numerous bags that are lying unarranged in Westminster Hall, an examinatinn of which could only be effected at a sacri fice of time and expense, which no private individual can incur." Since the publication, it has been ascertained that a portion of what is supposed to be the original is in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillips, having been purchased by him at a sale of the effects of Mr. Orde. Unfortunately, it does not go further back than the year 1502,
G
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small shippes fraught with sleight and grosse wares, as coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and such other."
It has already been proved, in another place, that this was the statement made by Stow to Hakluyt, and that the substitu tion, by the latter, of the name of John Cabot took place after wards, at two successive stages of alteration. The fact clearly appeared, by a reference to Hakluyt's earlier volume of 1582, and by the name of Sebastian Cabot, which yet lingers incautiously in the enlarged work at the head of S tow's communication, even after a change in the body of it. We have then before us, here, the honest result of Stow's researches.
There can be no mistake as to the period to which he would refer this incident; for the mayoralty of Purchas, is mentioned in the communication to Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 9.) When, too, under the year 1502, he speaks of the exhibition of savages, reference is made to what he had before stated as occurring in the time of that Mayor. Speed (747) so understands him and Purchas, (Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 808.)
It appears, by the list of these functionaries found in the various Chroniclers, that the mayoralty of Purchas extended from 28 October, 1497 to 28 October, 1498. Unless then we suppose a mistake to have been committed, the voyage alluded to was sub sequent to that of the original discovery
A matter so simple as this has not escaped misstatement. Thus, in M'Pherson's Annals of Commerce, (vol. ii. p. 13, note,} it is said, " We may depend on the contemporary testimony of Alderman Fabyan, who says that he sailed in the beginning of May in the mayoralty of John Tate, that is 1497, but returned in the subsequent mayoralty of William Purchas." Here is as much error as could be condensed into one sentence. Fabyan does not place the expedition in the mayoralty of Tate, but in that of Purchas, and we are told, that no tidings were heard of the expedition during that Mayor's time, viz. as late as October, 1498. It is, indeed, a singular fact that writers who on most topics are dull, common-place, and safe — who might be trusted,
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one would think, in poetry itself, without peril to their matter- of-fact character — instantly become imaginative on touching any part.of Cabot's history.
In connexion with the statement of Stow, it may be mentioned that both Peter Martyr and the person, said to be Galeatius Butrigarius, who held the conversation with Cabot, at Seville, speak of a voyage from England subsequent to the father's death. Peter Martyr, in the passage usually cited on the subject, says nothing of dates, but writing afterwards in 1524, (Decade vii. cap. ii.) he refers to Cabot's voyage, as having taken place "twenty-six years since," that is, in 1498. To these state ments, another is to be added, though it increases, perhaps, rather the number than the weight of authorities.
The first article in the third volume of Ramusio is a Summary of The Spanish Discoveries in the New World, drawn professedly from Peter Martyr, and entitled " Sommario della Historia dell' Indie Occidental! cavato dalli libri scritti dal Sig. Don Pietro Martire." It was first published anonymously, at Venice, in a separate form, in the year 1543,* and is quite unworthy of the place which it now occupies. The arrangement of Peter Martyr is entirely disregarded, and no reference is given to the original, by which any of the statements may be verified or disproved. Under the pretended sanction, too, of Peter Martyr, the writer has introduced many unfounded, and even absurd, assertions of his own. Thus the statement given in the original of the manner in which the bears catch fish, and which is confirmed by late accounts,^ this writer has spun outj into a minute and ridiculous description. It is here stated that Cabot reached only 55°, an assertion which the Biographic Universelle (art. Cabot) copies and cites as from Peter Martyr, when there is nothing of the kind in the original. In repeating the expression of Peter Martyr,
* Haym's " Bibliotheca Italiana o sia notiziade Libro rari Italian!," p. 131. •f* See Cartwriglit's Labrador.
J Ramusio, torn. iii. fol. 35, in Index " Bacalai," " Sebastiano Gabotto," and " orso."
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about the death of the father, this writer says — " after whose death, finding himself very rich and of great ambition, he re solved," 8tc. (" da poi la morte del quale trovandosi richissimo et di grande animo deliberosi," 6cc.) But, without laying any stress on such a statement, there is sufficient without it to supply an important auxiliary argument to that derived from the chroniclers.* One circumstance is to be particularly noted. The second patent does not look to further discoveries, but merely authorises the patentee to revisit the Region already found, and to take thither such of the king's subjects as might be inclined to accom pany him or his deputies.
According to Stow, the " Genoa's son" effected his object with the king, by a representation as to an Island " which he knew to be replenished with rich commodities," or as it is expressed in Hakluyt, " which he said he knew well was rich and replenished with great commodities." Thus the language of the patent and of the chronicles is in consonance as to the purpose of the voyage of 1498. It no longer had reference, exclusively, to the search for a North-West Passage. The place of destination was some known definite point, which was supposed to offer an advantageous opening for traffic.
The argument to be fairly drawn from this coincidence is placed in a very striking point of view, by referring to writers who ap proached the statement of the chronicles under the misconception
* It is obvious that the Will of John Cabot might throw much light on this subject. If, as is probable, he died at Bristol, it would be proved at Worcester. On application at the Bishop's Registry, the acting Registrar, Mr. Clifton, writes thus : " The indices of Wills proved, and letters of administration granted, do not extend farther back than the year 1600. Previous to this period, these documents are tied up in linen bags without much form or order; so that a search for the Will of John Cabot, or Gabot, or Kabot would be attended with very considerable trouble and expense, whilst the chance of dis covering it would be uncertain." Aside from historical purposes, it would be curious to see an instrument, dated some months before the time when Columbus (in August, 1498) first saw the Continent of America, which, pro bably, makes a disposition of the testator's interest in the tract of land lying betwe en the present Hudson's Strait and Florida.
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that the reference was to the original expedition of 1497. Camp bell, in The Lives of the Admirals, (article, Sir John Cabot,) adopts Hakluyt's substitution of John Cabot's name, and thus speaks of the patent of 3rd February, 1498.
" In consequence of this license, the King at his own expense caused a ship to be equipped at Bristol : to this the merchants of that city, and of London, added three or four small vessels, freighted with proper commodities, which fleet sailed in the spring of the year 1497. Our old Chronicle writers, particu larly Fabian, tell us of a very rich island which John Cabot promised to dis cover ; but in this they seem to mistake the matter for want of thoroughly under standing the subject of which they were writing. John Cabot was too wise a man to pretend to know, before he saw it, what country he should discover, whether island or continent; but what he proposed was to jind a North-West passage to the Indies."
How does this patent of 3rd February 1498 scatter light around in every direction ! After slumbering at the Rolls for upwards of three centuries, it reappears to vindicate, triumphantly, the fair fame of its venerable contemporaries thus flippantly assailed !
The same difficulty in reconciling the language of the ancient chronicles with the supposed allusion to the voyage of 1497, has led Harris* (ed. of 1744—8, vol. ii. p. 190) and Pinkerton (vol. xii. p. 158) to the positive assertion that John Cabot made a voyage as early as 1494, and that "upon this report of his," the first patent was granted. Mr. Barrow also (p. 32) is, from the same cause, driven to the assertion that it is impossible to under stand the various accounts " but by supposing John Cabot to have made one voyage at least previous to the date of the patent." It has been before shewn, that such a supposition is not only incon sistent with every authentic statement, but at variance with the
* It is but just to remark, that though the volume here referred to bears the name of Harris, and is so copied and cited by Pinkerton, yet the passages in question make no part of the original work. Daines Barrington, Esq., in his " Possibility of approaching the North Pole," &c. (ed. of 1818, p. 15,) states, that the supplemental matter was furnished by Dr. Campbell. No method is used to distinguish the original from what is interpolated ; and Pinkerton was, probably, thus misled.
terms of the first patent itself. We now see that it is as unneces sary as it is unwarranted.
The plain distinction between the two voyages clears up an incidental difficulty. Many writers have been perplexed by find ing that while some accounts speak of the enterprise as wholly at the expense of the Cabots, others represent the King to have had an interest in it. The reason is now obvious. The first vague exploratory voyage was at the expense of the individuals, to verify the speculations of Sebastian Cabot. The patent of 5th March, 1496, says expressly, that the enterprise is to be " at their own proper cost and charges." But when a specific discovery had been made, and the attention of the capitalists of London was drawn to the subject, the wary king himself yielded to the san guine representations of the discoverers, and became a partner in the concern. This fact is very clearly established by the follow ing entries in the Account of his Privy-Purse Expenses : —
" 22d March, 1498. To Lanslot Thirkill, of London, upon a prest,* for his shipp going towards the New Ilande, 201."
" Delivered to Launcelot Thirkill, going towards the New Isle, in prest, 201."
" April 1, 1498. To Thomas Bradley, and Lancelot Thirkill, going to the New Isle, 30/."
" To John Carter, going to the Newe Isle, in rewarde, 21."
At this point the subject attracted the attention of a Chro nicler living in London. It is not unnatural that he should sup pose the region discovered to be an island, and that the same expression should be used by the Keeper of the Privy Purse, and others^ whose minds had not then embraced the idea of a new Continent. The Chronicler speaks of documents submitted to the inspection of the king, and of the nature of which he evi dently knew only by vague report. The King himself, however, who had listened to the statements of " the Genoas son," and saw his map, who heard of the mighty rivers which were found issuing into the sea, knew from these " charts and other reasonable de monstrations," that here must be something more than an island,
* Jn the way of loan or advance.
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and we find, accordingly, in the patent of 3rd February, 1498, re ference made to "faeLonde and Isles" discovered.
To doubt, then, that a voyage took place in 1498, under Se bastian Cabot, violates every probability, is against strong colla teral testimony, and rejects contemptuously the direct and positive averment of the ancient Chroniclers, at the very moment when we warm with indignation at the attempt of a shallow and presump tuous ignorance to depreciate them.
What was the result of the voyage ? This is a question of more difficulty.
Peter Martyr and Gomara mention, as has been seen, that Se bastian Cabot had with him three hundred men. It is difficult to believe that such a number could have been taken in reference to a mere commercial enterprise, and absurd to connect them with the first exploratory voyage. The language, too, of the second patent seems to suggest that a settlement was intended, the royal permission to depart extending to " all such masters, mariners, pages, and other subjects, as of their own free will, will go and pass with him in the same ships, to the said Londe or Isles."
On a point so interesting as this, we may repeat here the lan guage of Gomara. After mentioning that Sebastian Cabot was the first who brought intelligence of the Baccalaos, he proceeds : —
" El qual arrao dos navios en Inglaterra do tratava desde pequeno a costa del Rey Enrique Septimo, que desseava contratar en la especieria, como hazia el rey d' Portugal. Otros disen que a su costa. Y que prometio al rey Enri que de yr por el norte al Catayo y traer de alia especias en menos tiempo que Portuguese, por el sur. Y va tambien par saber que tierra eran las Indias para poblar. Llevo trezientos hombres y cammo la buelta de Isladia sobre cabo del Labrador. Y hasta se poner en cinquenta y ocho grados. Aunque el dize mucho mas contando como avia por el mes de Julio tato frio y peda9os de yelo que no oso passar mas adelante. Y que los dios eran grandissimos y quasi sin noche y las noches muy claras. Es cierte que a sesenta grados son los dies de diez y ocho horas. Diedo pues Gaboto la frialdad, y estraneza dela tierra, dio la vuelta hazia poniente y rehaziendo se en los Baccalaos corrio la costa hasta treienta y ochos grados y torno se de alii a Inglaterra." " Sebastian Cabot was the fyrst that browght any knowleage of this lande. For beinge in Eng- lande in the dayes of Kyng Henry the Seventh, he furnysshed twoo shippes at his owne charges, or (as sum say) at the Kynges, whome he persuaded that a
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passage might be founde to Cathay by the North Seas, and that spices might be brought from thense soner by that way, then by the vyage the Portugales vse by the sea of Sur. He went also to Jcnowe what maner of landes those Indies were to inhabite. He had with hym three hundreth wen, and directed his course by the trade of Islande vppon the cape of Labrador at Iviii. degrees: affirmynge that in the monethe of July there was such could and heapes of ise that he durst passe no further : also that the dayes were very longe and in maner with out nyght, and the nyghtes very clear. Certayne it is, that at the Ix. degrees, the longest day is of xviii. houres. But consyderynge the coulde and the straungeness of the unknowen lande, he turned his course from thense to the West, folowynge the coast of the lande of Baccalaos vnto the xxxviii. degrees from whense he returned to Englande." (Eden's Decades, fol. 318.)
From these expressions it is plain that it was understood to have been part of the design to make the experiment of colo nization.
Connected with this part of the subject is a curious passage in an old work by Thevet, the French Cosmographer. This writer is, deservedly, held in little estimation, his work being disfigured by the plainest marks of haste, as well as by the most absurd credu lity. The only circumstance which could induce us to attach importance to his statement is, the allusion to conversations with Cartier, who, in 1534, visited the St. Lawrence. Thevet not only refers to that navigator incidentally here, but in his subsequent larger work, entitled Cosmographie Universelle, speaks of Cartier repeatedly, as his intimate friend, and mentions (Paris Ed. of 1575, torn. ii. fol. 1014) having spent five months with him at St. Malo. The work now particularly alluded to is entitled " Singularitez de la France Antarctique," published at Paris, in 1558, in which, speaking of the Baccalaos, there occurs (ch. 74, fol. 148) the following passage :—
" Elle fut decouverte premierement par Sebastian Babate Anglois lequel per- suada au Roy d' Angleterre Henry Septiesme qu'il iroit aisement par la au pais de Catay vers le Nort et que par ce moyen trouveroit espiceries et autres choses aussi bien que le Roy de Portugal aux Indes, joint qu' il se proposoit aller au Peru et Amerique pour peupler le pais de nouveaus habitans et dresser la' une Nouvelle Angleterre, ce qu' il n'executa; vray est qu'il mist bien trois tens hommes en terre, du coste d' Irlande au Nort ou le froid fist mourir presque toute sa compaynie encore que ce fust au moys dc Juillet. Depuis Jaques
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Quarticr (ainsi que luy mesme m' a recite) fist deux fois le voyage en ce pays la' c'est a scavoir 1' an mil cinq cens trente quatre et mil cinq cens trente cinq. .
" It was first discovered by Sebastian Babate an Englishman, who per suaded Henry VII. King of England, that he could go easily this way by the North to Cathay, and that he would thus obtain spices and other articles from the Indies equally as well as the King of Portugal, added to which he proposed to go to Peru and America to people the country with new inhabitants, and to establish there a New England which he did not accomplish ; true it is he put three hundred men ashore from the coast of Ireland towards the Noith where the cold destroyed nearly the whole company, though it was then the month of July. Afterwards Jaques Cartier (as he himself has told me) made two voyages to that country in 1534 and 1535."
The greater part of this is evidently a mere perversion of what appears in Gomara, changing the name of the commander to Ba bate, and Iceland to Ireland ; and that which follows may be a random addition suggested by the reference in Gomara to one of the objects of Cabot's expedition, and to the reasons which com pelled him to turn back.
On the other hand, while it seems somewhat harsh to impute to the author a reckless falsehood, it is possible that he may have derived his information from Cartier, who would be very likely to know of any such early attempt at settlement. Thevet seems, evidently, to turn from the book, whose influence is dis cernible on the general cast of the paragraph, in order to make a statement of his own, and instead of the general language of Gomara, to substitute specific assertions.
If, then, we can rely on what he says, it seems clear not only that Cabot proposed colonization, but that he actually put a body of men on shore with that view. It will be noted, on referring to the language of Gomara, in the original, that he represents Cabot when returning from his extreme northern point to have stopped at Baccalaos for refreshment, (" y rehaziendo se en los Bacca- laos,") and afterwards to have proceeded South to 38°. It may be, then, that before the renewed search for a Passage, which would seem to have continued an object of pursuit, he left a party to examine the country ; who, on his return, dispirited by the
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dreariness of the region and perhaps by mortality, insisted on being taken off.
The statement of Thevet was held in reserve, that its loose and careless air might not seem to be imparted to that which has a fixed and authentic character. Up to a certain point — the sailing of the expedition of 1498, under Sebastian Cabot, and its appa rent objects — we have the clearest evidence. The next step we may hesitate, perhaps from excessive caution, to take, lest the support proffered by Thevet should be illusive.
As we are indebted to Peter Martyr and Gomara for the length of the run along the coast to the Southward, it probably now took place, their reference evidently being, throughout, to the present voyage. It was on this occasion, doubtless, that three hun dred men were taken out, so that the supposition is perhaps strengthened by noticing that Peter Martyr represents the expe dition to have been arrested in the South by a failure of provisions.
One incident is deceptively connected by Hakluyt with this voyage. Stow speaks of an exhibition of savages in the year ] 502 j but Hakluyt, who derived this fact from him, has altered the date from the seventeenth to the fourteenth year of Henry VII. As he relies altogether on Stow's communication, it might be suf ficient to point to that Annalist's own statement. The incident belongs to a voyage by different persons, on reaching which it will be shewn, that in the original work of Hakluyt, of 1582, he correctly refers the exhibition to the seventeenth year, but after wards changed the date, in order to accommodate it, in point of time, to the voyage of Cabot with which he erroneously con nected it.
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CHAP. XI.
VOYAGE TO MARACAIBO IN 1499-
As it is certain that Sebastian Cabot did not enter the service of Spain until the 13th of September 1512, we are obliged to look anxiously round, in every direction, for information as to his em ployment during the intermediate period. It is impossible to believe that he could have passed in inactivity the period of life best adapted for enterprise and adventure, and to which he at the same time brought maturity of judgment and abundant ex perience. Yet the Records, so far as made public, furnish no evidence on the subject, for though Commissions were granted, as we shall have occasion hereafter to shew, by Henry VII, in 1501 and 1502, to Portuguese adventurers, with a view to dis covery, yet the name of Cabot is sought for in vain.
Amidst this darkness of the horizon, there gleams up, happily, in one quarter, a light which enables us to recognise objects with surprising clearness.
A valuable work has recently been published by the Rev. Mr. Seyer, entitled, " Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bris tol and its Neighbourhood, from the earliest period down to the present time." At p. 208, of vol. ii., it is stated that some of the ancient Calendars of Bristol, under the year 1499, have the follow ing entry : —
" This yeare, Sebastian Cabot borne in Bristoll, proffered his service to King Henry for discovering new countries ; which had noe greate or favorable entertainment of the king, but he with no extraordinary preparation sett forth from Bristoll, and made greate discoveries."
We might be inclined, perhaps, to attach no great importance
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to this statement and to view it as referring, with a mistake of date, to one of the Northern voyages, but that late disclosures absolutely compel us to seek some such clew to facts, which, with out its aid, are altogether inexplicable.
In the recent work of Don Martin Navarette, who has spread out the Treasures of the Spanish Archives, he remarks, (torn. iii. p. 41,) " Lo cierto es que Hojeda en su primer viage hallo a ciertas Ingleses por las immediaciones de Caquibacoa" — (" what is certain is, that Hojeda in his first voyage, found certain Englishmen in the neighbourhood of Caquibacoa.")
These expressions occur in that part of the work where the author adverts to the commissions which the English Records shew to have been granted by Henry VII., and to his inability to refer to any other quarter the remarkable fact of the meeting. Such a connexion, however, is deceptive, because the earliest of these commissions bears date the 19th March 1501.
Hojeda sailed from Spain on the 20th of May 1499, (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 4,) and was only one year absent.
The mere fact that Cabot is known not to have entered a foreign service until long after this period, would suffice to satisfy us that he was the only man who could have been the leader of such an enterprise from England, particularly as we find that when, two years afterwards, an expedition was projected, three Portuguese were called in and placed at its head. The Bristol manuscript seems to put the matter beyond doubt.
The expressions, also, there employed imply a slight of the subject on the part of the King, and probably embody a com plaint uttered at the time. The voyage of 1498 had not, we may suspect, proved so productive as was anticipated, and the interest felt the year before now languished. Some complaint of this kind is discoverable in the conversation of Cabot at Seville, reported by Ramusio, though the neglect is certainly referred, in that report, to an erroneous period.
When we remember that Cabot, the year before, was stopped by the failure of provisions while proceeding Southward, he might
naturally be expected to resume his progress along the coast on the first occasion, and he would thus be conducted to the spot where Hojeda found him. It is probable, therefore, that impatient of inactivity, and despairing of aid from the Crown, he threw himself into such a vessel as his private means enabled him to equip, and, as the Bristol manuscript expresses it, " with no extra ordinary preparation set forth from Bristol and made great dis coveries."
It may have been while he followed the bent of his genius in this desultory manner, that the spirit of enterprise awakened again in England, and his absence may account for the non-appearance of his name in the subsequent patents.
A less agreeable conjecture is suggested by the character of Henry VII. That shrewd and penurious monarch may have been influenced by the same feeling which induced Ferdinand of Spain to rid himself of Columbus, whose high estimate of what he had effected was found to mingle, inconveniently, with all his pro posals for following up the Great Discovery. Henry may have preferred to listen to those with whom a bargain might be made solely in reference to prospective services. Avarice, a disease to which he was constitutionally subject and of which the symptoms became every year more apparent, had now reached his moral sense. Bacon, who wrote his History under the eye of James, a lineal descendant and professed admirer of that monarch, could not disguise the evidence of the infamous devices to which Henry resorted for the purpose of extorting money from his own sub jects. Speaking of his escape from the difficulties which at one time beset him, and particularly from the long and vexatious feuds with Scotland, it is remarked —
" Wherefore nature, which many times is happily contained and refrained by some hands of fortune, began to take place in the King ; carrying, as with a strong tide, his affections and thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of treasure. And as kings do more easily find instruments for their will and humour, than for their service and honour, he had gotten for his purpose, or beyond his purpose, two instruments, Empson and Dudley, whom the people
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esteemed as his horse-leeches and shearers, hold men and careless of fame, and that took toll of their master's grist.
" Then did they also use to inthral and charge the subjects' lands with tenures ' in capite,' by finding false offices, and thereby to work upon them for wardships, liveries, primer seisins, and alienations, being the fruits of those tenures, refusing, upon divers pretexts and delays, to admit men to traverse those false offices, according to the law. Nay, the King's wards, after they had accomplished their full age, could not be suffered to have livery of their lands, without paying excessive fines, far exceeding all reasonable rates. They did also vex men with informations of intrusion, upon scarce colourable titles.
" When men were outlawed in personal actions, they would not permit them to purchase their charters of pardon, except they paid great and intole rable sums ; standing upon the strict point of law, which upon outlawries giveth forfeiture of goods ; nay, contrary to all law and colour, they maintained the king ought to have the half of men's lands and rents, during the space of two full years, for a pain in case of outlawry.
" And to shew further the king's extreme diligence, I do remember to have seen long since a book of accompt of Empson's, that had the king's hand almost to every leaf, by way of signing, and was in some places postilled in the margin with the king's hand likewise, where was this remembrance : —
' Item, Received of such a one five marks, for a pardon to be procured ; and if the pardon do not pass, the money to be repaid : except the party be some other ways satisfied.'
" And over against this ' memorandum,' of the king's own hand, ' Otherwise satisfied.'
" Which I do the rather mention, because it shews in the king a nearness, but yet with a kind of justness. So these little sands and grains of gold and silver, as it seemeth, helped not a little to make up the great heap and bank."
It is remarkable that the First Patent is to the father and the three sons, "and to the heirs of them, and each of them and their deputies;" and it is expressly provided that the regions discovered by them, "may not of any other of our subjects be frequented or visited, without the licence of the aforesaid John and his sons, and their deputies, under pain of forfeiture as well of the ships as of all and singular the goods of all them that shall presume to sail to those places so found." Under this grant, the " Londe and Isles" were discovered, and, of course, a right of exclusive resort to these regions, vested in the father and sons for an indefinite period. The patent of 3rd February, 1498, on the other hand, is very cautiously worded. The power given is to the father alone, de-
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scribed as a Venetian, and to his deputies without any words of inheritance. The whole merit of the discovery is, perhaps craftily, represented as embodied in the old man. The privilege given expired, in strictness, with John Cabot ; and Sebastian, by having incautiously accepted and acted under such an instrument, might be held to recognise it as the consummation of all that had been previously done, and as a waiver of the terms of the first patent.
The Portuguese patentees of 19th March 1501, consent to re ceive the privilege of exclusive resort for only ten years ; and it is provided that they shall not be interfered with, by virtue of any previous grant to a foreigner, ( " extraneus") under the great seal, ("virtu te aut colore alicujus concessionis nostraB sibi Magno Sigillo Nostro per antea factse.") It is true the pen is drawn through this passage in the original Roll ; but attention had evi dently been drawn, in an adverse temper, to a claim that might be set up under the previous grant. It was, perhaps, thought better not to aim an ungracious, and superfluous, blow at what had already expired. The clause js retained which secures the new patentees against molestation from any of the king's subjects, and this provision was considered as applying to the surviving sons who, in the original patent, are not, like the father, called Venetians, but were probably all born in England.
It is not, however, certain tb'a.t Henry intended to supersede the claims of Cabot, so far as respected discoveries actually made. The general authority to the three Portuguese is as to lands " before unknown to all Christians ;" and the reservation may mean more than a caution to respect the rights of foreign nations. The patent of 19th March 1501 gives a wider range for discovery than even the original one to the Cabots. It authorises disco veries to the South ; " ad omnes partes, regiones et fines maris Orientalis, Occidentals, Australis, Borealis et Septentrionalis." The two marked words occur in this patent, and also in that of 9th December 1502, but are not found in that of 5th March, 1496.
However all this may be, the meager evidence referred to is all
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that remains to fill up fifteen years of Cabot's life subsequent to the first discovery.
One fact is too remarkable not to claim especial notice. Amerigo Vespucci accompanied Hojeda, and it is now agreed that this was the first occasion on which he crossed the Atlantic. Sebastian Cabot was found prosecuting his Third Voyage from England.* Yet, while the name of one overspreads the New World, no bay, cape, or headland recalls the memory of the other. While the falsehoods of one have been diffused with tri umphant success, England has suffered to moulder in obscurity, in one of the lanes of the Metropolis, the very Record which esta blishes the discovery effected by her Great Seaman fourteen months before Columbus beheld the Continent, and two years before the lucky Florentine had been West of the Canaries.
* See Appendix. (B-)
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CHAP. XII.
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN FERDINAND OP SPAIN AND LORD WILLOUGIIBY
DE BROKE CABOT ENTERS THE SERVICE OF SPAIN 13TH SEPTEMBER,
1512 REVISION OF MAPS AND CHARTS, IN 1515 APPOINTED A MEM BER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE INDIES PROJECTED EXPEDITION TO THE
NORTH UNDER HIS COMMAND, TO SAIL IN MARCH 1516 DEATH OF
FERDINAND IN JANUARY, 1516 INTRIGUES— CABOT RETURNS TO ENG LAND.
THE disappearance of Cabot's Maps and Discourses, which were, so long after his death, in the custody of William Worthington, ready for publication, cannot but painfully recur to us in contemplating the long period during which we are absolutely without materials for even conjecturing the manner in which he was employed. These documents would, of course, have supplied abundant information ; but in their absence, we are compelled to pass abruptly to the new theatre on which he was called to per form a conspicuous part.
Singular as it may appear with regard to a fact so well settled, as the period at which he quitted his native country and entered the service of Spain, there exist on this point statements quite irreconcilable with each other, and yet equally unfounded. In the Conversation given by Ramusio, and with which the name of Butrigarius has been subsequently connected, Cabot is made to say, that the troubles in England led him to seek employment in Spain where he was very graciously received by Ferdinand and Isabella. The queen died in 1504 ; and many English writers, relying on the Conversation, have assumed that Cabot entered a foreign service immediately after his return from the ori ginal discovery. Others say, that he first went abroad after the
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expedition from England in 1517. This assertion is found in the Biographia Britannica, Pinkerton, Rees, Aikin, Chalmers Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, &c. The Biographic Univer- selle, postpones his departure to 1526.
We are told by Peter Martyr, (Decade iii. cap. vi.) that Cabot did not leave England until after the death of Henry VII, which occurred in 1509. The venerable Historian of the Indies is right, and we thus find completed the circle of errors in that deceptive Conversation. Herrera, the writer of the highest authority on these subjects — Historiographer of the King of Spain and enjoying familiar access to every document — stated, more than two cen turies ago, that Cabot received his appointment from the King of Spain on the 13th September 1512, and even furnished the particulars of the negotiation.
It may readily be conceived that the wily Ferdinand would be anxious to withdraw, if possible, from the service of a youthful monarch, full of enterprise and ambition and with the accumu lated treasures of his thrifty father, a Navigator who had opened to England the glorious career of discovery. He had little reason to hope that Henry would pay greater deference than his father to the Papal Bull. Vespucci, too, who had filled in Spain the office of Pilot-Major, was just dead, as appears by a provision for his widow, (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 305,) on the 28th March 1512. The period was favourable to Ferdinand's purpose. Henry had, already, consented to mingle rashly in the dissensions of the Continent, which finally dissipated the hoards of his father and the resources of his kingdom ; and in this very year, an army was despatched from England, in vessels provided by Spain, to co-operate with his crafty father-in-law. It is now that Herrera (Dec. i. lib. ix. cap. xiii.) speaks of the king's anxiety to discover the long sought strait, his views on Baccalaos, and his wish to gather round him all the ablest Cosmographers of the time. We are expressly told that these motives induced him
" A traer a su servicio a Sebastian Gaboto, Ingles, por tener noticia que era esperto hombie de Mar y para esto escrivio a Milort Ulibi Capitan General
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del Key de Ingleterra que se le embiasse y esto fue a treze de Septembre deste anno Sebastian Gaboto vino a Castilla y el Rey le dio titulo da su Capitan, y bucnas gages, y quedo en su servicio y le mando residir en Sevilla, para lo que se le ordenasse.*"
There is no difficulty in recognising, through the disguise of the Spanish orthography, the name of Lord Willoughby. That nobleman is found at the head of a Commission for levying troops, dated 29th March, 1511 (Rymer, vol. xiii. p. 297,) and imme diately followed by a letter from Ferdinand to Henry, dated Seville 20th April, 1511, relative to the proposed co-operation. Lord Willoughby landed at Plaisance with the English army from the Spanish vessels on the 8th June 1512, (Herbert's Life^ of Henry VIII., p. 20.)
Surprise will doubtless be felt, that any misconception should exist as to a fact so clearly established. But Herrera is known in this country only through a wretched translation, made about a century ago by a " Captain John Stevens," replete with errors, and in which many passages of the greatest interest are entirely omitted. Amongst the rest, not a syllable of what has just been quoted is found in it. Unfortunately, too, for the credit of those who cite Herrera, this translator has changed the order of Decades, Books, and Chapters, and yet given no notice that he had taken such a liberty. The reader, therefore, who attempts to verify the references of most English authors, will find them agreeing very well with the book of Stevens but furnishing no clew to the passages of the original.
The Correspondence referred to by Herrera between Ferdinand and Lord Willoughby, would seem to have been extant about a cen tury ago, if we may judge from the language used in the " Ensaio
* " To draw into his service Sebastian Cabot, an Englishman, having heard of his ability as a seaman ; and with this view he wrote to Lord Uliby, Cap tain-General of the King of England, to send him over, and it was on the 13th of September of this year (1512,) that Cabot came to Spain. The King gave him the title of his Captain, and a liberal allowance, and retained him in his service, directing that he should reside at Seville to await orders."
H2
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Cronologico Para La Historia General De Florida," published at Madrid in 1723. This work, though it appeared under the name of Cardenas, is understood to have been the production of Andre Gonzalez Barcia, Auditor of the supreme council of War of the King of Spain. In the Introduction, the author, after conjec turing the motives which led Cabot to abandon England with out reluctance, remarks —
" Y aunque conserve siempre la Fama de Cosmografo, no se higo caso de el, en Inglaterra, hasta que el Rei de Espana, por el mes de Septembre de 1512, entendiendo de Algunas Cosmo- grafos que avia algun estrecho a la parte de la Tierra de los Bac- calaos, y otro a occidente, escrivio a Milord Ulibi, Capitan General de Inglaterra, le embiase a Gaboto, lo qual egecuto luego, como cosa que le importaba poco."*
The readiness with which Lord Willoughby yielded to the request of the Spanish monarch, and his making light of the favour conferred, would seem to be facts that could only be gathered from the Correspondence itself. We may presume it to be not now in existence, or documents so curious would doubtless have been published by Navarette.
No specific duties were, in the first instance, assigned to Cabot ; but his value was quickly discerned and appreciated. We find him, in 1515, mentioned (Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. i. cap. xii.) in connexion with an object, about which the King was very solici tous — a general revision of Maps and Charts ; and in that year, Peter Martyr (Dec. iii. cap. vi.) speaks of him as holding the dignified and important station of a Member of the Council of the Indies. The same writer informs us that an expedition had
* " And though he maintained always his reputation as cosmographer, yet no account was made of him in England ; and, at length, the King of Spain in the middle of September 1512, understanding from cosmographers that there was a Strait in some part of the land of Baccalaos, communicating with another in the West, wrote to Lord Vlibi, Captain-General of England, to send Cabot to him, which he did forthwith as a thing of little moment."
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been projected to sail in March 1516, under the command of Cabot, in search of the North-West Passage.
" Kamiliarera habeo domi Cabotum ipsum et contubernale m interdum Focatus namque ex Britannia a Rege nostro Cathalico post Henrici Majoris Britannia Regis mortem concurialis noster est expectatque indies ut navigia sibi parentur quibis arcanum hoc naturae latens jam tandem detegatar. Mar- tio mense anni futuri MDXVI. puto ad explorandum discessurum. Quse suc- cedent tua Sanctitas per me intelliget modo vivere detur. Ex Castellanis non desunt qui Cabotum primum fuisse Baccalorum repertorem negant, tantumque ad Occidentem tetendisse minime assentiuntur.*"
This passage, while it proves that his talents had been recog nised and rewarded by the king, and that his personalcha- racter had endeared him to the historian, also shews that there already existed against the successful stranger, the same malig nant jealousy to which Columbus fell a victim. Unfortunately for Cabot, Ferdinand died on the 23rd of January, 1516. This circumstance would seem to have put an end to the contem plated expedition, and it is probable that in the scenes which immediately followed, full scope was given to that feeling of dis like and pretended distrust, which had not dared to exhibit itself, in any marked manner, during the king's life. Charles V., occu pied elsewhere, did not reach Spain for a considerable time. The original publication of the three first Decades of Peter Martyr has a Dedication to him, dated October 1516, in which the youth ful sovereign is intreated to enter at once on a consideration of
* " Cabot is my very friend whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keepe me companie in my own house. For being called out of Eng land by the commandment of the Catholic, King of Castile, after the death of King Henry of England the Seventh of that name, he was made one of our Council and assistance as touching the affairs of the New Indies, looking daily for ships to be furnished for him to discover this hid secret of nature. This voyage is appointed to be begun in March, in the year next following being the year of Christ 1516. What shall succeed, your Holiness shall be adver tised by my letters if God grant me life. Some of the Spaniards deny that Cabot was the first finder of Baccalaos, and affirm that he went not so far westward." Eden's translation, Decades, fol. 119.
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the wpnders of that New World with which the work is occu pied — " Come therefore most Noble Prince, elected of God, and enjoy that high Estate not yet fully understood," &,c. During what may be called the interregnum, a scene of the most odious intrigue was exhibited.
" All the great qualities of Chievres, the Prime Minister, and favourite of the young King, were sullied with an ignoble and sordid avarice. The acces sion of his master to the Crown of Spain, opened a new and copious source for the gratification of this passion. During the time of Charles' residence in Flanders, the whole tribe of pretenders to office or to favour, resorted thither. They soon discovered that without the patronage of Chievres, it was vain to hope for preferment ; nor did they want sagacity to find out the proper method of securing him. Vast sums of money were drawn out of Spain. Every thing was venal and disposed of to the highest bidder. After the example of Chievres, the inferior Flemish Ministers engaged in this traffic, which became as general and avowed as it was infamous.*
A curious illustration of the truth of these representations is found amongst the papers lately published by Navarette. A letter occurs, (torn. iii. p. 307,) from Charles to Bishop Fonseca, dated Brussels 18th November 1516, which states a representation by Andres de St. Martin, that on the death of Amerigo Vespucci, about five years before, the late king had intended to confer on the said St. Martin the office of Pilot-Major, but that owing to accidental circumstances this intention was frustrated, and Juan Bias de Solis appointed. The latter being now dead, St. Martin had preferred a claim to the appointment. Charles commands Fonseca to inquire into the facts, and also into the capacity and fitness of the applicant. We may conceive that, at such a period, the prospect was a cheerless one for Cabot, previously regarded, as has been seen, with obloquy. It is of evil omen, also, to find in authority the intriguer Fonseca, who has obtained an infamous notoriety as the enemy of Columbus against whom his most suc cessful weapon was the Spanish jealousy of foreigners. Finding himself slighted, Cabot returned to England.
* Robertson's Charles V. Book I.
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CHAP. XIII.
CABOT'S VOYAGE OF 1517 FROM ENGLAND IN SEARCH OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE.
THE enterprising and intrepid spirit of our Navigator would seem to have found immediate employment, and he is found again on the Ocean. He was aided, doubtless, by being able to point to his own name in Letters Patent, granted so long before by the father of the reigning monarch, whose provisions could not, in justice, be considered as extinct.
For a knowledge of this expedition, we are indebted, principally, to Richard Eden, that friend of Cabot, to whom a tribute of gra titude has been heretofore paid. He published in 1553 a work* bearing this title —
" A treatyse of the Newe India, with other new founde landes and Ilandes, as well Eastwarde as Westwarde, as they are knowen and found in these cure dayes after the description of Sebastian Munster, in his booke of Universal Cosmographie ; wherein the diligent reader may see the good successe and rewarde of noble and honeste enterprizes, by the which not only worldly ryches are obtayned, but also God is glorified, and the Christian fayth en larged. Translated out of Latin into English, by Rycharde Eden. Prater spem sub spe. Imprinted at London, in Lombarde street, by Edward Sutton, 1553."
The volume is dedicated to the Duke of Northumberland. The checks are so many and powerful on a departure from truth, even aside from the character of the writer, as to relieve us from any apprehension of mis-statement. Cabot then resided in England, occupying a conspicuous station. The passage
In the Library of the British Museum, title in catalogue, Munster.
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about to be quoted contains a reproach on a sea-officer, of the time of Henry VIII., and it is not likely that such expressions would be addressed to one who had been Lord High Admiral in that reign, unless the facts were notorious and indisputable, particularly while many of those engaged in the expedition were living. The following is the language of the Dedication —
" Which manly courage (like unto that which hath been seen and proved in your Grace, as well in forene realmes as also in this our country) if it had not been wanting in other in these our dayes at suche time as our sovereigne Lord of noble memory, King Henry the Eighth, about the same [eighth] yere of his raygne, furnished and set forth cerien shippes under the governaunce of Sebastian Cabot yet living, and one Sir Thomas Perte, whose faynt heart was the cause that that viage toke none effect, if (I say) such manly courage whereof we have spoken had not at that tyme bene wanting, it myghte happelye have come to passe that that riche treasurye called Perularia (which is now in Spayne, in the citie of Civile and so named, for that in it is kepte the infinite ryches brought thither from the newefoundland of Peru) myght longe since have bene in the Tower of London, to the Kinges great honoure and welth of this his realme."
With this passage Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 498) properly connects the language employed by Robert Thorne in 1527, in a letter ad dressed to Henry VIII. The object of Thorne (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 212) was to urge on Henry VIII. a search for the passage in the North, and he suggests three routes — the North-Eastern, afterwards attempted by Willoughby — the North-Western— *and, finally, a course directly over the Pole, giving a preference, so far as may be inferred from precedence in suggestion, to the first—
" Yet these dangers or darkness hath not letted the Spaniards and Portu guese and others, to discover many unknown realms to their great peril. Which considered (and that your Graces subjects may have the same light) it will seem your Graces subjects to be without activity or courage, in leaving to do this glorious and noble enterprise. For they being past this little way which they named so dangerous, (which may be two or three leagues before they come to the Pole, and as much more after they pass the Pole) it is clear, that from thenceforth the seas and lands are as temperate as in these parts, and that then it may beat the will and pleasure of the mariners, to choose whe-
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ther they will sail by the coasts, that be cold, temperate or hot. For they being past the Pole, it is plain they may decline to what part they list."
" If they will go toward the Orient, they shall enjoy the regions of all the Tartarfans that extend toward the midday, and from thence they may go and proceed to the land of the Chinese, and from thence to the land of Cathaio Oriental, which is, of all the main land, most Oriental that can be reckoned from our habitation. And if, from thence, they do continue their navigation, following the coasts that return toward the Occident, they shall fall in with Malaca, and so with all the Indies which we call Oriental, and following the way, may return hither by the Cape of Buona Speransa ; and thus they shall compass the whole world. And if they will take their course after they be past the Pole, toward the Occident, they shall go in the backside of the New foundland, and which of late was discovered by your Grace's servants, until they come to the backside and south seas of the Indies Occidental. And so conti nuing their voyage, they may return through the strait of Magellan to this country, and so they compass also the world by that way ; and if they go this third way, and after they be past the Pole, go right toward the Pole antarctic, and then decline towards the lands and islands situated between the Tropics, and under the Equinoctial, without doubt they shall find there the richest lands and islands of the World of Gold, precious stones, balmes, spices, and other things that we here esteem most which come out of strange countries, and may return the same way.
"By this it appeareth, your Grace hath not only a great advantage of the riches, but also your subjects shall not travel halfe of the way that others do, which go round about as aforesaid."
He remarks again, v<,^>
" To which places there is left one way to discover, which is into the North ; for that of the four parts of the world, it seemeth three parts are discovered by other princes. For out of Spaine they have discovered all the Indies and seas Occidental, and out of Portugal all the Indies and seas Oriental : so that by this part of the Orient and Occident, they have compassed the world. For the one of them departing toward the Orient, and the other toward the Occident, met again in the course or way of the midst of the day, and so then was disco vered a great part of the same seas and coasts by the Spaniards, So that now rest to be discovered the said North parts, the which it seemeth to me, is only your charge and duty. Because the situation of this your realm is thereunto nearest and aptest of all others ; and also for that you have already taken it in hand. And in mine opinion it will not seem well to leave so great and profit able an enterprise, seeing it may so easily and with so little cost, labor, and danger, be followed and obtained, though heretofore your Grace hath made thereof a proofe, and found not the commodity thereby as you trusted, at this time it shall be no impediment. For there may be now provided remedies for
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things, then lacked, and the inconveniences and lets removed, that then were cause that your Grace's desire took no full effect, which is, the courses to be changed, and followed the aforesaid new courses. And concerning the mari ners, ships, and provisions, an order may be devised and taken meet and con venient, much better than hitherto. By reason whereof, and by God's grace, no doubt your purpose shall take effect. Surely the cost herein will be nothing, in comparison to the great profit. The labour is much less, yea nothing at all, where so great honour and glory is hoped for ; and considering well the courses, truly the danger and way is shorter to us, than to Spain or Portugal, as by evident reasons appeareth."
It would seem impossible to doubt that the writer here puts distinctly to Henry, as the two grounds for looking to the North, the advantageous position of his own dominions in reference to a passage in that quarter, and the fact that his former experiment had taken that direction.
Hakluyt approached the subject under a misconception, the source of which will presently be pointed out, that Cabot had gone to the South on this occasion, and supposes that he finds a con firmation of it in that part of the passage quoted from Thorne, which speaks of a change of the courses. Not only, however, is this assumption against the evidence from other quarters, but Thome's own words will not admit of such a construction. He had just suggested a passage by the North, and then eagerly anticipates and answers the objections which might be urged, and it naturally occurs to him as the most forcible of these, that the king had already made a proof in that quarter without success. Could he have apprehended such an objection to his project from a failure in the South ? To suppose that he wished to combat the presumption against the existence of a strait arising from ill success there, will appear ridiculous, if we note that the passage in the South had been, in point of fact, discovered by Magellan, and is actually referred to by Thorne as affording a convenient route for the return voyage.
The words on which Hakluyt would lay this undue stress have ample operation when, aside from the various courses for attempt ing a North-West passage, here were two others suggested, and a seeming preference given to that by the North-East. Captain
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Parry took many different " courses" with a more limited object in view.
In the reference made by Thome to the Newfoundland, " which of late was discovered by your Grace's subjects" he evidently treats as an original discovery that further advance to the North, which we may presume to have been made on this occasion. The same person, in his letter to Dr. Ley, (1 Hakluyt, p. 219,) speaking of the passage by the North, remarks, that he, probably, derived the " inclination or desire of this discovery" from his father, who " with another merchant of Bristow, named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of the Newfoundlands." Now, we have seen his previous application of the epithet, which is, in truth, most appropriate to the latest discovery. Couple this with another fact. The name of Thorne does not occur in any of the patents. Of the two to which we shall have occasion hereafter to advert, subsequent to those to the Cabots, one is dated 19th March 1501, and is in favour of certain Portuguese, who are asso ciated with three merchants of Bristol, Richard Ward, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas. This is now, for the first time, published from the Rolls in the present volume. The last patent bears date 9th December 1502, and is found in Rymer (vol. xiii. p. 37.) The names of Ward and Thomas are dropped, and Hugh Eliot is associated with Ashehurst and the Portuguese. Thus the name with which Thorne connects that of his father does not appear until this late period. We have no doubt that when, after an interval of fifteen years, the reappearance of Cabot called attention to this patent, which had lain dormant, Thorne acquired from Ashehurst or his representatives the interest of that person. Robert Thorne, the son, speaks of the two asso ciates, "my father, who with another merchant of Bristow, named Hugh Eliot," a language well corresponding with the explanation suggested.
It appears from the epitaph of Robert Thorne, (Stow's Survey of London, and Fuller's Worthies,) that he was bom in 1492, a
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circumstance that may assist in enabling us to suppose his father at a not very advanced age in 1516.
A striking instance of the inaccuracy of Purchas, occurs in his statement of the expression used by Thome. He says, (Pil grims, vol. iv. p. 1812,) " Robert Thome, in a book to Doctor Leigh, writeth, that his father, with another merchant of Bris tol, Hugh Eliot, were the fast discoverers of the Newfound lands." Had Thorne really said "jlrst," he must have in tended deception ; but no such word is found either in the letter itself, (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 219,) or in Hakluyt's subsequent refe rence to it, (vol. iii. p. 10.) The absence of the very epithet which Purchas deemed it necessary to interpolate, in order to suit his own notion of what was meant, forms a strong argument to prove, what is sufficiently clear from the context, that Thorne alludes to the recent discovery made by the subjects of Henry VI II.
It may be repeated, then, that in his speculations on the North- West Passage, Thome says, " And if they will take their course after they be past the Pole toward the West, they shall go on the back side of the Newfoundland which of late was discovered by your Grace's subjects, until they come to the back side and South seas of the Indies Occidental." Thus by advancing resolutely in the route before taken in the North by "his Grace's subjects" theWes- tern side of the American Continent would be attained. Now it is remarkable, that in speaking of the effort made under the auspices of Hugh Eliot and his father, he says to Dr. Ley, (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 219,) "of the which there is no doubt, (as now plainly appeareth,) if the mariners would then have been ruled and fol lowed their pilot's mind the Lands of the West Indies (from whence all the gold cometh) had been ours, for all is one coast as by the card appeareth and is aforesaid." Thus we find that the frustration of the object is imputed to those who refused to follow their pilot's wishes, and that the golden visions of Thorne are those belonging to a successful prosecution of the North- Western Discovery. Is it possible to hesitate about connecting
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this with the language of Eden as to the faint-heartedness of Sir Thomas Pert, and the general opinion, in 1553, that owing to that faintheartedness the treasures of Peru were at Seville instead of the Tower of London ?
The manner in which Hakluyt and subsequent writers have been betrayed into error with regard to this expedition remains to be considered.
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CHAP XIV.
HAKLUYT'S ERROR WITH REGARD TO THE VOYAGE OF 1517.
HAKLUYT was under an impression that there should be taken in connexion with this voyage a passage in the Spanish historian Oviedo, of which he found a translation in Ramusio. It is but just that he should be fully heard on this point —
" Moreover it seemeth that Gonsalvo de Oviedo, a famous Spanish writer, alludeth unto the sayde voyage in the beginning of the 13th chapter of the 19th booke of his generall and natural historie of the West Indies, agreeing yery well with the time about which Richard Eden writeth that the foresaid voyage was begun. The author's wordes are these, as I finde them translated into Italian by that excellent and famous man Baptista Ramusius."*
After giving the Italian version, Hakluyt proceeds —
" This extract importeth thus much in English, to wit : ' That in the yeere 1517, an English rover, under the colour of travelling to discover, came with a great shippe unto the parts of Brasill, on the coast of the firme land, and from thence he crossed over unto this Hand of Hispaniola, and arrived neere unto the mouth of the haven of the citie of S. Domingo, and sent his shipboate full of men on shore, and demanded leave to enter into this haven, saying that he came with marchandise to traffique. But at that very instant the governour of the castle, Francis de Tapia, caused a tire of ordinance to be shot from the castle at the ship, for she bare in directly with the haven. When the English men sawe this, they withdrew themselves out, and those that were in the ship-boate, got themselves, with all speede on ship-board. And in trueth the warden of the castle committed an oversight : for if the shippe had entred into the haven, the men thereof could not have come on lande without leave both of the citie and of the castle. Therefore the people of the ship seeing how they were received, sayled toward the Hand of S. John, and entering into the port of S. Germaine, the English men parled with those of the towne, requiring victuals and things needefull to furnish their ship, and complained of the inha bitants of the city of S. Domingo, saying that they came not to doe any harme,
* Hakluyt, vol. iii. p, 499.
Ill
but to trade and traffique for their money and merchandise. In this place they had certaine victuals, and for recompense they gaTe and paid them with certain vessels of wrought tinne and other things. And afterward they de parted toward Europe, where it is thought they arrived not ; for we never heard any more newes of them."*
Herrera has an account of the visit somewhat more at large, (Dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.) and refers to the statement of Gines Na- varro, the captain of a caravel of St. Domingo, who happening to be at St. John when the English vessel arrived at that Island, went off to her, supposing her to be of his own country. Accord ing to him, the ship was of two hundred and fifty tons burthen, and had on board sixty men. She was accompanied by a pinnace having two guns in her bows, with twenty-five men armed with crossbows and wearing corslets. The commander of the ship offered to shew his instructions from the king of England, (" la instruccion que llevaba de el Rei de Inglaterra,") and requested Navarro to proceed in company with his own vessel to shew the way to St. Domingo. The English were plentifully sup plied with provisions, and had a great quantity of woollen and linen goods with other merchandise for the purpose of traffic. They effected at St. John's a barter of some tin, and proceeding afterwards to St. Domingo, sent a boat ashore with a message that their object was trade, and remained off the island for two days. The commander of the fort sent to the authorities for instructions how to act, and not receiving a timely answer fired, on his own responsibility, at the strangers, on which they recalled their boat and went round to the Island of St. John, and after remaining some time carrying on a barter with the inhabitants of the town of St. Germain, disappeared.
The account which, according to Navarro, they gave of them selves, was this : —
" They said that they were Englishmen, and that the ship was from Eng land, and that she and her consort had been equipped to go and seek the land of the Great Cham, that they had been separated in a tempest, and that the ship pursuing her course had been in a frozen sea, and found great islands
Mb.
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of ice, and that taking a different course, they came into a warm sea, which boiled like water in a kettle, and lest it might open the seams of the vessel they proceeded to examine the Baccalaos, where they found fifty sail of vessels, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, engaged in fishing ; that going on shore to communicate with the natives, the pilot, a native of Piedmont, was killed ; that they proceeded afterwards along the coast to the river Chicora, and crossed over thence to the island of St. John. Asking them what they sought in these islands, they said that they wished to explore in order to make report to the King of England, and to procure a load of the Brasil wood."
Such was the report of Navarro. The officer commanding the fort was arrested, because by his precipitate conduct the oppor tunity was lost cf ascertaining who were the intruders, and what their^ object. On the facts being reported to the emperor, he viewed them with great uneasiness, and " wished that in the Island of St. Domingo they had proceeded in a different manner, and either by force or stratagem got possession of the vessel. He was struck with the inconveniences likely to result from English vessels frequenting those parts, and gave strict orders that on their again appearing, measures should be adopted for taking them and making an example_of them."
These circumstances are adverted to, for the purpose of shewing the attention which was excited by this visit, and the anxious examination, doubtless, undergone by Navarro who had commu nicated with the strangers. When Herrera was ordered by Philip II. to prepare his History, there were submitted to him documents of every description, even the most minute, (Decade vi. lib. iii. cap. 19.) His statement, then, which goes thus into detail, was, probably, derived from the Examination, and it establishes a representation, that the Englishmen spoke of the Baccalaos as a point at which they had touched on their return from a struggle with the perils of the navigation/i/r^er North.
There is found in Purchas, (Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 855,) a " De scription of the West Indies," by Herrera, being the introduction to the history, with a remark, " This author hath written eight Decades of the Spanish Acts in the West Indies, which give great light to those parts, but would be too long for this work."
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The influence of the passage just quoted is curiously visible in Purchas. On reading it, he saw, at once, that the statement of Navarro had reference to the visit spoken of by Oviedo, and it therefore passed into his mind that the expedition proceeded, in the first instance, to the North. When he had occasion, how ever, to advert to the circumstance afterwards, he evidently could not recollect whence he had derived the impression, or there would have been found a reference to Herrera in his ambitious margin, in-
O *
stead of the vague assertion : " Afterwards the same Sir Sebastian Cabot was sent, A. D. 1516, by king Henry the VIII., together with Sir Thomas Pert, Vice- Admiral of England, which after coasting this Continent the second time, as I have read, discovered the Coast of Brasil, and returned from thence to St. Domingo and Porto Rico,'7 (vol. iv. p. 1812.)
A peculiar anxiety is felt with regard to this voyage, because it bears directly on our estimate of Cabot's character. He had taken up, with all the ardour which belongs to the conceptions of a man of his stamp, the opinion that a North-West passage was practicable, and we are grieved, as well as surprised, to find him apparently faltering in the pursuit. We know from Peter Martyr, his undiminished confidence in 1515, and cannot understand why, immediately afterwards, he should be found in a confused, rambling voyage to the South, instead of following up his great purpose.
The examination thus far has assumed that the date given by Ramusio,in his translation of Oviedo, and adopted by Hakluyt, is correct. It now remains to shew that there has been an en tire misconception on this point, and that Hakluyt has paid the deserved penalty of his folly in quoting a Spanish book from an Italian translation.
The reference is correctly given to book xix. cap. xiii. of Oviedo ; but on turning to the passage, he is found to represent the visit of the English ship as occurring not in 1517, but in 1527. There are in the library of the British Museum the edition of his work pub lished at Seville in 1535 and the next edition, corrected by the
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author, published at Salamanca, in .1547. In the King's library there is a copy of the latter edition. The date given in both edi tions is MDXXVII. It may be very idle to attempt to fortify the statement of a writer of the highest credit, and who resided in St. Domingo at the very period in question ; but the fact may be mentioned that his narrative had not only carried him up to this period but beyond it, for in a preceding chapter (the vii.) of the same book, he speaks of an incident which occurred in Sep tember, 1530.
As the reliance of Hakluyt is exclusively on the "famous Spanish writer Oviedo," it might be sufficient to shift to its proper side of the scale the weight which has been thus mis placed. The point, however, is one of interest, in reference to the subsequent voyage from England, in 1527, and we may draw to the rectification the testimony of Herrera.
That writer, it is true, affixes no date to the visit, and while considering, at an early period, the condition of the colonies, he adverts to this as one of the circumstances which had led to com plaint and uneasiness. This sort of grouping is always dange rous in the hands of an ambitious and florid historian, anxious to be relieved from a chronological detail of isolated facts, and to treat them in combination, and in their supposed influence on results. He has, while considering an early incident, taken up this and others which, though posterior in point of time, yet pre ceded the measures of precaution, of which they, in succession, indicated the necessity. The question is placed beyond doubt by another occurrence almost contemporary. Oviedo, in the same chapter which refers to the visit of the English vessel adds, that about a year afterwards, (" desde a poco tiempo o en el siguiente anno,") a French corsair made its appearance at Cuba, guided by a villainous Spaniard, named Diego Ingenio, (" guiado por un mal Espagnol llamado Diego Ingenio.") This incident is men tioned by Herrera, under the year 1529, and he states it to have taken place in the middle of October, of that year, (Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. vi. chap, xii.) His next chapter (xiii.) is occupied
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with the precautions taken for the security of the Indies, and they are expressly referred to the visit of the English and French ships.* Thus is obtained a decided, though superfluous, confir mation of the accuracy of Oviedo.
So soon as we are assured of his real statement, the im probability that this visit could have been on the part of Cabot's expedition occurs with irresistible force.
Is it at all likely that one who had just quitted the service of Spain, and who knew the jealous system of exclusion adopted with regard to her American possessions, would be found engaged in a silly and confused attempt to carry on a commerce in that quarter ? Again, is it not probable that Navarro would have re cognised one whom we may presume to have been familiarly known to the seamen of that day ? Would a man, moreover, who had been one of the captains of the King of Spain, and after wards a member of the council of the Indies, have been anxious to open a communication with the authorities of St. Domingo ? Cabot would have known not only that the application was idle, but that it would subject him to the most odious re proaches, for endeavouring to turn against Spain the know ledge acquired by having so recently held a confidential post in her service.
This last consideration, indeed, suggests a pleasing reflection that his fame may be successfully relieved from the suspicion of having, even at a moment of pique, consented to engage in such an enterprise. The pure and lofty character to which all the incidents of his life lay claim, renders us unwilling to credit what could not but be deemed derogatory. His vindication has al ready, it is hoped, been made out; and when we come, in its proper place, to a voyage from England, in 1527, under totally
* " Con occasion de la nave Inglesa que havia llegada al Puerto de la Ciudad de Santo Domingo de la Isla Espanola, i de los Franceses de que se ha tra- tado en el capitulo precedente, el Obispo de Santo Domingo, Presidente del Audencia hico una Junta de todos las Estados de la Isla, adonde se confirio lo que se debia hacer," &c.
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different auspices, there will be seen the happy application of what Oviedo correctly refers to that year. By keeping sepa rate the clews which Hakluyt has crossed and entangled, there will be attained, in each case, a point from which a survey may be made with the greatest clearness and assurance of ac curacy.
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CHAP. XV.
VOYAGE OF 1517 THE ONE REFERRED TO BY CABOT IN HIS LETTER TO RAMUSIO.
IT being, then, certain that the expedition of 1517 had for its object the North-West Passage, was it on the llth of June 1517, that Cabot attained the point mentioned in his letter to Ramusio ? The day of the month is given, not only in that letter but again by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (iii. Hakluyt p. 16,) from Cabot's map. Many circumstances of corroboration press on us. When Eden speaks, in magnificent phrase, of the opportunity lost to England of taking the lead of Spain, his language is naturally referrible, as has been said, to the frustration of that great effort to find a way to Cataya which Cabot had already essayed, and which Peter Martyr, in 1515, expressly tells us he was on the eve of again undertaking. In the letter to Ramusio, Cabot declares that when arrested at 67° and-a-half by the timidity of his associates he was sanguine of success, and that if not over ruled he both could and would have gone to Cataya. Does not Eden, then, merely supply the name of the principal object of this reproach ? Let us refer again to the language of Thorne, which applies, we know, to the expedition of 1517, (i. Hakluyt, p. 219,) " Of the which there is no doubt, as now plainly ap- peareth, if the mariners would then have been ruled and followed their pilot's mind, the lands of the West-Indies, from whence all the gold cometh, had been ours," Can it be doubted that thesj several passages all point to the same incident ?
In the work of Peter Martyr, written before this last voyage, no allusion is found to a mutiny in the North, but he mentions ex pressly that in the South the expedition was stopped by a failure
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of provisions. While conveying such minute information lie would hardly have failed to advert to a fact so remarkable in itself, and bearing moreover so directly on the question of the supposed practicability of the enterprise.
On the occasion alluded to, the lat. of 67° and-a-half had been attained on the llth June. This could not have been in 1497, because land was first seen on the 24th of June of that year. With regard to the expedition of 1498, which Peter Martyr and Gomara are supposed more particularly to refer to, the month of July is named as that in which the great struggle with the ice occurred. Did not Cabot, then, instructed by experience, sail from England earlier in the year than on the former occasions? In order to be within the eighth year of Henry VIII. mentioned by Eden, he must have got oft' before the 22nd of April, if he sailed in 1517.
The advance on this occasion was so far beyond what had been made on former voyages, that Thome does not hesitate to give to the region newly visited the designation of Newfoundland ; and it was then probably that Cabot " sailed into Hudson's Bay and gave English names to sundry places therein."*
No date is mentioned by Ramusio for the voyage alluded to in Cabot's letter, though from his speaking of that Navigator as having made discoveries in the time of Henry VI I. , the reader might be led to refer it to that early period. One expression is remarkable. After stating Cabot's long-continued course West with a quarter of the North, and his reaching 67° and-a-half, Ramusio says that he would have gone further but for the " malig- nita del padrone et de marinari sollevati," (the refusal of the master and the mutinous mariners.) We can hardly err in re ferring this allusion to Sir Thomas Pret, " whose faint heart," according to Eden, " was the cause that the voyage took none effect."
* Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. i. p. 549. M'Pherson's Annals oi' Commerce, vol. ii. p. 12.
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It only remains to express a hope that as the errors with regard to this voyage had become so firmly fired, and their rectification was "so important to the fame of Cabot, the preceding tedious detail will be excused. Dr. Robertson, who it appears by the list of authorities prefixed to his History of America knew of Oviedo only through the Italian translation, thus speaks of the memora ble expedition : —
" Some merchants of Bristol having fitted out two ships for the Southern regions of America, committed the conduct of them to Sebastian Cabot, who had quitted the service of Spain. He visited the coasts of Brazil, and touched at the islands of Hispa- niola and Porto Rico," See. (Book ix.) And in a work of the present year, (Lardner's Cyclopsedia, Maritime and Inland Disco very, vol. ii. p. 138,) it is said, " Sebastian Cabot sailed in 1516 with Sir John Pert to Porto Rico, and afterwards returned to Spain."
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CHAP. XVI.
CABOT APPOINTED, IN 1518, PILOT-MAJOR OF SPAIN SUMMONED TO ATTEND
THE CONGRESS AT BADAJOS IN 1524 — PROJECTED EXPEDITION UNDER HIS COMMAND TO THE MOLUCCAS.
THE result of the expedition of 1517, however it may have added in England to the fame of Cabot for ardent enterprise and daunt less intrepidity, was not such as to lead immediately to a renewed effort. There had been a failure; and a second expedition might be frustrated by similar causes. The merchants who were en gaged in it had probably sustained a heavy loss, and the king was at that time full of anxious speculations about the affairs of the Continent. The horrible Sweating-Sickness, too, which, from July to December 1517, spread death and dismay not only through the court and the city, but over the whole king dom, suspending even the ordinary operations of commerce, left no time to think of the prosecution of a distant and precarious enterprise. It is probable, therefore, that Cabot might have lan guished in inactivity but for the new and more auspicious aspect of affairs in Spain.
If the youthful successor of Ferdinand had looked into the volume dedicated to him by Peter Martyr, containing a faithful and co pious account of that splendid empire in the west to which he had succeeded, he could not fail to be struck with the memorable enterprise of Cabot, and the estimate of his character by that ho nest chronicler. The records, too, would shew the pains which had been taken to secure his services, and the posts of honour and confidence to which he had been rapidly advanced. It would doubtless be asked, what had been the issue of that expedition under his command, which it appeared was to sail in March 1516.
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Coupling its abandonment with what he found stated of the jealous denial of that Navigator's merits by the Spaniards, the sagacity of Charles could hardly fail to detect the secret causes of Cabot's disappearance.
Immediate measures in the way of atonement would seem to have been taken. In 1518 Cabot was named Pilot Major of Spain. *
The appointment is noted in the general arrangement and scheme of reformation of that year, but we find it announced again in 1520, (Dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. vii.) with the instructions of the emperor that no pilot should proceed to the Indies without pre vious examination and approval by him.f Possibly, therefore, the final arrangement was not concluded until the visit of Charles V. to England in the latter year. It would seem that there was no intermediate Pilot Major between Juan de Solis and Cabot, for in a Royal order of 16th November 1523, relative to a charge in the time of De Solis, on the salary of the office, (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 308,) Cabot is spoken of as his successor.
The functions of this office, though of great importance and responsibility, supply, of course, but few incidents for record. We might expect to find the project of the North- West passage revived, but many considerations were opposed to it. The same reasons which suggested the passage in the North as so desirable to England, on account of her local position, would disincline Spain from the search • and we accordingly find, that the only feeble efforts in reference to it were those of Cortez and Gomez on the southern coast of North America. All eyes were directed to the South. Peter Martyr is even impatient that attention should be turned towards Florida where Ayllon had landed in 1523, and made a tedious report as to its productions. "What need have we of these things which are common with all the people
* Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. vii. Ensaio Chronologico para la Florida, Introduction.
f Diose titulo Piloto Major a Sebastian Gaboto con orden que ningun Piloto pasase a las Indias sin ser primero por el examinado i aprobado.
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of Europe? To the South! To the South ! They that seek riches must not go to the cold and frozen North," (Dec. viii. cap. x.) The hopes of adventurers were directed to the Moluccas, through the passage which Magellan had been fortunate enough to find in 53°, through toils and perils so much less than those which had been encountered in vain in the North. The next mention we find of Cabot, is a reference to his opinion, (Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. xx.) as to the existence of many islands worthy of being explored, in the same region with the Moluccas. Seeing that the spirit of enterprise had taken this direction, he seems to have looked to it as affording a chance of more active employment than his present office. An incident soon brought him conspicuously forward in connexion with this region.
Portugal had interposed an earnest representation that the Moluccas fell within the limits assigned to her under the Papal Bull, and she remonstrated, in the strongest terms, against any attempt on the part of Spain to carry on a commerce in that quarter.1* The emperor decided, therefore, that a solemn con ference should be held, at which the subject might be fully dis cussed and an opportunity afforded to Portugal of stating her pretensions. The son of Columbus, Ferdinand, was also pre- sentf
In attendance on this remarkable assemblage, were the men most famed for their nautical knowledge and experience ;'not as members, but for the purpose of reference as occasion might arise. At the head of a list of these, we find the name of Cabot.J The conference was held at Badajos, in April, 1524, and on the 31st May the decision was solemnly proclaimed, declaring that the Moluccas were situate, by at least 20°, within the Spanish limits. The Portuguese retired in disgust, and rumours immediately reached Spain, that the young king of Portugal was preparing a great fleet to maintain his pretensions by force, and to take and
* Peter Martyr, Dec. vi. cap. ix. f Peter Martyr, Dec. vi. cap. x.
J Gomara, cap. c.; Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. vi. cap. vi.; Eden, Decades, fol. 241.
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destroy any vessels which might be found presuming to urge a commerce in that quarter.*
Immediately after the decision, a company was formed at Seville to prosecute the trade which had received so high and solemn a sanction, and Cabot was solicited to take the command.f One of the parties to the association was Robert Thorne of Bristol, then resident in Spain, who with his partner was led into the adventure, " principally," as he says, " for that two English friends of mine which are somewhat learned in cosmographie, should go in the same ships to bring me certain relation of the country, and to be expert in the navigation of those seas.J In September 1524, Cabot received from the council of the Indies permission to engage in the enterprise, and he proceeded to give bond to the Company for the faithful execution of his trust.§ His original request was, that four ships properly armed and equipped should be provided at the expense of the Treasury, while the Company on its part should supply the requisite funds for the commercial objects. || The agreement with the emperor was executed at Madrid on 4th March 1525,^f and stipulated that a squadron of, at least, three vessels of not less than one hundred tons should be furnished, and one hundred and fifty men.** The title of Captain General was conferred on Cabot. The emperor was to receive from the Company four thousand ducats and a share of the profits.
It was proposed instead of pushing directly across the Pacific
* Peter Martyr, Dec. vi. cap. x. f Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.
I Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 215. We may conjecture one of these to have been Jorge Barlo, (George Barlow,) who, with another, brought to Spain Cabot's Despatch from the La Plata, (Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.)
§ Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. vi. || Ib.
5F Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.
** Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. vi. Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii. Go- mara says two hundred and fifty, but his assertion has no weight against the concurring testimony of the two Historians cited, one a member of the Coun cil, and the other referring to official documents.
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after penetrating through the Strait, as Magellan had done, to proceed deliberately and explore on every side, particularly the western coast of the Continent.*
The arrangement at first was, that the expedition should sail in August, 1525 ;f but it was delayed by circumstances to which it may be proper now to advert as bearing on its ultimate fate.
* Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. vi.
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CHAP. XVII.
JEALOUSY OF THE CONTEMPLATED EXPEDITION ON THE PART OP PORTUGAL •—MISSION OF DIEGO GARCIA, A PORTUGUESE.
IN order to understand fully the circumstances which conspired to throw vexatious obstacles in the way of the expedition, and in the end to defeat its main object, we must go back to the voyage of Magellan that first opened to Spain a direct communication with those regions of which Portugal had before monopolised the lucrative commerce.
No sooner did the project of that intrepid navigator become known in Portugal than the utmost alarm was excited. Remon strances were addressed to the government of Spain ; threats and entreaties were alternately used to terrify or to soothe the navigator himself, and assassination was openly spoken of as not unmerited by so nefarious a purpose. Finding these efforts vain, a tone of bitter derision was adopted.
The Portuguese said, that the king of Castile was incurring an idle expense, inasmuch as Magellan was an empty boaster, without the least solidity of character, who would never accom plish what he had undertaken."*
Had Magellan perished a month earlier than he did, these con temptuous sneers would have passed into history as descriptive of his real character. There is every reason to believe, that he fell a victim to the treachery infused into the expedition ; and the pilot, Estevan Gomez, who openly urged retreat after a conside-
* Decian los Portugueses que el Rei de Castilla perderia el gasto porque Hernando de Magallanes era hombre hablador, i de poca substancia, i que no saldria con lo que prometia." Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. iv.-cap. x.
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able progress had been made in the Strait, was, we know, a Por tuguese.* The conduct of the Portuguese authorities to the sur viving vessels was marked by cruelty and rapacity ; and even the gentle spirit of Peter Martyr breathes indignation. Official notice was received that the ship Trinity, had been captured and plundered by the Portuguese, and that this had been followed up by their going to the Moluccas, taking possession of them, and seizing property of every description.
" The Pilots and King's servants who are safely returned, say that both robberies and pillage exceed the value of two hundred thousand ducats, but Christophorus de Haro especially, the General director of this aromaticai ne- gociation, under the name of Factor, confirmeth the same. Our Senate yieldeth great credit to this man. He gave me the names of all the five ships that accompanied the Victory, and of all the Mariners, and mean Officers whatso ever. And in our Senate assembled he shewed why he assigned that value of the booty or prey, because he particularly declared how much spices the Trinity brought.
" It may be doubted what Caesar will do in such a case. I think he will dissemble the matter for a while, by reason of the renewed affinity, yet though they were twins of one birth, it were hard to suffer this injurious loss to pass unpunished, "f
In reference to the voyage of Cabot, the alarm of the Portu guese would seem to have been yet more serious ; for they saw in it not a doubtful experiment, but a well concerted commercial enterprise. The emperor was besieged with importunities ; the King of Portugal representing that it would be " the utter de struction of his poor kingdom," to have his monopoly of this trade invaded. J The honest historian is persuaded, that though a tie of consanguinity existed between the two monarchs by their com mon descent from Ferdinand and Isabella, and though the Em peror had given his sister Catherine " a most delicate young lady of seventeen," in marriage to the King of Portugal, a step " so injurious to the kingdom of Castile, the chief sinews of his power,"
* Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. ix. cap. xv. Purchas, vol. i. B. i. ch. ii.
t Peter Martyr, Dec. viii. cap. x. J Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. vii.
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as the arrest of the expedition, would not be taken.* So far as endearing domestic ties could influence such a matter, the appre hension here implied was to be yet further increased. A nego tiation was going on for the Emperor's marriage to Isabella, the sister of the King of Portugal, and the ceremony took place in March, 1526. The dowry received was nine hundred thousand crowns, and rumours, in the course of the treaty, were current that one of the articles of the double alliance stipulated an abandon ment of the Moluccas. Passing onward with the subject, it may be stated that early in 1529 the Emperor relieved himself from all difficulty by mortgaging the Moluccas to the King of Portugal for three hundred and fifty thousand ducats, with the right of exclusive trade until redemption.f This step excited the utmost disgust in Spain, and it was openly said that he had better have mortgaged Estremadura itself. He would listen, however, to no representations on the subject. A proposition having been made to pay off the whole of the mortgage money, on condition that the applicants should have six years enjoyment of the trade, the Emperor, then in Flanders, not only rejected the offer, but sent a message of rebuke to the council for having entertained it. Aside from private feelings, he doubtless, as a politician, thought it un wise to put in peril an alliance so intimate and assured for any commercial purpose unconnected with the schemes of ambition by which he was engrossed.
Matters, however, had not reached this crisis before Cabot sailed ; and the intense anxiety of Portugal could, therefore, look only to the indirect efforts at frustration, for which the intimate relations of the two countries might afford opportunities.
In all the accounts of Cabot's enterprise given by the Spanish historians, reference is found to an expedition under the command of a Portuguese,J named Diego Garcia, which left Spain shortly
* Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. vii. t Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. v. cap. x. J Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. x. cap. i.
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after Cabot ; touched at the Canaries, as he had done ; found its way to the La Plata; fixed itself in his neighbourhood, and, finally, by the misconduct of certain persons connected with it, brought on a general and overwhelming attack on Cabot, from the natives, who had previously, by a mixture of boldness and good manage ment, been brought into alliance with him. Charlevoix (Histoire du Paraguay, torn. i. p. 28) supposes that Garcia was employed avowedly by Portugal ; but according to Herrera, (Dec. iii. lib. x. cap. 1.) the expedition was fitted out by the Count D. Fernando de Andrada and others, for the La Plata, and consisted of a ship? of one hundred tons, a pinnace, and one brigantine, with the frame of another to be put together as occasion might require. One great object was to search for Juan de Cartagena, and the French priest whom Magellan had put on shore. Garcia left Cape Finis- terre on the 5th of August 1526, and touching at the Canaries (where Cabot had been) took in supplies and sailed thence the 1st of September.
These plain matters of fact have been recently mis-stated. In Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia (History of Maritime and Inland Dis covery, vol. ii. p. 89,) it is said, " Diego Garcia was sent with a single ship to the river of Solis ; but as he lingered on his way at the Canary Islands , he was anticipated in his discoveries by Se bastian Cabot. That celebrated Navigator had sailed from Spain a few months later than Garcia," &c. Cabot sailed in April 1526. The fact is important, because had he left Spain under the circumstances stated, he could not have been ignorant of the claim of Garcia, under a grant, as is alleged, from the emperor, and his going to the same quarter, would have been both fraudu lent and absurd. His manifest ignorance on the subject corro borates the suspicion that, on finding the intrigues to arrest Cabot ineffectual, this expedition, under the command of the Portu guese, was hastily got up to watch his movements, and probably to act in concert with the disaffected, with an understanding as to certain points of rendezvous in case the mutineers should gain the mastery. It is important to note that in Peter Martyr, whose
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work embraces the early part of 1526,* no reference is made to any projected expedition to the quarter for which, as it is now said, Garcia was destined.
At Decade iv. lib. i. cap. i. Herrera resumes his abstract of Garcia's report. That personage is now off the coast of Brasil. He touched at the Bay of St. Vincent, and there found a Portu guese of the degree of Bachelor, from whom he received refresh ments, and whose son-in-law agreed to accompany him to the La Plata. In running down the coast he touched at the island of Patos (now St. Catherine) in 27° where Cabot had been before him, and, as Garcia asserts, had behaved in a very shameful manner, carrying off the sons of several chiefs who had treated him with great kindness. Proceeding up the La Plata, Garcia found the ships which Cabot, on ascending the river, had left under the charge of an officer. He resolved to follow in his bri- gantine ; and here we are let into the character of this personage. While at St. Vincent, he had hired to his host, the Bachelor, the ship of a hundred tons, to carry eight hundred slaves to Por tugal ; and " to colour," says Herrera, " his covetousness, he said, that he had protested to the Count Don Fernando de Andrada, that the vessel was useless, being much too large for the navigation and discovery of the La Plata. "f Thus, with the blindness of an absurd prejudice, has the author consented to spread upon his pages all the malignant invective of this man against Cabot — to make it a part of the History of the Indies — and yet he winds up, at last, by telling us of Garcia's fraud, and of the falsehood by which it was sought to be disguised ! The Portuguese, in order to break the force of indignation against himself, evidently laboured to turn the resentment of his em-
* He speaks of the marriage of the Emperor with the sister of the King of Portugal which took place in March 1526.
•f* " Para dar color a esta codicia, dixo que havia protestado al Conde Don Fernando de Andrada que no le diese esta nave porque era mui grande e inutil para la navegacion i descubrimiento del Rio de la Plata." Herrera, Dec. iv, lib. i. cap. i.
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ployers on Cabot, by whom they supposed their views to have been thwarted. One reflection is obvious. If this man could be seduced from his duty by the Portuguese Bachelor, we may pre sume that the agents of Portugal had no great difficulty in nego tiating with him and inducing him to give his voyage a turn to suit their purposes. Even supposing his employers, then, honest and sincere, we have no assurance that he did not act from sinister motives. We shall meet Garcia again in the La Plata.
There is another circumstance, somewhat posterior in point of time, but which serves to shew the anxious expedients to which Portugal did not disdain to resort, even at the expense of its dig nity. A Portuguese, named Acosta, returned with Cabot from Brazil, and immediately afterwards the king of Portugal was de tected in an unworthy correspondence with him.* It is remark able, also, that the complaints of the mutineers whom Cabot put ashore were brought to Spain by a Portuguese vessel.f
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. x. cap. vi. t Ib. Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.
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CHAP. XVIII.
INTERFERENCE WITH THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE VOYAGE MENDEZ AP POINTED SECOND IN COMMAND CONTRARY TO THE WISHES OF CABOT
DE ROJAS THE SEALED ORDERS PREJUDICES OF THE SPANISH HIS TORIANS EXPEDITION SAILS.
IN a letter dated November, 1525, Peter Martyr* speaks of the expedition as at length about to sail. It was doomed, how ever, to yet further delays ; and even in matters of detail the pre sence of an evil spirit is but too obvious.
Three ships were provided by the Emperor, to which a small caravel was added by an individual. %f* The principal authority over the arrangements would seem to have been exercised by certain agents or deputies (disputados) named by the freighters. They controlled Cabot, in every particular ; and it is obvious, therefore, that the fate of the expedition lay in their integrity or corruptibility. The whole sum which the company had at stake is stated to have been only ten thousand ducats.
The leading subject of difference between Cabot and these persons, as appears by the meager accounts left to us, was as to the person who should fill the office of Lieutenant-General. Cabot was anxious for the appointment of his friend De Rufis ; but the choice of the agents fell on Martin Mendez who had been in one of Magellan's ships as Treasurer, (contador) a situa tion bearing, it may be presumed, an analogy to the present office
* Decade viii. cap. ix.
•f* Such is the account of Herrera, confirmed by Robert Thorne. Writers who make a different statement (Charlevoix, for example, in his Histoire du Paraguay, torn. i. p. 25) have been misled by looking to the original requisition of Cabot instead of the limited force finally placed under his command.
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of Purser. They are said to have made the selection on account of their differences with Cabot.* These disputes rose to such a height that the Emperor was urged to appoint another com mander. When it is stated that this same Martin Mendez was one of those expelled from the squadron, for mutiny, by Cabot, who afterwards justified himself to the Emperor for having done so, we not only see the irksome position in which he was placed, but will, probably, deem the efforts to get rid of him the highest compliment to his energy and incorruptibility. A hollow compromise was at length effected by a provision, on paper, that Mendez should take part in nothing which was not expressly committed to him by Cabot, and never act except in the absence or disability of the chief. ^ Thus, with regard to an officer to whom the commander should be able to look, at every turn, for confidential counsel and cordial co-operation, the utmost that Cabot could procure was a stipulation that he should preserve a sullen indifference, and not be actively mischievous.
A number of young men of family, animated by the love of ad venture Joined the Expedition, and amongst them three brothers of Balboa.
There are two personages destined to act, with Mendez, a con spicuous part, and who may therefore be here mentioned. The first was Miguel de Rodas, a sort of supernumerary, to whom no particular post was assigned, but who is stated to have -been a man of great valour and nautical experience, and to have enjoyed the favour of the emperor.J The other was Francisco de Rojas, captain of one of the ships, the Trinidad. Though a slight
* " Los disputados de los armadores por diferencias que con el General avian tenido quisieron que fuesse Martin Mendez y no Miguel de Rufis a quien pre- tendia llevar en este cargo Sebastian Gaboto." Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.
•f " Que no se occupasse sino en las cosas que el General le cometiese, y estando ausente o impedido, y no de otra manera porque le llevaba contra su voluntad." Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. oiiv
J Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.
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difference is perceptible in the names, they would seem to have been brothers, for, at a subsequent period,* in speaking of the leading conspirators, these two are described, with a yet further variation, as " los dos hermanos Roxas i Martin Mendez," (" the two brothers Roxas and Martin Mendez.")
The most extraordinary part, however, of the arrangement, con sisted of the Sealed Orders, of which a copy was given to each vessel.^ We are not informed at what time they were to be opened, but from the nature of their contents we may infer that it was to be done immediately on getting to sea, and from the sequel we may infer how idle would have been any injunction of for bearance. Provision was therein made for the death of Cabot, and eleven persons were named on whom, in succession, the com mand in chief was to devolve. Should this list be exhausted, a choice was to be made by general vote throughout the squadron, and in case of an equality of suffrages the candidates were to de cide between themselves by casting lots ! At the head of the list are found the three individuals just mentioned . It is remarkable that Gregario Caro, the captain of one of the ships and who is afterwards found in command of the fort in the La Plata when Cabot ascended further up the river, stands last on this list, after all the treasurers and accountants. This person is subsequently stated J to have been a nephew of the Bishop of Canaria, and seems to have acted throughout with integrity.
It would be difficult to imagine a scheme better calculated to nourish disaffection. Each individual of note found a pro vision by which he might be brought into the chief command, and was invited to calculate the chances of its reaching him through the successive disappearance of his predecessors on the list ; and the crews, while under the pressure of severe discipline, not only saw a hope of bettering their condition by a change,
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i. t Ib. Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii. J Ib. Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. I.
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but at each step approached nearer to the clause which placed the supreme power in their own gift. A contingency thus pro vided for they knew must have been deemed, at home, within the range of possible occurrences, and they would have little dis position to let the precaution be found a superfluous one.
While there exist so many causes for misunderstanding Cabot's conduct, and motives for misrepresenting it, the writer, unfortu nately, whose statements have since been adopted, almost without question, prepared his history under circumstances little inclining him to impartiality. The Decades of Peter Martyr terminate before the sailing of the expedition, and the venerable author complains, at the close, of the infirmities which then pressed on him in his seventieth year. The next work — that of Gomarra — appeared in 1552, shortly after Cabot had abandoned the service of Spain, and returned to his native country. Charles V., in 1549, had made a formal, but ineffectual, demand on Edward VI. for his return.* That Gomarra had his eye on him in this new and invidious position is evident, because in speaking of the conference at Badajos he incidentally mentions Cabot as one of the few sur vivors of those who had been present on that occasion, (cap. C.) In a work, therefore, dedicated to the Emperor, we are not to look for a vindication of our navigator from the calumnies which might be current to his disadvantage; and we find, accordingly, every allusion to him deeply tinctured with prejudice. The mu tineers, of whom a severe example was made, had enjoyed a high reputation at home, and were doubtless able to raise a clamorous party. Those who fitted out the expedition of Garcia, were led to regard Cabot invidiously, and when it is added that the mercan tile loss of his own employers would unavoidably lead, on the part of some, to reproachful criticism, however unmerited, we see at once that his reputation lay at the mercy of a writer ready and eager to embody the suggestions of disappointment or male volence.
* Stryp«'s Memorials of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 190.
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But our patience is exhausted by the long detention of the expedition. It sailed at length in the beginning of April, 1526.*
* Gomara, cap. Ixxxix. Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii. Robert Thome (1 Hakluyt, p. 215.) There has been a general misconception on this point in English compilations, attributable, probably, to the wretched version of Her rera by Stevens, which names April 1525, (Stevens' Translation, vol. iii. p. 380,) in defiance of the work it professes to translate. The same mistake is found in Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, and the source of the author's error becomes manifest by his incautious citation of Herrera. The reference given is totally inapplicable to the original work, but corresponds exactly with the new and arbitrary distribution of Decades, books, and chapters by Stevens. In most recent works the date is misstated, amongst the rest by Mr. Southey, (History of Brasil, p. 52,) and by the Quarterly Review (vol. iv. p. 459.) The former writer, speaking of this voyage in 1526, infers from Cabot's being called Pilot- Major, that Americus Vespucius who had held that office was " probably" then dead, (p. 52,) a singular remark, as it is well known that Vespucius died fifteen years before. He was succeeded, as we have seen, by Juan Dias de Solis. Cabot's appointment as Pilot-Major in 1518, his atten dance at Badajos, &c., are altogether unnoticed in the pretended translation of Stevens !
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CHAP. XIX.
COMPLAINTS IN THE SQUADRON PRETENDED CAUSES OF DISSATISFACTION- MUTINY QUELLED BY THE ENERGY OF CABOT HAPPY RESULTS HIS
CONDUCT JUSTIFIED TO THE EMPEROR RIDICULOUS CHARGES SUGGESTED
BY THE PORTUGUESE, DIEGO GARCIA.
WE look for an explosion as the vessels quit the shore. It would seem, however, that the train was prepared to burn more slowly. The Squadron is seen to move on steadily and in silence, but beneath the fair and smiling canvass we know there is dark treachery.
In attempting to pierce the obscurity which veils the scenes that follow, and to place ourselves by the side of Cabot, we have unfortunately to rely on those whose very purpose is disparage ment. Yet to that quarter we do not fear to turn, and have at least an assurance that we shall find whatever the most malig nant industry could collect.
Something is said by Herrera as to a scarcity of provisions, owing, as far as he will speak out, to their injudicious distribution amongst the vessels. Now it is quite inconceivable that in an ex pedition prepared for the circumnavigation of the globe there should have been found this deficiency on the coast of Brasil, and the fact, moreover, would be disgraceful to the commanders of the other vessels, and to the agents at home. It is obvious that while nothing is more unlikely than such improvidence on the part of Cabot, it would be easy for disaffected officers to circulate amongst the men complaints of scarcity, and thus refer the odium of a limited allowance to the Commander-in-Chief.
We hear, also, that he did not take sufficient pains to soothe
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the angry feelings which had been excited at Seville.* Then it seems that dissatisfaction arose not from any thing occurring during the voyage, but from continued brooding over antece dent griefs. Doubtless, Martin Mendez, of whose unfitness Cabot had made a representation, and against whose mischievous intermeddling he had been forced to obtain a stipulation, was in no very complacent mood, even if we put out of view the probability of his having been tampered with by the Portuguese. The complaint, too, that Cabot did not sufficiently exert himself to make others forget the late angry discussions, comes from the very persons who broke out into open mutiny, and whose state ments, embittered by a recollection of the severe punishment in flicted on them, compose our evidence. It might be superfluous to add a word to this explanation, yet the remark cannot be for borne, that if there be one trait in the character of Cabot more clearly established than another, it is the remarkable gentle ness of his deportment ; and in every reference to him, by those who had enjoyed a personal intercourse, there breaks forth some endearing form of expression that marks affectionate attach ment.
But pretexts will never be wanting where a mutinous temper exists. The squadron was running down the coast of Brasil when it seems to have been thought necessary to bring matters to a crisis. Murmurs became general and vehement. The Lieute- nant-General Mendez, De Rojas, and De Rodas were louder than the rest, in blaming the government of Cabot.f In a word, rely ing on the clamour they had raised, it is plain that these men now
* The whole passage has that air of vagueness so characteristic of falsehood. " Porque le falto la victualla por ser mal repartida y como por las diferencias de Sevilla, iban algunos animos mal satisfechos y el tuvo poco cuydado en sossegarlos nacieron murmuraciones y atrevimientos en el armada." Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.
t " Teniente de General, Martin Mendez, al Capitan Francisco de Rojas y a Miguel de Rodas porque demas que les tenia mala voluntad, con libertad reprehendian su govierno." (Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.)
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broke out into open insolence, presuming that disaffection would thus reach its height, and a new arrangement take place confor mably to the indication of the Sealed Orders.
The situation of Cabot would to one of ordinary stamp have been appalling. The three persons highest in authority, and to whom he ought to have been able to look for support at such a crisis, had artfully, and in concert, fomented discontent, and were now ready to place themselves at its head. He was in the midst of those who disliked and undervalued him as a foreigner. There were but two of his own countrymen on board. De Rojas, he might anticipate, had made sure of his own crew of the Trinidad, and De Rodas, a man of varied service and high reputation, was likely to rally round him the confidence and enthusiasm of the spirited young cavaliers, volunteers in the expedition. Cabot had performed no memorable service for Spain. There now comes over us, too, almost with dismay, what before had scarcely ex cited attention. The Spaniards, Peter Martyr said, denied that Cabot had achieved what he pretended, even in the service of England. Such an insinuation could not have escaped the eager malevolence of those now around him. Here then was exercised, harshly and haughtily, over Castilians, an authority yielded, incautiously, to the adroit falsehoods of the English adventurer !
But Cabot belonged to that rare class of men whose " powers unfold at trying moments. There seems to belong to command on the Ocean a peculiar energy, the offspring of incessant peril and of that very isolation which throws the brave man on himself, and leads him to muse habitually over all the exi gencies that may, on a sudden, task to the uttermost his forti tude or his intrepidity. Cabot saw that his only safety lay in extreme boldness. He was no longer, as with Sir Thomas Pret, a mere guide in the career of discovery. A high responsibility was on him. He knew that by a daring exercise of that rightful authority, to which habit lends a moral influence, men may be awed into passive instruments, who, but the moment before, medi-
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tated fierce mutiny. His determination was instantly made, and well justified that reputation for dauntless resolution borne back to Spain and to England from this expedition. He seized De Rojas — took him out of his ship the Trinidad — and placing him with Mendez and de Rodas in a boat, ordered the three to be put on shore. The scene was one of deep humiliation ; and these men long afterwards are found dwelling with bitterness on the indig nity, in their memorial to the Emperor.* The effect was instant. Discord vanished with this knot of conspirators. During the five years of service through which the expedition passed, full as they were of toil, privation, and peril, we hear not the slighest murmur; on the contrary, every thing indicates the most harmonious action and the most devoted fidelity.
Curiosity runs eagerly forward to learn the view taken by the Emperor of this high-handed measure. It can only be inferred from circumstances, for there is no account of any formal trial. That a thorough investigation took place cannot be doubted. Miguel de Rodas had been in the Victory, the ship of Magellan's squadron which effected the circumnavigation of the globe, had received from the Emperor a large pension for life, and a device for his Coat of Arms, commemorative of that achievement^ Martin Mendez had been in the same ship, and the device prepared for him is of a yet more flattering description. J It was doubtless found, without going into the question of Portu guese bribery, that their accidental association with so memorable an enterprise, had given to them a reputation quite beyond their merit, and that these very marks of distinction, and a certain feeling as veterans, had led to an insolent assumption which rendered it indispensable for Cabot to vindicate the ascen dancy due to his station and to his genius. By a Portuguese vessel the three mutineers gave notice of their situation, and com-
* " Con tanta afrenta suia." Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i. t Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. xiv.
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plained in the bitterest terms of the conduct of Cabot.* The Emperor sent orders to have them conveyed to Spain in order that justice might be done. Hernando Calderon and Jorge Barlo despatched by Cabot, afterwards reached Toledo, and made report of all that had taken place. The Emperor yielded to the solicitations of Cabot for succour and permission to colonise the country, (Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.) and the merchant adventurers declining to co-operate in what had ceased to be a mercantile speculation, the Emperor undertook to bear the whole expense himself, (Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi.) As we never hear of any censure on Cabot, and know that he afterwards resumed his high and honourable office in Spain ; and that when, long after, he went to England, the Emperor earnestly solicited his return, we cannot doubt that his vindication was complete.
A singular proof here occurs of the disingenuousness of the Spanish historians. It is manifest, that Cabot could not have escaped the sharpest rebuke, and punishment, without making out a clear justification of his conduct; yet, while not a syllable is given of his statement, which must, from the result, have tri umphed, all the disparaging suggestions that malignity could invent, and the falsehood of which must have been established at the time, are eagerly detailed. There can only be wrung from Gomara a cold acknowledgement that the voyage was frustrated, " not so much, as some say, by his fault, as by that of his asso ciates.'^
It might be superfluous, under such circumstances, to examine these allegations, yet they are on their face so improbable, that we may safely advert to them, even in the absence of Cabot's Defence.
It is asserted, that at the island of Patos, (the present St. Catherine's,) where he was treated with the utmost kindness by
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.
t " No tanto, a lo quc algunos dicen, por su culpa como por la de su gente." Gomara, cap. Ixxxix.
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the inhabitants, and took in refreshments, he basely seized the sons of some of the principal chiefs and carried them forcibly away.^ This story is taken from the report of the Portuguese, Diego Garcia, who, although denounced for fraud on his own employers, is considered a good witness against Cabot. He re presents himself to have subsequently visited the island, and to have been very graciously received, notwithstanding the recent outrage. This last circumstance is not the least of the improba bilities involved in his tale, for putting that out of view, as well as the polluted source from which the charge proceeds, let us consider its claims to credit. The seizure is represented to have taken place not on the return, but on the outward, voyage. What, then, was the object of so wanton a piece of cruelty? But further, the orders of the Council of the Indies were peremptory that no violence should be used. Peter Martyr, (Dec. viii. cap. x.) speaking of the expedition of Gomez in 1524, adverts with indignation to his having brought away a number of natives, and expressly states it to be in violation of the standing orders of the Council. Now, Cabot had been, as early as 1515, a member of that Council, was familiar with the orders, and instrumental in framing them. He was in Spain when Gomez returned, and knew of the indignation excited by the abduction. Is it at all likely, then, that he would subject himself to a similar rebuke without any conceivable motive ? It is remarkable, that in Cabot's own instructions to Sir Hugh Willoughby, long after wards, we recognise the analogy to those of the Council of the Indies, for while he enjoins every effort, by gentleness, to get a thorough knowledge of the natives, he expressly forbids the use of " violence or force," (§. 23 of Instructions, Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 228.)
We must advert again, more particularly, to the indignation which, in 1524, Peter Martyr expresses at the conduct of Go mez.
" Contrary to the laws made by us, that no violence should be offered to any nation, he freighted his ship with people of both
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sexes taken from certain innocent half-naked nations, who con tented themselves with hovels instead of houses."*
It is with this historian that Cabot is found onterms of intimacy more than ten years before, and the good old man speaks of him as one of a congenial temper, or as Eden and Hakluyt have it " Cabot is my very friend whom I use familiarly and delight to have him sometimes keep me company in mine own house." At the moment of his penning the denunciation of Gomez, Cabot was his associate with the ripened friendship of the intermediate years. Yet Mr. Southey (History of Brazil, p. 52) has not only con sented to echo the calumny of a vile Portuguese convicted of fraud and falsehood, but adds this coarse and cruel invective — " Cabot touched at an island on the coast called Ilha dos Patos, or Duck Island, and there took in supplies ; requiting the good will which the natives had manifested with the usual villany of an old disco verer, by forcibly carrying away four of them." And the same writer (ib.) denounces, as "an act of cruelty," the energetic pro ceeding by which Cabot quelled the mutiny, and probably saved his own life.
Another item of criticism is derived from the report of the same Portuguese, Diego Garcia. He sailed from the Canaries on the first September, and before he reaches the Cape de Verd Islands a boast is uttered of his superior skill in the choice of a route. So earnest is the wish to make this impression that we are again told he proceeded from the Cape de Verds " for Cape St. Augustine, [on the coast of Brazil] which he places in eight degrees ten mi nutes of Southern latitude, and this route, on account of the great currents from the rivers of Guinea, which drive the ships to the North-West, is perilous, and Sebastian Cabot did not know how to take advantage of it, (as has been already said,) because
* " Contra Leges a nobis dictatas ne quis ulli gentium vim afferat, ab innoc- cutibus quibusdam seminudis populis magalibus pro domibus contends/' &c. (Dec. viii. cap. x.)
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though he was a great Cosmographer, he was not so great a Seaman."*
Now first as to the facts. Garcia's criticism seems to be that Cabot stood across the Atalantic before he got as far South as the Cape de Verd Islands. That this very point had been the subject of anxious deliberation we learn from Peter Martyr, (Dec. vii. cap. vi.) " Cabot will set off in the next month of August, 1525. He departs no earlier, because things necessary for an enterprise of such importance cannot be prepared, nor by the course of the heavens ought he to begin his voyage before that time ; as he has to direct his course towards the Equinoctial when the sun," &c.f
It might be supposed, perhaps, that the vexatious delays had caused some change of the route originally projected; but so far is this from the fact, Herrera tells us expressly —
" After many difficulties Sebastian Cabot departed in the be ginning of April of this year (1526) &c. He sailed to the Cana ries and the Cape de Verd Islands, and thence to Cape St. Au gustine," &c.J
Thus he took the very route in which Garcia followed ! Even supposing Herrera to be mistaken, and to have described the course originally resolved on at Seville, instead of that which
* " Fue en demanda del Cabo de San Agustin, que este Piloto pone en ocho Grades, i un sesmo de Grado de la Vanda del Sur, de la otra parte de la Equi noctial. Y este Camino, por la grandes corrientes que salen de los Rios de Guinea, que baten los Navios a la Vanda del Norueste es peligroso ni le supo tomar Sebastian Gaboto (como se ha dicho) porque aunque era gran Cosmografo, no era tan gran Marinero." Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. x. cap. i.
t " Est Cabotus, Augusto mense proximo anni MDXXV. discessurus, nee citius quidem quia nee prius queunt ad rem tanturn necessaria parari nee per coelorum cursus debet prius illud iter inchoari ; oportet quippe tune versus Equinoctium vela dirigere quando Sol," &c.
I " Despues de muchas dificultades partio Sebastian Gaboto a los primeros de Abril de este ano, (1526,) &c. Fue navegando a las Canarias y a las Islas de Cabo Verde, y despues al Cabo de San Agustin." Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.
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Cabot actually pursued, the latter would only be found, in avoiding the Cape de Verds, opening a path which is more gene rally followed in modern times. Take it either way, the im pudence and absurdity of the cavil are palpable. Yet note the manner in which an English writer of reputation has caught it up.*
" Cabot's conduct in this voyage did not give satisfaction, and was thought unequal to the high reputation he had acquired. The Spanish writers say of him (!) that he was a better cosmo- grapher than a mariner or commander."
Wearied as the reader may be, we must advert to another sneer of this Portuguese. In ascending the La Plata, Cabot proceeded with deliberation, examining carefully the country, and opening a communication with the different tribes on its banks. This was of course a work of time as well as of labour and peril. When Garcia arrived, he proceeded hastily up the river, and boasts that " in 26 days he advanced as far as Sebastian Cabot had done in many months"-^ The folly of this idle vaunt has not deterred Herrera from making it a part of the History of the Indies ; and it has found a ready place with English writers.
We might, indeed, be almost led to believe in a concerted plan, on the part of his countrymen, to defame this great navigator were not the causes of misconception obvious. To some the perfidious translation of Stevens has prqved a snare, and the few who proceeded further have been led, by an imperfect knowledge of the language, to catch at certain leading words and phrases, readily intelligible, and thus to present them apart from the con text which, in the original, renders the calumny harmless and even ridiculous.
* " A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, &c. By James Burney, Captain in the Royal Navy," vol. i. p. 162. t Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.
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CHAP. XX.
CABOT ENTERS THE LA PLATA NECESSITY FOR CAUTION HIS PREDECESSOR
AS PILOT-MAJOR KILLED IN ATTEMPTING TO EXPLORE THAT RIVER —
CARRIES THE ISLAND OF ST. GABRIEL HIS PROGRESS TO ST. SALVADOR
WHERE A FORT IS ERECTED ITS POSITION LOSS IN TAKING POSSESSION.
CABOT was left in the neighbourhood of the La Plata at the moment when, by a determined effort, he shook to air the mutiny that sought to fasten on him.
It is plain, that after expelling the three individuals who, in the event of his death, were named, in succession, to the com mand in chief, he would not have been justified in proceeding, with the Squadron which the Emperor had confided to him, on the long and perilous voyage originally contemplated. He deter mined, therefore, to put into the La Plata and send advice of what had occurred. His predecessor in the office of Pilot-Major, Diego de Solis, had been slain in attempting to explore this river ; Cabot now resolved to renew the experiment.
An additional reason for postponing, until further orders, the prosecution of the enterprise was the loss, by shipwreck, of one of the vessels. This fact is mentioned by Richard Eden, (Decades, fol. 316,) who has a chapter on the region of the La Plata in which he adverts to the expedition, in terms* that bespeak the reports conveyed to England, probably, by Robert Thorne, then at Seville, and his two friends who were engaged in it. He states the loss of the vessel, and that " the men that saved their lyves by swymmynge were receaved into the other shyppes."
* " The Emperoure's Majestic and Kynge of Spayne Charles the fifte, sente forthe Sebastian Cabot (a man of great courage and sky] full in Cosmographie, and of no lesse experience as concernynge the starres and the sea) with com mandment," &c.
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It is the more necessary to understand the considerations by which Cabot was influenced, as in a recent work, (Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 89,) the following strange assertion is found amidst a tissue of errors : " On touching at the mouth of the river in which Solis had lost his life, Cabot found two Spaniards who had deserted from that Commander, besides fifteen other stragglers from subsequent expeditions. All these men concurred in representing the country up the river as singularly rich in the precious metals, and easily persuaded Cabot to proceed in that direction !" Not the slightest allusion is made to the mutiny, or to the loss of one of the vessels. Thus, an Officer in command of the Emperor's squadron with specific orders, and under bond, moreover, to the merchants of Seville, is represented as abandoning his duty and becoming an easy dupe to the idle stories of some runaways !
At this point we have again to deplore the loss of Cabot's Maps. One of them described his course up the La Plata, and would seem to have been made public, for Eden (Decades, fol. 316) says, " From the mouth of the river, Cabot sayled up the same into the lande for the space of three hundreth and fiftie leagues, as he wryteth in his own Carde." This statement is the more important, as the extent of his progress has been singularly misrepresented.
In the Conversation reported by Ramusio, and usually con nected with the name of Butrigarius the Pope's legate, Cabot is made to say that he sailed up the La Plata more than six hundred leagues.* This is the passage, it may be remembered, which the Biographic Universelle could not find in Ramusio. Eden correctly translates it, (Decades, fol. 255,) but Hakluyt, who adopts his version with anxious servility, up to this point, has " more than six score leagues" ! (vol. iii. p. 7,) thus furnishing a new proof of his utter faithlessness. The exaggeration of the
* " Et andai all' inau per quello piu de secento leyhe." Ramusio, torn. i. fol. 415.
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original, as honestly given by Eden, prepares us for Ramusio's remark, to which reference has already been made, that he could not pretend to trust his memory about the exact terms of the Con versation. Hakluyt, by an arbitrary and absurd reduction, not only obscures this presumptive evidence of general error, but leads us to infer — as such matters are usually over-rated — that, in point of fact, Cabot did not proceed so far. It will appear, presently, that there was no exaggeration in the statement of the " Card."
The career on which Cabot was now entering demanded cir cumspection as well as courage. De Solis with a party of fifty men had been fiercely assailed and cut off, the bodies of himself and his companions devoured by the ferocious natives, and the survivors of the expedition, who witnessed the scene from the ships, had left the river in dismay, and returned to Spain writh the horrid news.* In accompanying Cabot we take Herrera as our principal guide, (Dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii.) Running boldly up the river, which is to this day the dread of navigators, he reached a small island about half a league from the Northern shore, nearly opposite the present Buenos Ayres, and gave to it the name of Gabriel, which it yet bears. It is a short distance from Martin Garcia's island, so called after the Pilot of De Solis who was buried there, (Eden Decades, fol.316.) The natives had collected and made a very formidable show of resistance, but Cabot, accord ing to Eden, " without respect of peril, thought best to expugne it by one meanes or other, wherein his boldness tooke good effecte as oftentymes chaunceth in great affayres." (Eden, fol. 316.)
At this island Cabot left his ships, and proceeding seven leagues further in boats, reached a river, to which he gave the name of St. Salvador. As it offered a safe and commodious harbour, he returned and brought up the ships, but was obliged to lighten them at the entrance of the river. Here he erected a Fort.
* Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. i. cap. vii. Peter Martyr, Dec. iii. cap. x. Go- marra, cap. Ixxxix. " Lo mataron ; i comieron con todos las Espanoles que saco, i aun quebraron el batel. Los otros que de los Navios miraban, alcaron anclas i velas, sin osar tornar venganca de la muerte de su Capitan."
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It is obvious, on looking at a map of this reign, and comparing it with the statement of Herrera, that the river spoken of might be either the Uruguay, which, on the right, takes a northern direc tion, or one of the various streams into which the Parana is broken by the islands at its mouth. Cabot would hardly follow the Uruguay, because it evidently struck into Brasil, and, at a much higher point of ascent, he is found avoiding, expressly for that reason, a great river on the right hand. In speaking of the posi tion occupied by his ships he states it, according to Herrera, to be on the Brasil, meaning the northern side of the river, a mode of designation, which, supposing him, as we reasonably may, to have been aware of the general course of the great stream discovered by De Solis, would not distinguish any position up the Uruguay, both sides of which were equally within that region, according to the distribution with reference to which he spoke. But the posi tion of St. Salvador is conclusively settled by information from another quarter. In Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 729,) is "a Ruttier for The River Plate." The pilot who prepared it gives the various methods of striking the mouths of the Parana in proceeding from the island of Martin Garcia. A caution is interposed — " and if you fall into the mouth of the river which is called the Uruay you must leave it on the right hand." He adds that all the mouths of the Parana, which are five in number, have their eastern ter mination infested with shoals for an extent of more than* two leagues. Describing one of the routes more particularly, he says, " From the isle of Martin Garcia unto St. Salvador is nine or ten leagues. This is an island which stand eth two leagues within the first mouth, where Sebastian Caboto took possession." The pilot, it will be seen, gives the name of St. Salvador, not to the river, but to a port. Cabot himself does the same, for in describing the assault finally made on the upper fort by the natives, he speaks of a similar attack on the port of St. Salvador, where the ships lay.* It seems certain, then, that the first position fortified by
* " Lo mesmo hizieron de la poblacion que avian hecho en el puerto que llaman de S. Salvador adonde estaban los navios." (Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi.)
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Cabot was in the most northern mouth of the Parana, on an island about two leagues from where it reaches the La Plata. On the map of Louis Stanislaus d'Arcy de la Rochette,* this most northern avenue is divided into two parts, the upper of which is designated as " Rio Paca," and the lower, that issues into the La Plata, as " Rio Naranjos." St. Salvador was, of course, situated on the latter, or perhaps on the stream next in order to the south which also communicates with the Rio Paca and thus forms with the Rio Naranjos a considerable delta. In a Memoir drawn up by Lopez Vaz, a Portuguese, and taken with the author by the fleet sent forth in 1586 by the Earl of Cumberland, the fort where Cabot left his ships is said to be then standing. Its distance from the sea is, however, misstated either by him or the translator. (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 788.)
It is desirable to fix this first point of occupation, not only as a matter curious in itself, but because Charlevoix, (Histoire du Paraguay, torn. i. p. 27,) with his usual wild inaccuracy, would throw the whole subject into confusion. He represents Cabot to have finally left the ships at the island of St. Gabriel, and pro ceeded in boats up the Uruguay, by mistake, and he imagines two reasons why such a blunder was committed. He doos not even allow the Uruguay to have been the St. Salvador, but makes it one of the tributaries of that river a considerable distance up the stream.
In order to avoid the tedious interruption of the narrative, one other probable misconception was not adverted to at the moment.
* " Colombia prima or South America, in which it has been attempted to delineate the extent of our knowledge of that continent, extracted chiefly from the original manuscript Maps of His Excellency, the late Chevalier Pinto ; like wise from those of Joao Joaquim da Rocha, Joao da Costa Ferreira, El Padre Francisco Manuel Sobreviela, &c. And from the most authentic edited accounts of those countries. Digested and constructed by the late eminent and learned Geographer, Louis Stanislas D'Arcy de la Rochette. London, published by William Faden, Geographer to His Majesty and to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, June 4th, 1807." This Map is in the Topographical Depart ment of the King's Library, British Museum.
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It has been assumed, with Herrera, that Cabot left his vessels at the island of St. Gabriel, and proceeded thence in boats. More pro bably, however, the island of Martin Garcia was the one intended. Eden says expressly, (fol. 316,) that De Solis was killed in at tempting to take possession of the island of Martin Garcia, and that it was the same afterwards carried by Cabot. We must bear in mind that Herrera is giving, somewhat loftily and reluctantly, the details of an expedition to which he attaches little importance, and he might not care for minute accuracy. He saw the name of Gabriel conferred by Cabot, and did not choose, perhaps, to occupy the page of his History with describing the further pro gress of six leagues before the ships were quitted. The account of Eden, who approached the subject in a different temper, is confirmed by other considerations. The island is spoken of by Herrera as one standing by itself. Now the St. Gabriel is a group of small islets, correctly stated in the "Ruttier" to be five in number. But still more conclusively : Cabot's report, as given by Herrera, states that seven leagues from the island at which he left his ships, he came to the mouth of a river, which he called St. Salvador, and to which he afterwards brought up his ships. Now the " Ruttier" speaks of the position at St. Salvador, as nine leagues in all from the island of Martin Garcia, two of which being up the St. Salvador, there is, of course, an exact correspondence. The St. Gabriel group, on the contrary, is correctly stated in the " Ruttier" to lie six leagues lower down than the island of Martin Garcia. While the statement of Eden produces greater harmony in the accounts, the position of the fort is not contingent on success in this reconciliation, but seems conclusively settled by the language of the " Ruttier."
An incident is mentioned by Gomarra,* but without the atten dant circumstances, as occurring at this point, from which it would
* Gomarra, cap. Ixxxix. " En el puerto de San Salvador que es otro Rio quarenta Icguas arriba, que entra en el de la Plata, le mataron los Indies dos Espanoles i no los quisieron comer diciendo que eran Soldados que ia los havian probado en Solis i sus compafieros."
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appear that the position was not gained without resistance. The natives killed and carried off two Spaniards, but declared, in a spirit of fierce derision, that they would not eat them, as they were soldiers, of whose flesh they had already had a specimen in De Soils and his followers !
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CHAP. XXI.
CABOT PROCEEDS UP THE PARANA ERECTS ANOTHER FORT CALLED SANTUS
SPIRITUS, AND AFTERWARDS FORT CABOT ITS POSITION CONTINUES TO
ASCEND— CURIOSITY OF THE NATIVES AS TO THE EXPEDITION PASSES
THE MOUTH OF THE PARANA ENTERS THE PARAGUAY SANGUINARY
BATTLE THIRTY-FOUR LEAGUES UP THAT RIVER THREE HUNDRED OF
THE NATIVES KILLED, WITH A LOSS TO CABOT OF TWENTY -FIVE OF HIS PARTY MAINTAINS HIS POSITION GARCIA ENTERS THE RIVER INTER VIEW WITH CABOT MISTAKES OF CHARLEVOIX, &C. CABOT RETURNS TO
THE FORT "SANTUS SPIRITUS."
HAVING completed the Fort, and taken every precaution for the safety of the ships at St. Salvador, Cabot resolved to ascend the Parana. Leaving, therefore, a party under the command of Antonio de Grajeda, he proceeded in the boats and a caravel cut down for the purpose. The point at which he next paused, and built a second Fort, is not a matter of doubt. It was on the south bank of the Parana, near a river called by the natives Zarcaranna or Carcaranna. This name was subsequently changed by the Spaniards into Terceiro. On the map of De la Rochette, already referred to, and also on that of Juan de la Cruz Canoy Olmedilla,* it is designated at the early stages as Terceiro, but lower down, gathering strength, it reassumes the aboriginal
* " Mapa Geografica de America Meridional dispuesto y gravado por de Juan de la Cruz Canoy Olmedilla, Geogf°- Pensdo- de S. M. Individuo de la Rl. Aca- demia de Sn. Fernando, y de la Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del Pais ; teniendo presentes varios raapas y noticias originales con arreglo a observaciones astronomicas Ano de 1775. Este Mapa de los Dorainios Espanoles y Por tugueses en America Meredional, es una copia literal y exacta de un Mapa Espanol mui raro ; compuesto y gravado en Madrid, ano 1775, de orden del Key Espana, por Dn« Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, Geofo- Pedo- de S. M. C. Londres Publicardo por Guillermo Faden, Geografo del Rey, y del Principe de Gales, Enero 1. de 1799."
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title. The Fort stood not immediately on the bank of this river but some miles further up the Parana, as appears by the earliest maps, and by the small but admirable one of D'An- ville, in vol. xxi. of the " Lettres, Edifiantes et curieuses."* On the great map of De la Rochette its position is marked with much precision. There is laid down the " Cart Road" from Buenos Ay res to Sante Fe, which passes through El Rosario and S. Mi guel; then comes " el Rincon de Caboto, Fort destroyed;" then Calcachi, and, a little beyond this last, the river Monge. The same representation is made, substantially, by Juan de la Cruz Canay Olmedilla. The only remark of Cabot with regard to the natives of this quarter which Herrera repeats is, that they were intelligent (" gente de buena razon.")
He left in this fort a garrison under the command of Gregorio Caro, who had commanded the Maria del Espinar one of the ships of the squadron, and proceeded in person further up the river. His force must now have been inconsiderable, consisting, as it did, originally, of only one hundred and fifty men, increased perhaps by the gentlemen volunteers. Besides the loss of three principal officers, and inevitable mortality, he had weakened his numbers by leaving garrisons in two forts. Yet his plan was, un doubtedly, a prudent one of thus forming points on which he could fall back, in case of disaster, and break the force and rapidity of a rush towards the vessels. Herrera furnishes no account of his intermediate movements until he reaches the Parana. The inci dents which occurred during that long and interesting route are therefore unknown, except from a slight glimpse given in the Con versation reported in Ramusio. In ascending the river, Cabot is there represented as " fyndynge it every where verye fayre and inhabited with infinite people which with ad my ration came runn- ynge dayly to oure shyppes."f
* " Lettres Edifiantes et curieuses ecrites des Missions Etrangers par quel- ques Missionaires de la Campagnie de Jesus." The work is in. the King's Library, British Museum, (title in Catalogue Epistola.}
t Richard Eden's Decades, fol. 255. The original in Ramusio, torn. i. fol.
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On reaching the junction of the Parana and Paraguay, he saw that the direction of the former was to Brasil, and, therefore, leaving it on his right he ascended thirty-four leagues up the other.
The region on which he was now entering presented a new aspect. For the first time, the natives were found engaged in the cultivation of the soil, and, with the feeling that springs from exclusive property, they regarded the strangers with jealousy. The tribes in this quarter are marked, both on the old and the recent maps, as distinguished for ferocity and as the deadliest enemies of the Spaniards and Portuguese. A collision soon took place. Three of Cabot's men having, incautiously, strayed from the main body to gather the fruit of the palm tree, were seized by the natives. There followed a fierce and very sanguinary battle. Three hundred of the natives were killed, and Cabot lost twenty-five of his party.5* He would seem to have maintained his position, for, among the incidents occurring below, to which it is time to turn, we find the commander of the lower fort apprised, by letter, of what had taken place.
The Portuguese Diego Garcia now re-appears in the narrative of Herrera. That personage, who had left Spain in August 1526, after touching at the Canaries and Cape de Verds proceeded to the coast of Brasil, and is found in January 1527-f- at the Abrol- hos shoals. He visits the Bay of All Saints, the Island of Patos, (now St. Catherine) all places at which Cabot had touched, and finally the La Plata. We are now without dates, except that in ascending the river Good Friday is mentioned as the day of his departure from Santus Spiritus.J Of his previous history no thing is known, except from the anecdote told by Herrera of the fraud on his employers in hiring the principal vessel to the slave- dealer at Cape Vincent. We might charitably conclude that he
415. " Trovandolo sempre bellissimo et habitato da infiniti popoli che per maraviglia correvano a vedermi."
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i. -f lb., Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i,
I Ib., Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.
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was looking for Juan de Cartagena and the French priest ; but, unfortunately for his fair fame, those persons were put on shore by Magellan, at Port St. Julien, in Patagonia, some fifteen de grees to the southward of the La Plata.
He found the ships of Cabot at St. Salvador, as we left them, under the charge of Antonio de Grajeda, whose anxious vigilance was increased by a letter just received from Cabot, announcing the bloody affair above, and probably sent down with the wounded. Grajeda, seeing strangers approach, supposed that they were the mutineers whom Cabot had put on shore, the two brothers Roxas and Martin Mendez.* Under this impression, he manned his boats, and proceeded in force against them. At the moment of collision, Diego Garcia caused himself to be recognized, and the parties returned amicably together to St. Salvador. Garcia here sent away his ship to fulfil the contract about the slaves, and brought his remaining small vessels to St. Salvador, which was found, on examination, to offer the most secure harbour. Proceed ing up the river with two brigantines and sixty men, he reached the Fort of Santus Spirit us, and required the commander, Gre- gorio Caro, to surrender it, as the right of discovery belonged not to Cabot, but to himself, under the orders of the Emperor. The answer of Caro was, that he held the Fort in the name of the Emperor and of Sebastian Cabot ; but that he was willing to ren der it useful, in any way, to the new-comers. He begged, as a favour, of Garcia that if, on ascending the river, he found that any of the Spaniards had been taken, he would use his efforts to ran som them, " because although he knew that Cabot had defeated the Indians, yet it was impossible but that some must have been
* Here occurs the expression from which it is inferred, that the two mutineers whose names are so nearly alike were brothers, " vieron dos naos de Sebastian Gaboto cuio Teniente era Anton de Grajeda que salio con ciertos Canoas i un Batel armados pensando que eran los dos Hermanns R&xas i Martin Mendez, que iban contra el porque Sebastian Gaboto, por inquietos, los havia dexado en una isla desterrados entre los Indies. " Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.
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taken."* It is plain, from these expressions, that Cabot was known to have made good his stand. Caro personally pledged himself to the repayment of whatever Garcia might find it necessary to advance in the way of ransom; and he begged, if Cabot had fallen that Garcia would not leave them in that country.f
On arriving at the junction of the Parana and Paraguay, Garcia, instead of proceeding to support Cabot, turned into the former river, about which he makes a report that Herrera declines to insert, as Nunez Cabeca de Vaca had subsequently examined it with greater care. At length, he reached the Port of Santa Anaj the name given by Cabot to his last position. Herrera, al though not accurate as to distances, determines the place of meeting, by stating it to have been where the Indians had killed twenty-five Spaniards; and having his own authority for fixing that point thirty-four leagues up the Paraguay, we may suppose that Cabot, after chastising the natives, had come to a good understanding with them. He was employed, as we shall here after have reason to conclude, in diligently collecting information about the region from which had been brought the precious metals that he saw in this quarter.
Of the circumstances attending the interview at Santa Ana nothing is known ; but Garcia, doubtless, repeated the remon strance which he had addressed to the commander of the fort. It was not in the character of Cabot, or consistent with his standing in Spain, to struggle for lawless, or even doubtful, power, and he descended the river in company with Garcia.
In the absence of any evidence as to these points, imagination has been drawn upon. Charlevoix, as has been already stated, supposes Garcia to have been sent into the La Plata by the Cap tain-General of Brasilj thus betraying an entire ignorance of the
* " Porque aunque sabia que Sebastian Gaboto havia dcsbaratado los Indios era imposible que no huviesen peligrado algunos." Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.
t " Que si hallase muerto a Sebastian Gaboto le rogaba que no los dexasse alii." Ib.
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precise statement of Herrera, and of the fact that there was no such officer as he speaks of, until many years after. To suit this main fiction, he fabricates a series of collateral incidents equally unfounded and ridiculous.^
* " Gabot vit arriver a son Camp un capitaine Portugais nomine Diegue Garcias lequel avoit ete envoie par le Capitaine General de Bresil pour recon noitre le pa'is et en prendre possession au nom de la Couronne de Portugal mais qui n'avoit pas assez de monde pour executer sa Commission malgre les Espagnols, qu'il ne s'etoit pas attendu de trouver en si grande nombre sur les bords du Paraguay. Gabot de son cote fit reflexion qu'il ne pourroit jamais empecher les Portugais de se rendre maitres du pays si ils y revenoient avec des forces superieures que la proximite du Bresil leur donnoit le mo'ien d'y faire entrer en peu de terns ; sur quoi il prit le parti de faire guelques presens a Gar cias pour I'engager a le suivre au Fort du S. Esprit. II y reussit !" &c. &c.
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CHAP. XXII.
CABOT'S REPORT TO CHARLES v. — ITS PRESUMED CONTENTS — PROSPECT WHICH
IT HELD OUT — PERU CONTEMPLATED IN HIS ORIGINAL PLAN OF 1524
SPECIMENS FOUND BY CABOT OF THE PRECIOUS METALS OBTAINED THENCE
BY THE GUARANIS EMPEROR RESOLVES ON A GREAT EXPEDITION HIS
PECUNIARY EMBARRASSMENTS P1ZARRO OFFERS TO MAKE THE CONQUEST
OF PERU AT HIS OWN EXPENSE REFLECTIONS THE NAME RIO DE LA
PLATA NOT CONFERRED BY CABOT—MISREPRESENTATION ON THIS AND OTHER POINTS.
ON returning to the Fort of Santtis Spiritus, Cabot made arrange ments to convey to the Emperor intelligence of his discoveries. He prepared, also, a comprehensive statement of the incidents which had occurred since he left Seville, and of the circumstances which compelled him to abandon the expedition originally con templated. This report is referred to by Herrera ;* but while all the calumnies of Cabot's enemies are repeated, he furnishes, as has been before remarked, no part of the vindication which must have been conclusive. This document is probably yet in existence amongst the archives of Spain.
The bearers of the communication were Hernando Calderon, and an individual designated by Herrera in one place as Jorge Barlo, and in another as Jorge Barloque, conjectured to have been one of the two English gentlemen, friends of Thome, who accompanied the expedition, and whose name, probably George Barlow, has undergone a slighter transformation than might have been anticipated.
Of the hopes and prospects which this communication held out we are ignorant ; and only know that the Emperor resolved to fit
* Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.
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out a great expedition, but that the execution of his intention was unfortunately too long delayed.
It may well be imagined that the expectations of Cabot had been raised to a high pitch, and that he eagerly solicited permis sion and means to follow up the enterprise. He had reached the waters which, rising in Potosi, fall into the Paraguay, and had, doubtless, ascertained the quarter to which the natives were in debted for those ornaments of the precious metals which he saw about their persons. Even from the fort on the Parana, the ob stacles between him and Peru present no very formidable difficulty to the modern traveller. That he had his eye on that empire, the riches of which Pizarro was enabled, a few years afterwards, to reach by a different route, may be inferred from the care with which he is found collecting information, and the obvious facilities which they disclose. In an abstract given by Herrera of Ca bot's final report to the emperor, there occur the following pas sages : —
" The principal tribe of Indians in that region are the Guaranis, a people war like, treacherous, and arrogant, who give the appellation of slaves to all who speak a different language/' " In the time of Guynacapa, King of Peru, father of Atabilipa, these people made an irruption into his dominions, which extend more than five hundred leagues, and reached Peru, and after a most destructive progress, returned home in triumph," &c. " Cabot negotiated a peace with this tribe. By friendly intercourse he came to learn many secrets of the coun try, and procured from them gold and silver which they had brought from Peru," &c.*
It had been a part of Cabot's original plan, as stated by Peter
* " La relacion que hiyo al Key fue que la mas principal generacion de Indies de aquella tierra son los Guaranis, gente guerrera, traydora y sobervia, y que llaman esclavos a todos los que no son de su lengua." Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi. " Entiempo de Guaynacapa, Rey de el Peru Padre de Atabilipa, salieron grandes companias y caminando por todos las tierras de su nacion, que se estenden mas de quinientas leguas llegaron a tierra del Peru y despues de aver hecho grandes destruyciones se bolvieron vitoriosos a su naturalega." — Ib. " Y haviendo hecho Sebastian Goboto la Paz con esta generacion, &c. con el amitad destos supo muchos secretes de la tierra y huvo de ellos oro y plata de la que traian del Peru,"
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Martyr, to visit the western coast of America ; " Having passed the winding Strait of Magellan, he is to direct his course to the right hand in the rear of our supposed Continent." " He will scour along all the South side of our supposed Continent, and arrive at the Colonies of Panama and Nata erected on those shores, the bounds of the Golden Castile, and whosoever at that time shall be governor of that province called Golden Castile is to give us intelligence of his success."* Cabot now found him self within striking distance of these regions, and the intelligence received quickened his eagerness to reach them. The intervening obstacles were nothing to his restless activity and indomitable spirit, and the opposition to be encountered not worth a thought when he knew that a war-party of the savages, whom his own little band had so severely chastised, were able to overrun the Empire of Peru and carry off its treasures.
But however well disposed the Emperor might be to yield a ready belief to the representations of Cabot, the means were absolutely wanting to furnish the promised aid. The only key to this part of the history of Charles V., is a recollection of his struggles with pecuniary embarrassment. The soldiers of Bour bon had mutinied for want of pay, and were brought back to duty only by the great personal exertions and influence of their chief, and by the hope of plunder ; and even after the sack of Rome, they refused to quit that city until the arrears due to them should be discharged, " a condition," says Dr. Robertson,f " which they knew to be impossible." During the very year in which Cabot's messengers arrived, the Cortes had refused the grant of money solicited by the Emperor. J We have already had occasion to advert to the mortgage of the Moluccas to Portugal in 1529, as security for a loan, to the infinite chagrin of his Castilian subjects. Pizarro had the advantage of being able to employ personal importunity, and he asked no money.
* Peter Martyr, Dec. vii. cap. vi. t Life of Charles V., book v. Jib.
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On 26th July 1528, the Emperor yielded to that adventurer a grant of the entire range of coast, which it had been part of Cabot's plan of 1524 to visit. At his own expense Pizarro en gaged to raise a large force, " and to provide the ships, arms, and warlike stores requisite, towards subjecting to the Crown of Castile the country of which the government was allotted to him."* He proceeded at once to the task, though it was not until February 1531 that he was enabled to set out from Panama on his successful, but infamous, career.
It were idle to indulge the imagination, in speculating on the probable result had the expedition to Peru been conducted by Cabot. With all the better qualities of Pizarro, it is certain that the very elevation of his moral character must have stood in the way of that rapid desolation, and fierce exaction, which have made the downfal of the Peruvian Empire a subject of vulgar admiration. In following Pizarro, the heart sickens at a tissue of cruelty, fraud, treachery, and cold-blooded murder, unrelieved even by the presence of great danger, for after the resistance at the island of Puna, which detained him for six months, no se rious obstacles were encountered. Even the Guaranis, who had achieved an easy conquest over the unwarlike Peruvians, in the preceding reign, were guiltless of the atrocities which marked his progress. Of one thing we may be certain. Had the conquest fallen to the lot of Cabot, the blackest page of the History of Spanish America would have been spared. The murder of the Inca to gratify the pique of an illiterate f ruffian, forms one of the
* Robertson's History of America, book vi.
f " Among all the European Arts, what he admired most was that of read ing and writing ; and he long deliberated with himself, whether he should regard it as a natural or acquired talent. In order to determine this, he de sired one of the soldiers, who guarded him, to write the name of God on the nail of his thumb. This he shewed successively to several Spaniards, asking its meaning ; and to his amazement, they all, without hesitation, returned the same answer. At length Pizarro entered ; and on presenting it to him, he blushed, and with some confusion was obliged to acknowledge his ignorance. From that moment, Atahualpa considered him as a mean person, less instructed
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most horrid images of History. It was no less impolitic than atrocious, and roused the indignation even of the desperadoes who accompanied Pizarro. The career of Cabot who, at the Council Board of the Indies, had been a party to the order forbidding even the abduction of a Native, could not have been stained by crimes which make us turn with horror from the guilty splendour of the page that records them.
Reverting to the Despatch of Cabot to the Emperor, it remains to notice a charge against him of having conferred the name Rio de La Plata, or River of Silver, with a view to colour his failure, and to encourage deceptive hopes. Now Gomara, who wrote half a century before Herrera, tells us expressly that this designa tion was given by the original discoverer, De Solis. (cap. Ixxxix.)
" Topo con un grandissimo Rio que los Natuiales llaman Paranagua£a, que quiere decir Rio como Mar o Agua grande ; vido en el muestra de Plata, t nombrolo de ella." (" He fell in with an immense river which the natives called Paranayuaca, that is to say, a river like the sea or great water ; he saw in it specimens of silver, and named it from t/tat circumstance.")
Thus in a work dedicated to the Emperor, we find the origin of that name which Cabot is represented to have fraudently con ferred so long afterwards for the purpose of misleading him !
The same statement is made by Lopez Vaz, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 788,) " The first Spaniard that entered this river and inha bited the same, was called Solis, who passed up a hundred leagues into it, and called it by the name of Rio de La Plata, that is'to say. The River of Silver."
Herrera gives a somewhat different account. In the chapter devoted to Garcia's expedition, he says, after speaking of the pre cious metals obtained by Cabot,
" Tambien Diego Garcia huvo alguna cantidad de Plata de los Indies, desde
than his own soldiers ; and he had not address enough to conceal the senti ments with which this discovery inspired him. To be the object of a barba rian's scorn, not only mortified the pride of Pizarro, but excited such resentment in his breast, as added force to all the other considerations whicli prompted him to put the Tnca to death." (Robertson's Hist. America.)
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donde se llaino este Rio de la Plata porque fue la primera que se traxo a Cas- tilla de las Indios, i era de la que los Indios Guaranis traian en planchas i otras pie£as grandes de las Provincias del Peru."*
Let us, then, for a moment, suppose Gomara and Lopez Vaz in error ; and further, that the title was not a device of Garcia who was struggling to connect himself ostentatiously with this region — who boasts of his superior activity in exploring it — and with whose name, previously rendered infamous, Herrera more immediately associates the appellation. After all these conces sions it would then appear that the epithet was one popularly ap plied, (like Brazil, the Spice Islands, the Sugar Islands, &c.) from the article, — the Silver of Potosi, — which had been brought thence and attracted general attention and interest. There is not the least reason to suppose that it was conferred by Cabot, or that he concealed the quarter whence the treasure came — a fact which Herrera is found correctly stating from his Report. That docu ment was doubtless full and explicit ; giving a prominent place to the hopes which had been excited, but with a statement, also, of the great fertility of the country, its healthy climate, and general advantages for colonization, aside from the avenue it offered to those regions of the precious metals embraced in the plan of 1524.
But while of the Spanish writers, evil-disposed as they are to Cabot, no one has ventured to put forth any such charge of de ception, his own countrymen have exhibited an eager anxiety to fasten on him the odious accusation. Two specimens may suffice : —
" Cabot, in the mean time, contrived to send home to the Emperor an account of his proceedings ; and as he had found among the savages of the interior some ornaments of gold and silver, which he easily obtained in exchange for
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i. " Diego Garcia also obtained some por tion of silver from the Indians, whence it was called Rio de La Plata, or River of Silver, because this was the first of that metal brought to Spain from the Indies, and it was part of that which the Guaranis Indians obtained in plates and other large pieces from the Provinces of Peru."
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various trinkets, he took advantage of this slender circumstance to represent the country as abounding in those metals ; and in conformity with his descrip tion, he gave the river the name of La Plata."*
" Juan Dias de Solis had discovered a prodigious river to which he gave his own name, and where he was killed and eaten by an ambush of savages. In 1525, [this error has already been exposed] Cabot, following the tract of Magalhaens, arrived at the same stream, and explored it as high as the Para guay. A little gold and silver, which had been obtained from the natives, raised his opinion of the importance of the country; the river was named Rio de la Plata, and many an adventurer was lured to his destruction by this deceptive title. "\
It is scarcely necessary to add that the statement that Cabot was "sent to the coast of Brasil, where he made the important discovery of the Rio de la Plata/*J advances for him an unfounded claim. Some difference of opinion exists as to the time of the discovery by De Solis. Herrera, in the " Description de las Indias Occidentals," (cap. xxiv.) prefixed to his History, says, " Juan Diaz de Solis descubrio el Rio de la Plata aflo de 1515 i Sebas tian Gaboto Ingles iendo con armada por orden del Emperador," 8cc. (" Juan Diaz de Solis discovered the Rio de la Plata, and Sebastian Cabot, an Englishman, proceeding afterwards with a squadron by order of the Emperor," &c.) According to some ac counts, the discovery of De Solis took place a few years before the date here mentioned ; but no doubt exists as to the fact of an antecedent visit by him. It is not necessary to inquire here into the yet earlier claims of others.
* Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 89.
f Quarterly Review, vol. iv. p. 459-
J Historical Account of Discoveries, &c. by Hugh Murray, Esq. (Vol. i. p. 65.) The same idle assertion is made by Mr. Barrow, in the Chronological History of Voyages, &c. p. 35.
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CHAP. XXIII.
CABOT'S RESIDENCE IN THE LA PLATA — SUBJECTION OF REMOTE TRIBES —
CLAIMS OF SPAIN RESTED ON THIS EXPEDITION TREATY WITH THE
GUARANIS DETAILED REPORT TO THE EMPEROR AS TO THE PRODUC TIONS, ETC. OF t THE COUNTRY MISCONDUCT OF THE FOLLOWERS OF
GARCIA LEADS TO A GENERAL ATTACK FROM THE NATIVES RETURN
TO SPAIN.
CABOT'S residence in the La Plata, though measured tediously by hope deferred, and finally blasted, was not passed inactively. The small force which remained, after one of the vessels had been despatched to Europe, might be supposed insufficient to en able him to maintain his position ; yet it is certain that his ope rations were of a very bold and adventurous character. He seems to have pushed his researches as far as could be done without quitting the waters which enabled him to be promptly advised of the arrival of the expected reinforcement.
Of these operations we are left to gather the extent rather from circumstances than any direct information afforded by the Spanish historians. In a Memoir prepared by the Court of Spain, to resist the pretensions of Portugal, in this quarter, it is made the leading argument, after an enumeration of a vast number of tribes, that Sebastian Cabot erected forts in the country, administered justice there in civil and criminal cases, and reduced all these Nations under the obedience of the Emperor.*
It is impossible not to be struck by the reflection which this
* Hen-era, Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap- xi. " Que Sebastian Gaboto avia edificado en aquellas tierras fortalezas y exercitado justicia civil y criminal y traido a la obediencia Real todas las sobredichas generaciones."
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passage suggests, as to what may almost be termed the ubiquity of this adventurous and indefatigable seaman in the new world. While England has rested her claim at one extremity of it, and Spain at the other, on the personal agency of the same Native of Bristol, we have an assurance that he was found at the interme diate point, with a party of Englishmen, on the first visit of the individual whose name now overspreads the whole.
Some of the tribes referred to are named in the following pas sage of Herrera — •
" The Guaranis occupy the islands. The principal nations are the C/iarruas and the Quirondis. On a river on the left-hand are the Carcaras, and yet fur ther up the Trimbus the Ourundas and Camis. Yet higher are the Quilbasas, Calchines, and Chanas who are savages. After these come the Mecoretas and the Mepenes, who continue for an extent of 100 leagues. Beyond these are twenty-seven nations of different appellations, and languages and customs almost dissimilar, the names of which are omitted for fear of being tedious (" Que por no darmolestia se dexan de nombrar."*)
The incursion of the Guaranis into Peru, has been adverted to. On their return, some of the fierce invaders lingered on the way and permanently occupied the mountains, whence they annoyed the CharcaSy. their mode of warfare being to make night attacks, and after sweeping every thing before them, to retire to their fast nesses quite secure from pursuit. The Nation subjected to these vexatious attacks is found to occupy the same position on the modern maps.
As no supplies were received from Spain, subsistence must have been drawn from the labours of the party. Experiments were made on the fertility of the soil and the results carefully noted.f Cabot's final report to the Emperor described, with great minuteness, the various productions of that region, and spoke also of the wonderful increase of the hogs, horses, &c. brought out from Spain.J This Memoir would be, even at the present day, highly curious and interesting. It is, doubtless, preserved in
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi.
f Gomarra, cap. Ixxxix. Eden, fol. 255, and again, foi. 317.
\ A brief abstract is found in Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi.
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Spain, and there was probably a copy of it amongst the papers left with Worthington,
In the midst of his labours the same evil spirit which had pur sued him to the La Plata was preparing a final blow. The Por tuguese, Diego Garcia, would seem to have quitted the country immediately, with the specimens he had obtained of the precious metals, but he left behind a party of his followers. These men were guilty of some act which roused the wildest resentment of the Guaranis with whom Cabot had made a treaty. It is ex pressly declared that the latter had no concern with the cause of exasperation,5^ but the vengeance of this fierce and sanguinary people made no distinction, and it was determined to sacrifice every white man in the country. Secret meetings were held, and a plan of action deliberately concerted.
A little before day-break the whole nation burst upon the feeble garrison of Santus Spiritus. It was carried, and the other position, at St. Salvador, furiously assaulted. We have no particulars, but know that Cabot must have repelled the shock, for he was enabled to prepare for sea and to put on board the requisite supplies. This done, he quitted the ill-omened region.
Amongst the wild tales which have passed into the traditions of the La Plata, one would represent Cabot to have fallen in the course of the sanguinary conflicts with the natives. This mis conception is embodied in the " Argentina y Conquista Del Rio de la Plata," a poem on its early history, written by Don Martin de el Barco, and which finds a place in the Historiadores Primi tives, (vol.iii.) —
" La muerte, pues, de aqueste ia sabida El gran Carlos embia al buen Gaboto Con una flata al gusto proveida Como hombre que lo entiende i que es piloto ; Entro en el Paranna, i ia sabida La mas fuerc.a del Rio ha sido roto
* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi. " For algunas occasiones que dieron los soldados que fueron con Diego Garcia en que Sebastian Gaboto ne tuvo culpa."
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Del Guarani, dejando fabricada
La Torre de Gaboto bien nombrada
Algunos de los suios se escaparon
De aquel Rio Timbuz do fue la guerra
A Sant Salvador Rio se bajaron
A do la demas gente estaba en tierra
A nuestra dulce Espana se tornaron, &c."*
* Another story, but too obviously false to screen the writer from the charge of fabrication, is found in Techo and embellished by Charlevoix (Histoire du Paraguay, Tom. i. p. 29.) It represents Cabot to have left behind a force of one hundred and twenty men, under the command of Nuno de Lara ; and a series of romantic and tragic adventures is framed out of the attachment of a savage chieftain to the wife of Hurtado, one of the principal officers of the Garrison !
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CHAP. XXIV.
EMPLOYMENT OF CABOT AFTER HIS RETURN RESUMES HIS FUNCTIONS AS
PILOT-MAJOR MAKES SEVERAL VOYAGES HIS HIGH REPUTATION VISIT
OF A LEARNED ITALIAN CABOT'S ALLUSION TO COLUMBUS.
CABOT must now, in 1531, have begun to feel the influence of advancing years, of which thirty-five had passed since the date of that patent from Henry VII. under which he made the great dis covery in the north. The interval had been replete with toil, anxiety, and peril. Yet though he resumed, as we shall see, the functions of Pilot-Major, an unbroken spirit of enterprise drew him afterwards, repeatedly, on the Ocean. We turn now to the only evidence which remains, scanty as it is, of the occupations of this part of his life.
Enough has been already said of the circumstances which prove that the defence submitted to the Emperor must have been com pletely successful. The Conversation in Ramusio, heretofore so often referred to, now offers its testimony as to the general opinion in Spain, of his conduct during the eventful period through which he has just been conducted.
The reputation brought from the La Plata could not have been equivocal, for in the scenes through which Cabot had passed the most latent particle of fear, or indecision, must have started fa tally into notice. The survivors of the expedition had seen Danger assume before him every terrifying form. In command of Spaniards he stood alone — an obnoxious stranger — in a fierce mutiny headed by brave and popular Spanish officers. He had been seen amidst sanguinary encounters, hand to hand, with hordes of ferocious savages, and extricating himself, on one occa sion, only by the slaughter of more than three times the number of
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his own force. And finally, in the face of the blood-thirsty Guaranis, breaking furiously against his defences, he had calmly completed his arrangements and brought off all his people in safety. As the sail was spread, and they found themselves once more on the Ocean, the overwrought anxieties of his companions would seem to have melted into gratitude to their brave and ever-faithful commander. In the last look at that scene, for years, of toil and peril, how many incidents thronged before them all associated memorably with Him who now stood on the deck guiding them back to their country ! And the feelings of attachment and admi ration with which they bade adieu to the La Plata, found an eager expression, as we shall see, in the earliest report, at home, of their eventful story.
In reverting to the Conversation in Ramusio, which discloses the popular fame that henceforward attached itself to Cabot, we must not be accused of inconsistency for deeming it worthy of credit. The errors established heretofore were those in matter of detail, with regard to which the memory might well be unfaithful. The speaker is now to tell of the circumstances that led to the in terview, and of general remarks better calculated to make a vivid impression.
As this is the Conversation which the Biographic Universelle could not find in Ramusio, we may be the more minute in our quotations.
The learned speaker, after a long discussion on the subject of cosmography, turns to the subject of the North- West Passage, and asks Fracastor and Ramusio if they had not heard of Sebas tian Cabot, " so valiant a man and so well practised in all things pertaining to navigation and the science of cosmography, that at this present he hath not his like in Spain, insomuch that for his virtues he is preferred above all other pilots that sail to the West- Indies, who may not pass thither without his license, and is there fore called Piloto-Mayor, that is, the Grand Pilot."*
* Eden's Decades, fol. 255. Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 6. The original in Ra musio (torn. i. fol. 414 D. Ed. of 1554) " Cosi valente ct pratico dclle cose
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Receiving a reply in the negative, he proceeds to state, that finding himself at Seville, and being anxious to learn something of the .maritime discoveries of the Spaniards, the public voice directed him to Sebastian Cabot as a very valiant man, (" un gran valent huomo") then living in that city, who had the charge of those things, (" che havea T carico di quelle.") A wish seized him to see Cabot, ("subito volsi essere col detto.") He called, and we are now, for the first time, brought into a direct personal interview with this celebrated man.
" I found him a most gentle and courteous person, who treated me with gieat kindness and shewed me a great many things ; amongst the rest a great Map of the World, on which the several voyages of the Portuguese and Spaniards were laid down."*
The conversation then turned on the voyage from England in the time of Henry VII. and the subsequent events in the La Plata. Speaking of his return from the latter expedition, Cabot says —
" After this I made many other voyages, which I now pretermit, and grow ing old I give myself to rest from such labours, because there are now many young and vigorous seamen of good experience, by whose forwardness I do rejoice in the fruit of my labours, and rest with the charge of this office as you see/'f
It is delightful to notice the manner in which he refers to Columbus. No paltry effort is made to despoil that great man of any portion of his fame. He speaks of the effect which the news produced in England; " All men with great admiration affirmed
pertinenti alia Navigatione et all Cosmographia che in Spagna al presente non v'e suo pari et la sua virtu 1'ha fatto preporre a tutti li Pilotti che navigano all' Indie Occidental!, che senza sua licenza non possono far quel essercitio et per questo lo chiamano Pilotto Maggiore."
* " Lo trovai una gentilissima persona et cortese che mi fece gran carezze et mostrommi molte cose et fra Taltre un Mapamondo grande colle navigation! particolari, si di Portaghesi, come di Castigliani."
f " Feci poi molte altre navigation! le quali pretermetto et trovandomi alia fine vecchio volsi riposare essendosi allevati tanti pratichi et valenti marinari giovanni et hora me ne sto con questo carico che voi sapete, godendo il frutto delle mie fatiche."
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it to be a thing more divine than human."* The influence on his own ardent temperament is well described, " by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. "f While such expressions would rebuke an attempt to connect his name with the disparagement of Columbus, they heighten the gratification with which we re cognise his claim to the place that a foreign poet of no con temptible merit — the companion of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his voyage to the North, and writing from that region — has assigned to him : —
Hanc tibi jamdudum primi invenere Britanni Turn cum magnanimus nostra in regione Cabotus Proximus a magno ostendit sua vela Columbo.%
* Eden's Decades, fol. 255. The original " dicendosi che era stata cosa piu tosto divina che hurnana, &c." Ramusio, torn. i. fol. 415.
•f " Mi nacque un desiderio grande, anzi un ardor nel core di voler far an- chora io quakhe cosa segnalata, 8fc." Ib.
I Budeius — in Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 143.
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CHAP. XXV.
PERVERSION OF FACTS AND DATES BY HARRIS AND PINKERTON CABOT'S
RETURN TO ENGLAND PROBABLE INDUCEMENTS ERRONEOUS REASON
ASSIGNED BY MR. BARROW CHARLES V. MAKES A DEMAND ON THE KING
OF ENGLAND FOR HIS RETURN 'REFUSED PENSION TO CABOT DUTIES
CONFIDED TO HIM MORE EXTENSIVE THAN THOSE BELONGING TO THE
OFFICE OF PILOT-MAJOR INSTANCES.
OF the manner in which the order and nature of Cabot's services have been misrepresented by English writers, some idea may be formed from the following passage of Harris transplanted into Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages, (vol. xii. p. 160.)
" Sebastian Cabot was employed by their Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, [Isabella having been dead twenty-two years, and Ferdinand ten years before he sailed] on a voyage for the discovery of the coasts of Brazil (!) in which he had much better success than Americus Vespucius, who missed the River of Plate, whereas Cabot found it, and sailed up it 360 miles [Hakluyt's six score leagues] which gave him such a character at the court of their Ca tholic Majesties, that on his return [in 1531] he was declared piloto maggiore or grand pilot of Spain, and resided several years at Seville with that character, and had the examination and approbation of all the pilots intrusted by that government. Yet after some years, he thought fit to return into England, and was employed by King Henry VIII. in conjunction with Sir Thomas Pert, who was Vice-Admiral of England, and built a fine house near Blackwall, called Poplar, which name still remains, though the house is long ago de cayed. This voyage of his was in 1516', [fifteen years before the return from the La Plata !] on board a ship of 250 tons with another of the like size." [mistaken reference to the English Expedition of 152/.]
The motives which really induced Cabot to abandon a situation of high honour and emolument in Spain, as well as the exact pe riod of his return to England, we have no means of determining. It is plain, from what will presently appear, that he had experi enced no mortifying slight of his services, or attempt to withdraw the ample provision for his support. We are permitted, therefore,
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to believe that he was drawn to England by an attachment, strengthening with the decline of life, to his native soil and the scene of his early associations and attachments. The ties were not slight or likely to decay. Born in Bristol and returning from Venice whilst yet a boy, he had grown up in England to man hood, and it was not until sixteen years after the date of the first memorable patent that he entered the service of Spain, from which again he withdrew in 1516.
A reasonable presumption must, however, be distinguished from rash and absurd assertion. Mr. Barrow supposes (Chronological History of Voyages, p. 36) that Cabot returned on the invitation of Robert Thorn« of Bristol. Unfortunately for this hypothesis it appears* that Thorne died in 153'2, sixteen years before the period at which Cabot quitted Spain.
The same writer remarks, (p. 36,) " His return to England was in the year 1548, when Henry VIII. was on the throne." Surely Mr. Barrow cannot seriously think that, at this late day, his bare word will be taken against all the historians and chroni clers who declare that Henry VIII. died in January 1547.f
At his return Cabot settled in Bristol,^ without the least anti cipation, in all probability, of the new and brilliant career on which he was shortly to enter, fifty-three years after the date of his first commission from Henry VII.
Whatever may have been the motives of the Emperor for con senting to the departure of the Pilot-Major he would seem to have become very soon alarmed at the inconvenience that might result from his new position. The youth who then filled the throne of England had already given such evidence of capacity as to excite the attention of Europe ; and anticipations were universally ex pressed of the memorable part he was destined to perform. Naval
* Fuller's Worthies, Somersetshire ; and Stow's Survey of London.
•f This blunder is gravely copied into Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 138, together with Mr. Barrow's assertion, that the pension of £lG6 13s. 4d. was equal to Jive hundred Marks !
J Strype's Historical Memorials, vol.ii. p. 190.
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affairs had seized his attention as a sort of passion. Even when a child " he knew all the harbours and ports both of his own dominions and of France and Scotland, and how much water they had, and what was the way of coming into them."* The Emperor saw how perilous it was that a youthful monarch with these predispositions, should have within reach the greatest seaman of the age, with all the accumulated treasures of a protracted life of activity and observation. A formal and urgent demand, therefore, was made by the Spanish ambassador that " Sebastian Cabote, Grand Pilot of the Emperor's Indies then in England," might be sent over to Spain, te as a very necessary man for the Emperor, whose servant he was, and had a Pension of him."f Strype, after quoting from the documents before him, drily adds, " Notwithstanding, I suspect that Cabot still abode in England, at Bristol, (for there he lived) having two or three years after set on foot a famous voyage hence, as we shall men tion in due place." It is a pleasing reflection, adverted to be fore, and which may here be repeated, that Cabot was never found attempting to employ, to the annoyance of Spain, the mi nute local knowledge of her possessions, of which his confidential station in that country must have made him master. J
* Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 225.
•f Strype's Historical Memorials, v. ii. p. 190.
I Amongst the Harleian MSS. (No. 523, art. 2,) is a letter to Sir Philip Hoby, then on an embassy to Flanders, from the Council, dated Greenwich, 21st April, 1550, in which is communicated the result of the application made by the Ambassador of Charles V., for the return of Cabot. It seems to prove that there had been no quarrel with the Emperor. The Council, in its own anxiety to retain Cabot, does less than justice to his dignified and fitting re ply, when pointedly and somewhat rudely interrogated as to what he would be willing to do at the command of his Sovereign or the Council.
" And as for Sebastian Cabot, answere was first made to the said Ambassador that he was not deteined heere by us, but that he of himself refused to go either into Spayne, or to the Emperor, and that he being of that mind and the King's, subiecte, no reason nor equitie wolde that he shude be forced or compelled to go against his will. Upon the which answere, the said Ambassador said, that if this were Cabot's answere, then he required that the said Cabot, in the pre sence of some one whom we coud appoint might speke with the said Ambas sador, and declare vnto him this to be his mind and answere. Whereunto we condescended, and at the last, sent the said Cabot with Richard Shelley to the ambassador, who as the said Shelley hathe made report to us, affirmed to
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The Public Records now supply us with dates. On the 6th January, in the second year of Edward VI., a pension was granted to him of two hundred and fifty marks, (£166 13s. 4d.)
The precise nature of the duties imposed on him does not appear. It is usually stated, and amongst others by Hakluyt, that the office of Grand Pilot of England was now created, and Cabot appointed to fill it ; but this is very questionable.* Certain it is that his functions were far more varied and exten sive than those implied in such a title. He would seem to have exercised a general supervision over the maritime concerns of the country, under the eye of the King and the Council, and to have been called upon whenever there was occasion for nautical skill and experience. One curious instance occurs of the manner in which the wishes of individuals were made to yield to his opinion of what was required by the exigencies of the public service. We find (Hakluyt, vol. ii. part ii. p. 8) one James Alday offering, as an explanatation of his not having gone as master on a proposed voyage to the Levant, that he was stayed
" By the prince's letters, which my master, Sebastian Gabota, had obtained for that purpose to my great grief."
He is called upon (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 719) to be present at the examination of a French pilot who had long frequented the coast of Brasil, and there is reason to believe that the minute instructions for the navigation of the La Plata (ib. p. 728) are from himself.
the said Ambassador, that he was not minded to go neither into Spayne nor to the Emperor. Nevertheles having knowlege of certein things verie neces- sarie for the Emperor's knowlege, he was well contented for the good will he here the Emperor to write his minde vnto him, or declare the same here to anie such as shude be appointed to here him. Whereunto the said Ambassa dor asked the said Cabot, in case the King's Majestie or we shude command him to go to the Emperor, whether then he wold not do it ; whereunto Cabot mad aunswere, as Shelley reportethe, that if the King's Highnes or we did command him so to do, then he knew welinoughe what he had to do. But it semeth that the Ambassador tooke this answere of Cabot to sound as though Cabot had answered, that being comanded by the King's Highnes or vs, that then he wolde be contented to go to the Emperor wherein we reken the said Am bassador to be deceived, so that the said Cabot had divers times before de clared vnto vs that he was fullie determined not to go hens at all." * See Appendix (C.)
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CHAP. XXVI.
PUBLIC EXPLANATION BY CABOT TO EDWARD VI. OF THE PHENOMENA OF
VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE— STATEMENT OF LIVIO SANUTO— POINT OF " NO VARIATION " FIXED BY CABOT— ADOPTED AFTERWARDS BY MERCATOR FOR HIS FIRST MERIDIAN— REFERENCE TO CABOT'S MAP— EARLY TESTIMONIALS —ALLUSION TO THE ENGLISH DISCOVERIES IN THE EDITION OF PTOLEMY PUBLISHED AT ROME IN 1508— FOURNIER— ATTENTION TO NOTE THE VARIA TION BY THE SEAMEN OF CABOT'S SCHOOL-HIS THEORY, IF A NARROW ONE WOULD HAVE BEEN THUS EXPOSED.
ALLUSION was made, on a former occasion, to the fact stated by the noble Venetian, Livio Sanuto, that Cabot had explained to the King of England the whole subject of the variation of the needle. There is reason to suppose, from what we know of Sanuto 's life, that the incident to which he alludes must have occurred at the period now reached. His statement* is that many years before the period at which he wrote, his friend Guido Gianeti da Fano informed him that Sebastian Cabot was the first dis coverer of this secret of nature which he explained to the King of England, near whom the said Gianeti at that time resided and was held, as Sanuto understood from others, in the highest esteem. Cabot also shewed the extent of the variation, and that it was different in different places.^
Sanuto being engaged in the construction of an instrument in
* The Geographia is in the Library of the Bristish Museum, title in Cata logue " Sanuto." It was published at Venice, 1588, after the author's death.
•j- " Fu di tal secreto il riconoscitore, qual egli paleso poi al serenissimo Re d' Inghilterra, presso al quale (come poi da altri intesi) esso Gianetti all' hora honoratissimo si ritrovaa ; et egli dimostro insieme, quanta fusse questa distanza, e die non appareva in ciascun luogo la medesima." Lib. prim. fol. 2.
N
*,,
178
reference to the longitude, it became with him a matter of eager interest to ascertain a point of no variation.
" Conversing on this subject with Gianeti, he undertook to ob tain for me, through a gentleman named Bartholomew Compagni, then in England, this information which he himself had not gathered."*
The person thus addressed sent word of what he had learned from Cabot, and Sanuto remarks that he had, subsequently, further assurance of the accuracy of the report thus made to him. He saw a chart of navigation, executed by hand with the greatest care, and carefully compared with one by Cabot himself, in which the position of this meridian was seen to be one hundred and ten miles to the west of the island of Flores, one of the Azores.f
It is scarcely necessary to add that the First Meridian on the maps of Mercator, running through the most western point of the Azores, was adopted with reference to the supposed coinci dence in that quarter of the true and magnetic poles.
In the course of the same memoir, Sanuto refers repeatedly to the Map, and adverts to the observations as to the variation of the compass made by Cabot at the Equator. The disappearance of this Document becomes at every turn a matter equally of astonishment and regret. Aside from the mass of papers left with Worthington, we have not only seen that the published map was hung up in the Gallery at Whitehall, but have actually traced a copy to Ortelius, to the Earl of Bedford, and now to Sanuto.
The assertion is found in almost all the old writers that Cabot was the first who noticed the variation. He was, at least, the first who gave to it an earnest attention, marked its degrees in
* " Ragionatone io di questo col detto Gianneti, fece egli, che da un gentil* huomo nominate Bartolomeo Compagni, che in Inghilterre si tratteneva, s'intese cio, ch' egli dal detto Caboto ne seppe."
'f* " Et a quello ancora, che io dapoi vidi con gli occhi miei in una carta da navigare diligentissima fatta a mano, e tutta ritratta a punto da una propria del detto Caboto ; nella quale si riconosce il luogo del detto Meridiano esser per miglia cento e dieci lontano verso Occidente dalla Isola detta Fiori di quelle pur delli Azori."
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various parts of the world, and attempted to frame a theory on the subject. His earliest transatlantic voyage carried him to the very quarter where it is exhibited in a manner so sudden and striking, that modern Navigators seem to concur in placing there one of the magnetic poles. The La Plata, too, is another theatre of its most startling appearance ; and Cabot's long resi dence in that region must have secured his deliberate attention to the subject with the advantage of thirty years of intermediate observation and reflection.
There is a curious piece of evidence to shew how early the Northern region discovered by Cabot was associated with the alarm which this phenomenon must, in the first instance, have excited.
On the great Map of the World which accompanies the edition of Ptolemy published at Rome in 1508, is the following inscription, commencing far beyond Terra Nova and the Insula llacalaurus — " Hie compassus navium non tenet nee naves quse ferrum tenent revertere valent."*
It is impossible to doubt that the reference is to the well-known effect produced there on the compass. Beneventus, who prepared the supplemental matter for this edition of Ptolemy, professes to have a knowledge of the discoveries made by Columbus, by the Portuguese, and by the English (" Columbi et Lusitanorum atque Britannorum quos Anglos nunc dicimus.")
Founiier, in his old, but yet highly-esteemed, Treatise on Hydro graphy, (Liv. xi. cap. x.) says, it was understood that Sebastian Cabot had noted with great exactness the variation in the places he had discovered on the Northern Coasts of America.f
As to Cabot's theory on the subject of the Variation, we are unable, in the absence of his Maps and Discourses, to offer even a conjecture. His exposition to the king would evidently seem
<{ Here the ship's-compass loses its property, and no vessel with iron on board is able to get away/'
t "Que Cabot remarqua/or£ exactement les declinaisons quel'aymantfaisoit en divers endroits des costes Septentrionales de 1'Amerique qu'il decouvrit."
N2
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to have been something more than a mere statement of isolated facts, and from the general recollection of the Venetian ambas sador that he represented it as different in different places, it may be inferred that he did not treat it as absolutely regulated by mere distance from a particular meridian. There is another satisfac tory reason for believing that he could not have placed it on any narrow ground. The Seamen brought up in his school, and sailing under his instructions, were particularly attentive to note the va riation. Thus Stephen Burrough reports to us, (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 290, &c.) within a short space, the degrees of it at three dif ferent points ; and, where this was habitually done, an error of the great nautical Oracle — if we suppose one to have cheated his long experience and profound observation — would have been speedily detected and exposed.
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CHAP XXVII.
MISTAKE OF PURCHAS, PINKERTON, DR. HENRY IN HIS HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN, CAMPBELL IN THE LIVES OF THE ADMIRALS, AND OTHER WRI TERS, AS TO THE " KNIGHTING" OF JOHN OR SEBASTIAN CABOT.
THE present may be a fit occasion to notice an absurd miscon ception on the part of many authors of reputation, some of whom represent Sebastian Cabot to have received the honour of knight hood, while others confer it on the father.
Purchas, (vol. iv. p. 1812) in his " English just Title to Vir ginia," refers to a Portrait of Sebastian Cabot which he had seen hung up in the King's Palace at White-Hall with this inscription; " Effigies Seb. Caboti Angli, filii Joannis Caboti militis aurati, &c." Here was a fair opening for controversy. Does the de scription " militis aurati" apply to the father or to the son ? The same difficulty occurs, with a curious coincidence in the epithets, as that which Quinctilian (Inst. Orat. lib. vii. cap. 9) mentions, with regard to the Will of a Roman who directed that there should be put up " statuam auream hastam tenentem," and the puzzle was whether the statue or the spear was to be of gold. After the un pardonable blunders which it has been necessary to expose, we may look with some complacency on the pursuit of this perplexing matter.
Purchas assumes that the words apply to the son, and accor dingly we have " Sir Sebastian Cabot" running through his vo lumes. In a copy of verses addressed to "his friend Captain John Smith," and prefixed to the account of Virginia by the latter^ Purchas exclaims —
" Hail, Sir Sebastian ! England's Northern Pole " Virginia's finder !"
and in a marginal note it is added, " America, named of Americus
14*2
Vesputius which discovered less than Colon or Sir Sebastian Cabot, and the Continent later. Colon first found the Isles 1492, the Continent 1498, above a year after Cabot had done it. He was set forth by Henry VI I., and after by Henri/ VIII. knighted, and made Grand Pilot of England by Edward VI." Captain Smith himself repeats all this — " Sebastian Cabot discovered much more than these all, for he sailed to about 40° South of the line, and to 67° towards the North, for which King Henry VIII. knighted him and made him Grand Pilot of England." In the general Index to Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and Travels, the eye is caught, under the title, Cabot, with the alluring refe rence " anecdotes of," and on turning to the place, (vol. xiii. p. 4,) the same statements are found. Now the difficulties are insur mountable as to Sebastian Cabot. In the last renewal of his pension in the reign of Mary, (Rymer, vol. xv. p. 427 and 466,) he is stiled " Armiger," which shews that he had not, even up to that period, been knighted. In the Cotton MSS. (Claudius, C. iii.) is a paper, giving " the names and arms of such as have been advanced to the order of knighthood in the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VL, Mary and Elizabeth," in which no notice is taken of him.
The point being thus clear with regard to the son, other writers have assumed, as a matter of course, that the distinction must have been conferred on John Cabot. Accordingly, Campbell (Lives of the Admirals, art. Sir John Cabot) says of the father, " He then returned with a good cargo and three savages on board to England, where it seems he was knighted for this exploit, since, on the map of his discoveries drawn by his son Sebastian, and cut by Clement Adams, which hung in the Privy Gallery at White hall, there was this inscription under the author's picture — "Effi gies Seb. Caboti Angli filii lo. Caboti Venetiani Militis aurati." Thus Campbell derives his fact from Purchas, but draws a dif ferent inference from that writer. According to him, too, the knighting must have been, not by Henry VIII. as Purchas and Captain Smith have it, for there is reason to believe that the
183
senior Cabot died before the commencement of that reign, but by Henry VII., particularly as it took place on Cabot's return, and the monarch last named lived thirteen years after the "exploit." Campbell, therefore, has a " Memoir of Sir John Cabot," and speaks again, with enthusiasm, of that " celebrated Venetian, Sir John Cabot."
This version has been the more generally adopted, and amongst the rest by Dr. Henry, (History of Great Britain, vol. vi. p. 618,) who informs us, on the authority of Campbell, that " John Cabot was graciously received and knighted on his return." The same statement is made in the Biographia Britannica, &c.
To the utter confusion of all these grave authorities, a moment's consideration will shew, that the words relied on do in themselves prove that knighthood had not been conferred. It is scarcely necessary to follow up this suggestion, by stating that in reference to one who had received that honour, they would have been not "Militis aurati," but " Equitis aurati." Though the term miles is sometimes applied, in old documents, even to Peers, yet, as a popular designation, the language of the inscription nega tives the idea of knighthood. In the very works immediately connected with the subject of the present volume, the appropriate phrase perpetually occurs. Thus " Eques auratus" is used to designate Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 137.) Sir Hugh Willoughby, (ib. p. 142.) Sir Martin Frobisher, (ib. p. 142.) Sir Francis Drake, (ib. p. 143.) In the dedication of Lok's translation of Peter Martyr, it is in like manner used, and we see it, at this moment, on the " effigies" of Sir Walter Raleigh prefixed to the first edition of his History of the World. It will probably be deemed very superfluous to refer to Selden's Titles of Honour, (p. 830,) for a confirmation of what has been stated.
The weight of censure must fall on Purchas, who was originally guilty of the blunder. The others assumed the fact of the knight ing, and only exercised their ingenuity in deciding whether the honour was conferred on the Father or the Son.
J84
CHAP. XXVIII.
STAGNATION OF TRADE IN ENGLAND CABOT CONSULTED BY THE MERCHANTS
URGES THE ENTERPRISE WHICH RESULTED IN THE TRADE TO RUSSIA
PRELIMINARY DIFFICULTIES — STRUGGLE WITH THE STILYARD THAT
MONOPOLY BROKEN DOWN EARNESTNESS OF EDWARD VI. ON THE SUB JECT HIS MUNIFICENT DONATION TO CABOT AFTER THE RESULT WAS
DECLARED.
IT is only from detached notes, such as those already referred to, and which meet the eye as it were by accident, that we can now form an idea of the diffusive nature of Cabot's services. One Great Enterprise, however, stands by itself, and was destined to exercise an important influence on the commerce and naval great ness of England.
An opportunity was afforded to Cabot of putting in execution a plan " which he long before had had in his mind,"* by its hap pening, incidentally, to fall in with the purposes of the London merchants. The period was one of great commercial stagnation in England.
" Our merchants perceived the commodities and wares of England to be in small request about us and near unto us, and that those merchandises which strangers, in the time and memory of our ancestors, did earnestly seek and desire were now neglected and the price thereof abated, although they be car ried to their own parts. "f
In this season of despondency Cabot was consulted, and the suggestions which he made were adopted:
" Sebastian Cabota, a man in those days very renowned, happening to be in
* Eden's Decades, fol. 256. f llakluyt, vol. i. p. 243.
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London, they began first of all to deal and consult diligently with him, and after much search and conference together, it was at last concluded, that three ships should be prepared and furnished out for the search and discovery of the northern part of the world, to open a way and passage to our men, for travel to new and unknown kingdoms."*
Such is the authentic history of the impulse given to English commerce at this interesting crisis. The influence of Cabot is not only attested by the passage quoted, but in the Letters Patent of Incorporation it is declaredfthat, in consideration of his having "been the chiefest setterforth of this journey or voyage, therefore we make, ordain, and constitute him, the said Sebastian, to be the first and present Governor of the same fellowship and community by these presents, to have and enjoy the said office of governor to him, the said Sebastian Cabota, during his natural life, without amoving or dismissing from the same room."
But a difficulty was encountered in the alleged exclusive pri vileges of a very powerful body, whose odious monopoly had long exercised its baneful influence on English commerce and manu factures :
" The time was now at length come, that the eyes of the English nation were to be opened, for their discovering the immense damage which was sus tained, by suffering the German merchants of the house or college in London, called, the Steelyard, so long to enjoy advantages in the duty or custom of exporting English cloths, far beyond what the native English enjoyed ; which superior advantages possessed by those foreigners began, about this time, to be more evidently seen and felt, as the foreign commerce of England became more diffused. The Cities of Antwerp and Hamburgh possessed, at this time, the principal commerce of the northern and middle parts of Europe ; and their factors, at the Steelyard, usually set what price they pleased on both their imports and exports ; and having the command of all the markets in England, with joint and united stocks, they broke all other merchants. Upon these considerations, the English company of merchant adventurers made pressing remonstrances to King Edward the Sixth's Privy Council. These Hanseatics were, moreover, accused (and particularly the Dantzickers) of defrauding the customs, by colouring, or taking under their own names, as they paid little or no custom, great quantities of the merchandise of other foreigners not intitled to their immunities. They were also accused of having frequently exceeded
* Voyage of Richard Chancellor, Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 243. t Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 268.
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the bounds of even the great privileges granted to them by our Kings ; yet, by the force of great presents, they had purchased new grants."*
" Having, for the last forty-five years, had the sole command of our com merce, (says the author,) they had reduced the price of English wool to one shilling and six-pence per stone. The Steelyard merchants were also ex cused from aliens duties, and yet all their exports and imports were made in foreign bottoms ; which was a very considerable loss to the nation. "f
" This is the substance of the whole business during King Edward the Sixth's reign, of reversing the privileges of the Steelyard merchants, taken from our histories, but more particularly from I. Wheeler's Treatise of Com merce, published in quarto, in the year 1601 ; and, as he was then Secretary to the Merchant Adventurers' Company, it may be supposed to be, in general, a true account, and is surely an useful part of commercial history. Wheeler adds, that by reversing these privileges, our own merchants shipped off in this year forty thousand cloths for Flanders. Rapin, in his History of England, observes, that the Regent of Flanders, as well as the City of Hamburgh, earnestly solicited to have the Steelyard merchants re-instated ; but to no pur pose."}
The extraordinary interest felt by Edward himself on this sub ject is manifest from his Journal, in which the incidents are noted. §
" 18th January, 1551, this day the Stiliard put in their answer to a certain complaint, that the merchant adventurers laid against them."
" 25th January, 1551. The answer of the Stiliard was delivered to certain of my learned Counsel" to look on and oversee."
" 18th February, 1551. The merchant adventurers put in their replication to the Stiliards answer."
" 23rd February, 1551. A decree was made by the Board, that upon know ledge and information of their charters, they had found ; First, that they were no sufficient Corporation. 2. That their number, names, and nation, was un known. 3. That when they had forfeited their liberties, King Edward IV. did restore them on this condition, that they should colour no strangers' goods, which they had done. Also, that whereas in the beginning they shipped not past 8 clothes, after 100, after 1000, after that 6000 ; now in their name was shipped 44000 clothes in one year, and but 1100 of all other strangers. For these considerations sentence was given, that they had forfeited their liberties, and were in like case with other strangers."
* Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 90. M'Pherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 109.
t Ibid. J Ibid.
§ Published in Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. from the Cotton MSS.
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The difficulties which had to be struggled with, may be inferred from the pertinacity with which the defeated party followed up the matter, even after a decision had been pronounced. Thus, the following entries are found in the Journal of the young King :
" 28th February, 1551. There came Ambassadors from Hamburg and Lubeck, to speak on the behalf of the Stiliard merchants."
" 2d March, 1551. The answer for the Ambassadors of the Stiliard was committed to the Lord Chancellor, the two Secretaries, Sir Robert Bowes, Sir John Baker, Judge Montague, Griffith Sollicitor, Gosnold, Goodrich, and Brooks."
" 2d May, 1551. The Stiliard men received their answer ; which was, to confirm the former judgment of my Council."
The important agency of Cabot, in a result so auspicious not merely to the interests of commerce but to the public revenue, may be judged of from a donation bestowed on him, a few days after the decision.*
"To Sebastian Caboto, the great seaman, 200 pounds, by way of the king's majesty's reward, dated in March, 1551."
* Strype's Historical Memorials, vol. ii. p. 495.
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CHAP. XXIX.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION PRECAUTIONS AS TO TIMBER SHEATH ING OF THE VESSELS NOW FIRST RESORTED TO IN ENGLAND EXAMINA TION OF TWO TARTARS CHIEF COMMAND GIVEN TO SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY
RICHARD CHANCELLOR — STEPHEN BURROUGH WILLIAM BURROUGH
ARTHUR PET THIS EXPEDITION CONFOUNDED WITH ANOTHER BY STRYPE
AND CAMPBELL.
A TRIUMPH having been obtained over the obstacles which had heretofore impeded the career of English commerce, preparations were diligently made for the Expedition.
The measures adopted for the safety of the ships indicate the presence of great skill and providence; " strong and well-seasoned planks for the building" were provided, and the historian of the expedition is struck with one novel precaution. To guard against the worms "which many times pearceth and eateth through the strongest oak/' it was resolved to " cover a piece of the keel of the shippe with thinne sheets of leade."* This is the first instance in England, of the practice of sheathing, but it had long before been adopted in Spain, and had thus engaged the at tention of Cabot. It may, indeed, have been originally suggested by him, as the first use of it is referred to 1514, two years before which time we find him passing into the service of Ferdinand, and advancing rapidly to posts of distinction as his value became apparent.
Information was eagerly sought in every quarter as to the coun tries which the Expedition might visit. There were " two Tarta- rians" employed about the young king's stables. These persons were hunted up and an interpreter provided, "by whom they were
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 243.
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demanded, touching their country and the manners of their na tion." But the poor creatures had no story to tell, and betrayed plainly their addiction to strong drink. There was waggery in the City even at that early day. "They were able to answer nothing to the purpose, being indeed more acquainted (as one there merily and openly said) to toss pots, than to learn the states and dispo sitions of people."*
The command of the expedition was an object of high ambi tion. Amongst those who pressed " very earnestly" for the post was Sir Hugh Willoughby, " a most valiant gentleman and well borne." He came recommended by a high reputation for " skill in the services of war," and it seems to have been thought no slight recommendation that he was of tall and commanding stature. The choice finally fell on him.
In command of one of the ships, and with the title of Pilot- Major, was Richard Chancellor. He had been bred up in the household of Henry Sydney, father of Sir Philip Sydney. His character and merits, coupled with his brilliant success on this occasion, and subsequent untimely fate, seem to have made, a deep impression on his contemporaries. He not only proved a skilful and intrepid seamen, but his remarks on the customs, reli gion, laws, and manners of the countries visited, shew him to have possessed a cultivated intellect, as well as great shewdness and powers of observation. He would seem to have attracted the at tention and enjoyed the friendship of Cabot ; for Eden, (Decades, fol. 357,) in adverting to one of the phenomena of the ocean men tions that the fact he relates was communicated to him by Chan cellor who derived it from Cabot. His was the only ship that succeeded in doubling the North Cape, and making her way to Russia.
" For the government of other ships although divers men seemed willing, and made offers of themselves thereunto, yet by a common consent one Richard Chanceler, a man of great estimation for many good parts of wit in him, was elected, in whom alone great hope for the performance of this business rested.
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 244.
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This man was brought up by one Master Henry Sidney, a noble young gentle man and very much beloved of King Edward."
The master of Chancellor's ship was Stephen Burrough, after wards Chief Pilot of England, and of high rank in the navy. There was, also, on board his ship, apparently as a common sea man, William Burrows,* afterwards Comptroller of the Navy, and author of a work on navigation, and who in after years conducted a squadron to the same quarter, f Arthur Pet, also, whose name is associated with a subsequent voyage, was in the same ship.J
Some obscurity has been occasioned by confounding this me morable enterprise with another, entirely distinct and to a dif ferent quarter. Thus there is found in Strype§ the following passage : —
" In this month of May did the King grant letters of commendation, or safe conduct, for the three ships that were enterprising that noble adventure of seeking for a passage into the Eastern parts of the world, through the unknown and dangerous seas of the North. Of this expedition Sebastian Gabato, an excellent mariner of Bristow, but of Italian parentage, was a great mover, to whom the King, as a gratuity, had given 200 pounds. For this voyage, in February last, the King lent two ships, the Primrose and the Moon, a pinnace, to Barns, Lord Maior of London, Garret, one of the Sheriffs, York, and Wind- ham, adventurers, binding themselves to deliver to the King two ships of the like burden, and good condition, in Midsummer, anno 1554. Sir Hugh Willoughby, a brave knight, was the chief Captain in this enterprise : to whom the King granted a passport to go beyond the seas, with four servants, forty pounds in money, his chain, &c."
Campbell (Lives of the Admirals, vol. i. p. 319) says,
" The accounts we have of this matter differ widely ; but as I observe there is a variation in the dates of a whole year ; so I am apt to believe, that there must have been two distinct undertakings ; one under the immediate protection of the court which did not take effect ; and the other by a joint stock of the merchants which did. Of the first, because it is little taken notice of, I will speak particularly here ; for the other will come in properly in my account of Sir Hugh Willoughby. When, therefore, this matter was first proposed, the King lent two ships, the Primrose and the Moon, to Barnes, Lord Mayor of London, Mr. Garret, one of the Sheriffs, and Mr. York, and Mr. Wyndham,
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 233. t Ibid. vol. i. p. 401.
} Ibid. vol. i. p. 233. § Historical Memorials, vol. ii. p. 402.
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two of the adventurers, giving bond to the King to deliver two ships of like burden, and in as good condition, at Midsommer, 1554."
Thus has the Maritime History of England been written ! The vessels in question made part of the Expedition to Guinea, of which an account is given, at length, by Richard Eden, (Decades, fol. 345.)
" In the yeare of oure Lorde MLIII the XII day of August sayled from Porchemouth two goodly shyppes the Primrose and the Lion, with a Pynnesse cauled the Moon, being all well furnysshed," &c.
It seems that the enterprise was frustrated by the misconduct of " Captayne Wyndham." The persons spoken of as having given bond to the King, were members of the company of mer chant adventurers.* The expedition to Guinea, thus obscured by Strype, Campbell, and succeeding writers, is that of which Eden, against the remonstrances of his Publishers, inserted an account, consenting to swell his volume " that sum memorie thereof might remayne to our posteritie, if ey ther iniquitie of tyme, consumynge all things, or ignorance creepyng in by barbarousness and contempte of knowledge should hereafter bury in oblivion so worthy attempts!" (fol. 343.)
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 269.
CHAP. XXX.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY.
THE Instructions prepared by Cabot for the government of this Expedition, have been justly regarded as a model, and as reflecting the highest credit on his sagacity, good sense, and comprehensive knowledge. They relate not only to the conduct to be observed in reference to the great object in view, but descend to minute suggestions, drawn from his long experience, for the interior arrangements and discipline. They are called " Ordinances, In structions, and Advertisements of, and for the direction of the intended voyage for Cathay, compiled, made, and delivered by the right worshipful M. Sebastian Cabota, Esq. Governour of the Mysterie and Companie of the Merchants Adventurers for the discoverie of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and places unknowen, the 9th day of May, in the yere of our Lord God 1553, and in the 7th yeere of the reigne of our most dread sovereigne Lord, Edward VI., by the grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith and of the Church of England and Ireland, in earth supreme head."*
They were made up in the form of a Book which was ordered to be publicly read once every week, " to the intent that every man may the better remember his oath, conscience, duty, and charge." These instructions are too voluminous to be here intro-
e
duced, but a few extracts, while they indicate the cast of Cabot's mind, must fill us with renewed regret that all the records of such a man's own labours should have been unfortunately lost to us :
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 220.
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" 7. Item, that the merchants, and other skilful persons in writing shall daily write, describe, and put in memorie the navigation of each day and night, with the points, and observations of the lands, tides, elements, altitude of the sunne, course of the moon and starres, and the same so noted by the order of the Master and Pilot of every ship to be put in writing, the Captaine-generall assembling the masters together once every weeke (if winde and weather shall serve) to conferre all the observations, and notes of the said ships, to the intent it may appeare wherein the notes do agree, and wherein they dissent, and upon good debatement, deliberation, and conclusion determined, to put the same into a common leger, to remain of record for the company : the like order to be kept in proportioning of the Gardes, Astrolabes, and other instruments pre pared for the voyage, at the charge of the Companie."*
" 27. Item, the names of the people of every Island, are to be taken in writing, with the commodities and incommodities of the same, their natures, qualities, and dispositions, the site of the same, and what things they are most desirous of, and what commodities they will most willingly depart with, and what mettals they have in hils, mountains, streames, or rivers, in, or under the earth, "f
Attention to moral and religious duties is strictly enjoined.
" 12. Item, that no blaspheming of God, or detestable swearing be used in anv ship, nor communication of ribaldrie, filthy tales, or ungodly talke to be suffered in the company of any ship, neither dicing, tabling, nor other divelish games to be frequented, whereby ensueth not onely povertie to the players, but also strife, variance, brauling, fighting, and oftentimes murther, to the utter destruction of the parties, and provoking of God's most just wrath, and sworde of vengeance. These, and all such like pestilences, and contagions of vices, and sinnes to be eschewed, and the offenders once monished, and not reform ing, to be punished at the discretion of the captaine and masters, as apper-
"13. Item, that morning and evening prayer, with other common services appointed by the King's Maiestie, and lawes of this realme, to be read and saide in every ship daily by the minister in the admirall, and the marchant or some other person learned in other ships, and the bible or paraphrases to be read devoutly and Christianly to God's honour, and for his grace to be ob tained, and had by humble and heartie praier of the navigants accordingly."^
There is much good sense in the following hints :—
" 22. Item, not to disclose to any nation the state of our religion, but to passe it over in silence, without any declaration of it, seeming to bear with such laws and rights as the place hath where you shall arrive. "||
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 226. t Ibid. p. 228.
} Ibid. vol. i. p. 227- § Ibid. || Ibid. vol. i. p. 228.
o
1D4
" 23. Item, for as much as our people and shippe may appear unto them strange and wonderous, and theirs also to ours ; it is to be considered, how they may be used, learning much of their natures and dispositions, by some one such person, as you may first either allure, or take to be brought aboord your ships, and there to learn as you may, without violence or force, and no woman to be tempted, or intreated to incontinence, or dishonestie."*
" 26. Item, every nation and region is to be considered advisedly, and not to provoke them by any disdaine, laughing, contempt, or such like, but to use them with prudent circumspection, with all gcntlenes, and curtesie, and not to tarry long in one place, untill you shall have attained the most worthy place that may be found in such sort as you may returne with victuals sufficient, prosperously, "f
The difficulties experienced, from timidity and incredulity, are apparent from a passage of the 32nd item, in which he speaks of the obstacles which had " ministered matter of suspicion in some heads, that this voyage could not succeed for the extremitie of the North Pole, lacke of passage, and such like, which have caused wavering minds, and doubtful heads, not only to with draw themselves from the adventure of this voyage, but also dis suaded others from the same, the certainte whereof, when you shall have tried by experience, 8cc."J
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 228. f Ib.
t Ibid. vol. i. p. 229.
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CHAP. XXXI.
THE EXPEDITION DROPS DOWN TO GREENWICH — SALUTES— ANIMATING SCENE
' — PROCEED TO SEA VESSELS SEPARATED FATE OF SIR HUGH WIL-
LOUGHBY— CHANCELLOR BEACHES WARDHOUSE EARNESTLY DISSUADED
FROM PROCEEDING FURTHER HIS GALLANT RESOLUTION CONFIDENCE
OF THE CREW IN HIM — REACHES ARCHANGEL EXCELLENT EFFECT OF
OBSERVING CABOT'S INSTRUCTIONS AS TO DEPORTMENT TOWARDS THE NATIVES SUCCESS OF CHANCELLOR.
ON the 20th May, the squadron, consisting of three ships, dropped down to Greenwich : —
" The greater Shippes are towed downe with boates, and oares, and the Mariners being all apparelled in Watchet or skie-coloured cloth, rowed amaine, and made way with diligence. And being come neere to Greenewich, (where the Court then lay) presently upon the newes thereof, the Courtiers came run- ning out, and the common people flockt together, standing very thicke upon the shoare : the privie Counsel, they lookt out at the windowes of the Court, and the rest ranne up to the toppes of the towers : the shippes hereupon dis charge their Ordinance, and shoot off their pieces after the manner of warre, and of the sea, insomuch that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith, the valleys and the waters gave an Eccho, and the Mariners, they shouted in such sort, that the skie rang againe with the noyse thereof. One stood in the poope of the ship, and by his gesture bids farewell to his friendes in the best maner hee could. Another walkes upon the hatches, another climbes the shrowds, another stands upon the maine yard, and another in the top of the shippe. To be short, it was a very triumph (after a sort) in all respects to the beholders. But (alas) the good King Edward (in respect of whom principally all this was prepared) hee only by reason of his sicknesse was absent from this shewe, and not long after the departure of these Ships, the lamentable and most sorrowful accident of his death followed."*
There was some delay at Harwich ; " yet at the last with a good winde they hoysted up sayle, and committed them-
* Hakluyt,vol. i. p. 245. o2
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selves to the sea, giving their last adieu to their native countrey, which they knew not whether they should ever returne to see againe or not. Many of them looked oftentimes backe, and could not refraine from teares, considering into what hazards they were to fall, and what uncertainties of the sea they were to make triall of."* Chancellor himself was moved. " His natural and fatherly affection, also, somewhat troubled him, for he left behinde him two little sonnes, which were in the case of orphanes if he spedde not well."f
After touching at Rost Island, and at a group called the Cross of Islands, it was agreed that in the event of a separation the ships should rendezvous at the Castle of Ward house in Norway. On the very day of the council at which this arrangement was made a furious tempest arose that dispersed the vessels.
The story of the gallant Chief of the Expedition is brief and horrible. Failing to make the contemplated progress to the eastward, it was resolved to winter in Lapland, and arrange ments for that purpose were commenced on the 18th September. The rigour of the climate proved fatal to all. The two ships were long afterwards discovered with no living thing on board. A Journal was found of the incidents of the voyage, and a Will of Gabriel Willoughby, attested by Sir Hugh, dated as late as January, 1554. Over the frightful scenes witnessed by him who was reserved as the last victim of the elements there is thrown, like a pall, impenetrable darkness. As he stiffened into death, by the side of his unburied messmates, he saw the savage region yielded back, without further struggle, to the " unknown and also wonderful" wild beasts whose fearful numbers about the ships are noted in the last entry of the Journal. J
Chancellor was more fortunate. He reached Wardhouse in safety, and having remained there several days resolved to pro-
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 245. f Ib.
I Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 236. The Will found on board witnessed by Sir Hugh Willoughby was in the possession of Purchas ; (Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 463.)
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ceed, notwithstanding the disheartening representations made to him.
" Remaining stedfast and immutable in his first resolution, he determined either to bring that to passe which was intended or els to die the death.*
"And as for them which were with Master Chanceler in his Shippe, although they had great cause of discomfort by the losse of their companie (whom the foresaid tempest had separated from them) and were not a little troubled with cogitations and perturbations of minde, in respect of their doubtful course: yet notwithstanding, they were of such consent and agreement of minde with Master Chanceler, that they were resolute, and prepared under his direction and government, to make proofe and triall of all adventures, without all feare or mistrust of future dangers. Which constancie of minde in all the companie did excedingly increase their Captain's carefulnesse/'t
In this resolute spirit he again put to sea. " Master Chan celer held on his course towards that unknowen part of the world, and sailed so farre, that he came at last to the place where he found no night at all, but a continuall light and brightnesse of the sunne shining clearly upon the huge and mightie sea. And having the benefite of this perpetuall light for certaine dayes, at the length it pleased God to bring them into a certaine great bay, which was one hundreth miles or thereabout over. Whereinto they entered somewhat farre and cast anchor."
He had now reached the Bay of St. Nicholas. Landing near Archangel, then only a castle, there becomes visible the in fluence of Cabot's injunction, as to gentleness of deportment towards the natives, and its happy result.
" And looking every way about them it happened that they espied a farm off a certain fisher boate which Master Chancellor, accompanied with a fewe of his men, went towards to commune with the fishermen that were in it, and to knowe of them what countrey it was, and what people, and of what ma1 of living they were : but they being amazed with the strange greatnesse of his shippe (for in those parts before that time they had never seen the like) be- ganne presently to avoyde and to flee : but hee still following them at last overtooke them, and being come to them, they (being in greate feare, as men halfe dead) prostrated themselves before him, offering to kisse his feete : but hee (according to his great and singular courtesie) looked pleasantly upon them, comforting them by signes and gestures, refusing those dueties and reverences
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 246. t Ib.
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of theirs, and taking them up in all loving sort from the ground. And it is strange to consider how much favour afterwards in that place, this humanitie of his did purchase to himself. For they being dismissed spread by and by a report abroad of the arrival of a strange nation of a singular gentleness and courtesie ; whereupon the common people came together offering to these newe- come ghests victuals freely."*
We may not follow further the movements of this intrepid navigator, or repeat the circumstances of his overland journey to Moscow, and his very curious and interesting account of Russia. He was received in the most cordial manner, and the foundation laid of a safe and extensive commercial intercourse between the two countries.
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 246.
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CHAP XXXII.
CHARTER TO THE COMPANY OF MERCHANT ADVENTURERS SEBASTIAN CABOT
NAMED GOVERNOR FOR LIFE GRANT OF PRIVILEGES BY THE EMPEROR
OF RUSSIA TO CABOT AND OTHERS— AN AMBASSADOR FROM THE EMPEROR
EMBARKS WITH RICHARD CHANCELLOR SHIPWRECK CHANCELLOR
PERISHES RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THE AMBASSADOR IN
LONDON.
THE success of Chancellor gave a new impulse, and the dignity of a Charter, to the Association of Merchant Adventurers.*
In the instrument of incorporation Sebastian Cabot is named, as has been stated, Governor for Life, as " the chiefest setter forth*' of the Enterprise.
There is preserved^ " A copie of the first privileges granted to the English merchants, by John Vasilivich,by the Grace of God, Emperor of Russia, Great Duke of Novogrode Moscovia," &c. After the recital it grants " unto Sebastian Cabota, Governor, Sir George Barnes, Knight, 8cc. Consuls, Sir John Gresham, &c., assistants, and to the communaltie of the afore-named fellowship, and to their successors for ever, and to the successors of every of them, these articles, graunts, immunities, franchises, liberties, and privileges, and every of them hereafter following expressed and declared, videlicet." Then follow ten clauses or articles placing the contemplated commercial intercourse on the most liberal and secure footing.
Passing a little onward we find an Ambassador from the Em peror arriving in England. This incident is connected with the
* Dr. Robertson (History of America, book ix.) heedlessly represents the Charter to have preceded the voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby. t Hakluyt, vol. i, p. 265.
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melancholy death of Richard Chancellor, in \vhose ship the Am bassador had embarked. That intrepid navigator was doomed to perish when almost within reach of those beloved " two little sonnes," the thoughts of leaving whom "in the case of orphanes if he spedde not well," had saddened his departure. The ship was driven ashore at Pitsligo in the North of Scotland, and by the fury of the tempest was broken to pieces on the rocks. Chancellor
"using all carefulness for the safetie of the bod ie of the said Ambassa- dour and his trayne, taking the boate of the said Ship trusting to attaine the shore and so to save and preserve the bodie and seven of the companie or attendants of the same Ambassadour, the same boat by rigorous waves of the seas, was by darke night overwhelmed and drowned, wherein perished not only the bodie of the said grand pilot, with seven Russes, but also divers of the Mariners of the said Ship : the noble personage of the said Ambassa dour with a fewe others (by God's preservation and speciall favour) only with much difficultie saved."*
A long account is given of the Ambassador's reception and entertainment at London. The following is an extract:—
"On the 27th of February, 1557, he approached to the Citie of London within twelve English miles, where he was received with fourscore merchants with chaines of Gold and goodly apparell, as well in order of men-servants in one uniforme liverie, as also in and upon good horses and geldings, who con ducting him to a marchant's house foure miles from London, received there a quantitie of Gold, velvet and silke, with all furniture thereunto requisite, where with he made him a riding garment, reposing himself that night. The next day being Saturday and the last day of Februarie, he was by the Merchants Adventuring for Russia, to the number of one hundred and fortie persons, and so many or more servants in one liverie, as abovesaid, conducted towards the citie of London, where by the way he had not onely the hunting of the Foxe and such like sports shewed him, but also by the Queenes Maiesties commandment was received and embraced by the right honorable Viscount Montague, sent by her grace for his entertainment : he being accompanied with divers lustic Knights, esquiers, gentlemen and yeomen to the number of three hundred horses, led him to the North partes of London, where by foure notable Mer chants richly apparelled was presented to him a right faire and large gelding richly trapped, together with a foot cloth of orient crimson velvet enriched with gold laces, all furnished in most glorious fashion, of the present and gifte of the saide Merchants : whereupon the Ambassador at instant desire mounted, riding on the way towards Smithfield barres, the first li mites of the liberties of
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 286. f Ibid, vol. i. p. 287.
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the Citie of London. The Lord Maior accompanied with all the Aldermen in their Skarlet did receive him, and so riding through the Citie of London in the middle, betweene the Lord Mayor and Viscount Montague, a great number of Merchants and notable personages riding before, and a large troupe of servants and apprentices following, was conducted through the Citie of London (with great admiration and plausibilitie of the people running plentifully on all sides, and replenishing all streets in such sort as no man without difficultie might passe) into his lodging situate in Fant church streete, where were provided for him two chambers richly hanged and decked, over and above the gallant fur niture of the whole house, together with an ample and rich cupboard of Plate of all sortes, to furnish and serve him at all meales, and other services during his abode in London, which was, as is underwritten, until the third day of May : during which time, daily, divers Aldermen and the gravest personages of the said companie did visit him, providing all kind of victuals for his table and his servants, with all sorts of officers to attend upon him in good sort and condition, as to such an Ambassadour of honour doeth and ought to appertained'
He remained in London until the third May, when he
" departed from London to Gravesend, accompanied with divers Aldermen and Merchants, who in good gard set him aboord the Noble shippe the Primrose, Admiral to the Fleete, where leave was taken on both sides and parts, after many imbracements and divers farewels not without expressing of teares."
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CHAP. XXXIII.
VIEW OF THE TRADE OPENED WITH RUSSIA FROM THE LETTERS OF THE COM PANY TO THE AGENTS PRICES OF ENGLISH MANUFACTURES ARTICLES
OBTAINED IN RETURN EXTENSIVE ESTABLISHMENT OF ENGLISHMEN AT
MOSCOW WHEN THAT CITY WAS DESTROYED BY THE TARTARS.
IT is not a little curious to look back into the early history of the Trade with Russia. The Letters which passed between the Com pany and its Agents apprise us of the nature and prices of the commodities interchanged, and furnish, probably, the earliest specimens extant of the English mercantile style. In one Letter it is said :*
"You shall understand we have fraighted for the parts of Russia foure good shippes to be laden there by you and your order : That is to say, the Primrose of the burthen of 240 Tunnes, Master under God John Buckland : The John Evangelist of 170 Tunnes, Master under God Laurence Roundal : The Anne, of London of the burthen of 160 Tunnes, Master under God David Philly, and the Trinitie of London of the burthen of 140 Tunnes, Master under God John Robins, as by their Charter parties may appeare : which you may require to see for divers causes. You shall receive, God willing, out of the said good ships, God sending them in safety for the use of the Company, these kinds of wares following, all marked with the general marke of the company as follow- eth, 25 fardels containing 207 sorting clothes, one fine violet in graine, and one skarlet, and 40 cottons for wrappers, beginning with number 1 . and ending with number 52. The sorting clothes may cost the first peny 51. Qs. the cloth one with the other. The fine violet I8L 6s. 6d. The Skarlet 17J. 13s. 6d. the cottons at Ql. 10s. the packe, accompanying 7 cottons for a packe more 500 pieces of Hampshire Kersies, that is 400. watchets, 43 blewes, 53 reds. 15 greenes. 5 ginger colours, and 2 yellowes which cost the first penny 41. 6s. the piece, and 3 packes containing 21 cottons at 91. 10s the packe, and part of the clothes is measured by Arshines. More 9- barrels of Pewter of Thomas Hasels making, &c. Also the wares bee packed and laden as is aforesayde, as by an invoyce in every shippe more plainly may appeare. So that when it shall
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 297.
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please God to send the saide good shipps to you in safetie, you are to receive our said goods, and to procure the sales to our most advantage either for ready money, time or barter : having consideration that you doe make good debts, and give such time, if you give any, as you may employ and returne the same against the next voyage ; and also foreseeing that you barter to a profit, and for such wares as be here most vendible, as waxe, tallowe, traine oile, hempe and flaxe. Of furres we desire no great plentie, because they be dead wares. And as for Felts we will in no wise you send any. And whereas you have provided tarre, and as we suppose, some hempe ready bought, our advise is, that in no wise you send any of them hither unwrought because our fraight is 41. a tunne or little less : which is so deare, as it would not beare the charges : and therefore we have sent you 7. ropemakers, as by the copies of their cove nants here inclosed shall appeare. Whom we will you set to worke with all expedition in making of cables and ropes of all sorts, from the smallest rope to xii inches : And that such tarre and hempe as is already brought to the water side, they may there make it out, and after that you settle their work in Vo- loghda or Colmogro as you shall think good, where their stuffe may be neerest to them : at which place and places you doe assigne them a principall over seer as well to see the deliverie of the stuffe unwrought, as also to take charge of the stuffe wrought, and to forsee that neither the yarne be burnt in tarring, nor the hempe rotted in the watering ; and also to furnish them so with la bourers, workmen and stuffe, as hereafter when these workmen shall come away, we be not destitute of good workmen, and that these may dispatch as much as possible they may, doing it substantially, for we esteeme it a prin- dpall commoditie, and that The Counsel of England doth well allowe. Let all diligence be used that at the returne of these shippes we may see samples of all ropes and cables if it be possible, and so after to continue in worke, that we may have good store against the next yeere. Therefore they have neede to have a place to work in, in the winter : and at any hand let them have hempe ynough to spinne their stuffe : for seeing you have great plentie of hempe there, and at a reasonable price, we trust we shall be able to bring as good stuffe from thence, and better cheape then out of Danske : if it be diligently used, and have a good overseer.
"Let the chiefest lading of these foure shippes be principally in wexe, flaxe, tallowe and trayne oyle. And if there be any more wares then these ships be able to take in, then leave that which is least in valeu and grossest in stowage until the next shipping : for wee do purpose to ground our selves chiefly upon those commodities, as wexe, cables and ropes, traine oyle, flaxe and some linen yarne. As for Masts, Tarre, Hempe, Feathers, or any such other like, they would not beare the charges to have any considering our deere fraight. We have sent you a skinner to be there at our charges for meate, drinke and lodg ing, to view and see such furres as you shall cheap or buye, not minding never- thelesse, that you shall charge yourselves with many, except those which be most vendible, as good marterns mimures, otherwise called Lettis, andMynkes. Of these you may send us plentie, finding them good and at a reasonable price. As for sables and other rich furres, they bee not every mans money : therefore
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you may send the fewer, using partly the discretion of the Skinner in that behalfe.
" We heare that there is great plentie of Steele in Russia and Tartarie, whereof wee would you sent us part for an example, and to write your mindes in it what store is to be had : for we heare say there is great plentie, and that the Tartars steele is better than that in Russia. And likewise we be informed that there is great plentie of Copper in the Emperours Dominions : we would be certified of it what plentie there is, and whether it be in plates or in round flat cakes, and send us some for an example. Also we would have you to cer- tifie us what kind of woollen cloth the men of Llie and Reuel, and the Poles and Lettoes doe bring to Russia, and send the scantlings of them with part of the lists, and a full advice of the lengths and breadths, colours and prices, and whether they be strained or not : and what number of them may be uttered in a yeere, to the intent that we may make provision for them for the like sorts, and all other Flemish wares which they bring thither and be most vendible there. And to certifie us whether our set clothes be vendible there or not : and whether they be rowed and shorne : because ofttimes they goe undrest. Moreover, we will you send us of every commodity in that Country part, but no great quantity other than such as is before declared. And likewise every kind of Lether, whereof we be informed there is great store bought yeerely by the Esterlings and Duches for hie Almaigne and Germanie.
" More, that you doe send us for proofe a quantity of such Earth, hearbes, or what thing soever it be, that the Russes do die, and colour any kind of cloth linen or wollen, Lether or any other thing withall : and also part of that which the Tartars and Turkes doe bring thither, and how it must be used in dying and colouring. Moreover that you have a special foresight in the chusing of your Tallowe, and that it may be well purified and tried, or els it will in one yeere putrifie and consume.
" Also that you certifie us the trueth of the weights and measures, and howe they do answere with ours, and to send us 3 robles in money, that we may try the just value of them.
" Also we doe send you in these ships ten yong men that be bound Prentises to the Companie whom we will you to appoint every of them as you shall there find most apt and meete, some to keep accompts, some to buy and sell by your order and commission, and some to send abroad into the notable cities of the Countrey for understanding and knowledge."
The spirit of commercial enterprise was fully kindled, and an eager desire appears to become the Carriers of the world. What a change from the utter prostration which led, just before, to the appeal to Him whose genius had been thus successfully invoked to quicken and to guide !
" We would you bought as much waxe principally as you may get. For if there be in that country so great quantity, as we be informed there is, it will be the best commodity we may have : for having that wholly in our hands, we
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may serve our ovm Country and others. Therefore seeing the Emperour doth minde, that such commodities as bee in his dominions shall not passe to Rie and Revel and Poland as they have done, but be reserved for us : therefore we must sT) lay for it, that it may not be upon their hands that have it to sell, always having consideration in the price and time as our next dispatch may correspond.
" Also we doe understand that in the countrey of Permia or about the river of Pechora is great quantitie of Ye we, and likewise in the countrey of Ugory, which we be desirous to have knowledge of, because it is a special com- moditie for our Realme. Therefore wee have sent you a yong man, whose name is Leonard Brian, that hath some knowledge in the wood, to shew you in what sorte it must be cut and cloven. So our minde is if there be any store, and that it be found to be good, that there you doe provide a good quantitie against the next yeere for the comming of our shippes. And because wee bee not sure what timber they shall finde there to make Casks, we have laden in these ships 140 Tunnes emptie Caske, that is 94 tunnes shaken Casks and 46 tunnes whole, and ten thousand hoopes, and 480 wrethes of twigs ; they may be doing with that till they can provide other timber, which wee would be glad to heare of. They have an example with them of the bignesse of the Caske they shall make. Neverthelesse, all such Buttes and Hoggesheads as may be found to serve we will shal be filled with traine Oyle.
" It shalbe very needeful that you doe appoynt certaine to see the romaging of the ships, and to give the master or Botswaine, or him that will take upon him to romage, a good reward for his labour to see the goods well romaged. If it be iij d. or iiij d. the tunne, it shall not be amisse. For if it be not sub stantially well looked into, it may be a great deale of money out of our wayes.
" Also because we reckon that from the Mosco will bee alwayes better con veyance of letters to us by land : our minde is that from time to time as occa sion shall serve, our Agents shall write to him that shall lie at Mosco of all things that shall passe, that he may give us large instructions, aswel what is solde and bought, as also what lading we shall take, and what quantitie and kinde of goods wee shall send. For we must procure to utter good quantitie of wares, especially the commodities of our Realme, although we afford a good penyworth, to the intent to make other that have traded thither, wearie, and so to bring ourselves and our commodities in estimation, and likewise to pro cure and have the chiefe commodities of that Country in our hands, as waxe and such others ; that other Nations may be served by us and at our hands. For wee doe understand that the greatest quantitie of waxe that commeth to Danske, Lubeck, and Hambourgh, commeth out of Russia, Therefore if wee should buy part, and they also buy, it would raise the price there, and would be little worth here. And all such letters of importance and secrecie as you doe send by land for any wares or otherwise, you must write them in Cyphers after the order of a booke sent you in the shippes : alwayes taking good heede in placing of your letters and cyphers, that we may understand them by the same booke here, and to send them in such sort, that we may have them here
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by Christmas or Candlemas if it be possible. And because you cannot so cer tainly advertise us by letters of your doings, but some doubt may arise whereof we would most gladly be certified : our minde is therefore that with these ships you send us home one such yong man as is most expert in knowledge of that Countrey, and can best certifie vs in such questions as may be demanded, whome we will remit unto you againe in the next ships. We think Arthur Edwards wil be fittest for that purpose : neverthelesse use your discretion in that matter.
" The prices of wares here at this present, are, bale flaxe twenty pound the packe and better, towe flaxe twentie-eight pounds the hundred, traine oyle at nine pounds the tunne, waxe at foure pound the hundred, tallow at sixteene shillings the hundred, cables and ropes very deare ; as yet there are no shippes come out of Danske."
Though matters passed off so smoothly in public with the Ambassador, we are let here behind the curtain, and note some misgivings as to the character of himself and his countrymen :
" Also if the Emperour bee minded to deliver you any summe of money, or good waxe at as reasonable price as you may buye for readie money, wee will that you shall take it and lade it for our accomptes, and to come at our adventure, and hee to be payed at the returneof the shippes in velvets, sattens, or any other kinde of silke, or cloth of golde, cloth of tissue, or according as his commission shalbe that he shall send us in the shippes, and according to such paternes as hee shall send. Wee doe not finde the Ambassadour nowe at the last so conformable to reason as wee had thought wee shoulde. Hee is very mistrustfull, and tldnketh everie man will beguile him. Therefore you had neede to take heede howe you have to doe with him or with any such, and to make your bargains plaine, and to set them downe in writing. For they be subtill people, and doe not alwaies speaJce the trueth, and thinke other men to bee like themselves. Therefore we would have none of them to send any goods in our ships at any time, nor none to come for passengers, unlesse the Emperour doe make a bargaine with you, as is aforesaid, for his owne person.
" Have consideration how you doe take the roble. For although we doe rate it after sixteen shillings eight-pence of our money, yet it is not worth past 12 or 13 shillings sterling."*
The Agent at Vologda writes thus to the Agent at Colmogro :
" Worshipfull Sir, heartie commendations premised. These may bee to advertise you, that yesterday the thirtieth of this present came hither Robert Best, and brought with him two hundred Robles, that is one hundred for this place, and one hundred for you at Colmogro. As forhempe which is here at two robles and a halfe the bercovitie, master Gray has written to buy no
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 297.
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more at that price ; for John Sedgewicke hath bought for sixe or seven hun dred robles worth at Novogrode for one roble and a halfe the bercovite, and better cheape : and white Novogrode flaxe is there at three robles the berco vite. " I trust he will doe much good by his going thither. As I doe under stand Richard Johnson is gone to Novogrode with money to him, I doubt not but master Gray hath advertised you of all their doings, both at the Mosco and at Novogrod. And touching our doings heere, you shall perceive that wee have solde wares of this fourth voyage of one hundred and fortie robles, besides fiftie robles, of the second and third voyage since the giving up of my last account, and for wares of the countrey, you shall understand that I have bought, tried and untried, for 77 robles, foure hundred podes of tried tallowe, beside four hundred podes that I have given out money for, whereof God graunt good receipt when the time cometh, which is in Lent. And in browne flaxe and hempe I have bought seventeen bercovites, sixe podes and sixteene pound, which cost 28 robles, eleven altines two-pence. And as for other kindes of wares I have bought none as yet. And for Mastes to bee provided, you shall understand that I wrote a letter to Totma the 28 of this present for fiftie mastes, to wit, for 25 of fifteene fathoms, and 25 of fourteene fathoms, to be an arshine and a halfe at the small ende. And more, I have written for 30 great trees to be two archines and a half at the small end, and for the other that were provided the last yeere, I trust they shalbe sent downe in the spring of the yeere. And as concerning the Ropemakers, you shall understand that their abiding place shall be with you at Colmogro, as I do thinke Master Gray hath advertised you. For, as Roger Boutinge, Master of the woorkes, doeth say, there is no place more meete for their purpose then with you ; and there it will be made with lesser cost, considering that the pale is the one-halfe of it : which is to set one pale more to that, and so for to cover it over, which as they say will be but little cost. They doe pray that it may be made sixteene foote broade, and one hundred and eighty fathoms long ; and that in the middle way twentie foote from the pale towarde the water-side there may be a house made to tarre in, standing alone by itselfe for danger of fire. The Tarre house that they would have made, is to be fifteen fathoms long, and ten fathoms broade, and they would that house should be made first ; for I thinke they will not tarre before they come there. And further they desire that you will provide for as much tarre as you may, for heere we have small store, but when the time cormneth that it should be made ; I will provide as much as I can here, that it may be sent downe when the nasade commeth. The stuffe that they have reddie spunne is about five thousand weight, and they say that they trust to have by that time they come downe yarn ynough to make 20 cables. As concerning a copie of the alphabet in ciphers Master Gray hath written hither that Robert Austen had one, which he willed that he shoulde deliver to you. Thus I surcease, beseeching God to preserve you in health, and send you your hearts desire."*
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 302.
208
Another letter from the Company :
" This letter before written is the copie on one sent you by Thomas Alcock, trusting that hee was with you long since. The 26 day of the last moneth wee received a letter from him, dated in Stockholme in Sweden the 14 day of January, and we perceive by his letter that he had talked with a Dutchman that came lately from Mosco, who informed him that our friend Master An tony Jenkinson was returned to the Mosco in September last past, but how farre he had beene, or what he had done, he could not tell. Also he wrote that one John Lucke, a joyner, was taken by the Liefelanders, and put in prison. As yet we have not heard from the sayd John Lucke, nor know not whether he be released out of prison or not. We suppose that by him you wrote some letter which as yet is not come to our hands : so that we thinke he is yet in prison, or otherwise dispatched out of the way. The fifteenth day of Decem ber wee received a letter from Christopher Hodson dated in the Mosco the 29 of July, by the way of Danske ; which is in effect a copie of such another received from him in our shippes. You shall understand that wee have laden in three good shippes of ours these kind of wares following : to wit, in the Swallowe of London, master under God Stephen Burrow, 34 fardels No. 136 broad short clothes, and four fardels No. 58 Hampshire Kersies : and 23 pipes of bastards and seckes, and 263 pieces of Raisins, and four hogsheds No. 154 pieces of round pewter, and ten hogsheds and poncheons of prunes, and one dryfatte with almonds. And in the Philip and Marie, Master under God Thomas Wade, 25 fardels No. 100 broad cloths, and three fardels No. 42 Hampshire Kersies, and thirtie pipes of seckes and bastards and 100 pieces of raisins. And in the Jesus of London, Master under God Arthur Pette, 10 fardels No. 40 broade shorte clothes, and twenty-seven pipes of bastards and seckes, as by the invoices herewith inclosed may appeare ; also you shall re ceive such necessaries as you did write to bee sent for the rope-makers ; trusting that you shall have better successe with them which you shall send us in these ships, then with the rest which you have sent us yet : fer we as yet have solde none of them. And whereas we wrote unto you, in our for mer letter, that we would send you a hundred tunnes of salte, by reason it is so deare here we doe sende you but nine tunnes and a halfe, for it cost here ten-pence the bushel the first pennie : namely in the Swallow 6 tunnes and a halfe, in the Philip and Marie one tunne and a halfe, and in the Jesus one tunne and.a halfe. The 4 hogsheads of round pewter goe in the Swallow, and in the Philip and Marie No. 154 pieces as is aforesaid. We send you three ships, trusting that you have provided according to our former writing good store of lading for them. If yee have more wares than will lade the ships, let it be traine oyle that you leave behinde ; the price is not here so good as it was : it is worth here 9 pound the tunne. We thinke it good you should let the smaller ship bring as much of the traine as she can carry. And that the masters of the ships do looke well to the romaging, for they might bring away a great deale more than they doe, if they would take paine in the romaging ;
209
and bestowe the traine by it selfe, and the waxe and tallowe by it selfe : for the leakage of the traine doth fowle the other wares much.
" We send you now but 100 Kersies : but against the next yeere, if occasion serve, wee will send you a greater quantitie, according as you shall advise us : one of the pipes of seckes that is in the Swallow, which hath two round com passes upon the bung is to be presented to the Emperour : for it is speciall good. The nete weight of the 10 puncheons of prunes is 4300. 2 thirds 1 Pound. It is written particularly upon the head of every Puncheon : and the nete weight of the fatte of Almonds is 500 li. two quarters. The raisins, prunes, and almonds you were best to dispatch away at a reasonable price, and particularly the raisins, for in keeping of them will be great loss in the waight, and the fruit will decay. We thinke it good that you provide against the next yeere for the comming of our shippes 20 or 30 bullockes killed and salted, for beefe is very deare here. Therefore you were best to save some of this salt that we doe send you in these ships for the purpose. The salte of that countrey is not so good. In this you may take the opinion of the Masters of the shippes. Foxe skins, white, blacke, and russet, will be vendible here. The last yere you sent none : but there were mariners that brought many. If any of the mariners doe buy any trifling furres or other commodities, we will they shall be registered in our purser's bookes, to the intent we may know what they be."*
In a subsequent communication it is said :
" The ware that we would have you provide against the comming of the shippes are, Waxe, Tallowe, trayne Oyles, Flaxe, Cables and Ropes, and Furres such as we have written to you for in our last letters by the shippes : and from hencefoorth not to make any great provision of any riche Furres ex cept principall Sables and Lettes : for now there is a Proclamation made that no furres shall be worne here, but such as the like is growing here within this our Realme. Also we perceive that there might be a great deale of tallowe more provided in a yeere than you send. Therefore our minde is, you should enlarge somewhat more in the price, and to send us if you can three thousand podes a yeere for we do most good in it. And likewise the Russes, if you would give them a reasonable price for their wares, woulde be the willinger to buy and sell with you, and not to carie so much to Novogrode as they doe, but woulde rather bring it to Vologda to you, both Waxe, Tallowe, Flaxe, Hempe, and all kinde of other wares fitte for our countrey. Our minde is you should provide for the next ships five hundred Loshhides, of them that be large and faire, and thickest in hande, and to be circumspect in the choosing, that you buy them that be killed in season and well dried and whole. If they be good we may sell them here for sixteen shillings and better the piece, wee would have the whole skinnes, that is the necke and legges withall, for these
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 308. P
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that you sent now lacke their neckes and legges. Neverthelesse for this time you must send them as you may get them : If you coulde finde the meanes that the haire might be clipped off them, they woulde not take so much roome in the shippes as they doe. We perceive by your letters that the prices of waxe doe rise there with you, by reason that the Poles and Lifelanders doe trade into Russia by licence : which, if there should bee peace betweene them, woulde rise to a bigger price, and not be sufficient to serve them and us too, and likewise woulde bring downe there the prices of our commodities. There fore we thinke it good you shoulde make a supplication to the Emperour in the name of The Companie to returne the trade from Rye and Revel to us, espe cially for such wares as wee doe buy : promising that we will be bounde to take them at a reasonable price, as wee have bought them in times past : and likewise that wee will bring to them such wares of ours, as are thought fitte for the Countrey, and to sell them at such reasonable prices as wee have done."*
There would seem to have been very soon an extensive esta blishment at Moscow, and many Englishmen in the service of the Merchant Adventurers perished when that city was destroyed by the Tartars :
" Mosco is burnt every sticke by the Crinime the 24 day of May last, and an innumerable number of people : and in the English house was smothered Thomas Southam, Tofild, Waverley, Greene's wife and children, two children of Rafe, and more to the number of 25 persons were stifled in our beere seller : and yet in the same seller was Rafe, his wife, John Browne, and John Clarke preserved, which was wonderful. And there went into that seller Master Glover and Master Rowley also : but because the heate was so great, they came foorth again with much perill, so that a boy at their heeles was taken with the fire, yet they escaped blindfold into another seller, and there as God's will was they were preserved. The Emperour fled out of the field, and many of his people were carried away by the Crimme Tartar : to wit, all the yong people, the old they would not meddle with, but let them alone, and so with exceeding much spoile and infinite prisoners, they returned home againe. What with the Crimme on the one side, and with his crueltie on the other, he hath but few people left."f
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 306. f Ib- vol. i. p. 402.
CHAP. XXXIV.
THE CHARTER OF INCORPORATION RECITES PREPARATIONS ACTUALLY MADE
FOR VOYAGES TO THE NORTH, NORTH-EAST, AND NORTH-WEST HOW
FRUSTRATED WHALE FISHERY NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY THE AM BASSADOR OF THE SOPHY OF PERSIA AT MOSCOW HIS EXPLANATION TO
THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA AS TO ENGLAND FOLLOWED UP BY A MES SENGER TO PERSIA FROM ENGLAND WITH A LETTER TO THE SOPHY PRO POSING A COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE.
IT is only by looking closely to the terms of the Charter that we become aware of the extensive schemes of Commerce and Disco very which were contemplated, far beyond the scope of that of which the result has just been stated. The recital is as follows : —
"Whereas we be credibly informed, that our right trustie, right faith- full, and welbeloved Counsailors, William Marques of Winchester Lord high Treasurer of this our Realme of England, Henrie Earle of Arundel Lord Steward of our housholde, John Earle of Bedford Lord keeper of our Privie Scale, William Earle of Pembroke, William Lorde Howard of Effingham Lorde High Admirall of our saide Realme of England &c. Have at their owne adventure, costs and charges, provided, rigged and tackled certaine ships, pinnesses, and other meete vessels, and the same fur nished with all things necessary have advanced and set forward, for to discover, descrie, and finde Isles, landes, territories, Dominions, and Seigniories un- knowen, and by our subjects before this not commonly by sea frequented, which by the sufferance and grace of Almightie God, it shall chaunce them sailing Northwards, Northeastwards, and Northwestwards, or any partes thereof, in that race or course which other Christian Monarches (being with us in league and amitie,) have not heretofore by sea traffiqued, haunted, or frequented, to iinde and attaine by their said adventure, as well for the glorie of God, as for the illustrating of our honour and dignitie royall, in the increase of the reve nues of our crowne, and generall wealth of this and other our Realmes and Dominions, and of our subjects of the same, and to this intent our subjects above specified and named, have most humbly beseeched us, that our abundant grace, favour and clemencie may be gratiously extended unto them in this behalfe. Whereupon wee inclined to the petition of the foresaule our coun sailors, subiects and Marchants, and willing to animate, advance, further and
212
nourish them in their said Godlie, honest and good purpose, and, as we hope, profitable adventure, and that they may the more willingly, and readily atchieve the same, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion, have graunted, and by these presents do graunt, for us, our heires and successors, unto our said right trustie, and right faithfull, and right wellbeloved Coun- sailors, and the other before named persons that they by the name of Mar- chants Adventurers of England, for the discovery of lands, territories, Isles, Dominions and Seigniories unknowen, and not before that late adventure or enterprise by Sea or Navigation, commonly frequented as aforesaid, shalbe from henceforth one bodie and perpetuall fellowship and communitie of them selves, both in deede and in name, and them by the names of Marchants Ad venturers for the discoverie of lands, territories, Isles, and Seigniories un knowen, and not by the Seas, and Navigations, before their said late adven ture or enterprise by Sea or Navigation commonly frequented. We doe incor porate, name, and declare by these presents, and that the same fellowship or communalty from henceforth shalbe, and may have one Governor of the said Fellowship and Communitie of Marchants Adventurers."*
The prospects thus opened to England were doubtless over shadowed by the domestic turmoil which followed, and which separated the Noble Adventurers into virulent opposing factions. The war, too, with France, into which the country was plunged, to serve the purposes of Philip, called their attention and resources elsewhere, and it only remained to follow up the success which had dawned on the first mercantile speculations.
When we know that the extensive views of Cabot were thus controlled, and recall the sanguine expressions of his letter to Ra- musio, how must our indignation kindle anew at such cruel and absurd misstatements as those of Mr. Ellis, who thus follows up the blunder on his part, already exposed, which converts the Butrigarius Conversation into a Letter from Sebastian Cabot.
" From this account we see plainly the true reason why all thoughts of a North-West passage were laid aside for near fourscore years. For the greatest part of this time Sebastian Cabot, Esq., in quality of governor of the Russia Company, was the great director and almost the sole manager of all our ex peditions for discovery, as appears as well from the instructions drawn by him, for the direction of those who wrere employed to look for a North-East pas sage, as from several charters, commissions, and other public instruments, in which we find him mentioned with great honour, and treated as the father
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 267.
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and founder of the English navigation. It does not indeed appear, that he ever declared in express terms, against making any further searches to the North- West ; but as it is evident from the Letter of his before-mentioned that he absolutely despaired of finding such a passage, it may be fairly presumed, that during his life time, and considering the great influence he had in matters of this nature, no project for such a discovery would have met with any en couragement ; and therefore we need not wonder, that even in that age, when hardly a year passed but some design or other, for promoting commerce and navigation, was set on foot, this remained as silent and unthought of, as if it never had been proposed ; or as if a single unsuccessful attempt upon a coast never before visited, had been sufficient to extinguish all hopes, and produce abso lute despair of doing any good in a matter of such importance, the consequences of which were so well known to the enterprising navigators of those times."*
One of the results of the Northern Voyages was the opening the way to the Whale Fishery at Spitzbergen.f
An important Statute, 2nd and 3rd Edward VI. cap. 6, occurs to Newfoundland. J After reciting that within the few years last past, there had been exacted by certain officers of the admi ralty divers great sums of the merchants and fishermen resorting to Newfoundland and other places, " to the great discouragement and hinderance of the same merchants and fishermen, and to no little damage of the whole commonwealth," it is forbidden, "to demand of any such merchants or fishermen any sum or sums of money, doles, or shares of fish, or any other reward, benefit, or advantage whatsoever it be for any licence to pass this realm to the said voyages or any of them."
The claims of Cabot on the gratitude of his country for having opened to it this source of wealth and power have been freely recognised : —
" To come," says Sir William Monson, writing in 1610, " to the particulars of augmentation of our trade, of our plantations, and our discoveries, because every man shall have his due therein, I will begin with Newfoundland, lying upon the main continent of America, which the King of Spain challenges as
* Voyage to Hudson's Bay, &c., to which is prefixed an Historical Account, &c. by Henry Ellis, Gent. p. 8.
f Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 83. M'Pherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 115.
vol. ii. p. 412.
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first discoverer ; but as we acknowledge the King of Spain the first light of the West and South-West parts of America, so we, and all the world must confess, that we were the first who took possession, for the crown of England, of the north part thereof, and not above two years difference betwixt the one and the other. And as the Spaniards have, from that day and year, held their possession in the West, so have we done the like in the North ; and though there is no respect, in comparison of the wealth betwixt the countries, yet England may boast, that the discovery from the year aforesaid to this very day, hath afforded the subject annually, one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and increased the number of many a good ship, and mariners, as our western parts can witness, by their fishing in Newfoundland."
" If this worthy man," says Campbell, " had performed nothing more, his name ought surely to have been transmitted to future times with honour, since it clearly appears, that Newfoundland hath been a source of riches and naval power to this nation, from the time it was discovered, as well as the first of our plantations ; so that, with strict justice, it may be said of Sebastian Cabot, that he was the Author of our Maritime Strength, and opened the way to those improvements which have rendered us so great, so eminent, so flourishing a people."*
" By his knowledge and experience, his zeal and penetration, he not only was the means of extending the Foreign Commerce of England, but of keeping alive that Spirit of Enterprise which, even in his life time, was crowned with suc cess, and which ultimately led to the most happy results for the nation, &c."f
Another branch of Commerce which grew out of the North- Eastern Voyages, is connected with some very curious circum stances.
Richard Chancellor informed Eden, (Decades, fol. 298,) that at Moscow, he met the ambassador of the " Kinge of Persia, called the great Sophie," and was indebted to him for substan tial favours. " The ambassador was appareled all in scarlet, and spoke much to the Duke in behalf of our men, of whose kingdom and trade he was not ignorant." It may excite a smile, at the present day, to find an Ambassador of the Sophy of Persia vouch ing for the commercial respectability of England ; and the Russia Company itself, yet in existence, is probably not aware of the extent to which it may have been indebted to his good offices. The complacent feeling thus indicated led shortly after to the
* Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, art. Sebastian Cabot, t Barrow's Chronological History, &c. p. 30.
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mission of Anthony Jenkinson. The Company writing to the Agent in Russia, say,* " We have a further hope of some good trade to be found out by Master Anthonie Jenkinson by reason we do perceive, by your letters, that raw silk is as plentiful in Persia as flax is in Russia, besides other commodities that may come from thence." One of the earliest acts of Elizabeth, after her accession, was to address a letter " To the right mightie and right victorious Prince, the Great Sophie, Emperor of the Per sians, Medes, Parthians, Hircans, Carmanians, Margians, of the people on this side and beyond the river of Tigris, and of all men and nations between the Caspian Sea and the Gulfe of Persia." She asks his good offices towards the Agent of the Company :
" For that his enterprise is onely grounded upon an honest intent, to establish trade of merchandise with your subjects, and with other strangers trafficking in your Realms." " We do hope that the Almightie God will bring it to pass, that of these small beginnings greater moments of things shall hereafter spring both to our furniture and honors, and also to the great commodities and use of our peoples, so that it will be knowen that neither the Earth, the Seas, nor the Heavens have so much force to separate us, as the godly disposition of natural humanity and mutual benevolence have to joyne us strongly together."^
* Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 30?. f Ib. p. 341.
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CHAP. XXXV.
THE SEARCH-THRIFT DESPATCHED TO THE NORTH IN 1556 UNDER STEPHEN BURROUGH — CABOT'S ENTERTAINMENT AT GRAVESEND — INFLUENCE OP
THE DEATH OP EDWARD VI. ON HIS PERSONAL FORTUNES REVIVING
HOPES OF THE STILYARD MERCHANTS THEIR INSOLENT REFERENCE TO
THE QUEEN IN A MEMORIAL ADDRESSED TO PHILIP THE LATTER
REACHES LONDON, 20TH MAY, 1557 NEW ARRANGEMENT AS TO CABOT's
PENSION ON 2QTH MAY 1557 WILLIAM WORTHINGTON IN POSSESSION
OF HIS PAPERS ACCOUNT OF THAT PERSON MANNER IN WHICH THE
MAPS AND DISCOURSES HAVE PROBABLY DISAPPEARED CABOT*S ILLNESS
AFFECTING ACCOUNT OF HIS LAST MOMENTS BY RICHARD EDEN.
AMIDST the stir and bustle of these commercial enterprises con certed by Cabot, or due to the impulse he had communicated, there occurs a remarkable anecdote of himself. Stephen Bur- rough, afterwards Chief Pilot of England and one of the four Masters having charge of The Royal Navy at Chatham, &c.,* had been with Richard Chancellor, on the first voyage, and was
J O '
again despatched to the North in 1556, in a pinnace called the Search-thrift. His copious journal of the incidents of the voyage is preserved,f and an entry at the outset strikingly exhibits the an xious supervision of Cabot, and the apparent unwillingness to quit, up to the latest moment, the object of so much solicitude. At the Entertainment, too, provided at Gravesend, his countenance to the joyous amusements of the company not only shews the un- unbroken spirits of this wonderful man, but the terms in which Burrough records these minute incidents prove how well Cabot understood the character of those around him, and knewr that he was leaving, to cheer them amidst their perils, a grateful impres sion of kind and familiar sympathy at home.
* See his Commission from Queen Elizabeth, dated 3rd January, 1563, amongst the Lansdowne MSS. No. 116, art. Hi. t Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 274.
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"The 27 April being Munday, the Right Worshipful Sebastian Cabuto came aboord our Pinnesse at Gravesende, accompanied with divers Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen, who after that they had viewed our Pinnesse and tasted of such cheere as we could make them aboord, they went on shore, giving to our ma riners right liberall rewards : and the good olde Gentleman Master Cabota gave to the poore most liberall almes, wishing them to pray for the good fortune, and prosperous successe of the Serchthrift, our Pinnesse. And then at the signe of the Christopher, he and his friends banketted, and made me, and them that were in the company great cheere : and for very joy that he had to see the towardness of our intended discovery, he entered into the dance himselfe, amongst the rest of the young and lusty company : which being ended, hee and his friends departed most gently, commending us to the Governance of Almighty God."
A gloom now overspreads the history of Cabot, and we ap proach the closing scenes of his life with a painful conviction that they exhibit a signal instance of ingratitude and bad faith.
The untimely death of Edward VI. while it operated as a se vere check on the advancing commercial prosperity of England, was no less inauspicious to the personal fortunes of him who had given the first great impulse. The generosity of the youthful monarch, — his ingenuous and enterprising spirit, — and his fond ness for the studies and enquiries connected with sea affairs — are in melancholy contrast with the close and sullen bigotry of Mary. It would form no recommendation to her that Cabot had been a personal favourite with a brother whom she regarded as a heretic and as her own persecutor. With her husband he was still less likely to find favour. Jealous of the growing commerce and maritime enterprise of England, Philip saw in Sebastian Cabot the man who had left his father's service, had refused perempto rily to return, and who was now imparting to others the benefit of his vast experience and accumulated stores of knowledge.
Edward died on the 6 July, 1553. On the 27 November, 1555, the pension to Cabot was renewed, (Ryrner, Fcedera, vol. xv. p. 427,) but there is no clause having a retrospective character, to cover the intervening period, such as would be necessary if, as the fact of renewal implies, the pension made payable for life by the king and his successors was deemed to expire on the death of the reigning monarch.
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The most alarming indication of the complete change in the aspect of affairs is the fact that the Stilyard merchants, by the influence of Charles V., through the marriage of his son with Mary, were enabled to obtain relief from the Act of the late King. " This," says Rapin, " was the first fruit of the Queen's alliance with the Emperor."
Their insolent confidence is strikingly apparent in one Docu ment which shews, at the same time, their knowledge of Philip's brutal disregard of the feelings of his wife.
" At an assembly of the Hansps at Lubeck, an Edict was published against all Englishmen, forbidding all trade or commerce with them, and staying the carrying out of Corne, which was provided for the service and necessitie of the Realme : yet for all these indignities, the said Queene was contented that Com missaries on both parts should meet in England, and agree upon, and set downe a certaine and immutable manner of Trade to be held, and observed on both sides : but the Hanses were so farre from accepting of this gracious offer, that they wholly refused it, as by a Petition of theirs exhibited to King Philip, the third of June 1557 appeareth, wherein they declare the cause of that their refusall to bee, for that they coulde not have in this Realme anie other iudges of their cause, but such as were suspected, not sparing or excepting the Queene herself e of whose good will and favour they had received so often experience and triall.*
A crisis approaches. Philip reached London on the 20th May, 1557, and the formal declaration of war against France took place immediately after.f The period was one of great pecuniary em barrassment with Mary, and she saw the dreaded necessity ap proaching for a demand on Parliament of money to enable her to promote the schemes of her husband. J We recall, at such a
* Treatise of Commerce, by Wheeler, Ed. of 1601. p. 97.
f " Philip had come to London in order to support his partizans ; and he told the Queen, that if he were not gratified in so reasonable a request, he never more would set foot in England. This declaration extremely heightened her zeal for promoting his interests, and overcoming the inflexibility of her Council." Hume, anno 1557-
} " Any considerable supplies could scarcely be expected from Parliament, considering the present disposition of the nation ; and as the war would sen sibly diminish that branch arising from the customs, the finances, it was fore-
219
moment, with alarm, the almost incredible baseness and ingrati tude of this man who, the year before, had withheld from his fa ther, Charles V., the paltry pittance reserved on surrendering a mighty empire.*
On the 27th May, 1557, Cabot resigned his pension.f On the 29th, a new grant is made, but in a form essentially different. J It is no longer to him exclusively, but jointly with William Worth- ino-ton : " eidem Sebastiano et dilecto servienti nostro Willielmo
O '
Worthington."
On the face of this transaction Cabot is cheated of one-half of the sum which had been granted to him for life. This was done, no doubt, on the pretence that age prevented an efficient discharge of his duties, forgetting that the very nature of the grant for life had indulgent reference to such a contingency, and that Cabot by refusing to quit England had forfeited his pension from the Emperor.
That Worthington — probably a favourite of that dark hour — was thus provided for on pretence of aiding in the discharge of Cabot's functions seems placed beyond doubt by evidence found in Hakluyt. The Dedication of the first volume of the greater work to the Lord High Admiral of England contains these re markable expressions :
" King Edward VI., that Prince of peerless hope, with the advice of his
seen, would fall short even of the ordinary charges of government ; and must still more prove unequal to the expenses of war. But though the Queen owed great arrears to all her servants, besides the loans extorted from the subjects, these considerations had no influence with her." Ib.
* Robertson's Charles V. anno 1556. "But though he might have soon learned to view with unconcern the levity of his subjects, or to have despised their neglect, he was more deeply afflicted with the ingratitude of his Son, who, forgetting already how much he owed to his father's bounty, obliged him to remain some weeks at Burgos, before he paid him the first moiety of that small Pension, which was all that he had reserved of so many kingdoms. As without this sum Charles could not dismiss his domestics with such rewards as their services merited, or his generosity had destined for them, he could not help expressing both surprise and dissatisfaction."
t Rymer, vol. xv. p. 42?. J Ib. p. 466.
220
sage and prudent counsel, before he entered into the North-Eastern discovery, advanced the Worthy and Excellent Sebastian Cabota to be Grand Pilot of Eng land, allowing him a most bountifull Pension of £166 by the year, during his life, as appeareth in his letters Patent, which are to be seen in the third part of my work. And if God had granted him longer life, I doubt not but as he dealt most royally in establishing that office of Pilot Major, (which not long after, to tlie great hindrance of the common-wealth, was miserably turned to other private uses) so his Princely Majesty would have shewed himself no niggard in erecting, &c. &c."
The high functionary thus addressed was then in the service of Queen Elizabeth. The gross abuse, therefore, so indignantly de nounced has no reference, we may be assured, to her, and we know that amongst the early acts of her reign was the appoint ment of Stephen Burrough to the office in question. The allusion, therefore, is to some dark tale of perversion between the death of Edward in 1553 and the accession of Elizabeth in 1558, and we can have little difficulty in coupling it with this mark of royal bounty at the expense of Cabot.
The allusion was, doubtless, well understood by the person ad dressed, for his father, then Lord High Admiral of England, is named, as we have seen, in the Charter of the Merchant Adven turers, (at the head of whom Cabot is placed) as one of the asso ciates who had fitted out the vessels to prosecute discoveries in the North, North-West, and North-East.* Hakluyt alludes to this circumstance in his Dedication to the son.
We look round with some interest for information as to. William Worthington. The only notice of him discovered is in a pas sage of Strype's Historical Memorials, (vol. ii. p. 506,) where amongst the Acts of Edward VI. the youthful monarch is found, with an easy liberality, forgiving him a large debt on his allegation that a servant had run away with the money.
" A Pardon granted to William Worthington, being indebted to the King for and concerning the office of Bailiff and Collector of the Rents and Revenues of all the Manors, Messuages, Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments within the City of London, and County of Middlesex, which did belong to Colleges , Guilds, Fraternities, or Free Chappels, in the sum of 392 pounds 10 shillings 3 pence, as
* See the Charter in Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 268.
221
upon the foot of his account, made by the said William before Thomas Mild- may auditor of the said Revenues, manifestly it doth appear : In consideration of his service both in France and Scotland, and also his daily service and at tendance, being one of the ordinary Gentlemen and Pensioners ; and for that the Dent grew by the unfaithfulness of his servant, who ran away with the same. Granted in March, but the Patent signed in April."
It will be remembered* that in Hakluyt's earliest work, pub lished in 1582, he speaks of all Cabot's Maps and Discourses written with his own hand as then in the possession of William Worthington. The facts disclosed may, perhaps, assist to account for their disappearance. It is obvious that such documents would be secured, at any price, by the Spanish Court, at the period of Hakluyt's publication, when English enterprise was scattering dismay amongst the Spanish possessions in America. The work of Hakluyt (six years before the Armada) shewed where they were to be found. The depositary of them was the very man who had been the object of Philip's bounty during his brief influence in England. Were they not bought up ? There can be now only a conjecture on the subject, yet it seems to gather strength the more it is reflected on.
Suspicion may even go back farther, and suggest that a main object in associating this man with Cabot was to enable him to get possession of the papers that they might be destroyed or sent to Spain. The fact that Worthington had received them was probably too well known to be denied by him ; and his remark to Hakluyt may have been a mere mode of evading that person's prying curiosity. The same alarm which dictated the demand on Edward VI. for the return of Cabot would lead Philip to seize, with eagerness, an opportunity of getting hold of these documents, so that the author's dreaded knowledge might expire with him self. Of one thing we may feel assured. Hakluyt, who is found attaching so much importance to an " Extract" from one of Cabot's Maps, was not turned aside from efforts to get a sight of this pre cious Collection, but by repeated and peremptory refusals, for which, if i t really remained in Worthington's hands, there occurs no ade-
*See p. 41.
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quate motive. The language of the Dedication seems to betray something of the sharpness of a personal pique.
Sixty-one years had now elapsed since the date of the first com mission from Henry VII. to Sebastian Cabot, and the powers of na ture must have been absolutely weaned out. We lose sight of him after the late mortifying incident; but the faithful and kind-hearted Richard Eden beckons us, with something of awe, to see him die. That excellent person attended him in his last moments,* and fur nishes a touching proof of thestrength of the Ruling Passion. Cabot spoke flightily, " on his death bed," about a divine revelation to him of a new and infallible method of Finding the Longitude which he was not permitted to disclose to any mortal. His pious friend grieves that" the good old man," as he is affectionately called, had not yet, "even in the article of death, shaken off all worldlie vaine glorie." When we remember the earnest religious feeling exhi bited in the Instructions to Sir Hugh Willoughby, and which formed so decided a feature of Cabot's character,it is impossible to conceive a stronger proof of the influence of long cherished habits of thought, than that his decay ing faculties, at this awful moment, were yet entangled with the problem which continues to this day to vex, and elude, the human intellect. The Dying Seaman was again, in imagination, on that beloved Ocean over whose bil lows his intrepid and adventurous youth had opened a pathway, and whose mysteries had occupied him longer than the allotted span of ordinary life. The date of his death is not known, nor, except pre sumptively, the place where it occurred. From the presence of Eden we may infer that he died in London. It is not known where his Remains were deposited. The claims of England in the new world have been uniformly, and justly, rested on his disco-
* See the Epistle Dedicatory to " A very necessarie and profitable book con cerning Navigation compiled in Latin by Joannes Taisnerus, a publike Professor in Rome, Fen aria and other Universities in Italic, of the Matheinaticalles named a Treatise of Continual Motions. Translated into English by Richard Eden, Imprinted at London by Richard Jugge." There is a copy of the work in the King's Library, British Museum, (title in Catalogue, Eden.}
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veries. Proposals of colonization were urged, on the clearness of the Title thus acquired, and the shame of abandoning it. The English Language would probably be spoken in no part of Ame rica but for Sebastian Cabot. The Commerce of England and her Navy are admitted to have been deeply — incalculably — his debtors. Yet there is reason to fear that in his extreme age the allowance which had been solemnly granted to him for life was fraudulently broken in upon. His birth-place we have seen denied. His fame has been obscured by English writers, and every vile calumny against him eagerly adopted and circulated. All his own Maps and Discourses " drawn and written by himself" which it was hoped might come out in print, " because so worthy monuments should not be buried in perpetual oblivion/' have been buried in perpetual oblivion. He gave a Continent to England : yet no one can point to the few feet of earth she has allowed him in return !
BOOK II.
CHAP. I.
VOYAGES SUBSEQUENT TO THE DISCOVERY BY CABOT PATENT OF 1QTH MARCH
1501, NOW FIRST PUBLISHED, IN FAVOUR OF THREE MERCHANTS OF
BRISTOL AND THREE PORTUGUESE NATIVES BROUGHT TO ENGLAND AND
EXHIBITED AT COURT ERRONEOUS REFERENCE OF THIS INCIDENT TO
CABOT — HAKLUYT'S PERVERSION — SECOND PATENT QTH DECEMBER 1502 — DR. ROBERTSON'S MISCONCEPTIONS — PROBABLE REASONS FOR THE ABANDONMENT OF THE ENTERPRISE.
IT is now proposed to pass in review the efforts which have been made at different periods, and under various auspices, to follow up the project of Cabot, so as far as may be necessary to exhibit the pervading influence of the original enterprise. This part of the subject has in it little of an attractive, or popular, character ; yet the close and minute enquiry which it involves will, it is hoped, be sufficiently relieved by its high purpose of rendering an act of tardy justice to the fame of this great seaman. The same ignorance, or malevolence, which has so long obscured the evi dence of what he himself achieved, has been even yet more suc cessful in effecting its object by an absurd exaggeration of the merit of subsequent navigators.
Attention is naturally turned, in the first place, to the country in which the scheme had its origin ; and here we recognize dis tinctly the quickening impulse of its partial success, though ren-
Q
226
dered unavailing by accidental causes. The page of Lord Bacon which states the public exhibition by Cabot, on his return, of a " Card," shewing his progress to 67° and-a-half, apprises us that " again in the sixteenth year of his reign, and likewise in the eighteenth, the King granted new commissions for the dis covery and investing of unknown lands."
Singular as it may appear, the first of these interesting and cu rious documents has never yet been made public, and the reference to it in a subsequent paper printed by Rymer, (vol. xiii. p. 42,) has a mistake as to the date. After a tedious search at the Rolls Chapel, it has at length been discovered, and though, from un pardonable carelessness, a part of it has become illegible, yet no material portion is lost.
It was granted during the brief Chancellorship of the Bishop of Salisbury, and bears date 19th March, in the 16th year of Henry VII. (19th March 1501,) and is in favour of Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas, " Merchants of the Towne of Brystowe," and John Fernandas, Francis Fernandas and John Gunsolus, " borne in the Isle of Surrys, under the obeisance of the Kyng of Portugale." The following are its leading provisions.
Authority is given to these persons, their heirs, factors and de puties, to sail to and explore, at their own expense, all Islands, Countries, regions, and provinces whatever, in the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas heretofore unknown to Christians, and to set up the Royal Banner in such places as they may discover, and to subdue and take possession of the same in the name of the King of England. They are permitted to employ as many vessels as they may think proper, and of any burden.
The King's subjects, male and female, are permitted to go to and inhabit the regions which may be discovered, to take with them their vessels, servants, and property of every description, and to dwell there under the protection and government of the patentees who are empowered to frame Laws and to enforce their execution. Theft, homicide, robbery, and violation of the female natives of
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the newly-discovered countries, are specially recited as offences to be provided against.
The exclusive privilege of trading to the newly-discovered countries is secured to the Patentees for ten years ; and they may import thence gold, silver, precious stones, and all other products.
In special consideration of the great expense attending the en terprise, they are authorised to import for the term of four years in one vessel of any burden, all articles duty-free; but a proviso is eagerly added that this shall not affect the claim to duties on ar ticles imported in other vessels.
All persons presuming to visit the newly-discovered regions without permission of the Patentees, even though subjects of a power in friendship and alliance with England, may be treated as enemies, and expelled, or imprisoned and punished at the discre tion of the Patentees.
They may appoint deputies for the government of all cities, towns, and other places, in the countries discovered.
The office of King's Admiral in those regions is conferred on them, and the survivors and survivor of them.
Lands are to be held by them, their heirs and assigns, by fealty only, without further or other claim or demand on the part of the King or his heirs.
The next clause forbids any interference with the Patentees by any foreigner under any grant before made, or which should af terwards be made, under the Great Seal.
The writing on the original parchment is then carefully erased from a considerable space which had been occupied, as we may conjecture, with the case of Cabot.
The three Portuguese are made denizens ; yet even this act of grace is coupled w ith a qualification strikingly characteristic of the Monarch whose sign manual is affixed to the instrument. It is provided that they shall continue liable to pay duties as aliens on all merchandise exported or imported !*
* As this document has not heretofore been made public, it is given at large in the Appendix (D).
Q2
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The subsequent Patent bears date 9th December, in the eigh teenth year of Henry VII. that is 9th December, 1502, and is found in Rymer (vol. xih. p. 37.) Of the original Patentees, the names of Richard Warde, John Thomas, and John Fernandus are dropped, and to those retained (Thomas Ashehurst, John Gun- solus and Francis Fernandus) is now added Hugh Elliott. The powers given to these four persons are essentially the same with those conferred on the former six ; and in matters of detail a temper evidently less churlish is displayed. The exclusive right of trade to the new regions is extended to a period of forty years, and the exemption from duty on merchandise imported in one vessel, of whatever burden, to fifteen years ; and before the instru ment closes, the additional privilege is given of importation, duty free, for five years, in one other vessel of 120 tons. The last in dulgence is seemingly wrung from the King, after a partial prepa ration of the instrument. The ungracious proviso which accom panied the original denization is also withdrawn, and they are to pay no higher duties than natural-born subjects.
It is specially provided that any discoveries made by the new patentees shall not be for the benefit of the former without an express agreement to that effect,
At this late period, we cannot pretend to ascertain, with cer- cainty, what was done under these Patents which evidently look to an extensive scheme of colonization.
That one voyage at least was made, may be inferred from vari ous circumstances.
The provisions of the second Patent, of the 9th December, 1502, have reference to the discovery of regions " not before discovered by the King's subjects under authority from the Great Seal," (" quse antehac ab aliis subdilis nostrisj aut ab aliquibus hseredum et successorum suorum, potestatem, per alias Literas Patentes sub Magno Sigillo Nostro in ea parte a Nobis habentibus, reperta, in- venta,investigataetrecuperata non fuerunt") No such expressions are found in the Patent of 19th March, 1501, the reference there being only to a former authority to a foreigner (extraneus), that is,
229
the Venetian, John Cabot. We may therefore fairly infer, that the allusion is to some intermediate discovery by the Patentees of the 19th March, 1501, two of whom, Richard Warde and John Thomas, merchants of Bristol, are omitted in the second Patent.
The presumption is further strengthened by the following pas sage in S tow's Annals, under the year 1502 —
" This year were brought unto the King three men taken in the Newfound Ilandes by Sebastian Gabato before named in anno 1498 ; these men were clothed in beast skins and did eate raw flesh, but spake such a language as no man could understand them, of the which three men two of them were seen in the King's Court at Westminster two years after clothed like Englishmen and could not be discerned from Englishmen.0
Stow quotes as his authority Robert Fabyan, though, as has been remarked on a former occasion, no such passage is to be found in the printed work of that Annalist.
The coupling of Cabot's name here with the year 1498, may, perhaps, be supposed to refer merely to what had been said of him before, as the finder of the new region, and to be a mode of de signating a country which had, as yet, received no familiar appel lation. One obvious consideration arises on the face of the ac count to negative the idea that the savages exhibited in 1502, had been brought off by him in 1498. The author speaks, it will be seen, of the complete change in their aspect and apparel, after a lapse of two years. Now had they arrived with Cabot, they must have been in England four years prior to the exhibition. Where had they been kept in the intermediate period, and would they not, long before, have cast their skins and lost something of the savageness which afterwards disappeared so rapidly ? To sup pose that they had been recently " brought unto the King" by Cabot is against probability, when, while nothing is found with regard to him, the Records shew a treaty with Henry VII. by others, executed a sufficient time before to fall in with this exhibition. These considerations would countervail even a positive statement,had one been made,by the old Annalist who, in a memo randum as to the strange sight he had witnessed at Westminster, would naturally refer it, without minute enquiry, to the discovery
230
and the person he had before named. It is satisfactory to disen gage Cabot from the cruel trick of bringing off the aborigines ; this was plainly the first tribute to popular wonder from the New World. They had evidently just arrived, and were doubtless brought up to London to excite general curiosity and interest as to the new region preparatory to an effort which was successfully made in December, to obtain a relaxation of the terms of the original Patent. We may remark further, aside from the improbability of the three Portuguese remaining idle in England for nearly two years, that they would have come with an ill grace to ask for a new Patent had they made no experiment to ascertain how far the original one might be turned to account. Doubtless the modification was urged on the ground that the country was found, on examination, to offer none of the rich com modities specially referred to in the first patent, — neither gold, silver, nor precious stones, — and that it was impossible to expect, under the original terms, even a reimbursement of the expense incurred. We require some such explanation of the sudden ex tension from ten to forty years of the privilege of exclusive traffic. Another instance of treachery on the part of Hakluyt is here to be noted, which may shew how undeserving he is of confidence. The early part of the year 1502 falls within the seventeenth of Henry VII.* On turning to Hakluyt's original work, published in 1582, there will be found this same passage of Fabyan, as derived from " John Stowe Citizen a diligent searcher and preserver of Antiquities," and he there, with the recent communication before him, actually states the seventeenth year of Henry VII. as the date of this exhibition of savages. But when he came to publish his larger, and more ambitious, work, he seems to have paused over the several scraps of information he had collected, and which ap-
* The following entries in the Account of the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII. are obviously to be connected with these Patents : —
" 7 January 1502 To men of Bristol that found TV Isle £5
" 30 September 1 502 To the Merchants of Bristol that
have bene in the Newe founde Launde . £'20
231
peared so little to harmonise. There is no evidence, it may be remarked, that he had any knowledge of the two Patents to the Bristol Merchants and the Portuguese. He thought it, then, unaccountable how Cabot should be found, at so late a period, exhibiting savages evidently just from the woods. He deter mined, therefore, to set the matter right, and the "seventeenth" year of his original work is actually converted into " four teenth," so as to correspond with the date of Cabot's voyage. In the work of 1582, the passage is headed " Of three savage men which he brought home and presented unto the King in the XVII yeere of his raigne," but in 1600, (vol. iii. p. 9,) " Of three sa vages which Cabot brought home and presented unto the King in the fourteenth yeare of his raigne mentioned by the foresaid Robert Fabian." Thus the names of Stowe and Fabyan, cited, in 1582, for the statement then made, are retained to sanction his own perversion eighteen years after !
Whatever may have been the result of these Commissions, a mere glance at their dates, and contents, will suffice to shew how idle are the speculations by which respectable writers have sought to account for what they term the apathy of Henry VII. The following passage from Dr. Robertson's History of America may serve as a specimen : —
" But by the time that Cabot returned to England, he found both the state of affairs and the King's inclination unfavourable to any scheme, the execution of which would have required tranquillity and leisure. Henry was involved in a War with Scotland, and his Kingdom was not yet fully composed after the commotion excited by a formidable insurrection of his own subjects in the West. An Ambassador from Ferdinand of Arragon was then in London : and as Henry set a high value upon the friendship of that Monarch, for whose character he professed much admiration, perhaps from its similarity to his own, and was endeavouring to strengthen their union by negotiating the marriage which afterwards took place between his eldest Son and the Princess Catha rine, he was cautious of giving any offence to a Prince jealous to excess of all his rights.
" From the position of the Islands and Continent which Cabot had dis covered, it was evident that they lay within the limits of the ample donative which the bounty of Alexander VI. had conferred upon Ferdinand and Isabella. No person, in that age, questioned the validity of a paper grant ; and Ferdt-
232
nand was not of a temper to relinquish any claim to which he had a shadow of title. Submission to the authority of the Pope, and deference for an ally whom he courted, seem to have concurred with Henry's own situation, in de termining him to abandon a scheme, in which he had engaged with some de gree of ardour and expectation.
"No attempt towards discovery was made in England during the remainder of his reign ; and Sebastian Cabot, finding no encouragement for his active talents there, entered into the service of Spain."
The four Commissions from Henry VII. bear date, respectively, 5th March 1496, 3rd February 1598, 19th March 1501, and 9th December 1502. Of these, the second was granted to John Cabot after the close of the war in Scotland, and the putting down of Perkin Warbeck's Insurrection in the West. The others follow at such intervals as shew a continued patronage of the project, and there is not the slightest evidence of refusal, or even of hesitation, from the considerations suggested by Dr. Robertson. At the very moment when, according to that writer, Henry was influenced by a dread of ecclesiastical censure, and a timid deference to foreign powers, he is found conferring under the Great Seal authority to make discoveries and to treat as enemies, and pursue to condign punishment, all who should presume to visit the countries discovered without permis sion, even though subjects of a monarch in alliance with England. As to the suggestion that the enterprise was finally abandoned on account of the contemplated marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine, not only do we find the dates above- mentioned running over the period of negotiation, but it happens that the last patent (the one in Rymer) is dated seven months after the Prince's death. The indisposition of Henry to give way to arrogant pretensions, is abundantly clear. The Patentees are to respect the prior discoveries of Portugal and other countries only where actual possession had been maintained, " in terris prius repertis et in quarum possessione ipsi Principes jam existunt"
Dr. Robertson had seen the title of the last Patent, as given by Rymer, but assuredly could not have read it, or he must have
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struck out the whole of the passage quoted. The reader will smile at the indolent credulity of the following sentence : "If any attempt had been made in consequence of this Patent, it would not have escaped the knowledge of a compiler so indus trious and inquisitive as Hakluyt." We have just seen, that the writer on whose accuracy and research Dr. Robertson relies so implicitly as to waive any examination for himself, has contrived, by a nefarious perversion, to obscure the very fact in question.
The real character of Henry VII. seems to have been that of a thrifty, calculating, man of business. Caring little about the niceties of the point of honour, he was inclined to submit to many slights, and some injustice, rather than go to War, which he shunned as the same prudent personage would, in private life, have deprecated a lawsuit, as a remedy involving, necessarily, much trouble and expense, and being, at last, of uncertain issue. He often obtained by negotiation what a more proud and im petuous spirit would have vindicated by the sword. But where- ever the obvious interests of the country, or of his own coffers, were concerned, he was sturdy, persevering, fearless. The in fluence of his reign on the commercial history of England has never been adequately appreciated, because no one, since the time of Bacon, has taken up the subject in a temper to do him justice. There is nothing in his character to dazzle or excite, and Treaties of Commerce are a poor substitute for Battles to the light reader or brilliant historian.
In reference to the projects under consideration, it is plain that Henry did not, for one moment, suffer the Pope's Bull, or the remonstrances of Spain, to interfere with the eager and resolute pursuit of what seemed a profitable speculation. But when he found that the only quarter of the new world which remained un occupied held out no prospect of speedy or rich returns, and that the prosecution of these enterprises, instead of proving a mine of wealth, only, perhaps, furnished an appeal to his princely generosity for
234
pecuniary aid, his interest naturally languished.* The Foreigners who had resorted to his Court were obliged to seek, elsewhere, for Patrons either more ambitious of the mere glory of discovery or more longsighted, in looking patiently to ultimate, though tardy, results. John Gunsolus, is doubtless the " Juan Gonzales, Portugais," whose name appears as a witness in the celebrated trial of the Fiscal with Diego Columbus, (Navarette, Viages, torn. iii. p. 553.) Of his own fair standing some proof is, perhaps, found in his being called on to testify to the estimation in which Alonzo Pinzon was held by the seamen of that period, (Ib. p. 569.) He mentions his having sailed with Diego de Lepe, and probably proceeded to England about the date (May, 1500) of the letter of the King and Queen of Spain to Dorvelos, which Navarette (torn. iii. p. 42) refers to a project on the part of Spain to follow up the discoveries of Cabot. Lepe himself, after his return, is found in the Novem ber of the same year at Palos, entangled in some vexatious law proceedings, (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 80.)
Repeated reference is found in Herrera to John and Francis Gongalez, but as there are several individuals thus designated it is impossible to know what incidents to refer to the English pa tentees.
* That an intercourse was kept up for several years with the newly-discovered region, is apparent from the following entries in the account of the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.
"17 November, 1503. To one that brought hawkes from the Newfounded Island, 11.
" 8 April, 1504. To a preste [priest] that goeth to the new Islande, 21.
" 25 August, 1505. To Clays going to Richmount with wylde catts and popyngays of the Newfound Island, for his costs, 13s. 4d.
" To Portugales [Portuguese] that brought popyngais and catts of the moun- taigne with othei stuff to the King's grace, 51."
Can it have been that Sebastian Cabot, meanwhile, was attempting to colonize the new region ? The Mission of the Priest would seem to coun tenance the idea of a settlement ; and we might thus account for the long dis appearance of our Navigator, as well as for the language of Thevet, (see p. 89 of the present volume.)
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CHAP. II.
FIRST VISIT OF COLUMBUS TO TERRA FIRMA ON HIS THIRD VOYAGE APPRISED
BEFORE LEAVING SPAIN OF CABOT's DISCOVERIES PROJECTED EXPE DITION TO THE NORTH FROM SPAIN.
IT cannot be supposed that the two great maritime contemporaries of Henry, would regard with indifference the enterprise of Cabot, since the " Card," which that navigator exhibited on his return, according to Lord Bacon, plainly shewed how little respect was paid to the arrogant meridian line which had received the highest ecclesiastical sanction.
The Continent of America was first visited by Columbus in August 1498, in the course of what is called his Third Voyage, on which he sailed 30 May 1498. The bare mention of these dates will establish the impossibility that he could have been igno rant of the great discoveries of Cabot which, commencing at the point seen on the 24 June 1497, had extended over the " Londe and Isle," recited in the second patent. Not only had the first expedition returned, and the manners been dispersed in every direction, but a new expedition, with the King at its head, is subsequently planned, and the royal authority, of 3rd February 1498, for its sailing pre cedes, by nearly four months, the departure of Columbus. To suppose him ignorant of events so momentous would involve an ab surdity which becomes the more glaring in proportion as the cir cumstances are considered. The court of Henry VII. was filled with the agents of foreign powers,* through whom the news would
* " It grew also from the airs which the princes and states abroad received from their ambassadors and agents here ; which were attending the court in great number," &c. " So that they did write over to their superiors in high terms concerning his wisdom and art of rule; nay, when they were returned, they did commonly maintain intelligence with him." Bacon's Henry VII.
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not fail to be spread, at once, over Europe. With regard to Spain, as she would feel the deepest interest on the subject, so the circumstances are strongest to shew a continued communication between the two countries. The authority in reference to the pro posed marriage of Prince Arthur with Catharine, bears date 3rd January, 1496, and the negotiation runs through the whole of the period to 14th November, 1501, when the ceremony took place. It was by the intervention of the resident Spanish Ambassador, Don Pedro d'Ayola, that the Truce between England and Scotland of 30 September, 1497, was brought about, and certain matters being left to the arbitrament of Ferdinand and Isabella, Henry's assent to the reference bears date 13 December, 1497.* That d'Ayola, in the active communications going on at such a period, omitted to speak of events so memorable in themselves, and which Spain must have regarded with such especial interest, is a proposition that it is superfluous to combat.
A project was soon formed to visit the region actually explored by Cabot. Navarette (viages, torn. iii. p. 77) gives us a letter dated Seville, 6th May 1500, from the king and queen to a certain " Juan Dornelos 6 Dorvelos," touching a voyage of discovery, and supposes (ib. p. 42) that it had for its object to explore the seas, from the discovery of which Sebastian Cabot had returned, ("que el plan dirigiese a renoncer los mares que acababa de descubrir Sebastian Caboto.") Nothing further appears with regard to it.
* Rymer, vol. xii. p. 672.
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CHAP. III.
EXPEDITION FROM PORTUGAL— CORTEREAL THE WORK ENTITLED " PAESI
NOVAMENTE RITROVATI," &C. LETTER OF THE VENETIAN AMBASSADOR
AT LISBON ELEVEN DAYS AFTER THE RETURN OF CORTEREAL REFERENCE
TO THE PREVIOUS VOYAGE OF CABOT TRINKETS FOUND AMONGST THE
NATIVES TRANSLATION OF THE " PAESI," &C. IN 1516.
THE voyage from Spain may not have taken place, but in another quarter a more decided result was produced ; and we reach now an enterprise of some celebrity, undertaken directly from that country whose adventurers have been traced to England animated with the hope of turning to account the discoveries of Cabot.
After the recent shame to Portugal of the rejection of Colum bus, her enterprising and sagacious monarch could not but take alarm at the departure of his subjects to seek the shelter, and to advance the glory, of a foreign flag. He had, moreover, the strongest motives of interest for wishing to anticipate the efforts of others to reach by a shorter route those regions of which he had heretofore monopolised the lucrative and envied com merce. Nor could the attempt be now deemed a very arduous one. The dispersion of a force of three hundred men, which, according to Peter Martyr, accompanied Cabot on the voyage spoken of by that historian, would leave not a single sea-port without many mariners eager to describe, and to exaggerate, the wonders of the region they had visited, and anxious, as well as com petent, to act as guides in the prosecution of a new enterprise. We are quite prepared, therefore, to believe that the ready assent, and liberal countenance, of Emanuel might enable those who en joyed them to get the start of such of his own subjects as had, perhaps, earlier conceived the project and repaired to England,
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but whose proposals had there to encounter all the delays pro duced by the cautious and penurious temper of the personage to whom they were addressed. It does not seem probable that Gun- solus and Fernandus would have resorted to England after an Expedition for a similar purpose, and likely to cross their path, had been fitted out under the auspices of their own Sovereign. The voluminous treaty between them and Henry VII. may, per haps, sufficiently explain the apparent tardiness of their subsequent movements. It wears, in every line, a character of anxious and elaborate preparation, and its terms are so harsh and narrow that they could not have been assented to without reluctance, and were found so impracticable that in the second patent, as we have seen, the necessity of a relaxation is conceded. The conduct of Emanuel presents an honourable contrast in every particular. He contri buted largely from his own purse, and all the arrangements were marked by that spirit of liberality which constitutes on such occasions the truest economy.
The command of the Expedition was confided to Gaspar Corte- real, who had been brought up under the immediate eye of the king while Duke de Beja.* Of its result we happen, very for tunately, to possess an account from a disinterested quarter, re markably clear and minute.
As early as the year 1507 there was published at Vicenza a Collection of Voyages and Travels under the title, " Paesi nova- mente retrovati et Novo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio Florentine intitulato" The extreme scarcity of the work may be inferred from the circumstance that Camus, having all the libraries of Paris within his reach, deplores the absence of the original edition, (Memoire sur la Collection des Grands et Petits Voyages, &c.,p.5,) and Navarette (Colecion de losViages,8cc.,tom. iii. p. 187) knew of it only through an acquaintance who had been in London. Haym (Bibliotheca Italiana o sia notizia de Libri rari Italiani) had not seen the Vicenza publication. In this precious volume is preserved
* Damiano Goes Chronico del Key D. Manoel, cap. Ixvi.
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a letter from the Venetian ambassador in Portugal to his brothers, written eleven days after the return of Cortereal. The writer's opportunities for obtaining correct information were abundant. He saw the natives whom Cortereal had brought with him — heard from the adventurers themselves all the particulars of the voyage — and speaks of the hopes and speculations to which it gave rise at the Court to which he was accredited. When it is stated that of this Letter there was a most flagitious perversion in a Latin trans lation which appeared at Milan the next year, and which has poisoned all the subsequent accounts, the importance will be seen of noting carefully the language of the original. The letter appears, lib. vi. cap. cxxvi. and bears date 19th October 1501, seven months, it may here be remarked, subsequent to Henry VII. 's Patent to the three Portuguese. After a few remarks irrelative to the expedition, the writer thus continues —
"Adjr. VIII. del presente arivo quiunade le doe Caravelle quale questo se- renissimo Re lanno passato raando a discoprire terra verso tramontana Capi- taneo Caspar Corterat : et referissi havere trouato terra ii M. miglia lonzi da qui tra maestro & ponente qual mai per avanti fo cognita ad alcun ; per la costa de la qual scorseno forsi miglia DC in DCC. ne mai trovoreno fin : per el che credeno che sia terra ferma la qual continue in una altra terra che lano passato, fo discoperta sotto la tramontana, le qual caravelle non posseno arivar fin la per esser el mare agliazato & infinita copia de neue ; Questo in stesso li fa credere la moltitudine de fiumare grossissime che anno trovate la che certo de una Insula none havia mai tante & cosi grosse : Dicono che questa terra e molto po- pulata & le case de li habitant! sonno de alcuni legni longissimi coperte de foravia de pelle de passi. Hanno conducti qui VII. tra homini & femene & putti de quelli : & cum laltra Caravella che se aspecta d hora in hora ne vien altri cinquanta."
" On the 8th of the present month one of the two Caravels which his most Serene Majesty dispatched last year on a voyage of discovery to the North, under the command of Caspar Corterat, arrived here, and reports the finding of a country distant hence West and North-West two thousand miles, heretofore quite unknown. They proceeded along the coast between six and seven hundred miles without reaching its termination, from which circumstance they conclude it to be of the mainland connected with another region which last year was disco vered in the North, but which the Caravel could not reach on account of the ice and the vast quantity of snow ; and they are confirmed in this belief by the multitude of great rivers they found which certainly could not proceed from an island. They say that this country is very populous, and the dwellings of the
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inhabitants are constructed with timber of great length and covered with the skins of fishes. They have brought hither of the inhabitants, seven in all, men, women, and children, and in the other Caravel which is looked for every hour there are fifty more."
Describing the captives the Ambassador says —
" Questi sono de equal colore, figura, statura, et aspecto, similimi a cingani, vestiti de pelle de diversi animali, ma precipue de ludre ; de instade voltano el pello i suso, et de in verno el contrario ; et queste pelle non sonno cusite insieme in alcun modo, ne couze, ma cosi como sonno tolte da li animali se le meltono intorno lespalle et braze ; et le parte pudibunde Igate cum alcune corde facte de nervi de pesse fortissime. Adeo che pareno homini salvatichi : sono molto vergognosi et mansueti ; ma tanto ben facti de brazi & gambe & spalle che non se potria dire : Hanno signata la faza in modo de Indiani : chi da vi chi da viii. chi da manco segni. Parlano ma non sonno intesi dalcuno : Ampo credo chi sia sta facto parlare in ogni lenguazo possibile : Nela terra loro non hano ferro : ma fanno cortelli de alcune pietre : & similmente ponte de freze : ^t quilli anchora hanno porta de la uno pezo de spada rotta dorata laqual certo par facta in Italia : uno putto de questi haveva ale orechie dui todini de ar- zento, che senza dubio pareno sta facti a Venetia : ilche mi fa creder che sia terra ferma, perche non e loco, che mai piu sia andato nave, che se haveria hauto notitia de loro. Hanno grandissima copia de salmoni, Arenge, Stochafis, & simil pessi : Hanno etiam gran copia de legnami, & fo sopra tutto de Pini da fare arbori 8f antenne de nave, per el che questo Serenissimo Re desegna ha- vere grandissimo utile cum dicta terra si per li legni de nave, che ne haveva debesogno como per li homini ch seranno per excellentia da fatiga, & gli meglior schiavi se habia hauti sin hora."
"They are of like colour, figure, stature, and aspect, and bear the greatest re semblance to the Gypsies ; are clothed with the skins of different animals, but principally the otter ; in summer the hairy side is worn outwards, but in winter the reverse ; and these skins are not in any way sewed together or fashioned to the body, but just as they come from the animal are wrapped about the shoulders and arms : over the part which modesty directs to be concealed is a covering made of the great sinews of fish. From this description they may appear mere savages, yet they are gentle and have a strong sense of shame and are better made in the arms, legs, and shoulders, than it is possible to describe. They puncture the face, like the Indians, exhibiting six, eight, or even more marks. The language they speak is not understood by any one though every possible tongue has been tried with them. In this country there is no iron, but they make swords of a kind of stone, and point their arrows with the same materiaL There has been brought thence a piece of a broken sword which is gilt, and certainly came from Italy. A boy had in his ears two silver plates, which beyond question, from their appearance, were made at Venice, and this induces me to believe that the country is a Continent ; for had it been an
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Island and visited by a vessel we should have heard of it. They have great plenty of salmon, herring, cod, and similar fish ; and an abundance of timber, especially the Pine, well adapted for masts and yards, and hence His Serene Ma jesty contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on account of the timber of which he has occasion, but of the inhabitants who are admirably calculated for labour, and are the best slaves I have ever seen."
When it is known from Lord Bacon, (History of Henry VII.) and the earlier annalists, that the vessels which sailed with Cabot were "fraught with gross and slight wares fit for commerce with barbarous people," we can have no difficulty in deciding whither to refer the ear-rings and the fragments of the showy sword. Aside from the commercial relations of the father with his native city, such articles would naturally, at that period, have been drawn from Venice. It would be absurd to offer arguments to prove that the country further north, which Cortereal could not reach, but of which he rightly conjectured he had found a con tinuation, was that discovered by Cabot.
An early French translation of the " Paesi,8cc. "appeared at Paris, without date, but usually referred by bibliographers to the year 1516. After the quaint old introductory " Sensuyt," its title is, " Le Nou- veau Monde et navigations faictes par Emeric de Vespuce." It states the year 1500, instead of 1501, as the date of Pasquiligi's letter, and the 7th, instead of the 8th, October as the day on which Cortereal returned ; but these errors are unimportant, as the edi tions in the original are unanimous, and even the fraudulent trans lation which remains to be noticed does not falsify the date of the letter. Dr. Dibdin (Library Companion, vol. i. p. 370, note,) has fallen into a singular mistake with regard to this work, fol lowing Meusel, who was in his turn misled (Bibl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 265) by the prominence given on the title-page to the name " Emeric Vespuce." They suppose it to be a translation of another curious volume, of early date, occupied with the voyages of Ame- ricus Vespucius, and Dr. Dibdin is, consequently, amazed at the " unaccountable" price given for it by Mr. Heber. Its contents are precisely those of the " Paesi," the three first books being de voted to Cadamosto, &c., and the three last to various voyages
R
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and enterprises in the old and the new world. The name of Vespucius occurs only in the fifth book. The passages in italics, in which it follows correctly the original, are noted for the pur pose of contrast hereafter with the Latin perversion. In compa ring the following passages of Pasquiligi's letter (ch. cxxv. feuil. 78) with the original, it will be borne in mind that the league is of four miles.
Le septiesme jour du diet moys d'Octobre arriva icy vne des deux caravelles de cestuy roy de Portugal ; lesquelles 1'an passe il avoit envoyez pour des- couvrir la terre vers transmontane et en estoit capitaine Gaspard Cotrad. Et a rapporte avoir trouve, entre maistral et ponent, vne terre qui est loingtaine d'icy de cinq cens lieues. Laquelle auparavant iamais d'aucun n'avoit este congneue. Et par la coste d'icelle terre ilz allerent environ CL lieues, et iamais ne trouverent fin perquoy ils croyent que ce soit terre ferme laquelle cst voisine d'une aultre terre laquelle I'annee passes fut descouverte soulz la transmontane les quelles caravelles ne peurent arriver jusques la pourceque la mer estoit glacee et pleine de neige. Et la out trouve vne multitude de tres gros fleuves ; ilz disent que cest terre est molt populee et les maisons des habitans sont d'aucuns bois tres longs couvertes par dehors de peaulx de poisson. Ilz ont amene de ce pays la tant hommes que femmes et petis enfans huyt personnages : & dedans 1'autre caravelle qui se attend d'heure en heure en vient aultre cinquante. Les gens icy sont de esgalle couleur, figure, stature, regard et semblable de egiptiens ; vestus de peaulx de diverses bestes, mais principallement de louves. En 1'este ilz tour- nent le poil par dehors et iver le contraire. Et cestes peaulx en aulcune ma- niere ne sont point consues ensemble ni acoustrees, mais tout ainsi que elles sont ostees de la peau des bestes ilz les mettent tout alentour de leur espaulles et des bras. Les parties vergogneuses sont liez avec auscunes cordes faictes des nerfz de poisson tres fortes. En facon qu'ilz semblent hommes saulvaiges. Ilz sont moult honteulx et doulx mais si bien faitz de bras et de jambes et d'espaulles qu'ils ne pourroyent estre mieulx^ Leur visage est marquee en la maniere des Indiens ; auscuns ont VI. marques auscuns VIII. et que plus moins. Ils parlent mais ilz ne sont entendus d'aulcuns et croy qu'il leur a este parlc de tous langaiges qu'il est possible de parler. En leur pays il n'est point de for, mais le cousteaulx sont d'aulcunes pierres, et semblablement leurs poinctes de leurs flesches ; et ceulx des d'caravelles ont encores apporte d'icelle terre une piece d'espee rompue que estoit doree laquelle certainement semble avoir este faicte en Italie ; un petit enfant de ces gens la avoit dedans les oreilles certaines pieces d'argent lesquelles sans doute sembloyent estre faitz a Venise laquelle chose me fait croire que ce soit terre ferme parceque ce n'est pas lieu que iamais plr y ayt este aulcunes navires car il eust este notice d'elles — Ilz ont tres grande habondance de saulmons harens, stoquefies et semblables pois- sons. Ilz ont aussi grande habondance de bois : & surtoutes de Pins povr
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faire arbres et matz de navires parquoy ce roy a delibere de avoir grant profit de la terre a cause des bois pour faire des navires car il en avait grant besoign et aussi des horaraes lesquils seront per excellence de grant peine et les meilleurs esclaves qu'on saiche jusques a ceste heure."
The French translation, it will be seen, calls the Gypsies Egyp tians, of which the English word is a corruption. They are styled ^Egyptians in the Statute 22 Henry VIII. cap. x. but the designation of the Venetian Ambassador is that by which they were universally known in Italy. In the Dissertation of Grellman on this singular race, he remarks, (chap, i.)
" The name of Zigeuner has extended itself farther than any other ; these people are so called not only in all Germany, Italy, and Hungary (tzigany)^ but frequently in Transilvania, Wallacia, and Moldavia (ciganis). Moreover, the Turks and other Eastern Nations have no other than this name for them (tschingenes)."
The characteristics of the race are stated by Swinburne, (Travels through Spain, p. 230) —
" Their men are tall, well-built, and swarthy, with a bad scowl ing eye, and a kind of favourite lock of hair left to grow down be fore their ears, which rather increases the gloominess of their features ; their women are nimble, and supple-jointed ; when young they are generally handsome, with very fine black eyes; when old, they become the worst-favoured hags in nature."
It is remarkable that the early settlers in New-England were struck with the resemblance. Purchas (vol. iv. p. 1842) has "a Relation or Journal of a Plantation settled at Plimouth in New- England and proceedings thereof: Printed 1622, and here abbre viated." At p. 1849, we find in the month of March, the follow ing entry : —
" Saturday in the morning we dismissed the savage and gave him a knife, and bracelet, and a ring ; he promised within a night or two to come again and to bring with him some of the Massasoyts our neighbours with such beaver skins as they had, to truck with us. Saturday and Sunday reasonable fair days. On this day came again the Savage and brought with him five other tall proper men ; they had every man a deer's skin on him, and the prin-
* Is not here the original of zany ? R2
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cipal of them had a wild cat's skin or such like on one arm &c. They are of complexion like our English Gypsies, 8fc."
On the same page it is stated, that an Englishman named Hunt had practised the same infamous deception as Cortereal :
" These people are ill affected towards the English by reason of one Hunt, a master of a Ship who deceived the people and got them under color of trucking with them twenty out of this very place where we inhabit, and seven men from the Nausites and carried them away and sold them for slaves, like a wretched man (for twenty pounds a man) that care not what mischief he do them for his profit."
The passage in the Letter of the Venetian Ambassador answers, incidentally, an important purpose. A doubt has been suggested by Thomasius, Griselini, and the English geographer Salmon, whether Munster and Spelman do not err in naming 1417, in stead of 1517, as the era at which the gypsies made their appear ance in Europe, and important inferences are connected with the rectification of the supposed mistake.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica (Edinburgh Edition 'of 1810,) under the title " Gypsies" remarks —
" Munster, it is true, who is followed and relied upon by Spelman, fixes the time of their first appearance to the year 1417, but as he owns that the first whom he ever saw were in 1529, it is probably an error of the press for 1517, especially as other historians inform us that when Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in the year 1517 several of the Nations refused to submit to the Turkish yoke and revolted under Zinganeus, whence the Turks call them Zinganees."
The same suggestion is found in The London Cyclopaedia.- It must disappear, with its train of conjectures, before this Letter, written in 1501, which assumes the characteristics of the race to be so familiarly known as even to furnish a convenient illustration and save the necessity of a particular description. To those who hold the Hindostan origin of this people, and have been struck with the admirable Memoir of Captain Richardson in the Seventh volume of The Asiatic Researches, this item of evidence will be deeply interesting.
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CHAP. IV.
THE REGION VISITED BY CORTEREAL STATEMENTS OF THE THREE PORTUGUESE
HISTORIANS, DAMIANO GOES, OSORIUS, AND GALVANO OF GOMARA, HER-
RERA, AND FUMEE EDITION OF PTOLEMY PUBLISHED AT BASLE 1540—
THE NAME " LABRADOR/' I. C. " LABORER."
THE inquiry now arises as to the point at which Cortereal reached the American Continent, and followed the coast northwards for a space of between six and seven hundred miles.
Damiano Goes, a writer of the highest credit, the contemporary of Emanuel, and historiographer of Portugal, says, (Chronica del Rey D. Manoel, cap. Ixvi.) that it was —
" A region which on account of its great freshness, and the vast groves of trees all along the coast, he called Greenland," (terra que por ser muito fresca et de grandes arvoredos como o sam todas as que jazem per a quella banda Ihe pos nome Terra Verde.)
Another Portuguese writer, Osorius, (De rebus Emanuelis, &c. lib. ii.) says, that Cortereal conferred the Tiame on account of the singular amenity of the region (" ad terram tandem pervenit quam propter singularem amcenitatem Viridem appellavit.")
There is a third writer of that country, Galvano, of whom a translation by Hakluyt appeared in 1601. He says, (p. 35,)
" In the year 1500, it is reported that Gasper Cortereal craved a general license of the King Emanuel, to discover the New Foundland. He went from the Island Terceira with two ships well appointed at his own. cost, and he sailed into that climate which standeth under the North in 50 degrees of latitude, which is a land now called after his name, and he came home in safety unto the City of Lisbon."
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It is abundantly clear that Cortereal began his career to the southward of the St. Lawrence ; and he may have reached the Gulf, and perhaps the southern extremity of Labrador.
Gomara, who, as we have seen, limits Cabot to 58 degrees, says of Cortereal (ch. 37) — " Dexo su nombre a las ylas que estan a la boca del Golfo Qudrado y en mas de 50 grados," a passage translated by Richard Eden, (Decades, fol. 318,) "he named the Quadrado after his name, Cortesreales, lyinge in the L degrees and more."
Herrera, who conducts Cabot to 68, says of Cortereal (Dec. i. lib.vi. ch. 16,) " No higo mas que dexar su nombre a las Islas que estan a la boca del Golfo Quadrado en mas de 50 grados." (u He did nothing more than give his name to the islands which are in the mouth of the Gulph Quadrado in upwards of 50 de grees.") Fumde (Histoire Generale des Indes,ch. xxxvii. fol. 48) makes the same statement.
In the edition of Ptolemy, published at Basle in 1540, the first of the Maps is entitled " Typus Orbis Universalis," on which is seen in the extreme North of the New World, " Terra Nova sive de Bacalhos," and below it, to the southward, is an island desig nated " Corterati," with a great stream in its rear, evidently in tended for the St. Lawrence and thus characterised " Per hoc fretum iter patet ad Molucas."
There can be no difficulty in understanding why the region whence it was supposed the fifty-seven unfortunate natives so well adapted for Labour had been stolen received its present name. It was talked of as the Slave Coast of America, and the com mercial designation which thus entered into the speculations of adventurers seems to have quickly supplanted the appellation conferred on it by Cortereal. A similar triumph of the vocabu lary of the mart is found at the same period, and amongst the same people, in the case of Brazil. Barros (Decade i. lib. v. chap. 2) is indignant that the name of Santa- Cruz, given by Cabral, should have yielded to one adopted " by the vulgar/' from the wood which constituted, at first, its great export.
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So, in most of the old works, we find the Asiatic possessions of Portugal, designated as the Spice Islands, &c. It cannot be doubted that the objects of Corte real's second voyage were Timber and Slaves. Twenty years before, there had been erected on the shores of Africa the Fort of D'Elmina, to follow up the suggestion of Alonzo Gonzales pointing out the southern Africans as articles of commerce. We readily comprehend, then, the ex ultation with which a new region was heard of, where the inha bitants seemed to be of a gentle temper, and of physical powers such as to excite the admiration of the Venetian Ambassador. That Cortereal on the subsequent visit fell a sacrifice to the just exasperation of the people whose friends and relatives — men, women, and children — he had perfidiously carried off, is very probable, and the shores of America wTere thus saved from wit nessing all the horrors that have marked the accursed traffic in the other hemisphere.
The impressions made on the natives, of dread and detestation, seem not to have been speedily effaced. Verrazani, twenty-two years afterwards, passed along the coast from Florida to the lati tude of 50 degrees, and it is curious to follow his narrative in con nexion with our knowledge of CortereaPs base conduct, and its probable consequences to himself, and the brother who went to seek him. Verrazani speaks, in warm terms, of the kind and cor dial reception he every where experienced in the first part of his route, and in the latitude of 41° 40' he remained for a consi derable time, (see his Narrative in Ramusio, torn. iii. fol. 420.) As he proceeds further North, we recognise the coincidence of his description of the country with that of Cortereal.
" Piena di foltissime selve ; gli alberi dellequali erano abeti, cipressi et simili chi si generano in regioni fredde," ("full of thick woods, consisting of fir, cypress, and other similar trees of cold countries.") And so of the dress of the inhabitants, " Vestono di pelli d'orso et lupi cervieri et marini et d'altri animali," ("they clothe themselves with the skins of the bear, the lucerne, the seal, and other animals.") He is struck with the change of character,
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" Le genti tutte sons difformi dall' altre et quanto i passati erano d'apparenza gentili tanto questi erano di rozzezza et vitii pieni," (" the people differ entirely from the others, and in proportion as those before visited were apparently gentle, so were these full of rudeness and malevolence.") With vehement cries they forbade him to land, (" continuamente gridando che alia terra non ci ap- prossimassimo,") and a party which went on shore was assailed with the war-whoop and a flight of arrows, ("etquandoscendevamo al lito ci tiravano con li loro archi mettendo grandissimi gridi.")
CHAP. V.
CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH HAVE LED TO ERRORS AS TO THE VOYAGE OF CORTEREAL
—THE PORTUGUESE MAPS ISLE OF DEMONS THE FRAUD OF MADRIGA-
NON IN THE " ITINERARIUM PORTUGALLENSIUM" MR. BARROW'S CHRO NOLOGICAL HISTORY OF VOYAGES, &C.— DR. LARDNER's CYCLOPAEDIA— THE EDINBURGH CABINET LIBRARY.
HAVING determined the extent of Cortereal's progress to the North, it is time to advert to the circumstances which have con spired to pervert the history of his voyage.
There is yet extant a letter from Robert Thorne of Bristol, addressed from Seville, as early as the year 1527, to the English Ambassador, Doctor Ley, (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 214,) in which he sends to the ambassador " a little Mappe or Garde of the World," with a great many curious remarks. It is here that he speaks of his father as one of those who had set forth the ex pedition of England, and of the happy consequences, " if the mariners would then have been ruled and followed their pilot's mind," (p. 219.) Adverting to the controversy pending between Portugal and Spain, he declares that the islands in dispute be long to Spain, " as appeareth by the most part of all the Gardes made by the Portingals, save those which they have falsified of late purposely," (p. 218.) After speaking of the possessions of Spain in the new world, he says, " which maine land or coast goeth northwards, and finisheth in the land that we found which is called here Terra de Labrador," (p. 216.)
Thus a quarter of a century before the time of Ramusio, and half a century before that of Ortelius, we find the map-makers of the country most renowned for nautical skill, and the sciences
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connected with it detected in falsification as national interest, or vanity, might prompt. It appears, further, that in the very quar ter to which attention is now directed there had been, already, an invasion of the English pretensions so well concerted as to give currency to the spurious appellation, even among the rivals of the Portuguese, though it excited the indignation of Thorne who was old enough to remember all about the voyages of discovery set forth from his native city.
Another source of the absurdities which deform the early maps of this region, is found in that love of the marvellous and the terrible which, in all ages, has delighted to people remote and unknown countries with monsters and prodigies. The first discoveries of the Portuguese gave a new direction to vulgar wonder, and the exaggerations and falsehoods which ministered to it ; and amongst other fictions it was pretended that there existed an Island, the peculiar residence of Demons and fatal to all who approached it. No Map could venture to refuse this tribute to popular credulity, and, accordingly, in the celebrated edition of Ptolemy, published at Ulme in 1482, we find the " Insula De- monum" occupying a place in the Sexta Tabula Asia.
Just as these regions were becoming so well known, as rather to bring discredit on such tales, the New World was discovered, and abundant scope allowed to the fancy, particularly in the North, without much peril of detection. A difficulty seems to have been experienced at first in selecting a judicious site for the interesting emigrants. The island, saved from the wreck of their fortunes in the old world, is bandied about in all directions by Cos- mographers with little regard to that good old saying which, without recommending unnecessary commerce with the Evil One, yet makes it a point of honesty to give him his due in unavoidable transactions. Ortelius, on whose map the " Insula DaBmonum" figures with St. Brandon, Frisland, and all the other silly, or frau dulent, fabrications of that day, places it not very far from Hud son's Strait. Ramusio, in his text, would give it a local habitation about half-way between that Strait and Newfoundland, but in
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constructing the map which accompanies his third volume, he seems to have thought a great Gulf a much fitter place, and it> therefore, occupies a conspicuous station in the " Golfo Quad- rado," or St. Lawrence. It is about five times as large as New foundland, from which it is divided by a narrow strait. On it demons are seen, as well flying as on foot, with nothing to protect them from a climate so little suited to their former habits but a pair of wings and a ridiculously short tail ; yet they are made, poor devils, to appear happy and even sportive.
It is time, however, to turn from this, comparatively harmless, foolery to the deliberate fraud, already adverted to, on the part of Madrignanon, in his pretended translation of the " Paesi, &c." into Latin, in a book entitled " Itinerarium Portugallensium," pub lished at Milan in 1508, (cap. cxxvi. fol. Ixxx.)
" Ut igitur nova anni praesentis intelligatis scitote hie esse earn triremem quam superiore anno Rex Portugallise Serenissimus expediverat versus Aqui- lonem preefecto Gaspare Corterato qui nobis refert continentem invenisse dis- tantem ad M. duo milia inter Chorum et Favonium hactenus toti pene orbi incompertam terram ; cujus latus aiunt ad milliaria prope DCCC percurrisse, nee tamen finis compertus est quispiam ; ideo credunt Continentem non Insu- lam esse, regioque videtur esse conjuncta cuidam plagee alias a Nostris pervgrataz quasi sub ipso Septentrione eousque celox tamen non pervenit ob congelatum asquor et ingruentes cselo nives. Argumento sunt tot flumina quae ab illis montibus derivantur quod videlicet ibi magna vis nivium existat : arguunt propterea insulam non posse tot flumina emittere : Aiunt praeterea terram esse eximie cultam. Domos subeunt ligneas quas cooperiunt pellibus ac coriis pis- cium : Hue adduxerunt viros septem sexus utriusque. In celoce vero altera quam praestolamur in horas advehuntur quinquaginta ejus regionis incolse. Hi si proceritatem corporis, si colorem si habitudinem, si habitum spectes cin- ganis non sunt absimiles. Pellibus piscium vestiunt et lutrarum et eorum imprimis qui instar vulpium pillosas habent pelles ; eisque utuntur hieme pilo ad carnes verso ut nos ; at aestate ritu contrario ; neque eas consuunt aut concinant quovis modo, verum uti fert ipsa bellua eo modo utuntur, eis armos et brachia praecipue tegunt ; inguina vero fune ligant multiplici, confecto ex piscium nervis. "Videntur propterea silrestres homines, non sunt tamen invere- cundi et corpora habent habilissima si brachia, si armos, si crura respexeris, ad simetriam sunt omnia. Faciem stigmate compungunt inuruntque notis multi- iugis instar indorum, sex vel acto stigmatibus prout libuerit ; hunc morem sola voluptas moderatur : Loquntur quidem sed haud intelliguntur, licet adhi- biti fuerint fere omnium linguarum interpraetes : Eorum plaga caret prorsus
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ferro ; gladios tamcu habcnt sed ex acuminate lapide. Pari modo cuspidairi sagittas qua nostris sunt acuminatiores : Nostri inde attulerunt ensis confracti partem inauratam ; quse Italise ritu sabrifacta videbatur : Quidam puer illic duos orbes argenteos auribus appensos circumferebat qui baud dubie coelati more nostro visebantur : ccclaturam Venetam imprimis praseferentes ; quibis rebus non difficulter adducimur Continentem esse potius quam Insulan, quia si eo naves aliquando applicuissent de ea comperti aliquid habuissemus. Piscibus scatet regio salmonibus videlicet et alecibus [Stockfish omitted, probably, from scanti ness of vocabulary] et id genus compluribus. Silvas habent omnifariam perinde ut omni lignorum genere abundet regio : propterea naves fabricantur antennas et malos, tramtra et reliqua qua pertinent ad naviyia : ob id hie Noster Rex instituit inde multum emolument! summere : turn ob ligna frequentia pluribus rebus baud inepta, turn vel maxime ob hominum genus Laboribus assuetum : quibus ad varia eis uti qui bit, quandoquidem siiapte natura hi viri nati sunt ad Labores suntque meliora mancipia quam unquam viderim."
The principal perversions are noted in italics. Instead of " a region discovered last year/' we have " a region formerly visited by our countrymen" The distance sailed along the coast becomes almost eight hundred miles. There is created amongst the natives a preference of Venetian manufactures. This region " very popu lous" according to the original, is converted into one " admirably cultivated," and instead of the Pine, &c. well suited for the spars of vessels, we have the natives actually engaged in ship building ! The captives " adapted" to labour become " habituated" to it, and at length " born" to it ; and in speaking of the king of Portugal, the ambassador is made to call him " our King." And this is a professed translation, by an ecclesiastic, dedicated to a. high public functionary !
In order to comprehend fully the 'extensive influence which this fraud has exercised on the modern accounts of Cortereal's voyage, it will be necessary to advert briefly to a subsequent piece of imposture of which more will be said in another place.
In the year 1558, there was published, at Venice, a little volume containing the adventures of two brothers, Nicholas and Antonio Zeno, in which an effort is made to shew that they were acquainted with the New World long before the time of Columbus. It is not necessary to give more of the story at present, than that these persons, about the year 1380, were in an island somewhere in the
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Atlantic, designated as Frisland. They there conversed with a fisherman, who, twenty-six years before, had been carried by a tempest far to the westward, and been cast ashore, with a few companions, on a place called Estotiland, plainly designed, by the framer of the story, for the Northern Coast of America. After remaining a number of years in this country, the fisherman, with the aid of his transatlantic friends, built a vessel and recrossed the ocean to Frisland. The editor of the work gives the following digest of the information gathered as to the inhabitants of this newly-discovered region — " It is credible that in time past they have had traffic with our men, for he said that he saw Latin books in the king's library." Again, " They sow corn and make beer and ale," &c. &c. An expedition was fitted out by the Prince of the Island, and sailed towards the west, but returned, as it would appear, without having reached Estotiland, so that the only visiter was the fisherman driven off his station and cast away there one hundred and forty seven years, by computation, before the time of Cortereal's voyage.
It will be seen that this story, promulgated in 1558, is so framed as exactly to fall in with the perversion by the Itinerarium, half a century before, as to the probable intercourse with Venetians — the cultivation of the soil by the natives — and their building vessels fit to navigate the ocean. The only difference is, that the Itinerarium merely makes the supposed traffic precede generally the visit of Cortereal, but the author of the Zeni voyages carries it back beyond the disaster to the fisherman which must have occurred about the year 1354.
We are now prepared for the following passages from Mr. Bar row, and another more recent writer. The parts enclosed in pa renthesis appear as Notes in the works quoted.
" In the first collection of voyages which is known to have been published in Europe, and printed in Vicenza, by Francazano Montaboldo, (Mundo Nuovo e Paesi nuovamente retrovati, &c. Vicenza, 1507 ; a very rare book ; translated into Latin, by Madrigano, under the title of Itinerarium Portugalensium e Lu- sitania in Indiam, &c.") there is inserted a Letter from Pedro Pascoal, ambas sador from the republic of Venice to the court of Lisbon, addressed to his
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brotlier in Italy, and dated 29th October, 1501, in which he details the voyage of Cortereal, as told by himself on his return.
" From this authority, it appears that having employed nearly a year in this voyage, he had discovered between West and North-West, a Continent until then unknown to the rest of the world, that he had run along the coast upwards of eight hundred miles ; that according to his conjecture this land lay near a region formerly approached by the Venetians Nicholo and Antonio Zeno ! almost at the North Pole ! and that he was unable to proceed farther on account of the great mountains of ice which encumbered the sea, and the continued snows which fell from the sky. He further relates that Cortereal brought fifty-seven of the natives in his vessel — he extols the country on account of the timber which it produces, the abundance of fish upon its coasts, and the inhabitants being robust and laborious." (Barrow, Chronological History, p. 40, 41.)
" From his own account it appears that having employed nearly a year in this voyage, he had discovered between West and North-West, a Continent till then unknown to the rest of the world ; that he ran along the coast upwards of eight hundred miles ; that according to his conjecture this land lay near a region formerly approached by the Venetians, (an allusion to the voyages of the Zeni,) and almost at the North Pole, and that he was unable to proceed further, &c." (Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, Hist, of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 1390
Our criticism on this epitome of errors is confined to the original wrong-doer. Not only does Mr. Barrow fall an unresisting victim to the treachery of the monk, but, such is the influence of bad company, he himself is found taking, in his turn, rather dishonest liberties with his own guide. In the original, Cortereal is said to have passed along between six and seven hundred miles of the newly-discovered coast without reaching its termination. Mad- rignanon stretches out the distance to almost eight hundred, while Mr. Barrow insists on "upwards" of eight hundred. For all this, too, he vouches the wretched monk, whereas his audacity, as we have seen, did not quite enable him to reach the point over which the Secretary of the Admiralty, with the gathered impetus of so rapid a progress, takes a fearless leap.
In happy ignorance of the host of authorities which fix conclu sively the limit of the voyage, this gentleman evinces an amiable anxiety to frame an apology for one of Cortereal's countrymen whose statement he found in Hakluyt's translation :
" Galvam places it, although with little accuracy, in 50° ; misprinted probably for GO", which would be correct f" (Barrow, p. 390
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We have forborne, as has been said, to press a censure of the writer in Dr. Lardner's Cyclopsedia, because he is merely a piti able martyr to faith in his predecessor ; but another work, pub lished on the 1st of October last, does not merit the same forbear ance, as it sets at equal defiance the genuine and the spurious authorities. The reference is to the " Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in the Polar Seas and Regions, &c. ; by Professor Leslie, Professor Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esqre. F.R.S.E." forming vol. i. of The Edinburgh Cabinet Library. By this work it appears (p. 158) that Cortereal " immediately upon the discovery oftlie Western World, resolved to follow in the steps of Columbus" We are informed further (ib.) " Respecting the details of this voy age, there remain only detached shreds which Mr. Barrow has col lected with equal learning and diligence /" The character of a work put forth under such auspices, may be gathered from the follow ing passage, (p. 159) —
" The natives are correctly described as of small stature — a simple and labo rious race ; and no less than fifty-seven being allured or carried on board were conveyed to Portugal. After a run along this coast estimated at 800 miles Cortereal came to a region which appeared to some (!) as lying almost beneath the Pole, and similar to that formerly reached by Nicolo and Antonio Zeno ! Ra- musio more explicitly states &c. &c."
All the rest is in a similar strain. Only one part of the passage quoted calls for particular remark, — that as to the stature of the inhabitants. The writer is evidently anxious to give a sanction to his own absurd hypothesis that the natives whose wonderful symmetry and aptitude for labour extorted the admiration of the Venetian Ambassador — whose " goodly corporature" is specially mentioned byRichard Eden (Decades, 318) — were the Esquimaux of Labrador. Now, without relying on the circumstances already stated, we mention one fact. Ramusio, whose name is here invoked, devotes to the voyage of Cortereal about half a page, and expressly declares that the inhabitants were large and well proportioned, " gli habitant! sono huomini grandly ben propor- tionati."
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CHAP. VI.
DIFFUSIVE MISCHIEF OF THE ITIXERARIUM PORTUGALLENSIUM — GRYNJEUS
MEUSEL FLEUR1EU HUMBOLDT, &C.
THE perversion by Madrignanon has passed into the earliest and most esteemed Collections of Voyages and Travels, and thus ex ercised a mischievous influence on more recent works.
In the Novus Orbis of Grynaeus published at Basle, in 1532, the Letter of Pasquiligi is given (p. 138) according to the version of the Itinerarium ; and so in the edition of that work published in the same year at Paris, (p. 121,) and in the Basle Edition of 1555 (p. 99.) Everywhere, indeed, we are pre sented with lamentable proofs of the blind confidence reposed in it, even as to other matters. Thus, the " Biographic Universelle" (art. Cadamosto) sharply rebukes Grynseus for having stated 1504, instead of 1454, as the year in which Cadamosto represents himself to have been at Venice previous to his voyage. The Iti nerarium (cap. ii.) is the source of this error. The explanation does not, it is true, relieve Gryneeus from censure. The mistake appears in the Basle Edition of the Novus Orbis, of 1532, (page 5,) in the Paris Edition of the same year, (p. 3,) and is not corrected in that of Basle in 1555, (p. 2.)
So implicitly has Madrignanon been followed, that Meusel (Biblioth. Hist., original Leipsic Ed. vol. ii. part, ii p. 318) not only gives the year 1 504 but finding a statement, on the same page, by Cadamosto as to his age, makes a calculation accordingly, and gravely informs us that the voyager must have been born in the year 1483 — just, in fact, twenty-nine years after the expedition ! Meusel finds out afterwards, in some
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way, that he was wrong, and throws the blame (vol. iii. p. 159, 160), like the " Biographic Universelle", on Grynaeus.
Even in translating the title of that chapter of the " Paesi," (book 6. cap. cxxvi.) which contains the letter of Pasquiligi, the Itinerarium commits a blunder, that has been, in the same manner, perpetuated. In the original it runs thus: "Copiade una Lettera de Domino Pietro Pasqualigo Oratore della Illustris- sima Signoria in Portugallo scripta (a soi fratelli) in Lisbona adj. xix. Octobrio, 8cc." The words indicating the address we have placed within a parenthesis, in order to mark, with more dis tinctness, the manner in which it is plain they must be read and understood. The place, as well as the time, mentioned are parts of the date of the letter, for Pasquiligi is obviously conveying in telligence from Lisbon, where Cortereal had arrived, to his brothers in Italy. Not attending to a matter so obvious, the Itinerarium (fol. Ixxix.) represents the personages addressed as residing in Lisbon, " ad germanos suos in Ulisbona commor antes /" This ab surdity also is copied into the Novus Orbis (Basle Ed. of 1532. p. 138. Paris Ed. same year, p. 121, and the Basle Ed, of 1555, p. 99.)
Such, then, is the unhappy fate of a modern reader. By the writers who minister to his instruction it is deemed a wonderful effort to go back to the Novus Orbis of 1555. To consult the earlier editions of 1532 would be considered quite an affectation of research. Yet on reaching that distant point, it is plain we cannot read a single line without a distressing uncertainty whe ther it may not merely reflect the dishonesty, or ignorance, of an intermediate translator, instead of the meaning of the original work.
The question how far the author of the " Paesi" was indebted to previous publications, now finally lost, for part of his materials, particularly as to the first four books, is one of much curiosity, and with regard to which a great deal has been said by many learned critics who had plainly never examined .any one of its pages ; but the enquiry would here be irrelavant, as it is not pre-*
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tended that the Letter of Pasquiligi and the others addressed to persons in Italy, given in Book Sixth, had ever before appeared in print. The remarks prepared on that point are, therefore, withheld as they would unwarrantably swell a part of the subject which has already expanded beyond its due proportion.
The name Labrador or Laborer, connected with the perversion by the Itinerarium of " very populous" into " admirably culti vated," has led to a singular medley of errors in all the accounts of Cortereal's voyage, tt would require a volume to exhibit them, but a reference to a few of the more recent writers will shew how completely all the sources of information within their reach had been poisoned. Thus M. Fleurieu, in his Introduction to the Voyage de Marchand, (torn. i. p. 5,) says : —
"En 1500 ou 1501 Caspar de Cortereal, Portugais, homme de naissance partit de Lisbone, arriva a Terre Neuve, en visita la cote orientale, se presenta a 1'embouchure du fleuve Saint Laurent, decouvrit au-dessus du cinquantieme Parallile une Terre qu'il nomma de Labrador parce qu'il la jugea jiropre ait la- bourage et a la culture, parvint, enfin, remontant vers le Nord a Pentree d'un ^Detroit auquel il imposa le nora de Detroit d'Anian et qui plus de cent ans apres fut appelle Detroit de Hudson* &c."
It is to be regretted that Baron Humboldt (Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, Lib. iii. ch. viii.) should have hastily given an incidental sanction to a passage replete with errors of every description.
Mr. Barrow, with that wary caution which is generally die re sult of long official training, does not dwell on this perplexing point, but others have rushed in where he dared not tread :
" That part of it which being on this side of the 50th degree of N. latitude he thought was still fit for tillage and cultivation he named Terra de Labrador," (Forster, p. 460.) " He arrived at Conception Bay, in Newfoundland, ex plored the East Coast of that Island, and afterwards discovered the River St. Lawrence, To the next country which he discovered he gave the name of La brador, because from its latitude and appearance it seemed to him better fated
* So the Biographic Universelle (art. Cortereal) " Ce detroit auquel il donna le nom d'Anian a recu depuis celui d'Hudson."
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for culture than his other discoveries in this part of America/' (Kerr's Collection of Voyages, &c. vol. xviii. p. 354.) "He appears first to have reached New foundland, whence pushing to the North he came to that great range of Coast to which from some very superficial observation he gave the name of Labrador or the Laborers Coast," (Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America, &c. by Hugh Murray, Esq. vol. i. p. 69.)
Mr. Barrow must have a further hearing, (p. 41.)
" To this evidence may also be added that of Ramusio, whose accuracy in such matters is well known. The following extract is taken from his discourse on Terra Firma and the Oriental Islands : — ' In the part of the New World which runs to the North- West, opposite to our habitable Continent of Europe, some navigators have sailed, the first of whom, as far as can be ascertained, was Gaspar Cortereal, a Portugueze, who arrived there in the year 1500 with two Caravels, thinking that he might discover some straight through which he might pass by a shorter voyage than round Africa, to the Spice Islands. They prosecuted their voyage in those seas until they arrived at a region of extreme cold ; and in the latitude of 60° North they discovered a river filled with Ice, [such is Mr, Barrow's translation of Ramusio's word neve,'] to which they gave the name of Rio Nevado, — that is, Snow River. They had not courage how ever to proceed farther, all the coast which runs from Rio Nevado to Porto das Malvas (Mallow Port), which lies in 56° and which is a space of two hundred leagues, &c. &c."
The claims of Ramusio (who has merely put into words the re presentation of the Portuguese maps) to extraordinary accuracy, may be judged of by the assertion made at the outset of the fore going Extract. He states Cortereal to be the first of whom he had heard as penetrating into this Northern region ; yet on the very same page which thus conducts that navigator to 60° he re presents Cabot to have advanced to 67°, and in the previous vo lume he had fixed the date of the latter enterprise as even earlier than the truth will warrant. Thus he is convicted of the plainest inconsistency, without drawing to our aid the fact just established, from the earliest and best authority, that Cortereal was defeated in an effort to reach that very Northern Region which had been discovered the year before.
The force of the other proofs establishing the discrepance between Ramusio's account and that of the Venetian Ambassador, is obscured by Mr. Barrow's method of presenting the subject.
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He quotes, at first, as will be seen on referring to his volume, just enough to exhibit a progress, in seeming coincidence with Pas- quiligi's Letter, and then turns to other matters. He does not revert to Ramusio until the reader's attention is diverted from the measurement of distances, which occurs as the first test, and even in the end he suppresses a part of Ramusio's statement on that sub ject. The limited distance is exhausted, as we see, between 60° and 56°, and here then would seem to be that region which Corte- real, on account of its amenity and smiling groves, denominated Greenland. But Mr. Barrow's theory, and all the authorities, require that Cortereal should visit the River St. Lawrence. What ever scepticism may exist as to his having penetrated into Hud son's Bay, no doubt can
" occur in regard to the St. Lawrence. Even without specific evidence, it might safely have been concluded, that as a passage to India was the grand object of research, so large an opening as is presented by the mouth of this river could not have escaped examination. Independent, however, of this gene ral reasoning, the evidence furnished by Ramusio is decisive. In describing the principal places on that coast he says, that beyond Capo de Gabo (Cattle Cape), which is in 54°, it runs two hundred leagues to the Westward, to a great river called St. Lawrence, which some considered to be an arm of the sea, and which the Portuguese ascended to the distance of many leagues." (Barrow, p. 43.)
Thus we find the distance between 56° and 54° entirely thrown out of view, arid yet there remains a computation of four hundred leagues of coast examined by Cortereal, viz., two hundred from Rio Nevado to 56°, and two hundred more from 54° to the St. Lawrence. To meet this demand we have in the original only between six and seven hundred miles, increased by Madrigognon to almost eight hundred !
The river laden with snow, (carico de Neve) and hence called Rio Nevado, is, doubtless, the St. Lawrence, if indeed the name and the circumstances be not mere fiction. Mr. Barrow, however, considers it to be Hudson's Strait, and finds a probability in " all the collateral circumstances of the Narrative," that the Portuguese on this occasion " actually entered Hudson's Bay." (p. 42.) Now it will surely be considered rather singular that
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a person familiar with the miniature streams of Portugal, should thus misapply epithets, even if we suppose him to have erroneously regarded the Strait as terminating in itself, and as thus forming a great Bay or Gulf; yet Mr. Barrow, is persuaded that Corte- real called the Strait Snoiv River, after he had ascertained it to be neither River, Bay, nor Gulf, but a mere medium of com munication between different parts of the ocean !
On the map of Ortelius the Northern coast of America is studded with Portuguese names. The Letter of Thorne furnishes a satisfactory clew to this nomenclature. The fidelity of the re presentation of Hudson's Bay is too striking to have been the result of chance. Having, then, negatived the possibility that Cor- tereal could have penetrated into it, we revert, with perfect con fidence, to the belief that Cabot's Map, which the geographer ex pressly states to have been before him, must have been made use of. No difficulty remains if we suppose that Ortelius was anxious to employ all his materials, so as not to appear behind the know ledge of his time, and that having adopted the configuration of the English Navigator he affixed, conjecturally, the names found in profusion on the maps got up at Lisbon.
However this may have been, we quit the voyage of Cortereal with the certainty that he claimed for it neither originality of pur pose nor success of execution, but admitted, on the contrary, that he had completely failed in an effort to reach the point attained by his predecessor.
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CHAP. VII.
PROJECT OF CORTES IN 1524.
A considerable interval now occurs without any materials for the present review ; and the second Expedition of Cabot from England, in 1517, has already been considered at large.
Proceeding to the year 1524 we reach the project of the cele brated Cortes, of which the history is, fortunately, much less in volved than that of Cortereal. As it was attended, indeed, with no interesting results, even a passing notice would be superfluous were it not that the spirit of misrepresentation has here also been perversely active and successful.
We must be indebted again to Mr. Barrow, whose work, indeed, is invaluable in reference to our present task, as it not only em bodies, in a cheap and convenient form, all the mistakes of its predecessors, but generally supplies a good deal of curious original error :
" Cortez, the conqueror and viceroy of Mexico, had received intelligence of the attempt of Cortereal to discover a Northern passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific, and of his having entered a strait to which he gave his name. Alive to the importance of the information, he lost not a moment in fitting out three ships well manned, of which he is said to have taken the command in person, though nominally under the orders of Francisco Ulloa, to look out for the opening of this strait into the Pacific, and to oppose the progress of the Portuguese and other Europeans who might attempt the passage. Little is known concerning this expedition of Cortez, but that it soon returned without meeting with Cortereal, fyc."*
From all this the reader naturally infers, that while the eyes of Europe were turned, at that period, on Cortereal, no one had heard
* Barrow's Chronological History of Voyages, p. 54.
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of the discoveries of Cabot, or at least that they were deemed of minor importance. After what has been said, in the preceding Chapter, of the subordinate and unsuccessful character of the Por tuguese enterprise, it will no doubt be thought extraordinary that such an erroneous estimate should have been made at that early day. There is no difficulty in clearing the matter up from the very letter of Cortes himself, in which he apprises the Emperor of his views on the subject. The letter, dated 15th of Octo ber, 1524, will be found in Barcia's Historiadores Primitivos, torn. i. p. 151, and is faithfully rendered by Ramusio, (vol. iii. fol. 294.) After expressing great zeal for the service of the Emperor, he remarks that it seemed to him no other enterprise remained by which to manifest his devotion than to examine the region between the river Panuco (in Mexico) and Florida recently discovered by the Adelantado Ponce de Leon, and also the Coast of the said Florida towards the North] until it reaches the Baccalaos, holding it for certain that along this coast is a Strait conducting to the South Sea, (" descubrir entre el Rio de Panuco i la Florida, que es lo que descubrio el Adelantado Juan Ponce de Leon, i de alii la Costa de la dicha Florida por la parte del Norte hasta llegar a los J3acallaos ; porque se tiene cierto que ien aquella costa ai estrecho que pasa a la Mar del Sur.") He states as a part of his plan that certain vessels in the Pacific should sail concurrently along the western coast of America, while the others, " as I have said, proceed up to the point of junction with the Baccalaos, so that on the one side or the other we cannot fail to ascertain this secret," (" como he dicho hasta la juntar con los Bacallaos ; asi por una parte i por otra no se deja de saber el se- creto.")
The reader can now judge of Mr. Barrow's correctness. The Viceroy " receives intelligence of the attempt of Cortereal ;" of his having " entered a strait" which Mr. Barrow pronounces Hudson's Strait, and " loses not a moment" in endeavouring to follow up that alarming success, when it appears that in point of fact the interval thus measured by a " moment" was at least
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twenty-three years, and the proposed survey of Cortes from Florida point expressly stops short at the Baccalaos. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that Cortes had ever heard of Cor- tereal's voyage which amounted, as we have seen, to an unsuc cessful effort, at first, to tread in the steps of Cabot, and was afterwards turned into a mere kidnapping speculation. But it is material to remark that Cortes has no other designation for the region in the North than that which Peter Martyr, in his Decades, published eight years before, had stated to have been conferred on it by Cabot.
We will not fatigue and disgust the reader by quoting from other writers passages having the same tendency to obscure the just fame of the English Navigator.
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CHAP. VIII.
VOYAGE OF STEPHEN GOMEZ IN THE SERVICE OF SPAIN.
THE expedition next in order, in point of time, is that of Stephen Gomez, fitted out by order of the Emperor Charles V. There is a very slight and unsatisfactory notice of it in Purchas who, in stead of resorting to the original sources of information which are many and copious, contents himself with referring to a small tract by Gaspar Ens, published at Cologne in 1612. It would be un generous to treat this obscure writer with harshness, for he very modestly states that the accounts at large being in foreign lan guages or in bulky volumes, (" peregrinis linguis aut magnis vo- luminibus") his humble object was to prepare a brief digest of the principal heads, ("quocirca operse pretium putavi si pr&cipua variorum navigationum et descriptionum Occidentalis Indies Ca pita lectori communicarem.") Such is the authority on which Purchas gravely relies, and it is curious to note how completely Mr. Barrow has, in consequence, been misled, (p. 52.)
" In point of time, however, there is one solitary voyage on record though the particulars of it are so little known as almost to induce a suspicion whether any such voyage was ever performed, which takes precedence of any foreign voyage on the part of English Navigators (!) it is that of a Spaniard, or rather perhaps, judging from the name, of a Portuguese. To what part of the coast of America or (!) Newfoundland or Labrador he directed his course is not at all known. It is evident, however, that he returned without bringing back with him any hope of a passage into the Eastern Seas, having contented himself with seizing and bringing off some of the natives of the coast on which he had touched. It is said that one of his friends, accosting him on his return, en quired of him with eagerness what success he had met with and what he had brought back, to which Gomez replying shortly " esclavos," (slaves) the friend
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concluded he had accomplished his purpose and brought back a cargo of cloves (clavos) . On this, says Purchas, he posted to the court to carry the first news of this spicy discovery, looking for a great reward, but the truth being known caused hereat great laughter. Gaspar, in his History of the Indies, is the only authority for this voyage!"
Some surprise may be felt that Mr. Barrow should designate this writer in a familiar way, by his Christian name, evidently on a slight acquaintance, while his own countrymen are quoted not as " Richard" or " Samuel," but as " Hakluyt," and « Purchas." The difference of manner seems to proceed from no want of respect for the German, but from really supposing that in the reference found in Purchas to " Gasparus Ens. 1. ii. c. xxv." the marked word probably alluded, in some quaint way, to the con tents of the book, and made no part of the name. But aside from this singular misconception, the whole scope of the Secre tary's remarks betrays a more comprehensive ignorance of the subject than could have been thought possible. Nothing can be more erroneous than to say, that " Gaspar" is the only writer who speaks of this voyage. There is, on the contrary, not a single author of reputation on the history of the New World who does not give an account of it, and of those who wrote prior to 1612 we may particularly mention Peter Martyr (Decade vi. ch. x., and again Decade viii. ch. x.) Oviedo (Somm. de la natural y general historia, &c. ch. x.) Ramusio (vol. iii. fol. 52. in Index title " Stefano".) Gomara (ch. xl.) De Bry (Gr. Voy. part iv. p. 69.) Fumee (Hist. Gen. des Indes, fol. 49.) Herrera (Dec. iii. lib. viii. ch. viii.) the Portuguese writer, Galvano, trans lated by Hakluyt (Ed. of 1601, p. 66.) Eden (Decades, fol. 213,) and Sir William Monson (Naval Tracts, Book iv.)
The first named of these writers, who was himself a member of the Council of the Indies, is more than usually minute with regard to this voyage. After describing the conference at Badajos in 1524, he says, " Decretum quoque est ut Stephanus quidam Gomez artis et ipse maritiinse peritus alia tendat via qua se inquit reperturum inter Baccalaos et F/oridas jamdiu nostras terras iter
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ad Cataiam," (Dec. vi. ch. x.)* He then proceeds to describe the equipment, and the Instructions given by the Council. In the 8th Decade, ch. x. we have an account of the return of Gomez — of the country visited by him — and of his having, in violation of the standing orders on that subject, forcibly brought off some of the inhabitants, (" contra leges a nobis dictatas ne quis ulli gentim vim afferat.") The jest arising out of the mistake of the word " esclavos" for " clavos" is not forgotten. All this is faithfully rendered in Lok's translation, (fol. 317.) In Oviedo (Sommario, ch. x. fo. xiv.) we have the report made to the Emperor on the return of Gomez : —
" Despues que V. M. esta en esta cibdad de Toledo llego a qui en el mes de Novierabre el Piloto Estevan Gomez el qual en el anno passado de Mil y qui- nientos y veynte y quatro par mandado de V. M. fue ala parte del Norte y hallo mucha tierra continuada con la que se llama de los Baccalaos discurriendo al occidente et pues en XL. yrados y XLI. y assi algo mas y algo menos de donde traxo algunos Indios y los ay de llos al presente enesta cibdad los quales son de mayor estatura quel los de la tierra firma segun lo que dellos paresce comun y porque el dicho piloto dize que vido muchos de llos y que son assi todos : la colores assi como los de tierra firma, y son grandes frecheros y andan cubiertos de cueros de venados y otros animates y ay en aquella tierra excel- lentes martas, zebellinas y otros ricos enforros y d'stas pieles truxo algunas el dicho Poloto, &c."
This passage is copied from the edition of Oviedo in The Library of the British Museum, published at Toledo on the 15th February, 1526, eighty-six years before "Gaspar's" time. It will be found in Ramusio at the place indicated above, and is thus translated by Richard Eden in his "Decades" (fol. 213), published at Lon don in 1555.
" Shortly after that Your Majestic came to theCitie of Toledo there arryved in the moneth of November Stephen Gomez the Pilot, who the yeare before, of 1524, by the commandement of Your Majestic sayled to the Northe partes and founde a greate parte of Lande continuate from that which is called Baccalaos discoursynge towarde the West to the 40th and 4lst degree whense he brought
* " It is decreed that one Stephanus Gomez (who also himself is a skilful navigator) shall go another way, whereby, betweene the Baccalaos and Florida, long since our countries, he saith he will finde out awayeto Cataia," (M. Lok's translation, London, 1612, fol. 246.)
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certeyn Indians (for so caule wee all the nations of the new founde landes) of the which he brought sum with him from thense who are yet in Toledo at this pre sent, and of greater stature than other of the firme lande as they are commonly. Theyr coloure is much lyke the other of the firme lande. They are great archers and go covered with the skinnes of dyvers beasts both wild and tame. In this lande are many excellent furres, as marterns, sables, and such other rych furres of the which the sayde Pylot brought some with him into Spayne, &c."
It is of a voyage set forth under such auspices, and the results of which are thus minutely detailed, that Mr. Barrow declares " to what part of the Coast of America, or (!) Newfoundland, or Labrador he directed his course is not at all known." In vain has the Father of this portion of History given us the Decree of a Council at which he was personally present — and in vain has an other Historian preserved the official report to the Emperor; Mr. Barrow will have it, that " so little is known as almost to induce a suspicion whether any such voyage was ever performed." While the writers of every language in Europe are full of its details — while JEJe/z,who wrote half a century before the time of Caspar Ens, gives us, in plain English, the very degrees of latitude visited by Gomez — while an account of the voyage is supplied by Sir William Monson, with whose writings it may be considered the official duty of a Secretary of the Admiralty to be familiar — that gentle man insists that " the only authority for the voyage" is the paltry cornpend published in 1612 ! Such is the mode in which The British Public is ministered to on the History of Maritime Enter prise, and such the character of a book which Dr. Dibdin pro nounces, in his Library Companion, " a work perfect in its kind !"
Mr. Barrow, it has been seen, throws out a suggestion that Gomez, from his name, was probably a native of Portugal, and finding it somewhere stated that he sailed with Magellan, appeals, in another passage of the book, to that fact with some compla cency as countenancing his shrewd conjecture. A writer on such subjects ought surely to have known that in the brief narrative which we have of Magellan's memorable, but tragic, expedition, Gomez occupies a prominent, though not very ere-
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ditable place, and that both Herrera (Dec. ii. lib. ix. ch. xv.) and Purchas(vo\. i. book ii. ch. ii. p. 34) expressly state him to have been a Portuguese. The " Biographic Universelle", on the other hand," not only pronounces Gomez a Spaniard, but asserts, in the mere wantonness of rounding off a sentence, that his misconduct towards Magellan is to be attributed to impatience at being placed under the command of a Portuguese ! (Art. Gomes.)
Keeping in view our leading purpose, it is proper to note, em phatically, that in every account of this voyage distinct reference is made to the antecedent discoveries of Cabot — to the " Bacca- laos" which had been rendered universally known by the work of Peter Martyr, published eight years before.
It must be evident that if the Historian just named confided in Cabot's veracity he could not have anticipated a successful result to the enterprise of Gomez, for he had described our navigator as ranging along the coast of America with the same object in view, as far south as the latitude of Gibraltar. True, he tells us at the same time that the Spaniards were inclined to speak slight ingly of Cabot, (Dec. iii. c. 6,) but his own language of respect, and even affection, shews that he himself cherished no disparaging suspicions, and we are, therefore, curious to know what part he took in the Council of the Indies when Gomez submitted his offer to find a passage in the very quarter which Cabot had carefully explored in vain. To the surprise of all those who have not looked closely into the subject, there will be found in the 8th Dec.,c. 10, the following expressions : —
"Nunc ad Stephanum Gomez quern in calce porrecti libelli (incipientis " Pri- usquam") cum una missum caravela dixi ad fretum aliud inter Floridam tellurem et Baccalaos satis tritos quaerendum. Is nee freto neque a se promisso Cataio repertis regressus est intra mensem decimum a discessu. Inanes hvjm boni ho- minis fore cogitatus existimavi ego semper etpraposui; non defuere in ejus favo- rem suffragia."*
* " Now I come to Stephanus Gomez, who, as I have said in the ende of that Booke presented to your Holiness beginning (" Before that"), was sent with one Caravell to seeke another Straight between the land of Florida and the Bacalaos sufficiently known and frequented. He neither findinge the Straight
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The good old man tells, .with great glee, the jest about " esclavos," and chuckles at the momentary triumph of Cabot's enemies : —
" Ubi accessit in portum Clunium unde vela fecerat unus quidara audito navis ejus adventu et quod esclavos (id est servos) adveheret nil ultra vestigans citatissirao equorum cursu ad nos venit anhelo spiritu inquiens clavis et pre- ciosis gemmis onustam affert navim Stephanus Gomez, opimam se habiturum strenam arbitratus est. Ad hanc hujus horainis ineptiam erecti qui rei fave- rent, universam obtunderunt cum ingenti applausu curiam per apheeresim dic- tione detruncata pro esclavis clavos esse advectos prseconando (esclavos enim Hispanum idioma servos appellat et gariophyllos nuncupat clavos) postea vero quam a clavis in esclavos fabulam esse transformatam Curia cognovit cum fautoramjubilantium erubescentia risum excitavit."*
Of Gomara's account it might be superfluous to say any thing; but he was Cabot's contemporary, and the passage illustrates what has been said, in another place, as to his narrow feeling of jealousy towards that Navigator who had a few years before abandoned the service of Spain to rejoin that of his native country, and whom the King of England had refused, as we have seen, to send back on the requisition of Charles V. After stating the departure of Gomez in pursuit of the strait (" en demanda de un estrecho que se ofrecio de hallar en tierra de Baccalaos'), his return
nor Cataia which he promised, returned backe within tenn Monethes after his departure. I always thought and presupposed this good man's imaginations were vayne and frivolous. Yet wanted he no suffrages and voyces in his favour and defence," (Lok's translation, fo. 317.)
* " And when he came into the haven of Clunia from whence he set sayle, a certayne man hearing of the arrivall of his Shippe and that hee had brought Esclavos, that is to say slaves, seekinge no further, came postinge unto us with pantinge and breathless spiiit sayinge that Stephanus Gomez bringeth his Shippe laden with cloves and precious Stones : arid thought thereby to have received some rich piesent or reward : They who favoured the matter, attentive to this mann's foolish and idle report, wearied the whole Court with exceedinge great applause, cutting of the word by apharesis proclayminge that for esclavos hee hadd brought clavos (for the Spanish tongue calleth slaves esclavos and cloves clavos) but after the Court understoode that the tale was transformed from clavos to slaves they brake foorth into a great laughter to the shame and blushinge of the favourers who had shouted for joy." (Lok's translation, fol. 317.)
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without success, and the jest about the " esclavos," he says (c. xl.) that Gomez visited a region " que aun no estaba par otro vista ; bien que dicen como Sebastian Gabato la tenia primero tanteada," (" which had never before been seen by any one, though they say that it was first discovered by Sebastian Cabot") These are his churlish expressions at a moment when he has no other epithet by which to designate the country visited, but that conferred on it by the very man whose merits he strives, in this despicable temper, to depreciate !
In the " Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in the Polar Seas, &c. by Professor Leslie, Professor Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esq. F.R.S.E." published on the 1st October last, there is found (p. 161) the following passage : —
" Only one very early voyage (from Spain to the North) is mentioned, that namely, which was undertaken in 1524 by Gomez, with a view of discovering a shorter passage to the Moluccas. He is said to have brought home a few of the natives ; but no record is preserved either of the events which attended his enterprise or even of the coast on which he arrived. There remains of it, as has been observed, only a jest, and one so indifferent as not to be worth repeating."
The writer might be excused, perhaps, for not knowing that Oviedo, in 1526, and Richard Eden, in 1555, name 40 and 41 degrees of latitude as points visited by Gomez, but what shall we say of his overlooking the following passage in a popular work, published in 1817 ?
" Une ancienne carte manuscrite dressee en 1529 par Diego Ribeiro, cos- mographe Espagnol, a conserve le souvenir du voyage de Gomez : on y lit au dessous de I'emplacement occupe par les etats de New York, de Connecticut et de Rhode-Island Terre D'Etienne Gomez qu'il decouvrit en 1525 par I'ordre de S. M. Hy a beaucoup d'arbres, beaucoup de rodoballas, de saumons, et de. soles ; on n'y trouve pas d'or." (Biographic Universelle, tit. Gomes.)
The Diego Ribeiro here named had been, on 10th June, 1523, appointed Royal Cosmographer, with a large salary, and the duty committed to him of preparing charts, astrolabes, and other nau tical instruments (Navarette, Introd. torn. i. p. cxxiv. note 2.) The Map, with a valuable memoir, published at Weimar in 1795, is in the Library of The British Museum.
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CHAP. IX.
EXPEDITION FROM ENGLAND IN 1527- ERRONEOUS STATEMENT THAT ONE OF THE VESSELS WAS NAMED " DOMINUS
VOBISCUM" — THEIR NAMES " THE SAMSON" AND " THE MARY OF GUILFORD" — LETTERS FROM THE EXPEDITION DATED AT NEWFOUND LAND, ADDRESSED TO HENRY VIII. AND CARDINAL WOLSEY THE ITALIAN
NAVIGATOR, JUAN VERRAZANI, ACCOMPANIES THE EXPEDITION AND IS
KILLED BY THE NATIVES — LOSS OF THE SAMSON THE MARY OF GUIL-
FORD VISITS BRAZIL, PORTO-RICO, &C. ARRIVES IN ENGLAND, OCTOBER
1527 ROBERT THORNE OF BRISTOL HIS LETTER COULD NOT HAVE LED
TO THIS EXPEDITION.
THE Second Expedition under the auspices of Henry VIII. in 1527, to discover a North-West Passage, has not been more for tunate than the First, in 1517, in escaping perversion. The state ment of Hakluyt(vol. iii. p. 129) is this : —
" Master Robert Thorne of Bristol!, a notable member and ornament of his Country, as wel for his learning as great charity to the poore, in a letter of his to King Henry the 8th and a large discourse to Doctor Leigh, his Ambassador to Charles the Emperor (which both are to be seene almost at the beginning of the first volume of this my Work) exhorted the aforesaid King, with very weighty and substantial reasons, to set forth a discovery even to the North Pole. And that it may be known that this his motion took present effect, I thought it good herewithall to put down the testimonies of two of our Chroni clers, M. Hall and M. Grafton, who both write in this sort- 'This same moneth' (say they) ' King Henry the 8th sent two faire Ships wel manned and victualled, having in them divers cunning men to seek strange regions, and so they set forth out of the Thames the 20th day of May in the 19th yeere of his raigne, which was the yeere our Lord 1527-'
"And whereas Master Hall, and Master Grafton say, that in those Ships there were divers cunning men, I have made great enquiry of such as, by their yeeres and delight in Navigation, might give me any light to know who those cunning men should be, which were the directors in the aforesaid Voyage.
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And it liath been tokle me by Sir Martine Frobisher, and M. Richard Allen, a Knight of the Sepulchre, that a Canon of Saint Paul in London, which was a great Mathematician, and a Man indued with wealth, did much advance the actiop, and went therein himselfe in person, but what his name was I cannot learne of any. And furthur they tolde that one of the ships was called the Dominus Vobiscum, which is a name likely to be given by a religious man of those dayes : and that say ling very farre Northwestward, one of the Ships was cast away as it entered into a dangerous Gulph, about the great opening, be- tweene the North parts of Newfoundland, and the Country lately called by her Majestie, Meta Incognita. Whereupon the other ship shaping her course towards Cape Briton, and the Coastes of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of those unknown regions, returned home about the beginning of October, of the yere aforesayd. And thus much (by reason of the great negligence of the writers of those times, who should have used more care in preserving of the memories of the worthy actes of our Nation) is all that hitherto I can learne or finde out of this voyage."
This is copied into every History of Discovery since that period down to Mr. Barrow, Dr. Lardner, and the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, with the same expression of regret and indignation that no record should have been preserved of the persons and vessels employed in the enterprise.
Incredible as it may appear, after what has been said, there is found in Purchas, (vol. iii. p. 809,) the very Letter written by John Rut, the commander of one of the vessels engaged in this expedition, to Henry VIII. from Newfoundland, and an account of another Letter written from the same place by Albert de Prato, an Ecclesiastic, to Cardinal Wolsey. The Letter to the King thus appears in Purchas, with some obvious imperfections : —
" Pleasing your Honorable Grace to heare of your Servant John Rut, with all his company here, in good health, thanks be to God and your Graces ship, The Mary of Guilford, with all her [a blank in Purchas] thanks be to God ; and if it please your honourable Grace, we ranne in our course to the Northward, till we came into 53 degrees, and there we found many great Hands of Ice and deepe water, we found no sounding, and then we durst not goe no further to the Northward for feare of more Ice, and then we cast about to the Southward, and within foure dayes after we had one hundred and sixtie fathom, and then we came into 52 degrees and fell with the mayne Land, and within ten leagues of the mayne Land we met with a great Hand of Ice, and came hard by her, for it was standing in deepe water, and so went in with Cape do
T
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Bas, a good Harbor, and many small Hands, and a great fresh River going up farre into the mayne Land, and the Mayne Land all wildernesse and moun- taines and Woods, and no naturall ground, but all raosse, and no inhabitation nor no people in these parts : and in the woods we found footing of divers great breasts, but we saw none not in ten leagues. And please your Grace, The Samson and wee kept company all the way till within two dayes before we met with all the Hands of Ice, that was the first day of July at night, and there rose a great and a marvailous great storme, and much foule weather ; I trust in Almightie Jesu to heare good newes of her. And please your Grace, we were considering and a writing of all our order, how we would wash us and what course we would draw and when God do and foule weather that with the Cape de Sper shee should goe, and he that came first should tarry the space of sixe weeks one for another, and watered at Cape de Bas ten dayes, ordering of your Graces ship and fishing, and so departed toward the Southward to seeke our fellow : the third day of August we entered into a good Haven, called St. John, and there we found eleven saile of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Por- tunall Barkes, and all ajtshing, and so we are readie to depart toward Cape de Bas, and that is twentie five leagues, as shortly we have fished, and so along the Coast till we may meete with our fellow, and so with all diligence that lyes in me toward parts to that Hands that we are commanded by the Grace of God as we were commanded at our departing : and thus Jesu save and keepe your Honorable Grace, and all your honorable Rever. in the Haven of Saint John, the 3 day of August, written in haste. 152/.
"By your Servant John Rut to his uttermost of his power/'
The Letter to Cardinal Wolsey from Albert de Prato was thus addressed : —
" Reverend, in Christo Patri Domino Cardinali et Domino Le gato Angliae." It began
" Reverendissime in Christo Pater Salutem. Reverendissime Pater, placeat ReverendissimsB paternitati vestrae scire, Deo fa- vente postquam exivimus a Plemut quse fuit X Junii," See.
Purchas says, " the substance is the same with the former, and therefore omitted." The date is "apud le Baya Saint Johan in Terris Novis die X Augusti 1527 Revr. Patr. vest, humilis servus, Albertus de Prato."
We have here the name of the master of the vessel, and also that, it is to be presumed, of the Canon of St. Paul's, and learn, further, that neither of the vessels was called the " Dominus Vo- biscum," but that one was " The Mart/ of Guilford" and the other " The Samson." We may infer that the latter perished in
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the " marvellous great Storm," by which the two vessels were se parated.
The direct Correspondence with the King and the Cardinal suf ficiently assure us of the interest taken by these personages in the enterprise, and the commands of which Rut speaks " at our de parting" as to the ultimate destination of the vessels were doubt less from the Monarch to whom the letter is addressed.
We have to state, in reference to this enterprise, a conviction that there went in it the celebrated Italian Navigator, Juan Ver- razani, over whose fate a singular mystery has existed. The cir cumstances which seem to establish the fact are the following : —
In the year 1524, Verrazani, employed by Francis the First, coasted North America from the latitude of 34° to 50°. The ac count of his voyage, found in Ramusio, is dated at Dieppe, 8th July, 1524. From this period we have no distinct intelligence of him. It is said that he made a subsequent voyage, but whence or whither is unknown, for the French arid Italian writers do not offer even a conjecture as to the circumstances under which it took place. That he made it in the service of France will appear improbable when we look at the history of that period.
On the 24th February 1525 the disastrous battle of Pavia was fought, and Francis was conducted a prisoner to Madrid. The deplorable condition of the country is thus described: —
" Meanwhile France was filled wich consternation. The King himself had early transmitted an account of the rout at Pavia in a letter to his Mother de livered by Pennalosa which contained only these words, ' Madam, all is lost except our Honour.' The officers who made their escape when they arrived from Italy brought such a melancholy detail of particulars as made all ranks of men sensibly feel the greatness and extent of the calamity. France without its Sovereign, without money in her Treasury, without an Army, without Generals to command it, and encompassed on all sides by a victorious and active enemy, seemed to be on the very brink of destruction."*
On the 5th Jur*», 1525, the mother of Francis appointed com missioners to seek relief from Henry VIII. (Rymer's Fcedera, vol. xiv. p. 37,) and ultimately a loan was obtained of two mil-
* Robertson's Charles V. Book iv.
T2
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lions of crowns, (ib. p. 130.) Every document of that period serves to shew the utter prostration of France, and the anxiety to exhibit a sense of gratitude to England for having suddenly become from an enemy a preserver. Thus, there appears (Rymer, vol. xiv. p. 232) a document from the King of France, dated 25 Sep tember 1527, having reference to the inconvenience to which the commerce of England might be subject in Flanders in con sequence of her new position, and appointing Commissioners to secure to English merchants equivalent privileges in his do minions. It closes thus :
" Caeteraque denique omnia et singula agere, promittere et concludere in hoc negotio suisque circumstantiis et dependentiis quibuscunque qua; nosmet- ipsi si prsesentes agere et concludere posseraus, etiam si talia forent qua man- datum requirerunt magis speciale, promittentes bona fide et verbo nostro regio Nos omnia et singula per dictos oratores et Procuratores nostros pacta pro- missa et conclusa impleturos et praestituros, nee ullo unquam tempore quovis qucesito colore, infracturos aut contraventuros sed perpetuo observaturos."
Under such circumstances it would be no matter of surprise to find the impatient navigator turning to the same country to which his late employers had become supplicants, and tendering his ser vices to a Monarch whose means were as abundant as his spirit was sanguine and enterprising. An expedition, then, is fitted out at this precise period under the auspices of the King and Car dinal Wolsey. If the slightest evidence could be discovered of communication with Verrazani, we would feel quite assured that the one party would be as anxious to secure his aid as the other to proffer it.
This link is supplied by Hakluyt. In that early work, of 1582, the " Divers Voyages," we find the following statement :—
" Master John Verarzanus, which had been thrice on that coast, in an old excellent Map which he gat", to Henry VIII., and is yet in the custodie of Master Locke, doth so lay it out as is to be scene in the Map annexed to the end of this boke being made according to Verarzanus' plot."
It is impossible to withstand a conviction that Henry while
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intent on this enterprise would eagerly enlist the services of such a navigator as Verrazani fortunately thrown out of employment, and so well acquainted with the American Coast, that Hakluyt, more than half a century afterwards, found his Map to exhibit the most accurate representation of it.
The rumours which remain as to the fate of this navigator must now be examined.
Ramusio (torn. iii. fol. 417) does not state in whose service the last voyage was made, though from its connexion with that of 1524 the reader might be hastily led to suppose that both were from the same country. It is needless to repeat what has been said as to the improbability that France, during a period of dis may and beggary, engaged in fitting out exploratory voyages. So soon after the peace of Cambray as she could recruit her ex hausted resources, we find the well-known expedition of Cartier, in 1534. When such clear and authentic information exists with regard to this last voyage, as well as of the previous one of 1524 under Verrazani, is it at all likely that not the slightest trace, would be found of an intermediate expedition, had one been dis patched ? The circumstances attending the death of Verrazani, are thus given by Ramusio : —
" Et neir ultimo viaggio che esso fece havendo voluto smontar in terra con alcuni compagni furono tutti morti da quei popoli et in presentia di coloro che erano rimasi neile navi furono arrostiti et mangiati."*
Such was the horrible tale which Ramusio found current in Italy. It is plain, then, that the survivors who beheld the cruelties practised on the unfortunate captives must have got back in safety, and made report of the dreadful scene. Yet in the annals of no other country but England is the slightest allusion found to the departure, or return, of any such expedition.
There will now be perceived the importance of having settled
* " In the last voyage which he made, having gone on shore with some com panions, they were all killed by the natives, and roasted and eaten in the sight of those who remained on board."
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on a former occasion,* that Oviedo, in his history of the West Indies, represents the visit of an English ship at Porto Rico, &c., to have occurred not in 1517, but in 1527. It was then shewn that Herrera, in subsequently stating the same transaction, had given in greater detail the testimony of Gines Navarro, the Cap tain of the Caravel, who had incautiously gone off to the English ship. Let us now turn again to Navarro's statement : —
" They said that they were Englishmen, and that the ship was from England, and that she and her consort had been equipped to go and seek the land of the Great Cham, that they had been separated in a tempest, and that the ship pur suing her course had been in a frozen sea and found great islands of ice, and that taking a different course they came into a warm sea which boiled like water in a kettle, and lest it might open the seams of the vessel,, they pro ceeded to examine the Baccalaos where they found fifty sail of vessels, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, engaged in fishing, that going on shore to communi cate with the natives, the Pilot, a native of Piedmont, was killed; that they pro ceeded afterwards along the coast to the river Chicora, and crossed over thence to the Island of St. John. Asking them what they sought in these islands, they said, that they wished to explore in order to make report to the King of England, and to procure a load of the Brazil wood."/f>
Comparing this with the letter of Rut, is it necessary to enforce the coincidence in the year — the sailing of the two ships from England — the separation by tempest — the struggle with the ice in the North — the return to Baccalaos — the vessels found there en gaged in fishing ?
Mark too the death of the Italian pilot, under circumstances
* See page 114.
t Dixeron que eran Ingleses, i que la nao era de Inglaterra, i que aquella i otra se avian armado, para ir a buscar la Tierra del gran Can, i que un temporal las havia apartado : i que siguiendo esta nao su viage dieron en un mar elado, i que hallaban grandes Islas de ielo : i que tomando otra derrota, dieron en otra mar caliente, que hervia como el agua en una caldera ; i porque no se les derritasse la brea, fueron a reconocer a los Bacallos, adonde hallaron cinquenta Naos Castellanas Francesas, i Portuguesas, pescando, i que alii quisieron salir en tierra, para tomar lengua de los Indios, i les mataron al Piloto, que era Piamontes i que desde alii avian costeado hasta el Rio de Chicora, i que desde este Rio atravesaron a la Isla de san Juan ; i preguntando les le que bus- caban en aqucllas Islas, dixeron, que las querian ver, para dar rclacion al Rci de Inglaterra i cargar de Brazil. (Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.)
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which correspond so well with the sad tale reported to the friends of Verrazani and recorded by Ramusio !
It was probably the death of Verrazani, and despair of being rejoined by the Samson, that induced Rut, the main object being frustrated, to seek the only market which remained for the mer chandise with which the Mary of Guilford was freighted.
Navarro says, that the English spoke of having proceeded along the coast as far South as the River of Chicora. Now, in describing the movements of the expedition to Florida under Ayllon, in 1523, Peter Martyr (Dec. vii. ch. ii.) says, " They affirm that these provinces lie under the same parallel of latitude with Andalusia in Spain. They thoroughly examined the principal countries, Chicora and Duhare." Peter Martyr supposes these regions to "join the Baccalaos discovered by Cabotus from England." Amongst the provinces connected with the two first described, he (ib.) expresslymentions Arambe, and when we find Frobisher stating to Hakluyt, (3 Hakl. 129) a tradition that the surviving ship of the Expedition of 1527, after the disaster in the North, " shaped her course towards Cape Breton and the Coasts of Arambec" we find a degree of harmony pervading these unconnected accounts that is truly surprising.
It would be too much, however, to expect a minute accuracy in every particular of Navarro's report as to what he heard on board the English ship. An error is probably committed by misplacing one of the incidents. The alarm about the opening of the seams of the vessel from extreme heat, which appears so absurd as re ferred to the North, becomes quite intelligible, when we recollect that the English are represented by Oviedo to have attempted to run down the coast of Brazil. The effect produced on the Mary of Guilford was, doubtless, the same as that experienced during the third voyage of Columbus, in 1498, when precisely the same apprehensions are represented to have seized his crew.
The name of Robert Thome is associated by Hakluyt and sub sequent writers with this Expedition, but evidently without due consideration. Thome, a native of Bristol, was a merchant-tailor
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of London,* who went to Spain and is said, without further par ticulars as to date, to have addressed the letter found in Hakluyt to Henry VIII. from Seville "in 1527." As the Expedition left the Thames on the 20th May, 1527, it is plainly absurd to suppose that a letter written during that year could have been forwarded —its suggestions considered and adopted — the course resolved on — the commanders selected — vessels suitable for such an enter prise prepared — and all the arrangements completed so as to admit of this early departure. Nor is there any evidence that the letter in question was ever forwarded. It was handed to Hakluyt, as he states in his work of 1582, by Cyprian Lucar, a son of Thome's executor. No doubt Verrazani proceeded to Eng land immediately on discovering that in the confused and ex hausted state of France he had no chance of employment ; and not more than sufficient time would thus be allowed for maturing all the necessary arrangements. Aside from the enterprising temper of Henry VIII., Verrazani was, perhaps, in some measure indebted for success in his application to the mood of Wolsey, whose resentment at the supposed treachery of Charles V. as to the election of a Pope had at this time passed into the politics of England. The Cardinal's zeal on behalf of the Expedition may have been quickened by knowing how much its success would startle and annoy the Emperor. We have already seen, in con sidering the voyage of 1517 with which this has been confounded, what alarm was created by intelligence of the visit of the Mary of Guilford to the Islands. The Emperor was struck with the incon veniences likely to result,^ and gave strict orders to seize and make an example of any future intruders.
The abrupt termination of the enterprise prevents our being able to trace distinctly the influence on it of Cabot's previous voyages. Verrazani, in 1524, did not get further North than 50°, and so far as the Mary of Guilford advanced beyond that point we see
* Stow's Survey of London; Fuller's Worthies.
t "Los inconvenientcs quo podiia haver de la navigation de esta Nacion a los Indias." llorrcra, Dec. ii. lib. v. c. iii.
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only an effort to reach Hudson's Strait. It would be absurd to suppose that the King who is found possessed of Verrazani's more limited map had not before him the bolder one of Cabot. In ad dition to " the Card" which Lord Bacon speaks of as having been exhibited by Cabot, the history of the more recent voyage of 1517 must have been perfectly well known. Thorne speaks familiarly to Henry VIII. of the discoveries made on that occasion by " your Grace's subjects," and the very mariners employed ten years be fore would of course be sought for and eno'ao-ed anew.*
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A future part of the subject will be understood more readily by noting here, that Frobisher was aware of the course taken on this occasion and of the loss of one of the ships in " a dangerous gulf between the North parts of Newfoundland and the country lately called by her Majesty, Meta Incognita."
It is impossible to turn from this Expedition without adverting, in terms of indignation, to those who, instead of looking into the evidence which strikingly evinces the earnest and continued ex ertions of Henry VIII. in reference to this project, prefer the easier task of stringing together such paragraphs as the following : —
" Neither was the turbulent, voluptuous, proud, and cruel disposition of Henry VIII. any great encouragement to men of abilities and enterprise to un dertake voyages of discovery, and thereby expose themselves to the king's fickle and tyrannical temper in case of miscarriage/''!'
" But it is more difficult to discover what prevented this scheme of Henry VII. from being resumed during the reigns of his son and grandson, and to give any reason why no attempt was made either to explore the Northern Con tinent of America more fully, or to settle in it. Henry VIII. was frequently at open enmity with Spain : the value of the Spanish acquisitions in America had become so well known, as might have excited his desire to obtain some footing in those opulent regions ; and during a considerable part of his reign, the prohibitions in a papal bull would not have restrained him from making encroachments upon the Spanish dominions. But the reign of Henry was not favourable to the progress of discovery. During one period of it, the active part which he took in the affairs of the Continent, and the vigour with which he engaged in the contest between the two mighty rivals, Charles V. and Francis I. gave full occupation to the enterprising spirit both of the King and his No-
* See Appendix (E).
f Forstcr, Northern voyages, p. 268.
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bility. During another period of his administration, his famous controversy with the Court of Rome kept the nation in perpetual agitation and suspense : engrossed by those objects, neither the King nor the Nobles had inclination or leisure to turn their attention to new pursuits ; and without their patronage and aid, the commercial part of the nation was too inconsiderable to make any effort of consequence."*
"That prince, (Henry VIII.) full of bustle, needy of money, and not devoid of intelligence, might have been supposed rather prompt to embark in such en terprises : but involved in so many disputes, domestic and theological, and studying, though with little skill, to hold the balance between the two great Continental rivals, Charles and Francis, he was insensible to the glory and ad vantages to be derived from Maritime Expeditions."^
* Dr. Robertson's America, book ix.
"\- Edinburgh Cabinet Library, (vol. i. p. 98,) by Professors Leslie and Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esq.
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CHAP. X.
VOYAGE FROM ENGLAND IN 1536.
IT has been thought unnecessary to speak in detail of the Expe dition of Verrazani in 1524, or of that of Cartier in 1534, as they did not advance beyond the points which former Navigators had rendered quite familiar. Of a subsequent voyage from England, in 1536, our information, derived altogether from Hakluyt, is quite meagre, but there was evidently contemplated a more ad venturous range of search. The scheme originated with " one Master Hore of London, a man of goodly stature and of great courage, and given to studie of cosmography."* Amongst the company, it is stated, were " many gentlemen of the Inns of Court, and of the Chancerie." One of the persons particularly spoken of, is " M. Rastall, Serjeant RastalFs brother," a name familiar in the Law, from the well-known " Entries" of the bro ther here alluded to. After a tedious passage, the gentlemen reached Cape Breton and proceeded Northward, but seem to have made little progress when they were arrested by famine, which became so pinching that one individual killed his companion " while he stooped to take up a root for his relief/'f and having appeased the pangs of hunger, hid the body for his own future use. It beins; ascertained that he had somewhere a concealed
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store of animal food, he was reproached for his base selfishness, " and this matter growing to cruel Speeches "$ he stated plainly what he had done. The Chief of the Expedition was greatly shocked at this horrible discovery, " and made a notable oration,
* Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 129. flbid. vol. iii. p. 130. J Ib.
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containing how much these dealings offended the Almightie, and vouched the Scriptures from first to last what God had in cases of distresse done for them that called upon Him, and told them that the power of the Almighty was then no lesse than in all for mer time it had bene. And added, that if it had not pleased God to have holpen them in that distresse, that it had bene better to have perished in body, and to have lived everlastingly, than to have relieved for a poore time their mortal bodyes, and to be con demned everlastingly both body and soul to the unquenchable fire of hell."* But in vain did this good man, who was not him self of the Profession, entreat his associates to combat the unhappy tendency to prey on their fellow-creatures; and they were about to cast lots to ascertain who should be killed, when a French vessel unexpectedly arrived " well furnished with vittaile." Notwith standing the amity of the two nations, it was decided, in the mul titude of Counsellors, to consult their own safety at the expense of the new comers. The case being one of plain necessity, they resolved to act on the familiar maxim which permits the law to slumber in such emergencies, and to get possession of the French vessel, viewing it, doubtless, if any argument was had, in the light of the tabula in naufragio spoken of in the books.
The thing would seem to have been managed with fair words
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and characteristic adroitness. Hakluyt got his information from Mr. Thomas Buts, of Norfolk, whom he rode two hundred miles to see, " as being the only man now alive that was in this disco- verie." Buts must have been very young at the time of the Ex pedition — probably in London as a student of law or articled to an attorney — and it can hardly be supposed that he was trusted with a prominent part at this interesting crisis, when there were on board men of the experience of Rastall and the others. Yet there was evidently a touch of vain-glory about his narrative to Hakluyt — something of the " pars fui" — and the old man, though long retired from business, kindled up at the reminiscence :
* Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 130.
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" Such was the policie of the English that they became masters of the same, and changing Ships and vittailing them they setsayle to come into England !"* The despoiled Frenchmen followed these harpies of the law, and made complaint to Henry VIII.
" The King causing the matter to be examined and finding the great distresse of his subjects, and the causes of the dealing with the French, was so moved with pitie that he punished not his subjects, but of his own purse made full and royal recompence unto the French. "t
It had been stated at the outset that the adventurers were "assisted by the King's favour and good countenance," which, with his subsequent clemency and generosity, may furnish a suit able answer to the silly tirade of Forster.
* Hakluyt, vol. iii.p. 131. t Ib.
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CHAP. XI.
EXPEDITION OF CORTEREAL IN 15/4, AND RETROSPECT TO A PRETENDED VOYAGE BY A PERSON OF THE SAME NAME IN 1464.
THE long interval between the voyage of 1536 and that of Fro- bisher supplies nothing worthy of particular notice. One inci dent, however, may be glanced at, because it is probably connected with a misconception as to a pretended expedition of much earlier date.
In the work of Hakluyt published in 1582, we find the follow ing passage : —
" A verie late and great probabilitie of a passage by the North- West part of America in 58 degrees of Northerly latitude. An excellent learned Man of Portugal of singular gravety authoritie and experience tolde me very lately that one Amis Cortereal Captayne qftheyle of Tercera about the yeare 1574 which is not above eight years past sent a shippe to discover the North West Passage of America and that the same shippe arriving on the Coast of the said America in fiftie eyghte degrees of Latitude found a great entrance exceeding deepe without all impediment of ice, into which they passed above twentie leagues and found it alwaies to trende towards the South the lande lying low and plain on either side. And that they persuaded themselves verily that there was a way open into the South Sea. But their victuals fayling them and they beeing but one Shippe they returned backe agayne with joy."
Nothing further is heard on the subject.
One of the idlest of the numerous efforts to detract from the fame of those who led the way in the career of discovery, is the assertion that Newfoundland was discovered by a person named Cortereal as early as 1464, twenty-eight years before the Enter prise of Columbus. The following passage on the subject is found in Mr. Barrow's Chronological History of Voyages, (p. 37,)
"The first Navigator of the name of Cortereal, who engaged in this enter prise, was John Vaz Costa Cortereal, a Gentleman of the Household of the
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Infanta Don Fernando — who, accompanied by Alvaro Martens Hornea, ex plored the northern seas, by order of King Alfonso the Fifth, and discovered the Terra de Baccalhaos (the land of Cod Fish) afterwards called Newfoundland.
" This voyage is mentioned by Cordeiro, (Historia Insulana Cordeiro 1 vol. fol.> but he does not state the exact date, which however is ascertained to have been in 1463 or 1464; for on their return from the discovery of Newfound land, or Terra Nova, they touched at the Island of Terceira, the Captaincy of which Island having become vacant by the death of Jacome Bruges, they soli cited the appointment, and in reward for their services the request was granted, their patent commission being dated in Evora, 2nd April, 1464.
" Notwithstanding this early date of a voyage across the Atlantic, there ex ists no document to prove that any thing further was done by the Portuguese, in the way of discovery, till towards the close of the fifteenth century ; and if the evidence of that in question rested on this single testimony of Cordeiro, and on the fact of the Patent, it would scarcely be considered as sufficiently strong to deprive Cabotas of the honour of being the first who discovered Newfound land ; at the same time if the Patent should specify the service for which it was granted, and that service is stated to be the discovery of Newfoundland, the evi dence would go far in favour of the elder Cortereal."
Supposing, for a moment, the statement here made to be cor rect, it must doubtless be received with astonishment. In all the eager controversies between Spain and Portugal, growing out of the discovery of America by the former power, not the slightest reference is made to this antecedent voyage, although we are ap prised, by the letter of Thome, of a resort even to the falsification of maps. Is it possible that Portugal, during the most stirring period of her history, would not attempt to follow up a discovery which was yet deemed worthy of a signal reward ? The younger Cortereal, moreover, we have seen, speaks of the country visited by him in 1501 as before altogether unknown, and of that lying further north as discovered only the year before. Would such language have been used by him, or endured by his countrymen, if he had merely revisited a region discovered thirty-seven years before by a member of the same family?
We have in the work of the Portuguese writer Galvano, trans lated by Hakluyt, a minute and copious History of Maritime Dis covery, in which, though the voyage of Gaspar Cortereal is par ticularly described, not the slightest allusion is found to this earlier enterprise.
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It will probably be considered, also, rather remarkable that when Columbus, twenty years after this discovery, submitted to the Court of Portugal his project for seeking land in the West, it was referred to a learned Junto, who pronounced it extravagant and visionary, and that on appeal to the Council this decision was affirmed. To remove all doubt a Caravel was secretly sent to sea, provided with the instructions of Columbus, and her return, not long after, without success, was considered to establish, conclu sively, the impracticable character of the scheme.
But it happens that Mr. Barrow, in putting forth the statement, has not looked even into the work which he professes to cite as his authority. The volume of Cordeyro was published in 1717, and is entitled " Historia Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal sugeytas no Oceano Occidental." Of it, and of its author so little is known that his name does not find a place even in the Biographic Univer- selle. A greater part is occupied with adulation of some of the principal families of the different islands; yet there is supplied the very Document, at full length, to whose possible language Mr. Barrow hypothetically attaches so much importance. A copy of the work is found in the Library of the British Museum. The Commission of Cortereal, as Governor of Terceira, bears date (p. 246,) Evora, 12 April, 1464, and in the consideration recited for the grant not the slightest reference is made to any such discovery.* Thus does the evidence in support of this preposterous claim disappear. The whole story had probably its origin in some-con fused tradition which reached Cordeyro as to the voyage of 1574. Yet mark how Error, " like to an entered tide, rushes by and leaves" even Mr. Barrow " hindmost."
" There seems little reason to doubt that a Portuguese navigator had dis-
* " E considerando en de outra parte os servigos que Joao Vas Cortereal, iidalgo da casa do dito Senhor meu filho, tern feyto ao Infante meu Senhor seu padre que Dcos haja, & depois a mini & a elle, confiando em a sua bon- daclc, & lealdadc, & vendo a sua disposigao, a qual he para poder servir o dito Senhor & manter seu direyto, & justiga, em galardao dos ditos services Ihe fiz meice da Capitania da Una Terceyra."
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covered Newfoundland long before the time of Cabot. John Vaz Casta Corte- real, a gentleman of the Royal Household had explored the Northern Seas by order of Alphonso the V. about the year 1463, and discovered the Terra de Baccalhaos or land of Codfish, afterwards called Newfoundland."*
As authority for these assertions, Mr. Barrow is cited ! Again :
" This house was that of Cortereal : for a member of which, John Vaz Cor- tereal, claims are advanced as having discovered Newfoundland nearly a cen tury (!) before the celebrated voyages of Columbus or Cabot."f
* Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 138.
•j* Edinburgh Cabinet Library, by Professors Leslie and Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esq. vol. i. p. 158.
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CHAP. XII.
SIR MARTIN FROBISHEK.
To exhibit a just estimate of the merits of this navigator, is one of the gravest portions of the duty that remains to be performed. There will here be found, probably, the most striking proof yet presented of injustice to the fame of Sebastian Cabot.
Had Frobisher seen the tract of Sir Humphrey Gilbert? The question may not, perhaps, be deemed one of essential importance, when we know that Ramusio, twenty-two years before, had fur nished a statement, which it is impossible to misunderstand, of the course pursued, and of the point attained, by Cabot, and that there was suspended in the Queen's Gallery the Map, exhibiting his discoveries, referred to in that tract. Yet the evidence hap pens to be so singularly conclusive as to invite the enquiry.
A doubt, indeed, on the subject has arisen only from the con duct of Hakluyt, who in giving a place to the work of Sir Hum phrey Gilbert has suppressed the very curious and interesting explanation of its history ; and, owing to the blind confidence in that compiler, no one has since thought of going beyond his volumes. There is, fortunately, a copy of the original publica tion in the Library of the British Museum, (title in catalogue Gilbert.)
The tract was published on the 12 April, 1576, and is preceded by an Address to the reader, from George Gascoigne, who thus explains the manner in which it came into his possession : —
" Now it happened that myself being one (amongst many) beholden to the said Sir Humphry Gilbert for sundry courtesies, did come to visit him in the winter last past, at his house in Limehouse, and being very bold to demand of him, how he spent his time in this loitering vacation from martial stratagems, he courteously took me into his study, and there shewed me sundry profitable
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and very commendable exercises which he had perfected painfully with his own pen, and amongst the rest this present discovery. The which, as well because it was not long, as also, because I understood that M. Forboiser, a kins man of mine, did pretend to travel in the same discovery, I craved it at the said Sir Humphrey's hand for two or three days."
Gascoigne retained possession of the tract, and subsequently published it.
Frobisher (or Forboiser as he is more commonly called in the old accounts) sailed from Gravesend, on his first voyage, 12 June, 1576. We thus find that the tract was obtained by a kinsman, for his use, the preceding winter, and that it even appeared in print two months before Frobisher left the Thames. The following is an extract from it, (Hakluyt, vol. hi. p. 16,)
" Sebastian Cabota by his personal experience and travel hath set forth and described this passage in his Charts, which are yet to be seen in the Queen's Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to make this discovery by King Henry VII. and entered the same fret: affirming that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the North on the North side of Terra de Labra dor the eleventh of June, until he came to the Septentrional latitude of 67° and- a-half, and finding the sea still open said, that he might and would have gone to Cataia if the mutiny of the master and mariners had not been."
There is another tract in Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 24,) already re ferred to, entitled " Certain other reasons or arguments to prove a passage by the North-West, learnedly written by Mr. Richard Willes, Gentleman." Here, also, a perilous discretion has been exercised in the way of curtailment. The Essay appeared origi nally in a new edition of Richard Eden's Decades, published by Willes, in 1577.* The tract is addressed to the Countess of War wick whose husband was the patron of Frobisher, and is headed " For M. Captayne Frobisher, passage by the North-West." (fol. 230.) That Willes had been solicited to prepare it is apparent from the conclusion, (fol. 236.)
" Thus much, Right Honorable, my very good Lady, of your question con cerning your servant's voyage. If not so skilfully as I would, and was desirous fully to do, at the least as I could and leisure suffered me, for the little know-
* " The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies, &c. by Richard Eden. Newly set in order, augmented, and finished by Richarde Willes. London, 1577-"
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ledge God hath lent me, if it be any at all, in cosmography and philosophy, and the small experience I have in travaile. Chosing rather in the clear judg ment of your honourable mind to appear rude and ignorant, and so to be scene unto the multitude, than to be found unthankful and careless in anything your Honour should commande me. God preserve your Honor. At the Court the 20 of March, your Honor's most humbly at commandment Richard Willes."
This Tract was prepared after the first voyage of Frobisher, and reference is made in it to a document now lost, viz., the Chart drawn by Frobisher to exhibit the course he had pursued. The account given by Willes of Cabot's description of the Strait cor responds with that supplied by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, but it is, as has been shewn on a former occasion, more explicit.
" Cabota was not only a Skilful Seaman but a long travailer, and such a one as entered personally that Strait sent by King Henry VII. to make the aforesaid discovery, as in his own Discourse of Navigation you may read in his Card drawn with his own hand ; the mouth of the North -Western Strait lieth near the 318 meridian [60° W. Long, from Greenwich] betwixt 61 and 64° in ele vation continuing the same breadth about ten degrees West where it opcneth Southerly more and more." (fol. 233.)
That Frobisher was considered as having done nothing more, on his first voyage, than to act on the suggestions of Cabot, and as far he went to confirm them, may be inferred from another pas sage. It was plain that he had not penetrated to the extent men tioned by Cabot, yet he had followed the instructions as to the quarter where the Strait was to be found, and his partial success inspired a hope that he might, in a second attempt, urge his way through. That this was the extent of the merit claimed for the
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recent voyage is plain from the language which Willes addresses to a lady whose influence had been mainly instrumental in setting it forth. After representing the Strait to be " betwixt the 61st and 64th degrees North," he adds, "So left by our countryman Se bastian Cabote in his Table, the which my good Lord your father [The Earl of Bedford] hath at Cheynies and so tried this last year by your Honor's Servant as he reported and his Card and Compass do witness." (fol. 232.)
The very history of the voyages themselves is stripped by Hak- luyt of the evidence they furnish as to a knowledge of Cabot's
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previous enterprise. Thus we have (vol. iii. p. 47) the account of the three voyages " penned by Master George Best, a gentleman employed in the same voyage," and find (p. 60) that this gentle man was the Lieutenant of the Admiral's ship. There is a copy in the King's Library (title in catalogue Frobisher) of his work as originally published in 1578; and prefixed to it is a long and in teresting Dedication to Sir Christopher Hatton, of which no part is found in Hakluyt. Amongst other things he says, " And Se bastian Cabote being an Englishman and born in Brystowe, after he had discovered sundry parts of Newfoundland and attempted the passage to Cataya by the North-West for the King of Eng land, for lack of entertainment here (notwithstanding his good desert) was forced to seek to the King of Spain."
There was another work published during the same year, en titled " A Prayse and Reporte of Master Martyn Forbaisher's voyage to Meta Incognita by Thomas Churchyard," (Library of British Museum, title in catalogue Churchyardj) in which the writer says, " Gabotha was the first in King Henry VII.'s days that discovered this frozen land, or Seas/row Sixty-seven towards the North, and from thence towards the South along the Coast of America to 36° and-a-half, &c. But this Gabotha's labor robs no piece of praysefrom Master Forboisher, for Gabotha made but a simple rehearsal of such a soil, but Master Forboisher makes a perfect proof of the mines and profit of the country." It is cu rious to note, thus early, a disposition on the part of Frobisher's admirers to cast into the shade the enterprise of Cabot. The claim put forth to superior merit — 'sufficiently idle in itself — must have appeared utterly ridiculous after the worthlessness of the ore had been ascertained, and it seems to have been subsequently thought safer to waive any allusion whatever to him who had gloriously led the way in the career of discovery.
Thus, then, we have the most conclusive evidence of a knowledge of what Cabot had done, and of its direct influence on Frobisher's enterprise. Let us now see what the latter actually accomplished.
The First Expedition left Gravesend, as has been said, on the
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12th June, 1576. No interest attaches to its movements until the llth of August, at which point we take up the narrative of the Master of the Gabriel, Christopher Hall, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 30)-
" The 1 1 we found our Latitude to be 63 degr. and 8 minutes, and this day we entered THE STREIGHT.
"The 12 wee setsaile towardesan Island, called the Gabriel's Island, which was 10 leagues then from us.
" We espied a Sound, and bare with it, and came to a sandie Baye, where we came to an anker, the land bearing East- South-east off us, and there we rode at night in 8 fathome water. It floweth there at the South-east Moone. We called at Prior's sownd, being from Gabriel's Island, tenne leagues.
" The 14 we waied, and ranne into another sownd, where we ankered in 8 fathome water, faire sande and black oaze, and there calked our ship, being weake from the wales upward and took in fresh water.
"The 15 day we waied, and sailed to Priors Bay, being a mile from thence. "The 16 day wascalme and rode still without yce, but presently within two houres it was frozen round about the ship, a quarter of an ynch thicke and that day very faire, and calme.
"The 17 day we waied, and came to Thomas Williams Island. "The 18 day we sailed North North West, and ankered again in 23 fa thome, and tough oaze, vnder Burchers Island, which is from the former Island, ten leagues.
"The 19 day in the morning, being calme, and no winde, the Captaine and I tooke our boate, with eight men in her, to row us ashore, to see if there were there any people, or no, and going to the top of the Island, we had sight of seven boates, which came rowing from the East side, toward that Island : whereupon we returned aboored againe : at length we sent our boate with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boates with their men along the shoare, rowing after our boate, till such time as they sawe our Ship, and then they rowed ashoare : then I went on shoare myself, and gave every of them a threadden point, and brought one of them aboored of me, where he did eate and drinke, and then carried him ashore againe. Whereupon all the rest came aboored with their boates, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understoode them not. They be like to Tartars, with long blacke haire, broad faces, and flatte noses, and tawnie in color, wearing scale skins, and so doe the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blewe streekes downe the cheekes, and round about the eyes. Their boates are made all of scales skinnes, with a keele of wood within the skin : the proportion of them is like a Spanish Shal lop, save only they be flat in the bottome, and sharpe at both ends.
" The twentieth day we waied, and went to the East side of this Island, and I and the Captaine, with foure men more went on shoare, and there we sawe
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their houses, and the people espying vs, came rowing towards our boate : whereupon we plied toward our boate ; and wee being in our boate and they ashore, they called to us, and we rowed to them, and one of their company came into our boate, and we carried him aboard, and gave him a Bell, and a knife : so the Captaine and I willed five of our men to set him a shoare at a rocke, and not among the company, which they came from, but their wilful- ness was such, that they would goe to them, and so were taken themselves, and our boate lost.
" The next day in the morning, we stoode in neere the shoare, and shotte off a fanconet, and sounded our Trumpet, but we could heare nothing of our men : this Sound we called the Five Mens Sound, and plyed out of it, but ankered againe in thirtie fathome, and oaze, and riding there all night, in the morning, the snow lay a foote thicke upon our hatches.
" The 22 day in the morning we wayed, and went againe to the place where we lost our men, and our boate. We had sight of fourteen boates, and some came neere to us, but we could learne nothing of our men : among the rest, we enticed one boate to our ships side, with a Bell, and in giving him the Bell, we tooke him, and his boate, and so kept him, and so rowed down to Thomas Williams Island, and there ankered all night.
" The 26. day we waied, to come homeward and by 1 2. of the clocke at noone, we were thwart of Trumpets Island."
Such was the result of Frobisher's Only Voyage, having in view the discovery of a North-West Passage !
It is seen, at once, that he got entangled with the land by keep ing, at the outset, too far North. Cabot had said, that the Strait was between the 61st and 64th degree of latitude ; and Ramusio tells us, from the navigator's Letter, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Lord Bacon from his Card, that the course he took was " very far Westward, with a quarter of the North on the North side of Terra de Labrador.''' Frobisher's reasons for disregarding facts which must have been known to him, can only be conjectured. One mo tive may have been a puerile ambition to strike out a new route. We learn from Best, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 58,) "This place he named after his name, Frobisher's Strait, like as Magellanus at the South- West end of the World, having discovered the passage to the South Sea, and called the same Straits Magellan's Straits." A more indulgent explanation is suggested by recollecting the account which he gave (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 129) of the fate of one of the English ships engaged in the attempt at discovery in 1527. Fro-
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bisher understood that the vessel had been " cast away as it en tered into a dangerous gulf about the great opening between the North parts of Newfoundland and the country lately called by her Majesty Meta Incognita." (Ib.) It is not improbable that he may have been induced by a dread of the fate of his predecessor ab surdly to commence his examination on the very verge of the limit fixed by Cabot, without the least reference to the course pursued by that Navigator which had conducted him from 61° at the commencement of the Strait to 64° at its termination. The pre cise extent to which Frobisher threaded his way amongst rocks and islands is not given by Hall, but is stated by Best, (Hakluyt, p. 58) at fifty leagues, and again (p. 59) at sixty leagues.
The Second Voyage was prompted by mere cupidity. The inci dent which stimulated the hopes of the adventurers is thus re lated, (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 59,)
" Some of his company brought floures, some greene grasse : and one brought a piece of blacke stone much like to a sea cole in colour, which by the waight seemed to be some kinde of metall or minerall. This was a thing of no account in the judgment of the Captaine at the first sight, and yet for no velty it was kept in respect of the place from whence it came. After his arrival in London being demanded of sundry of his friends what thing he had brought them home out of that country, he had nothing left to present them withal but a piece of this blacke stone, and it fortuned a gentlewoman one of the adven turers wives to have a piece thereof, which by chance she threw and burned in the fire, so long that at the length being taken forth, and quenched in a* little vinegar, it glistered with a bright marquesset of Golde. Whereupon the matter being called in some question, it was brought to certaine Goldfiners in London to make assay thereof, who gave out that it held Golde, and that very richly for the quantity. Afterwards the same Goldfiners promised great matters thereof if there were any store to be found, and offered themselves to adven ture for the searching of those parts from whence the same was brought. Some that had great hope of the matter sought secretly to have a lease at her Ma jesty's hands of those places, whereby to enjoy the masse of so great a public profit vnto their owne private gaines.
" In conclusion, the hope of more of the same Golde ore to be found kindled a greater opinion in the hearts of many to advance the voyage againe. Where upon preparation was made for a new voyage against the yere following, and the Captaine more especially directed by commission for the searching more of this Golde ore than for the searching any further discovery of the passage."
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All the movements of the Expedition had exclusive reference to this new object of pursuit.
"Now had the Generall altered his determination for going any further into the Streites at this time for any further discovery of the passage having taken a man and a woman of that country, which he thought sufficient for the use of language : and also having met with these people here which intercepted his men the last yere (as the apparell and English furniture which was found in their tents, very well declared) he knew it was but a labor lost to seeke them further off, when he had found them there at hand. And considering also the short time he had in hand, he thought it best to bend his whole endeavour for the getting of myne, and to leave the passage further to be discovered hereafter." (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 70.)
On the 22nd August, having collected upwards of two hundred tons of ore, they left the Island, whence it had been principally obtained, on their return to England. " We gave a volley of shot for a farewell in honour of the Right Honourable Lady Anne Countess of Warwick, whose name it beareth, and so departed aboard." (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 72.) They reached Bristol in October.
The Third Voyage had the same objects in view with the pre ceding, and we find it remarked at the close, (3 Hakluyt, p. 96,) " Tho people are now become so wary and so circumspect by rea son of their former losses, that by no means we can apprehend any of them, although we attempted often in this last voyage. But to say truth we could not bestow any great time in pursuing them because of our great business in lading and other things."
There is little interest in pursuing the details of such an expe dition. But one part of the account is too curious not to be no ticed. By stress of weather, Frobisher was actually driven to the southward into Hudson's Strait, and yet abandoned the route which he saw plainly before him in order to resume the search for ore.
" The seventh of July as men nothing yet dismayed, we cast about towards the inward, and had sight of land, which rose in form like the Northerland of the Straits, which some of the fleetes, and those not the worst mariners, judged to be the North foreland : however other some were of contrary opinion. But the matter was not well to be discerned by reason of thicke fogge which a long time hung upon the Coast, and the new falling snow which yeerely altereth
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the shape of the land, and taketh away oftentimes the Mariners markes. And by reason of the darke mists which continued by the space of twentie days together, this doubt grew the greater and the longer perilous. For whereas indeed we thought ourselves to be upon the Northeast side of Frobisher's Straits we were now carried to the Southwestwards of the Queens Foreland, and being deceived by a swift current coming from the Northeast were brought to the Southwestwards of our said course many miles more than we did think possible could come to passe. The cause whereof we have since found, and it shall be at large hereafter declared," (3 Hakl. 790
" The tenth of July the weather still continuing thicke and darke, some of the ships in the fogge lost sight of the Admirall, and the rest of the Fleete, and wondering to and fro with doubtful opinion whether it were best to seeke backe againe to seaward through the great store of yce, or to follow on a doubt ful course in a Seas Bay or Straights they knew not, or along a coast, whereof by reason of the darke mistes they could not discerne the dangers if by chance any rocke or broken ground should lie off the place, as commonly in those parts it doth," (p. 80.)
" The General, albeit, with the first, perchance, he found out the error, and that this was not the olde straights, yet he persuaded the Fleete alwayes that they were in their right course, and knowen straights. Howbeit, I suppose, he rather dissembled his course." " And as some of the companie reported, he has since confessed that if it had not beene for the charge and care he had of the fleete and freighted ships, he both would and could have gone through to the South Sea, called Mar del Sur, and dissolved the long doubt of the passage which we seeke to fade to the richcountrey of Cataya," (p. 80.)
Having taken in a vast quantity of ore the vessels returned, and it proving, on examination, utterly worthless, no further attempt was made by Frobisher.
The preceding detail, while it has enabled us to draw some facts from the rare and curious volumes in which they have long slumbered, has effected incidentally, it is hoped, the pur pose which connects them with these pages. It is evident, that nothing but Frobisher's departure from the plain Instructions laid down for his government, prevented his doing what was achieved by Cabot so long before, and by Hudson in the next century. But after his first blind experiment he was intent on another object. We find him actually driven into the true Strait and confessing that he saw his way quite clear. At this very moment he had in his Cabin the Instructions drawn up, at the instance of his patrons, by Willes, describing the Strait in a
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manner not to be misunderstood, and strengthening all the hopes suggested by his own observation. That pa per, as actually printed in England the year before he sailed on the Third Expedition, urges to this day its testimony against him. The Tract of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, procured in MS. for his use, and printed two years before, offered the same cheering confirmation. It is diffi cult to screen Frobisher altogether from reproach, for the dis covery of the passage evidently continued a leading object with those who had set forth the Expedition. When, therefore, he voluntarily abandoned the route which he was convinced would • conduct him through the Strait, we see that his own eager sym pathies were with the more sordid objects of pursuit, and induced him to turn away from the peril, and the glory, of the onward course.
What must be thought, under such circumstances, of a writer who refuses a place to the name of Cabot in a list of those who had engaged in the enterprise ?
" The reign of George III. will stand conspicuous and proudly pre-eminent in future history, for the spirit with which discoveries were prosecuted and the objects of science promoted ; and a dawn of hope appears that ere its close the interesting problem of a North- West passage will be solved, and this gieat discovery, to which the Frobishers, the Hudsons, &c., so successfully opened the way, be accomplished. Little, if any thing, has been added to the dis coveries of these extraordinary men, who, in the early periods of navigation had every difficulty to struggle against," &c. (Quarterly Review, vol. xviii. p. 213.)
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CHAP. XIII.
VOYAGE OF HUDSON.
AFTER what has been said of the evidence that lay open as to the success of Cabot, the task may be a superfluous one of tracing a familiarity with it to each succeeding Navigator. Yet with re gard to Hudson, his acquaintance is apparent even with the vo lumes which collect and arrange the knowledge on the subject existing at the time of that Expedition of 1610 which has given to his name so much celebrity. In the voyage made by him two years before, he is found conferring amongst other designations that of " Hakluyt's Headland," (Purchas, vol. iii. p. 464.) It would be absurd, then, to suppose him ignorant of the Volumes, published in London eight years before, which constitute that writer's claim to the gratitude of Seamen ; nor can we suppose that in undertaking a voyage in search of the North-West pas sage he would overlook the information which they supplied as to his predecessors in the enterprise. He would find at p. 16," of the third vol. the Treatise of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in which it is said, "Furthermore, Sebastian Caboto, by his personal expe rience and travel hath set forth and described this passage in his charts, which are yet to be seen in the Queen's Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to make the discovery by King Henry VII., and entered the same fret, affirming that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the North on the North side of Terra de Labrador the llth of June, until he came to the Septentrional latitude of 67° and-a-half." He would find at p. 26, of the same volume, the yet more pointed statement of Willes, that Cabot represented the strait through which he penetrated to commence at about a longitude equivalent to 60° west from
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Greenwich and between 61° and 64° of latitude, "continuing the same breadth about ten degrees West, where it openeth southerly more and more." It could hardly fail to arrest his attention at p. 80, that Frobisher, in his last voyage, being driven by stress of weather into the very Strait thus described " confessed that if it had not been for the charge and care he had of the Fleet and fraughted Ships he both would and could have gone through to the South Sea." In the same volume, p. 9, is the passage from Gomara, which represents Cabot to have proceeded by the route of Iceland. At page 441 of the first volume occurs a special recommendation of " Ortelius' Book of Maps." It has already been stated that in this work the Bay is plainly exhibited, and that the author had Cabot's Map before him. When, therefore, it appears that Hudson, in 1610, touched at Iceland on his way out, and finally penetrated into the Bay by following the In structions so distinctly laid down, we cannot but suppose him aware that he was merely attempting to retrace the course taken, a century before, by Sebastian Cabot.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
(A.)
(See page 43.) FABYAN'S CHRONICLE — ALLUSION TO THE VOYAGE OF CABOT.
FA BY AN died, according to Stow, in 1511. Five years after, his Chronicle was published by Pynson, but it then reached only to the tenth year of Henry VII's reign, that is, 1495. A new edition of the work was published by Rastall, in 1533, with the Continuation. It is here, of course, that we look for the paragraphs referred to by Stow ; yet, there is not to be found the slightest allusion to the expedition or to either of the C/abots. Mr. Ellis, who gave to the public, some years ago, an edition of Fabyan with notes, and has even furnished a copy of Fabyan's Will occupying seven folio pages, does not seem to have been aware of the importance of enquiry on this point. Stow, in the col lections which he made for his Survey, speaks of a Continuation by Fabyan himself, as low as the third year of Henry VIII. which book, he adds, " I have in written hand," (Harleian MS. 538.) Mr, Ellis, in his Preface to Fabyan (p. xvii.), supposes that the MS. thus referred to may be the one now in the Cotton Manuscripts (Nero C, no. xi.), but this comes down only to the beginning of the reign of Henry VII., and though some of the last pages have been destroyed, yet it would seem from an examination of the copious Index which fortunately precedes it, and is evidently contemporary with the body of the work, that it did not reach the period in question. Assuming, however, the correct ness of Mr. Ellis's conjecture, the question would still remain open as to the authenticity of the ordinary version. Mr. E. refers (ib.) to another MS. copy which he had heard of, but had not, as it would seem, con sulted. The point is worthy of attentive examination. Stow, of course,
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in making the assertion, knew of the printed work of Fabyan. The Stow MS. could be instantly recognised by its allusion, under the year 1502, to the exhibition of the savages. We must strike out the reference to Fabyan in Stow, Speed, and Purchas, or deny that any part of the Con tinuation can be by him, for it is difficult to believe that he would prepare two works relative to the incidents of the same reign differing essentially from each other. It forms a presumption in favour of the Stow MS , and against the Continuation by Rastall, that while the worthy Alder man, noting from time to time what fell under his observation, would be likely to advert to the incident in question, it might readily escape a compiler endeavouring to recall the leading events of the era after curiosity about the Newfoundland had passed away.
It is remarkable, that the original edition of Fabyan, published by Pynson, is accompanied by a single leaf, on which are noted the death of Henry VII. and the accession of his son. As Mr. Ellis republishes this (see his edition, p. 678) without any attempt to account for the dis appearance of the intermediate matter, a conjecture may be hazarded. Bale, in his " Scriptorum Illustrium Magni Brytanniae, &c." (Bas. Ed. of 1557, fol. 642,) states that Cardinal Wolsey had caused some copies of Fabyan's work to be burned, because it exposed the enormous reve nues of the priesthood, " Ejus Chronicorum exemplaria nonnulla Cardi- nalis Wolsius in suo furore comburi fecit quod cleri proventus pingues plus satis detexerit." Mr. Ellis is of opinion (Preface, xviii.) that the ob noxious passage " must" have have been that in which an abstract is given of the Bill projected by the House of Commons in the llth Henry IV. ; but this seems to furnish a very inadequate motive foe the vehement indignation of the Cardinal. A more perilous epoch to the Chronicler was that in which he had to record the death (in 1500) of Cardinal and Chancellor Morton. Of this personage, Bacon says, in his History of Henry VII.,
" This year also died John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, Chancellor of England and Cardinal. He was a wise man, and an eloquent, but in his nature harsh and haughty; much accepted by the King, but envied by the nobility, and hated of the people." " He (Henry VII.) kept a strait hand on his nobility, and chose rather to advance clergyman and lawyers which were more obsequious to him, but had less interest in the people."
It is highly probable, that the popular sentiment would be reflected from the page of Fabyan, and give umbrage to Wolsey, who may be supposed anxious that Henry VIII. should pursue the very policy
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attributed by Bacon to his Father. At this precise point, then, occurs a chasm in the copies extant of Pynson's edition. Was not this part sacrificed to the resentment of Wolsey, or suppressed from a dread of his displeasure, and was it not afterwards supplied by Rastall? The MS. which had, meanwhile, been lost sight of, could not elude so indefatigable a collector as Stow. The single leaf referred to, of Pyn son's edition, may be either part of the original work, or a hasty sub stitute, got up on the withdrawal of the obnoxious matter, so as to give to the work the appearance of being brought down to the latest period.
(B.) (See page 96.)
ENGLISH EXPEDITION SAID TO HAVE BEEN FOUND BY HOJEDA AT CAQUIBACOA.
THE claims of Truth are so paramount to those of any Hypothesis, however convenient and apparently well sustained, that a caution must here be interposed. It might be presumed that Navarette (torn. iii. p. 41) would not lightly hazard the unqualified assertion alluded to; yet this consideration will, perhaps, occur with most force to those who have not examined his volumes. He adduces no authority in support of the position, and the Document which seems, at a hasty glance, to countenance it, will be found, on examination, to suggest an opposite conclusion.
Cabot had discovered a vast Continent along the coast of which he proceeded to the South as far as Florida without reaching its termi nation. Of this fact the Spanish Government was, of course, fully aware in July 1500, the date of the agreement with Hojeda in which allusion is made to the English, for we find (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 77) a Letter from the Sovereigns dated 6th May, 1500, which Na varette himself (ib. p. 42) connects with an intention to follow up the discoveries of Cabot. The conduct of England was of course regarded by the Court of Spain with indignation and alarm, as involving a vio lation of the Papal Bull. Cabot followed the main land no further only because his provisions were exhausted. When the Spaniards, then, sub sequently discovered Terra Firma, nothing was more natural, or correct, than to suppose it connected with the Great Continent coasted by the English, and in resolving to take possession, their policy, and pretended
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exclusive rights, would lead them to watch and repel all foreign compe tition. It was as if, in after times, the Spanish commander at Pensacola or St. Augustine had been advised of the colonization of Virginia by the English.
On turning to the agreement with Hojeda it is found that he is en joined to continue his examination of the region he had discovered on the former voyage, and which seemed to run East and West, as it must lead towards (hacia) the place where it was known the English were making discoveries. He is directed to set up marks as he proceeds with the Royal Arms, so that it might be known he had taken pos session for Spain, and the English be thereby prevented from making discoveries in that direction, (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 86.)
" Item : que vaes e sigaisaquella costa que descubristes quo se correleste — vuest, segun parece, per razon que ta hdcia la parte donde se ha sabido que descubrian los Ingleses e vais poniendo las marcas con las armas de SS. A. A. 6 eon otras senates que sean conocidas, cuales vos pareciere porque se conozca como vos habes descu- bierto aquella tierra, para que atages el descubrir de los Ingleses por aquella via.''
A Grant of Land is made to Hojeda in consideration prospectively of his active exertions to prosecute discoveries and to check those of the English, (ib.p.88.)
" Para que labrees, £ fagaes labrar, e vos aprovecheis e podais aprovecbar de alii, para lo que habees de descubrir e en la costa de la tierra firme para el atajo de los Ingleses."
The general direction of the region visited by Hojeda is correctly described, and it is certain that had Cabot not been stopped by a^ failure of provisions, but turned the Cape of Florida and followed the coast, he must have reached Caquibacoa. The vast interval occasioned by the Gulf of Mexico was then unknown.
It is quite plain that the injunction contained in Hojeda's in structions, so far from assuming the identity of the spots visited by him and the English, involves a conjecture as to their relative position towards each other. It was by following up his discoveries that Hojeda was to meet and check intrusion. The phraseology, too, discountenances the idea that the person addressed had conveyed the information as to the danger; it seems rather communicated to him in the way of cau tion. Nor would the setting up of marks to let the English know, on reaching them, of the Spanish claim be probably so much insisted on, if, long before, Hojeda had personally given notice of it. The allusion seems to be not so much to any one expedition of the English as
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to a particular quarter from which their encroachment was to be appre hended ; and Hojeda is, therefore, enjoined to spread out his party, as soon as possible, over the intermediate region, so that it might be found preoccupied. If Caquibacoa had been the scene of common discovery, and of actual encounter, it is strange that Hojeda should now be told by others of the direction which led towards the English.
Hojeda was examined on oath, at great length, in the law proceedings between Don Diego Columbus and the Crown, and the very question at issue was as to originality of discovery. He makes not the slightest allusion to such a meeting, and yet, in the course of a trial before a domestic tribunal, there would seem to have been no motive for omitting to state what, if true, must have been known to so many. Nor is this all. If Hojeda really found a party of Englishmen in that quarter he can hardly escape the charge of perjury. He swears positively (Navarette, torn. iii. p. 544) that he was the first who attempted to follow up the discovery of Columbus, ('* el primero hombre que vino a descubrir des- pues que el Almirante.") After speaking of his having found the marks of Columbus he proceeds to detail his own discoveries, mentioning par ticularly Caquibacoa; and he swears that no part of this had ever been discovered or visited either by Columbus or any one else, (" nunca nadie lo habia descubierto ni tocado en ello asi el Almirante como otra persona/') The statement is repeated in another part of his testimony, (p. 546,) ** e que toda esta costa y la tierra-firme, y el Golfo de Uraba y el Darien el Almirante ni otra persona no lo habia descubierto."
One other forcible consideration will occur to those apprised of the character of Hojeda. That fiery and daring adventurer would have regarded the rival party as impudent trespassers on the dominions of the King of Spain, and as setting at defiance the Papal Bull. A man who gravely quotes this instrument in his manifesto to the poor Indians as sufficient authority for subjugating them, would hardly have exacted less deference to it from Christians. He was the last person in the world to come home quietly with a report of the intrusion — not knowing when he should return — and to throw on his Sovereign the necessity of giving that direct authority for expulsion which it might be more agreeable to find the officer taking for granted. Hojeda would have known his cue without a prompter.
In a recent volume, (Lardner's Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 35,) the assertion is made that " Hojeda met with English navigators near the Gulf of Maracaibo," and a suffi cient authority is supposed to be found for it in the language of the
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Document already quoted. Without repeating what has been said on that point, it may be remarked that the writer in the Cyclopaedia does not deal fairly with the original. He represents Hojeda as ordered " to follow and examine the coast which he had already discovered, and which appears to run East and West, as that is the part which the En glish are known to be exploring," &c. It is obvious that the most im portant words are here left unnoticed. The expression " por razon que va hacia la parte donde se ha sabido que descubrian las ingleses" will not bear the translation of the Cyclopsedia without the substitution in dicated by brackets, " as that is [goes towards] the part, where the English are known to be exploring."
Should it appear, in the end, that the assertion has no better foun dation than the document in question, what a melancholy proof have we of the perils to which Truth is subject when a writer like Navarette, who was to clear up all difficulties, is found rashly starting new errors to run their course through successive volumes !
It must be acknowledged that the remarks now submitted rather take from the force of what appears, in the text, a plausible case. But a frequent observation of the diffusive consequences of a single error suggests that there is something of moral guilt in pressing too earnestly a statement the truth of which is not sincerely confided in.
If deprived of the happy coincidence suggested by the assertion of Navarette, it must be left to conjecture to determine in what quarter the active and enterprising spirit of Cabot was employed during the long interval between his undoubted voyages from England and the time of his entering the service of Spain.
Another motive has its weight. The curious and important Docu ments at the Rolls Chapel will probably one day be arranged and made available to the purposes of history. Evidence may then come forth, and it is desirable that no erroneous hypothesis should be found in the way of Truth. Until that period we must be content to remain in the dark. Where the Records are in such a state of confusion as to warrant the charge which has been before mentioned for finding a specific paper of which the exact date — the name of the party — the purpose and general tenor — are given, it is obvious that no private for tune would be adequate to meet the expense of a general search.
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(C.) (Seepage 176.)
WAS CABOT APPOINTED GRAND PILOT?
A DOUBT on this point is expressed in the text. Nothing is said on the subject in the grant of the pension, and the circumstantial evidence seems to negative the existence of such an office in his time. There is preserved in the Lansdowne MSS. (No. 116 art. 3) a Memorial pre sented by Stephen Burrough, an English seamen of considerable note, the object of which is, to enforce the necessity of appointing such an officer. It appears by an accompanying document that Burrough him self was forthwith appointed " Cheyffe Pylot" for life, and also " one of the foure masters that shall have the kepyng and oversight of our shipps, &c." It is declared the duty of the Chief Pilot to " have the examination and appointing of all such mariners as shall from this time forward take the charge of a Pilot or Master upon him in any ship within this our realm." This is the duty supposed to have been assigned to Cabot, but it seems difficult to reconcile the language of Burrough with the previous existence of any such office. His memorial recites "Three especial causes and considerations amongst others, wherefore the office of Pilot-Major is allowed and esteemed in Spain, Portugal, and other places where navigation flourisheth." Had any such duties ever been exercised in England, he would of course have referred to the fact, and insisted on the advantages which had resulted, more particularly, as he was educated in the school of Cabot, and expressly names " the good olde andfamuse man Master Sebastian Cabota"
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(D.) (Seepage 227.)
LETTERS PATENT NOW FIRST PUBLISHED DATED 19 MARCH 1501, FROM HENRY VII. TO RICHARD WARDED THOMAS ASHEHURST, AND JOHN THOMAS, OF BRISTOL, AND JOHN FERNANDUS, FRANCIS FERNANDUS, AND JOHN GUNSOLUS OF PORTUGAL.
MEMORANDUM quod XIX die Marcii, anno regni Regis Henrici Sep- timi XVI, ista Billa delibata fuit Domino Custodi Magni Sigilli Anglise apud Westmonasterium exequenda.
TO THE KYNG OUR SOVEREYNE LORD.
Please it your Highness of your most noble and habundaunt Grace to graunt unto your welbeloved subjects Richard Warde, Thomas Asshehurst and John Thomas, merchants of your Towne of Bristowe, and to John Fernandus, Francis Fernandus, and John Gunsolus, Squyers, borne in the Isle of Surrys under the obeisaunce of the Kynge of Portingale your gracious Lettres Patentis under your Create Scale in due forme to be made according to the tenour hereafter ensuying, and that this Byll sygned with your gracious hand may be to the Re verend Fader in God Henry Byshop of Salesbury, Keeper of your Greate Scale, sufficient and immediate warrant for the making, sealying, accomplysshyng of your said Lettres Patentes, and they shall duryng ther lyves pray to God for the prosperous contynuance of your most noble and ryall astate.
H. R.
Rex universis et singulis ad quos prsesentes Literse Nostrse perverie- rintSalutem: Notum sit vobis et manifestum quod ex certis conside- rationibus nos moventibus de advisamento Consilii Nostri, concessimus et Licentiam dedimus, prout per Praesentes Concedimus et Licentiam damus, pro Nobis et Hoeredibus Nostris quantum in Nobis est, dilectis subditis nostrio Ricardo Warde, Thomee Asshurst, et Johanni Tho mas, mercatoribus Villae Nostrae Bristollioe ac dilectis nobis Johanni Fernandus, Francisco Fernandus et Johanni Gunsolus, armigeris in Insulis de Surrys sub obediencia Regis Portugaliae oriundis, et eorum cuilibet ac cujuslibet eorum haeredibus, attornatis, factoribus, sen deputatis ac eis et eorum cuilibet plenam ac liberam auctorita- tem, facultatem et potestatem committimus navigandi et se transfe-
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rendi ad omnes partes, regiones et fines Maris Orientalis Occidentalis, Australia, Borealis et Septentrionalis, sub Banneris, et Insigniis nos- tris cum tot et tantis et talibus Navibus sive Batellis quot sibi pla- cuerint et necessarise fuerint, cujuscunque portagii quilibet Navis sive Batella extiterit, cum Magistris, contromagistris, marinariis pagettis aliisque hominibus pro gubernatione, salva custodia et defensione Na- vium et Batellarum praedictarum competentibus requisitis et necessariis, ad custus et onera dicti Ricardi et aliorum praedictorum et pro hu- jusmodi salariis vadiis et stipendiis prout inter eos poterunt concordare ad inveniendum, recuperandum, discoperiendum et investigandum In- sulas, patrias, Regiones sive provincias quascunque Gentilium et Infi- delium in quacunque Mundi parte positas quae Christianis omnibus ante haec tempora fuerunt et in pracsenti sunt incognita.
Ac hujusmodi Banneras et insignia nostra in quacunque villa, op- pido, Castro insula seu terra-firma a se sic noviter inventis affigendi, ip- sasque villas, oppida, castra, insulaset terras firmas pro nobis et nomine riostro intrandi et capiendi et eatanquam Vasalli nostri ac Gubernatores Locatenentes et Deputati nostri, eorumque dominio3 titulo, dignitate et praeeminencia eorundem nobis semper reservatis, occupandi possidendi et subjugandi.
Et insuper quandocumque, imposterum, hujusmodi Insulse Patrioe, Terrae et Provinciae per praefatos Ricardum et ahos praevocatos adeptae recuperates et iriventae fuerint, tune volumus et per praesentes concedi- mus quod omnes et singuli tarn viri quam fceminse hujus regni nostri coeterique subditi nostri et insulas hujusmodi sic noviter inventas visi- tare et in eisdem inhabitare cupientes et desiderantes, possint et valiant licite et impune ad ipsas patrias, insulas et loca cum eorum navibus, hominibus et servientibus, rebus et bonis suis universis transire et in eisdem sub protectione et regimine dictorum Ricardi et aliorum prse- nominatorum morari et inhabitare, divitiasque, fructus et emolumenta patriarum, terrarum et locorum praedictorum adqnierere et obtinere.
Dantes insuper et concedentes praefatis Ricardo, Thomaa et Johanni, Johanni, Francisco et Johanni et eorum cuilibet plenam tenore Prsc- sentium potestatem et auctoritatem omnes et singulos homines mari- narios cseterasque personas ad Insulas, Patrias, Provincias terras firmas et loca prsedicta ex causa prsedicta se divertentes et confluentes tarn in comitiva dictorum Ricardi et aliorum praenominatorum quam in comi- tiva aliorum iiiuc imposterum recursum habere contingentium tarn supra Mare quam in Insulis, patriis, terris-firmis et locis hujusmodi post quam inveuta et recuperata fuerint regendi et gubernandi Leges-
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que Ordinationes, Statuta et Proclamationes pro bono et quieto regi- mine et gubernatione dictorum hominum, magistrorum, marinariorum, et aliarumpersonarumpreedictarumfaciendi,stabiliendi,ordinandietconsti- tuendi et superinde proclamationes faciendi ac omnes et singulos quos in liac parte contraries et rebelles ac Legibus, Statutis et Ordinacionibus praedictis inobedientes invenerint ac omnes illos qui furtum, homicidia, rapinas commiserint et perpetrariunt aut aliquas mulieres Insularum seu Patriarum praedictarum, contra eorum voluntatem aut aliter, ra- puerint et violaverint juxta leges et statuta per ipsos in hac parte ordi- uata castigandi et puniendi. Ac etiam concessimus prcefatis Ricardo, Thomse, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco et Johanni heeredibus et assignatis suis quod postquam aliquae insulse, provinciae, Terrae-firmae, regio seu provincia imposlerum per ipsum Ricardum et alios proenominatos in- venta fuerint tune non licebit alicui seu aliquibus subdito seu subditis nostris durante termino decem annos proximo et immediate sequentes ad ipsas villas Provincias, Insulas, Terras-firmas et Loca causa mercan- disandi ac bona acquirendi absque licentia nostra regia et [the words in italics illegible but supplied conjecturally from the corresponding paragraph in the subsequent patent of 9th Dec. 1502] dictorum Ricardi et aliorum praenominatorum haeredum et assignatorum suorum cum suis navibus frequentare aut se divertere aut in eadem ingredi seu in eisdem pro aliquibus bonis acquirendi intromittere.
Et post terminum dictorum decem annorum quod nullus ex nostris subditis ad aliquamTerram-firmam, insulam, patriarn seulocaper ipsos Ricardum etThomam et alios praedictos sic noviter iriventa navigare et fre quentare praesumat absque licentia nostra prcedicta et [the words in italics supplied as before] preedictorum Ricardi et coeterorum subpoena amissi- oniset forisfacturae omnium Bonarum, mercandisarum, rerum et na- vium quarumcunque ad ea loca sic noviter inventa navigare et in eadem ingredi prassumentium (videlicet) una medietas inde erit ad opus nos trum et alia medietas ad opus dictorum Ricardi et aliorum prsenomina- torum et haeredum suorum.
Et ultius ex abundandanti gratia nostra concessimus et per Praesentes concedimus pro nobis et haeredibus nostris quantam in nobis est prae- fatis Ricardo, Thomas, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco et Johanni et eorum cuilibet haeredibus et assignatis suis quod ipsi et eorum quilibet mer- candisas, mercimonia, aurum et argentum in massa, lapides preciosa et alia bona qusecumque de crescentia patriarum, insularumque et locorum prsedictorum per ipsos sic recuperandorum et inveniendorum tarn in dictis navibus et batellis quam aliis quibuscunque navibus exteris a
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dictis patriis insulis, terris-firmis et locis in hoc regnum nostrum An- gliee ad quemcunque portum seu alium locum ejusdem adducere et cariare et adduci seu cariari facere possit et valeat, eaque vendere et distribuere ad eorum proficium et advantagium aliquo Statute aclu or- dinatione seu provisione inde in contrarium factis sive ordinatis nonob- stantibus.
Ac nos intime considerantes grandia custus et onera quse circa prse- missa facienda et perimplendo requiruntur volentes igitur praefatis Ri- cardo, Thomae et aliis memoratis personis gratiam provide facere speci- alem Concessimus (prout} per Preesentes concedimus eisdem, haeredi- bus et assignatis suis quod ipsi et eorum quilibet haeredes et assignati sui prgedicti de tempore in tempus durante termino quatuor annorum a tempore recuperationis et inventionis Insularum, et provinciarum prae- dictarum proximo et immediate sequentes, rnercandisas, mercimonia cseteraque bona in uno navi tantum cujuscunque portagii fuerit eskip- pata etonustata ac in hoc regnum nostrum Angliae adducendaettrans- portanda in portu seu loco prsedicto ad terram ponere, eaque vendere, exponere et pro libito suo distribuere possint de tempore in tempus, qualibet viaggio, durante termino, dictorum quatuor annorum absque aliquibus custumis, subsidiis, seu aliis deveriis pro eisdem bonis merci- moniis et caeteris prsemissis in dicta unica navi tantum contentis et eskippatis nobis aut hseredibus nostris infra dictum regnum nostrum Anglioe aliqualiter solvendis.
Proviso tamen quod nobis de custumis, subsidiis pondagiis et aliis deveriis Nobis pro cseteris mercandisis, mercimoniis et bonis in omni bus aliis navibus contentis debitis juxta consuetudinem in hoc regno nostro Angliae hactenus usitatam fideliter respondeatur ut est justum. Et Insuper volumus et concedimus per Praesentes quod quilibet Capi- talis Magister, contra magister et Marinarius cujuslibet Navis ad ali- quam Terram-firmam Insulam, patriam, provinciam et locum prdedic- tum frequentantis et navigantis habeant gaudeant et percipiant de bo nis et mercimoniis a dictis Insulis, Terris-firmis et Provinciis in hoc regnum Angliae adducendis custumas et subsidia sequentia, videlicet.
Quod quilibet Magister habeat gaudeat et precipiat subsidia et cus tumas, quolibet viagio, quatuor doliorum.
Et quilibet Contramagister vel Quarter-Magister custumas et subsi dia duorum Doliorum.
Ac quilibet Marinarius custumas et subsidia unius Dolii.
Licet sint caveata et eskipputa [the words in italics supplied as be fore] ut bona sua propria aut ut bona alicujus alterius personse cujus-
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cunque et hoc absque aliquibus custumis, subditis debitis sen deveriis infra hoc regnum nostrum Anglise ad opus nostrum authaeredum nostro- rum pro eisdem doliis aliqualiter solvendis sen petendis.
Et si contingat aliquem vel aliquos mercatorem seu mercatores hujus regni nostri ad dictas Insulas Patrias et Loca sub licencia dictorum subdictorum nostrorum aut absque licencia causa habendi mercandisas et mercimonia adventare et laborare ad bona et mercimonia ab eisdem parlibus in hoc regnum nostrum adducere tune volumus et concedi- mus, per praesentes, preefatis, Ricardo, Thomae, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco, Johanni haredibus et assignatis suis quod ipsi durante ter- mino decem annorum antedicto habeant de quolibet hujusmodi merca- tore, solutis nobis custumis, subsidies et aliis deveriis nobis in hac parte debilis et consuetis, vicesimum partem omnium hujusmodi bonarum et mercimoniarum peripsos a dictis Insulis, patriis et Locis quolibet viagio durante dicto termino decem annorum in hoc regnum nostrum Anglias traducendorum et cariandorum habendarn et capiendam hujusmodi vi- cesimam partem in portu ubi contigerit dicta bona discarcari et ex- onerari.
Proviso Semper quod praedicti Ricardus et alii praedicti, haeredes et assignati sui et non alii omnino imposterum durante dicto termino de cem annorum sint Factores et Attornati in dictis Insulis Terris-fermis et Patriis pro quibuscunque hujusmodi mercatoribus aliisque personis illuc ex causa prsedictaconfluentibus in et pro eoruin Factis mercatoriis in eisdem.
Proviso eliam quod nulla navis cum bonis et mercandisis a dictis partibus sic noviter inventis carcata et onusta postquam in aliquam portum hujus [the words in italics supplied as before] Regni nostri ad- ducta fuerint non exoneratur de eisdem bonis et mercandisis nisi in prscsentia praefatorum Ricardi et aliorum praedictorum eorumve haere- dum seu deputatorum ad hoc assignandum sub poena forisfacturae eo- rumdem bonarum et mercandisiarum; unde una medietas ad opus nos trum et alia medietas praefatis Ricardo et aliis proenominatis et haere- dibus suis applicentur.
Et si imposterum aliqui extran-ei aut alice [the part in italics sup plied as before] personae ad ipsas partes contra voluntatem ipsorum Ricardi et aliorum praenominatorum causa habendi divitias navigare et ea vi et armis ingredi ac dictos Ricardum et alios praedictos aut hae- redes suos ibidem insultare ac cos expellere et debellare aut alias inqui- etare presumpserint quod tune volumus ac eisdem subditis nostris tenore Proesentiurn damus et committimus ipsos extraneos licet sint subditi et
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vasalli alicujus Principis Nobiscum in liga et amicitia existentis totis suis veribus tarn per terram quam per mare et aquas dulcesexpugnandi resistendi et Gueriam contra eos levandi et faciendi casque capiendi, subpeditandi et incarcerandi ibidem quousque Fines et Redemptiones eisdem subditis nostris fecerint moratur aut alias secundum sanam discretionem ipsorum subditorum nostrorum et heeredum suorum casti- gandiet puniendi.
At etiarn pra&fatis subditis nostris caeterisque personis praedictis ple- nam tenore Proesentium potestatem damns et committimus sub se quoscunque Capitaneos, Locatenentes et Deputatos in singulis Civita- tibus, villis, Oppidis et Locis dictarum Insularum Provinciarum, Patri- arum et Locorum praedictorum ad regendum et gubernandutn omnes et singulas personas in eisdem partibus sub regirnine et gubernatione dic- torum subdictorum nostrorum ibidem commorantium ac ad justiiiam eisdem secundum tenorem et efFectum Ordinationum Statutorum et Proclamationum praedictorum debite exequendum et administrandum per Literas suas Patentes sigillis eorum sigillandas, faciendi, consti- tuendi nominandi et stibstituendi. Et insuper concessimus et per Pisesentes concedimus praefatis Ricardo, Thomae, Johanni, Johanrii, Francisco et Johanni ad terminum vitae suae et cujuslibet eorum diutius viventis officium Admiralli supra Mare in quibuscunque locis, patriis, et provinciis a se sic noviter inventis et imposterum inveniendiset recu- perandis, ipsosque Ricardum, Thomam, Johannem, Johannem, Fran- ciscum, Johannem et eorum quemlibet conjunctim et divisim Admirallos nostros in eisdem partibus facimus, constituimus, ordinamus et deputa- mus, per Prsesentes dantes et concedentes eisdem et eorum cuilibet plenam tenore Prsesentiarum potestatem et auctoritatem ea omnia et singula quos ad officium Admirallitatis pertinent faciendi exercendi et exequendi secundum legem et consuetudinem maritimam in hoc regno nostro Anglise usitatam.
Ac etiam postquam prcefati Ricardus Warde, Thomas Ashhurst et Johannes Thomas, ac Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus Fernandas et Johannes Gunsolus aliquas terras-firmas, insulas, patrias et provincias, oppida, castra, civitates et villas per assistentiam nostram sic invene- rint, obtinuerint, et subjugaverint tune volumus et per Praesentes con cedimus eisdem, haeredibus et assignatis suis quod ipsi et haeredes sui habeant, teneant et possideant sibi haeredibus et assignatis suis omriia et singula talia et tanta, terras-firmas, insulas, patrias, provincial, cas tra, oppida, fortallicia, civitates et villas qualia et quanta ipsi et ho mines tenentes et servientes sui possunt inhabitare, custodire sustinere
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et manutere: Habenda et Tenenda eadem Terras Insulas et loca prgedicta sibi, heeredibus et assignatis suis et cujuslibet eorum de nobis et hsere- bus nostris imperpetuum per Fidelitatem tantum absque aliquo Compoto seu aliquo alio nobis aut hseredibus nostris proinde reddendo seu faciendo, Dignitate Dominio, Regalitate, Jurisdictione, et pre-eminen- tia in eisdem nobis semper salvis et omnino reservatis.
Et ultius concessimus proefatis Ricardo, Thomee, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco, Johanni quod ipsi hseredes et assignati sui predicti dictas terras-firmas, insulas et provincias ipsis et hseredibus suis prsedictis ut prgemittitur sic concessas, postquam inventse et recuperatse sint, ac cum in plena possessione earundem fuerint teneant possideant et gaudiant libere, quiete, et pacifice absque impedimento aliquali nostri aut hsere- dum nostrorum quarumcunque. Et quod nullus ex subditis nostris eos eorum aliquem de et super possessione et titulo suis de et in dictis terris-firmis, insulis et provinciis se aliqualiter contra voluntatem suain expellat quovis modo seu aliquis extraneus aut aliqui extranei virlute aut colore alicujus concessionis nostrce sibi Magno Sigillo Nostro per anteafactce aut imposterumfaciendce cum aliquibus aliis tods et insu lis et contiguis ac membris et Parcellis
prcefatis Insulis Terris-fermis Provinciis et loci*
absque licentia subditorum nostrorum
et aliorum pranominatorum aliquo modo intromittat nee intromittant [Through the words in italics the pen is drawn in the original, and a space then occurs, from which the writing has been carefully and com pletely erased.]
Promittentes bona-fide et in verbo regio Nos ratum gratum et firmum habituros totum et quicquid prsefati Ricardus, Thomas, Johannes, Jo hannes, Franciscus et Johannes et eorum quilibet pro proemissorum complement© fecerint fierique procuraverint in hac parte, Et quod Nos aut hoeredes nostri nullo unquam tempore in future ipsos aut eorum aliquam hseredes et assignatos suos in jure, titulo et posses sione suis inquietabimus, impediemus aut molestium eis faciemus nee per alios nostros subditos aut alios quoscunque quantum in nobis fuerit fieri seu procurari permittemus seu procurabimus, nee ipsos hee- redes et assignatos suos pro aliqua. causa imposterum emergente seu contingente ab eisdem Terris-firmis, provinciis et locis nullo modo amovebimus aut amoveri seu expelli per subditos nosttos procura bimus. Et ultius ex uberiori gratia nostra et mero motu nostro con cessimus et per Prsesentes concedimus pro Nobis et hseredibus quantum in nobis est Johanni Johanni Fernandus, Francisco Fern and us et Jo-
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hanni Gunsalos, Armigeris de Insulis de Surrys subditos Regis Portu- galiae oriundis et eorum cuilibet quod ipsi et eorum quilibet ac omnes liberi sui tarn procreati quam procreandi in perpetuam sint indigeni et ligei nostri et hseredum nostrorurn et in omnibus causis, querelis, rebus et materiis quibuscumque habeantur pertractarentur teneantur, repu- tentur et gubernentur tanquam veri et fideles Ligei Nostri infra Reg- num nostrum Angliae oriundi et non aliter nee alio modo. Et quod ipsi et omnes liberi sui preedicti omnimodo actiones reales personales et mixtas in omnibus Curiis, locis et jurisdictionibus nostris quibus- cunque habere exercere eisque uti et gaudere ac eas in eisdem placitare et implacitari respondere et responderi, defendere ac defendi possint et eorum quilibet possit in omnibus sicuti veri et fideles Ligei nostri infra Regnum nostrum preedictum oriundi. Et quod ipsi et eorum quilibet Terras, Tenernenta, reditus, reversiones, servitia et alios pos- sessiones queecunque tarn in dominio quam in reversioue infra dictum regrium nostrum Angliae ac alia dominia et loca sub obedientia nostra perquirere, capere, recipere, habere tenere possidere et hsereditare sibi, haeredibus et assignatis sui imperpetuum vel alio modo quocun- que ac ea dare, vendere, alienare et legare cuicunque personae sive quibus cunque personiis sibi placuerit libere, quiete, licite et impune pos sint et quilibet eorum possit ad libitum suum adeo libere integre et pa- cifice sicut possit et valeat aliquis Ligeorum nostrorum infra regnum nostrum Anglise oriundus. Ita tamen quod praedicti Johannes Fer- naudus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus et omnes liberi sui prae- dicti solvant aut solvi faciant et eorum quilibet solvat sen solvi faciat talia custumas, subsidia et alia demandia pro bonis, mer- cibus, mercandisis et mercimoniis suis in Regnum nostrum An- gliae adducendis vel extra idem Regnum educendis qualia alieni- geni nobis solvant aut solvere deberent vel consueverunt. Et quod idem Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus et omnes liberi suiprsedicti de caetero in futuro colore seu vigore alicujus Statuti, Ordinacionis sive concessionis in Parliamento nostro aut extra Parlia- mentum nostrum facti vel fiendi non arcteantur seu compellantur nee eorum aliquis arcteanetur teneatur seu compellatur ad solvendum, dan- dum vel supportandum nobis vel alicui hseredum nostrorum seu cui cunque alteri aliqua Taxas, Tallagia seu alia onera quaecunque pro terris, tenementis, bonis vel personis suis praeterquam talia et tanta qualia et quanta alii fideles Ligei nostri infra dictum Regnum nostrum oriundi pro bonis, terris tenementis seu personis suis solvunt dant faciunt vel supportant aut solvere, dare, facere vel supportare
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consueverunt et teneantur sed quod praedicli Johannes Fornandus. Franciscus et Johannes Gtmsolus et omnes liberi sui praedicti ha- bere et possidere valeant et possint et eorum quilibet valeat et possit omnia et omnimodo alia Libertates, privilegia, franchesias et custumas ac eis uti et gaudere possint et eorum quilibet possit infra dictum Regnum nostrum Anglise, jurisdictiones et dominia nostra qusecunque adeo plene libere, quiete, integre et pacifice sicut cseteri Ligei nostri infra idem Regnum nostrum oriundi habent utunt et gau- dent aut habere, possidere, uti et gaudere debeant et valeant aliquo statuto, acto, ordinacione vel aliqua alia causa, re, vel materia quacun- que nonobstante.
Proviso semper quod prsefati Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus homagium ligeum nobis faciunt et eorum quilibet faciat ac Lotto et Scotto et aliis oneribus in Regno nostro prsedicto de- bitis et consuetis contribuant et eorum quilibet contribuat sicut alii ligei nostri infra dictum regnum nostrum oriundi faciunt.
Proviso eiiam quod iidem Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Jo hannes Gunsolus solvant et eorum quilibet solvat nobis et hseredibus nostris tot et tanta custumas subsidia et alia deveria pro bonis et mer- candisis suis prout alienigeni nobis solvere et reddere teneantur.
Et ulterius ex uberiori gratia nostra concessimus prsefatis Ricardo, Thomse, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco, et Johanni quod ipsi habeant Preesentes Literas Nostras in Cancellaria nostra absque aliquo fine seu feodo aut aliquibus tinibus seu feodis pro eisdem Literis nostris aut aliqua parte eorundem aut pro Magno Sigillo nostro ad opus nostrum in Hannaperio dictae Cancellarise nostrse aliqualiter solvendis.
Et volumus et concedimus per Praesentes quod Reverendissimus in Christo Pater Henricus Episcopus Salisb. Gustos Magni Sigilli nostri auctoritate preesentis Concessionis nostrae fieri faciat et sigillari tot et talia Brevia sub Magno Sigillo nostro sigillanda Custodi sive clerico Hanaperii nostri dirigenda pro exoneratione dictorum Finium et Feodo- rum quot et qualia in hac parte necessaria fuerint et requisita, absque aliquo alio Warranto aut prosecutione penes Nos in hac parte faci- endis.
In cujus &c.
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(E.) (See page 2$l.)
CONJECTURE AS TO THE NAME " DOMINUS VOBISCUJl" ERRONEOUSLY ASSOCIATED
WITH THE VOYAGE OF 1527 FORSTEK's MISTAKE AS TO NORUMBEOA NAVARETTE,
&C., AS TO THE PERIOD AT WHICH NEWFOUNDLAND WAS FIRST IREQUENTED FOR FISHING.
WHENCE could have arisen the misconception of Frobisher as to the words Dominus Vobiscum associated with this enterprise? Assured that he was wrong, a conjecture may be hazarded. Were they the final adieu and benediction of Wolsey to his ecclesiastical protege and cor respondent — perhaps as the vessel passed Greenwich ? Such an excla mation would linger on the popular ear. One of the ships was never heard of, but all hopes of her could not have been abandoned for many years, and the fate of those on board must have long been a subject of painful speculation, and to their relatives of agonizing suspense. The invocation of the odious Cardinal may have been recalled as little likely to propitiate Heaven — in fact of evil omen — and the impression, coloured highly at the time by the imagination, might be confusedly traced by Frobisher, half a century afterwards, amidst the faded remi niscences of the Expedition.
Forster (p. 436, note) is very much puzzled at the name of JVbrwm- lega, which occurs in the heading of Hakluyt's account of the voyage, and supposes " that some of the toys which were presented to the savages, consisting of looking-glasses, bells, &c., were of Nuremberg manufacture, and that by the name given to the country they meant to preserve the memory of this fact!" The name is found distinguishing the country immediately to the southward of Newfoundland on the maps or descriptions of Ortelius, De Laet, Bertius, and Cluverius. In another passage of Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 163,) reference is made to the same Norumbega in connexion with the enterprise of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and in a way not to be misunderstood. As to the origin of the name, it might have occurred to Forster from, the termination Hochlega, &c., and the usual custom of the French of preserving Indian names,
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that it was aboriginal. He has not only overlooked these consi derations, but something else of which his ignorance is less excusable. The article which immediately follows the account of Verrazani's voyage of 1524, in Ramusio, (torn. iii. fol. 423, F.) is " a Discourse by a great Sea Captain of France," relative to these regions, written fifteen years after the time of Verrazani. He describes the " terra di Norum- bega" as lying where we have stated, and expressly states it to be so called by the natives, "la terra e dettada pasani suai Norumbega." So, too, Thevet, in his Cosmographie Universelle, (Paris ed. of 1575, torn, ii. fol. 1010,) says of this region, " que aucuns ont appelee Terre Fran- cayse et ceux dupays Norumbeque"
There is one incidental point which the Letter of Rut conclusively settles. Navarette has a long dissertation to prove that the Newfound land fishery was not pursued at so early a period as has been usually supposed. This opinion is adopted by a recent writer, (Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland discovery, vol. ii. p. 24,) who says, " Don M. de Navarette, whose authority on this point seems conclusive, is disposed to think that the Biscayans did not discover Newfoundland till 1526, and he shews that they did not frequent the Banks till 1540." Now we have the positive statement of the English Commander to Henry VIII. that on entering St. John's on the 3rd of August, 1527, he found " eleven sail of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes, and all a fishing." Herrera (Dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.) gives this same report by an English vessel which had touched in the West-Indies, as to her having been at the Baccalaos, and found there engaged in fishing fifty vessels, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. The misfortune of Don M. Navarette is, that with no firm hold of the History of the New World, even as found in the works of his own countrymen, he attaches an importance altogether exaggerated, and sometimes absurd, to the Documents over which he is incumbent, and when he finds a scrap of manuscript exhibits it with a sort of triumph and as quite decisive, when, in a majority of cases, it owes its origin to ignorance or fraud. Thus, on this point, he gravely cites the negative testimony of half-a-dozen masters of vessels taken on a trial of which he has a MS. account. These persons, it seems, were unable to carry back further the history of the fishery. Infinite discretion is necessary on the part of a writer circumstanced like Don M. Navarette. The eye quickly becomes diseased unless the microscope be often with drawn, and a healthy look taken round the natural horizon.
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(F.)
PORTRAIT OF SEBASTIAN CABOT BY HOLBEIN.
REFERENCE has already been made (page 181) to the Portrait of Se bastian Cabot in considering- the singular misconception as to the mean ing of the epithet " Militis aurati." The statement of Purchas (vol. iv. p. 1812) is as follows: —
" Sir Seb. Cabota ; his Picture in the Privie Gallerie at White-Hall hath these words, Effigies Seb. Caboli Angli, filii Joannis Caboti Veneii militis aurati, fyc. ; he was born at Venice, and serving Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI. was accounted English — Galpano saith he was borne at Bristol."
This Picture now belongs to the Representatives of the late Charles Joseph Harford, Esq. of Bristol. The inscription which Purchas cur tails by an " &c." is this : —
" Effigies Seb. Caboti Angli, filii Johannis Caboti Veneti Militis Aurati, Primi Inventoris Terra Novce sub Henrico VII. Anglicc Rege."
The manner in which the Portrait came to the knowledge of Mr. Harford, and finally into his possession, is very minutely stated in a Memoir prepared by him and left with his family. Without needlessly introducing names it may suffice to state that whilst travelling in Scot land, in 1792, he saw it for the first time at the seat of a nobleman; and, many years afterwards, his friend the late Sir Frederick Eden was enabled to gratify his anxious wishes by procuring it for him.
The work of Purchas was published in 1625, at the close of the reign of James I. That the picture was not in the Gallery in the time of Charles II., would appear from the following circumstances : —
There is a tract by Evelyn, the celebrated author of Sylva, &c., en titled " Navigation and Commerce, their Original and Progress, con- taing a succinct account of traffic in general, its benefits and improve ments ; of discoveries, wars, and conflicts at sea, from the original of Navigation to this day ; with special regard to the English nation ; their several voyages and Expeditions to the beginning of our late dif ferences with Holland ; in which his Majesty's Title to the Dominion
Y2
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of the Sea is asserted against the novel and later pretenders, by J. Evelyn, Esq. S.R.S. London, 1674." It is dedicated to Charles II., to whom the author expresses his gratitude for an appointment to the Council of Commerce and Plantations. The object of it, as may be inferred from the title, is to shew the early and diffusive influence of England at sea. Referring to the triumphant conflicts with France in the time of Henry VIII. he says, (p. 73,) " see also that rare piece of Holbein's in his Majesty's Gallery at White-Hall." He adverts (p. 57) to Sebastian Cabot, " born with us at Bristol," and hazards a con jecture as to his having, with his father, " discovered Florida and the shoars of Virginia with that whole tract as far as Newfoundland before the bold Genoese." Had the portrait in question been in the Gallery at White-Hall in Evelyn's time, he would not have omitted to notice the remarkable assertion which its inscription conveys.
The disappearance of the picture, therefore, from White-Hall, and its getting into private hands, may be referred to the intermediate period. It was, probably, bought at the Sales which took place after the death of Charles I., and of which the following account is found in Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England : —
" Immediately after the death of the King, several votes were passed for sale of his goods, pictures, statues, &c.
" Feb. 20, 1648. It was referred to the Committee of the Navy to raise money by sale of the crown jewels, hangings, and other goods of the late King.
" In the ensuing month, the House proceeded to vote, that the personal estate of the late King, Queen, and Prince should be inventoried, appraised, and sold. This vote, in which they seem to have acted honestly, not allowing their own members to be concerned in the sale, was the cause that the collections fell into a variety of low hands, and were dispersed among the painters and officers of the late King's house hold ; where many of them remained on sale with low prices affixed.
" All other furniture from all the King's Palaces was brought up and exposed to sale ; there are specified, particularly, Denmark or Somerset-house, Greenwich, Whitehall, Nonsuch, Oatlands, Windsor, Wimbleton-house, St. James's, Hampton- court, Richmond, Theobalds, Ludlow, Carisbrook, and Kenilworth Castles ; Bewdley- house, Holdenby-house, Royston, Newmarket, and Woodstock manor-house. One may easily imagine that such a collection of pictures, with the remains of jewels and plate, and the furniture of nineteen palaces, ought to have amounted to a far greater sum than one hundred and eighteen thousand pounds.
" The sale continued to August 9, 1653. The prices were fixed, but if more was offered, the highest bidder purchased ; this happened in some instances, not in many. Part of the goods were sold by inch of candle. The buyers called contractors, signing a writing for the several sums. If they disliked the bargain, they were at liberty to be discharged from the agreement on paying one-fourth of the sum stipulated. Among the purchasers of statues and pictures were several painters, as Decritz,
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Wright, Baptist Van Leemput, Sir Balthazar Gerbier, &c. The Cartoons of Raphael were bought by his Highness (Cromwell) for .£300."
The circumstances which refer this Portrait to Holbein seem to be conclusive. Cabot is represented as in extreme age. Now he had not been in England from 1517 until his return in 1548, The Portrait, therefore, must have been taken after the last-mentioned date. Hol bein enjoyed the continued patronage of Henry VIII. after Sir Thomas More had introduced his works to the King's notice in the manner so familiarly known. He lived through the reign of Edward VI., and died at White-Hall of the plague, in 1554. It is not probable, under such circumstances, that a Portrait of Cabot, destined for the King's Gallery, would have been taken by any other hand.
Such seem to be the curious history of a Picture in itself so interest ing. Painted for Edward VI., in compliment to this great seaman and national benefactor, and the property, in succession, of two Queens, and two Kings of England, its retirement to private life may probably be dated from a Sale at which Oliver Cromwell was a bidder.
Cabot was evidently, as has been said, at a very advanced age when the Portrait was taken. His stature, though somewhat lost in a slight stoop, must have been commanding. Holbein would seem to have wished to catch the habitual, unpremeditated expression which he had doubtless, from engagements about the Court, had frequent oppor tunities of remarking. It is that of profound, and even painful, thought; and in the deeply-marked lines, and dark hazel eye, there yet linger tokens of the force and ardour of character of this extraordinary man. The right hand exhibits an admirable specimen of the painter's minute, elaborate finish. Of the compasses which it holds one foot is placed on a great globe resting on a table on which are an hour-glass and writing materials. The rich robe, and massy gold chain, are probably badges of his office as Governor of the Society of Merchant- Adventurers. It is impossible not to gaze with deep interest on this memorial, heightened, perhaps, by a reflection on its present humble position — emblematic, indeed, of the slight on the closing years of the great original.*
* A Catalogue of the Pictures, &c., belonging to Charles I., drawn up in his life time, and apparently for his use, is found amongst the Harleian MSS. No. 4718. Amongst those enumerated as then in the Privy Gallery at White-Hall that of Cabot is not mentioned. This might lead to the inference that it had got into private hands sooner than is above suggested, particularly as it appears by the Catalogue that some of the Pictures had been recently obtained in the way of exchange. Again, it may have been sent, or taken, away by the King. In the MS. work of Richard Symonds,
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(G.)
ERROR IN ATTRIBUTING TO CABOT THE WORK ENTITLED " NAVIGATIONS NELLE PARTE SETTENTRIONALE," PUBLISHED AT VENICE IN 1583.
THERE has been universally referred to Sebastian Cabot a work en titled " Navigatione nelle parte settentrionale," published at Venice in 1583; and in the Catalogue of the Bodleian Library, it is actually announced under the title " Cabot." The Biographie Universelle, adverting to this circumstance, says, in seeming despair, that this work, unknown to all the bibliographers who had been consulted on the subject, is perhaps imaginary.* An explanation may be given, though somewhat at the expense of the Biographie Universelle, and of the Bod leian Catalogue.
The work in question will be found in the second volume of Ramusio, (ed. of 1583 and of 1606, fol. 212.) In the Memoir of Camus on the Collection of De Bry and Thevenot, he takes occasion to furnish a list of the contents of Ramusio, and in his account (p. 10) of the second volume this tract is noticed as the 17th article. The Biographie Uni verselle cites this memoir, (art. Ramusio,) but of course it could not have been read attentively, or we should not have heard of the inef fectual enquiries amongst the bibliographers. The authenticity of the
(Harleian MSS. No. 991.) it is said, " The Committee at Somerset-bouse valued the King's pictures and other moveable goods at £ 200,000, nouvithstanding thai both Itimself and the Queen had carried away abundance." The painting in question, is not specially mentioned in a List of the Sales during the Protectorate, found in the Harleian MSS. No. 7352, though this is by no means decisive, as several of the entries are mere charges against individuals for " a picture," " two pictures," " three pictures," &c. (fol. 222, et seq.) Cabot's Portrait has recently been seen, in London, by the most eminent artists, and instantly recognised as a Holbein. How ever we may balance between probabilities as to its intermediate history, a doubt as to its identity with the picture referred to by Purchas, seems to involve not only the necessity of accounting for the disappearance of the latter, but also the extravagant supposition that two Portraits of Cabot, bearing the same remarkable in scription, were executed by the great Artist of his day.
* t( Ce livre inconnu atous les Bibliographes que nous avous consults est peut- etre imaginaire.'1 (art. Cabot.)
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work, wholly unknown to the bibliographers con suited by the Biographic Universelle, is discussed by Foscarini in his Literatura Veneziana, and by Tiraboschi in the Storia Delia Literatura Italiana. They denounce the error of attributing it to Cabot, though not aware of its real history. Tiraboschi supposes it a translation of some work now lost.
The truth happens to be, that it is nothing more than the Journal of Stephen Burrough during his two voyages to the North-East, with an absurd introduction from some anonymous writer at Venice ! The ac count of the incident at Gravesend which probably suggested to the Italian the name of Cabot is omitted, and the whole is disfigured, but the identity may at once be detected by comparing the closing para graph of the article in Ramusio as to the first voyage (fol. 216) with the corresponding paragraph of the Journal of Stephen Burrough, (Hak- luyt, vol. i. p. 283); and, again, the concluding paragraph of the second voyage (fol. 219) with the corresponding part in Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 295.
It is proper to remark that in the work of Ramusio, as published by himself, this tract is not to be found, but has been interpolated in the subsequent editions. The voyage, indeed, was not completed until after Ramusio's death. Yet this circumstance rather aggravates the charge against the Biographic Universelle. That work (art. Ramusio) earnestly advises the reader to consult Camus* in selecting a copy of Ramusio, and Camus, following the Books on Bibliography, specially recommends the perfidious editions. It is plain, therefore, that the remarks of the Biographic Universelle were made without con sulting the guide which is recommended to the reader.
* An instance of the carelessness of this writer ought to he mentioned injustice to the Abhe Prevost. In the te Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle JFrance," by Charlevoix, (Ed. of 1744, torn. i. p. 100,) an account is given of the memorable expedition of Dominique de Gourgue to Florida, and use is made of a history of the expedition in the possession of the family of de Gourgue, drawn up by the chivalrous Commander himself. This statement is repeated by the Abbe Prevost, (Histoire Generale des Voyages, vol. xiv. p. 448, Paris Ed. in 4to.) with a reference, such as he had before given, to Charlevoix as the Historian of New France. Camus (p. 46) falls into the error of supposing that the reference of Prevost is to the old work of Lescarbot, and remarks, " II cite pour garant de ce fait 1'auteur de 1'Histoire de la Nouvelle France ; je n'ai pu 1'y trouver aumoins dans 1'edition de 1609 !" The document referred to by Charlevoix is yet in the possession of the Family, and the Viscount Gourgue was good enough recently, at the author's request, to permit the collation of it with a copy of the MS. Narrative in the King's Library at Paris, sup posed to have been transmitted by Dominique de Gourgue to Charles IX.
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A remark cannot be forborne on the utter folly which has consented to repeat the advice referred to as to the selection of a Ramusio. It is obvious that the great value of such a work resides in the assurance felt by the reader that the articles found there were subjected, at an early period, to the honest judgment of the compiler, and that before admitting them he satisfied himself that they had a fair claim to au thenticity. The discrimination which Ramusio exercised has become an important item of evidence. Thus he rejects the first and second of the alleged voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, but republishes the two last.* Though he speaks in respectful terms of Vespucci, we may fairly infer that he considered the first voyage as a fiction, arid the ac count of the second as suspicious on account of the unwarrantable im portance assumed by Vespucci for himself at a time when he was known to have been acting under the orders of Hojeda. Now what can be more obviously absurd than to recommend an edition where this valu able characteristic is completely lost sight of and new matter is inter polated, on no avowed responsibility, yet in such a manner as to have misled some of the most learned individuals and societies of the day, and of course fatally deceptive to those who make only an occasional hurried reference to the work ?
One example of the pernicious consequence of this proceeding is too remarkable to be passed over. It relates to that memorable fraud, the pretended voyage of Nicholas and Antonio Zeno.
The Dedication of this work, as originally published by Marcolini, bears date December, 1558. Ramusio died in July 1557 ; and of course it is impossible that it could have been published by him, or that he could have marked it for insertion. It does not appear in the Ramusio of 1559, but was interpolated into the second volume in 1574, seventeen years after his death. This circumstance is decisive against its authen ticity. Ramusio, a native of Venice, was not only a diligent and anxious collector of voyages, but, it appears by his work, was familiar with the family of the Zeno of that city, and he speaks with pride (Ed. of 1559, torn. ii. fol. 65, D.) of the adventurous travels of Caterino Zeno in Persia. Had the materials for such a narrative existed he would have eagerly seized the opportunity of embodying them, and it is plain that the im posture dared not make its appearance in his lifetime. Yet from the
* "In questo volume non si fa mentione delle navigation! fatte da Amerigo Vespucci all' Indie Occidental! per ordine de gli Re de Castiglia, ma solamente di quelle due che el foce di Commissionie del Re di Portogallo," (torn. i. fol. 130.)
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subsequent interpolation this tract, by almost unanimous consent, has been considered to bear the high sanction of Ramusio's name.
" This," says Forster (p. 1 80). " is the account given of the affair by Ramusio." The Biographie Universelle (art. Zeno) says " Cette Re lation a ete reimprime par Ramusio," And the Quarterly Review (vol. xvi. p. 165, note) speaks of certain things known " before Ramusio pub lished the Letters of the two Zeni." In short, the misconception has been universal.
Nor is it merely from the silence of Ramusio that an inference is drawn against this pretended voyage.
He declares in the Preface to the Third Volume, that he considers it not only proper, but in the nature of a duty, to vindicate the truth in the behalf of Columbus, who was the first to discover and bring to light the New World.*
He answers in detail the calumny that the project was suggested to Columbus by a Pilot who died in his house, and refers for a refutation of the idle tale to persons yet living in Italy, who were present at the Spanish Court when Columbus departed. He recites the circumstances which had conducted the mind of Columbus, as an able and experi enced mariner and Cosmographer, to the conclusion that his project was practicable.
" Such," he declares in conclusion, " were the circumstances that led to his anxiety to undertake the voyage, having fixed it in his mind that by going directly West the Eastern extremity of the Indies woi>'.d be discovered/'f
He breaks into an apostrophe to the rival city of Genoa which had given birth to Columbus, a fact so much more glorious than that about which seven of the greatest cities of Greece contended.]:
* " No pure e convenevole, ma par mi anco di essere obligate a dire alquate parole accompagnate dallaveritaper diffesa delSignor Christoforo Colombo, ilqual fu ilprimo inventore di disc oprir e et far venire in luce questa meta del mondo."
t " Tutte queste cose lo inducevano a voler far questo viaggio, havendo fisso nell' animo che andando 4 dritto per Ponente esso troverebbele parti di Levanti ove sono 1'Indie."
$ "Genoua si vanti et glorii di cosi excellente huomo cittadin suo et mettasi a para- gone di quatunque altra citta percioche costui non fu Poeta, come Homero del qual sette citta dell maggiori che bavesse la Grecia contesero insieme affermando ciascuna che egli era su Cittadino, ma fu un huomo il quale ha fatto nascer al mondo un altro mondo che e effetto incomparabilment molto maggiore del detto di sopra." The terms in which he denounces the effort to disparage Columbus, on the ground of pretended hints from the Pilot, assure us of the manner in which he would have treated the
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The full force of this evidence cannot be understood without advert ing to the strength of Ramusio's prejudices in favour of his native City. He honestly acknowledges that their influence may mislead him when he is disposed to rank the enterprize of Marco Polo, of Venice, by land, as more memorable than even that of the great Genoese by sea.*
Yet this is the writer who is said to have given to the world undeni able evidence not only that the Venetian Zeno knew of these regions upwards of a century before the time of Columbus, but that traces had been discovered proving that the Venetians had visited them long be fore the time of Zeno. And in a work of the present day we have these monstrous assertions ;
They [the Zeni] " added a Relation which, whether true or false, contained the positive assertion of a Continent existing to the West of the Atlantic Ocean. This Relation was unquestionably known to Co-
The professed author of the book, Marcolini, was a bookseller and publisher of Venice, It bears his well-known device, of which Dr. DibdinJ has given a fac-simile. The motive for getting it up is pretty well disclosed in the concluding remarks which allude to the prevailing appetite of the public for such works. It is stated that the slight ma terials extant had been put together that they might not be altogether lost at a period " most studious of new narratives, and of the discove ries of strange countries, made by the bold and indefatigable exertions of our ancestors," (" studiosissima delle Narrationi nuovi etdelle disco-
subsequent imposture absurdly attributed to himself; " questa favola laqual mali- tiosamente dopo suo ritorno fu per invidia finta dalla gente bassa et ignorante." Again : " una favola pieno di malignita et di tristitia." He loftily denounces the baseness with which a low envy had seized on and dressed up this tale, " ad ap- provar la delta favola et dipingerla con mille colori."
* " Et se 1" affettione della patria non m'inganna, mi par che per ragion probabile si possa affermare che questo fatto per terra debba esser anteposto a quello di mare," Pref. tom.ii.
t Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol.i. p. 225.
$ Bibliographical Decameron, vol. ii. p. 244-5. In Singer's learned " Researches into the History of Playing Cards, with Illustrations of the origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood," is an account (p. 64-65) of Marcolini's beautiful volume, entitled Le Sorti. " The decorative woodcuts are very numerous, and many of them very beautiful ; great numbers of them afterwards served to decorate the Capriccios of that odd genius Doni, who seems to have been employed by Marcolini to write some of his whimsical productions as vehicles for these Woodcuts."
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perte de paesi non conosciuti fatte dal grande animo et grande indus- tria de i nostri maggiori.")
A full exhibition of the evidence which establishes this production to be a rank imposture would require more space than can here be justi fiably devoted to a topic purely incidental. As it is likely to engage attention, anew, in connexion with the rumoured discoveries in East or Lost Greenland, such a degree of interest may be thrown round it as to warrant, hereafter, in a different form, a detailed examination.
Reverting to the immediate subject under consideration — the altera tions of Ramusio in recent editions— an example occurs in reference to this voyage of the Zeni, which shews not only that new matter has been unwarrantably introduced, but that the text has been cor rupted, without hesitation, to suit the purposes of the moment.
It has been made a charge against Hakluyt, that in translating the work of Marcolini, he has interpolated a passage representing Estotiland, the Northern part of the new Region, as abounding in gold and other metals :
" In Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages, it is added, they have mines of all manner of metals, but especially they abound in gold. This passage, however, is not to be found in the Italian original of Ramusio."*
The English Translator of Forster, referring (p. 189) to the alleged infidelity of Hakluyt, says,
" From many circumstances, it appears, that Hakluyt's collection was made prin cipally with a view to excite his countrymen to prosecute new discoveries in America, and to promote the trade to that quarter of the globe. Considering it in this light, and that hardly any thing was thought worthy of notice in that age but mines of silver and mountains of gold, we need not wonder at the interpolation!"
Thus has Hakluyt been made, alternately, the theme of extravagant eulogium and groundless denunciation ! The passage about gold is in the original (fol. 52) precisely as he translates it : " Hanno lingua et lettere separate et cavano Metalli d'ogni sorts et sopra tutto abondano d'Oro ct le lor pratiche sono in Engroneland di dove traggono pellerecie, &c." The misconception of later writers is due to a complex piece of roguery running through the several editions of Ramusio.
The story of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno gains a footing, for the first time, in the second volume of the Venice edition of 1574, of which there is a copy in the Library of the British Museum. The passage of the original representing Estotiland to abound in Gold is found there,
* Forster's Northern Voyages, p. 189, note.
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(fol. 224 A.) But before the next edition came out, the well-known result of Frobisher's magnificent hopes was calculated to throw ridicule on such representations. The passage, therefore, disappears from the editions of 1583 and 1606, (fol. 232 A.) The suppression is executed in rather an awkward manner. On turning to the passage indicated of the more recent editions, there will be discovered, at the eleventh line from the top of the page, a chasm in the sense between " cavano" and " di dove." The suppression of the intermediate words, which are marked in italics in our quotation from the original, constitutes the fraud, and renders what remains unintelligible. Hakluyt made his translation from the Ramusio of 1574, and not from the original work of Marcolini. This is evident from the fact, that in his translation (vol. iii. p. 124) immediately after the death of Nicolo Zeno, there follows a deduction of descent from him to " the other Zenos that are living at this day," of which there is not a syllable in the original, (fol. 51,) but it is interpolated into the Ramusio of 1574. He escaped the falsification of the edition of 1583, because his translation was made prior to that time, it having appeared in his early work " Divers Voyages, &c." pub lished in 1582. The matter, then, stands thus. Hakluyt followed a vicious copy, but one which had reached only the first stage of depra vation. Those who denounce him merely happen to have got hold of a subsequent edition which has been further tampered with. Neither party went back to the Original, though by no means a rare book ; and it is curious that the critics of Hakluyt, while talking of the " original," had before them neither the original Marcolini, nor the original Ra musio, nor even, if the expression may be used, the original counterfeit of Ramusio. In this last particular Hakluyt has the advantage over them.
It has been ascertained from Oxford that the tract which figures in the Catalogue of the Bodleian Library is not to be found in a separate form, but only as an item of the second volume of Ramusio. The person who prepared the Catalogue was doubtless caught by the attrac tive name of Cabot, and unfortunately gave to it this deceptive pro minence.
The erroneous citation by Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 6) of the second volume of Ramusio, instead of the first, was probably occasioned by this tract. Eden had said that the passage containing the Conversation of Butri- garius was to be found in the Italian History of Navigations. Hak luyt, in looking over the first and third volumes of Ramusio, found no leading title to catch his attention, whilst the spurious article in
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the second volume has the name of Cabot running ostentatiously at .the top of the paget He probably conjectured that it was to be found there. Purchas (Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 807) implicitly follows Hakluyt, and repeats the citation of the second volume.
It is remarkable that in " The History of Navigation," found in Churchill's Collection (vol. i. p. Ixxiv.) and usually attributed to Locke, there is an account of the contents of Ramusio, and this item of the second volume is represented as a description of Cabot's Voyage " to The North-West !"
Another instance of unwarrantable liberty taken with the text of Ramusio, occurs in a passage which has already been cited. In that Conversation, usually connected with the name of Butrigarius, the speaker is described in the edition of 1554 (vol. i. fol. 413, A.) merely as a gentleman, " un gentiPhuomo," but in the editions of 1583, 1606, and 1613, (fol. 373,) the expression is altered to " un gentil'huomo Mantovano" doubtless from mere conjecture.
The fact is remarkable, that owing to the deceptive instructions given for the purchase of this work, there is rarely found in the most carefully selected Libraries an uncorrupted copy — one which can be taken up without peril to the reader, at every turn, of being the dupe of rash, or fraudulent, alteration by an unknown editor.
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