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OHN   AN 
EBASTW 
1ABOT 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


HUV  wnv  v/i 
;tfflf  JREE  GKACE 

DIDSf  BVILD  ^VP  tfflS 
.BRH1ANNICK  EMPIEE 
1O  A  GLORIOVS  AND 
.ENVIABLE  HEIGHtH,\mH> 
,ALL  HER  DAVGKrfER 
HANDS  ABOVT  HER, 
.S1AY  VS  IN  tfflS 
.FEUCHIE. 

MIElON. 


BUILDERS   OF 
GREATER  BRITAIN 


EDITED.  BY  H.  F.  WILSON,  M.A. 

Barrister-at-Law 
Late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge 


DEDICATED  BY  SPECIAL 
PERMISSION  TO  HER 
MAJESTY  THE  QUEEN 


BUILDERS  OF   GREATER   BRITAIN 


1.  SIR  WALTER  RALEGH;  the  British  Dominion  of 

the  West.     By  MARTIN  A.  S.  HUME. 

2.  SIR   THOMAS   MAITLAND;  the   Mastery  of  the 

Mediterranean.     By  WTALTER  FREWEN  LORD. 

3.  JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  ;  the  Discovery  of 

North  America.    By  C.  RAYMOND  BEAZLEY,  M.A. 

4.  LORD   CLIVE;  the  Foundation  of  British  Rule  in 

India.  By  Sir  A.  J.  ARBUTHNOT,  K. C.S.I.,  C.I.E. 

5.  EDWARD    GIBBON    WAKEFIELD;   the    Coloni 

sation  of  South  Australia  and  New  Zealand.     By 
R.  GARNETT,  C.B.,  LL.D. 

6.  RAJAH  BROOKE  ;  the  Englishman  as  Ruler  of  an 

Eastern  State.  By  Sir  SPENSER  ST.  JOHN,  G.C.M.G. 

7.  ADMIRAL  PHILLIP ;  the  Founding  of  New  South 

Wales.     By  Louis  BECKE  and  WALTER  JEFFREY. 

8.  SIR  STAMFORD  RAFFLES  ;  England  in  the  Far 

East.     By  the  EDITOR. 


Builders 

of 

Greater  Britain 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT 


CABOT. 


JOHN   AND   SEBASTIAN 
CABOT 

THE    DISCOVERY    OF    NORTH    AMERICA 


BY 

C.    RAYMOND    BEAZLEY 

.A.,     F.R.G.S.,     FELLOW     OF     MERTON     COLLEGE,     OXFORD 

AUTHOR  OF 

"  PRINCE   HENRY  THE   NAVIGATOR  " 
"  THE  DAWN  OF  MODERN  GEOGRAPHY  ' 


With  Photogravure  Frontispiece  and  Maps 


LONDON 

T.    FISHER    UNWIN 
PATERNOSTER    SQUARE 

MDCCCXCVIII 


Copyright  by  T.  Fisher  Unioin^   1898,  for  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  of  America 


PREFACE 

A  GOOD  many  volumes  and  essays  have  already 
appeared  upon  the  subject  of  the  Cabot  voyages ; 
the  details  of  these  ventures  have  already  been 
studied  with  the  greatest  minuteness  ;  and  perhaps 
no  events  in  the  history  of  exploration  have  been 
the  cause  of  more  perplexing  and  voluminous 
controversy.  Since  the  modern  Cabot  literature 
began  with  the  appearance  of  R.  Biddle's 
(American)  Memoir  in  1831,  the  educated 
opinion  both  of  Europe  and  America  has  been 
changed  in  several  important  respects.  It  is  no 
longer  possible  to  speak  (with  Burke)  of  Sebastian 
Cabot  as  the  discoverer  of  Newfoundland,  to  the 
exclusion  of  his  father  ;  it  is  no  longer  possible 
to  exult  with  Riddle  and  Nicholls  over  Sebastian's 
extraordinary  purity  of  motive  and  elevation  of 
character.  On  the  other  hand,  a  distinguished 
scholar  has  laboured  to  prove,  not  merely  that 


xii  PREFACE 

the  well-praised  Sebastian,  being  a  man  and  not 
a  demigod,  had  his  full  share  of  human  feelings, 
but  that  among  all  the  treacherous  intriguers  and 
self-advertising  nonentities  of  old  time  there  is 
no  figure  more  disreputable  than  that  of  John 
Cabot's  more  famous  son.  In  this  statement  of 
the  case,  few  we  imagine  will  be  found  to 
support  M.  Harrisse  without  qualification  ;  but 
no  one  can  work  at  any  part  of  the  story  of  the 
great  age  of  discovery  without  admiring  and 
profiting  by  the  admirable  industry  and  close 
argument  of  this  eminent  student. 

The  simple  facts,  so  far  as  they  are  yet 
recovered,  present  us  with  two  Italians  of  great 
ability, — not  unlike  Columbus,  perhaps  still  more 
like  Verrazano,  in  their  careers, — who  played  an 
important  part  (like  so  many  others  of  their 
countrymen)  in  the  expansion  of  Europe  and 
Christendom  at  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
Whatever  we  may  say  of  Sebastian  the  son, 
John  Cabot  the  father  certainly  gave  England 
her  "  title  "  in  the  New  World,  by  his  discoveries 
of  1497  and  1498.  Again,  whatever  may  be 
said  to  Sebastian's  discredit  in  other  matters, 
he  certainly  took  an  important  share  in  bringing 
about  that  voyage  of  1553  which  opened  the 


PREFACE  xiii 

Russian  trade  by  means  of  the  White  Sea,  gave 
our  merchants  their  first  glimpse  of  Persia 
and  Central  Asia,  and  was  at  least  one 
starting  point  of  the  Elizabethan  revival  of 
trade,  discovery,  and  colonial  extension.  Of 
John  Cabot  we  know  nothing  that  is  not 
honourable  ;  the  modern  researches  in  Italian  and 
English  archives  have  "  bettered  "  his  reputation 
more  than  that  of  almost  any  other  navigator  of 
the  time  ;  there  are  few,  indeed,  among  the 
more  shadowy  great  men  of  the  Tudor  age  who 
have  won  so  much  from  nineteenth-century 
study.  By  the  necessity  of  the  case  the  son 
has  lost  where  the  father  has  gained  ;  Sebastian's 
position  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  largely 
manufactured  out  of  exploits  which  really 
belonged  to  his  father  ;  and  as  the  true  pro 
portion  has  been  recovered,  the  heroic  ideal  of 
Peter  Martyr  and  Ramusi-o  has  become  unrecog 
nisable.  Much  of  the  "  Sebastianised  "  history 
of  the  early  annalists  may  have  been  due  to  their 
confusion  rather  than  to  his  misdirection;  but 
if  he  had  always  fairly  recognised  his  father's 
part  and  mentioned  his  father's  name,  we  could 
not  have  had  such  a  picture  of  the  first  Cabot 
voyages  as  is  painted  for  us  by  the  chroniclers 


xiv  PREFACE 

in  Chapter  V.  of  this  volume.  Beyond  doubt, 
Sebastian  Cabot  allowed  his  father  to  be  de 
frauded  in  silence  of  much  of  the  credit  that 
was  justly  his  ;  beyond  doubt  also  Sebastian  had 
small  scruple  about  the  Government  he  served, 
or  the  way  in  which  he  was  prepared  to  transfer 
his  services.  Yet  both  he  and  his  father  did 
something  towards  the  creation  of  Greater 
Britain,  and  no  list  of  its  "  Builders "  could 
be  complete  without  a  mention  of  both  names. 
For  if  only  from  the  fact  that  Sebastian's 
life-work  is  to  a  great  extent  inseparable 
from  John's,  and  that  the  one  is  in  so  many 
respects  the  complement  of  the  other,  we  must 
join  with  the  discoverer  of  "Canada"  that  other 
figure,  so  much  more  fully  known  to  history,  in 
all  its  weaknesses,  the  friend  of  Eden  and  of 
Burrough,  the  first  Governor  of  our  Incorporated 
Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers  or  of 
Muscovy. 

In  preparing  this  volume,  I  have  had  the 
invaluable  advice  of  Mr.  C.  H.  Coote  of  the 
Map  Department  in  the  British  Museum,  who 
has  read  all  the  manuscript,  and  made  many 
suggestions.  His  views,  it  must  be  said,  differ 
from  those  expressed  here  on  the  birthplace  of 


PREFACE  xv 

Sebastian  Cabot,  and  the  part  of  North  America 
represented  in  the  map  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa. 
Among  modern  writings  those  of  M.  Harrisse 
have  been  found  most  helpful  ;  his  French  and 
English  Cabot  volumes  of  1882  and  of  1 896  con 
tain  the  best  (though  often  highly  controversial) 
treatment  as  yet  attempted  of  this  subject  ;  the 
studies  of  Deane,  Dawson,  Tarducci,  Desimoni, 
and  Coote  (in  the  "  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography  ")  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  next 
in  value  to  the  work  of  M.  Harrisse  ;  a  full  list 
of  Cabot  literature  will  be  found  in  the  two 
Appendices  to  this  volume. 

One  great  defect,  however,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
may  be  noticed  in  almost  all  treatises  on  this 
question  ;  and  that  is  in  the  usual  handling  of 
the  evidence.  Nowhere,  as  far  as  I  know,  have 
the  leading  documents  as  a  whole  been  presented 
to  the  reader  as  the  backbone  of  the  narrative ; I 
yet  nowhere  is  a  general  and  accurate  view  of 
the  small  mass  of  first-hand  testimony  more 
essential  than  in  the  Cabot  controversy.  This 

1  M.  Harrisse,  Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,  gives  them,  not 
in  the  history  and  biography,  but  (with  a  vast  mass  of 
collateral  evidence)  in  what  is  really  a  "  Memoire  pour 
servir." 


xvi  PREFACE 

accordingly  has  been  made  the  leading  feature  of 
the  present  study.  For  however  much  our 
views  may  differ  on  disputable  points,  all  alike 
must  reckon  with  the  original  records  and  start 
from  them  ;  sometimes  it  appears  hopeless  to 
reconcile  the  discrepancies  that  confront  us,  and 
we  must  be  content  with  registering  the  evidence 
— carefully  excluding  from  our  text,  except  for 
purposes  of  illustration,  all  second-hand  and 
late  testimony,  and  trusting  to  future  discoveries 
to  clear  up  some  at  least  of  those  points  which 
still  remain  ambiguous. 

C.  RAYMOND  BEAZLEY. 

MER.TON  COLLEGE,  OXFORD, 
February,  1898. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 

INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH — ANTICIPATIONS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  DIS 
COVERIES  OF  THE  CABOTS  :  i.  THE  ALLEGED  CHINESE  VISIT 
OF  A.D.  499,  &c.  2.  THE  VIKINGS  IN  THE  TENTH  AND 
ELEVENTH  CENTURIES  .  .  .  .  .  i 

CHAPTER    II 

INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH  CONTINUED — FURTHER  ANTICIPATIONS  OF  THE 
CABOTS  :  3.  STORIES  OF  ST.  BRANDAN  IN  THE  SIXTH  CENTURY, 
AND  OF  SIMILAR  VOYAGES  IN  THE  EIGHTH  AND  TENTH.  4. 
THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  ZENI  IN  THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY. 
5.  PORTUGUESE  VENTURES  WESTWARD,  ESPECIALLY  IN  THE 
FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  .  .  .  .  15 

CHAPTER    III     V" 

JOHN  CABOT'S  LIFE  DOWN  TO  1496 — A  GENOESE  BY  BIRTH  AND 
A  VENETIAN  CITIZEN  BY  ADOPTION — HE  COMES  TO  ENGLAND 
ABOUT  1490 — THE  FIRST  LETTERS  PATENT  OF  1496  .  33 


C  HAPTER    IV 

THE  VOYAGE  OF   1497 — CONTROVERTED    QUESTIONS — THE    SHARE 
OF  SEBASTIAN — THE  NUMBER  OF  SHIPS — THE  NAME  OF  THE 
FLAGSHIP — DESCRIPTIONS  OF  THE  VOYAGE  BY   SONCINO   AND 
PASQUALIGO — CRITICISM  OF  THESE  ACCOUNTS — THE  QUESTION 
OF  THE  LANDFALL      .  .  .  .  .  .54 

xvii 


xviii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    V 

PAGE 

THE  VOYAGE  OF  1497  CONTINUED — LATER  VERSIONS  OF  THE 
VOYAGE,  AS  GIVEN  BY — i.  PETER  MARTYR  ;  2.  RAMUSIO  ; 
3.  ZlEGLER  ;  4.  GOMARA  J  5.  GALVANO  ;  6.  THEVET  J  J. 
RIBAUT  ;  8.  EDEN  ;  9.  THE  MAP  OF  1544  .  .  -74 

C  H APTER    VI 

JOHN  CABOT'S  SECOND  VOYAGE — REWARD  AND  PENSION  FROM 
HENRY  VII. — THE  SECOND  LETTERS  PATENT — VARIOUS 
ALLUSIONS  TO  THE  VENTURE  OF  1498 — EVIDENCE  OF  LA 
COSA'S  MAP  OF  1500 — ABSENCE  OF  ENGLISH  NARRATIVES  .  92 

CHAPTER    VII 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT  :  His  LIFE  TO  1512 — QUESTION  OF  SEBASTIAN'S 
BIRTHPLACE  —  ESTIMATE  OF  SEBASTIAN'S  CHARACTER  — 
ALLEGED  VOYAGE  OF  1502 — ITS  POSSIBLE  SOURCE — ALLEGED 
VOYAGE  OF  1508-9  .  .  .  .  .112 

C  H  APTER    VIII 

SEBASTIAN  TRANSFERS  HIS  SERVICES  TO  SPAIN,  1512  —  His 
EMPLOYMENT  AND  OFFICES  THERE — ASSERTED  RETURN  TO 
ENGLAND  AND  VOYAGE  IN  SERVICE  OF  HENRY  VIII.,  1516-7 
— EVIDENCE  FOR  THIS — THE  INTENDED  ENGLISH  VENTURE 
OF  1521 — PROTEST  OF  THE  LONDON  LIVERIES  AGAINST 
SEBASTIAN  .....  .  125 

CHAPTER    IX 

THE  VENETIAN  INTRIGUE  OF  1522 — THE  LA  PLATA  jVoYAGE 
OF  1526-30 — THE  LAWSUIT  OF  1535 — ACTS  OF  SEBASTIAN  IN 
SPAIN,  1540-47  .  .  .  .141 

CHAPTER    X 

SEBASTIAN'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND,  1547-8 — SUPPOSED  SIGNS 
OF  THIS  INTENTION  IN  1538  AND  1541 — PENSION  GRANTED 
HIM  BY  EDWARD  VI. — DIFFICULTIES  WITH  CHARLES  V.— 
SEBASTIAN  AGAIN  OFFERS  HIMSELF  TO  VENICE,  1551  .  .162 


CONTENTS  xix 

CHAPTER    XI 

PAGE 

CABOT'S  EXACT  EMPLOYMENT  IN  ENGLAND  AT  THIS  TIME — His 
SUPPOSED  CHAMPIONSHIP  OF  ENGLISH  MERCHANTS  AGAINST 
THE  EASTERLINGS — His  SHARE  IN  THE  NORTH-EAST  VENTURE 
OF  1553  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  176 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE  INSTRUCTIONS  DRAWN    UP   BY    SEBASTIAN    FOR  THE   NORTH 
EAST  VOYAGE  OF    1553 — RENEWED   ATTEMPTS  OF  CHARLES 

V.    TO    RECLAIM    CABOT's    SERVICES    IN    1553   .  .  .        1 86 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE  '  CABOT  '  MAP  OF  1 544 — REFERENCES  TO  LOST  MAPS  OF 
CABOT — OTHER  MAPS  OF  THIS  TIME  ILLUSTRATING  THE 
PLANISPHERE  OF  1544 — DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  LATTER — THE 
LEGENDS  OF  THIS  MAP  ..... 


CHAPTER    XIV 

THE  'CABOT'  MAP  OF  1544  CONTINUED  —  THE  LEGENDS 
ON  THE  MAP  OF  1544  —  FULL  TEXT  OF  INSCRIPTIONS 
1-16  222 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  MAP  OF  1544  CONTINUED:  Nos.  17-33 
— REMARKS  ON  THE  LEGENDS  AND  ON  THE  WORKMANSHIP 
OF  THE  MAP — QUESTION  OF  SEBASTIAN'S  AUTHORSHIP — 
QUESTION  OF  THE  LANDFALL  OF  1497  AS  MARKED  ON 
THIS  MAP — VARIOUS  EDITIONS  OF  THE  MAP — SEBASTIAN'S 
CLAIMS  OF  NAUTICAL  INVENTIONS  .  .  .  .238 

ADDITIONAL     NOTE     ON     SEBASTIAN     CABOT'S     PORTRAIT    AND 

ALLEGED  KNIGHTHOOD  .  .     262 


xx  CONTENTS 

APPENDICES. 

PAGE 

APPENDIX  I.  :    DOCUMENTS    MAINLY    ILLUSTRATING   THE    ENGLISH 

CAREER  OF  JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT       .  .  .265 

APPENDIX  II.  :   CABOT  LITERATURE          .              .  .  .     292 

INDEX .         .307 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PORTRAIT  OF  SEBASTIAN  CABOT,  FROM  AN  ENGRAVING  BY  RAWLE, 

AFTF.R      THE      '  HARFORD  '      PlCTURF.,      FORMERLY      ATTRIBUTED 

TO   HOLBEIN  .....          Frontispiece 

THE    ENGLISH     DISCOVERIES    ON    JUAN   DE    LA    COSA'S    MAP    OF 

1500  .....          To  face  fage        105 

THE    NORTH    AMERICAN     SECTION    OF    THE     '  CABOT  '     MAPPE- 

MONDE  OF   1544      .  .  .  .  To  face  page       218 


THE 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


John  and  Sebastian  Cabot 


CHAPTER    I 

INTRODUCTORY      SKETCH ANTICIPATIONS      OF      THE 

AMERICAN  DISCOVERIES  OF  THE  CABOTS  !  I.  THE 
ALLEGED  CHINESE  VISIT  OF  A.D.  499,  &C. 
2.  THE  VIKINGS  IN  THE  TENTH  AND  ELEVENTH 
CENTURIES 

THE  discovery  of  the  North  American  continent  by 
John  Cabot  in  1497  was  preceded  not  only  by  the 
permanent  achievement  of  Columbus  (1492),  but  by  a 
number  of  transitory  successes  in  the  nature  of  ex 
ploration  or  settlement  by  Europeans  or  Asiatics  in 
that  same  continent.)'  Other  features  of  an  intro 
ductory  nature  are  the  legendary  voyages  of  St. 
Brandan  and  others,  and  the  tradition  (so  prominent 
in  the  later  mediaeval  maps)  of  islands  in  the  Western 
Sea.  It  is  also  pretty  certain  that  the  Portuguese 
had  followed  up  their  well-known  exploits  on  the 
African  coast  and  among  the  Atlantic  Islands  by 
ventures  further  westward,  ventures,  however,  which 
apparently  led  to  no  tangible  result. 


2  BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

And,  first  of  all,  we  may  not  find  it  useless  to 
examine  the  character  of  these  earlier  movements 
towards  '  American '  exploration  in  the  history  or 
legend  of  the  Old  World. 

i .  The  alleged  Chinese  discovery  of  lands  to  the  far 
east  of  their  country  (lands  which  have  been  identified 
with  Alaska,  with  British  Columbia,  and  even  with 
Panama  and  Mexico)  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  ever 
reached  the  ears  of  Cabot  or  any  other  European  of  his 
time  ;  but,  if  credible,  it  is  the  earliest  known  revela 
tion  of  any  part  of  America  to  any  one  of  the  nations 
of  '  our  continent.'  The  Celestials'  tradition  recorded 
how,  at  a  time  answering  to  the  year  of  Christ  499,  a 
'land  called  Fusang,  situated  some  32,000  furlongs 
north-east  of  Japan,  was  made  known  to  the  Chinese 
by  one  Hoei-Sin.  This  land  took  its  name  from  its 
fusang  trees,  which  served  the  inhabitants  for  food, 
fibre,  cloth,  paper,  and  timber.  The  people  of  this 
country  waged  no  war  and  had  no  armour ;  they 
possessed  horses,  deer  and  cattle  with  horns  of 
wonderful  length  that  could  bear  an  immense  weight ; 
and  they  used  these  animals  (and  especially  their  tamed 
stags)  to  draw  their  carts,  like  the  reindeer  of  the 
Lapps  to-day.  Among  fruits  they  enjoyed  pears  and 
grapes  ;  among  metals,  gold,  silver,  and  copper  ;  but 
they  set  no  value  on  any  of  these  except  the  last. 
They  were  ruled  by  a  king,  who  changed  the  colour 
of  his  garments  (green,  red,  yellow,  white,  and  black) 
like  some  of  the  Tartars,  according  to  a  cycle  of 


JOHN    AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  3 

years,  but  who  took  no  part  in  government  for  the 
first  thirty-six  months  of  his  reign.  Their  nobles  were 
divided  into  three  classes,  and  the  crimes  of  these  exalted 
personages  were  punished  with  peculiar  solemnity. 
c  They  were  put  under  ground  with  food  and  drink  ; ' 
a  ceremonial  leave  was  taken  of  them  by  their  friends 
and  all  the  people  ;  and  they  were  left  c  surrounded 
with  ashes.'  The  men  of  Fusang  punished  nearly  all 
crimes  with  imprisonment ;  for  smaller  offences  they 
employed  a  dungeon  in  the  south  of  their  country  ; 
but  the  greater  criminals  were  immured  for  life  in  a 
northern  prison  and  their  children  were  enslaved. 
The  marriage  ceremonies  of  this  country  were  much 
the  same  as  in  China,  except  that  the  intending  bride 
groom  had  to  serve  the  family  of  his  betrothed  for  a 
year  ;  like  the  Celestials  they  paid  extreme  reverence 
to  parents,  and  made  offerings  to  the  images  of 
ancestors. 

Among  other  lands  to  the  far  east  of  China  were 

O 

the  Kingdom  of  Women,  and  the  Lands  of  Marked 
Bodies,  of  the  Dog-headed  Men,  and  of  Great  Han, 
discovered  and  described,  according  to  the  Chinese 
annals,  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixth  century  A.D.  In 
the  first-named  country  the  people  were  erect  in 
stature  and  very  white  in  colour,  but  covered  with  an 
immense  growth  of  hair  that  reached  to  the  ground. 
Their  children  could  walk  when  little  more  than 
three  months  old,  and  within  four  years  they  were 
fully  grown.  They  fed  upon  a  salt  plant  like  worm- 


4  BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

wood,  and  fled  in  terror  at  the  approach  of  a  human 
being. 

In  the  Land  of  Marked  Bodies  there  was  a  race 
tattooed  c  like  wild  beasts.'  After  the  fashion  of  the 
Brahmins  of  India,  the  nobles  bore  upon  their  fore 
heads  certain  lines  which  showed  their  rank.  As  a 
people  they  were  merry,  hospitable,  and  peaceful, 
easily  pleased  with  things  of  small  value.  The  house 
of  their  king  was  adorned  with  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  articles,  and  in  traffic  they  used  gems  as  the 
standard  of  value. 

In  the  Dog-headed  Land,  Chinese  mariners,  driven 
out  of  their  course  by  the  winds,  found  men  who  had 
dogs'  heads  and  barked  for  speech.  Among  other 
things  they  used  small  beans  for  food.  Their  clothing 
resembled  linen  cloth  ;  from  loose  earth  they  con 
structed  round  dwellings  with  doors  or  openings  like 
the  mouths  of  burrows.  Lastly,  the  Great  Han 
country  was  described  as  very  similar  to  that  of  the 
Marked  Bodies. 

In  these  curious  traditions  it  is  very  possible  that  the 
Chinese  have  preserved  a  record  of  American  voyages 
on  the  part  of  their  early  Buddhist  missionaries  similar 
to  the  extensive  journeyings  of  these  same  missionaries 
at  this  time  to  Western  and  Southern  Asia  —  to 
Tartary,  Afghanistan,  and  India. 

The  hairy  people  of  the  Land  of  Women  have 
naturally  suggested  to  many  the  Ainos  of  Northern 
Japan  ;  but  the  *  Marked  Bodies '  certainly  point 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  5 

rather  to  the  American  Indians  than  to  any  people  of 
North-eastern  Asia  ;  and  those  of  us  who  are  not 
prepared  to  reject  the  whole  Chinese  tradition  will 
consider  with  attention  the  analogy  repeatedly 
advanced  by  modern  anatomists  and  physiologists 
between  some  of  the  Tartar  tribes  and  some  of  the 
American  aboriginals.  The  same  attention  may 
fairly  be  given  to  the  argument  of  a  striking  likeness 
between  certain  architectural  monuments  of  Central 
America  and  those  of  Asiatic  Buddhism  ;  to  the  dis 
covery  in  North  America  of  fossil  remains  of  the 
horse,  some  so  recent  '  that  they  must  be  regarded  as 
coeval  with  man  '  ;  to  the  antecedent  possibility  and 
even  probability  of  at  least  occasional  transit  from  Asia 
to  America,  and  vice  versa,  in  the  latitude  of  the 
Behring  Sea ;  to  the  undoubted  achievements  of  the 
Vikings  in  the  face  of  much  greater  difficulties  on  the 
eastern  side  ;  and  to  the  likelihood  of  an  original 
migration  of  the  human  race  into  the  New  World 
from  Northern  Asia  rather  than  from  any  other 
quarter.  The  Chinese  record,  if  it  is  to  be  treated 
fairly,  must  not  be  minimised  any  more  than  it  must 
be  exaggerated,  and  if  its  words  and  measurements 
forbid  us  to  identify  Fusang  with  Mexico  or  Panama, 
they  also  require  something  more  extensive  than  a 
journey  to  Japan,  which  the  Chinese  of  Marco  Polo's 
day  reckoned  as  only  1500  miles  from  their  southern 
ports,  and  which  is  distinctly  named  in  our  present 
narrative  as  a  starting-point  for  the  Land  of  Marked 


6  BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Bodies.  Nothing  has  yet  been  found  in  Japan  to 
answer  to  this  account  of  the  prison  customs  of 
Fusang,  the  assembly  of  the  people  to  judge  guilty 
noblemen,  the  peculiar  punishment  of  the  same,  the 
sequence  of  colours  in  the  royal  garments,  the  use  of 
deer  as  beasts  of  burden,  and  other  particulars. 

The  tin,  hammer-shaped  coins  of  the  Aztecs  have 
been  compared  with  the  shoe-shaped  ingots  of  Sycee 
silver,  current  in  China  ;  the  copper  used  so  largely  in 
Central  America  before  the  European  invasion  seems 
once  to  have  been  worked  as  far  north  as  Lake 
Superior,  and  traces  of  Mexican  art  and  influence 
have  been  found  as  far  as  Tennessee  along  the  course  of 
that  migration  which,  as  we  may  surmise,  had  crossed 
from  Asia  into  Alaska  ages  before  Hoei-Sin,  which 
Buddhist  travellers  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries 
may  have  discovered  on  its  slow  progress  southwards, 
and  which  may  have  left  in  its  final  tropical  home 
some  memorials  of  an  intercourse  long  forgotten  with 
the  Old  World. 

Both  in  China  and  in  Japan  the  tradition  of  an 
ancient  discovery  of  countries  far  to  the  East  is  said  to 
be  very  old,  very  widespread,  and  very  obstinate  ;  and  a 
modern  instance  gives  some  colour  to  it.  In  1833,  a 
Japanese  junk  belonging  to  the  c  times  of  ignorance  ' 
was  wrecked  near  Queen  Charlotte's  Island  off  British 
Columbia  ;  just  as  in  1832  a  fishing  smack  from  the 
same  country  with  nine  men  on  board,  was  driven  out 
of  its  course  between  Formosa  and  Tokio,  and  arrived 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN   CABOT  7 

safely  at  the  Sandwich  Islands.  Such  undoubted  facts 
may  well  encourage  those  who  believe  in  the  sub 
stantial  truth  of  this  Chinese  claim  to  American  dis 
covery,  and  a  negative  argument  from  an  equally 
undoubted  fact  may  be  added.  No  one  now  disputes 
that  the  Norsemen  reached  the  Eastern  mainland  of 
America  about  A.D.  1000,  yet  no  one  can  point  to  a 
single  proof  of  their  presence  or  relic  of  their  occupa 
tion.  Why  then  should  we  ask  for  so  much  more  in 
confirmation  of  the  word  of  Hoei-Sin  and  his  Buddhist 
friends  than  we  expect  in  support  of  the  pretensions  of 
Red  Eric  and  his  house  ?  Grant  that  the  '  internal ' 
witness  (from  consistency  and  clearness  of  statement, 
absence  of  fable,  and  so  forth)  is  far  weaker  in  the  case 
of  the  Chinese  than  in  that  of  the  Northmen  ;  but 
this  is  surely  balanced  to  some  degree  by  the  greater 
'  monumental '  and  other  present-day  evidence  of  the 
former  claim. 

2.  A  far  more  important  anticipation  of  the  fifteenth- 
century  successes  of  Columbus  and  Cabot  was  the 
Vinland  movement  of  the  Norsemen,  in  the  tenth  and 
eleventh  centuries.  By  way  of  the  Faroes,  Iceland, 
and  Greenland,  Viking  adventurers  pushed  on  to  New 
foundland,  Labrador,  and  Nova  Scotia  or  New  Eng 
land.  *  As  early  as  A.D.  874  the  Norsemen  had  colonised 
Iceland.  Three  years  later,  Greenland  was  sighted  by 
Gunnbiorn,  and  called  White  Shirt  from  its  snowfields. 
As  this  country  is  geographically  a  part  of  the  North 
American  continent,  the  Norse  settlements  of  the  tenth 


8  BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

century,  conducted  by  Red  Eric  and  his  house,  soon 
led  to  their  natural  issue.  About  989  one  Bjarni 
Herjulfson,  following  his  father  from  Iceland  to  Erics- 
fiord  in  Greenland,  was  driven  by  storms  out  West  into 
the  Ocean.  Before  he  made  his  way  back  again  he 
had  sighted  two  unknown  lands  : — one  was  a  flat,  well- 
wooded  country,  the  other  was  a  mountainous  tract 
covered  with  glaciers.  Soon  after  Bj ami's  return,  Leif 
Ericson  started  (about  A.D.  1000)  with  a  definite 
purpose  of  discovery.  He  bought  Bjarni's  ship, 
manned  it  with  five  and  twenty  men,  and  set  out. 
Eirst  of  all  he  came  to  the  land  Bjarni  had  sighted 
last,  and  went  on  shore.  There  was  no  grass  to  be 
seen,  but  great  snowy  ridges  far  inland,  with  snow 
stretching  all  the  way  between  the  coast  and  the 
mountains.  Leif  called  it  Helluland  or  Slabland,  and 
it  probably  answers  to  our  Labrador.  Putting  to  sea 
again  he  came  upon  another  country,  flat  and  well 
wooded,  with  a  white-sand  shore,  low  lying  towards 
the  sea.  This  Leif  c  called  after  its  nature,'  Markland 
or  Woodland — the  (  Newfoundland  '  (in  all  likeli 
hood)  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Thence  driving  for 
two  days  before  a  north-east  wind  the  adventurers 
came  to  a  '  sound  '  or  strait  lying  between  an  island 
and  a  ness,  '  where  also  a  river  came  out  of  a  lake.' 
Into  this  they  towed  the  ship  and  anchored,  carrying 
their  beds  out  on  the  shore  and  setting  up  their  tents, 
with  a  large  hut  in  the  middle,  and  so  made  all  ready 
for  wintering  there. 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  9 

As  long  as  Leif  remained  he  saw  no  frost,  and 
seemed  to  think  that  nothing  of  the  sort  could  happen 
— where  the  land  was  rich  in  grass,  trees,  c  self-sown  ' 
wheat  in  the  fields,  and  even  wild  vines,  and  where 
day  and  night  were  more  equal  than  in  Iceland  or  in 
Greenland.  The  crew  were  divided  in  two  parts  ; 
one  worked  at  the  huts  and  the  other  explored  the 
country,  returning  every  night  to  the  camp.  From 
the  wild  vines  found  by  the  German  Tyrker,  Leif's 
foster-father,  the  whole  district  was  called  Vinland  ; 
and  here  on  the  shortest  day,  we  are  told,  the  sun  was 
above  the  horizon  from  half-past  seven  to  half-past 
four.  By  this  the  latitude  has  been  fixed,  in  one  calcu 
lation,  to  41°  43'  North,  or  nearly  the  position  of 
Mount  Hope  Bay  in  New  England  ;  and  it  has  been 
fancifully  asserted  that  the  name  of  c  Hop  '  given  to 
the  country  by  the  Norsemen,  '  from  the  good  hope 
they  had  of  it,'  was  found  still  in  use  under  the  form 
of  '  Haup '  by  the  Indians  six  centuries  later — c  Mount 
Hope  '  being  the  reversion  of  the  name,  on  Puritan 
tongues,  to  a  slightly  different  form  of  the  original 
type.  On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Storm  has  lately  given 
very  weighty  reasons  for  identifying  Vinland  with 
Nova  Scotia,  rejecting  some  of  the  details  of  the  Saga 
and  furnishing  a  correction  of  his  own,  which  makes 
Leif  the  first  discoverer  of  the  Western  lands,  elimi 
nates  Bjarni  Herjulfson,  and  compresses  together  the 
later  ventures  of  Thorwald  Ericson  and  Thorfinn 
Karlsefne  into  one  enterprise. 


io         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

These  later  ventures,  in  the  original  story,  were  as 
follows  :  When  Leif  returned  with  his  stern-boat  full 
of  specimens  of  the  wild  vines  and  trees  and  self-sown 
wheat  of  Vinland,  his  brother  Thorwald  was  stirred  to 
like  adventure  ;  and  he  set  out  with  Leif's  ship  and 
thirty  men,  in  the  year  1002.  He  came  straight  to 
c  Leif's  Booths  '  in  Vinland,  and  stayed  the  winter 
there ;  in  the  next  spring  and  summer  he  coasted 
along  a  beautiful  and  well-wooded  land,  with  a  white 
sandy  beach,  many  islands  fringing  the  shore  and 
shallow  water  around,  but  without  finding  any  trace 
of  man  or  beast,  except  a  wooden  corn-barn  on  an 
island  far  to  the  West.  Returning  to  the  Booths  for 
the  winter,  Thorwald  started  again  eastwards  in  the 
spring,  and  fell  in  with  the  mysterious  Skraelings 
(generally  identified  as  Esquimaux)  who  came  in  their 
skin  boats  ('a  countless  host  from  up  the  fiord,')  and 
1  laid  themselves  alongside  '  the  Norse  vessel.  Thor 
wald  was  mortally  wounded  in  the  battle,  and  his  men 
returned  to  Greenland  with  a  cargo  of  vines  and 
grapes,  and  the  news  of  their  chief's  death.  On  this, 
Thorstein  Ericson,  another  of  Leif's  brothers,  put  out 
for  Vinland,  but  after  beating  about  in  the  Ocean  for 
many  weeks  came  back  unsuccessfully  to  Ericsfiord 
(1004-5).  He  was  followed  by  the  greatest  of  the 
Vinland  sailors,  Thorfinn  Karlsefne — *  Thorfinn  the 
Predestined  Hero,'  who  made  the  first  and  last  serious 
attempt  to  found  a  permanent  Norse  colony  in  the 
new  lands.  According  to  the  Saga  he  came  from  Nor- 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  n 

way  to  Iceland  soon  after  Thorwald's  death,  passed  on 
to  Greenland  about  1005,  'when,  as  before,  much  was 
talked  about  a  Vinland  voyage,'  and  in  1006  made 
ready  to  start  with  one  hundred  and  sixty  men  and 
five  women  in  three  ships.  The  expedition  was  well 
equipped.  They  had  with  them  c  all  kinds  of  cattle, 
meaning  to  settle  in  the  land  if  they  could.'  Leif  lent 
them  his  Booths,  and  they  sailed  in  1007.  First  they 
came  to  Helluland,  where  they  found  a  quantity  of  foxes ; 
then  to  Markland,  well  stocked  with  forest  animals  ; 
then  to  an  island  at  the  mouth  of  a  fiord  unknown  before, 
covered  with  eider  ducks.  They  called  the  new  dis 
coveries  Stream  Island  and  Stream  Fiord,  from  the  cur 
rent  that  here  ran  out  into  the  sea,  and  hence  they  sent 
off  a  party  of  eight  men  in  search  of  Vinland  in  a '  stern- 
boat.'  This  (identified  by  some  with  the  expedition  of 
Thorwald  Ericson)  was  driven  by  westerly  gales  back 
to  Iceland  ;  but  Thorfinn,  with  the  rest,  sailed  south 
till  he  came  to  Leif  Ericson's  river  and  lake  and  corn- 
growing  islands  and  vine-clad  hills.  Here  he  settled  in 
peace  during  one  winter,  felling  wood,  pasturing  cattle, 
and  gathering  grapes  ;  but  in  the  spring  the  Skraelings 
came  down  upon  his  men,  at  first  to  traffic  with  furs 
and  sables  against  milk  and  dairy  produce,  and  then  to 
fight.  For  as  neither  understood  the  other,  and  the 
natives  tried  to  force  their  way  into  Thorfinn's  houses 
and  to  get  hold  of  his  men's  weapons,  a  quarrel  was 
bound  to  come. 

In  view  of  this,  Karlsefne  fortified  his  settlement ; 


iz          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

'  and  at  this  very  time  was  a  child  born  to  him,  called 
Snorre,  of  Gudrid  his  wife,  the  widow  of  Thorstein 
Ericson.'  The  first  of  native  European  colonists  in 
America  did  not  fulfil  the  promise  of  his  birth  ;  soon 
after  this  the  whole  enterprise  was  abandoned  ;  and  in 
the  spring  of  1008,  Thorfinn,  though  victorious  over 
the  Skraelings,  and  richly  laden  with  Vinland  wares, 
came  back  to  Greenland. 

Thus  ends  the  story  of  the  first  colonisation  of 
America  from  Europe,  and  the  Saga,  while  giving  no 
definite  cause  for  the  failure,  seems  to  show  that  even 
the  trifling  annoyance  of  the  Skraelings  was  enough 
to  turn  the  scale.  Natural  difficulties  were  so 
immense,  men  were  so  few,  that  a  pigmy  foe  was 
able  to  hold  the  new  immigration  at  bay. 

So  now,  though  on  Thorfinn's  return,  the  '  talk 
began  to  run  again  upon  a  Vinland  voyage  as  both 
gainful  and  honourable,'  and  a  daughter  of  Red  Eric, 
named  Freydis,  won  some  men  over  to  a  fresh  attempt 
in  the  country  where  all  the  house  of  Eric  had  tried 
and  failed  ;  though  Leif  lent  his  Booths  as  before,  and 
sixty  colonists,  not  counting  women,  were  found 
ready  to  go — yet  the  settlement  could  never  be  firmly 
planted  in  this  generation.  Ereydis  and  her  allies 
sailed  in  ion,  reached  Vinland,  and  wintered  there  ; 
but  jealousy  and  murder  soon  broke  up  the  camp,  and 
the  remains  of  the  expedition  found  their  way  back 
to  Greenland  in  1013.  From  this  point  the  con 
nected  story  of  Vinland  enterprise  comes  to  an 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  13 

end.  Whether  Thorflnn  or  others  made  any 
more  attempts  at  c  Western  planting  ; '  whether  the 
account  we  have  of  these  voyages  is  really  an  Eric 
Saga,  for  nearly  every  Vinland  leader  is  of  this  family  ; 
whether  the  Greenland  line  of  advance  on  the  New 
World  was  accompanied  by  other  similar  ventures  of 
the  Norse  race,  can  hardly  be  proved  as  yet.  We 
can  only  fancy  that  these  suggestions  are  probable, 
in  view  of  the  few  additional  facts  that  have  been 
preserved  to  us  of  this  '  Plantation.'  We  hear,  for 
instance,  of  Are  Marson,  of  Reykianes  in  Iceland,  being 
driven  by  storms  far  west  to  White  Man's  Land, 
where  he  was  followed  by  Bjarni  Asbrandson  in  999, 
and  by  Gudleif  Gudlangson  in  1029.  This  was  the 
tale  of  his  friend  Rafn,  the  '  Limerick  trader,'  and  of 
Are  Frode,  his  great-great-grandson,  who  called  the 
unknown  land  Great  Ireland — by  some  identified  with 
the  Carolinas,  by  others  with  the  Canaries.  Again,  in 
continuation  of  the  Greenland  line  of  advance,  there 
are  records  of  Bishop  Eric  going  over  from  Erics- 
fiord  to  Vinland  in  1121  ;  of  clergy  from  the 
'  Eastern  Bay  '  diocese  of  Gardar,  sailing  to  lands  in 
the  West,  far  North  of  Vinland1  in  1266  ;  of  the 
two  Helgasons  discovering  a  country  West  of  Iceland 
in  1285  ;  and  of  a  voyage  from  Greenland  to  Mark- 
land  undertaken  in  1347  by  a  crew  of  seventeen  men. 
Unless  these  are  pure  fabrications,  they  would  seem  to 

1  In  support  of  this,  a  solitary  '  American  '   relic  of  Norse  occupation 
has  been  found  on  a  rock  near  the  entrance  of  Baffin's  Bay. 


H         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

point  to  some  intercourse  (of  however  slight  a  kind)  be 
tween  mother  and  daughter  colonies  of  North-western 
Europe  and  North-eastern  America.  Between  980 
and  1000,  both  Iceland  and  Greenland  had  become 
Christian  ;  in  1126,  the  line  of  the  Bishops  of  Gardar 
begins  with  Arnold  ;  and  the  clergy  would  hardly 
have  ventured  on  the  Vinland  voyage  (which  was 
certainly  preserved  in  twelfth  and  thirteenth  century 
Icelandic  tradition),  if  their  only  object  was  to 
convert  an  infinitely  few  Skraelings  in  an  almost 
deserted  country. 

The  Venetian,  Welsh,  and  Arabic  claims  to  have 
followed  the  Norsemen  in  visits  to  America  earlier 
than  the  voyage  of  1492,  cannot  be  discussed  here. 
The  Vinland  enterprise  of  the  Norseman  is  a  fairly 
certain  fact  ;  against  all  other  mediaeval  claims  to  the 
discovery  of  a  Western  Continent,  one  only  verdict 
can  be  recorded — Not  proven. 


CHAPTER  II 

INTRODUCTORY  SKETCH  CONTINUED FURTHER  AN 
TICIPATIONS  OF  THE  CABOTS  I  3.  STORIES  OF 
ST.  BRANDAN  IN  THE  SIXTH  CENTURY,  AND  OF 
SIMILAR  VOYAGES  IN  THE  EIGHTH  AND  TENTH. 
4.  THE  VOYAGES  OF  THE  ZENI  IN  THE  FOUR 
TEENTH  CENTURY.  5.  PORTUGUESE  VENTURES 
WESTWARD,  ESPECIALLY  IN  THE  FIFTEENTH 
CENTURY 

3.' BUT  the  achievements  of  the  Vikings  in 
American  discovery  were  either  not  communicated 
beyond  a  very  narrow  circle,  or  were  soon  forgotten. 
In  Cabot's  lifetime  the  Vinland  tradition  seems  to 
have  been  absolutely  unknown  in  Europe  ;  but  it 
fared  quite  differently  with  those  legendary  voyages  to 
the  West  which  go  under  the  names  of  St.  Brandan, 
the  Seven  Spanish  Bishops,  and  so  forth. 

As  we  shall  see,  when  Cabot  first  came  to  England, 
he  found  the  mariners  of  Bristol  ready  and  willing  to 
venture  far  into  the  Atlantic  in  the  hope  of  re-discover 
ing  the  isles  of  Brandan  and  of  the  Seven  Cities. 

Down  to  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  in  the 
15 


16         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

sixteenth  century,  the  former  and  more  famous  of 
these  was  marked  on  maps,  usually  due  West  of 
Ireland  ;  it  was  sighted  again  and  again  by  deter 
mined  and  devout  people  who  went  out  to  look  for  it ; 
it  was  associated  with  similar  discoveries  of  St.  Malo 
in  the  sixth  century,  of  the  Seven  Spanish  Bishops  in 
the  eighth,  of  the  Basques  in  the  tenth  ;  on  the  success 
of  Columbus  it  was  turned  like  the  rest  into  a  claim 
for  a  prior  discovery  of  America  ;  but  it  really  had  its 
origin  in  eleventh  or  twelfth  century  hagiology,  and  it 
obstinately  remains  in  a  poetic  mirage.  It  gives  us 
perhaps  a  picture  of  the  shuddering  interest  of  these 
missionary  travellers  in  the  wildness,  the  power,  and 
the  infinitude  of  nature,  as  it  could  be  tested  on  the 
Ocean  ;  it  rarely  gives  us  anything  more  definite. 
B randan  was,  in  the  oldest  form  of  the  story,  an  Irish 
monk,  who  died  on  May  16,  578,  in  the  Abbey  of 
Clonfert,  which  he  had  founded.  One  day,  when 
entertaining  a  brother  monk  named  Barinth,  he  listened 
to  the  latter's  account  of  his  recent  voyage  in  the 
Ocean,  and  of  an  isle  called  the  Delicious,  where  one 
Mernoc  had  retired,  with  several  religious  men. 
Barinth  had  visited  this  island,  and  Mernoc  had 
conducted  him  to  a  more  distant  isle  in  the  West, 
which  was  reached  through  a  thick  fog,  beyond 
which  shone  an  eternal  clearness — this  was  the  pro 
mised  land  of  the  Saints.  *  Bran  dan,  seized  with  a 

1  Perhaps  St.  Kilda  (from  "Holy  Culdees  ")  the  Erse  name  of  which 
was  Hirta  or  western  land. 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN   CABOT  17 

pious  desire  to  see  this  isle  of  the  Blessed,  embarked  in 
an  osier  boat  covered  with  tanned  hides  and  carefully 
greased,  and  took  with  him  seventeen  other  monks, 
among  whom  was  St.  Malo,  then  a  young  man. 
After  forty  days  at  sea  they  reached  an  island  with 
steep  scarped  sides,  furrowed  by  streamlets,  where  they 
received  hospitality  and  took  in  provisions.  Thence 
they  were  carried  by  the  winds  towards  another 
island,  cut  up  by  rivers  that  were  full  of  fish  and 
covered  by  countless  flocks  of  sheep x  as  large  as 
heifers.  From  these  they  took  a  lamb  without 
blemish  wherewith  to  celebrate  the  Easter  festival 
on  another  island  close  by — bare,  without  vegetation 
or  rising  ground.  Here  they  landed  to  cook  their 
lamb,  but  no  sooner  had  they  set  the  pot  and  lighted 
the  fire  than  the  island  began  to  move.  They  fled  to 
their  ship,  where  St.  Brandan  had  stayed  ;  and  he 
showed  them  that  what  they  had  taken  for  a  solid 
island,  was  nothing  but  a  whale.  They  regained  the 
former  isle  (of  sheep)  and  saw  the  fire  they  had 
kindled  flaming  upon  the  monster's  back,  two 
miles  off. 

From  the  summit  of  the  island  they  had  now 
returned  to  they  discerned  another,  wooded  and 
fertile  ;  whither  they  repaired,  and  found  a  multitude 
of  birds,  who  sang  with  them  the  praises  of  the  Lord  ; 
this  was  the  Paradise  of  Birds.  Here  the  pious  travellers 
remained  till  Pentecost ;  then,  again  embarking,  they 

1  Perhaps  the  Faroes,  from  Far,  "a  sheep." 


1 8          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

wandered  several  months  upon  the  Ocean.  At  last 
they  came  to  another  isle,  inhabited  by  Coenobites, 
who  had  for  their  patrons  St.  Patrick  and  St.  Ailbhe  ; 
with  these  they  celebrated  Christmas,  and  took  ship 
again  after  the  Octave  of  the  Epiphany. 

A  year  had  passed  in  these  journeys,  and  during  the 
next  six  they  continued  the  same  round  with  certain 
variations  (such  as  their  visit  to  the  Island  of  the 
Hermit  Paul  and  their  meeting  with  Judas  Iscariot), 
finding  themselves  always  at  St.  Patrick's  Isle  for 
Christmas,  at  the  Isle  of  Sheep  for  Holy  Week,  on  the 
Back  of  the  Whale  (which  now  displayed  no  uneasiness) 
for  Easter,  and  at  the  Isle  of  Birds  for  Pentecost. 

But  during  the  seventh  year  especial  trials  were 
reserved  for  them ;  they  were  nearly  destroyed  by 
various  monsters ;  but  they  also  saw  several  other  islands. 
One  was  large  and  wooded  ;  another  flat  with  great  red 
fruit,  inhabited  by  a  race  called  the  Strong  Men  ; 
another  full  of  rich  orchards,  the  trees  bending  beneath 
their  load  ;  and  to  the  North  they  came  upon  the 
rocky,  treeless,  barren  island  of  the  Cyclops'  forges, 
close  by  which  was  a  lofty  mountain,  with  summit 
veiled  in  clouds,  vomiting  flames — this  was  the  mouth 
of  hell.* 

And  now  as  the  end  of  their  attempt  had  come,  they 
embarked  afresh  with  provisions  for  forty  days,  entered 
the  zone  of  mist  and  darkness,  which  enclosed  the  Isle 
of  Saints,  and  having  traversed  it,  found  themselves  on 

1  Perhaps  Hecla  in  Iceland  ;  cf.  the  Olaus  Magnus  Map  of  1539. 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN   CABOT  19 

the  shore  of  the  island  they  had  so  long  been  seeking, 
bathed  in  light.  This  was  an  extensive  land,  sown  as 
it  were  with  precious  stones,  covered  with  fruit  as  in 
the  season  of  autumn,  and  enjoying  perpetual  day. 
Here  they  stayed  and  explored  the  abode  of  the  blest 
for  forty  days,  without  reaching  the  end  of  it.  But 
at  last,  on  arriving  at  a  great  river  that  flowed  through 
the  midst,  an  angel  appeared  to  tell  them  they 
could  go  no  further,  and  must  now  return  to  their 
country,  bearing  with  them  some  of  the  fruits  and 
precious  stones  of  the  land,  reserved  to  the  saints 
against  that  time  when  God  should  have  subdued  to 
the  true  faith  all  the  Nations  of  the  Universe.  St. 
Bran  dan  and  his  companions  again  entered  into  their 
vessel,  traversed  afresh  the  margin  of  darkness  and 
came  to  the  Island  of  Delight.  Thence  they  returned 
directly  to  Ireland. 

The  alleged  discovery  of  the  Seven  Cities  (by  seven 
Spanish  bishops)  is  associated  with  the  name  of  Antillia, 
as  in  the  inscription  on  Martin  Behaim's  Globe,  exe 
cuted  for  the  City  of  Nuremburg  in  1492.  "In  the 
year  734  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  when  all  Spain  was 
overrun  by  the  miscreants  of  Africa,  this  island  of 
Antillia,  called  also  the  Isle  of  the  Seven  Cities,  was 
peopled  by  the  Archbishop  of  Oporto,  with  six  other 
bishops  and  certain  companions,  male  and  female,  who 
fled  from  Spain  with  their  cattle  and  property.  In  the 
year  1414,  a  Spanish  ship  approached  very  near  this 
island."  A  somewhat  fuller  account  is  given  by 


20         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Ferdinand  Columbus,  who  also  identifies  the  names  of 
Antillia  and  Seven  Cities  as  referring  to  the  same  spot, 
but  dates  the  flight  from  Spain  in  A.D.  714,  and 
describes  how  a  Portuguese  ship  professed  (but  with 
highly  suspicious  circumstances)  to  have  discovered  the 
colony  in  the  time  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator. 

On  these  legends  we  need  only  remark  here  that 
they  are  certainly  in  great  measure  borrowed  from 
Oriental  travel  romances,  with  some  additions  from 
classical  myths  and  Christian  hagiology.  Though 
Brandan  is  supposed  to  have  sailed  in  or  about  565,  no 
trace  is  found  of  his  story  before  the  eleventh  century, 
while  as  to  its  origin,  the  voyage  of  the  Lisbon 
'Wanderers'  (or  Maghrurins)  as  recorded  by  Edrisi, 
and  those  of  Sindbad  the  Sailor,  as  preserved  in  the 
Arabian  Night s^  are  clearly  related  to  parts  of  the  Irish 
legend  in  the  way  of  original  to  copy.  Thus  the  Lisbon 
'Wanderers '  tale  of  the  Isle  of  El  Ghanam  (?  Madeira), 
abounding  in  sheep,  recalls  St.  B  randan's  Paschal  island, 
though  here  the  Brandan  story  may  also  preserve  an 
independent  tradition  of  the  Faroes.  Once  more  the 
Arabic  islands 'Of  Birds,'  'Of  the  Wizards,'  and  'Of 
the  Whale,'  where  Sindbad's  companions  kindled  a  fire 
with  even  more  disastrous  results,  find  their  parallels  in 
B randan's  Isles  of  Pious  Birds,  of  the  Solitary  Hermit, 
and  of  the  Great  Fish ;  while,  even  if  his  island  of  Hell's 
Mouth  be  admitted  as  an  original  Irish  reference  to 
Hecla,  yet  his  Isles  of  Delight  and  of  Paradise  may 
be  fairly  interpreted  as  expressions  derived  from 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  21 

Classical  or  Moslem  geographers  for  the  lovely 
climate  of  the  Canary  or  Fortunate  Islands.  Even 
the  Griffin  of  B randan's  story  and  the  Whale  that 
attacks  his  boat  may  be  borrowed  from  the  Roc 
and  the  aggressive  sea-monsters  of  the  Sindbad 
Saga  ;  while  the  very  number  of  the  years  of  travel 
in  the  Christian  legend  correspond  to  the  sevenfold 
ventures  of  the  navigator  in  the  Arabian  Nights — 
correspond  however  in  a  purely  arbitrary  manner,  as 
would  be  the  case  in  a  borrowed  narrative.  We  may 
see  this  more  fully,  if  it  be  worth  while  to  multiply  in 
stances,  in  many  minor  details  of  Bran  dan's  'Navigation' 
—in  the  empty  palace  which  the  saint  finds  in  his  first 
discovered  island,  the  devil  who  afterwards  comes  to 
light  in  the  same  palace,  the  soporific  spring  in  the  Isle 
of  Birds,  and  the  speechless  man  of  the  Isle  of  Ailbhe, 
who  only  answered  by  gestures  in  the  Christian  narra 
tive,  compared  with  the  similar  incidents  of  the  second 
and  third  voyages  of  Sindbad.  Again  the  giants  who 
threaten  both  the  Arab  and  Irish  adventurers,  by  aiming 
huge  blocks  of  stone  at  their  frail  vessels,  probably  come 
into  both  narratives  from  the  Cyclops  story  of  the 
Odyssey  ;  the  river  and  precious  stones  in  Bran  dan's 
Isle  of  Paradise  recall  the  bower  of  the  sixth  Sindbad 
voyage ;  and  just  as  the  latter's  companions  are  roasted 
and  eaten  by  the  demon  black  of  Sindbad's  third  adven 
ture,  so  on  the  shore  of  the  Burning  Isle  one  of  B  randan's 
monks  is  caught  away  by  devils  and  burnt  up  to  a  cinder. 
In  its  final  shape  the  B  randan  story  aimed  at  giving 


22          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

not  merely  a  Christian  Odyssey  to  its  readers,  but  also 
a  picture  of  monastic  life  and  worship  ;  and,  by  thus 
combining  the  edifying  element  with  the  adventurous, 
strove  to  win  that  popularity  which  as  a  matter  of  fact 
it  gained. 

Somewhat  similar  in  design,  though  less  elabo 
rate  in  execution,  was  the  narrative  of  Antillia 
and  the  Seven  Cities,  or  the  tale  of  the  Basque 
adventurers  of  990.  So  far  as  these  are  not  purely 
fantastic,  they  may  refer,  like  the  story  of  the 
Portuguese  adventurers  of  1414,  to  some  distant 
and  imperfect  view  of  the  Azores,  just  as  we  may 
discern  a  possible  foundation  of  fact  in  the  Brandan 
references  to  places  which  may  (or  may  not)  correspond 
to  the  Faroes,  Hecla,  and  St.  Kilda.  But  all  these 
Spanish  variants  may,  on  the  other  hand  (like  the 
Brandan  story  itself),  be  based  wholly  on  other  narra 
tives,  Oriental,  Moorish,  Classical,  and  Hagiological ; 
the  semblance  of  independent  explanation  in  certain 
details  may  be  accidental  and  deceptive ;  and  the  Island 
of  the  Seven  Cities,  for  example,  may  be  only  the 
transference  into  Christian  phrase  of  the  Western 
Dragon  Island  of  some  Arabic  writers,  or  of  the 
Atlantis  of  Plato  ;  with  this  last  Antillia  is  expressly 
identified  by  an  inscription  of  1455,  which  says  nothing 
of  Spanish  bishops  and  only  repeats  the  tradition  of  the 
Timaeus. 

In  any  case,  what  is  important  for  us  is  to  notice  the 
hold  which  this  cycle  of  legend  had  gained  upon  the 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  23 

imagination  of  Western  Europe.  This  is  a  truism  of 
fifteenth-century  geography,  but  in  the  life  of  John 
Cabot  we  see  it  exemplified  to  very  practical  purpose  ; 
for  it  is  the  first  stage  in  our  movement  towards  the 
discovery  of  North  America,  the  first  incitement  of 
Bristol  seamen  to  the  exploration  of  the  Atlantic. 

4.  A  much  later  myth  is  the  voyage  of  the  Brothers 
Zeno  to  Engroneland,  Drogeo,  and  Estotiland  about 
1390-1400.  Nicolo  Zeno,  according  to  this  story, 
being  in  the  service  of  Henry  Sinclair,  Earl  of  Orkney 
and  the  Faroes,  sailed  to  Greenland,  where  he  found  a 
settlement  of  the  Order  of  Friar  Preachers.  Nicolo, 
dying  on  his  return  to  the  Faroes,  his  brother  Antonio, 
who  had  joined  him  from  Venice,  was  t  sent  out  with 
a  few  vessels  to  the  westward,'  because  in  that  direc 
tion,  some  of  Sinclair's  fishermen  *  had  discovered 
certain  very  rich  and  populous  islands.'  Of  these  one 
of  the  said  fishermen  had  given  the  following  account  : 
Six  and  twenty  years  ago  four  fishing  boats  had  been 
driven  by  storms  to  an  island  called  Estotiland,  about 
one  thousand  miles  west  from  Frisland.  Thence,  after 
many  adventures,  the  castaways  came  to  a  country 
towards  the  south,  called  Drogeo,  and  after  that  to 
many  other  lands,  c  increasing  in  refinement  as  you  go 
south-west.'  Finally,  one  of  the  fishermen  escaped 
and  returned  to  the  Faroes.  To  discover,  and  if 
possible  to  conquer,  Estotiland  and  the  other  lands 
described,  Sinclair  himself  took  command  of  the 
expedition,  on  which  he  required  the  company  and 


24         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

nautical  advice  of  Antonio  Zeno.  He  did  not,  how 
ever,  reach  the  countries  described  by  the  fisherman 
(who  died  before  the  fleet  could  sail),  but  only  Icaria 
and  Trin  in  the  Western  Sea.  In  the  latter  he  settled 
down  and  built  a  city,  sending  Zeno  back  to  the 
Faroes.  This  account,  put  together  in  the  early 
sixteenth  century  by  Nicolo  Zeno,  junior,  is  obviously 
a  Venetian  claim  to  a  discovery  of  the  New  World  just 
a  century  before  Columbus  ;  it  is  professedly  derived 
from  old  family  papers,  of  which  nothing  more  is 
known,  and  it  bears  many  traces  of  being  concocted 
after  the  discoveries  of  1492-1510.  In  all  pro 
bability  it  is  a  forgery,  and  cannot  be  allowed  any  real 
weight  among  'anticipations'  of  Columbus  and  the 
Cabots. 

5.  Last,  among  these  foreshadowings  of  the  great 
Atlantic  discoveries  of  1492  and  subsequent  years,  we 
must  briefly  notice  the  early  exploits  and  more  distant, 
if  fruitless,  enterprises  of  the  Portuguese  and  other 
European  nations  on  the  '  American  track  '  in  the 
later  Middle  Ages.  First  among  these  it  would  be 
pleasant  to  reckon  the  voyage  of  the  Italian,  Lancelot 
Malocello,  to  the  Canaries  in  1270,  and  the  Genoese 
ventures  of  Tedisio  Doria  and  the  Vivaldi  in  1281  (or 
1291)  'to  the  ports  of  India  to  trade  there ' — expe 
ditions  which  mark  the  commencement  of  the  new 
age  of  maritime  discovery  ;  but  we  must  not  lay 
stress  upon  them,  for  they  were  essentially  attempts  to 
seek  India  by  the  coast  way  round  Africa,  not  by  the 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  25 

Ocean  way  across  the  Atlantic.  The  same  must  be 
said  of  the  Portuguese-Italian  voyage  of  1341  to  the 
Canaries  (described  by  Boccaccio)  ;  of  the  Catalan 
voyage  of  1346  to  the  river  of  Gold,  which  reached 
Cape  Boyador  ;  and  of  most  of  the  early  ventures  of 
Prince  Henry's  captains.  The  discovery  of  Madeira 
by  Robert  Machin *  from  Bristol  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.,  if  the  story  is  to  be  credited,  has  no 
particular  bearing  on  any  definite  scheme  of  explora 
tion — it  was  at  best  a  romantic  accident  ;  but  the 
permanent  exploration  and  settlement  of  the  Canaries 
by  the  French  Seigneur  Jean  de  Bethencourt,  from 
A.D.  1402,  and  of  Madeira  by  Zarco  and  Vaz  in 
the  service  of  Prince  Henry,  from  the  year  1420,  did 
push  European  enterprise  somewhat  further  into  the 
Atlantic,  gave  it  a  new  and  more  advanced  basis  for 
western  expeditions  (if  such  should  be  attempted), 
and  so  far  may  be  considered  to  have  some  bearing 
on  the  later  American  discoveries.  Much  more  to 
our  purpose  was  the  exploring  movement  to  the 
Azores  and  Cape  Verde  Islands.  Although  marked 
on  the  Laurentian  Portolano  of  1351,  the  Azores 
or  Western  islands  had  been  forgotten  by  nearly  all 
except  students  of  old  cartography  like  Prince 
Henry  himself,  when  the  latter  sent  out  Diego  de 
Sevill  in  1427,  and  Goncalo  Cabral,  in  1431,  in  that 

1  A  Portuguese  sailor,  named  Machico,  existed  in  Portugal  in  1379, 
and  it  is  possibly  after  him  the  Machico  district  of  Madeira  is  named. 
(Doc.  disc.  1894.) 


26         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

direction.  Cabral  in  his  first  voyage  discovered  the 
Formiga  Group,  and  returning  in  1432  made  fresh 
explorations,  especially  of  the  island  Santa  Maria. 
From  about  the  year  1436  systematic  colonisation 
began  under  the  leadership  of  Cabral  and  the  patron 
age  of  Prince  Henry  ;  the  islands  first  colonised 
served  as  centres  for  the  discovery  and  settlement  of 
others  ;  and  thus  St.  Michael  was  found  in  1444, 
Terceira  and  others  a  little  later  (between  1444  and 
1450),  Flores  and  Corvo  probably  between  1450  and 
1460.  In  1466  there  was  a  fresh  movement  of 
immigration  from  Portugal,  when  the  King  conferred 
the  islands  upon  his  sister  Isabel,  Duchess  of  Burgundy, 
and  sent  out  '  many  people  of  all  classes  '  ;  and  it  was 
mainly  from  the  Azores  as  a  starting-point  that 
Portuguese  expeditions  seem  to  have  ventured  (though 
fruitlessly)  into  the  Ocean  beyond  in  the  hope  of 
further  discoveries.  By  this  extension  of  Europe  (as 
it  were)  to  the  Western  islands,  •; two-fifths  of  the 
distance  between  Lisbon  and  the  Delaware  was  already 
covered,  but  the  interval  still  left  upon  this  line  was 
immense,  and  it  was  upon  a  south-west  course,  from 
Cape  Verde  in  Africa  to  Cape  St.  Roque  in  Brazil, 
that  the  Old  NWorld,  at  least  in  its  central  regions, 
approached  most  nearly  to  the  unknown  and  hidden 
continent  so  long  mistaken  for  an  extension  of  Asia. 

From  this  point  of  view  the  discovery  and  settle 
ment  of  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  was  even  more 
suggestive  than  similar  movements  among  the  Azores. 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN    CABOT  27 

During  his  second  voyage  along  the  West  Coast  of 
Africa  in  Prince  Henry's  service,  the  famous  Venetian 
seaman,  Cadamosto,  laid  claim  to  the  discovery  of 
4 certain  uninhabited  islands'  off  Cape  Verde  (1458). 
More  certainly  Diego  Gomez  and  Antonio  de  Nolli 
in  1460  sighted  those  '  islands  in  the  Ocean,'  which  we 
know  as  the  Cape  Verde  Group,  and  explored  the 
same,  calling  the  chief  of  them  Santiago.  De  Nolli, 
outstripping  Gomez  on  his  return  to  Portugal,  begged 
successfully  for  the  captaincy  of  this  isle  of  Santiago 
('which  I  had  found,'  says  Gomez  wrathfully)  and 
kept  it  till  his  death.  Thus,  before  the  close  of 
Prince  Henry's  life  (1460)  exploration  had  pushed 
some  way  into  the  Atlantic  south-west  as  well  as  due 
west  from  Europe,  towards  Brazil  and  the  West 
Indian  islands  as  well  as  towards  the  more  distant 
shore  of  the  North  American  mainland. 

Further,  on  the  strength  of  a  very  enigmatical  inscrip 
tion  in  a  map  of  Andrea  Bianco,  a  Portuguese  discovery 
of  the  north-east  corner  of  Brazil,  in  or  before  the 
year  1448,  has  again  been  suggested  in  recent  years, 
but  this  is  a  conjecture  which,  however  possible  in 
itself,  is  quite  lacking  in  demonstrative  evidence. 

Rather  more  certainty  attaches  to  some  at  least  of  the 
expeditions  reported  by  fifteenth-century  Portuguese 
adventurers  in  search  of  Western  lands.  Thus  a 
voyage  is  said  to  have  been  made  in  1452  by  Diego  de 
Teive  and  Pedro  Velasco  for  more  than  150  leagues 
west  of  Fayal  in  the  Azores. 


28          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Again  'in  1462  Go^alo  Fernandes  de  Tavira  is 
alleged  to  have  sailed  west-north-west  of  Madeira  and 
the  Canaries  ;  in  1473  we  are  vaguely  told  of  certain 
attempts  to  discover  land  west  of  the  Cape  Verde 
Islands,  and  of  a  western  voyage  of  one  Ruy  Goncalves 
de  Camara  in  the  same  year  ;  similar  accounts  are  to 
be  found  of  Fernao  Telles  in  1475,  and  of  Antonio 
Leme  in  1476.  What  may  be  considered  as  a  more 
immediate  anticipation  of  the  Cabotian  voyages  is  the 
series  of  attempts  made  by  Pedro  de  Barcellos  and 
Joao  Fernandes  Lavrador  (from  the  beginning  of  1492 
down  to  1495)  to  discover  land  to  the  north-west,  by 
order  of  the  King  of  Portugal.  Some  weight  has 
also  been  attached  to  a  statement  of  Las  Casas  that  on 
his  third  voyage  in  1498  Columbus  planned  a  southern 
course  from  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  in  search  of  lands, 
especially  because,  proceeds  Las  Casas,  '  he  wished  to 
see  what  was  the  meaning  of  King  John  of  Portugal 
when  he  said  there  was  terra  fir  ma  to  the  South,1  and 
for  this  reason  he  (Columbus)  says  that  the  King  of 
Portugal  had  differences  with  the  Kings  of  Castille, 
which  were  settled  by  the  decision  .  .  .  that  he  ... 
should  have  370  leagues  to  the  west  beyond  the 
Azores  and  Cape  Verde,  which  belong  to  him  .  .  . 
from  one  pole  to  the  other  ;  and  he  (Columbus)  also 
says  that  King  John  considered  it  certain  that  inside 
those  limits  he  was  going  to  find  famous  lands.  Some 
of  the  more  important  inhabitants  of  that  island  of 

1  Did  this  refer  to  Africa  or  '  America  '  ? 


JOHN   AND    SEBASTIAN   CABOT  29 

Santiago  came  to  see  him  (Columbus)  and  said  that  to 
the  south-west  of  the  island  of  Fogo,  which  is  one  of 
the  said  Cape  Verde  Islands  ...  an  island  was  seen, 
and  that  King  John  had  a  great  wish  to  send  an 
expedition  to  make  discoveries  towards  the  south-west, 
and  that  canoes  had  been  known  to  go  from  the 
Guinean  coast  to  the  west  with  merchandise.  .  .  . 
And  he  (Columbus)  ordered  to  steer  south-west  .  .  . 
and  afterwards  due  west  ...  in  which  way  he  would 
verify  the  said  opinion  of  King  John.' 

Once  more,  Galvano,  after  speaking  of  a  voyage 
which  took  place  in  1447,  goes  on  to  speak  of  another 
(undated  but  assigned  by  some  critics  to  the  same 
year)  in  these  terms  :  'It  is  moreover  told  that  in  the 
meantime  a  Portuguese  ship,  coming  out  of  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  was  carried  westwards  by  a  storm 
much  further  than  was  intended,  and  arrived  at  an 
island  where  there  were  seven  cities  and  people  who 
spoke  our  language.  .  .  .  The  master  of  the  ship  is  said 
to  have  brought  some  sand  .  .  .  from  which  gold  was 
obtained.'  This,  however,  is  obviously  a  fabulous 
story,  revived  from  the  old  Spanish  tale  of  the  Seven 
Bishops  and  their  cities.  The  strongest  argument  in 
favour  of  the  Portuguese  claim  is  certainly  that  in 
1500  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral  did  discover  Brazil  (or  as 
he  called  it,  the  '  Land  of  the  Holy  Cross ')  merely 
by  taking  a  wide  sweep  on  his  course  down  the  West 
Coast  of  Africa  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  is 
strongly  contended  (and  has  been  from  the  beginning) 


30         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

that  this  was  purely  accidental,  without  any  thought 
of  following  in  Columbus's  steps — but  we  cannot  be 
sure  of  this.  The  most  curious  point  in  this  con 
troversy  is  that  the  pilots  of  Cabral's  fleet  professed 
to  recognise  the  new  land  as  the  same  they  had  seen 
marked  on  an  old  map  existing  in  Portugal — at  least, 
so  writes  Master  John,  Bachelor  in  Arts  and  Medicine, 
and  Physician  and  Cosmographer  to  the  King  Don 
Manuel.  He  accompanied  the  expedition  of  1500 
in  person,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  the 
country  where  Cabral  landed  was  identical  with  a 
tract  duly  marked  upon  a  mappemonde  belonging  to 
one  Pero  Vaz  Bisagudo,  a  subject  of  the  King  of 
Portugal.  In  the  same  connection  a  number  of  still 
looser  and  more  doubtful  assertions  exist  in  Portuguese 
archives  and  chronicles.  Thus  in  1457  the  Infant 
Don  Fernando  planned  Atlantic  explorations;  in  1484 
Fernao  Domingues  de  Arco  intended  to  look  for  a 
reported  new  island  in  the  West ;  in  1486  the 
Portuguese  expected  (possibly  on  the  strength  of 
Columbus's  recent  suggestions)  to  find  islands  and 
terra  firma  to  the  West,  and  prepared  an  expedition  * 
under  Fernao  Dulmo  and  Joao  Affonso  do  Estreito, 
whom  Martin  Behaim  was  to  accompany  ;  while  in 
1473  J°a°  Vaz  da  Costa  Cortereal  was  reported  (by 
a  now  exploded  legend)  to  have  actually  discovered 
Newfoundland. 

But  the  character  of  these  stories,  or  at  least  of  the 

1  We  do  not  know  if  this  fleet  ever  sailed. 


JOHN   AND   SEBASTIAN   CABOT  31 

majority,  is  apparent  enough  ;  no  critical  student  can 
pay  much  more  attention  to  the  general  run  of  them 
than  to  the  Dieppese  claims  of  French  fourteenth-cen 
tury  discoveries  along  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  ;  and 
when  we  come  to  a  definite  instance  the  most  certain 
and  most  famous  of  pre-Columbian  Portuguese 
ventures  into  the  far  West  does  not  inspire  much 
confidence  in  other  accounts  of  similar  attempts. 
When  Christopher  Columbus  proposed  the  Western 
route  to  India  at  the  Court  of  John  II.,  he  was  at 
first  treated  as  an  unpractical  dreamer ;  finally  his 
plan  was  formally  considered,  he  was  induced  to 
furnish  his  scheme  in  writing,  and  while  the  Council 
pretended  to  be  considering  the  memoir  submitted  to 
them,  a  caravel  was  sent  to  the  Cape  Verde  Islands, 
all  unknown  to  him,  to  try  the  route  he  had  suggested. 
The  Portuguese  sailed  westwards  for  several  days  till 
the  weather  became  stormy  ;  then,  as  their  hearts 
were  not  in  the  venture,  they  put  back  to  Europe 
with  various  excuses.  They  had  come  to  an  im 
penetrable  mist  which  had  stopped  their  progress ; 
apparitions  had  warned  them  back  ;  the  sea,  as  they 
went  forward,  became  filled  with  monsters,  and  they 
found  it  almost  impossible  to  breathe.  Columbus  left 
Lisbon  soon  after  this,  partly  from  his  disgust  at  the 
trickery  that  had  been  put  upon  him  ;  but  King  John 
was  still  disposed  to  give  him  a  fairer  trial,  and  if  the 
Spanish  monarchs  had  not  come  to  the  front  in  1492, 
it  is  possible  that  Columbus  would  still  have  discovered 


32         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

America  in  the  service  of  Portugal.  It  is  likely 
enough  that  many  attempts  were  made  in  the  fifteenth 
century  to  discover  lands  in  the  far  Atlantic,  beyond 
the  Azores  and  Cape  Verdes — by  the  Portuguese 
as  well  as  by  the  Bristol  seamen  of  1480  ;  it  is  quite 
possible  that  before  1486  the  King  of  Portugal 
really  believed  in  the  existence  of  lands  beyond  the 
Ocean  to  the  South-west,  but  we  have  no  certain 
evidence  of  actual  discovery.  Prince  Henry  and  his 
followers  were  for  the  most  part  devoted  to  the  South 
east  or  African  route,  in  their  search  for  India  ;  all 
who  believed  in  the  roundness  of  the  world  would 
have  admitted  the  existence  of  Western  lands  (i.e. 
Asia)  if  only  ships  could  sail  far  enough,  and  even 
the  less  educated  were  often  eager  for  a  search  after 
the  legendary  islands  of  the  Atlantic  ;/ but  as  far 
as  our  authorities  can  show  us  to-day,  no  one  in 
Columbus's  own  century  anticipated  him  in  his 
achievement,  or  preceded  John  Cabot  in  his  successful 
imitation  of  Columbus.  / 


CHAPTER   III 

JOHN  CABOT'S  LIFE  DOWN  TO  1496 — A   GENOESE  BY 
BIRTH  AND  A  VENETIAN  CITIZEN  BY  ADOPTION 

—HE   COMES   TO   ENGLAND   ABOUT    1490 THE 

FIRST  LETTERS  PATENT  OF   1496 

THE  Cabot  family  is  certainly  associated  with  the 
commencement  of  Greater  Britain  under  Henry  VII. ; 
but  the  best-known  name  of  this  family,  that  of 
Sebastian  Cabot  himself,  has  sometimes  received  more 
honour  than  it  deserved  at  the  hands  of  Englishmen. 
The  difficulty  of  the  subject  is  really  this.  I  Of  John 
Cabot,  the  true  leader  of  the  expedition  of  1497,  the 
re-discoverer  of  North  America  five  centuries  after 
the  visits  of  the  Northmen,  we  have  only  notices  so 
few  and  so  fragmentary  that  they  could  all  be  printed 
in  a  few  paragraphs  ;  while  these  notices  are  often  so 
obscure  and  uncertain  that  an  immense  amount  of 
controversy  has  already  been  spent  upon  the  problems 
they  suggest,  without  any  very  certain  solution  of 
several,  at  least,  among  the  points  at  issue.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  to  Sebastian,  John  Cabot's  more  famous 

c  33 


34         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

son,  his  career  is  clouded  by  suspicions  of  falsehood 
and  intrigue  ;  and  it  is  somewhat  doubtful  if  he  even 
accompanied  his  father  in  the  voyages  which  he  after 
wards  was  supposed  to  have  led.  '  The  best  years  of 
his  life  seem  to  have  been  spent  in  the  service,  not 
of  England  but  of  Spain  ;  and  except  for  his 
connection  with  the  North-east  venture  of  1553, 
his  title  as  a  "  Builder  of  Greater  Britain  "  is  shadowy 
indeed.  It  will  not  be  any  part  of  this  short  biography 
to  describe  Sebastian  Cabot's  life  in  the  Spanish  service, 
nor  is  it  possible  here  to  enter  minutely  into  many  of  the 
controverted  points  which  gather  round  the  English 
connections  of  his  family.  All  we  can  do  is  to  give 
as  clear  a  view  as  possible  of  that  new  start  of  English 
maritime  enterprise  which  is  associated  more  or  less 
intimately  with  the  House  of  Cabot  from  1497  to 

1553- 
'  Recent  research  seems  to  have  shown  pretty  clearly 

that  John  Cabot  was  a  Genoese  by  birth  and  a 
Venetian  by  adoption  before  he  settled  in  England.' 
On  the  28th  of  March,  1476,  the  Venetian  citizenship 
was  conferred  on  him  after  proof  that  he  had  resided 
the  c  fifteen  continuous  years '  necessary  for  the  enjoy 
ment  of  this  privilege.  The  Decree  of  the  Senate  ran 
as  follows :  '  That  the  privilege  of  citizenship  within 
and  without  accrue  to  John  Cabot  in  consequence  of  a 
residence  of  fifteen  years,  according  to  custom  ; '  and  all 
the  149  members  of  the  body  present  on  this  occasion 
voted  for  the  decree.  The  requirement  in  question  dated 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  35 

from  the  nth  of  August,  1472,  and  the  'reign  '  of  the 
Doge  Nicolao  Trono  ;  and  may  be  considered  the 
counterpart,  as  regarded  aliens,  of  the  privilege  of  131 3 
securing  full  citizenship  to  all  subjects  of  Venice  born 
in  the  city  itself  or  within  the  limits  of  the  Duchy 
proper.  The  exact  text  of  this  is  of  special  import 
ance  as  proving  that  continuous  residence  was  required  of 
the  candidate  for  citizenship  during  his  fifteen  years' 
probation  : — '  Nicolao  Trono  by  the  grace  of  God, 
Doge  of  Venice,  &c.  To  all  and  singular  our  friends. 
.  .  .  We  wish  to  make  known  to  you  by  the  present 
act  that  among  the  things  we  keep  in  mind  is  to 
attend  with  particular  care  to  the  interest  of  our 
subjects  and  faithful  friends  .  .  .  [And]  wishing  to 
reward  merit  according  to  its  deserts,  we  have  decided 
to  decree  [as  follows]  :  Whoever  has  inhabited  Venice 
for  fifteen  years  or  more,  and  during  that  time  fulfilled 
the  duties  and  supported  the  charges  of  our  Seigniory 
as  if  he  had  been  a  citizen  and  [one  of  our  own] 
Venetians,  shall  enjoy  perpetually  and  everywhere  the 
privilege  of  Venetian  citizenship  and  other  liberties 
.  .  .  enjoyed  ...  by  ...  other  Venetians.' 

'Now  therefore,'  proceeds  the  document,  coming 
to  the  first  instance,  '  as  regards  Aloysio  Fontana, 
formerly  of  Bergamo,  now  residing  at  Venice  .  .  . 
it  having  been  represented  to  us  upon  true  and  reliable 
proofs  diligently  examined  by  the  magistrates  of  our 
city,  that  he  has  inhabited  Venice  continuously  during 
fifteen  years  .  .  .  fulfilling  constantly  the  duties  and 


36         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

supporting  the  charges  of  our  Seigniory  .  .  .  we  .  .  . 
do  admit  the  said  Aloysio  Fontana  as  Venetian  and 
fellow  citizen'  (August  n,  1472). 

As  to  the  phrase  c within  and  without'  (De  intra  et 
extra]  accompanying  these  grants  of  citizenship,  it  may 
be  noticed  that  the  privilege  De  extra  denoted  the  pos 
session  of  Venetian  trading  rights  in  other  countries, 
rights  covered  by  the  flag  of  St.  Mark,  under  which 
the  alien  thus  naturalised  might  always  sail.  To  such 
a  man  as  John  Cabot,  pretty  certainly  engaged  in 
trade  as  well  as  exploration,  the  citizenship  De  extra 
was  obviously  important,  and  for  that  end  he  had, 
as  required  by  the  decree  of  Doge  Nicolao  Trono, 
4  fulfilled  the  duties  and  paid  the  charges '  of  the 
Government  *  as  if  he  had  been  a  citizen  and  one  of 
our  own  Venetians.'  Before  leaving  this  subject  we 
may  notice  that,  besides  the  Senatorial  decree,  we  have 
another  evidence  of  John  Cabot's  Venetian  adoption 
(and  so  of  his  original  membership  of  some  other  state). 
In  the  list  of  seventeen  naturalisations  occurring  in 
the  Republic's  Book  of  Privileges  and  accompanying 
the  decree  of  Doge  Nicolao  Trono,  above  quoted,  the 
name  of  our  navigator  occurs  in  the  thirteenth  place 
with  the  clause  '  The  like  privilege  has  been  granted 
to  John  Caboto,  under  the  above-mentioned  Doge' 
[in  1476].  This  list,  hurriedly  compiled,  omits  any 
mention  of  the  original  nationality  of  John  Cabot, 
and  implies  that  he  was  naturalised  under  the  Doge 
Giovanni  Mocenigo  (the  *  above-mentioned  Doge '  of 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  37 

the  document  in   question)   instead   of  under  Andrea 
Vendramin,  as  the  fact  really  was. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  prove  that  Cabot, 
though  not  a  native  of  Venice  itself,  was  born  in 
Chioggia,  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  Lagune 
Islands  ;  but  this  only  rests  upon  a  memorandum  of 
the  later  eighteenth  century  :  '  Cabot,  a  Venetian,  a 
native  of  Chioggia,  discovered  North  America  with 
English  aid.'  But  by  the  decree  of  1313,  still  in  force 
throughout  the  fifteenth  century,  natives  of  Chioggia 
ranked  as  natives  of  Venice  itself;  and,  if  born  there, 
Cabot  would  have  had  no  need  to  apply  to  the  Senate, 
or  to  reside  fifteen  years,  to  procure  naturalisation. 

The  Genoese  origin  of  our  explorer  is  definitely 
asserted  by  several  contemporary  authorities  and  im 
plied  by  others. 

For  instance,  the  Spanish  Ambassadors  in  England, 
Ruy  Goncales  de  Puebla  and  Pedro  de  Ayala,  writing 
home  in  1496  and  1498,  both  refer  to  him  as  a 
Genoese.  '  A  man  like  Columbus,'  said  the  former, 
*  has  come  to  England  to  propose  an  undertaking  of 
the  same  kind  (as  the  enterprise  of  1492)  to  the  King 
of  England  ; '  '  the  man  who  discovered  the  new 
lands  in  1497,'  added  the  latter,  writing  after  the 
first  Cabotian  voyage,  *  was  another  Genoese  like 
Columbus.' 

A  vague  inference  to  the  same  effect  may  be  drawn 
from  the  story  of  Raimondo  di  Soncino  (the  Milanese 
Ambassador  in  England),  that  John  Cabot  discovering 


38          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

two  islands  on  his  return  journey,  bestowed  one  of 
them  on  a  c  barber  of  his  from  Castiglione  of  Genoa.' 
But  as  another  companion  of  the  navigator's,  from 
Burgundy,  received  a  grant  of  the  other  island  found 
on  this  occasion,  we  cannot  ground  very  much  upon 
this  allusion  to  the  barber.  A  little  more  may,  however, 
be  gathered  from  the  English  chronicles  of  the  time. 
In  the  continuation  of  Thomas  Lanquet's  Epitome  of 
Chronicles^  published  in  1559,  anc^  probably  added  by 
Robert  Crowley,  there  is  a  reference  to  '  Sebastian 
Caboto,  borne  at  Bristow,  but  a  Genoway's  sonne,' 
and  a  similar  statement  may  be  read  in  Richard 
Grafton's  Chronicle^  printed  in  1569  ;  in  Holinshed's 
Chronicle  (1577),  anc*  m  Jonn  Stow's  Annals  (1580). 
Crowley  and  Grafton,  at  least,  if  not  Holinshed  also, 
were  living  in  London  at  the  time  of  Sebastian  Cabot's 
second  residence  there  (from  1547),  anc^  are  h^ely  to 
have  been  tolerably  well  informed  about  this  point — 
at  any  rate  their  evidence,  with  that  of  Stow  and 
Holinshed,  must  be  considered  to  have  some  corrobo 
rative  force.  And  the  special  point  of  Puebla's  testi 
mony  is  this :  He  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
Genoese  merchants  then  resident  in  England,  so 
much  so  that  he  was  accused  of  receiving  bribes 
from  them  to  secure  their  exemption  from  certain 
fines  imposed  by  the  Government  of  Henry  VII.,  and 
a  commission  was  sent  over  from  Spain  in  1498  to 
investigate  this  charge.  Ayala,  again,  who  rather 
avoided  his  Spanish  colleague  and  especially  consorted 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  39 

with  the  Milanese  Ambassador  Soncino,  must  also 
have  had  considerable  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
Genoese  of  the  English  capital,  Genoa  then  being 
held  by  Milan  in  fief  of  the  French  crown  ;  and  at 
a  time  when  Columbus's  success  was  a  subject  of 
universal  discussion,  his  thrice-repeated  allusion  to 
John  Cabot  as  likewise  of  Genoese  extraction  is 
surely  of  great  weight. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  letters  patent  of  1496,  the 
map  of  1544,  supposed  to  have  been  drawn  by  Sebastian 
Cabot  himself,  a  copy  of  which  hung  at  Whitehall  in 
Oueen  Elizabeth's  day,  and  the  manuscript  chronicle 
in  the  CottQnian  Collection  from  which  both  Stow 
and  Hakluyt  drew  so  largely,  all  agree  in  their  refer 
ence  to  John  Cabot  as  a  Venetian.  But  this  is  correct 
enough.  John  was  a  naturalised  citizen  of  Venice  ; 
the  Venetian  evidence  itself,  above  quoted,  decisively 
proves  that  he  was  originally  an  alien  ;  and  of  all 
alien  states  or  cities,  Genoa  has  evidently  the  strongest 
claim.  In  default  of  fresh  and  better  proof  favouring 
another  birth-place,  we  may  conclude  that  John  Cabot 
was  a  native  of  Genoa.1 

Before  John  Cabot  settled  in  England,  we  have  a 
few  particulars  about  his  movements,  mostly  trans 
mitted  to  us  by  Ayala.  He  is  said  to  have  visited 
Mecca  as  a  (?  pseudo-Moslem)  trader,  and  to  have  applied 
to  the  Courts  of  Spain  and  Portugal  for  aid  in  schemes 

1  The  claim  of  the  Channel  Islands  to  be  the  original  home  of  the 
Cabots  rests  on  nothing  reliable. 


40         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of"  discovery  ;  he  is  also  described  as  a  maker  of  charts 
and  mappemondes.    When  at  Mecca,  it  is  further  stated, 
he  was  interested  in  knowing  where  the  spice  caravans 
obtained  their  supplies  ;  the  answer  pointed  to  lands 
so  far  in  the   East,  that  Cabot,  who  believed    in  the 
roundness  of  the  earth,  was  disposed  to  think  them  not 
far  from   the  West  of  Europe.     Like   Columbus,  he 
seems  to  have  imagined  that  the  Western  route  across 
the    Atlantic    to    Cathay    and    the    Indies  would    be 
found  shorter  than  any  other  ;  and  before  the  success 
of  his  Genoese    fellow-citizen,  he   tried   to    win    the 
patronage  of  Portugal  or  of  Spain,  for  projects,  which 
in  a  different  way,  by  a  more  northern  route,  and  after 
the  discovery  of  1492,  he  carried  out  under  the  Eng 
lish  flag.'   These  various  journeys  of  our  explorer  may 
be  fairly  set  down  under  the  years  1476  to   1491— 
between  his  gain  of  the  Venetian  citizenship  and  his 
(probable)  settlement  in  England.      He  was  bound  to 
reside  in   Venice  from    1461    to   1476 — at    least    for 
part  of  every  year  ;  he  appears  as  an  English  subject 
in    1496  ;    he  is    described    as   inducing    the    Bristol 
mariners  to  undertake  explorations  of  their  own  from 
1491  ;  these  are  all  the  data  we  have,  and  they  leave 
us  free    to  suppose  that   John   Cabot    was  travelling 
in    the    Levant    and    the    Spanish    Peninsula   at    the 
time    when    Toscanelli    was   still    alive   and    putting 
forth    his   suggestions    as    to    the    possibility   of   the 
.-Western   route   to    India  ;  when   Columbus  was    be 
sieging  the  Spanish  Courts  with  his  applications  ;  and 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN   CABOT  41 

when  Diego  Cam  and  Bartholomew  Diaz  were  com 
pleting  the  discovery  of  the  West  Coast  of  Africa. 
There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Cabot  had  any 
share  in  a  very  early  and  remarkable  venture  of  Eng 
lish  seamen  Westwards — the  expedition  of  1480  ;  but 
that  venture  was  inspired  by  the  same  ambitions  which 
stirred  both  Cabot  and  Columbus,  Toscanelli  and 
Queen  Isabella,  and  it  may  have  been  undertaken  in 
consequence  of  a  suggestion  either  from  Cabot,  from 
Columbus,  or  from  some  other  Italian  traveller  or 
theorist  interested  in  the  problem  of  Western  discovery. 

On  June  15,  1480,  according  to  William  of 
Worcester,  a  certain  accomplished  seaman,  called  by 
the  chronicler  c  Magister  navis  scientificus  totius 
Angli<zJ  sailed  from  Bristol  with  a  ship  of  80  tons, 
equipped  at  the  cost  of  John  Jay,  junior,  to  seek  for 
the  fabulous  islands  of  Brazil  and  of  the  Seven  Cities  ; 
but  the  vessel  was  beaten  about  by  heavy  storms  and 
returned  unsuccessfully  on  September  i8th  of  the  same 
year.  The  c  Magister '  here  named  is  not  Cabot,  as 
some  eminent  authorities  have  supposed  ;  it  is  one 
Thomas  Lloyd,  Llyde,  or  Thylde  ;  and  this  expedi 
tion  may  possibly  be  connected  with  the  visit  of 
Columbus  in  1477,  wnen  ne  profited  by  the  practical 
knowledge  of  Bristol  seamen,  and  perhaps  gave  them  in 
return  some  portion  of  his  spirit  and  some  inspiration 
to  attempt  Atlantic  discovery. 

But  when  Ayala  writes  in  1498,  speaking  of  John 
Cabot,  c  It  is  seven  years  since  those  of  Bristol  used  to 


42          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

send  out,  every  year,  a  fleet  of  two,  three,  or  four 
caravels  to  go  and  search  for  the  Isle  of  Brazil,  and 
the  Seven  Cities,  according  to  the  fancy  of  this 
Genoese' — we  are  on  ground  closely  touching 
the  life  of  Cabot  himself,  and  apparently  supporting 
the  conjecture  that  he  had  lately  (say  about  1490) 
settled  in  England,  with  his  family,  '  to  follow  the 
trade  of  merchandises,'  and  obtain  help  for  his 
exploring  projects.  For  it  was  the  'manner  of  the 
Venetians  to  leave  no  part  of  the  world  unsearched  to 
obtain  riches'  :  so  Peter  Martyr  and  the  c  Mantuan 
gentleman  '  (in  Ramusio)  learnt  from  Sebastian 
Cabot,  the  son  of  John. 

Further  though  only  conjectural  data  as  to  this 
English  settlement  of  John  Cabot's  may  be  derived 
from  Sebastian's  statement  to  Caspar  Contarini, 
Venetian  Ambassador  in  Spain,  in  1522 — viz.,  that 
he  was  born  in  Venice,  but  brought  up  in  England  ; 
from  the  information  of  the  same  person  to  the 
c  Mantuan  gentleman,'  that  he  (Sebastian)  was 
rather  young  when  brought  to  London,  but  had 
nevertheless  'some  knowledge  of  letters  of  humanity 
and  of  the  sphere  ;'  from  the  strong  probability  that 
when  Henry  VII.  issued  his  first  patent  to  the  Cabots 
in  March,  1496,  Sebastian  as  a  co-grantee  with  his 
father,  must  have  been  at  least  of  legal  age — twenty- 
one  years  old  ;  and  from  the  fact  that  no  earlier 
reference  to  an  English  residence  of  John  Cabot 
himself  can  be  found  than  the  allusion  of  Ayala, 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT'          43 

which  only  implies  a  settlement  in  or  just  before 
1491. 

He  had  already  been  (so  much  at  least  is  probable) 
c  in  Seville  and  in  Lisbon,  procuring  to  find  those  who 
would  help  him  in  this  enterprise,'  as  Ayala  writes 
in  149$  of  events  plausibly  fixed  as  belonging  to  the 
years  1476-90  rather  than  to  the  interval  between 
John's  first  and  second  voyages  (1497-8)  ;  now  he 
was  about  to  try  his  fortune  with  the  monarch  who 
had  so  nearly  secured  the  services  of  Columbus. 

And  here  we  must  say  a  word  about  the  condi 
tion  of  geographical  theory  and  achievement,  and 
the  consequent  position  of  an  adventurer  like 
Cabot  at  this  time.  First  of  all,  the  l  known 
world  '  of  the  Middle  Ages,  though  it  had 
lately  been  much  extended  to  the  East  and  South, 
had  made  far  slighter  advance  towards  the  West. 
Yet  here  too,  as  we  have  seen,  it  had  pushed  out 
a  good  way  into  the  Atlantic.  The  Azores,  the 
Cape  Verdes,  the  Canary  Islands,  and  the  Madeira 
Group  had  all  been  permanently  discovered  and 
colonised  in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century  ;  and 
from  the  Azores  in  particular  fresh  expeditions  were 
being  constantly  planned  Westwards  in  the  latter 
years  of  the  same  century.  The  ultimate  cause  of 
these,  as  of  the  Southern  movement  of  Portuguese 
exploration,  down  the  West  African  coast,  was  no 
doubt  the  conception  of  the  wealth  of  the  far  East  and 
South  of  Asia,  which  our  Latin  world  first  adequately 


44         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

realised,  through  the  travels  of  Marco  Polo  and  others 
in  the  thirteenth  century.  How  best  to  get  at  the 
treasure  houses  of  India  and  Cathay — this  was  the 
problem.  The  direct  overland  route  from  the  Levant 
was  barred  by  Moslem  jealousy,  and  made  especially 
dangerous  at  this  time  by  the  political  convulsions  of 
Central  Asia  ;  two  other  ways  remained  open  to  those 
who  could  rise  to  the  old  and  now  revived  beliefs  in  the 
rotundity  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  insular  shape  of 
Africa.  Dangerous  and  terrible  as  these  long  unknown 
tracks  might  prove,  it  was  still  possible  (with  these 
assumptions)  that  ships  might  sail  round  Africa  to 
India  by  the  South  and  East,  or  across  the  Western 
Ocean  to  Cathay,  and  the  further  Indies  c  towards  the 
sun  rising.' 

It  is  sufficiently  well  known  what  the  Portuguese 
(led  by  Henry  the  Navigator  of  the  house  of  Aviz, 
down  to  his  death  in  1460),  had  done  in  prosecuting 
the  Southern  or  African  route  between  1420  and 
1486,  from  the  rediscovery  of  Madeira  to  the  round 
ing  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ;  it  is  also  well  known 
how,  as  early  as  1484,  Columbus  was  urging  the 
alternative  of  a  Western  route  to  the  Indies  upon  the 
Court  of  Lisbon.  And  we  have  already  given  a  sketch 
of  the  less  known  Portuguese  ventures  upon  the  Atlantic 
in  the  fifteenth  century — ventures  undertaken  in  the 
hope  of  finding  lands  beyond  those  West  African 
islands  already  occupied. 

Vague  as  these  records  may  be,  we    can   perceive 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  45 

from  the  evidence  quoted  in  our  second  chapter,  that 
the  general  fact  of  Portuguese  enterprise  Westward, 
before  Columbus,  does  not  admit  of  doubt,  even  though 
no  certain  results  of  the  same  can  now  be  discerned  ; 
and  both  Columbus  and  Cabot  may  have  known  of 
this  movement,  if  they  did  not  take  part  in  it,  before 
the  epoch  of  their  great  achievements.  The  Bristol 
merchants  who  sent  out  Thomas  Lloyd  in  1480,  were 
in  pursuit  of  the  same  objects  —  objects  which,  as 
we  have  already  said,  were  in  part  suggested  by 
ancient  tradition,  in  part  were  due  to  the  recent 
revival  in  physical  and  geographical  interest,  and  in 
commercial  and  political  ambitions.  We  should  make 
a  great  mistake  if  we  did  not  connect  the  exploring 
movements  of  the  Europe  of  this  time  with  every  side 
of  that  re-awakening  both  of  internal  and  external 
activity,  which  is  sometimes  limited  to  a  period 
beginning  in  the  fourteenth  century,  but  which  really 
starts  in  the  mediaeval  Renaissance  of  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries.  Here,  however,  we  must  limit 
ourselves  to  the  geographical  movement,  and  in  this 
we  may  distinguish  certain  of  the  elements  that 
inspired  the  new  activity.  First,  there  was  the  old 
and  true  belief  (coming  down  from  classical  times)  in 
the  roundness  of  the  world.  By  sailing  far  enouo-h 

J  O  O 

westward  from  Europe,  or  the  African  islands,  men 
might  hope  to  reach  the  Eastern  Coast  of  Asia.  Under 
estimating,  as  did  Columbus  himself,  the  true  girth  of 
the  world,  the  hope  in  question  was  all  the  brighter. 


46         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Again,  there  were  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  tradi 
tions  of  land  having  been  discovered  far  out  in  the 
Western  Sea,  by  St.  B randan  and  others, — traditions 
which  found  a  very  prominent  place  in  the  maps  of 
this  and  even  of  later  time.  Unfortunately,  these 
supposed  discoveries  were,  as  we  have  seen,  of  the 
most  fabulous  character,  many  of  the  narratives  being 
borrowed  from  Oriental  travel  romances,  while  others 
were  simply  religious  myths  in  the  style  of  apocalyptic 
literature. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  has  been  pointed  out  already, 
the  one  certain  discovery  of  Western  lands  by  the 
European  race,  that  of  Vinland  by  the  Northmen,  had 
now  fallen  into  apparently  complete  oblivion  ;  and  we 
cannot  suppose  that  Cabot,  for  example,  was  inspired 
by  a  precedent  so  completely  buried.  But  the  ideas 
we  have  previously  noticed,  partly  scientific  and  partly 
legendary,  undoubtedly  had  their  effect  upon  him  as 
upon  Columbus.  Similarly,  the  one  may  have  been 
moved,  as  the  other  was,  by  the  thought  that  if  the 
Portuguese  c  could  sail  so  far  south  in  the  discovery  of 
new  lands,  it  might  be  possible  to  sail  west  and  find 
countries  also  in  that  direction.'  In  1471  the  cara 
vels  of  Affonso  V.  of  Portugal  had  crossed  the  equator  ; 
in  the  first  four  years  of  his  reign  (1482-86)  John  II. 
had  pushed  on  the  course  of  exploration  to  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope.  Just  as  in  Ptolemy's  day,  so  now, 
extension  of  the  horizon  in  one  direction  led  to  a 
certain  (if  only  a  theoretical)  extension  in  all. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  47 

Thus,  the  idea  of  Atlantic  or  Western  enterprise 
was  in  the  air,  even  in  John  Cabot's  earlier  lifetime  ; 
the  great  Florentine  astronomer  Toscanelli  had  re 
commended  it  as  early  as  1474  ;  the  Portuguese  had, 
so  to  say,  nibbled  at  the  scheme,  perhaps  a  score  or 
times,  before  Columbus  sailed  in  1492  ;  the  Bristol 
merchants  had  made  a  similar  attempt  at  least  as 
early  as  1480  ;  possibly  Basque  and  Norman  sailors 
had  also  made  pre-Columbian  essays  in  the  same 
direction.  It  was  a  great  and  obvious  line  of  explor 
ing  movement,  this  Western  plunge  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  it  was  sure  to  have  had  a  serious  trial 
sooner  or  later.  But  it  was  the  most  daring  of  all 
possible  ventures,  and  if  Columbus  had  not  found  his 
path  intercepted  by  the  Bahamas,  his  first  Western 
enterprise  would  have  come  to  an  abrupt  end  in  mutiny 
and  perhaps  in  death.  So  immense  a  voyage  as  that 
from  Europe  to  Japan,  across  unbroken  sea,  might 
well  have  had  to  wait  another  century  for  its 
fulfilment. 

Bearing  in  mind  this  widespread  awakening  in  the 
direction  of  Atlantic  exploration,  we  shall  give  up 
once  and  for  all  the  futile  and  evasive  inquiry  as  to 
who  was  the  first  of  the  fifteenth-century  adventurers 
to  start  in  the  direction  of  the  c  American  Strand,'  or, 
according  to  the  ideas  of  that  time,  in  the  direction  of 
the  Eastern  Coast  of  Asia.  Columbus,  we  see,  is  but 
the  foremost,  the  most  persistent,  and  the  first  com 
pletely  successful  exponent  of  a  movement,  a  tendency, 


48          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

and  a  hope,  which  actually  included  in  its  votaries  a 
large  number  of  scientific  men,  and  was  really  based 
upon  nothing  less  wide  and  general  than  the  reawaken 
ing  of  the  discovering  instinct  and  of  the  belief  in 
the  roundness  of  the  world.  '  Just  the  same  is  true,  of 
course,  of  John  Cabot  in  a  less  degree  ;  and  it  is 
perfectly  natural  to  grant  the  truth  of  the  story,  that 
as  early  as  his  visit  to  Mecca,  he  thought  seriously  of 
a  western  voyage  to  Cathay.  He  had  asked,  as  we 
have  said,  where  the  spice  caravans  came  from  ;  and 
pondering  over  the  replies  given  him,  it  occurred  to 
his  mind  that  the  extreme  east  of  Asia  was  the  very 
same  as  the  land  to  the  far  west  of  Europe — always 
>  assuming  (as  he  did)  that  the  world  was  round./ 
I  But  although  the  success  of  Columbus  in  1492  did 
not  suggest  to  Cabot  the  possibility  of  a  venture  which 
had  probably  occurred  to  most  eminent  navigators  and 
scientists  of  that  and  of  the  past  generation,  as  possible 
in  theory  if  not  in  practice,  yet  the  great  achievement 
of  his  brother  Genoese  did  probably  suggest  to  him  the 
policy  of  securing  the  patronage  of  the  English  Crown 
as  speedily  as  possible  for  a  similar  undertaking. 
Perhaps  he  put  his  trust  a  little  longer  in  those  private 
enterprises  of  Bristol  citizens  westward,  which  he  is 
said  to  have  directed  from  1491  ;  but,  in  any  case,  he 
had  come  to  a  satisfactory  agreement  with  the  Crown 
early  in  1496.  On  the  5th  March  of  that  year  his 
petition  was  filed  and  granted.  '  To  the  King  our 
Sovereign  Lord,  please  it  your  Highness  of  your  most 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  49 

noble  and  abundant  Grace  to  grant  unto  John  Cabotto, 
citizen  of  Venice,  Lewis,  Sebastian,  and  Sancto  his 
sons,  your  gracious  Letters  Patent  under  your  Great 
Seal  in  due  form  to  be  made  according  to  the  tenor 
hereafter  ensuing  ;  and  they  shall  during  their  lives 
pray  to  God,'  &c. 

c  The  tenor  hereafter  ensuing  '  is  thus  expressed  in 
the  letters  patent  of  King  Henry  VII.  '  for  the  dis 
covery  of  new  and  unknown  lands '  which  are  affixed 
to  the  petition  of  the  Cabots  : 

'  Henry  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  England 
and  France  and  lord  of  Ireland,  to  all  to  whom 
these  presents  shall  come  greeting.  Be  it  known 
that  we  have  given  and  granted,  and  by  these 
presents  do  give  and  grant  for  us  and  our  heirs  to 
our  well-beloved  John  Cabot,  citizen  of  Venice,  to 
Lewis,  Sebastian,  and  Sanctius,  sons  of  the  said  John, 
and  to  the  heirs  of  them  and  every  one  of  them, 
and  their  deputies,  full  and  free  authority,  leave,  and 
power  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  quality  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, 
discover,  and  find  whatsoever  isles,  countries,  regions, 
or  provinces  of  the  heathens  and  infidels  whatsoever 
they  be  and  in  what  part  of  the  world  soever  they  be, 
which  before  this  time  have  been  unknown  to  all 


50         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Christians  ; — We  have  granted  to  them  and  also  to 
every  of  them,  the  heirs  of  them  and  every  of  them 
and  their  deputies,  and  have  given  them  licence  to  set 
up  our  banners  and  ensigns  in  every  village,  town, 
castle,  island,  or  mainland  by  them  newly  found. 
And  that  the  aforesaid  John  and  his  sons,  or  their 
heirs  and  assigns,  may  subdue,  occupy,  and  possess  all 
such  towns,  cities,  castles,  and  isles  by  them  found, 
which  they  can  subdue,  occupy,  and  possess  as  our 
vassals  and  lieutenants,  getting  unto  us  the  rule,  title, 
and  jurisdiction  of  the  same  villages,  towns,  castles, 
and  firm  land  so  found.  Yet  so  that  the  aforesaid 
John  and  his  sons  and  heirs,  and  their  deputies,  be 
holden  and  bounden  of  all  the  fruits,  profits,  gains,  and 
commodities  growing  of  such  navigation,  for  every 
their  voyage,  as  often  as  they  shall  arrive  at  our  port 
of  Bristol  (at  the  which  port  they  shall  be  bound  and 
holden  only  to  arrive),  all  manner  of  necessary  costs 
and  charges  by  them  made  being  deducted,  to  pay 
unto  us  in  wares  or  money  the  fifth  part  of  the  capital 
gain  so  gotten  ;  we  giving  and  granting  unto  them 
and  to  their  heirs  and  deputies,  that  they  shall  be  free 
from  all  paying  of  customs  of  all  and  singular  such 
merchandise  as  they  shall  bring  with  them  from  those 
places  so  newly  found.  And,  moreover,  we  have 
given  and  granted  unto  them,  their  heirs,  and  deputies, 
that  all  the  firm  lands,  isles,  villages,  towns,  castles, 
and  places,  whatsoever  they  be  that  they  shall  chance 
to  find,  may  not  of  any  other  of  our  subjects  be 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  51 

frequented  or  visited  without  the  licence  of  the  said 
John  and  his  sons  and  their  deputies,  under  pain  of 
forfeiture  as  well  of  their  ships  as  of  all  and  singular 
goods  of  all  them  that  shall  presume  to  sail  to  those 
places  so  found.  Willing  and  most  straitly  command 
ing  all  and  singular  our  subjects  as  well  on  land  as  on 
sea,  to  give  good  assistance  to  the  aforesaid  John  and 
his  sons  and  deputies,  and  that  as  well  in  arming  and 
furnishing  their  ships  or  vessels  as  in  provision  of  food 
and  in  buying  of  victuals  for  their  money,  and  all 
other  things  by  them  to  be  provided  necessary  for  the 
said  navigation,  they  do  give  them  all  their  help  and 
favour.  In  witness  whereof  we  have  caused  to  be 
made  these  our  letters  patent.  Witness  our  self  at 
Westminster,  the  fifth  day  of  March,  in  the  eleventh 
year  of  our  reign  [1496].' 

In  the  same  month  in  which  John  Cabot  filed 
his  petition  and  obtained  his  patent,  the  first  infor 
mation  is  given  us  from  outside  bearing  on  his  life 
in  England.  On  March  28,  1496,  the  Spanish 
sovereigns,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  reply  to  a  letter 
of  their  senior  ambassador  in  England,  Dr.  Ruy 
Goncales  de  Puebla  (a  letter  now  lost,  but  acknow 
ledged  as  of  the  2ist  of  January  in  the  same  year), 
as  follows  :  c  You  write  that  a  person  like  Columbus 
has  come  to  England  for  the  purpose  of  persuading 
the  King  to  enter  into  an  undertaking  similar  to 
that  of  the  Indies,  without  prejudice  to  Spain  and 
Portugal.  He  is  quite  at  liberty.  But  we  believe 


52          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

that,  this  undertaking  was  thrown  in  the  way  of 
the  King  of  England  by  the  King  of  France,  with 
the  premeditated  intention  of  distracting  him  from 
his  other  business.  Take  care  that  the  King  of 
England  be  not  deceived  in  this  or  in  any  other 
matter.  The  French  will  try  as  hard  as  they  can 
to  lead  him  into  such  undertakings,  but  they  are 
very  uncertain  enterprises  and  must  not  be  gone 
into  at  present.  Besides,  they  cannot  be  executed 
without  prejudice  to  us  and  to  the  King  of 
Portugal.'  Obviously  not,  if  the  claims  of  the 
Spanish  nation  over  all  new  discovered  and  dis 
coverable  lands  were  to  be  understood  in  their 
widest  acceptation,  as  stretching  absolutely  from 
pole  to  pole,  and  excluding  all  other  peoples  from 
any  access  to  the  Ocean  or  Oceanic  countries  west 
of  a  certain  line.  But  in  practice  even  Spanish 
arrogance  failed  to  press  this  contention,  and  satisfied 
itself  with  asserting  its  monopoly  to  the  trade  and 
navigation  of  the  regions  actually  discovered  by 
explorers  in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Portugal 
or  of  the  sovereigns  of  Castille  and  Aragon.  Thus, 
with  rare  exceptions,  a  free  hand  was  given  to 
England,  and  a  little  later  to  France,  in  the  North 
Atlantic  and  along  the  coasts  of  the  present  Canada 
and  New  England. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  53 

NOTE 

Anspach,  History  of  Newfoundland,  1819,  p.  25,  makes  an  im 
portant  statement  about  John  Cabot's  early  career  in  England  as 
follows  : — '  The  Venetians  had  factories  .  .  .  and  agents  wherever  they 
deemed  it  advantageous.  John  Gabota,  or  Cabot,  by  birth  a  Venetian, 
was  employed  in  that  capacity  at  Bristol  ;  he  had  long  resided  in 
England  5  and  a  successful  negotiation  in  which  he  had  been  employed 
in  1495  ^h  the  Court  of  Denmark,  respecting  some  interruptions 
which  the  merchants  of  Bristol  had  suffered  in  their  trade  to  Iceland, 
had  been  the  means  of  introducing  him  to  Henry  VII.'  Anspach  gives 
no  authority  for  this  5  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  IV.  some  Englishmen  killed  the  Governor  of  Iceland  in  a 
brawl  5  Christian  I.,  of  Denmark,  then  retaliated  by  seizing  four  English 
vessels,  and  complaining  to  Edward  IV.  ;  the  latter  made  no  reply  ; 
then  Christian  sold  his  prizes,  and  war  resulted  between  England  and 
Denmark,  1478-91.  Cabot  may  have  been  employed  by  Bristol  or 
London  shipowners  to  help  them  in  their  recovery  of  claims  against 
King  Christian  in  this  business. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    VOYAGE    OF    1497 CONTROVERTED   QUESTIONS 

THE     SHARE     OF     SEBASTIAN THE     NUMBER    OF 

SHIPS THE    NAME    OF    THE    FLAGSHIP DESCRIP 
TIONS       OF       THE       VOYAGE       BY       SONCINO       AND 

PASQUALIGO CRITICISM    OF     THESE     ACCOUNTS — 

THE    QUESTION    OF    THE    LANDFALL 

THE  letters  patent  of  Henry  VII.  to  John  Cabot 
and  his  three  sons  were  issued  in  March,  1496,  but 
our  navigator  does  not  seem  to  have  started  on  his 
enterprise  (thus  supported  by  Royal  warrant)  till 
well  on  in  the  next  year  (1497).  ^Extreme  and 
perplexing  uncertainty  hangs  over  nearly  all  the 
details  of  this  first  Cabotian  voyage. 

First  of  all  we  have  the  question  about  the  share 
of  John's  sons  in  the  actual  undertaking.  They 
are  associated  with  him  in  the  petition  and  patent  ; 
did  they  also  accompany  him  from  Bristol  to  the 
new  isle  ?  In  after  years  Sebastian  claimed  not 
only  to  have  gone  on  the  expedition,  but  to  have 
commanded  it  in  person,  his  father  being  already 

54 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  55 

dead,  I  as  he  said  to  the  c  Mantuan  gentleman,'  in 
the  famous  interview  reported  by  Ramusio  :  c  When 
my  father  died  in  that  time  when  news  were  brought 
that  Don  Christopher  Columbus  the  Genoese  had 
discovered  the  coasts  of  India,  whereof  was  great  talk 
in  all  the  Court  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh.  ...  I 
thereupon  caused  the  King  to  be  advertised  of  my 
device,  who  immediately  commanded  two  caravels  to 
be  furnished  with  all  things.  .  .  .  Beginning  therefore 
to  sail  .  .  .  after  certain  days  I  found,  .  .  .'  &c.  Or, 
as  Ramusio  expresses  it  in  his  paraphrase  of  Peter 
Martyr  d'Anghiera,  Sebastian  Cabot  claimed  to  have 
been  *  taken  by  his  father  to  England,  where,  after 
the  latter's  death,  finding  himself  extremely  rich  and 
being  of  high  courage,  he  resolved  to  discover  some 
new  part  of  the  world  as  Columbus  had  done,  and 
at  his  own  expense  equipped  two  ships.'  But  beyond 
his  own  assertions  we  have  no  proof  that  Sebastian,  or 
either  of  his  brothers,  even  accompanied  John  Cabot 
in  1497.  Pasqualigo  and  Soncino,  in  their  news 
letters  after  John's  return,  speak  only  of  the  father, 
and  do  not  allude  to  any  of  his  family  as  sharing  in 
his  achievement  ;  the  grant  of  Henry  VII.  from  his 
Privy  Purse  was  '  to  him  that  found  the  new  isle ' ; 
and  in  his  letters  patent  for  the  second  voyage  of 
1498  the  King  describes  the  Monde  and  isles  of  late 
found '  as  the  discovery  of  '  the  said  John  Kabotto, 
Venetian.'  We  shall  have  to  deal  with  this  question 
somewhat  more  in  detail  in  connection  with  the  life 


56          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  Sebastian  himself;  here  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
no  sufficient  positive  proof  exists  of  his  having  accom 
panied  the  venture  of  1497,  though  his  companionship 
with  his  father  is  quite  possible,  j 

Another  doubtful  point  in  this  first  voyage  is  the 
number  of  ships  employed.  By  the  letters  patent 
the  Cabots  could  take  five  '  upon  their  own  proper 
costs  and  charges ' — five  vessels  c  of  what  burthen  or 
quality  .  .  .  they  be,  and  as  many  .  .  .  men  as  they 
will  have  with  them  in  the  said  ships.'  On  the  other 
hand,  Peter  Martyr  and  the  c  Mantuan  gentleman  ' 
in  Ramusio,  copied  by  Gomara  and  Galvano,  declare 
(apparently  on  the  direct  authority  of  Sebastian 
Cabot)  that  two  ships  and  three  hundred  men  were 
employed  ;  while  again  two  of  John  Cabot's  Italian 
acquaintances  in  London,  Lorenzo  Pasqualigo  and 
Raimondo  di  Soncino,  report  from  the  explorer's  own 
testimony  that  he  made  his  discovery  with  only  <  one 
little  ship  of  Bristol  and  eighteen  men.'  This,  John 
must  have  asserted  immediately  after  his  return  to 
London  in  August,  1497.  The  Cottonian  Chronicle ,x 
already  referred  to,  and  sometimes  wrongly  quoted  as 
Fabyan's,  perhaps  offers  us  a  means  of  reconciling  these 
statements.  After  mentioning  the  flagship,  it  adds  : 
c  with  which  ship  by  the  King's  grace  so  rigged 
went  three  or  four  more  out  of  Bristol.'  Here  the 
difficulty  lies  in  the  question  whether  this  detail  refers 

1  Cronicon  regum  Angliae  :  ab  anno  I  ni°,  Henrici  III.,  aci  annum 
Imum,  Henrici  VIII vi.  B.  Mus.  MSS.,  Cott.  Vitellius,  A  xiv.  f.  173. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  57 

to  the  first  voyage  of  1497  or  tne  second  of  1498  ; 
all  depends  on  whether  the  Chronicle's  dating  c  in 
the  thirteenth  year  of  Henry  VII.'  is  to  be  strictly 
pressed.  If  so,  the  narrative  in  question  belongs  to 
the  time  between  August,  1497,  an(^  August,  1498, 
or,  in  other  words,  to  the  second  voyage  ;  but,  in 
the  face  of  the  vagueness  of  reference  so  constantly 
found  in  English  and  other  chronicles,  it  is  just 
possible  that  the  entry  here  found  may  belong  to  the 
first  expedition,  which  had  properly  been  brought  to 
a  conclusion  before  the  c  thirteenth  year '  commenced. 
Another  vexed  question  is  the  name  of  Cabot's 
flagship.  In  Barrett's  History  of  Bristol  (1789), 
and  here  alone,  is  to  be  found  the  source  of  the 
famous  Matthew  :  '  In  the  year  1497,  tne  24tn  °f 
June,  on  St.  John's  day,  was  Newfoundland  found 
by  Bristol  men  in  a  ship  called  the  Matthew.''  We 
do  not  know  whence  Barrett  derived  this  statement, 
but  till  good  reason  is  shown  for  discrediting  it  we 
may  be  content  to  accept  the  name  in  question. 

Again,  as  to  the  dates  of  the  start  and  the 
return,  and  the  duration  of  the  voyage.  c  The 
beginning  of  summer,'  c  the  beginning  of  May,' 
'the  2nd  of  May,'  are  all  expressions  more  or  less 
disputed  as  referring  to  this  event.  Some  of  them 
more  probably  relate  to  the  second  venture  of  1498. 
Greater  certainty  attaches  to  the  statement  of 
Pasqualigo,  written  on  the  23rd  of  August,  1497, 
that  John  Cabot  had  lately  returned  to  England 


58          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

after  a  voyage  lasting  three  months  ;  and  to  the 
parallel  statement  of  Soncino  on  the  24th  of  August : 
4  They  (the  explorers)  sailed  from  Bristol,  a  western 
port  of  this  kingdom,  a  few  months  since.'  Once 
more,  a  manuscript,  said  to  be  in  the  possession 
of  the  Fust  family  (of  Gloucester),  dates  the  de 
parture  from  Bristol  under  the  2nd  of  May,  and 
the  return  under  August  6,  1497  —  dates  which, 
at  any  rate,  square  with  the  best  evidence  otherwise 
attainable,  though  they  compel  us  to  make  some 
modifications  in  Cabot's  own  account  of  his  achieve 
ments.  Whatever  else  is  doubtful,  it  is  clear  that 
he  must  have  reappeared  before  the  10th  of  August, 
the  date  of  the  King's  Privy  Purse  reward  c  to  him 
that  found  the  new  isle ' ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  contemporary  authority,  slight  as  it  is,  agrees  in 
requiring  the  start  to  have  been  made  in  the  spring 
or  early  summer  of  1497. 

The  course  of  John  Cabot's  first  voyage  is  clearly 
described  by  Soncino  and  Pasqualigo  in  those  news 
letters  of  theirs  to  the  Duke  of  Milan  and  various 
members  of  the  family  of  Pasqualigo  in  Venice, 
which,  however  unsatisfactory  they  may  appear  to 
some,  are  yet  our  chief  authorities,  as  being  abso 
lutely  contemporary,  as  being  also  coherent  and 
reasonable  in  themselves,  and  as  having  been  written 
to  persons  whom  their  correspondents  had  every 
reason  to  keep  well  informed  in  such  a  matter. 
Pasqualigo's  letter  to  his  father  and  brothers  was 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  59 

written  on  the  23rd  of  August  ;  Soncino's  two 
despatches  to  the  Duke  of  Milan  bear  date  of  the 
24th  of  August  and  the  i8th  of  December  re 
spectively.  The  former's  facts  and  figures  have  been 
called  the  <  gossip  of  a  news-writer,'  but  it  is  gossip 
which  he  had  every  inducement  to  make  as  accurate 
as  possible  ;  and  Soncino's  reports  to  his  master  are 
in  the  course  of  serious  diplomacy.  Certainly  the 
combined  testimony  of  these  witnesses  is  beyond  all 
comparison  more  weighty  than  the  secondary  and 
largely  conflicting  testimony  of  Peter  Martyr,  of 
the  'Mantuan  gentleman,'  of  the  legends  on 
Sebastian  Cabot's  map,  and  so  forth,  which  form  our 
subsidiary  line  of  evidence. 

John  Cabot  then,  according  to  Soncino,  first  sailed 
from  Bristol  to  the  West  Coast  of  Ireland  ;  thence 
he  proceeded  somewhat  to  the  North,  and  after 
wards  due  West,1  keeping  the  North  Star  on  his 
right  hand.  Four  hundred  leagues  from  England 
— seven  hundred  leagues  according  to  Pasqualigo — 
he  struck  the  new  land.  He  sailed  along  the  coast 
three  hundred  leagues  (in  the  words  of  the  latter 
authority),  along  a  country  inhabited  by  natives 
who  used  needles  for  making  nets  and  snares  for 
catching  game.  On  this  shore  the  tides  surprised 
the  explorers  by  their  slightness.  Soncino  adds 
that  the  climate  was  excellent  and  temperate  ;  the 
land — c  the  Land  of  the  Great  Khan,'  as  it  was 

1  "  East  "  in  original. 


60         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

confidently  styled — was  supposed  to  abound  in  dye- 
wood  (Brazil)  and  silk  ;  and  the  sea  swarmed  with 
fish.  On  his  return,  Cabot  sighted  two  large  and 
fertile  islands  on  the  starboard  ;  one  of  these  (as 
already  noticed)  he  bestowed  on  his  Genoese  barber, 
and  the  other  on  a  companion  from  Burgundy.1 
No  inhabitants  were  seen  in  the  new  lands  dis 
covered  ;  but  John  Cabot  himself,  in  a  conversation 
with  Soncino,  soon  after  his  return,  declared  himselt 
abundantly  satisfied  with  the  produce  of  the  waters, 
stating  that  the  sea  was  full  of  fish,  which  were  taken 
both  with  the  net,  and  in  baskets  weighted  with  a 
stone,  and  that,  in  a  word,  so  much  stock-fish  could 
be  brought  thence  that  England  would  have  no  further 
need  of  its  old  commerce  with  Iceland. 

And  here,  to  get  a  better  view  of  this  enterprise,  so 
long  misunderstood  and  so  often  confused  with  other 
voyages,  we  will  take  the  letters  of  Pasqualigo  and 
Soncino  in  their  entirety  and  see  what  is  the  picture 
they  present. 

First  of  all,  on  August  23,  1497,  within  a  few  days 
of  John  Cabot's  return  Pasqualigo  writes  to  his  family 
in  Venice  :  '  The  Venetian,  our  countryman,  who  went 
with  a  ship  from  Bristol  in  quest  of  new  islands,  is 
returned,  and  says  that  seven  hundred  leagues  hence 
he  discovered  land,  the  territory  of  the  Grand  Khan 

1  Mr.  G.  R.  F.  Prowse  conjectures  that  this  man  was  really  an 
Azorean  (the  Azores  were  the  dowry  of  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy), 
'  employed  not  because  of  any  prior  knowledge  of  Newfoundland,  but 
for  his  nautical  skill.' 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  61 

(Gran  Cam).  He  coasted  for  three  hundred  leagues 
and  landed  ;  he  saw  no  human  beings,  but  he  has 
brought  hither  to  the  King  certain  snares  which  had 
been  set  to  catch  game,  and  a  needle  for  making 
nets.  He  also  found  some  felled  trees.  Wherefore  he 
supposed  there  were  inhabitants  and  returned  to  his 
ship  in  alarm.  He  was  there  three  months  on  the 
voyage,  and  on  his  return  he  saw  two  islands  to  star 
board,  but  would  not  land,  time  being  precious,  as  he 
was  short  of  provisions.  He  says  that  the  tides  are 
slack  and  do  not  flow  as  they  do  here.  The  King 
of  England  is  much  pleased  with  this  intelligence. 

'The  King  has  promised  that  in  the  spring  our 
countryman  shall  have  ten  ships,  armed  to  his  order, 
and  at  his  request  has  conceded  to  him  all  the  prisoners, 
except  such  as  are  confined  for  high  treason,  to  man 
his  fleet.  *The  King  has  also  given  him  money  where 
with  to  amuse  himself  till  then,  and  he  is  now  at 
Bristol  with  his  wife,  who  is  also  Venetian,  and  with 
his  sons.  His  name  is  Zuan  Cabot,  and  he  is  styled  the 
great  Admiral.  Vast  honour  is  paid  to  him  ;  he  dresses 
in  silk,  and  the  English  run  after  him  like  mad  people. 
So  that  he  can  enlist  as  many  of  them  as  he  pleases, 
and  a  number  of  our  own  rogues  besides.  The  dis 
coverer  of  these  places  planted  on  his  new  found  land 
a  large  cross,  with  one  flag  of  England  and  another  of 
St.  Mark,  by  reason  of  his  being  a  Venetian,  so  that 
our  banner  has  floated  very  far  afield.'  j 

Still  more  important  are  the  two  letters  of  Soncino 


62         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  bearing  on  the  same  event. 
The  former,  written  on  August  24,  1497,  one  ^ay  onty 
after  Pasqualigo's  news-sheet,  just  quoted,  give  us  a 
bare  allusion  to  the  Cabot  voyage  of  this  year  ;  but 
the  second  dispatch,  of  December  18,  contains  the 
most  satisfactory  and  complete  account  of  Master 
John's  great  adventure  that  has  come  down  to  us. 

c  Some  months  ago,'  remarks  Soncino,  casually,  in  his 
August  letter  (mainly  concerned  with  general  politics), 
'  'his  Majesty  sent  out  a  Venetian,  who  is  a  very  good 
mariner  and  has  good  skill  in  discovering  new  islands] 
and  he  has  returned  safe  and  has  found  two  very 
large  and  fertile  new  islands  ;  having  likewise  dis 
covered  the  Seven  Cities,  four  hundred  leagues  from 
England,  on  the  Western  passage.  This  next  spring 
his  Majesty  means  to  send  him  out  with  fifteen  or 
twenty  ships.' 

This  is  slender  enough,  but  when  the  ambassador 
next  touches  on  the  subject  for  the  Duke  of  Milan's 
guidance,  he  devotes  the  whole  of  a  long  epistle  to 
its  exposition  : — 

'  Most  illustrious  and  excellent  my  Lord,  Perhaps 
among  your  Excellency's  many  occupations,  you  may 
not  be  displeased  to  learn  how  his  Majesty  here  has 
won  a  part  of  Asia  without  a  stroke  of  the  sword. 
There  is  in  this  kingdom  a  Venetian  fellow,  Master 
John  Cabot  by  name,  of  a  fine  mind,  greatly  skilled  in 
navigation,  who,  seeing  that  those  most  serene  kings, 
first  he  of  Portugal,  and  then  the  one  of  Spain,  have 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  63 

occupied  unknown  islands,  determined  to  make  a 
like  acquisition  for  his  Majesty  aforesaid.  And 
having  obtained  royal  grants  that  he  should  have  the 
usufruct  of  all  that  he  should  discover,  provided  that  the 
ownership  of  the  same  is  reserved  to  the  Crown,  with 
a  small  ship  and  eighteen  persons  he  committed  himself 
to  fortune.  And  having  set  out  from  Bristol,  a 
western  port  of  this  kingdom,  and  passed  the  western 
limits  of  Hibernia,  and  then  standing  to  the  north 
ward,  he  began  to  steer  eastwards,1  leaving,  after  a  few 
days,  the  North  Star  on  his  right  hand.  And  having 
wandered  about  considerably,  at  last  he  fell  in  with 
terra  fir  ma,  where,  having  planted  the  royal  banner 
and  taken  possession  in  the  behalf  of  this  King,  and 
having  taken  several  tokens,  he  has  returned  thence. 
The  said  Master  John,  as  being  foreign-born  and  poor, 
would  not  be  believed,  if  his  comrades,  who  are  almost  all 
Englishmen  and  from  Bristol,  did  not  testify  that  what 
he  says  is  true.  This  Master  John  has  the  description 
of  the  world  in  a  chart  and  also  in  a  solid  globe  which 
he  has  made,  and  he  [or,  it]  shews  where  he  landed," 
and  that  going  toward  the  East  [again,  for  West],  he 
passed  considerably  beyond  the  country  of  the  Tanais. 
And  they  say  that  it  is  a  very  good  and  temperate 
country,  and  they  think  that  Brazil  wood  and  silks 
grow  there  ;  and  they  affirm  that  that  sea  is  covered 
with  fishes,  which  are  caught  not  only  with  the  net 

1  Or,  as  we  should  say,  westward.     Soncino   probably  was  thinking 
simply  of  the  goal,  the  Eastern  Coast  of  Asia. 


64         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

but  with  baskets,  a  stone  being  tied  to  them  in  order 
that  the  baskets  may  sink  in  the  water.  And  this  I 
heard  the  said  Master  John  relate,  and  the  aforesaid 
Englishmen,  his  comrades,  say  that  they  will  bring  so 
many  fish,  that  this  kingdom  will  no  longer  have  need 
of  Iceland,  from  which  country  there  comes  a  very 
great  store  of  fish  called  stock  fish.  But  Master  John 
has  set  his  mind  on  something  greater  ;  for  he  expects 
to  go  further  on  towards  the  East  [again,  for  West] 
from  that  place  already  occupied,  constantly  hugging 
the  shore,  until  he  shall  be  over  against  [or,  on  the 
other  side  of]  an  island,  by  him  called  Cipango,  situated 
in  the  equinoctial  region,  where  he  thinks  all  the  spices 
of  the  world  and  also  the  precious  stones  originate. 
And  he  says  that  in  former  times  he  was  at  Mecca, 
whither  spices  are  brought  by  caravans  from  distant 
countries,  and  that  those  who  brought  them,  on  being 
asked  where  the  said  spices  grow,  answered  that  they 
do  not  know,  but  that  other  caravans  come  to  their 
homes  with  this  merchandise  from  distant  countries, 
and  these  [other  caravans]  again  say  that  they  are 
brought  to  them  from  other  remote  regions.  And  he 
argues  thus — that  if  the  Orientals  affirmed  to  the 
Southerners  that  these  things  come  from  a  distance 
from  them,  and  so  from  hand  to  hand,  presupposing 
the  rotundity  of  the  earth,  it  must  be  that  the  last 
ones  get  them  at  the  North  toward  the  West.  And  he 
said  it  in  such  a  way,  that  having  nothing  to  gain  or 
lose  by  it,  I  too  believe  it  :  and,  what  is  more,  the 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  65 

King  here,  who  is  wise  and  not  lavish,  likewise  puts 
some  faith  in  him  :  for  since  his  return  he  has  made 
good  provision  for  him,  as  the  same  Master  John  tells 
me.  And  it  is  said  that  in  the  spring  his  Majesty 
afore-named  will  fit  out  some  ships  and  will  besides 
give  him  all  the  convicts,  and  they  will  go  to  that 
country  to  make  a  colony,  by  means  of  which  they 
hope  to  establish  in  London  a  greater  storehouse  of 
spices  than  there  is  in  Alexandria  ;  and  the  chief  men 
of  the  enterprise  are  of  Bristol,  great  sailors,  who  now 
that  they  know  where  to  go,  say  that  it  is  not  a 
voyage  of  more  than  fifteen  days,  nor  do  they  ever 
have  storms  after  they  get  away  from  Hibernia.  '  I 
have  also  talked  with  a  Burgundian,  a  comrade  of 
Master  John's,  who  confirms  everything,  and  wishes 
to  return  thither  because  the  Admiral  (for  so  Master 
John  already  entitles  himself)  has  given  him  an  island ; 
and  he  has  given  another  one  to  a  barber  of  his  from 
Castiglione  of  Genoa,  and  both  of  them  regard  them 
selves  as  Counts,  nor  does  my  Lord  the  Admiral 
esteem  himself  anything  less  than  a  prince.  I  think 
that  with  this  expedition  will  go  several  poor  Italian 
monks  who  have  all  been  promised  bishoprics.  And 
as  I  have  become  a  friend  of  the  Admiral's,  if  I  wished 
to  go  thither,  I  should  get  an  Archbishopric.  But  I 
have  thought  that  the  benefices  which  your  Excellency 
has  in  store  for  me  are  a  surer  thing.  //  .  .' 

In   this  account,  though  it  does  not  present  more 
difficulties  than  might  be  expected,  barring  one  state- 


66          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

ment  of  Pasqualigo's,  there  are  various  problems  which 
must  be  briefly  noticed. 

First,  Soncino  reports  that  the  new  land  is  supposed 
to  yield  dye-wood  and  silk,  which  is  quite  inconsistent 
with  a  discovery  of  North  America  ;  but  this  is  a 
difficulty  of  slight  moment.  For  one  thing,  as 
Harrisse  has  conjectured,  the  'dye-wood'  may  be 
sumach  ;  what  is  much  more  important,  this  is  only 
a  statement  about  supposed  products,  and  innumerable 
mistakes  of  a  similar  character  might  be  brought 
together  from  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century  expedi 
tions.1 

Cabot's  report  about  the  slack  tides  of  his  new 
found  coasts  quite  agrees  with  the  facts,  especially 
as  regards  the  shore  from  Nova  Scotia  northward  ; 
his  notice  of  the  abundance  of  fish  again  confirms  in 
every  way  the  truth  of  his  general  account,  though 
it  requires  to  be  carefully  handled  in  deciding  the 
question  of  the  landfall. 

The  two  large  islands  seen  on  the  return  journey 
are  probably  either  two  parts  of  Newfoundland  (in 
our  present  sense),  or  some  piece  of  the  mainland 
coast  mistaken  for  an  island,  and  one  of  the  New 
foundland  promontories.  The  snares  and  net-needles 
seen  upon  the  shore  may  point  to  Esquimaux  settlers 

.along    some  part  of  the  far  North-east  coast  of  the 

\^ 

1  Dye-wood  was  at  that  time  highly  valued,  and  the  ordinary  view  was 
that  all  new  discovered  lands  ought  to  yield  abundance  of  so  excellent  an 
article.  Thus  the  wish  was  often  father  to  the  thought— and  the  assertion. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  67 

New  World  ;  it  is  generally  agreed  that  at  the  timej 
of  the  Norse  voyages  (five  hundred  years  before )\ 
Esquimaux  were  to  be  found  as  far  south  as  Vinland  \ 
(Nova  Scotia  at  least)  ;  but  the  reference  is  surely 
vague  enough  to  apply  to  American  Indians  of  the 
shore  lands  at  almost  any  point. 

But  when  Pasqualigo  reports  that  Cabot,  besides 
his  voyage  out  and  home,  coasted  three  hundred 
leagues  along  the  shore  of  the  newly-discovered 
country,  he  seems  to  be  open  to  the  suspicion  of  great 
exaggeration.  True,  this  exaggeration  falls  far  short 
of  that  in  the  accounts  of  Peter  Martyr  and  the 
c  Mantuan  gentleman,'  which  (probably  transferring  in 
great  part  to  the  first  voyage  the  events  of  the 
second)  represent,  from  the  evidence  of  Sebastian 
Cabot,  that  the  whole  East  coast  of  North  America 
was  skirted  by  the  explorers  from  a  high  northern 
latitude  to  about  Cape  Hatteras  if  not  to  Florida 
—but  even  Pasqualigo's  statement  must  be  modified. 
Nor  is  there  any  reason  why  it  should  not  be. 
'John  Cabot  himself  may  have  spoken  somewhat 
too  magniloquently  of  the  scope  of  his  achieve 
ments  ;  three  hundred  leagues  is  a  very  vague 
figure  ;  and  we  are  not  disposed  to  attach  any  more 
importance  to  it  than  this — that  favoured  by  wind 
and  tide  the  expedition  of  1497  did  coast  along  a 
considerable  extent  of  shore — but  limited  always  by 
the  consideration  that  the  whole  voyage  was  ac 
complished  in  three  months  or  a  little  over/ 


68          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

To  assume  that  the  voyage  really  occupied  a  year 
and  three  months,  in  order  to  make  room  for  the 
three  hundred  leagues  of  coasting  ;  to  argue  that 
Cabot  really  started  in  1496,  immediately  after 
procuring  his  patent,  and  was  absent  from  England 
till  August,  1497 — is  surely  gratuitous,  and  far  beyond 
the  necessities  of  the  case,  as  well  as  opposed  to  the 
best  and  earliest  evidence  now  obtainable.  The 
fifteen  months  thus  demanded  would  be  as  much  in 
excess  of  the  time  required  for  the  original  descrip 
tion  and  the  three  hundred  leagues  aforesaid,  as  the 
'  three  months '  stated  by  Pasqualigo  fall  short  of 
these  same  requirements.  To  us  it  appears  that  the 
start  in  spring  or  early  summer,  and  the  return  in 
August  of  the  same  year,  1497,  are  inexorably 
required  by  our  authorities ;  and  this  leaves  us  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  statement  about  the  three 
hundred  leagues  of  coasting  is  the  one  point  where 
we  may  fairly  make  a  mental  reservation. 

On  Pasqualigo's  showing  the  three  months'  voyage 
of  John  Cabot  would  have  nearly,  if  not  quite,  equalled 
in  extent  the  first  eight  months'  voyage  of  Columbus. 
For  the  sailing  ships  of  that  day,  it  passes  belief  that  a 
Bristol  navigator  could  reach  the  mainland  of  North 
America,  coast  nearly  one  thousand  miles  along  a 
totally  unknown  shore  (where  he  would  have  to  con 
tend  with  many  strong  currents,  sudden  winds,  and 
outlying  points  of  danger),  and  return  to  Somerset 
within  ninety  days,  after  a  journey  of  about  5,500  miles. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  69 

In  this  question,  something  again  depends  upon  the 
position  of  the  landfall,  the  most  eagerly  disputed  of 
all  the  disputed  points  of  this  narrative. 

The  landfall  of  1497  (claimed  for  the  year  1494)  is 
placed  on  Sebastian  Cabot's  planisphere  of  1544  at  a 
point  which  seems  to  answer  to  Cape  Breton.  On 
another  side,  many  have  argued  in  favour  of  Cape 
Bonavista  in  Newfoundland,  while  M.  Harrisse  sup 
ports  the  old-fashioned  opinion  that  it  was  at  some 
point  in  Labrador,  more  probably  between  Hamilton 
Inlet  and  the  Strait  of  Belle  Isle. 

We  must  discuss  these  claims  in  turn,  beginning 
with  the  last,  and  we  must  not  be  surprised  if  con 
siderable  difficulties  offer  themselves  in  the  way  of 
any  precise  identification,  and  if  we  are  thrown 
back  at  last  upon  rather  general  and  uncertain 
conclusions. 

i.  Cape  St.  Louis  and  the  various  Labrador  sites 
proposed  are  not  supported,  but  the  reverse,  by 
Cabot's  language  to  Soncino  already  quoted  about 
the  shoals  of  fish  seen  by  him  and  his  companions. 

Master  John  reached — and  left — the  New  World  too 
early  in  the  year  for  the  'living  slime'  of  cod  and 
salmon  to  have  'accumulated  on  the  banks  of 
Northern  Labrador ' — all  his  details  on  this  point 
therefore  support  a  more  southern  track  and  landfall. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  sailing  directions  given 
us  are  to  be  implicitly  trusted,  it  would  need  a  good 
deal  of  southing  for  Cabot's  course,  after  leaving 


70          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Ireland,  to  have  touched  the  New  World  very  much 
to  the  south  of  Labrador. 

2.  '  We  may  take  it,'  says  Sir  Clements  Markham, 
'that  Cabot  was  forced  northward  (in  the  deflection 
mentioned  by  Soncino)  by  stress  of  weather,  that  he 
resumed  his  westerly  course  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
that  he  turned  his  ship's  head  west,  in  about  the 
parallel  of  Blacksod  Bay,  and  held  that  course  across 
the  Atlantic.  After  passing  the  meridian  of  the 
Azores,  there  would  be  westerly  variation,  and  mag 
netic  west  would  really  be  west-by-south-half-south. 
The  landfall  of  the  Matthew  would,  under  these 
circumstances,  be  Cape  Bonavista,  on  the  East  Coast 
of  Newfoundland.'  But  granting,  as  already  said, 
that  the  amount  of  southing  necessary  for  this  landfall 
is  considerable — there  seems  no  reason  why  this  de 
flection  should  not  have  taken  Cabot  a  little  further 
to  the  south-west  or  a  little  further  to  the  north. 
It  is  merely  a  question  of  the  precise  strength  of  de 
flection  caused  by  magnetic  variation  and  by  current  ; 
there  is  no  definite  contemporary  authority  for  any 
Newfoundland  site  ;  and  our  modern  reconstructions 
of  the  navigator's  exact  course  must  remain  probabili 
ties  at  best. 

What  is  to  be  said  in  favour  of  Cape  Bonavista  may 
equally  well  be  said  in  favour  of  several  other  points 
close  at  hand.  Is  it  not  better  to  be  content  with 
the  general  certainty  that  John  Cabot's  landfall 
cannot  be  appreciably  south  of  Cape  Breton  Island 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  71 

or  appreciably  north  of  the  Strait  of  Belle  Isle — at 
furthest  it  might  be  some  such  point  as  Hawke  Bay 
on  the  South  Labrador  coast  ?  When  we  are  referred 
to  the  '  unbroken  tradition '  of  the  Newfoundland 
colonists  that  Cabot  made  his  landfall  in  their 
country,  we  can  hardly  accept  this  as  very  con 
clusive  evidence.  Leaving  out  of  sight  the  long 
interval  between  the  voyage  of  1497  and  the  first 
permanent  settlement  of  Newfoundland,  we  must 
remember  that  the  whole  of  the  fresh  discovered 
lands  in  the  North-West  were  at  first  known  by 
the  name  which  has  now  been  handed  down  to  the 
island  we  call  Newfoundland. 

3.  The  claim  of  Cape  Breton  is  based  upon  con 
temporary  authority,  so  far  as  we  can  apply  this  title  to 
the  planisphere  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  executed  in  1544. 
But  grave  doubts  attach  to  the  identification.  For  one 
thing,  Sebastian  obviously  had  very  distorted  notions 
about  this  region  ;  he  tells  us  there  were  abundance 
of  white  bears  on  Cape  Breton  Island  (if  it  be  really 
this  which  is  indicated  on  his  map  as  the  '  Prima 
Tierra  Vista '  J)  ;  he  depicts  Newfoundland  as  an  archi 
pelago  of  islets ;  his  place-names  have  a  suspicious 
resemblance  to  those  in  various  French  carto 
graphical  works  based  upon  the  voyages  of  Jacques 
Cartier,  especially  the  1541  mappemonde  of  Nicolas 
Desliens  of  Dieppe.  He  also  marks  a  San  Juan  island 

1  This  inscription  lies  right  across  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
beginning  at  Cape  Breton. 


72          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

to  the  westward  of  the  c  Prima  Tierra,'  which  he  says 
was  discovered  '  on  the  same  day '  (/.*.,  the  Feast  of 
St.  John,  June  24th),  though  the  nearest  actual  land 
that  corresponds  to  this  indication  lies  in  the  Magdalen 
Islands,  fifty-four  miles  from  the  northern  point  of 
Cape  Breton  Island.1 

M.  Harrisse  accuses  him  roundly  ( I )  of  inventing  the 
day  of  the  landfall — June  24th — which  he  contends 
is  equally  false  with  the  year  of  the  discovery  as  stated 
in  his  map,  viz.,  1494  ;  (2)  of  inventing  the  island  of 
St.  John  and  its  name,  to  tally  with  the  day,  June 
24th  being  the  Feast  of  the  Nativity  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist;  and  (3)  of  inventing  the  landfall  at 
Cape  Breton  in  order  to  give  the  English  Govern 
ment  (whose  service  he  was  in  1544  designing  to 
enter,  on  his  desertion  of  Spain)  a  claim  to  original 
discovery  further  south  than  was  generally  allowed  at 
that  time.  For  nearly  half  a  century  Spanish  carto 
graphy,  under  his  official  superintendence,  had  placed 
the  landfall  of  the  English  explorers  several  degrees 
further  north  than  the  Prima  Vista  of  the  map  of  1544. 
We  shall  have  to  return  to  these  points  later  on  when 
attempting  an  account  of  the  map  in  question  ;  here  it 
will  be  enough  to  say  that  Cape  Breton  may  be  accepted 
as  a  southernmost  point  for  the  Cabotian  landfall,  as 
one  limit  of  a  line  of  coast,  somewhere  in  which 
the  adventurers  of  1497  must  have  touched  the  New 

1  Prince  Edward  Island,  with  which  '  San  Juan  '  has  also  been  iden 
tified,  is  still  further  from  Cape  Breton. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  73 

World — but  no  more.  The  probability  is  strong 
against  the  explorers  having  been  drifted  close  by 
Cape  Race  on  their  way  to  Cape  Breton  without 
seeing  it — the  time  of  year  is  against  it,  as  regards 
winds,  currents,  and  atmosphere.  The  weather  is 
likely  to  have  been  clear  at  midsummer  and  the  seas 
setting  pretty  close  into  Cape  Race,  which  itself  is  as 
likely  a  point  for  the  Prima  Vista  as  any  other. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE    VOYAGE    OF    1497    CONTINUED LATER    VERSIONS 

OF      THE      VOYAGE      AS      GIVEN      BY  I.      PETER 

MARTYR  ;  2.  RAMUSIO  ;  3.  ZIEGLER  ;  4.  GOMARA  ; 
5.  GALVANO  ;  6.  THEVET  ;  7.  RIBAUT  ;  8.  EDEN  ; 
9.  THE  MAP  OF  1544 

AND  now,  having  tried  to  gain  some  idea  of  the 
first  Cabotian  Voyage  of  1497  in  the  light  of  con 
temporary  evidence,  let  us  see  what  was  the  version 
(or  rather  the  different  versions)  of  this  enterprise 
supplied  by  Sebastian  Cabot  in  after  years.  Here  we 
shall  find  a  good  deal  of  matter  added  to  the  somewhat 
meagre  details  of  our  first  line  of  evidence,  but  it  will 
not  be  always  easy  to  accept  the  enlarged  account  of 
John  Cabot's  more  famous  son. 

i.  First  we  have  the  statement,  made  by  Peter 
Martyr  d'Anghiera  some  time  before  1515—16  (when 
the  first  three  decades  of  Martyr's  history  were  pub- 
dished),  and  including  the  following  passage,  inserted  in 
the  course  of  a  digression  on  the  'Secret  Causes  of 
Nature '  : — 

74 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  75 

*  These    north    seas    have    been    searched    by    one 

Sebastian  Cabot,  a  Venetian  born,  whom,  being  yet 

but  in  manner  an  infant,  his  parents  carried  with  them 

into   England,   having  occasion   to  resort  thither  for 

trade    of    merchandises,    as    is    the    manner    of    the 

Venetians  to  leave  no  part  of  the  world  unsearched 

to  obtain  riches.     He  therefore  furnished  two  ships  in 

England  at  his  own  charges  ;    and,   first,   with    300 

men,   directed  his  course  so    far  towards  the   North 

Pole    that    even    in    the    month    of    July    he    found 

monstrous  heaps  of  ice  swimming  in  the  sea,  and  in 

manner    continual    daylight.     Yet    saw  he    the    land 

in   that  tract  free  from  ice,  which  had  been  molten 

by  [the]  heat  of  the  sun.     Thus,  seeing  such  heaps 

of  ice  before  him,  he  was  enforced  to  turn  his  sails 

and   follow  the  west,  so   coasting  still   by  the  shore 

that  he  was  thereby  brought  so  far  into  the  south,  by 

reason  of  the  land  bending  so  much  southward,  that  it 

was  there  almost  equal  in  latitude  with  the  sea  called 

Fretum  Herculeum  [Straits  of  Gibraltar],  having  the 

North  Pole  elevate  in   manner  in  the   same   degree. 

He  sailed  likewise  in  this  tract  so  far  toward  the  west 

that  he  had  the  Island  of  Cuba  [on]  his  left  hand  in 

manner   in    the   same    degree    of  longitude.     As  he 

travelled  by  the  coasts  of  this  great  land  (which  he 

named  Baccallaos1)  he  saith  that  he  found  the  like 

course  of  the  water  towards  the  west  [/.*.,  as  before 

described    by   Martyr],   but    the   same    to    run    more 

1  '  Cod-Fish  Country.' 


76          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

softly  and  gently  than  the  swift  waters  which  the 
Spaniards  found  in  their  navigation  southward.  .  .  . 
Sebastian  Cabot  himself  named  those  lands  Baccallaos, 
because  that  in  the  seas  thereabout  he  found  so  great 
multitudes  of  certain  big  fish  much  like  unto  tunnies 
(which  the  inhabitants  called  Baccallaos)  that  they 
sometimes  stayed  his  ships.  He  found  also  the  people 
of  those  regions  covered  with  beasts'  skins,  yet  not 
without  the  use  of  reason.  He  saith  also  that  there 
is  great  plenty  of  bears  in  those  regions,  which  use  to 
eat  fish.  For  plunging  themselves  into  the  water 
where  they  perceive  a  multitude  of  those  fish  to  lie, 
they  fasten  their  claws  in  their  scales,  and  so  draw 
them  to  land  and  eat  them.  So  that,  as  he  saith,  the 
bears  being  thus  satisfied  with  fish,  are  not  noisome  to 
men.  He  declareth,  further,  that  in  many  places  of 
these  regions  he  saw  great  plenty  of  laton  among  the 
inhabitants.  Cabot  is  my  very  friend,  whom  I  use 
familiarly,  and  delight  to  have  him  sometimes  keep 
me  company  in  mine  own  house.  .  .  .  Some  of  the 
Spaniards  deny  that  Cabot  was  the  first  finder  of  the 
land  of  Baccallaos,  and  affirm  that  he  went  not  so  far 
westward/ 

2.  The  second  of  these  '  Sebastianised '  accounts 
of  the  achievements  of  1497  is  from  Ramusio,  and 
is  expressly  given  as  the  version  of  the  c  great  seaman  ' 
of  Seville  himself.  It  is  introduced  in  a  dialogue, 
where  a  '  famous'  but  unnamed  man  (whom  the  editor 
of  Ramusio  has  styled  the  '  Mantuan  gentleman,' 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT 


77 


and  who  has  been  falsely  identified  by  Eden  with 
Galeacius  Butrigariusor  Galeazzo  Botrigari),  addresses, 
as  follows,  a  company  assembled  at  Caphi,  near 
Verona,  in  the  villa  of  Hieronymo  Frascator,  Ramusio 
himself  being  among  the  guests  ; — 

'  And  here  [after  various  geographical  speculations], 
making  a  certain  pause,  turning  himself  towards  us, 
he  said,  "  Do  you  not  understand  to  this  purpose  how 
to  pass  to  India  toward  the  north-west  wind  as  did  or 
late  a  citizen  of  Venice,  so  valiant  a  man,  and  so  well 
practised  in  all  things  pertaining  to  navigations  and 
the  science  of  Cosmography,  that  at  this  present  he 
hath  not  his  like  in  Spain,  in  so  much  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  therefore  called  Piloto  Maggiore — 
that  is,  the  Grand  Pilot  ? "  And  when  we  said  that 
we  knew  him  not,  he  proceeded,  saying  that,  being 
certain  years  in  the  city  of  Seville  and  desirous  to 
have  some  knowledge  of  the  navigations  of  the 
Spaniards,  it  was  told  him  there  was  in  the  city  a 
valiant  man,  a  Venetian  born,1  named  Sebastian 
Cabot,  who  had  the  charge  of  those  things,  being 
an  expert  man  in  that  science  and  one  that  could 
make  cards  for  the  sea  with  his  own  hand.  And 

1  Here  Eden,  in  his  version  of  this  passage,  inserts  a  marginal  note  : 
'  Sebastian  Cabot  told  me  he  was  born  in  Bristol,  and  that  at  four  years 
old  he  was  carried  with  his  father  to  Venice,  and  so  returned  again  into 
England  with  his  father  after  certain  years  ;  whereby  he  was  thought  to 
have  been  born  in  Venice.' 


78          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

that  by  this  report,  seeking  his  acquaintance,  he 
found  him  a  very  gentle  person,  who  .  .  .  showed 
him  many  things,  and  among  other  a  large  map  of 
the  world,  with  certain  particular  navigations  as  well 
of  the  Portugals  as  of  the  Spaniards.  And  that  he 
spake  further  to  him,  in  this  effect  :  "  When  my 
father  departed  from  Venice  many  years  since  to 
dwell  in  England  to  follow  the  trade  of  merchandises, 
he  took  me  with  him  to  the  city  of  London  while  I 
was  very  young,  yet  having  nevertheless  some  know 
ledge  of  letters  of  humanity,  and  of  the  sphere.  And 
when  my  father  dled^  in  that  time  when  news  were 
brought  that  Don  Christopher  Colombus  the  Genoese  had 
discovered  the  coasts  of  India,  whereof  was  great  talk  in 
all  the  Court  of  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  who  then 
reigned  ;  in  so  much  that  all  men,  with  great  admi 
ration,  affirmed  it  to  be  a  thing  more  divine  than 
human  to  sail  by  the  West  into  the  East,  where 
spices  grow,  by  a  way  that  was  never  known  before  ; 
by  which  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  sail  by  the  way  of  the  north-west  wind  I 
should  by  a  shorter  track  come  to  India,  I  thereupon 
caused  the  King  to  be  advertised  of  my  device,  who 
immediately  commanded  two  caravels  to  be  furnished 
with  all  things  appertaining  to  the  voyage,  which  was, 
as  far  as  I  remember,  in  the  year  1496,  in  the  begin 
ning  of  summer.  Beginning  therefore  to  sail  toward 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  79 

North- West,  not  thinking  to  find  any  other  land  than 
that  of  Cathay,  and  from  thence  to  turn  towards 
India,  after  certain  days  I  found  that  the  land  ran 
toward  the  North,  which  was  to  me  a  great  dis 
pleasure.  Nevertheless,  sailing  along  by  the  coast  to 
see  if  I  could  find  any  gulf  that  turned,  I  found  the 
land  still  continent  to  the  56th  degree  under  our  pole. 
And  seeing  that  there  the  coast  turned  toward  the 
East,  despairing  to  find  the  passage,  I  turned  back 
again  and  sailed  down  by  the  coast  of  that  land  toward 
the  equinoctial  (ever  with  intent  to  find  the  said  pas 
sage  to  India),  and  came  to  that  part  of  this  firm  land 
which  is  now  called  Florida  ;  where,  my  victuals  failing, 
I  departed  from  thence  and  returned  into  England, 
where  I  found  great  tumults  among  the  people  and  pre 
paration  for  the  war  to  be  carried  into  Scotland  ;  by 
reason  whereof  there  was  no  more  consideration  had 
to  this  voyage.  Whereupon  I  went  into  Spain  to  the 
Catholic  King  and  Queen  Elizabeth  .  .  .  " ' 

And  along  with  this  discourse  we  may  group  the 
well-known  passage  in  the  dedication  to  Ramusio's 
third  volume,  where,  addressing  himself  to  the  same 
Hieronymus  Frascator,  at  whose  house  the  above- 
quoted  narrative  was  given,  the  great  compiler  says 
that  c  Sebastian  Cabot  [our  countryman],1  a  Venetian,' 
wrote  to  him  many  years  before,2  telling  him  how  he 
4  sailed  along  and  beyond  this  land  of  New  France,  at 

1  Interpolated  by  Hakluyt. 

2  Viz.,  before  the  date  of  this  dedication,  June  20,  1553. 


So          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

the  charges  of  Henry  VII.,  King  of  England ; '  how  he 
proceeded  a  long  time  c  west-and-by-north '  to  the 
latitude  of  c  67^  degrees  under  the  North  Pole  ; ' 
and  how  c  on  the  nth  of  June,  finding  still  the  sea 
open,  without  any  manner  of  impediment,  he  thought 
verily  by  that  way  to  have  passed  on  still  the  way  to 
Cathaio  which  is  in  the  East,'  and  would  have  done 
so,  if  the  mutiny  of  the  shipmasters  and  manners  had 
not  hindered  him  and  forced  him  to  {  return  home 
wards  from  that  place.'1 

3.  Thirdly,  Jacob  Ziegler,  in   1532,  reproduces  the 
narrative  of  Martyr,  to  the  glorification  of  Sebastian, 
in    the    following   shape  :    *  Sebastian    Cabot,    sailing 
from  England  continually  towards  the  North,  followed 
that  course  so  far  that  he  chanced  upon  great  flakes  of 
ice  in  the  month  of  July  ;  and  diverting  from  thence, 
he  followed  the  coast  by  the  shore,  bending  towards 
the  South  until  he  came  to  the  clime  of  the  island 
of  Hispaniola,  above  Cuba — an  island  of  the  Cannibals.' 
He  adds  that  Cabot's  falling  in  with  ice  in  the  North 
proved  'that  he  sailed  not  by  the  main  sea,  but  in 
places  near  unto  the  land,   comprehending  and  em 
bracing  the  sea  in  the  form  of  a  gulf ;  and  on  this 
passage  Eden,    who    translated    Ziegler,   has   a  piece 
of  first-hand    information    to   add — 'Cabot    told    me 
that  this  ice  is  of  fresh  water,  and  not  of  the  sea.' 

4.  Fourthly,    Francis  Lopez    Gomara,  who   pro- 

1  This  is  apparently  the  source  of  Humphrey  Gilbert's  account  in  his 
'  Discourse  of  a  Discovery  of  a  new  passage  to  Cataia,' 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  81 

bably  knew  Sebastian  Cabot  at  Seville  during  his 
'Spanish  period,'  put  on  record  this  version  of  the 
case  in  1552  :  *  Sebastian  Cabot  was  the  first  that 
brought  any  knowledge  of  this  land  [the  Far  North- 
West  or  "  Baccallaos  "],  for  being  in  England  in  the 
days  of  King  Henry  VII.  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  Sea.  .  .  .  He  went  also  to  know  what 
manner  of  land  those  Indies  were  to  inhabit.  He 
had  with  him  three  hundred  men,  and  directed  his 
course  by  the  track  of  Iceland,  upon  the  Cape  of 
Labrador,  at  58  degrees — though  he  himself  says  much 
more — affirming  that  in  the  month  of  July  there  was 
such  cold  and  heaps  of  ice  that  he  durst  pass  no 
further  ;  that  the  days  were  very  long,  and  in  manner 
without  night,  and  the  nights  very  clear.  Certain  it 
is  that  at  60  degrees  the  longest  day  is  of  18  hours. 
But  considering  the  cold  and  the  strangeness  of  the 
unknown  land,  he  turned  his  course  from  thence  to 
the  West,  [his  men]  refreshing  themselves  at  Baccal 
laos  [Newfoundland,  &c.]  ;  and  following  the  coast  of 
the  land  unto  the  T$th  degree,  he  returned  to  England.' 
5.  Once  more,  Galvano,  in  his  Discoveries  of  the 
World,  written  some  time  before  1557,  anc*  giymg 
(at  least  in  one  detail)  an  apparent  indication  of  some 
personal  converse  with  Sebastian,  adds  his  own  weighty 
testimony  to  the  revised  version  of  the  Cabot  enterprises, 
which  on  the  Continent  at  least  had  quite  superseded 


82          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

the  original  :  '  In  the  year  1496  there  was  a  Venetian 
in  England  called  Sebastian  Cabota  [in  his  version 
Hakluyt  rightly  alters  the  name  to  John  Cabota], 
who,  having  knowledge  of  such  a  new  discovery  as 
this  was  [viz.,  Columbus's  in  1492],  and  perceiving 
by  the  globe  that  the  islands  before  spoken  of  stood 
almost  in  the  same  latitude  with  his  country,  and 
much  nearer  to  England  than  to  Portugal,  or  to 
Castille,  he  acquainted  King  Henry  VII.,  then  King 
of  England,  with  the  same  ;  wherewith  the  said  King 
was  greatly  pleased,  and  furnished  him  out  with  two 
ships  and  three  hundred  men,  which  departed  and  set 
sail  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  and  they  sailed  westward 
till  they  came  in  sight  of  land  in  45  degrees  of  latitude 
towards  the  North,1  and  then  went  straight  northwards 
till  they  came  into  60  degrees  of  latitude,  where  the 
day  is  1 8  hours  long  and  the  night  is  very  clear  and 
bright.  There  they  found  the  air  cold,  and  great 
islands  of  ice,  but  no  ground  in  70,  80,  100  fathoms 
sounding,  but  found  much  ice,  which  alarmed  them  ; 
and  so  from  thence  putting  about,  finding  the  land  to 
turn  eastwards,  they  trended  along  by  it  on  the  other 
tack,  discovering  all  the  river  and  bay  named  Deseado 
to  see  if  it  passed  on  the  other  side  ;  then  they  sailed 
back  again,  diminishing  the  latitude,  till  they  came  to 
38  degrees  towards  the  Equinoctial  line,  and  from 

1  This  statement,  which  almost  agrees  with  the  landfall  on  the 
'Cabot'  map,  probably  came  either  (i)  from  Sebastian  himself,  or  (2) 
from  the  mappemonde  of  1 544- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  83 

thence  returned  to  England.  There  be  others  which 
say  that  he  went  as  far  as  the  Cape  of  Florida,  which 
standeth  in  25  degrees.' 

6.  Andre  Thevet,  once  again,  in  his  Singular lies 
de  la  France  Antarctique,  published  in  1558,  joins 
this  chorus  of  historians  with  some  curious  additions 
of  his  own.  From  a  writer  of  so  slight  a  value  and 
so  careless  a  pen  these  additions  are  doubly  apocryphal, 
but  if  nothing  else  they  are  picturesque.  Speaking 
of  the  Cod  Fish  Land  (Baccallaos)  he  declares  :  *  It  was 
first  discovered  by  Sebastian  Babate,  an  Englishman, 
who  persuaded  Henry  VII.,  King  of  England,  that 
he  could  easily  come  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  in 
habitants,  and  to  establish  there  a  new  England,  which 
he  did  not  accomplish.  True  It  is  he  put  three  hundred 
men  ashore,  somewhat  to  the  north  of  Ireland,  where  the 
cold  destroyed  nearly  the  whole  company,  though  it  was 
then  the  month  of  July.  Afterwards  Jacques  Cartier,  as 
he  himself  told  me,  made  two  voyages  to  that  country 
in  1534.  and  1535.' 

Is  it  possible  that  Thevet,  though  in  the  main 
apparently  reproducing  Gomara,  with  the  alteration 
of  Iceland  to  Ireland,  has  preserved  in  his  story  of 
Cabot's  designs  and  of  the  three  hundred  colonists,  some 
real  but  elsewhere  neglected  fact  of  an  early  English 


B4         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

attempt  at  settlement — a  fact  noticed  by  Jacques 
Carrier,  and  related  to  the  chronicler  ? — or  is  this,  again, 
a  mere  piece  of  additional  gossip,  originally  set  afloat 
by  Sebastian  Cabot  himself? — or,  once  more,  is  it  a 
simple  perversion  of  the  old  statement  in  Martyr, 
that  the  crews  taken  from  England  numbered  in  all 
three  hundred  ?  For  my  own  part  I  incline  to  the 
last  alternative,  as  there  is  nothing  certain  about  this 
tradition,  except  its  extreme  inconsistency  with  all 
other  records,  agreeing  only  (with  the  secondary 
historiographers)  in  the  glorification  of  Sebastian  Cabot. 
7.  To  the  same  purpose  Jean  Ribaut  (or  Ribault), 
another  French  annalist,  who  wrote  at  the  same  time  as 
Thevet,  and  whose  Florida  was  translated  into  English 
in  1563,  refers  to  the  first  discovery  of  the  North- West, 
and  the  achievements  of  former  navigators  with  the 
customary  word  of  adulation  for  the  younger  Cabot  : 
4  A  very  famous  stranger,  named  Sebastian  Cabota,  an 
excellent  pilot,  sent  thither  by  King  Henry,  the  year 
1498  .  .  .  who  never  could  attain  to  any  habitation, 
nor  take  possession  there  of  one  single  foot  of  ground 
nor  yet  approach  or  enter  into  these  parts  and  fair  rivers 
into  the  which  God  hath  brought  us '  [the  French]. 
Here  Ribaut  implicitly  contradicts  Thevet's  ambitious 
language  about  a  new  England  and  a  temporary 
colonisation,  but  the  date  given  by  him  (1498)  has 
sometimes  been  considered  as  evidence  of  personal 
intercourse  between  himself  and  Sebastian.  Certainly 
this  is  the  earliest  explicit  reference  to  the  year  of 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  85 

the  second  Cabotian  voyage  in  sixteenth-century  litera 
ture  (as  the  date  of  the  original  enterprise),  although 
the  same  is  implicit  in  the  language  of  Peter  Martyr 
in  his  seventh  decade,  written  in  1524,  where  he  says 
that  Sebastian  Cabot  discovered  the  Baccallaos  twenty- 
six  years  before. 

8.  Lastly,  Richard  Eden,  writing  about  Florida 
and  the  Baccallaos  in  Queen  Mary's  reign,  throws 
in  a  word  of  his  own  which  unquestionably  is  derived 
from  Sebastian  himself,  Eden's  friend  as  much  as 
Martyr's  :  c  Of  the  which  you  may  read  somewhat 
in  this  book  in  the  voyage  of  that  worthy  old  man 
yet  living,  Sebastian  Cabot,  in  the  sixth  book  of  the 
third  decade.1  But  Cabot  touched  only  in  the  north 
corner  and  most  barbarous  part  thereof,  from  whence 
he  was  repulsed  with  ice  in  the  month  of  July.' 

/Thus  all  the  share  of  John  Cabot  in  the  discovery 
of  North  America,  his  efforts  to  rouse  the  Bristol 
seamen  between  1491  and  1497,  his  application  to 
King  Henry  VII.,  his  leadership  in  the  initial  enter 
prise  of  1497,  as  well  as  in  the  second  voyage  of 
1498,  his  very  name  (except  as  a  Venetian  trader) 
was  obliterated  from  the  minds  of  sixteenth-century 
students ;  the  two  voyages,  so  plainly  separated  in 
the  original  evidence,  were  confused  in  one  ;  and 
Sebastian  Cabot  stood  alone  as  the  first  leader  of 
English  exploration  to  America,  associated  with  vague 
but  magnificent  plans  of  conquest  and  colonisation.// 

1  Viz.,  of  Eden's  translation  of  Martyr  already  cited. 


86          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

9.  But  in  striking  contrast  to  this  unanimity  of  our 
annalists  in  falsehood,  however  unintentional,  is  the 
language  of  the  Cabot  map  of  1544  on  the  same 
subject  :  c  This  land  [apparently  Cape  Breton]  was 
discovered  by  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian,  and  Sebastian 
Cabot,  his  son  ; '  and  this  inscription  seems  to  have 
been  read  to  good  purpose  by  Hakluyt  in  1589,  by 
Michael  Lok  in  1582,  and  by  Chytraeus  in  1565. 
We  shall  return  to  this  evidence  from  maps  in  a  suc 
ceeding  chapter  on  the  cartography  of  the  Cabots  and 
their  voyages.  But  we  may  now  at  once  compare  a 
little  more  closely  some  typical  examples  of  conflicting 
evidence  in  the  historians  we  have  quoted. 

When  examining  these  accounts  we  must  remember 
that,  before  Sebastian  enters  the  Spanish  service  in 
1512,  there  is  great  difficulty  in  tracking  his  course 
and  identifying  or  disconnecting  him  positively  with 
the  earlier  ventures,  associated  by  tradition  with  his 
name.  But  it  is  plain  that  here  we  have  implied  or 
expressed  a  series  of  statements  which,  from  the  strict 
contemporary  and  documentary  evidence,  we  know  to 
be  false  ;  for  we  should  gather  from  the  words  of  the 
'  Mantuan  gentleman,'  of  Peter  Martyr,  and  of  our 
other  chroniclers,  that  there  was  but  one  original 
Cabot  voyage  of  discovery  under  Henry  VIL,  that 
John  had  no  share  in  it,  and  that  Sebastian  himself, 
on  this  single  venture  (dated  under  1496  in  one 
narrative,  under  1498  in  another,  and  undated  in 
the  rest),  discovered  and  explored  the  coast  line  of 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  87 

Eastern  North  America  from  about  36  or  even  from 
25  degrees  to  65  (or  67^)  degrees  north.  Further, 
the  c  Mantuan  gentleman '  has  evidently  been  led  to 
believe  that  John  Cabot  was  already  dead  when  King 
Henry  VII.  authorised  the  aforesaid  voyage  of  discovery, 
was  dead,  in  fact,  when  the  news  of  Columbus's  success 
first  reached  England — viz.,  at  the  end  of  A.D.  1492. 
John's  occupation,  it  is  not  obscurely  suggested,  was 
simply  commerce — 'to  follow  the  trade  of  merchan 
dises  ' — as  for  anything  of  discovering  enterprise,  that 
fell  to  his  son.  Once  again,  to  the  '  Mantuan  gentle 
man,'  Sebastian  ascribes  his  departure  from  England, 
and  his  acceptance  of  the  Spanish  service  to  the  '  great 
tumults  among  the  people,  and  preparation  for  the 
war  to  be  carried  into  Scotland  ; '  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  Martyr  he  gave  as  his  reason  the  death  of 
Henry  VII.,  his  patron.  Yet  not  only  do  the  excuses 
clash,  but  they  are  both  false.  The  '  great  tumults ' 
and  Scottish  alarms  refer  to  the  year  1497,  and  the 
months  of  June  and  September ;  the  death  of  Henry 
VII.  belongs  to  A.D.  1509  ;  and  Sebastian  was  still  in 
the  employment  of  the  English  government  on  May 
12,  1512. 

Lastly  (without  making  much  of  his  loose  state 
ment  that  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  sent  him  to  explore 
Brazil,  whereas  he  is  first  associated  by  name  with  any 
Spanish  expedition  in  March,  1514,  nine  years  after 
the  death  of  Isabella),  we  see  that  Martyr  was  told 
by  Sebastian  the  exact  contrary  of  what  the  c  Mantuan 


88          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

gentleman '  was  informed  as  to  his  early  life.  The 
former  repeats  to  us  that  young  Cabot  was  born  at 
Venice,  but  brought  over  to  England  as  a  child  (pane 
infans)  ;  the  latter,  on  the  other  hand,  emphasises  the 
point  that  when  he  came  with  his  father  to  the  country 
of  his  first  adoption,  he  was  already  well  forward  with 
his  education,  c  having  some  knowledge  of  letters  of 
humanity,  and  of  the  sphere.'  While,  to  crown  all, 
Richard  Eden's  marginal  note,  as  we  have  seen,  gives 
the  lie  to  all  the  continental  traditions  of  his  birthplace  ; 
<  Sebastian  Cabot  told  me  he  was  born  in  Bristol.' 

So  much  for  some  of  the  difficulties  explicitly 
contained  in  our  *  Sebastianised  '  annalists.  But  what 
they  suggest  or  involve  is  still  more  awkward  than  what 
they  express.  According  to  the  more  important  of 
these  narratives  Sebastian  found  himself  in  the  month 
of  June  (or  July)  in  a  region  of  perpetual  day.  '  This 
implies  an  exploration  of  Davis  Straits  to  at  least  65 
degrees  north.'  He  then  *  turned  his  sails,'  and  coasted 
the  east  shore  of  North  America  to  the  parallel  of  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  or  about  36  degrees  north — accord 
ing  to  some  as  far  as  Florida,  or  about  25  degrees  north. 
c  In  other  words,  he  sailed  from  about  5  degrees  west 
longitude  to  80  degrees,  and  vice  versa,  from  65  degrees 
north  latitude  to  a  point  at  least  29  degrees  to  the 
south  of  this — round  the  whole  of  the  North  Atlantic, 
a  voyage  of  more  than  6,OOO  miles,  in  some  three 
months — and,  what  is  after  all  the  chief  point,  in  totally 
unknown  waters  and  along  a  quite  unexplored  coast. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  89 

A  word  more  as  to  the  date  apparently  assigned  for 
the  landfall  by  Sebastian  himself,  in  the  map  of  1544, 
*  in  the  year  of  our  Saviour  MCCCCXCIIIL,  on  the 
24th  June  in  the  morning.'  Nearly  all  critics  now 
agree  in  rejecting  the  year  (of  1494)  thus  given, 
which  is  at  variance  with  all  the  first-hand  evidence, 
and  is  possibly  due  to  a  slip  of  the  pen  (IIII.  for  VII.) 
if  it  be  not  an  attempt  to  increase  the  family  reputa 
tion  by  a  new  claim,  after  the  lapse  of  fifty  years, 
when  memories  had  grown  dim. 

From  Puebla's  letter  of  January  21,  1496,  giving 
us  our  first  information  about  the  person  Mike 
Columbus,'  who  was  courting  the  favour  of  Henry 
VII.  for  similar  explorations,  down  to  the  letter  of 
Soncino  on  December  18,  1497,  to  the  Duke  of 
Milan,  we  have  a  perfectly  clear  and  consistent  series 
of  proofs  for  the  voyage  of  1497,  begun  and  ended  in 
the  same  year,  and  led  by  John  Cabot  himself  and  by  no 
other — his  first  great  achievement.  But  some  doubt 
has  also  been  attached  to  the  month  (and  day)  of 
June  asserted  above.  For  one  thing  John  Cabot  had 
certainly  returned  to  London  by  August  the  loth, 
when  he  received  the  King's  first  reward  of  ^10. 
Again,  Pasqualigo  heard  that  the  navigator  coasted 
three  hundred  leagues  along  the  shore  after  making 
land.  We  have  already  pointed  out  that  this  par 
ticular  estimate  appears  to  be  greatly  exaggerated, 
but  some  time  must  be  allowed  during  which  the 
explorers  hung  off  the  North  American  coast, 


90          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

and  the  narrowest  estimate  which  can  be  given 
for  this  interval  would  still  oblige  us  to  fix  the  day 
of  c  turning  back  '  as  at  least  not  earlier  than  July  1st 
— leaving  us  only  about  five  weeks  for  the  return. 
This  is  a  possible  margin,  but  the  time  seems  short. 
It  is  hypercritical,  however,  to  make  a  serious  difficulty 
of  this  ;  and  if  there  be  one  point  on  which  Sebastian 
Cabot  would  hardly  be  misled,  on  which  he  would 
have  no  particular  motive  for  misleading  us,  and  where 
his  statement  might  fairly  be  accepted  till  positive 
disproof  is  forthcoming,  it  is  the  day  (though  not  the 
year)  of  his  father's  discovery  of  North  America. 

No  great  confidence  can  be  expressed  in  the  tradi 
tion  of  the  lost  manuscript  once  in  the  possession  of 
the  Fust  family  of  Hill  Court,  Gloucestershire,  so 
confidently  quoted  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica 
of  1876.  Its  details  are  gratifying  in  their  precision, 
but  the  use  of  the  term  c  America '  shows  that  at 
any  rate  it  is  not  a  strictly  contemporary  document. 
As  to  the  rest,  the  particulars  given  are  probable 
enough,  agree  with  our  first-class  evidence  already 
quoted,  and  may  embody  a  genuine  local  (Bristol) 
tradition  as  to  the  name  of  the  ship  and  the  dates  of 
the  start  and  return: — *  This  year  (1497)  on  St. 
John  the  Baptist's  day  [June  24]  the  land  of  America 
was  found  by  the  merchants  of  Bristol  in  a  ship  of 
Bristol  called  the  Matthew^  the  which  said  ship  de 
parted  from  the  port  of  Bristol  the  2nd  of  May  and 
came  home  again  the  6th  August  following.'  Thus, 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  91 

for  what  it  is  worth,  the  Fust  MS.  gives  a  confirmation 
of  the  month  and  day  assigned  on  the  Cabot  Map, 
and  with  this  we  will  close  'Sebastian's  case,1  only 
adding  that  he  never  gave  the  true  year  (1497)  as  it 
is  fixed  by  the  Bristol  document,1  but  sometimes  1494, 
sometimes  1496,  sometimes  apparently  1498,  and 
sometimes  suggested  an  even  earlier  date  than  any 
of  these. 

1  As  well  as  by  Hakluyt  in  the  final  edition  of  his  Principal  Navi 
gations,  and  by  Clement  Adams  in  the  English  (1549)  re-issue  of  the 
'Cabot'  map. 


CHAPTER   VI 

JOHN    CABOT'S  SECOND    VOYAGE — REWARD  AND  PEN 
SION    FROM    HENRY    VII. THE     SECOND     LETTERS 

PATENT VARIOUS     ALLUSIONS    TO    THE    VENTURE 

OF      1498 EVIDENCE     OF      LA      COSA*S      MAP      OF 

I5OO ABSENCE    OF    ENGLISH    NARRATIVES 

JOHN  CABOT  applied  for  fresh  letters  patent  authorising 
a  second  expedition  on  the  3rd  of  February,  1498.  In 
the  interval  between  this  and  his  return  from  the 
first  voyage  of  1497  ne  na^  received  *  from  Henry  VII.'s 
Privy  Purse  the  famous  grant  of  ^10  (at  least  £120  in 
modern  money)  'to  him  that  found  the  new  isle  '- 
in  order  that  he  might  have  a  good  time  with  it,  as 
Pasqualigo  writes  to  Italy.  On  the  I3th  of  December 
in  the  same  year  the  King  further  bestowed  on  him 
a  pension  of  £20  a  year  (fully  ^240  in  modern 
value)  during  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown.  *  The  order 
was  addressed  to  Cardinal  Morton  as  Chancellor  and 
was  sealed  on  the  28th  of  January,  1498,  as  follows  : — 
'  Henry  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  England, 

1  On  August  10,  1497. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  93 

etc.  To  the  most  reverent  father  in  God  John, 
Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Primate  of  all 
England,  and  of  the  Apostolic  See  Legate,  our  Chan 
cellor,  greeting.  We  let  you  wit  that  we,  for  certain 
considerations  us  specially  moving,  have  given  and 
granted  unto  our  well-beloved  John  Calbot  of  the 
parts  of  Venice  an  annuity  or  annual  rent  of  ^20 
sterling,  to  be  had  and  yearly  perceived  from  the 
Feast  of  the  Annunciation  of  our  Lady  last  past, 
during  our  pleasure,  of  our  customs  and  subsidies 
coming  and  growing  [/.*.,  accruing]  in  our  port  of 
Bristol  by  the  hands  of  our  customs  there  for  the  time 
being,  at  Michaelmas  and  Easter,  by  even  portions. 
Wherefore  we  will  and  charge  you  that  under  our 
Great  Seal  ye  do  make  hereupon  our  Letters  patent 
in  good  and  effectual  form.  Given  under  our  Privy 
Seal,  at  our  Palace  of  Westminster,  the  I3th  day  of 
December,  the  I3th  year  of  our  Reign.' 

In  the  same  connection  follows  the  warrant  of  the 
22nd  of  February,  1498,  for  the  immediate  payment 
of  this  pension.  John  Cabot,  it  appears,  had  been 
unable  to  obtain  the  money  due  to  him,  because  the 
customs  officers  of  the  port  of  Bristol  raised  formal 
difficulties.  As  the  Issue- Warrant  recites  : — 

'Henry  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  England, 
etc.  To  the  Treasurer  and  Chamberlains  of  our 
Exchequer  greeting.  Whereas  we  by  our  warrant 
under  our  signet  for  certain  considerations  have  given 
and  granted  unto  John  Cabot  ^20  yearly  during  our 


94          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

pleasure  to  be  had  and  paid  by  the  hands  of  our 
Customers  in  our  port  of  Bristol,  and  as  we  be 
informed  the  said  John  Cabot  is  delayed  of  his  pay 
ment,  because  the  said  Customers  have  no  sufficient 
matter  of  discharge  for  their  indemnity  to  be  holden 
at  their  account  before  the  Barons  of  the  Exchequer, — 
Wherefore  we  will  and  charge  you  that  ye  our  said 
Treasurer  and  Chamberlains,  that  now  be  and  here 
after  shall  be,  until  such  times  as  ye  shall  have  from 
us  otherwise  in  commandment  do  to  be  levied  in 
due  form  two  several  tailles,  every  of  them  containing 
£  10,  upon  the  Customers  of  the  Revenues  in  our  said 
port  of  Bristol,  at  two  usual  terms  of  the  year,  whereof 
one  taille  to  be  levied  as  this  time  containing  ^10  of 
the  revenues  of  our  said  Port  upon  Richard  Meryk 
and  Arthur  Kemys  late  Customers  of  the  same,  and 
the  same  taille  or  tailles  in  due  and  sufficient  form 
levied  ye  deliver  unto  the  said  John  Cabot,  to  be  had 
of  our  gift  by  way  of  reward,  without  prest  or  any 
other  charge  to  be  set  upon  him  or  any  of  them  for 
the  same.  .  .  .  Given  under  our  Privy  Seal  at  our 
Manor  of  Shene  the  22nd  day  of  February  the  I3th 
year  of  our  reign.' 

|  Thus  the  delay  is  remedied,  the  first  payment  is 
made  sometime  after  Easter,  1498,  and  as  late  as  the 
summer  of  1499  we  find  John  Cabot,  on  his  return 
from  his  second  voyage,  drawing  this  pension- 
according  to  evidence  recently  brought  to  light  from 
the  Muniments  of  the  Chapter  of  Westminster.  And 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  95 

before  we  leave  this  matter  of  the  pension  we  may 
notice  that  in  these  documents  just  quoted,  as  in  the 
second  Letter  Patent,  of  February,  1498,  there  is  no 
mention  of  Sebastian  nor  of  any  other  son  or  associate 
of  John  Cabot.  All  the  credit  and  reward  for  the 
achievements  of  1497  are  assigned  to  John,  and  to 
him  alone. 

*  The  patent  for  the  second  voyage  authorised  John 
Cabot,  this  time  unassociated  with  any  co-grantees, 
to  proceed  with  six  ships  at  his  own  cost  and  under 
his  own  single  leadership  /  and  in  the  same  way 
Puebla,  Ayala,  and  Soncino  imply  that  he  was  en 
trusted  by  the  King  with  the  sole  responsibility  of  the 
second  as  of  the  first  expedition.  Even  the  applica 
tion  or  petition  now  bears  no  other  name  but  that  of 
the  head  of  the  house.  l  Please  it  your  Highness  to 
grant  unto  John  Kabotto,  Venetian,  your  gracious 
letters  patents  in  due  form  .  .  .  according  to  the 
tenor  hereafter  ensuing.' 

And  in  exactly  the  same  terms  runs  the  new  com 
mission  :  *  To  all  men  to  whom  these  presents  shall 
come  greeting.  Know  ye  that  we,  of  our  grace 
especial,  and  for  divers  causes  us  moving,  have  given 
and  granted  and  by  these  presents  give  and  grant 
to  our  well-beloved  John  Kabotto,  Venetian,  sufficient 
authority  and  power  that  he  by  his  deputy  or  deputies 
sufficient  may  take  at  his  pleasure  six  English  ships 
in  any  port  or  ports  or  other  place  within  this  our 
Realm  of  England  or  obeisant  to  that,  and  if  the  said 


96         BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

ships  be  of  the  burthen  of  200  tuns  or  under,  with 
their  apparel  requisite  and  necessary  for  the  safe  con 
duct  of  the  said  ships,  and  them  convey  and  lead  to 
the  land  and  Isles  of  late  found  by  the  said  John  in  our 
name  and  by  our  commandment^  paying  for  them  and 
every  of  them  as  and  if  we  should  in  or  for  our  own 
cause  pay  and  none  otherwise. 

c  And  that  the  said  John  by  him  his  deputy  or 
deputies  sufficient  may  take  and  receive  into  the  said 
ships  and  every  of  them  all  such  masters,  mariners, 
pages,  and  our  subjects,  as  of  their  own  free  will  will 
go  and  pass  with  him  in  the  same  ships  to  the  said 
Land  or  Isles  without  any  impediment,  let,  or  per- 
turbance  of  any  of  our  officers,  or  ministers,  or  sub 
jects,  whatsoever  they  be,  by  them  to  the  said  subjects 
or  any  of  them  passing  with  the  said  John  in  the  said 
ships  to  the  said  land  or  isles  to  be  done  or  suffered  to 
be  done  or  attempted.  Giving  in  commandment  to 
all  and  every  our  officers,  ministers,  and  subjects,  seeing 
and  hearing  these  our  letters  patent,  without  any 
further  commandment  by  us  to  them  or  any  of  them 
to  be  given,  to  perform  and  succour  the  said  John,  his 
deputy,  and  all  our  said  subjects  to-passing  with  him 
according  to  the  tenor  of  these  our  letters  patent. 
Any  statute  act  or  ordinance  to  the  contrary  made  or 
to  be  made  in  any  wise  notwithstanding.' 

As  already  noticed,  Sebastian  Cabot  is  not  named 
in  these  new  patents,  nor  in  any  official  records 
following  on  the  first  petition  and  commission  of 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  97 

March,  1497.  But  t^le  question  of  his  practical 
association  with  his  father  on  either  or  both  of  these 
voyages  is  another  matter,  and  has  been  usually  argued 
on  the  exact  reverse  of  the  evidence  supplied  by  the 
two  Letters  Patent.  From  these,  and  these  alone,  it 
would  seem  more  probable  that  Sebastian  went  on  the 
first  voyage  and  not  on  the  second — simply  because 
contemporary  documents  name  him  in  connection 
with  the  first  and  not  with  the  second. 

But  the  accounts  of  the  chroniclers,  from  Peter 
Martyr  downwards,  have  usually  appeared  to  fit  in 
better  with  the  second  voyage  of  1498  than  with 
the  first  of  1497  5  these  accounts  were  presumably 
derived  from  Sebastian  Cabot,  and,  with  certain 
details  excepted,  look  as  if  they  had  their  source 
in  the  evidence  of  an  eye-witness.  Again,  till 
recent  discoveries  showed  that  John  Cabot  was 
alive  in  1499,  ^  nas  been  often  conjectured  that 
he  may  have  perished  in  the  course  of  his  second 
expedition,  and  that  his  fleet  was  brought  home 
by  his  son.  And  by  one  of  the  chroniclers  above 
cited,  the  date  of  1498  is  specifically  given  for 
Sebastian's  great  discoveries  in  the  North- West,  while 
no  authority  whatever,  documentary  or  other,  has  ever 
stated  or  implied  (beyond  doubt)  that  Sebastian  sailed 
with  his  father  in  1497.  It  is  probable  nevertheless 
from  the  petition  and  authorisation  of  March,  1496, 
that  not  only  Sebastian,  but  also  Lewis  and  Sanctius, 
accompanied  John  Cabot  in  his  first  enterprise,  and 


Xs*  jV****-**  «  v 

/  OF 

¥      \ !  »<  i  \\  i  rr  t>  r> 


9^          BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

there  is  no  ground  for  supposing  that  the  case  was 
different  in  the  succeeding  venture.  We  have  no 
proof  either  way,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
likelihood  exists,  of  this  family  participation.  The 
mere  absence  of  demonstrative  evidence  in  this  detail 
cannot  warrant  anything  in  the  way  of  categorical 
denial.  We  shall  meet  this  question  again,  when  we 
find  the  English  Livery  Companies  refusing  to  accept 
Sebastian  Cabot  as  a  leader  to  the  North- West, 
because  he  had  never  been  there  himself  'albeit  he 
doth  make  report  as  he  hath  heard  his  father  and  other 
speak  in  time  past.' ' 

It  is  perhaps  after  all  not  so  much  to  the  venture  of 
1497  as  to  tne  larger  enterprise  of  1498  that  we  must 
refer  the  entry  in  the  Cottonlan  Chronicle  quoted  above,1 
which  is  in  all  probability  the  source  of  the  statements 
in  Stow  and  Hakluyt  professedly  derived  from  Robert 
Fabyan.  This  genuine  contemporary  record — a 
"  Chronicle  of  the  Kings  of  England  from  the  ist 
year  of  Henry  III.  to  the  ist  of  Henry  VIII."— 
gives  the  date  of  1497  (the  I3th  year  of  Henry  VII.) 
to  a  narrative  which  other  evidence  identifies  as  the 
story  of  the  second  Cabot  voyage  of  1498.  '  This 
year  the  King  at  the  busy  request  and  supplication 
of  a  Stranger  Venetian,  which  by  a  chart  made 
himself  expert  in  knowing  of  the  world  caused  to 
man  a  ship  with  victual  and  other  necessaries  for 

1  As  a   possible  solution  of  the   difficulty  as   to  the  number  of  ships 
engaged  in  the  venture  of  1497. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  99 

to  seek  an  island  wherein  the  said  stranger  surmised 
to  be  great  commodities  ;  with  which  ship  by  the 
King's  grace  so  rigged  went  three  or  four  more  out 
of  Bristol,  the  said  Stranger  being  conditor  of  the  said 
Fleet,  wherein  divers  merchants  as  well  of  London  as 
Bristol  adventured  goods  and  slight  merchandises. 
Which  departed  from  the  West  Country  in  the 
beginning  of  summer,  but  to  this  present  month  came 
never  knowledge  of  their  exploit.' 

The  account  attributed  to  Robert  Fabyan  by  Stow 
is  almost  precisely  similar.  <  14  Henry  VII.  This 
year  one  Sebastian  Gabato,  a  Genoa's  son  born  in 
Bristol,  professing  himself  to  be  expert  in  knowledge 
of  the  circuit  of  the  world  and  islands  of  the  same,  as 
by  his  charts  and  other  reasonable  demonstrations  he 
showed,  caused  the  King  to  man  and  victual  a  ship  at 
Bristol  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  Bristol  three 
or  four  small  ships  fraught  with  slight  and  gross  wares, 
as  coarse  cloth,  caps,  laces,  points,  and  such  other.' 

c  And  so  departed  from  Bristol  in  the  beginning  of 
May,'  adds  Hakluyt,  <  of  whom  in  this  Mayor's  time 

returned  no  tidings '  the  Mayor  in  question  being 

William  Purchas,  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  whose 
mayoralty  expired  on  the  28th  of  October,  1498,  and 
the  mention  of  whom  thus  fixes  the  meaning  of  the 
phrase  in  the  Cottonian  Chronicle  '  this  present  month.' 


TOO       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Once  more,  Pasqualigo  and  Soncino,  Puebla  and 
Ayala,  add  some  details  of  their  own  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  second  as  of  the  first  Cabotian  enterprise.  The 
King  of  England,  says  the  first,  on  this  occasion 
promised  to  equip  for  John  Cabot  no  fewer  than  ten 
ships,  granting  the  '  Great  Admiral,'  moreover,  the  use 
of  as  many  prisoners  as  he  needed  for  his  crews,  those 
only  excepted  who  were  lying  under  charge  of  high 
treason.  Soncino  makes  the  number  of  ships  mount 
to  twenty  ;  while,  as  we  have  seen,  the  letters  patent 
name  six,  and  Puebla  and  Ayala  in  their  Spanish  corre 
spondence,  speak  of  five. 

Almost  the  only  additional  information,  of  a  con 
temporary  and  first-hand  character,  which  we  have 
about  the  expedition  of  1498,  comes  also  from  the 
letters  of  the  last-named  ambassadors.  '  The  King  of 
England,'  says  Puebla,  in  an  undated  communication 
to  the  Spanish  Court,  probably  written  about  the 
2O-25th  July,  '  has  sent  out  five  armed  ships  with 
another  Genoese  like  Columbus  to  seek  for  the  isle 
of  Brazil  and  those  adjoining  to  it,  and  has  equipped 
these  ships  for  a  year.  They  say  that  they  will 
return  about  September.  By  the  route  which  they 
are  going  to  take,  it  is  evident  they  seek  the  same 
lands  that  your  Highnesses  possess.  The  King  has 
spoken  to  me  several  times  about  it,  and  he  seems  to 
take  very  great  interest  in  the  same.  I  believe  that 
what  they  seek  is  about  four  hundred  leagues  distant." 
To  the  same  effect,  but  more  definitely,  Ayala  writes 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  101 

on  July  25th  to  the  'Catholic  Kings '  :  '  I  think  your 
Majesties  have  already  heard  that  the  King  of  England 
has  equipped  a  fleet  in  order  to  discover  certain  islands 
and  continents  which  he  was  informed  some  people 
from  Bristol,  who  manned  a  few  ships  for  the  same 
purpose  last  year,  had  found.  I  have  seen  the  map 
which  the  discoverer  has  made,  who  is  another  Genoese, 
like  Columbus,  and  who  has  been  in  Seville  and  Lisbon, 
asking  assistance  for  his  discoveries.  The  people  of 
Bristol  have,  for  the  last  seven  years,  sent  out  every 
year  two,  three,  or  four  light  ships  (caravels)  in  search 
of  the  island  of  Brazil  and  the  Seven  Cities,  according 
to  the  fancy  of  this  Genoese.  The  King  determined 
to  send  out  (ships)  because  the  year  before  [1497] 
they  brought  certain  news  that  they  had  found  land. 
His  fleet  consisted  of  five  vessels,  which  carried  pro 
visions  for  one  year.  It  is  said  that  one  of  them,  in 
which  one  Friar  Buil  *  went,  has  returned  to  Ireland 
in  great  distress,  the  ship  being  much  damaged. 
The  Genoese  has  continued  his  voyage.  I  have 
seen,  on  a  chart,  the  direction  which  they  took, 
and  the  distance  they  sailed,  and  I  think  that  what 
they  have  found  or  what  they  are  in  search  of,  is  what 


1  Probably  a  corruption  of  an  English  name,  not  Fray  Bernardo  Buyl, 
sent  with  Columbus  on  his  second  voyage  by  commission  from  the  Pope, 
as  has  been  suggested.  Ruysch,  the  famous  cartographer,  who  was  an 
ecclesiastic,  is  supposed  on  some  fairly  plausible  evidence  to  have  sailed 
with  John  Cabot  on  his  second  voyage,  and  it  has  been  suggested,  with 
out  much  probability,  that  the  *  Buil '  here  named  may  be  '  Ruysch  '  in 
a  corrupted  form. 


loz        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

your  Highnesses  already  possess,  because  it  is  next 
to  that  which  your  Majesties  have  secured  by  the 
convention  with  Portugal.  [Treaty  of  Tordesillas.] 
It  is  expected  that  they  will  be  back  in  the  month 
of  September.  I  write  this  because  the  King  of 
England  has  often  spoken  to  me  on  this  subject, 
and  he  thinks  that  your  Highnesses  will  take  great 
interest  in  it.  I  think  it  is  not  further  distant 
than  four  hundred  leagues.  I  told  him  that  in  my 
opinion,  the  land  was  already  in  the  possession  of 
your  Majesties ;  but  though  I  gave  him  my  reasons,  he 
did  not  like  them.  I  believe  that  your  Highnesses  are 
already  informed  of  this  matter  ,•  and  I  do  not  now 
send  the  chart  or  mappa  mundi  which  that  man  [John 
Cabot]  has  made,  and  which,  according  to  my  opinion, 
is  false,  since  it  makes  it  appear  as  if  the  land  in 
question  was  not  the  said  islands'  [/.*.,  those  possessed 
by  Spain]. 

These  letters  are  the  main  sources  of  our  reliable 
information  on  this  enterprise  ;  but  it  is  in  the  highest 
degree  probable  that  King  Henry  VII. 's  grants  to 
various  adventurers  at  this  time  are  in  connection  with 
the  Cabot  fleet  of  1498.  Thus  on  March  22  (1498), 
he  lends  ^20  to  Launcelot  Thirkill  cfor  his  ship  going 
towards  the  new  land;'  and  on  April  1st  of  the  same 
year  ^30  to  Launcelot  Thirkill  and  Thomas  Bradley, 
and  40  shillings  to  John  Carter,  c  going  to  the  new 
isle.'  We  may  notice  that  there  is  a  certain  conflict 
of  authority  about  the  expenses  of  the  undertaking. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  103 

The  letters  patent  imply  that  the  King  lent  six  ships, 
and  that  Cabot  paid  for  their  maintenance,  repair, 
victual,  and  so  forth,  during  the  voyage^  the  Cottonlan 
Chronicle^  on  the  other  hand,  suggests  that  one  ship 
was  both  provided  and  equipped  by  the  King,  and  that 
three  or  four  others  were  provided  by  merchants  of 
London  and  Bristol ;  the  loans  above  cited  would 
seem  to  prove  that  the  King  advanced  considerable 
aid  to  others  besides  Cabot  on  this  venture  : — nearly 
^650  in  modern  money  is  lent  by  him  to  Thirkill, 
Bradley,  and  Carter. 

Lastly,  we  have  from  Soncino,  in  the  already  cited 
letter  of  December  18,  1497,  to  the  Duke  of  Milan,  an 
allusion  of  some  interest.  '  Before  startino;  on  his  new 

O 

attempt  '  Master  John  '  told  the  Milanese  Ambassador 
that  his  purpose  was  from  the  place  already  occupied 
to  proceed  by  constantly  following  the  shore  till  he 
reached  the  East  and  was  opposite  Cipango  [Japan] 
situated  in  the  equinoctial  region.  On  his  previous 
voyage,  as  Pasqualigo  learnt,  he  supposed  that  he 
had  reached  the  land  of  the  'Great  Khan'  [China]. 
Here  ends  all  our  really  contemporary  evidence  about 
this  second  voyage.  We  do  not  know  where  John 
Cabot  went  (except  for  the  statement  of  his  intentions 
just  quoted),  or  when  he  returned  (except  that  from 
the  Hakluyt  entry  transcribed  above,  it  would  seem  to 
have  been  after  October  28,  1498).  Till  lately  we 
did  not  even  know  whether  he  ever  returned  at  all. '' 
The  recent  discoveries  in  the  Westminster  Chapter 


104        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

muniments  show  us  that  he  did  return,  and  was  draw 
ing  his  pension  far  on  in  the  next  year,  1499 ;  the  map 
of  Juan  *  de  la  Cosa  (A.D.  1500)  points,  to  an  exten 
sive  coasting  of  the  North  American  (or  as  La  Cosa 
probably  considered  it,  the  Asiatic)  mainland,  such  as 
Sebastian  Cabot  and  others  repeatedly  and  misleadingly 
referred  to  the  time  of  the  first  voyage.  It  was  pro 
bably  now,  and  not  earlier,  that  Cabot  c  directed  his 
course  so  far  towards  the  North  Pole  that  even  in  the 
month  of  July  he  found  monstrous  heaps  of  ice  swim 
ming  on  the  sea,  and  in  manner  continual  daylight'; 
it  was  now  probably  that  he  was  c  brought  so  far  into 
the  South,'  that  c  it  was  there  almost  equal  in  latitude 
with  the  sea  called  Fretum  Herculeum  '  ;  it  was  now 
probably  that  c  in  the  latitude  of  67  J  degrees  under  the 
North  Pole,  on  the  nth  of  June  finding  still  the  sea 
open  without  any  manner  of  impediment,  he  thought 
verily  by  that  way  to  have  passed  on  ...  to  Cathaio  which 
is  in  the  East '  ;  it  is  to  this  year,  1498,  that  we  must 
refer  the  still  more  advanced  and  more  doubtful  claim 
of  having  navigated  as  far  South  as  Florida.  Once 
more,  it  was  probably  now,  if  ever,  that  Cabot  entered 
Hudson's  Bay  (as  he  did  according  to  one  tradition), 
and  l  gave  English  names  to  sundry  places  therein.' 

1  La  Cosa's  NW.  land  S.  of  the  English  flags  is  probably  meant  for 
Asia,  just  as  in  Ruysch's  Atlas  of  1508  the  Terra  Nova  is  depicted  as  a 
little  piece  of  land  joined  on  to  Asia  in  about  the  position  of  our  Corea. 
It  has  also  been  argued  that  La  Cosa's  Map,  in  this  quarter,  only  shows 
the  Southern  coast  of  Labrador  and  not  the  mainland  of  North  America 
to  the  South  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 


THE    EXGLISH    DISCOVERIES    l)\    JIAN    DK    I. A    COSA's    MAI'    <>F    I5OO. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  105 

The  famous  map  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa  already  men 
tioned  (the  only  contemporary  plan  which  bears  closely 
upon  these  Cabotian  voyages,  and  the  first  known 
design  which  contains  any  part  of  the  New  World), 
was  executed  in  1500,  between  April  and  October  in 
that  year.  It  was  the  work  of  a  Biscayan,  the  most 
eminent  and  skilful  of  Spanish  pilots  in  this  age  ;  and 
its  'North-West'  coast  was  probably  based  in  part 
upon  Cabot's  chart  of  the  first  voyage,  supposed  to 
have  been  sent  to  Spain  some  time  at  least  before  July, 
1498.  It  is  not  necessary  to  confine  its  information 
to  these  earlier  data  ;  in  all  likelihood  La  Cosa  had 
before  him  in  1500  equally  full  evidence  of  Cabot's 
explorations  on  his  second  voyage  of  1498.  On  this 
map  we  have,  west  of  Cuba,  a  continental  coast  line 
which  stretches  north  to  the  end  of  the  sheet,  adorned 
with  a  row  of  English  flags.  At  the  southern  end  of 
these  flags  is  the  legend  '  Sea *  discovered  by  the 
English  '  ;  at  the  northern  is  the  answering  inscription, 
c  Cape  of  England.'  Between  these  are  twenty 
inscriptions,  presumably  derived  from  Cabot's  dis 
coveries.  But  very  little  can  be  gathered  from  them. 
They  run  as  follows  :  I.  Mar  descubierta  por  Ingleses 
(4th  and  5th  flags).  2.  Cabo  descubierto.  3.  C.  de 
S.Jorge.  4.  Lago  fori.  5.  Anfro  (3rd  flag).  6.  C. 
Lucia.  7.  S.  Lucia.  8.  Requilia.  9.  Lus-quei. 


1  By  some  this  has  been  conjectured  to  refer  to  Verrazano's  inland  sea, 
viz.,  either  the  Northern  Pacific  or  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  then 
unnamed. 


io6        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

10.  De  Lisarte.  n.  Meniste.  12.  Argare.  13. 
Forte.  14.  Ro  longo.  15.  Isla  de  la  Trinidad  (2nd 
flag).  1 6.  Cabo  de  S.  Juan.  17.  S.  Nicolas.  18. 
Agron.  19.  C.  Sastanatre.  20.  Cabo  de  Ynglaterra 
(ist  flag).  21.  S.  Grigor.  22.  I.  Verde. 

Among  these  names  we  notice  that  one  is  applied  to 
a  sea,  ten  to  bays  or  inlets  of  that  sea,  eight  to  capes  or 
headlands,  one  to  a  river,  one  to  a  lake,  three  to  islands 
— while  five  saints  are  indicated  in  the  nomenclature. 
The  coast  depicted  seems  clearly  to  indicate,  however 
much  distorted  in  general  direction,  a  part  of  the 
North  American  mainland,  and  not  merely  as  some 
have  suggested,  the  south  coast  of  the  island  of  New 
foundland.  Correcting  the  error  of  inclination,  and 
assuming  a  coastline  (from  the  Central  American  main 
land  near  Cuba)  with  a  main  course  to  the  north  instead 
of  the  east,  most  students  of  this  map  would  probably 
conclude  that  the  coast  marked  by  the  English  flags 
represented  the  eastern  shore  of  the  United  States 
and  of  Canada  from  about  Cape  Hatteras  to  Cape 
Breton  or  Cape  Race.  But  when  we  come  to  exa 
mine  the  names  themselves,  and  endeavour  to  gain 
greater  precision  from  them,  we  are  met  with  consider 
able  difficulties.  Most  of  them  convey  no  meaning  even 
to  the  most  laborious  students  of  contemporary  carto 
graphy,  and  are  found  on  no  other  map  known  to  us. 
All  the  identifications  with  various  points  on  the  South 
Coast  of  Newfoundland,  proposed  by  some  critics,  fall 
to  the  ground  in  the  face  of  the  general  impossibility 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  107 

of  scale.  The  extent  of  land  marked  by  the  English 
flags  is  so  immeasurably  too  vast  for  such  limitation 
that  one  feels  it  hopeless  to  convince  the  plain  man  of 
the  correspondence,  not  merely  between  Cabo  de 
Ynglaterra  and  Cape  Race,  which  is  possible  enough, 
but  also  between  Isla  de  la  Trinidad  and  Burin 
Peninsula,  Cabo  de  S.  Jorge  and  Cape  Ray,  Cabo 
descubierto  and  Cape  Breton  ;  still  less  can  we 
hope  to  persuade  him  that  the  '  deep  bay  '  between 
the  latter  indicates  the  channel  between  Cape  Breton 
Island  and  Newfoundland.  As  pointed  out  before, 
it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  limit  La  Cosa's  data  for 
this  coast  to  those  supplied  by  the  first  voyage  of 
1497  5  there  was  abundance  of  time  and  opportunity 
for  him  to  gain  full  information  about  the  achieve 
ments  of  the  second  voyage,  whose  mainland  coasting 
c  to  about  the  latitude  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,'  is  in 
all  probability  here  depicted,  though  with  such  strange 
distortion  of  general  direction.1 

The  names  of  saints  to  be  found  in  this  part  of 
La  Cosa's  map  might  have  been  expected  to  afford  us 
some  assistance,  as  it  was  common  enough  to  name 
a  new-found  point,  river,  inlet,  or  island,  after  the 
saint  on  whose  day  it  was  discovered.  But  both  the 
voyages  of  1497  and  1498  seem  to  have  been  accom 
plished  between  the  beginning  of  May  and  the  end 
of  November  at  furthest  ;  while  of  the  saints  here 

1  A  distortion  partly  due  no  doubt  to  the  '  Asiatic  '  preconceptions  of 
the  draughtsman. 


io8        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

named — St.  Gregory,  St.  Nicholas,  St.  Lucia,  St. 
George  and  St.  John — the  days  of  St.  Nicholas  and 
St.  Lucia  fall  on  December  6th  and  December  I3th, 
that  of  St.  George  on  April  23rd,  that  of  St.  Gregory 
on  March  I2th  ;  the  Nativity  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
June  24th,  is,  as  we  have  heard  already,  the  day 
claimed  for  the  Prima  Vista.  Thus  only  one  of  these 
names  gives  us  any  help  towards  fixing  the  day  of  a 
discovery  ;  for  only  one  falls  within  the  time  fixed  by 
our  authorities  (and,  in  the  case  of  the  second  expedi 
tion,  by  reasonable  probability)  as  that  of  Cabot's  first 
or  second  voyage. 

It  is  possible,  as  Sir  Clements  Markham  has  sug 
gested,  that  the  two  islands  of  '  S.  Grigor '  and  '  I. 
Verde,'  placed  to  the  extreme  end  of  the  La  Cosa 
map,  beyond  the  Cabo  de  Ynglaterra,  may  represent 
the  present  isles  of  Miquelon  and  St.  Pierre,  and 
correspond  to  those  which  Cabot  bestowed  on  his 
barber-surgeon  and  his  Burgundian  (or  Azorean?) 
companion  ;  but  if  so,  of  course  they  are  wrongly 
placed,  and  with  the  readjustment  of  direction  already 
proposed  it  would  be  more  natural  to  imagine  them  to 
be  two  parts  of  Newfoundland,  which,  as  the  map  of 
1544  shows  us,  was  only  misconceived  as  a  number  of 
islets  instead  of  one  large  island. 

Jjohn  Cabot  then,  we  may  suppose,  started  on  his 
second  voyage  in  the  beginning  of  May,  1498,  at 
tempted  to  penetrate  to  Asia  by  the  North- West, 
was  foiled  (about  June  nth),  then  coasted  along  the 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  109 

East  shore  of  the  American  mainland  to  Cape  Hatteras, 
if  not  to  Florida,  and  returned  to  England  some  time 
subsequent  to  October  28th  in  the  same  year,  after 
a  voyage  so  extensive  as  to  give  a  pretty  thorough 
trial  to  the  expectations  of  its  promotors,  so  ambitious 
as  to  arouse  the  envy  of  Spain,  and  so  far  successful 
as  to  make  his  child  and  heritor,  Sebastian,  the  chief 
authority  in  Europe  upon  questions  of  North- West 
geography.// 

We  have  an  interesting  confirmation  of  the  safe 
return  of  part,  at  least,  of  the  expedition  in  the  fact 
that  Launcelot  Thirkill  who,  as  we  have  seen,  almost 
certainly  accompanied  Cabot  on  his  start  in  May, 
1498,  again  appears  in  documentary  history  in  1501. 
On  the  6th  of  June  of  that  year  he  is  stated  to  be  in 
London,  and  along  with  three  others  is  c  bounden  in 
two  obligations '  to  pay  at  Whitsunday  next  ^2O — 
either  the  King's  loan  of  22nd  of  March,  1498,  or 
another  debt — and  besides  this  he  is  noticed  as  owing 
for  '  that  day  twelvemonth  40  marks  for  livery  of 
Flemings'  lands.'  On  the  other  hand,  Portuguese 
explorations  of  later  time  professed  to  have  found 
certain  relics  which  might  indicate  the  destruction  of 
part  of  Cabot's  fleet.  In  October,  1501,  the  consort 
of  Caspar  Corte  Real  reappeared  in  Lisbon,  from  the 
North  American  coast,  bringing  a  piece  of  a  broken 
sword,  gilded,  of  Italian  workmanship,  and  relating  that 
two  silver  rings  of  Venetian  make  had  been  seen  upon 
a  boy  who  was  a  native  of  the  North- West  country. 


no        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

It  was  probably  owing  to  this  second  voyage  of 
John  Cabot  that  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  took  alarm 
at  supposed  English  incursions  on  Spanish  privileges, 
and  ordered  Alonzo  de  Hojeda  to  check  the  intruders. 
This  order  was  conveyed  to  him  on  June  8,  1501, 
when  he  was  on  the  point  of  starting  for  the  Carib 
bean  Sea  ;  and  in  this  connection  we  may  recall  the 
repeated  declarations  of  Puebla  and  Ayala  that  John 
Cabot  in  his  enterprises  was  trespassing,  had  trespassed, 
or  was  about  to  trespass,  on  the  rights  of  the  Catholic 
Kings,  which,  in  their  widest  extent,  were  applied  to 
all  new  found  lands  whatever  lying  west  of  a  meridian 
drawn  one  hundred  leagues  west  of  the  Azores.1 

I  Why  so  little  has  been  recorded  in  English  sources 
about  either  of  these  two  first  national  enterprises  in 
American  waters  must  remain,  like  much  of  the  later 
gossip,  on  which  we  often  have  to  rely  for  the  Cabotian 
claims,  an  unsolved  problem, — only  made  more  per 
plexing  by  the  way  in  which  the  two  expeditions 
have  evidently  been  confused.  All  that  can  be 
said  is  that  the  national  interest  in  exploration 
was  not  really  awakened  till  the  North-East  adventure 
of  1553  and  the  consequent  Russian  trade  ;  that  in 
the  earlier  sixteenth  century  Englishmen  only  thought 
of  the  New  Found  Land  as  a  cod-fish  country  ;  that 
the  King  and  the  merchants  who  assisted  Cabot  were 
probably  alike  disgusted  that  he  brought  back  no  gold 
and  gems,  silks  and  spices  ;  that  the  failure  to  find  a 

T  By  (3rd)  Bull  of  Alexander  VI.,  May  4,  1493. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  in 

North-West  passage  to  the  Indies  was  a  disappointment 
deep  enough  to  make  them  undervalue  what  had 
actually  been  done  ;  and  that  jealousy  of  the  foreigner, 
who  had  led  these  earliest  ventures,  also  contributed 
towards  this  extraordinary  apathy  on  our  part.  1| 


NOTE. 

The  *  S.  Juan  '  of  Cosa's  map  may  refer  to  St.  John  the  Evangelist, 
whose  day  falls  on  December  zjth.  This  would  remove  our  last  help 
from  hagiology  towards  the  interpretation  of  the  questions  discussed 
on  pp.  105-8. 


CHAPTER   VII 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT  I  HIS  LIFE  TO  1512 — QUESTION 
OF  SEBASTIAN'S  BIRTHPLACE  —  ESTIMATE  OF 
SEBASTIAN'S  CHARACTER — ALLEGED  VOYAGE  OF 
I5O2 ITS  POSSIBLE  SOURCE ALLEGED  VOYAGE 

OF    1508-9 

WE  have  already  alluded  to  certain  points  in  connection 
with  the  life  and  claims  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  and  so 
far  we  have  arrived  at  the  following  results  : — Firstly, 
various  and  conflicting  statements  have  been  seen  to 
exist  about  his  birthplace  ;  but  the  balance  of  probability 
inclines  to  Venice,  rather  than  to  Bristol.  Secondly, 
it  is  certain  that  he  was  a  co-grantee  with  his  father 
in  the  first  letters  patent  of  Henry  VII.,  granted  in 
March,  1496.  Thirdly,  it  is  not  equally  certain, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  questionable,  whether  he  actually 
accompanied  his  father  on  the  first  voyage  of  1497. 
This,  however,  is  possible.  Fourthly,  it  is  plain  that 
he  had  no  part  in  the  second  patent  of  1498.  Fifthly, 
we  cannot  be  either  more  or  less  certain  of  his  share 
in  the  voyage  of  1498  that  in  that  of  1497.  One 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  113 

of  these   points,   however,   must  now  be  examined  a 
little  more  closely. 

As  to  the  first :  Sebastian  told  Richard  Eden  that 
he  was  born  in  England,  at  Bristol,  but  taken  to 
Venice  when  he  was  four  years  old,  and  that  this 
was  the  only  foundation  for  the  story  of  his  Italian 
origin.1  On  the  other  hand,  he  told  Gaspar 
Contarini,  the  Venetian  Ambassador  in  Spain,  in  1522, 
with  equal  directness  and  greater  emphasis,  that  he 
was  '  born  in  Venice,  but  brought  up  in  England.' 
Contarini's  successor,  Andrea  Navagero,  in  1524,  also 
describes  him  as  a  Venetian,  like  Ramusio  and  the 
<  Mantuan  gentleman  '  whose  interview  with  Sebastian 
is  reproduced  by  Ramusio.  Again  as  late  as  I551 
the  Council  of  Ten  writing  to  their  Ambassador  in 
England,  describe  him  as  *  our  most  faithful  Sebastian 
Cabot,'  just  as  the  chief  of  the  Ten  in  1522  states 
that  Cabot  had  declared  himself  to  be  c  of  our  city.' 
The  Twelve  Great  Livery  Companies  of  London, 
protesting  in  1521  against  the  employment  of  Sebastian 
in  a  North-West  venture,  plainly  imply  that  they 


1  It  is  only  fair  to  notice  that  Eden  attaches  great  weight  to  this 
statement,  as  he  obtained  it  of  set  purpose  from  Sebastian  with  the 
avowed  object  of  settling  finally  the  true  story  of  his  birthplace,  and 
meeting  the  '  Venetian '  advocates.  But,  on  his  death-bed,  Sebastian 
talked  with  just  as  much  emphasis  to  Eden  about  the  divine  revelation 
vouchsafed  him  for  finding  the  longitude  '  yet  so  that  he  might  not  teach 
any  man' — forcing  the  Englishman  to  conclude  that  he  was  'somewhat 
doted.'  It  was  a  natural  thing  to  pass  himself  off  as  an  Englishman  in 
England  ;  and  his  talk  is  too  generally  incoherent  and  suspicious  for  us 
to  attach  much  value  to  the  statement  about  his  Bristol  birthplace. 


ii4       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

consider  him  as  of  foreign  birth  ;  so,  apparently, 
though  in  vaguer  terms,  did  Peter  Martyr,  writing 
in  1515,  and  Oviedo,  who  speaks  of  him  as  'by  origin 
Venetian  and  brought  up  in  the  island  of  England.' 
Sebastian  must  have  been  at  least  twenty-one  in  1496! 
when  Henry  VII.  granted  his  first  letters  patent  to 
the  Cabots, — as  such  letters  (in  which  he  appeared  as 
a  co-grantee)  could  not  be  issued  to  minors.  It 
is  not  probable  he  was  born  before  1461,  when  his 
father's  term  of  probation  began  for  Venetian  citi 
zenship  :  John  had  to  '  keep  a  residence '  in  Venice 
from  1461  to  1476  ;  and  we  have  nothing  positive 
to  show  us  he  had  removed  and  settled  in  England 
before  1491.  The  probability  therefore  is  that  all 
his  sons  were  born  in  Venice.  As  against  this  we  have 
only  Sebastian's  statement  to  Eden,  and  Ferdinand  of 
Aragon's  allusion  to  him,  on  his  entering  the  Spanish 
service  in  15 122  as  'Sebastian  Caboto,  Englishman. '3 

We  have  already  discussed  the  question  of  Sebastian's 
personal  companionship  with  his  father  in  the  enter 
prises  of  1497-8,  and  expressed  our  qualified  belief  in 

1  /.£•.,  born  in  1475.    ^n  I535  wnen  figuring  as  a  witness  in  a  Spanish 
lawsuit,  Sebastian  declared  himself  to  be  '  50  years  old  and  upwards ' — 
i.e.  born  before  1485. 

2  After  a  long  residence  in  England,  where  of  late  he  had  been  doing 
work  for  the  Government. 

3  In   the   same   way,  Edward    Hayes  or   Haies,  writing  in    1583   an 
account  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert's  expedition  to  '  Newfoundland,'  says  : 
4  The  first  discovery  of  those  coasts  .  .  .  was  well  begun  by  John  Cabot 
the  father  and  Sebastian  the  son,  an  Englishman  born.'     To  like  purpose 
writes  Sir  George    Peckham,  an  adventurer  with  Gilbert,  also  in  1583  ; 
and  Richard  Hakluyt  in  his  Western  Planting,  in  1584. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  115 

this,  at  least  as  a  probability  ;  but  it  is  unfortunate  that 
the  younger  Cabot's  words  and  works  occasionally  are 
the  reverse  of  a  support  to  our  belief.  For  one  thing,  his 
alleged  map  of  1544  shows  an  inaccuracy  so  remarkable 
as  to  Newfoundland,  yet  so  closely  corresponding  to 
certain  Dieppese  maps  of  the  time  (especially  one  by 
Nicholas  Desliens,  of  1541)  that  the  suspicious  critic 
might    easily    persuade    himself  that  the  former    was 
copied  from  the  latter,  without  any  correction  from 
first-hand  knowledge,  such  as  Sebastian   should  have 
possessed,  if  he  had  ever  accompanied  his  father  to  the 
New  World.    Again,  the  positive  disbelief  expressed  by 
our  London  Livery  Companies  in  1521,  and  by  certain 
Spanish  captains,  as  recorded  by  Peter  Martyr  in  1515, 
may    be    discounted    by    the    national   jealousy    of   a 
foreigner,  which  would  readily  take  advantage  of  any 
obscurity    of  title  ;    but    Sebastian    himself  uses  very 
strange  language  about  this  matter  in   1535,  while  in 
the  service  of  Charles  V.     He  is  speaking  as  a  witness 
in   a  lawsuit,   and   in  answer    to   a    question    on    the 
claims  of  the  descendants  of  Columbus  in  the  New 
World,  he  declares  that  as  regarded  Florida,  and  the 
4  Baccallaos,'  he  could  not  say  whether  it  were  all  one 
continent  or  no,  without  any  break  or  sea  intervening. 
This  may  well  have  been  interested  evidence  given  by 
an  official  of  the  Spanish  Government,  as  Cabot  then 
was,    to    rebut    the    claims   of   the   Columbus    family 
against   that  same   Government.      We   are   far   from 
pressing  this  enigmatical  utterance  of  his,  and  in  spite 


ii6       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of '  his '  map  we  are  inclined,  as  already  said,  to  believe 
that  he  had  actually  visited  the  North- West  both  in 
1497  and  1498,  but  these  points  we  have  just  noticed 
hardly  strengthen  our  confidence.  At  any  rate  of  one 
thing  we  may  be  sure,  Sebastian's  share,  however  real, 
was  unimportant.  He  probably  did  take  part  with  his 
father  in  the  actual  perils  and  discoveries  of  1497  and 
1498.  But  as  regards  these,  Henry  Stevens's  formula 
holds  good — 'Sebastian  Cabot  minus  John  Cabot  =  o.' 
'  We  have  now  come  to  the  point  at  which  we  lose 
sight  of  John  Cabot.  It  is  clear  that  he  returned 
from  his  second  great  voyage  ;  he  was  drawing  the 
pension  allowed  him  by  Henry  VII.  in  the  year  1499  5 
after  this  we  have  no  glimpse  of  him  ;  and  although 
we  cannot  now  indulge  in  the  pleasant  fancies  of  an 
earlier  time  as  to  his  heroic  death  in  some  adventure 
of  the  enterprise  of  1498,  yet  it  is  probable,  from  the 
language  of  Peter  Martyr  and  Ramusio  (as  well  as 
from  the  new  patent  granted  to  the  Anglo-Portuguese 
Syndicate  on  the  igth  of  March,  1501),  that  he  must 
have  died  soon  after — perhaps  in  1500.  From  this 
time  Sebastian  maintains  the  fame  and  credit  of  the 
family.  ^ 

And  here  it  must  be  said  that,  however  damaging 
appearances  may  sometimes  be  for  Sebastian's  credit,  it 
is  hardly  fair  to  regard  him  as  a  mere  charlatan,  a  man 
who  did  nothing  but  trade  upon  his  father's  repu 
tation,  a  professed  cartographer  without  any  real 
science,  a  professed  discoverer  without  any  real  achieve- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  117 

ment.  True  the  claims  made  by  him  or  for  him  to 
superiority  over,  or  even  to  equal  eminence  with,  his 
father  during  his  father's  lifetime  must  be  dismissed  as 
fabulous — but  in  the  long  period  during  which  he 
acted  as  Chief  Pilot  of  Spain  and  England,1  he  must 
have  possessed  some  attainments  to  justify  his  high 
position  and  to  keep  him  in  it  against  the  envy  and 
competition  of  rivals.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  he 
could  have  enjoyed — to  so  remarkable  a  degree  as  he 
did — the  confidence  of  Henry  VIII.,  of  Cardinal 
Wolsey,  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  of  Charles  V.,  of 
Edward  VI.  and  his  chief  advisers,  of  the  Republic  of 
Venice — if  he  was  simply  the  clever  but  absolutely 
empty  humbug  he  has  been  represented.  His  instruc 
tions  for  the  English  enterprise  of  Chancellor  and 
Willoughby  in  1553  at  least  show  good  sense  and 
practical  knowledge  of  the  requirements  of  such  an 
expedition.  Charles  V.  would  hardly  have  saved  him 
as  he  did  from  the  almost  successful  attack  of  his 
enemies  after  the  La  Plata  voyage  if  he  had  not 
attached  a  very  high  value  to  his  services  ;  and  the 
same  is  shown  by  the  Emperor's  anxiety  to  retain  him 
in  his  employ  after  Sebastian's  final  removal  from  Spain 
to  England  (1547). 

Students  of  geography  and  history  like  Peter 
Martyr  and  Ramusio,  practical  men  like  Contarini,  the 
Council  of  Ten,  and  the  contemporary  sovereigns  and 

1  Here  he  did  not  hold  this  title,  but  seems  to  have  practically  held  the 
office  first  technically  created  for  Stephen  Burrough  in  1563. 


n8        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

chief  ministers  of  Spain  and  England,  seem  to  have 
held  an  exalted  opinion  of  Sebastian's  capacities  ;  and 
we  must  not  allow  too  much  weight  to  language 
which  may  have  been  partly  inspired  by  racial  and 
national  jealousy. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  best 
evidence  is  very  damaging  to  Sebastian's  claims  and 
character  ;  he  seems  to  have  aimed  at  appropriating 
his  father's  credit  ;  he  undoubtedly  intrigued  with 
Venice  while  holding  employment  and  taking  pay 
from  the  Governments  of  Spain  and  England. 
Further,  he  gives  on  various  occasions  perfectly  incon 
sistent  accounts  of  the  same  event ;  in  that  age  of 
vague  knowledge  and  vast  hopes  he  cannot  be  excused 
from  the  charge  of  sometimes  trading  on  the  ignorance 
and  credulity  of  ambitious  men,  and  making  pre 
tensions  which  were  either  untrue  in  the  light  of  past 
fact,  or  impossible  from  the  standpoint  of  later  achieve 
ment  and  final  verification.  All  that  we  would  plead 
for  is  some  allowance  of  possible  merit,  in  face  of  the 
great  difficulty  in  otherwise  crediting  some  parts  of  the 
success  of  his  life. 

A  third  Cabot  voyage  under  the  English  flag  has 
been  conjectured  from  Stow's  note,  professedly  drawn 
from  Fabyan's  Chronicle  under  A.D.  1502,  the  i8th 
of  Henry  VIL,  when  there  were  'brought  unto  the 
King  three  men  taken  in  the  new  found  Islands  by 
Sebastian  Gabato  .  .  .  these  men  were  clothed  in 
beast  skins,  and  ate  raw  flesh,  but  spake  such  a  Ian- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  119 

guage  as  no  man  could  understand  them  ;  of  the 
which,  two  were  seen  in  the  King's  court  at  West 
minster  two  years  afterwards  clothed  like  Englishmen 
and  could  not  be  discerned  from  Englishmen.' 
But  we  have  no  other  evidence  of  such  a  voyage  of 
Sebastian  Cabot's  made  at  this  time.  On  the  other 
hand,  Henry  VII.  on  March  19,  1501-2,  granted  new 
letters  patent  for  a  Western  voyage  to  an  Anglo- 
Portuguese  Syndicate  composed  of  three  Englishmen 
— Richard  Ward,  Thomas  Ashehurst,  and  John 
Thomas  of  Bristol ;  and  three  Portuguese — John 
Fernandez,  Francis  Fernandez,  and  John  Gonsalvez  of 
the  Azores.1  It  was  probably  a  venture  conducted  by 
these  men  which  brought  over  the  captive  American 
Indians  referred  to  by  Fabyan  and  Stow.  The  rights 
of  these  new  grantees  are  especially  guarded  by  their 
letters  patent :  'And  let  none  of  our  subjects  drive  them, 
or  any  of  them,  from  their  title  and  possession  over 
and  in  the  said  main-lands,  islands,  and  provinces,  in 
any  manner  against  their  will,  and  let  not  any 
foreigner  or  foreigners  attempt  the  like,  by  virtue  or 
colour  of  any  previous  grant  made  by  us  under  our  Great 

1  Here  perhaps  is  some  confirmation  of  Mr.  Prowse's  theory  about  the 
Burgundian  (=  Azorean  ?)  companion  of  John  Cabot  on  the  voyage  of 
1497.  To  this  conjecture  some  additional  force  is  given  by  Santa  Cruz's 
derivation  of  the  name  of  Labrador.  '  So  called  because  it  was  discovered 
and  indicated  by  a  labourer  (Lavrador)  from  the  Azores  to  the  King  of 
England,  when  he  sent  out  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  Anthony  [=  John] 
Gabot,  an  English  pilot  and  the  father  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  at  present 
Pilot-Major  to  the  Emperor.'  See  Santa  Cruz's  Is/arlo,  fol.  56,  written 
about  1545. 


izo        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Seal,  or  which  may  be  made  hereafter  with  any  other 
places  and  islands.'  This  last  clause,  though  struck 
out  with  the  pen,  must  have  been  aimed,  in  its  original 
form,  at  the  Cabots,  the  only  foreigners  who,  as  far  as 
we  know,  could  have  disputed  the  ground  '  by  virtue 
or  colour  of  any  previous  grant '  from  the  Crown  of 
England  ;  and  we  may  fairly  assume  that  the  privi 
leges  bestowed  in  the  grants  of  1496  and  1498  were 
now  held  to  be  expired.  The  death  of  John  Cabot 
was  probably  the  sufficient  reason  for  this  new 
departure. 

The  Syndicate  of  Ashehurst  and  his  friends  may  be 
supposed  to  have  succeeded  in  their  first  venture,  of 
A.D.  1501-2  ;  for  letters  patent  are  granted  them  for 
a  second  expedition,  this  time  with  another  associate, 
Hugh  Elliott  of  Bristol,  on  December  9,  1502  ;  a 
pension  is  bestowed  on  Fernandez  and  Gonsalvez  in 
September  of  the  same  year ;  and  other  entries  of 
rewards  occur  at  this  time  in  the  Privy  Purse  expenses 
of  Henry  VII.1  (A.D.  1502)  referring  to  this  or 
similar  ventures  of  Bristol  seamen.  Thus,  *  January 
7,  1502,  to  men  of  Bristol  that  found  the  Isle  ^5" ; 
and  again,  'September  24,  1502,  to  the  merchants  of 

1  Another  expedition  of  this  time  seems  indicated  in  a  gift  of  £2  on 
April  8,  1504  'to  a  prest  that  goeth  to  the  new  island.'  On  September 
[?]  25,  1515,  we  have  another  entry,  of  a  somewhat  similar  character, 
'£5  to  Portingals  that  brought  popinjays  and  cats  of  the  mountain  with 
other  stuff  [from  the  new  found  island]  to  the  King's  Grace.'  These 
are  not  products  of  the  Baccallaos  region  ;  they  were  probably  brought 
from  Brazil  to  Lisbon  and  thence  to  England  by  Portuguese  seamen,  who 
were  quite  unconnected  with  English  explorations. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  121 

Bristol  that  have  been  in  the  New-found-Land  ^20.' 
Lastly,  there  is  a  reference  to  the  Portuguese  asso 
ciates  of  Ashehurst  and  Elliott  in  a  warrant  issued  on 
December  6,  1503,  for  the  payment  of  the  pension 
already  granted  to  Francis  Fernandez  and  John 
c  Guidisalvus.' 

'  Whereas  we  by  our  letters  patent  under  our  Privy 
Seal,  bearing  date  at  our  Manor  of  Langley  the  26th 
day  of  September  the  i8th  year  of  our  reign,  gave  and 
granted  unto  our  trusty  and  well-beloved  subjects 
Francis  Fernandus  and  John  Guidisalvus,  squires,  in 
consideration  of  the  true  service  which  they  have  done 
to  us  to  our  singular  pleasure  as  captains  unto  the 
New  Found  Land,  unto  either  of  them  ten  pounds 
yearly,  during  pleasure  to  be  had  ...  of  the 
Revenues  ...  of  our  Customs  within  our  port  of 
Bristol  by  the  hands  of  the  customers  there  ...  We 
will  that  ye  from  henceforth  from  time  to  time  and 
year  to  year  do  to  be  levied  several  tailles  containing 
the  .  .  .  sum  of  ^20  upon  the  customers  of  our  said 
port  .  .  .  unto  the  time  ye  shall  have  from  us  other 
wise  commandment  by  writing.' 

No  letters  patent,  so  far  as  we  know,  were  issued  by 
the  English  Government  for  transatlantic  ventures 
between  John  Cabot's  second  commission,  granted  in 
1498,  and  that  issued  to  Ward,  Ashehurst,  Thomas, 
and  their  Portuguese  companions  on  March  19,  1501 
— so  that  these  grants  of  January  and  September, 
1502,  above  noticed,  do  probably — as  that  of 


122       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

December,    1503,    does    certainly — refer   to  the  new 
Syndicate. 

The  grant  of  January  7,  1502,  may  also  be  fairly 
interpreted  to  mean  that  the  Syndicate  had  success 
fully  accomplished  its  first  enterprise,  and  the  warrant 
of  December  6,  1503,  notes  that  the  pension  to 
Francis  Fernandez  and  John  Guidisalvus  or  Gonsalvez 
was  originally  granted  on  September  26,  1502,  'in 
consideration  of  the  true  service  which  they  have  done 
unto  us  to  our  singular  pleasure  as  captains  unto  the 
New  Found  Land,' — probably  on  the  same  expedition 
as  that  just  referred  to,  viz.,  one  undertaken  in  the 
summer  of  1502. 

The  best  evidence,  therefore,  rather  points  against  a 
voyage  of  Sebastian  Cabot  in  1501.  or  1502  ;  but  this 
is  not  the  only  (alleged)  event  of  his  career  between 
his  father's  death  and  his  entry  into  the  Spanish  service 
in  1512,  and  we  must  briefly  notice  the  scattered 
allusions  to  other  enterprises  in  this  period  of  his  life. 

According  to  a  loose  statement  attributed  to  Sebas 
tian  himself,  he  was  entrusted  by  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  with  the  charge  of  an  expedition  to  Brazil, 
which  is  otherwise  unrecorded.  This  must  have 
been  before  November  26th  of  the  year  1504,  when 
Queen  Isabella  died — if  the  story  is  to  be  credited — 
but  it  must  remain  a  very  doubtful  matter.  As  against 
it,  we  find  Sebastian  in  the  service  of  the  English 
Government  as  late  as  1512,  and  referred  to  in  a 
Spanish  document  of  that  year  as  an  Englishman  :  his 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  123 

wife  I  and  household  were  domiciled  in  England  as 
late  as  October,  1512.  Appearances  are  certainly  in 
favour  of  his  having  then  first,  and  not  before,  trans 
ferred  his  services. 

Again,  some  allusions  are  made  by  Marc  Antonio 
Contarini,  Venetian  Ambassador  in  Spain,  in  1536, 
which  have  been  construed  by  some  as  referring  to  a 
voyage  of  Sebastian's  in  the  last  year  of  Henry  VII. 
(1508-9).  c  Sebastian  Caboto',  says  Contarini,  'being 
the  son  of  a  Venetian  who  repaired  to  England  on 
galleys  from  Venice,  with  the  notion  of  going  in 
search  of  countries  .  .  .  obtained  two  ships  from 
Henry,  King  of  England,  father  of  the  present  Henry, 
and  navigated  with  three  hundred  men  till  he  found 
the  sea  frozen.  Caboto  was  forced  therefore  to  turn 
back  without  accomplishing  his  object,  with  the  in 
tention  of  renewing  the  attempt.  But  upon  his 
return  he  found  the  King  dead,  and  his  son  caring 
little  for  such  an  enterprise.' 

M.  Harrisse  considers  that  Contarini's  account  from 
the  bearing  of  all  except  the  last  sentence  refers  to 
the  first  transatlantic  voyage  of  1497.  In  support  of 
this,  he  notices  especially  how  the  voyage  seems  to 
have  been  made  in  consequence  of,  and  shortly  after, 
John  Cabot's  arrival  in  England  with  '  galleys  from 
Venice ' ;  how  the  two  ships,  the  three  hundred 

1  This  first  wife  must  have  died  soon  after  ;  for  soon  after  entering 
the  Spanish  service  Sebastian  married  Catalina  Medrano,  evidently  a 
Spaniard,  who  is  said  to  have  acquired  great  influence  over  him. 


124       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

men,  the  frozen  sea,  all  tally  with  statements  made 
by  Sebastian  to  Peter  Martyr  and  others  about  the 
original  Cabotian  voyage  ;  and  how  there  exists  no 
other  evidence  for  the  claim  of  such  an  enterprise 
in  1508-9. 

Yet,  unless  we  are  to  refuse  all  the  statements 
emanating  from  Sebastian  himself  and  not  corroborated 
by  documentary  evidence,  it  is  perhaps  rash  to  deny 
the  possibility  of  this  story.  Contarini  is  an  excellent 
witness — -at  any  rate  to  the  fact  that  he  was  informed 
exactly  as  he  has  recorded — and  his  suggestion,  to  our 
thinking,  rests  on  a  somewhat  better  foundation  than 
the  assertion  of  a  Cabotian  enterprise  in  1501—2. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

SEBASTIAN     TRANSFERS    HIS    SERVICES    TO    SPAIN,    15 1 2 

HIS      EMPLOYMENT      AND      OFFICES      THERE 

ASSERTED     RETURN     TO     ENGLAND     AND     VOYAGE 

IN   SERVICE    OF    HENRY    VIII.,   1516-7 EVIDENCE 

FOR      THIS THE     INTENDED     ENGLISH     VENTURE 

OF      1521 PROTEST     OF     THE     LONDON     LIVERIES 

AGAINST    SEBASTIAN 

Now  we  come  to  Sebastian's  career  in  the  Spanish 
service  ;  and  even  at  the  outset,  and  upon  such  a 
simple  matter  as  the  time  of  his  removal  from 
England  to  Spain,  we  are  met  by  the  old  difficulties 
and  contradictions.  Peter  Martyr,  his  c  very  friend^ 
who  probably  writes  from  Sebastian's  inspiration,  tells 
us  that  c  he  was  called  out  of  England  by  com 
mand  of  the  Catholic  King  of  Castille,  after  the 
death  of  Henry,  King  of  England,  the  seventh  of 
that  name.'  He  thus  implies  that  Ferdinand  invited 
Cabot  to  his  Court  in  or  about  1509,  and  that  the 
invitation  was  immediately  accepted.  On  the  other 
hand,  Spanish  documents  mention  the  name  of  Sebastian 

125 


126        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Cabot  in  1512  for  the  first  time — and  mention  it  'in 
terms  and  under  circumstances '  which  imply  that  his 
arrival  in  the  Peninsula  was  not  earlier  than  the  afore 
said  year,  and  was  due  originally  '  to  his  own  initiative.' 
Sebastian  had  just  received  twenty  shillings 
[=^12]  from  the  Government  of  Henry  VIII. 
for  a  map  seemingly  drawn,  in  May,  1512,  to  aid 
the  English  troops  in  their  expedition  now  made 
against  Aquitaine,1  and  he  accompanied  Lord  Wil- 
loughby  de  Brooke  to  the  same  parts  at  this  very 
time.  England  and  Spain,  Henry  VIII.  and  Ferdinand, 
were  allied  in  this  attack  upon  the  South  of  France, 
and  Cabot's  opportunity  was  easy.  His  English  friends 
seem  to  have  rather  helped  than  hindered  his  applica 
tion  for  Spanish  employment;  on  September  13,  1512, 
King  Ferdinand  wrote  to  Lord  Willoughby  request 
ing  that  c  Sebastian  Cabot,  Englishman,'  might  be 
sent  on  to  confer  with  him  at  Logrorio,  and  on 
the  same  day  corresponded  with  Cabot  direct,  on 
the  subject  of  the  North-West  navigation.  The 
fetter  accordingly  proceeded  to  Burgos,  where  he 
conferred  with  Conchillos,  the  Secretary  of  Queen 
Juana,  and  the  Bishop  of  Palencia,  on  behalf  of  the 
King  of  Spain,  whom  he  must  have  persuaded  of 
his  capacity  to  gratify  him  in  the  matter  of  the 
c  secret  of  the  new  land.'  For  now,  as  afterwards, 
Sebastian  was  commonly  supposed  to  have  special 

1  '  Paid  Sebastian  Tabot  making  of  a  card  of  Gascoigne  and  Guyon 
(Gascony  and  Guyenne)  zos.' 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  127 

information  about  the  Cod  Fish  country  that  his 
father  had  explored,  and  to  be  able,  if  any  man 
were,  to  find  the  Western  passage  by  the  North,  for 
which  so  eager  search  was  being  made.  Nine  years 
later  Magellan  found  such  a  passage  by  the  South  ; 
in  1512  hope  was  equally  sanguine,  or  equally  cast 
down,  about  both  possibilities,  both  extremities  of 
the  New  World.  Only  the  year  before  King 
Ferdinand  had  planned  to  send  out  Juan  de  Agra- 
monte  with  Breton  pilots  on  a  Western  voyage,  which 
was  probably  in  search  of  the  North- West  passage  ;  now, 
with  one  of  John  Cabot's  sons  in  his  service,  he  might 
take  up  these  plans  with  better  prospect  of  success. 

Thus  Sebastian  now  suddenly  appears  as  an 
important  person,  by  his  transference  to  a  Court 
where  discovery  and  exploration  were  valued  more 
highly  than  in  England.  On  October  20,  1512,  he 
is  appointed  a  naval  captain  of  Spain,  with  a  salary 
of  fifty  thousand  maravedis.  On  the  strength  of 
this  he  seems  next  to  have  brought  over  his  family 
from  England  to  Seville,  the  Spanish  Ambassador 
in  London  aiding  him  with  a  loan  of  money  ;  and, 
now  fairly  settled  in  Spain,  he  is  at  once  consulted 
(6th  of  March,  1514)  about  a  new  project  of  dis 
covery.  Fifty  ducats  were  granted  him  on  this 
occasion  to  help  him  to  '  come  to  Court  and  consult 
with  his  Highness  about  the  matters  of  the  journey 
of  discovery ' ; J  but  we  hear  no  more  about  it, 

1  Las  cosas  del  viaje  que  ha  de  llevar  a  descubrir. 


128        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

except  that  Peter  Martyr,  in  1515,  may  be  alluding 
to  the  same  in  his  words  :  '  Cabot  .  .  .  was  made 
one  of  our  counsel  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.1  This  voyage  is  appointed  to  be  begun 
in  March  next,  1516.'  We  may  also  suppose  that 
a  further  grant  of  ten  thousand  maravedis  on  June  1 3, 
1515,  to  Cabot,  'fleet  captain  of  matters  of  the 
Indies,'  and  his  appointment  as  pilot  to  the  King  in 
the  same  year,  refer  to  this  projected  but  apparently 
unaccomplished  North- Western  venture. 

Next  we  come  to  the  alleged  voyage  of  1516-17, 
once  more  in  the  English  service.  Ferdinand  of 
Aragon  died  January  23,  1516  ;  Charles,  the  new 
king,  did  not  reach  Spain  till  the  end  of  1517  ;  and 
on  February  5,  1518,  he  appointed  Cabot  Pilot- 
Major  of  Spain.  In  the  interval  between  these  two 
events  Sebastian  is  supposed  to  have  come  to  Eng 
land,  and  made  a  voyage  in  the  service  of  Henry 
VIII.  when  that  king  had  reigned  seven  or  eight 
years.  Richard  Eden,  in  his  translation  of  the  fifth 
part  of  Sebastian  Munster's  Cosmography,  adds  an 
epistle  dedicatory  to  the  Duke  of  Northumber 
land,  then  (1553)  Lord  Protector  of  England,  in 
which  he  refers  to  this  abortive  attempt  as  an 
instance  of  the  lack  of  discovering  spirit  among 
some  of  his  countrymen  :  '  Our  sovereign  Lord 

1  The  North- West  passage. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  129 

King  Henry  VIII.  (says  the  Treatise  of  the  New 
India},  about  the  same  year  of  his  reign,1  furnished 
and  sent  forth  certain  ships  under  the  governance  of 
Sebastian  Cabot,  yet  living,  and  one  Sir  Thomas 
Perte,  whose  faint  heart  was  the  cause  that  voyage 
took  none  effect.'  Again,  Ramusio,  in  the  Pre 
liminary  Discourse  prefixed  by  him  to  the  third 
volume  of  his  Collection  of  Voyages,  inserts  a 
passage  whose  general  tone  exactly  corresponds  to 
the  one  just  quoted  from  Eden,  but  which  we  have 
already  noticed  as  probably  intended  to  refer  to  the 
first  Cabotian  enterprise  of  I49/.2  A  Thomas  Pert, 
or  Spert,  yeoman  of  the  Crown,  is  known  to  have 
commanded  two  ships  of  the  Royal  Navy  between 
1512  and  1517 — the  Mary  Rose  and  the  Great 
Harry ;  but  all  English  references  to  this  voyage 
narrow  themselves  down  to  the  statement  of  Eden, 
repeated  as  it  is  by  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Hakluyt, 
and  others  ;  and  it  is  certainly  remarkable  that  we 


1  /.£.,  according  to  context,  1516  or  1517. 

3  '  As  many  years  past  it  was  written  unto  me  by  Signer  Sebastian 
Gabotto,  our  Venetian,  a  man  of  great  experience  and  very  rare  in  the 
art  of  Navigation  and  the  knowledge  of  Cosmography,  who  sailed  along 
and  beyond  this  land  of  New  France,  at  the  charges  of  King  Henry  VII. 
of  England.  And  he  advertised  me  that  having  sailed  a  long  time  west- 
and-by-north  beyond  those  islands  unto  the  latitude  of  67^  degrees  under 
the  North  Pole,  and  at  the  nth  day  of  June,  finding  still  the  sea  open 
without  any  manner  of  impediment,  he  thought  verily  by  that  way  to 
have  passed  on  still  the  way  to  Cathaio,  which  is  in  the  East ;  and  he 
would  have  done  it  if  the  mutiny  of  the  shipmasters  and  mariners  had 
not  hindered  him,  and  made  him  to  return  homewards  from  that  place.' 


130       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

have  no  independent  account  of  so  important  a 
venture. 

Again,  this  attempt,  if  made,  would  surely  dis 
count  very  much  the  protest  of  the  Livery  Com 
panies,  made  only  five  years  afterwards,  in  1521, 
when  they  objected  to  the  demand  of  Henry  VIII. 
and  Cardinal  Wolsey  for  the  equipment  of  an 
'  American '  expedition  under  Sebastian  Cabot,  and 
declared  the  latter  to  be  an  impostor,  well  known 
as  such,  without  any  real  knowledge  of  the  North- 
West  countries  or  passage,  although  a  glib  reciter  of 
the  tales  of  other  men. 

In  support  (or  criticism)  of  the  alleged  fiasco  of 
1516—17  we  may  notice  that  a  mutiny  causing 
very  similar  results  occurred  in  Hugh  Elliott's 
journey  of  1502,  and  that  Robert  Thorne  refers 
to  this  in  his  famous  letter  of  1527  to  King 
Henry  VIII.  Robert's  father  Nicolas  had  accom 
panied  Elliott  on  this  voyage  to  the  West,  and  the 
son  declares  as  to  the  possibility  of  their  success,  that 
it  could  not  be  doubted,  'as  now  plainly  appeareth, 
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,  for  all  is  one  coast.' 

Again,  a  similar  allusion  to  such  a  break-down 
occurs  in  a  curious  dramatic  poem  belonging  to  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  pro- 
bablv  written  about  1517  or  a  little  later.  Speaking 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  131 

of  the  new  land  in  the  West,  the  work  in  question 
(A  new  Interlude  and  a  Merry  of  the  nature  of 
the  Four  Elements,  declaring  many  proper  points  of 
philosophy  natural  and  of  divers  strange  lands  and 
of  divers  strange  effects  and  causes  .  .  .  )  denounces 
with  vigour  the  cowardice  and  backwardness  of 
English  sailors  towards  enterprises  of  discovery. 

In  this  play  one  character,  named  Experience,  whom 
some  have  supposed  wildly  enough  to  represent  Sebastian 
Cabot  himself,  describes  some  of  the  adventures  of  an 
ancient  mariner  of  the  time  : 

Right  far,  sir,  I  have  ridden  and  gone, 

And  seen  strange  things  many  one 

In  Afric,  Europe,  and  Inde ; 

Both  East  and  West  I  have  been  far, 

North  also,  and  seen  the  South  Star, 

Both  by  sea  and  land. 

Then,  as  if  he  had  a  map  before  him,  and  were  point 
ing  his  listener  to  it,  he  continues  : 

There  lieth  Iceland,  where  men  do  fish  ; 
But  beyond  that  so  cold  it  is 
No  man  may  there  abide. 
This  sea  is  called  the  Great  Ocean, 
So  great  it  is  that  never  man 
Could  tell  it  sith  the  world  began, 
Till  now,  within  this  twenty  year, 
Westward  we  found  new  lands 


132        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

That  we  never  heard  tell  of  before  this, 

By  writing  nor  other  means. 

Tet  many  now  have  been  there, 

And  that  country  Is  so  large  of  room — 

Much  larger  than  all  Christendom — 

Without  fable  or  guile  ; 

For  divers  mariners  have  it  tried, 

And  sailed  straight  by  the  coast  side 

Above  five  thousand  mile. 

But  what  commodities  be  within 

No  man  can  tell,  nor  well  imagine ; 

But  yet  not  long  ago, 

Some  men  of  this  country  went, 

By  the  Kings  noble  consent, 

It  for  to  search  to  that  intent, 

And  could  not  be  brought  thereto  ; 

But  they  that  were  the  venturers 

Have  cause  to  curse  their  mariners, 

False  of  promise,  and  dissemblers, 

That  falsely  them  betrayed ; 

Which  would  take  no  pain  to  sail  further 

Than  their  own  lust  and  pleasure, 

Wherefore  that  voyage  and  divers  others 

Such  caitiffs  have  destroyed. 

O  what  a  thing  had  been  then, 

If  that  they  that  be  Englishmen 

Might  have  been  first  of  all  ,• 

That  they  should  have  taken  possession, 

And  made  first  building  and  habitation 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  133 

A  memory  perpetual ; 

And  also  what  an  honourable  thing, 

Both  to  the  Realm  and  to  the  King, 

To  have  had  his  dominion  extending 

There,  into  so  far  a  ground, 

Which  the  noble  King  of  late  memory, 

The  most  wise  Prince,  the  Vllth  Harry, 

Caused  first  to  be  found* 

The  date  of  this  most  curious  passage  has  been  by 
some  fixed  at  about  1510-11,  because  of  the  allusion, 
c  Within  this  twenty  year,  westward  we  found  new 
lands.' 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  Columbus  is  not  named  in  the  whole  play, 
and  that  the  finding  of  the  new  lands  westward 
'  within  this  twenty  year '  is  distinctly  ascribed  to 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  whose  earliest  pretended  voyage 
was  made  in  1497.  Thus  the  Interlude  elsewhere  : 

But  these  new  lands  found  lately 
Be  called  America,  because  only 
Americus  did  first  them  find. 

This  would  bring  the  time  of  composition  to  about 
1516-17,  and  the  date  is  absolutely  fixed  to  the  year 
1519—20  by  an  additional  piece  of  evidence,  if  this 
may  be  accepted.  The  only  existing  copy  of  the 
Interlude  is  in  the  British  Museum ;  it  was  once  the 

1  See  for  more  about  the  Interlude,  Appendix,  pp.  279-82. 


134        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

property  of  David  Garrick,  the  actor  ;  the  colophon 
is  now  missing,  but  Garrick  has  presumably  supplied 
its  place  with  a  manuscript  note,  c  First  impression 
dated  25th  Oct.,  n  Henry  VIII.'  On  the  first 
blush  we  might  well  suppose  that  the  passage  quoted 
refers  to  the  abortive  venture  of  1516—17,  as  described 
by  Eden  and  Hakluyt.  The  most  suspicious  critics  have 
admitted  the  possibility  of  an  English  expedition  to  the 
West  at  the  time  aforesaid,  and  of  Sebastian  Cabot  as 
a  sharer  in  the  command.  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  as 
we  have  said,  died  at  the  beginning  of  A.D.  1516  ;  it 
appears  beyond  question  that  the  voyage  mentioned  by 
Martyr  as  projected  by  the  old  king  for  that  year  under 
Sebastian's  leadership  did  not  take  place,  and  Cabot  may 
have  returned  to  England  to  pick  up  any  good  offer 
in  the  uncertain  interval  between  the  death  of  his 
older  patron  and  his  appointment  as  Pilot-Major  by 
Charles  V.  on  February  3,  1518.  It  may  also  be 
worth  considering  whether  the  legacy  (four  shillings 
and  fourpence)  of  the  Reverend  William  Mychell  to 
Sebastian's  daughter,  under  date  of  May  7,  1516,  is 
not  another  evidence  of  Cabot's  alleged  visit  to 
England  at  this  time.  As  a  downward  limit  for  the 
expedition  recorded  by  Eden  we  may  also  notice  that 
Thomas  Spert,  on  loth  of  July,  1517,  collected  his 
charges  for  ballasting  his  ship  the  Mary  Rose  in  the 
Thames;  so  the  venture  spoiled  by  his  'faintheart' 
(if  it  be  the  same  man)  must  have  taken  place  before 
this.  Indeed,  if  it  is  to  be  strictly  in  accord  with 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  135 

the   date    given,  c  the  eighth  year  of  Henry  VIII.'  it 
must  have  been   between   April    15,  1516,  and  April 


One  other  point  remains  to  be  noticed  about  this 
alleged  expedition.  If  Eden,  as  quoted  above,  gives 
us  a  true  statement,  there  were  plans  of  treasure- 
hunting,  if  not  of  buccaneering,  as  well  as  of  discovery. 
For  'if,'  says  our  author,  'such  manly  courage  where 
of  we  have  spoken  had  not  at  that  time  been  wanting, 
it  might  haply  have  come  to  pass  that  that  rich 
treasury  called  Perularia  (which  is  now  in  Spain  in 
the  City  of  Seville,  and  so  named  for  that  in  it  is 
kept  the  infinite  riches  brought  thither  from  the  new 
found  land  of  Peru)  might  long  since  have  been  in 
the  town  of  London." 

But  whether  Sebastian  Cabot  did  or  did  not  take 
part  in  the  alleged  voyage  of  1517,  it  seems  pretty 
certain  that  he  was  thought  of  by  Henry  VIII.  and 
Cardinal  Wolsey  as  a  fit  person  to  command  an  English 
expedition  intended  for  the  year  1521. 

In  February  of  that  year  the  King  of  England, 
through  Sir  Robert  Wynkfeld  and  Sir  Wolston  Brown, 
made  the  following  demands  upon  the  twelve  great 
Livery  Companies  of  London  :  —  c  To  furnish  five  ships 
after  this  manner.  The  King's  Grace  to  prepare  them 
in  tackle,  ordnance,  and  all  other  necessaries  at  his 
charge.  And  also  the  King  to  bear  the  adventure 
of  the  said  ships.  And  the  merchants  and  companies 
to  be  at  the  charge  of  the  victualling  and  men's  wage 


136        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  the  same  ships  for  one  whole  year,  and  the  ships 
not  to  be  above  VIXX  tons  apiece.  And  that  this  City 
of  London  shall  be  as  head  rulers  for  all  the  whole 
realm  for  as  many  cities  and  towns  as  be  minded  to 
prepare  any  ships  forwards  for  the  same  purpose  and 
voyage,  as  the  town  of  Bristol  hath  sent  up  their 
knowledge  that  they  will  prepare  two  ships.'  These 
vessels  were  required  *  for  a  voyage  into  the  new  found 
Island,'  and  the  command  was  to  be  given,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Liveries'  reply  to  'one  man,  called  Sebastian,' 
viz.,  Sebastian  Cabot. 

To  secure  the  compliance  of  the  Companies,  they 
were  offered  the  following  privileges  :  Firstly,  c  That 
ten  years  after  there  shall  no  nation  have  the  trade 
but '  the  Companies  ;  secondly,  '  And  to  have  respite 
for  their  custom  XV.  months  and  XV.  months.' 

Thus  the  bait  was  made  as  attractive  as  possible, 
but  the  Companies  were  not  satisfied,  and  they  returned 
an  answer  full  of  objections,  as  follows  : — 

'The  answer  of  the  Wardens  of  Drapers  of  London 
with  the  assent  and  consent  of  the  most  part  of  all 
their  Company,  unto  a  bill  lately  sent  unto  them  by 
the  Wardens  of  the  Mercers  of  London  containing 
the  appointment  of  five  ships  to  be  prepared  towards 
the  New-Found-Land. 

'  First  the  foresaid  Wardens  and  Company  of  Drapers 
suppose  and  say  that  if  our  Sovereign  Lord  the  King's 
Highness,  the  Cardinal's  Grace,  and  the  King's  most 
honourable  Council,  were  duly  and  substantially 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  137 

informed  in  such  manner  as  perfect  knowledge  might 
be  had  by  credible  report  of  masters  and  mariners 
naturally  born  within  this  realm  of  England,  having 
experience  and  exercised  in  and  about  the  foresaid 
island,  as  well  in  knowledge  of  the  land,  the  due 
courses  of  the  sea  thitherward  and  homeward,  as  in 
knowledge  of  the  havens,  roads,  ports,  creeks,  dangers, 
and  shoals  there  upon  that  coast  and  thereabouts  being, 
that  then  it  were  the  less  jeopardy  to  adventure 
thither,  than  it  is  now,  although  it  be  further  hence 
than  few  English  mariners  can  tell.  And  we  think  it 
were  too  sore  adventure  to  jeopard  five  ships  with  men 
and  goods  into  the  said  Island  upon  the  singular  trust 
of  one  man  called  as  we  understand  Sebastian,  which 
Sebastian,  as  we  hear  say,  was  never  in  that  land  himself, 
all  if  he  makes  report  of  many  things  as  he  hath  heard 
his  father  and  other  men  speak  in  times  past.  And 
also  we  say  that  if  the  said  Sebastian  had  been  there, 
and  were  as  cunning  a  man  in  and  for  those  parts  as 
any  man  might  be,  having  none  other  assistance  of 
masters  and  mariners  of  England  (exercised  and 
laboured  in  the  same  parts  for  to  guide  their  ships  and 
other  charges)  than  we  know  of,  but  only  trusting  to 
the  said  Sebastian,  we  suppose  it  were  no  wisdom 
to  adventure  lives  and  goods  thither  in  such  manner. 
What  for  fear  of  sickness  or  death  of  the  said  Sebastian 
or  for  dissevering  of  the  said  five  ships  by  night  or  by  day, 
by  force  of  tempests  or  otherwise  one  from  another  out 
of  sight,  for  then  it  should  be  greatly  to  doubt  whether 


138        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

ever  these  five  ships  should  meet  again  in  company  or 
nay,  for  the  said  Sebastian  cannot  be  but  in  one  ship, 
then  the  other  four  ships  and  men  stand  in  great  peril 
for  lack  of  cunning  mariners  in  knowledge  of  those 
parts  and  to  order  and  guide  them  ;  and  so  the  victual 
and  men's  wages  shall  be  spent  in  vain  ...  for  it  is 
said  among  mariners  in  old  proverb  "  He  sails  not 
surely  that  sails  by  another  man's  compass."  Also  we 
say  that  it  is  not  possible  for  the  said  five  ships  besides 
their  ballast  may  receive  the  victuals  to  suffice  so 
many  men  for  one  whole  year.  So  that  we  think  verily 
that  in  this  adventure  can[not]  be  perceived  any 
advantage  or  profit  to  grow  unto  any  man  .  .  .  ' 

Finally,  the  Royal  Commissioners  appointed  to  sound 
the  Companies  obtained  the  following  reply  c  from  the 
Wardens  of  XI  Companies.'  c  That  their  Companies 
be  willing  to  accomplish  the  King's  desire  and 
pleasure  in  furnishing  of  two  ships  accordingly,  and  they 
suppose  to  furnish  the  third,  so  that  one  may  bear  with 
another  indifferently  of  XI  Fellowships  assembled 
with  the  Aldermen  of  the  same.  .  .  .  And  the  said 
Wardens  desire  to  have  longer  respite  for  a  full  answer 
therein  to  be  given.' 

To  all  which  cthe  said  Commissioners  brought  answer 
from  my  Lord  Cardinal  that  the  King  would  have  the 
promises  to  go  forth  and  to  take  effect.  And  there 
upon  my  Lord  the  Mayor  was  sent  for  to  speak  with 
the  King  for  the  same  matter.  So  that  his  Grace  would 
have  no  nay  therein,  but  spake  sharply  to  the  Mayor 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  139 

to  see  it  put  in  execution  to  the  best  of  his  power.' 
The  Mayor  accordingly  convened  the  Drapers  in  the 
hall  of  the  Fraternity  *  where  was  with  great  labour 
and  diligence  and  many  divers  warning[s]  granted 
first  and  last  two  hundred  marks  '  on  the  26th  of  March, 
1521.  This  grant  was  formally  stated  to  be  'towards 
mariners'  wages  and  victualling  of  certain  ships  for  one 
voyage  to  be  made  .  .  .  unto  the  new  found  island.' 
The  Mayor  himself,  Sir  John  Brugge,  headed  the  list 
with  j£8  ;  seventy-eight  of  the  c  Masters  and  Livery  ' 
contribute  in  a  first  list  of  more  honourable  names  ;  a 
second  roll  follows,  of  Bachelors,  who  give  smaller 
sums,  tailing  down  to  contributions  of  twelve  pence 
or  about  twelve  shillings  in  money  of  our  value. 

Sir  Thomas  Lovell,  K.G.,  Steward  and  Marshal  of 
Henry  VIII.,  apparently  had  charge  of  the  personal 
conveyance  of  Cabot  from  Spain  to  England  at  this 
time ;  and  he  employed  the  services  of  one  John 
Goderyk  of  Fowey  in  this  matter  of  trans-shipment. 
Among  the  debts  acknowledged  in  LovelPs  will 
(February  18,  1523)  is  one  of  £2  43.  3d.  to  the  said 
John  Goderyk,  c  in  satisfaction  and  recompense  of  his 
charge,  costs,  and  labour  in  conducting  of  Sebastian 
Cabot,  Master  of  the  pilots  in  Spain,  to  London, 
at  the  request  of  the  testator.' 

On  the  other  hand,  Cabot  himself  told  Caspar 
Contarini  (in  1522)  that  three  years  before,  viz., 
in  1519,  Cardinal  Wolsey  had  asked  him  to  take 
charge  of  an  expedition  across  the  Atlantic  in  the 


140        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

English  service,  but  that  he  had  rejected  the  offer, 
saying  that  his  obedience  was  due  to  the  King  of 
Spain  and  that  he  could  not  put  himself  at  the 
disposal  of  any  other  monarch  without  the  permis 
sion  of  Charles.  Further,  he  wrote  to  the  latter, 
according  to  his  own  account,  declining  beforehand 
any  offer  the  King  of  England  might  make  to 
him.  The  offer  here  referred  to  is  almost  certainly 
the  same  which  led  to  the  protest  of  the  London 
Livery  Companies  ;  but  in  spite  of  Sebastian's  visit, 
and  the  subscription  so  grudgingly  commenced, 
nothing  seems  to  have  come  of  the  project,  and  Cabot 
returned  to  Spain — not  to  leave  it  again  till  after  the 
accession  of  Edward  Tudor. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE    VENETIAN    INTRIGUE    OF     1522 THE    LA    PLATA 

VOYAGE     OF     1526-30 THE     LAWSUIT    OF     1535 

— ACTS    OF    SEBASTIAN    IN    SPAIN    1540-47 

ON  the  collapse  of  the  plan  of  1521,  Sebastian  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  connected  with  England  in  any 
way  for  many  years.  True  in  1538  he  seems  to  have 
endeavoured  to  re-establish  himself  in  this  country, 
but  the  scheme  did  not  apparently  go  beyond  a  con 
versation  with  Henry  VIII. 's  ambassador  in  Spain,  and 
it  was  not  till  1547  that  the  project  was  seriously 
resumed. 

The  career  of  Sebastian  Cabot  in  the  Spanish  service 
is  the  best  known  and  in  some  respects  the  most 
important  part  of  his  life,  but  we  are  obliged  here  to  pass 
over  it  somewhat  briefly,  as  our  main  attention  must 
be  given  to  his  connection  with  England.  In  general, 
we  may  notice  that  in  this  time  he  gained  considerable 
reputation  as  a  cartographer  and  a  learned  geographer, 

but   failed  miserably  as  a  practical  explorer  and  com- 

141 


i42        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

mander  of  naval  expeditions.  As  <  Pilot-Major, 
c  Pilot  of  His  Majesty,'  '  Naval  Captain,'  and  <  Fleet 
Captain,'  his  primary  duties,  taking  one  time  with 
another,  were  to  examine  and  license  pilots,  to  teach 
cosmography,  to  keep  maps  and  instruments  up  to 
date  by  incorporating  all  new  knowledge  which  had 
been  sufficiently  tested,  to  register  all  geographical 
discoveries  in  the  official  chart  kept  by  the  Spanish 
Government — in  a  word,  his  work  was  scientific,  and  as 
such  seems  to  have  given  full  satisfaction.  It  is  equally 
certain  that  the  only  practical  exploring  enterprise 
undertaken  by  him  in  these  years — the  only  one,  at 
least,  of  which  we  have  any  account,  viz.,  that  to  the 
La  Plata — gave  as  great  dissatisfaction  and  was  pretty 
nearly  ruining  his  career. 

The  first  incident  of  this  period  to  which  we  may 
devote  some  attention  is  the  negotiation  or  intrigue  of 
Sebastian  with  Venice  in  1522.  In  this  some  have 
perceived  an  c  element  of  conscious  insincerity,'  but 
we  must  briefly  recount  the  facts,  as  they  are  given 
us  by  contemporary  evidence,  before  we  try  to  decide 
upon  their  value. 

First  of  all,  on  September  27,  1522,  the  chiefs  of 
the  Council  of  Ten  at  Venice  write  to  Gaspar  Con- 
tarini,  Venetian  Ambassador  in  Spain,  to  the  following 
effect:  'There  arrived  here  (in  Venice)  the  other 
day  one  Hieronimo  de  Marin  de  Busignolo,  a  native 
of  Ragusa,  who  before  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten  declared 
that  he  had  been  sent  by  one  Sebastian  Cabotto,  who 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  143 

says  that  he  Is  a  ^enetlany  and  now  resident  in  Seville, 
where  he  receives  a  salary  from  the  Emperor  as  his  Pilot- 
Major  in  voyages  of  discovery.  On  behalf  of  this  man 
the  Ragusan  made  the  enclosed  statement.1  Although 
it  is  perhaps  not  worthy  of  much  credit,  yet  because 
of  its  [seeming]  import  we  did  not  think  well  to 
decline  Sebastian's  offer  to  come  here  and  explain  his 
scheme.  We  have  allowed  Hieronymo  to  answer 
him,  as  you  will  see  by  the  accompanying  letter. 
Contrive  to  find  out  if  Sebastian  is  at  the  Imperial 
Court  or  is  expected  there  shortly.2  .  .  .  Discover  as 
much  as  you  are  able  about  this  plan  of  his,  and 
persuade  him  to  come  here  if  his  projects  seem  well 
founded  and  attainable.' 

The  second  stage  in  this  negotiation  is  marked  by 
Contarini's  answer  to  the  Council  of  Ten  at  the  end 
of  this  year,  and  owing  to  the  peculiar  interest  of  this 
letter  we  transcribe  it  in  full  : — Valladolid,  December 
31,  1522  :  'According  to  your  letter  of  the  2yth  of 
September,  I  ascertained  that  Sebastian  Cabot  was  at 

1  Sent  herewith  to  Contarini  but  now  lost. 

2  Cabot  was  now  receiving  from   Charles  a  salary  of  125,000  mara- 
vedis,    or    300    ducats,    a    much    better    payment    than    Vespucci    or 
De  Solis  had  had   during  their    tenure    of  the   same   office    (Vespucci 
70,000    maravedis,    De  Solis    50,000).      Yet  he   would  seem  to  have 
acted  meanly  towards  Vespucci's  widow,  to  whom,  as  Vespucci's  suc 
cessor  in  office,  he  was  bound  to  pay  10,000  maravedis  a  year.     De  Solis, 
Vespucci's    first    successor,  had  paid   this  charge  regularly  ;  but  Cabot 
stopped  payment,  and  on  November  26,  1523,  Charles  V.  ordered  the 
'  Contractation  House'  in  Seville  to  discharge  the  widow's  arrears  out 
of  the  Pilot's  salary,  and  to  continue  to  remit  the  due  amount  year  by 
year  till  her  death  (which  happened  on  December  26,  1524). 


1 44        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

the  Court,  and  where  he  dwelt.  I  sent  to  say  that  my 
Secretary  had  a  letter  for  him  from  a  friend  of  his,  and 
that  if  he  chose  he  might  come  to  my  residence.  He  told 
my  servant  he  would  come.  He  made  his  appearance 
on  Christmas  Eve.  At  dinner-time  I  withdrew  with 
him  and  delivered  the  letter,  which  he  read,  his  colour 
changing  completely  during  its  perusal.  Having 
finished  reading  it,  he  remained  a  short  while  without 
saying  anything,  as  if  alarmed  and  doubtful.  I  told 
him  that  if  he  chose  to  answer  the  letter,  or  wished 
me  to  make  any  communication  in  the  quarter  from 
whence  I  had  received  it,  I  was  ready  to  execute  his 
commission  safely.  Upon  this  he  took  courage  and 
said  to  me,  "  Out  of  the  love  I  bear  my  country,  I 
spoke  heretofore  to  the  ambassadors  of  the  most  illus 
trious  Seigniory  in  England  *  concerning  these  newly- 
discovered  countries,  through  which  I  have  the  means 
of  greatly  benefiting  Venice.  The  letter  in  question 
concerned  this  matter,  as  you  likewise  are  aware  ;  but 
I  most  earnestly  beseech  you  to  keep  the  thing  secret, 
as  it  would  cost  me  my  life."  I  then  told  him  I  was 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  whole  affair,  and 
mentioned  how  Hieronimo  the  Ragusan  had  presented 
himself  before  the  tribunal  of  their  Excellencies  the 
chiefs,  and  that  the  most  secret  magistracy  had  ac 
quainted  me  with  everything  and  forwarded  that  letter 
to  me.  I  added,  that  as  some  noblemen  were  dining 
with  me,  it  would  be  very  inconvenient  for  us  to  talk 

1  No  documentary  evidence  of  this  has  yet  been  found. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  145 

together  then,  but  that  should  he  choose  to  return 
late  in  the  evening  we  might  more  conveniently 
discuss  the  subject  together  at  full  length.  So  he  then 
departed,  and  returned  at  about  5  p.m.,  when  being 
closeted  alone  in  my  chamber,  he  said  to  me  : 

' "  My  Lord  Ambassador,  to  tell  you  the  whole  truth, 
I  was  born  in  Venice,  but  brought  up  in  England,  and 
then  entered  the  service  of  their  Catholic  Majesties  of 
Spain,  and  King  Ferdinand  made  me  captain  with  a 
salary  of  50,000  maravedis.  Subsequently  his  present 
Majesty  gave  me  the  office  of  Pilot-Major,  with  an 
additional  salary  of  50,000  maravedis,  and  25,000 
maravedis  besides  as  a  gratuity,  forming  a  total  of 
125,000  maravedis,  equal  to  about  300  ducats.  Now 
it  so  happened  that  when  in  England  some  three 
years  ago,  if  I  mistake  not,  Cardinal  Wolsey  offered 
me  high  terms  if  I  would  sail  with  an  armada  of  his  on 
a  voyage  of  discovery.  The  vessels  were  almost  ready, 
and  they  had  got  together  30,000  ducats  for  their  outfit. 
I  answered  him  that  being  in  the  service  of  the  King  of 
Spain  I  could  not  go  without  his  leave,  but  if  free  per 
mission  were  given  me  from  hence,  I  would  serve  him. 
At  that  period,  in  the  course  of  conversation  one 
day  with  a  certain  friar,  a  Venetian  named  Sebastian 
Collona,  with  whom  I  was  on  a  very  friendly  footing, 
he  said  to  me,  '  Master  Sebastian,  you  take  such  great 
pains  to  benefit  foreigners,  and  forget  your  native 
land  ;  would  it  not  be  possible  for  Venice  likewise  to 
derive  some  advantage  from  you  ?  '  At  this  my  heart 


146        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

smote  me,  and  I  told  him  I  would  think  about  it.  So, 
on  returning  to  him  the  next  day,  I  said  I  had  the 
means  of  rendering  Venice  a  partner  in  this  navigation, 
and  of  showing  her  a  passage  whereby  she  would 
obtain  great  profit ;  which  is  the  truth,  for  I  have 
discovered  it.  In  consequence  of  this,  as  by  serving 
the  King  of  England  I  could  no  longer  benefit  our 
country,  I  wrote  to  the  Emperor  not  to  give  me  leave 
to  serve  the  King  of  England,  as  he  would  injure 
himself  extremely,  and  thus  to  recall  me  forthwith. 
Being  recalled  accordingly,  and  on  my  return  residing 
at  Seville,  I  contracted  a  close  friendship  with  this 
Ragusan  who  wrote  the  letter  you  delivered  to  me  ; 
and  as  he  told  me  he  was  going  to  Venice,  I  unbosomed 
myself  to  him,  charging  him  to  mention  this  thing  to 
none  but  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten  ;  and  he  swore  to  me 
a  sacred  oath  to  this  effect." 

*  I  bestowed  great  praise  on  his  patriotism,'  continues 
Contarini,  '  and  informed  him  I  was  commissioned  to 
confer  with  him  and  hear  his  project,  which  I  was 
to  notify  to  the  chiefs,  to  whom  he  might  afterwards 
resort  in  person.  He  replied  that  he  did  not  intend 
to  manifest  his  plan  to  any  but  the  chiefs  of  the  Ten, 
and  that  he  would  go  to  Venice  after  requesting  the 
Emperor's  permission,  on  the  plea  of  recovering  his 
mother's  dowry,  concerning  which  he  said  he  would 
contrive  that  I  should  be  spoken  to  by  the  Bishop  of 
Burgos  and  the  Grand  Chancellor,  who  are  to  urge 
me  to  write  in  his  favour  to  your  Serenity. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  147 

c  I  approved  of  this,  but  said  I  felt  doubtful  as  to  the 
possibility  of  his  project,  as  I  had  applied  myself  a 
little  to  geography,  and  bearing  in  mind  the  position 
of  Venice,  I  did  not  see  any  way  of  effecting  this 
navigation,  as  the  voyage  must  be  performed  either  by 
ships  built  in  Venice,  or  else  by  vessels  which  it  would 
be  requisite  to  construct  elsewhere.  Venetian-built 
craft  must  of  needs  pass  the  Gut  of  Gibraltar  to  get 
into  the  Ocean  ;  and  as  the  King  of  Portugal  and  the 
King  of  Spain  would  oppose  the  project,  it  never  could 
succeed.  The  construction  of  vessels  out  of  Venice 
could  only  be  effected  on  the  southern  shores  of  the 
Ocean  or  in  the  Red  Sea,  to  which  there  were  endless 
objections.  First  of  all,  it  would  be  requisite  to  have 
a  good  understanding  with  the  Great  Turk.  Secondly, 
the  scarcity  of  timber  rendered  shipbuilding  impossible 
there.  Then,  again,  even  if  vessels  were  built,  the 
fortresses  and  fleets  of  Portugal  would  prevent  the 
trade  from  being  carried  on.  I  also  observed  to  him 
that  I  did  not  see  how  vessels  could  be  built  on  the 
northern  shores  of  the  Ocean,  that  is  to  say,  from 
Spain  to  Denmark,  or  even  beyond,  especially  as  the 
whole  of  Germany  depended  on  the  Emperor  ;  nor 
could  I  perceive  any  way  at  all  for  conveying  mer 
chandise  from  Venice  to  these  ships,  or  for  conveying 
spices  and  other  produce  from  the  ships  to  Venice. 
Nevertheless,  as  he  was  skilled  in  this  matter,  I  said 
I  deferred  to  him. 

c  He  answered  me,  "  You  have  spoken  ably,  and  in 


148        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

truth  neither  with  ships  built  at  Venice,  nor  yet  by  the 
way  of  the  Red  Sea,  do  I  perceive  any  means  whatso 
ever.  But  there  are  other  means,  not  merely  possible, 
but  easy,  both  for  building  ships  and  conveying  wares 
from  Venice  to  the  harbour,  as  also  spices,  gold,  and 
other  produce  from  the  harbour  to  Venice,  as  I  know, 
for  I  have  sailed  to  all  those  countries,  and  am  well 
acquainted  with  the  whole.  Indeed,  I  assure  you  that 
I  refused  the  offer  of  the  King  of  England  for  the  sake 
of  benefiting  my  country,  for  had  I  listened  to  that 
proposal,  there  would  no  longer  have  been  any  course 
for  Venice." 

'  I  shrugged  my  shoulders,  and  although  the  thing 
seems  to  me  impossible,  I  nevertheless  would  not  dis 
suade  him  from  coming  to  the  feet  of  your  Highness 
(without,  however,  recommending  him),  because  possi 
bility  is  much  more  unlimited  than  man  often  supposes. 
Added  to  which  this  individual  is  in  great  repute  here. 
He  then  left  me.  Subsequently,  on  the  evening  of 
St.  John's  Day,1  he  came  to  me  in  order  that  I  might 
modify  certain  expressions  in  the  Ragusan's  letter, 
which  he  was  apprehensive  would  make  the  Spaniards 
suspicious.  It  was  therefore  remodelled  and  written 
out  again  by  a  Veronese,  an  intimate  of  mine. 

'  When  discussing  a  variety  of  geographical  topics 
with  me,  he  mentioned  among  other  things  a  very 
clever  method  observed  by  him,2  which  had  never  been 
previously  discovered  by  any  one,  for  ascertaining  by 

1   December  z/th.  -  See  chapter  xv.,  pages  255-6, 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  149 

the  needle  the  distance  between  two  places  from  East 
to  West,  as  your  Serenity  will  hear  from  him  if  he 
comes.  After  this,  continuing  my  conversation  with 
him  concerning  our  chief  matter,  and  recapitulating 
the  difficulties,  he  said  to  me  :  "  I  assure  you  the  way 
and  the  means  are  easy.  I  will  go  to  Venice  at  my 
own  cost.  They  will  hear  me  ;  and  if  they  disapprove 
of  the  project  devised  by  me,  I  will  return  in  like 
manner  at  my  own  cost."  : 

So  much  for  the  end  of  A.D.  1522. 

On  March  7,  1523,  another  despatch  of  Contarini's 
shows  us  the  same  negotiation  at  a  more  advanced 
stage  in  time,  but  less  hopeful  in  circumstance  : — 
(  Sebastian  Cabot,'  says  the  Ambassador,  '  with  whom 
you  willed  me  to  converse  on  matters  of  the  spice  trade, 
has  since  x  been  to  see  me  several  times,  always  telling 
me  how  much  disposed  he  is  to  come  to  Venice  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  out  his  schemes  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Seigniory.  To-day  he  informed  me  that  he  could 
not  ask  leave  at  present,  lest  they  should  suspect  him 
of  a  purpose  of  going  to  England.'  He  hoped,  how 
ever,  ends  the  despatch,  to  be  able  to  resume  his  project 
in  three  months,  and  for  that  end  asked  for  a  second 
letter  from  the  Ten  bidding  him  come  to  Venice  for 
the  dispatch  of  his  affairs.  In  exact  agreement  with 
this  we  find,  little  more  than  three  months  later, 
namely,  at  the  end  of  July,  1523,  that  Sebastian 
Cabot  has  resumed  the  negotiation,  as  described  in 

1  Namely,  since  the  interview  on  Christmas  Eve,  1522. 


150        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

another  despatch  of  Contarini's  (July  26,  1523)  to 
the  Council  of  Ten.  'The  aforesaid  Sebastian,  he 
remarks,  has  been  residing  at  Seville,  but  he  has  now 
returned  hither  (Valladolid)  on  his  way  to  Venice. 
He  is  endeavouring  to  obtain  leave  from  the  Imperial 
Councillors  to  return  to  Venice  and  to  induce  them 
to  speak  to  me  in  his  favour.' 

But,  as  with  so  many  of  Sebastian's  projects,  this 
Venetian  journey  seems  never  to  have  been  realised. 
Contarini  says  no  more  about  it  in  his  despatches, 
though  he  resided  in  Spain  till  1525  ;  and  Cabot  was 
soon  busily  engaged  in  the  Molucca  controversy  of 
1523-24,  which  led  to  his  La  Plata  voyage  of  1526-30, 
and  which  itself  resulted  from  the  Victoria  s  circum 
navigation  of  the  globe. 

What  are  we  to  think  of  the  Contarini  narratives  ? 
Their  importance,  on  the  one  hand,  must  not  be 
exaggerated.  It  is  not  difficult  to  find  parallels  in  the 
sixteenth  century  to  Sebastian's  '  double-stringed 
playing,'  and  the  feeling  of  patriotism  he  puts  forward 
as  his  excuse  may  not  have  been  altogether  absent. 
But  that  the  matter  was  serious  and  no  mere  farce 
cannot  be  doubted  :  Sebastian's  fear  of  discovery,  the 
time  and  place  of  the  conferences,  the  language  of  the 
despatches,  all  go  to  prove  this.  He  insists  that  he  is 
telling  the  whole  truth,  he  warns  the  Ambassador  that 
discovery  may  cost  him  his  life,  he  refers  to  a  suspicion 
already  attaching  to  him — of  English  preferences 
against  Spanish.  His  plan  for  helping  Venice,  as  far 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  151 

as  it  is  explained,  is  of  course  preposterous,  and  so  it 
appeared  to  Contarini  ;  but  there  were  not  a  few  men 
in  authority  at  that  time  who  would  have  risked 
something  for  a  famous  man,  and  committed  ships  and 
men  to  his  charge  on  no  more  certain  assurance  than 
Sebastian  could  give  for  his  mysterious  scheme — that 
'  it  was  not  only  possible  but  easy.'  We  shall  find  him 
renewing  his  overtures  to  the  Ten,  and  once  again 
meeting  with  encouragement  twenty-nine  years  later 
(1551),  when  he  had  returned  to  the  English  service. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  specific  excuse  both  then 
and  now  alleged  for  his  projected  Venetian  journey — 
the  dowry  of  his  '  mother  '  and  his  '  aunt ' — has  been 
supposed  by  some  to  be  a  mere  concoction  of  Cabot 
and  Contarini  together.  Certainly  it  was  used  as  a 
blind  for  matters  of  a  very  different  kind — and 
on  both  sides  the  pretext  was  transparent  enough. 
This  is  practically  avowed  in  Contarini's  letters  ot 
March  7,  1523,  and  December  31,  1522  ;  but  some 
thing  more  than  a  legal  fiction  is  implied  by  Cabot's 
agent  in  Venice,  Hieronymo  the  Ragusan,  on  April 
28,  1523  :  'Some  months  ago,  on  arriving  here  in 
Venice,  I  wrote  to  you  what  I  had  done  to  discover 
where  your  property  was.  I  received  fair  promises 
from  all  quarters,  and  was  given  good  hope  of 
recovering  the  dower  of  your  mother  and  aunt,  so 
that  I  have  no  doubt,  had  you  come  hither,  you 
would  already  have  attained  your  object.  I  therefore 
exhort  you  not  to  sacrifice  your  interests,  but  betake 


152        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

yourself  here  to  Venice.  Do  not  delay  coming,  as 
your  aunt  is  very  old.'  In  the  same  way,  in  1551, 
Cabot's  claims  to  f  credits  and  recovery  of  property  ' 
in  Venice  seem  to  have  had  this  much  of  truth  at 
the  bottom  of  them — that  relatives  of  his  had  lived 
and  died  within  the  territories  of  the  Republic,  and 
that  there  existed  property  left  by  them  to  which 
Sebastian  may  have  had  less  claim  than  others  in  (or 
out  of)  possession,  but  which  at  any  rate  gave  a  decent 
pretext  for  him  as  a  descendant  of  John  Cabot  to 
institute  legal  inquiries  in  his  native  place. 

But  to  return.  The  next  point  of  importance  in 
Sebastian  Cabot's  Spanish  period  is  his  share  in  the 
'Molucca'  or  cLa  Plata  Voyage'  of  1526-1530. 
Magellan's  voyage,1  as  we  have  hinted,  upset  or 
greatly  modified  the  idea  of  a  demarcation  line 
between  Spanish  and  Portuguese  possessions  in  new 
discovered  lands  ;  and  especially  it  roused  a  contro 
versy  as  to  the  ownership  of  the  rich  Spice  Islands 
of  the  Moluccas  in  the  East  Indies.  Spain  claimed 
them  as  falling  within  her  western  division  ;  Portugal 
insisted  that  they  were  included  in  her  eastern  allot 
ment.  Among  other  measures  taken  for  determining 
this  point  was  a  conference  of  experienced  pilots  and 
geographers  to  draw  up  a  scientific  report.  On  the 
1 5th  of  April,  1524,  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  was  one  of 
this  committee  of  experts,  signed,  with  others,  the 
report  on  the  longitude  of  the  partition  line  in  the 

1  Completed  by  Sebastian  del  Cano  in  the  Victoria. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  153 

Moluccas,  and  on  the  25th  of  April  a  letter  to  the 
Emperor  from  Badajos,  the  place  of  meeting,  telling 
him  in  effect  that  no  agreement  could  be  come  to 
with  the  Portuguese  representatives.  In  the  same 
year  a  Spanish  expedition  was  equipped  for  the  Spice 
Islands,  with  Sebastian  as  chief  pilot.  He  had  de 
clared  that  there  were  plenty  of  other  spice  islands  near 
the  Moluccas,  to  which  he  knew  the  way  (one  much 
shorter  than  Magellan's  route),  as  he  had  been  there 
himself  before.  So  at  least  he  was  reported  to  have 
spoken,  by  some  of  his  companions  in  the  new  '  spice 
island  '  voyage.  Of  this  enterprise,  which  started  on 
April  3,  1526,  but  never  reached  the  Moluccas  at  all, 
resolving  itself  into  a  futile  expedition  in  the  La  Plata 
estuary,  we  shall  say  little  in  this  place,  as  it  belongs 
exclusively  to  Spanish  history.  But  we  may  sum 
marise  the  chief  events  of  the  ill-starred  venture  in  a 
few  words. 

While  crossing  the  Atlantic,  the  fleet  managed  to 
make  the  most  instead  of  the  least  of  that '  zone  of  calms 
and  baffling  winds '  near  the  line  which  all  navigators 
strove  to  avoid,  and  this  delayed  their  arrival  on  the 
South  American  continent  till  the  end  of  June. 
Putting  in  at  Pernambuco,  Cabot  punished  certain  of 
his  officers,  whom  he  accused  of  disaffection,  and  hear 
ing  great  talk  of  mineral  wealth  in  the  estuary  of  the 
Rio  de  La  Plata,  he  deferred  altogether  his  journey  to 
the  Spice  Islands,  and  made  for  Paraguay.  But  it  was 
not  till  the  last  week  of  September  that  the  fleet  left 


154       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Pernambuco.  On  the  28th  of  October  the  chief  ship 
was  lost  on  the  island  of  Santa  Catalina,  and  the 
squadron  did  not  cross  the  bar  of  the  La  Plata  till 
about  the  25th  of  March,  1527.  Nearly  three  years 
were  spent  in  most  unprofitable  attempts  to  explore, 
settle,  and  find  gold  in  this  region  ;  but  after  many 
disasters  Cabot  set  out  for  Spain  in  November,  1529, 
and  reached  home  in  the  summer  of  1530  (July  22nd) 
c  without  honour  or  profit.'  This  is  not  the  place  to 
discuss  the  intricate  details  of  Cabot's  seamanship  and 
conduct  which  are  connected  with  the  La  Plata 
voyage,  but  the  event  certainly  justified  Oviedo's 
saying,  that  a  man  of  science  might  often  be  very 
incapable  of  managing  an  expedition.1  At  every  point 
misfortune,  whether  deserved  or  undeserved,  seems  to 
have  dogged  his  footsteps  ;  the  Indians  cut  off  many 
of  his  colonists  ;  no  gold  or  silver  was  found  to  reward 
the  departure  from  the  original  plan  ;  the  chief 
associates  in  the  command  fell  to  wrangling  among 
themselves,  as  so  often  happened  in  the  exploring 
voyages  of  this  time  ;  and  on  Cabot's  reappearance 

1  Sebastian  Cabot,  says  Oviedo  (Hist.  Gen.  ii.  169-170"),  'is  competent 
in  his  cosmographical  art,  but  he  is  quite  ignorant  of  the  science  of 
Vegetius,  who  believes  that  it  is  ...  needful  for  a  commander  to  ... 
be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  .  .  .  routes  of  the  countries  where 
he  is  to  wage  war.  .  .  .  Cabot  is  skilful  in  ...  constructing  both  plane 
and  spherical  plans  of  the  ...  world.  But  there  is  a  great  difference 
between  leading  .  .  .  men  and  handling  an  astrolabe  or  a  quadrant.'  So 
Diego  Garcia,  '  Sebastian  Gavoto  did  not  know  how  to  stem  those  cur 
rents  [that  impeded  him]  because  he  was  no  seaman  and  possessed  no 
nautical  [  =  practical]  science.  .  .  .  That  navigation  Gavoto  could  not 
make,  with  all  his  astrology.' 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  155 

in  Spain,  he  was  arrested  and  prosecuted  at  the  suit 
of  four  of  his  principal  companions.  He  was  also 
arraigned  on  charges  of  disobeying  his  instructions, 
abusing  his  authority,  committing  violences  against 
certain  members  of  the  squadron,  and  causing  the 
loss  of  certain  ships,  partly  by  taking  them  away  from 
their  proper  destination.  These  proceedings  opened  on 
the  28th  of  July,  1530  ;  he  was  heavily  cast  ;  and 
after  various  appeals  of  his  had  been  heard  before  the 
Council  of  the  Indies,  he  was  sentenced  (February  I, 
1532)  to  four  years'  banishment  in  the  Spanish 
penal  colony  in  Morocco,  where  he  was  also  to  per 
form  military  service  against  the  Moors  at  his  own 
cost.  His  salaries  were  '  levied  upon  '  in  order  to  pay 
the  fines  also  inflicted  upon  him,  besides  the  costs  of 
the  suits  that  he  had  lost. 

And  now  comes  in  another  of  the  mysteries,  or 
rather,  perhaps,  another  example  of  the  standing 
mystery  of  Cabot's  life — his  amazing  influence  over 
the  most  important  men  of  his  time.  Very  soon 
after  the  inferior  authorities,  up  to  the  Queen 
Regent  herself,  had  so  decisively  condemned  all 
Cabot's  excuses  and  appeals,  Charles  V.  returned  to 
Spain,  and  apparently  pardoned  Cabot  for  all  his 
offences,  restored  him  to  his  position  of  Pilot-Major 
(of  which,  indeed,  he  seems  to  have  been  only  tem 
porarily  deprived  in  favour  of  Alonzo  de  Chaves),  and 
employed  him  again  in  extensive  Government  works. 
The  sentences  against  him,  with  the  possible  exception 


156        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  some  of  the  fines,  cannot  have  been  carried  out  ; 
almost  certainly  he  was  never  deported  to  Morocco  ; 
and  in  the  spring  of  1533  he  was  at  work  on  a  plani 
sphere  for  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  Yet  another 
storm  he  seems  to  have  surmounted  at  this  time.  On 
March  13,  1534,  the  King  authorises  an  inquiry  into 
Cabot's  examination  of  pilots,  and  into  the  offences 
alleged  to  have  been  committed  by  him  in  this  matter ; 
but  on  the  nth  of  December  (in  the  same  year)  these 
charges  must  plainly  have  come  to  nought,  as  on  that 
date  Charles  V.,  in  authorising  a  thorough  examina 
tion  of  pilots  for  their  own  proper  work,  orders  Cabot 
to  direct  the  inquiry  himself. 

There  is  not  much  more  that  need  be  noticed  here 
of  Sebastian's  career  in  Spain,  although  this  lasted  till 
1 548.  He  was  employed  in  teaching  the  use  of  nautical 
instruments  and  scientific  text  books,  in  examining  and 
granting  licences  to  pilots,  in  rectifying  charts  and 
instruments  used  at  sea,  and  especially  in  seeing  after 
the  correctness  of  the  great  Model  Map,  established 
by  the  Spanish  Government,  and  called  the  Padron 
General.  He  was  also  bound  to  enter  and  tabulate 
in  an  official  book  of  entries  all  descriptions  of  new 
found  lands  given  him  by  pilots,  who  on  their  return 
from  every  transatlantic  voyage  were  obliged  to 
furnish  a  report  to  the  Pilot-Major  at  Seville  ;  and 
once  again  he  stamped  the  maps  and  instruments 
issued  from  the  Sevillian  i  hydrographical  bureau  '  to 
navigators,  kept  a  stock  of  the  same  in  reserve  in  his 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  157 

own  charge,  and  by  a  modification  of  the  original 
contract  with  the  Government,  sold  maps,  which  he 
had  constructed,  to  anyone  desiring  (and  privileged)  to 
purchase. 

According    to    Ramusio,    Cabot   also   professed   to 
have  made  l  many  other  voyages '  after  his  return  from 
La  Plata,  but  no  trace  can  be  found  of  any  of  these, 
unless  we  count  as  one  his  journey  to  England  in 
1548,   when   he  quitted    the    Spanish    service.       We 
are  on   more  certain  ground   when  we   come   to  his 
utterances,  on  certain  geographical  matters,  delivered 
in  the  course  of  a  lawsuit  in  A.D.  1535,  when  he  was 
summoned  as  a  witness.     This  matter  arose  out  of  an 
action  of  Luis   Columbus,   grandson  of  Christopher, 
to  acquire,  or  rather  to  reclaim  from  the  Crown  of 
Spain   various    rights   and    privileges   accruing  to   his 
grandfather  by  contract  with  Queen  Isabella.     Here 
Cabot  was  called  upon  as  an  expert  in  North- Western 
questions,  and  in  answer  to  the  inquiry,  <  Do  you  know 
whether  Christopher   Columbus  was  the  first  to  dis 
cover  the  Indies  as  well  as  the  Islands  and  Continent  or 
the  Ocean,  and  that  no  one  before  him  possessed  any 
knowledge    of   the   same  ?  '    he    gave    the    following 
reply,  mediaeval  in  tone  and  evasive  in  character  : — 
4  Solinus,  an  historical  cosmographer,  says  that  among 
(beyond?)  the  Fortunate  Islands  called  Canaries  .  .  . 
there  are  isles  called  Hesperides,   which  he   (Cabot) 
presumes  to  be  identical  with  those  that  were  found  in 
the  time  of  the  Catholic  Kings,  and  he  has  heard  many 


158        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

people  in  this  city  of  Seville  say  that  it  was  Christopher 
Columbus  who  discovered  them.'  Again,  on  the 
question,  whether  from  Venezuela  to  the  Cod  Fish 
country  there  was  continental  land  '  without  any  sea 
intervening,'  and  whether  this  was  the  only  mainland 
discovered  in  the  Ocean,  he  replied  that  in  his  opinion 
all  the  countries  named  as  far  as  the  river  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  (in  Mexico  J)  were  continental  because  he  had 
seen  it,  and  knew  it  also  from  reports  of  pilots  and 
maritime  charts  ;  but  as  to  the  countries  beyond  (that 
is,  Florida  and  the  Cod  Fish  Land),  he  could  not  assert 
whether  they  were  a  continent  or  not. 

Again,  as  to  the  question  (which  several  other  pilots 
had  answered  in  the  affirmative)  whether  the  lands 
mentioned  (with  others)  were  commonly  set  forth 
in  pilots'  charts,  so  as  to  represent  a  continuous  coast 
line,  Cabot  entirely  evaded  the  point  at  issue.  'All 
those  lands,  or  most  of  them,'  says  he,  c  are  set  forth 
in  maritime  charts,  many  of  which  differ  from  each 
other.'  Yet  Cabot  posed  before  the  world  as  the 
great  authority  on  the  Cod  Fish  Land  and  the  North- 
West  passage  supposed  to  lie  through  them  to  Asia  ; 
and  he  was  believed  by  some  to  have  coasted  the 
whole  Atlantic  seaboard  of  North  America  from 
Newfoundland  down  to  Florida.  Now,  perhaps,  in 
order  to  help  the  Crown  to  resist  the  claims  of  the 
Columbus  family,  he  throws  doubt  upon  the  best 
ascertained  facts  about  that  same  seaboard.2 

1  This  river  was  in  twenty-one  degrees  north  lat. 

2  See  additional  note  at  end  of  this  chapter. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  159 

In  apology  for  him  it  may  be  said  that  he  was 
possibly  influenced  by  the  Verrazano  map,  or  rather 
by  a  copy  of  a  portion  of  the  same,  which  not  only 
showed  a  great  Ocean  (Mar  de  Verrazano)  to  the 
West  of  that  strip  of  Eastern  seaboard  which  was  the 
whole  of  North  America  then  known,  but  depicted  this 
Western  Ocean  as  communicating  with  the  Atlantic 
by  a  narrow  channel  a  little  to  the  north  of  Florida. 
True  the  Verrazano  map  itself,  in  an  inscription  at 
this  point,  carefully  stated  that  an  isthmus  of  land  six 
miles  across  separated  the  two  seas,  and  thus  left  no 
doubt  as  to  the  c  continental '  and  unbroken  character 
of  the  North  American  Atlantic  seaboard ;  but  this  in 
scription  was  omitted  in  the  earliest  copy  we  possess,1 
which  also  substituted  a  connecting  strait  for  a  dividing 
tongue  of  land.  In  many  respects  the  Harleian  map 
here  referred  to  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the 
Cabotian  planisphere  of  1 544 — quite  as  close  a  likeness, 
in  fact,  as  is  borne  to  that  same  planisphere  by  the 
Desliens  map  of  1541  ;  and  the  probability  is  strong 
that  Cabot  was  acquainted  with  both.  But  in  any 
case,  it  may  be  said,  the  story  of  Sebastian's  actual 
coasting  of  that  seaboard  as  far  as  Florida  would  be 
disproved  by  this  Apology,  for  then  Sebastian  would 
have  known  enough  to  contradict,  from  personal 
knowledge,  the  mistake  suggested  by  his  interrogator, 

1  See  the  portrayal  of  this  feature  (the  isthmus)  in  the  Harleian 
map  of  circa  1536  to  1540,  which  is  the  oldest  existing  known 
specimen  of  Dieppese  cartography. 


160        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

and  writ  large  in  the  Verrazano  copy.  In  answer 
to  this,  and  as  a  further  excuse  for  Cabot's  evasion, 
we  may  perhaps  admit  that  he  found  it  difficult  to 
decide  about  such  great  inlets  as  the  mouths  of  the 
Chesapeake,  the  Delaware,  or  the  still  larger  Pimlico 
Sound  in  North  Carolina — and  did  not  feel  able  to 
say  confidently  that  one  of  these  was  not  an  arm  of 
the  Western  Ocean  on  the  other  side  of  c  America  ' 
communicating  here  with  the  Atlantic. 

There  is  not  much  more  for  us  to  notice  in  this 
brief  review  of  Sebastian  Cabot's  career  in  Spain. 
Among  the  last  acts  recorded  of  him  as  Pilot-Major 
of  Charles  V.,  we  may  mention  his  official  veto  on 
one  Diego  Gutierrez  (pronounced  November  5,  1544), 
who  as  '  cosmographer  royal '  was  constructing  maps 
and  nautical  instruments  in  a  way  'prejudicial  to 
navigation.'  Gutierrez  seems  to  have  appealed  to  the 
Council  of  the  Indies,  which  confirmed  Cabot's 
decision  on  February  22,  1545. 

Again  in  October,  1545,  we  find  Cabot  giving  his 
imprimatur  to  a  book  just  published  at  Valladolid— 
Pedro  de  Medina's  Art  of  Navigation. 

And  lastly,  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1547, 
before  leaving  for  England  to  push  his  prospects  at 
the  Court  of  Edward  VI.,  Cabot  appointed  Diego 
Gutierrez  as  his  deputy  in  the  office  of  Pilot-Major. 
This  would  be  a  strange  measure,  even  among  the 
many  strange  things  attributed  to  Sebastian,  if  this 
were  the  same  Gutierrez  whom  he  had  interdicted 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  161 

a  little  more  than  two  years  previous  ;  but  there  were 
two  men  of  this  name,  both  known  to  history,  though 
belonging  to  the  same  family,  then  resident  in  Spain — 
one  being  the  father  and  the  other  the  son,  and  there 
is  no  proof  that  both  the  above-quoted  measures  refer 
to  the  same  individual.  However  this  may  be,  the 
claims  of  the  new  deputy  were  not  admitted  by  the 
Council  of  the  Indies.  On  September  22,  1549, 
when  it  had  become  pretty  clear  that  Cabot  was 
not  intending  to  resume  his  duties  in  Spain,  the 
Council  declared  Gutierrez  incompetent  to  fill  the 
post  to  which  Sebastian  had  appointed  him. 


CHAPTER   X 

SEBASTIAN'S  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND,  1547-8 — SUPPOSED 
SIGNS   OF   THIS  INTENTION  IN  1538    AND   154! 

PENSION      GRANTED      HIM     BY     EDWARD     VI. 

DIFFICULTIES      WITH      CHARLES      V. SEBASTIAN 

AGAIN    OFFERS    HIMSELF    TO    VENICE,    155! 

AND  now  the  scene  shifts  back  once  more  to  our  own 
island,  and  we  come  to  what  we  may  call  the  c  Second 
English  Period '  in  the  life  of  Sebastian  Cabot.  In 
this,  though  difficulties  and  contradictions  still  await 
us,  we  shall  perhaps  find  them  less  entangling  than 
before  ;  the  '  Sphinx  of  the  sixteenth  century  '  is  now 
prepared  with  a  plainer  account  of  himself;  and  the 
questions  of  historical  inquiry  are  able  to  elicit  a  more 
satisfactory  account  of  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life 
than  of  any  other  period. 

As  early  as  1538  Sebastian  is  putting  out  feelers, 
we  may  say,  towards  England.  Thus  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt,  English  Ambassador  in  Spain  at  that  time, 
addresses  a  memorandum  (November  28,  1538)  to 
Sir  Philip  Hoby  in  the  following  terms  :  '  To 

162 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  163 

remember  Sebastian  Cabot.     He   hath  here  but  300 
ducats  a  year,  and  is  desirous,  if  he  might  not  serve 
the  King   (Henry  VIII. ),  at  least  to  see  him,  as  his 
old  master.     And  I  think  therein.     And  that  I  may 
have  an  answer  in  this.'     Hoby  was  then  just  leaving 
Spain  for  England,  so  that  Cabot's  request  was  given 
with  all  the  urgency  possible.    But  nothing  immediate 
came    of  it ;    and,    indeed,    with    one    very    doubtful 
exception,  we  have  at   present   no   evidence   of  any 
result   before   the   death  of  Henry  VIII.     The  ex 
ception  lies  in  a  possible  allusion  of  Chapuys,  Charles 
V.'s  Ambassador   in   England,  under  the  year   1541. 
Writing  from  London  to  the  Queen  Regent  of  the 
Netherlands  (the  Queen  of  Hungary)  on  May  26th, 
Chapuys  speaks  of  the  English  monarch  as  disinclined 
to  enter  upon  war  with  the  Emperor,  though  c  if  he 
knew  of  any  other  country  where  his  subjects  could 
barter     their     merchandise,     except     the    Emperor's 
dominions,  he  would  willingly  send  them  thither  to 
sell    their    goods,    even    if    his    own    revenue    were 
diminished  by  it  ;  he  would  find  other  marts  where 
his  people  could  take   their  goods  rather  than  suffer 
the  retaliations  to  which  the  English  merchants  trading 
with    the    Emperor's    dominions    must    and    will    be 
subjected.     As  a  proof  of  this  statement,  about  two 
months  ago,  there  was  a   deliberation  in    the    Privy 
Council  as  to   the  expediency  of  sending  two  ships 
to  the  Northern  Seas  for  the  purpose  of  discovering 
a  passage  between  Islandt  (Iceland)  and  Engroneland 


164        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

(Greenland)  for  the  Northern  regions,  where  it  was 
thought  that,  owing  to  the  extreme  cold,  English 
woollen  cloths  would  be  very  acceptable,  and  sell 
for  a  good  price.  To  this  end  the  King  has 
retained  here  for  some  time  a  pilot  from  Civille 
(Seville)  well  versed  in  affairs  of  the  sea,  though  in 
the  end  the  undertaking  has  been  abandoned,  all 
owing  to  the  King  not  choosing  to  agree  to  the 
pilot's  terms,  so  that  for  the  present,  at  least,  the 
city  of  Antwerp  is  sure  of  not  losing  the  commerce 
of  woollen  cloth  of  English  manufacture.' 

Was  this  pilot  from  Seville  no  other  than  Sebastian 
Cabot  ?  It  is  hard  of  belief.  Chapuys  would  surely 
have  written  very  differently  if  the  pilot  he  mentions 
had  been,  to  his  knowledge,  the  '  Pilot-Major '  of  his 
master's  naval  service  ;  and  yet  nothing  in  the  tenor 
of  his  despatch  indicates  that  the  name  of  the  stranger 
'  well  versed  in  affairs  of  the  sea '  was  in  any  way  kept 
secret  from  the  Ambassador's  informant.  If  he  was 
so  well  informed  about  so  secret  a  meeting  of  the 
Privy  Council,  he  is  likely  also  to  have  been  informed 
of  the  identity  of  their  foreign  adviser.  Now  in 
1541  Sebastian  Cabot  was  deeply  engaged  in  work 
for  the  Spanish  Crown.  How  could  he  have  returned 
to  Spain,  taken  up  his  offices,  and  enjoyed  the  favour 
of  Charles  V.  till  his  final  departure  in  1548,  if  in 
1541  he  was  advising — and  was  known  to  be  advising 
— the  King  of  England  in  schemes  which  might 
prove  highly  prejudical  to  Spanish  interests  over-sea  ? 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  165 

Strange  as  are  the  fluctuations  of  his  life,  marvellous 
as  is  the  good  fortune  of  his  career,  and  apparently 
inexhaustible  as  is  the  influence  he  exerted  over  men 
of  the  highest  position  and  authority,  yet  the  assump 
tion  here  required  is  too  hard  a  saying  for  us.  And 
besides  its  abstract  difficulties,  there  is,  in  the  concrete, 
no  sufficient  warrant  for  it.  Chapuys*  language  is  far 
too  indefinite,  and  no  sufficient  proof  exists  that  his 
*  pilot  from  Seville '  is  Sebastian  Cabot.  The  merely 
negative  argument  is  not  sufficient, — that  since  the 
death  of  Estevam  Gomez,  who  cannot  be  traced  later 
than  1537  by  our  present  lights,  Cabot  was  the  only 
mariner  in  Spain  who  had  or  pretended  to  have  a 
knowledge  of  the  seas  between  Iceland  and  Greenland  ; 
and  that  consequently  he  must  be  the  person  men 
tioned  by  Chapuys.  This  is  surely  applying  the 
exhaustive  method  with  rather  too  off-hand  a 
touch. 

Sebastian  Cabot  could  not  well  complain  of  Spanish 
ingratitude.  As  Pilot-Major  he  had  long  been  draw 
ing  from  the  Treasury  of  Charles  V.  more  than  twice 
the  income  which  De  Solis,  nearly  twice  the  salary 
which  Vespucci,  had  enjoyed;  in  1525  he  had  been 
allowed  to  transfer  to  his  wife,  for  her  lifetime,  a 
gratuity  of  25,000  maravedis  which  had  been  conferred 
on  him  ;  the  sovereign  had  stood  between  him  and 
his  enemies,  had  saved  him  from  most  of  the  penalties 
of  his  misfortunes  on  the  La  Plata  voyage,  and  had 
kept  him  in  office  as  the  chief  geographical  adviser 


1 66       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  the  Government  in  spite  of  laws  (of  1527  and 
1534)  which  debarred  foreigners  from  holding  the 
position  of  pilot  in  Spain.  Yet  Cabot,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  entertained  the  idea  of  returning  to  the 
English  service  as  early  as  1538  ;  when  he  furnished 
material  for  his  famous  surviving  planisphere  in  1544 
he  at  any  rate  was  ready  to  credit  the  English 
discovering  claim  in  North  America  with  a  far  more 
southerly  landfall  than  was  generally  conceded  at 
that  time  in  Spanish  maps  ;  and  on  the  accession 
of  Edward  VI.,  in  1547,  ne  renewed  his  applica 
tion  to  the  English  Government  with  success.  He 
may  be  fairly  supposed  to  have  conveyed  a  definite 
offer  in  the  summer  of  1547  ;  on  the  2Qth  of  Sep 
tember  of  that  year  his  offer  was  accepted  by  the 
Privy  Council ;  and  on  the  gth  of  October  order  was 
given  to  Sir  Edward  Peckham,  High  Treasurer  of  the 
Mints,  to  supply  the  money  necessary  for  Cabot's 
conveyance  to  this  country — or  as  the  memorandum 
expressed  it:  *  Mr.  Peckham  had  warrant  for  ^100 
for  the  transporting  of  one  Shabot,  a  pilot,  to  come 
out  of  Hispain  to  serve  and  inhabit  in  England.'1  By 
January  of  the  year  1548  Cabot  had  returned  to  his 
c  old  employment ' ;  and  on  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany 
(6th  of  January)  of  that  year  Edward  VI.  granted  him 
an  annuity  of  ^166  135.  4d.  in  the  following  terms  :— • 
'The  King  to  all  to  whom  these  presents  shall 

1  This  is  signed  by  E.  Somerset  (the  Lord  Protector)  ;  T.  Cantuarien 
(Cranmer),  and  four  others. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  167 

come,  greeting  : — Know  ye  that  we,  in  consideration 
of  the  good  and  acceptable  services  done  and  to  be  done 
unto  us  by  our  beloved  servant  Sebastian  Caboto,1  of 
our  special  grace,  certain  knowledge,  mere  motion, 
and  by  the  advice  and  counsel  of  our  most  honourable 
uncle  Edward  Duke  of  Somerset,  Governor  of  our 
person,  and  Protector  of  our  kingdom,  dominions,  and 
subjects,  and  of  the  rest  of  our  Council,  have  given  and 
granted,  and  by  these  presents  do  give  and  grant,  to 
the  said  Sebastian  Caboto,  a  certain  annuity  or  yearly 
revenue  of  one  hundred  threescore  and  six  pounds, 
thirteen  shillings,  and  four  pence,  sterling,  to  have, 
enjoy,  and  yearly  receive  the  foresaid  annuity  or  yearly 
revenue  ;  to  the  foresaid  Sebastian  Caboto  during  his 
natural  life,  out  of  our  Treasury  at  the  receipt  of 
our  Exchequer  at  Westminster  at  the  hands  of  our 
Treasurers  and  paymasters,  there  remaining  for  the 
time  being  ;  at  the  Feasts  of  the  Annunciation  of  the 
blessed  Virgin  Mary,  the  Nativity  of  St.  John  Baptist, 
St.  Michael  the  Archangel,  and  the  Nativity  of  Our 
Lord,  to  be  paid  by  equal  portions.  And  further,  of 
our  more  special  grace,  and  by  the  advice  and  consent 
aforesaid,  we  do  give,  and  by  these  presents  do  grant, 
unto  the  aforesaid  Sebastian  Caboto,  so  many  and  so 
great  sums  of  money  as  the  said  annuity  or  yearly 
revenue  of  an  hundred  threescore  and  six  pounds, 
thirteen  shillings,  four  pence,  doth  amount  and  rise 
unto  from  the  Feast  of  St.  Michael  the  Archangel 

1  Not  Cabota,  as  Harrisse  reads. 


1 68        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

last  past  unto  this  present  time,  to  be  had  and  received 
by  the  aforesaid  Sebastian  Caboto,  and  his  assigns,  out 
of  our  aforesaid  Treasury,  at  the  hands  of  our  aforesaid 
Treasurers  and  officers  of  our  Exchequer,  of  our  free 
gift,  without  account,  or  anything  else  therefore  to  be 
yielded,  paid,  or  made,  to  us  our  heirs  or  successors, 
forasmuch  as  herein  express  mention  is  made  to  the 
contrary. 

'In  witness  whereof  we  have  caused  these  our 
Letters  to  be  made  patents  :  Witness  the  King  at 
Westminster  the  Sixth  day  of  January  in  the  second 
year  of  his  reign.  The  year  of  our  Lord  1548.' 

From  the  terms  of  this  document,  as  well  as  from 
the  other  official  papers  relating  to  Cabot's  second 
sojourn  in  this  country,  it  does  not  appear  that  any 
particular  office  was  created  for  Cabot  in  England,  or 
that  Hakluyt  is  technically  correct  when  he  says  that 
'  King  Edward  VI.  advanced  the  worthy  and  excellent 
Sebastian  Cabota  to  be  Grand  Pilot  of  England.'  On 
the  contrary,  a  paper  of  Oueen  Elizabeth's  time,  still 
preserved  among  the  Lansdowne  manuscripts,  offers  a 
presumption  to  the  contrary.  This  is  a  '  copy  of  the 
appointment  of  Stephen  Burrough  [Borowghe]  to  the 
office  of  Chief  Pilot  of  England,  with  his  own  reasons 
for  the  necessity  of  such  an  office,  1563.'  The  whole 
tenor  of  this  memorial,  which  discusses  c  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 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  169 

flourisheth,'  is  adverse  to  any  theory  of  Cabot's  previous 
tenure  of  such  office — no  word  is  dropped  which  could 
imply  a  precedent — and  Burrough  discusses  the  duties 
of  a  Chief  Pilot  as  one  would  discuss  the  working  of  a 
new  venture.  So  if  Sebastian  really  discharged  the 
aforesaid  duties  (e.g.,  from  1549  to  J5535  or  'before 
he  entered  into  the  Northern  Discovery  '  as  Hakluyt 
puts  it)  he  must  have  done  so  in  a  very  undefined  and 
general  way.  Certainly  he  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  charged  in  England,  as  in  Spain,  with  the  official 
'  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  realm.' 
But,  nevertheless,  as  we  shall  see  presently  by  parti 
cular  proofs,  Cabot  seems  to  have  enjoyed  considerable 
authority  in  naval  matters  during  the  reigns  of  Edward 
VI.  and  Mary.  He  was,  in  all  probability,  what  may 
be  called  c  nautical  adviser  '  to  the  English  Govern 
ment. 

Peckham  had  warrant,  as  just  above  related,  on 
the  Qth  of  October,  1547,  to  Pa7  tne  expenses  of 
Sebastian's  trans-shipment  from  Spain  to  England  ; 
and  the  official  notices  of  this  business  (which  appears 
to  have  been  transacted  between  October,  1547,  an(^ 
January,  1548)  are  completed  by  another  memorandum 
of  the  Privy  Council,  under  date  of  the  2nd  of  Sep 
tember,  1549 — 'The  Exchequer  had  warrant  for  ^100 
to  Henry  Oystryge,  by  him  taken  up  by  exchange 
for  conducting  of  Sebastian  Sabott  [Cabot].'  But 


170        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

already,  by  the  time  of  this  last  settlement,  difficulties 
had  arisen  (or  were  very  shortly  to  arise)  about  the 
various  claims  on  Sebastian's  services.  He  was  now 
definitely  committed,  as  he  had  never  been  before,  to 
the  allegiance  of  the  Crown  of  England.  Yet  he  had 
only  left  Spain  on  a  leave  of  absence,  and  had  resigned 
neither  the  office  nor  the  pay  which  he  received  from 
Charles  V.  Accordingly  the  Emperor  demands  his 
return  on  the  25th  of  November,  1549,  m  a  despatch 
to  the  Privy  Council  :  c  Whereas  one  Sebastian  Cabot, 
General  Pilot  of  the  Emperor's  Indies,  is  presently  in 
England,  forasmuch  as  he  cannot  stand  the  King 
your  master  in  any  great  [stead],  seeing  he  hath  small 
practice  in  these  seas,  and  is  a  very  necessary  man  for 
the  Emperor,  whose  servant  he  is  [and]  hath  a  pension 
of  him,  his  majesty  desireth  some  order  to  be  taken 
for  his  sending  over  in  such  sort  as  his  Ambassador 
shall  at  better  length  declare  unto  the  King  your 
Master's  Council.'  To  add  another  small  mystery 
to  the  greater  ones  we  have  already  puzzled  over,  it 
seems  extraordinary  that  for  nearly  two  years  Cabot 
should  have  drawn  his  new  English  salary,  and  enjoyed 
his  new  English  office,  without  being  brought  to 
any  definite  renunciation  of  his  Spanish  one,  and  that 
Charles  should  appear  to  be  entirely  ignorant  that 
'  his  servant '  had  accepted  any  other  appointment. 

The  Privy  Council  replied  to  the  Emperor  on 
April  21,  1550,  that  *  Cabot  was  not  detained  in 
England  by  them,  but  that  he  of  himself  refused  to 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  171 

go  either  into  Spain  or  to  the  Emperor,  and  that  he 
being  of  that  mind  and  the  King's  subject1  (/.*.,  an 
Englishman)  no  reason  nor  equity  would  that  he 
should  be  forced  to  go  against  his  will.' 

The  correspondence  did  not  stop  here,  but  was 
briskly  continued  on  the  Emperor's  side  by  his  envoy 
in  England  :  '  Upon  the  which  answer,'  ran  the  report 
of  the  English  Privy  Council,  c  the  said  Ambassador 
said  that  if  this  were  Cabot's  answer,  then  he  required 
that  the  said  Cabot,  in  the  presence  of  some  one  whom 
we  could  appoint,  might  speak  with  the  said  Ambassa 
dor,  and  declare  unto  him  this  to  be  his  mind  and 
answer.  Whereunto  we  condescended,  and  at  the 
last  sent  the  said  Cabot  with  Richard  Shelley  to  the 
Ambassador.  Who,  as  the  said  Shelley  hath  made 
report  to  us,  affirmed  to  the  said  Ambassador  that  he 
was  not  minded  to  go  neither  into  Spain  nor  to  the 
Emperor.  Nevertheless,  having  knowledge  of  certain 
things  very  necessary  for  the  Emperor's  knowledge, 
he  was  well  contented,  for  the  good  will  he  bore  the 
Emperor,  to  write  his  mind  unto  him,2  or  declare  the 
same  here  to  any  such  as  should  be  appointed  to  hear 
him.  Whereunto  the  said  Ambassador  asked  the  said 
Cabot,  in  case  the  King's  Majesty  or  we  should 
command  him  to  go  to  the  Emperor,  whether  then 
he  would  not  do  it  ?  Whereunto  Cabot  made  answer 

1  Does  this   mean  that  he  had  been  naturalised  between   1548  and 
1550  ?     This  is  the  only  document  known  where  Sebastian  is  explicitly 
called  a  subject  of  the  King  of  England. 
~  As  he  does  in  1553.     See  p.  197,  &c. 


172        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

as  Shelley  reporteth,  that  if  the  King's  Highness  or 
we  did  command  him  so  to  do,  then  he  knew  well 
enough  what  he  had  to  do.  But  it  seemeth  that  the 
Ambassador  took  this  answer  of  Cabot  to  sound  as 
though  Cabot  had  answered  that,  being  commanded 
by  the  King's  Highness  or  us,  then  he  would  be 
contented  to  go  to  the  Emperor,  wherein  we  reckon 
the  said  Ambassador  to  be  deceived,  for  that  the  said 
Cabot  had  divers  times  before  declared  unto  us  that 
he  was  fully  determined  not  to  go  hence  at  all.' 

Sebastian  accordingly  stayed  in  England  ;  estab 
lished  himself  once  more  in  Bristol  ;  and  petitioned 
successfully  for  a  copy  of  the  letters  patent  granted  to 
his  father,  his  brothers,  and  himself,  on  March  5, 
1496.  c  We  have  ascertained,'  declares  the  patent  copy, 
'  by  an  inspection  of  the  records  of  our  Chancery  that 
the  Lord  Henry  VII.,  formerly  King  of  England,  has 
issued  letters  patent,  the  tenor  of  which  is  as  follows.' 
The  original  patent  of  1496  is  then  recited,  with  a 
mistake  as  to  the  date  of  issue,  which  is  given  as 
April  5th  (for  March  5th)  ;  and  the  document  con 
cludes  with  this  explanation  :  <  Whereas  the  aforesaid 
letters  have  been  lost  by  accident,  as  the  said  Sebastian 
has  declared,  saying  that  should  they  be  found  again 
he  will  return  them  to  our  Chancery  to  be  put  on 
record  : — Now  we,  by  these  presents,  at  the  request  of 
the  said  Sebastian,  have  thought  fit  to  cause  the  tenor 
of  the  said  letters  to  be  copied.' 

The  English  Government,  like  the  Spanish,  seemed 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  173 

eager  to  heap  upon  Cabot  rewards  and  privileges. 
And  among  these  we  have  in  1550,  *  An  acquittance 
to  the  Treasurer  and  Barons  of  the  Exchequer  for  the 
payment  of  diver  sums  of  money  by  the  Council's 
warrant  from  the  Feast  of  Easter  in  the  fourth  year  of 
Edward  VI.  until  Michaelmas  following.  To  Sebastian 
Cabot  ICI  li  [£200]  by  way  of  the  K[ing's] 
M[ajesty's]  reward.'  Again,  on  June  26,  1550,  there 
is  a  similar  warrant  to  the  Exchequer  to  pay  unto 
Sebastian  Cabot  £200  by  way  of  the  King's  Majesty's 
reward.  And  once  more,  but  of  doubtful  authenticity, 
resting  only  on  the  word  of  Strype,  another  grant  of 
equal  amount  was  bestowed  on  '  Sebastian  Cabot  the 
great  seaman'  in  March,  1551.  This  last  is  probably 
only  a  confused  and  wrongly  dated  version  of  the 
present  of  June  1550,  while  even  the  first  quoted  and 
dateless  'acquittance'  has  been  conjectured  to  be  a 
variant  of  the  same  warrant.  In  any  case  Sebastian 
received  in  1550-51,  at  least  one  gratuity  of  £200, 
[==^2,400  in  our  money]  from  Edward  VI.,  alto 
gether  independent  of  his  pension. 

Yet  at  this  very  time  the  'great  seaman'  was 
re-opening  his  old  intrigues  with  Venice,  through 
Giacomo  Sorenzo,the  Venetian  Ambassador  in  London. 
To  Sorenzo  he  seems  to  have  repeated  the  statements 
he  had  made  to  Contarini,  of  his  Venetian  origin,  of 
his  zeal  to  serve  the  Republic,  of  the  secrets  which  he 
could  reveal.  His  overtures  were  again  received  with 
favour  :  the  Council  of  Ten  were  '  much  pleased ' 


174       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

with  what  they  had  just  heard  *  about  their  most 
faithful  Sebastian  Cabot,'  and  Sorenzo  was  directed  to 
'  endeavour  to  obtain  from  Cabot  as  many  particulars 
as  possible  about  his  design  respecting  this  navigation,' 
— probably  the  old  idea  of  a  North- Western  passage  to 
Asia,  answering  to  the  South- Western  way  found  by 
Magellan. 

While  this  was  being  so  favourably  discussed  from 
the  Venetian  side,  the  services  of  the  Reverend  Peter 
Vannes,  the  English  Ambassador  to  the  Republic, 
were  also  enlisted  in  aid  of  Cabot's  alleged  property 
rights  in  Venice.  *  Cabot's  matter '  to  Vannes 
meant  the  recovery  of  a  claim  based  on  an  estate  in 
Venetian  territory  once  belonging  to  Sebastian's 
mother  and  aunt.  It  was  the  same  excuse  apparently 
which  had  served  in  the  negotiations  with  Contarini 
in  1523,  and  the  (  matter,'  as  Vannes  wrote  to  the 
English  Council,  was  now  about  fifty  years  old.  The 
Seigniory,  in  their  letter  to  Sorenzo  of  the  I2th  of 
September,  1551,  urge  Cabot  to  appear  personally  in 
Venice  and  identify  himself,  as  '  no  one  there  knows 
him  familiarly,  and  his  affair  is  of  very  ancient  date.' 
Meantime,  however,  as  Vannes  informs  the  English 
Council,  the  Ten  had  ordered  '  Baptista  Ramusio, 
one  of  their  secretaries,'  to  make  inquiries  ;  Vannes 
had  delivered  to  Ramusio,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Seigniory,  such  evidence  as  had  come  into  his  hands  ; 
and  the  said  Ramusio,  being  '  put  in  trust '  of  the 
matter  by  Cabot,  would  '  ensearch  with  diligence  any 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  175 

way  and  knowledge  possible '  that  might  c  stand  to 
the  said  Sebastian's  profit  and  obtaining  of  right,' 
though  '  by  the  death  of  men,  decaying  of  houses,  and 
perishing  of  writings  ...  it  were  hard  to  come  to 
any  assured  knowledge  thereof.'  Here,  nevertheless, 
the  matter  ends  ;  Sebastian  appears  not  to  have  gone 
to  Venice  either  to  prosecute  his  claim  or  to  concert 
measures  with  the  Seigniory  for  an  exploring  venture  ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  stayed  comfortably  in  ^England, 
enjoying  the  very  solid  advantages  of  a  good  position  ; 
nor  is  there  any  evidence  of  his  visiting  Venice  in 
later  life.  We  may  believe,  if  we  like,  what  he  said 
to  Eden  about  his  infantile  travels — how  at  four  years 
old  he  was  taken  to  Venice  by  his  father,  and  'so 
returned  again  [to  England]  after  certain  years' — 
nothing  warrants  us  in  supposing  that  he  ever  quitted 
England  for  Italy  after  he  finally  came  to  live  among 
us  in  1547. 


CHAPTER    XI 

CABOT'S  EXACT   EMPLOYMENT  IN  ENGLAND  AT  THIS 

TIME HIS  SUPPOSED  CHAMPIONSHIP  OF  ENGLISH 

MERCHANTS    AGAINST    THE    EASTERLINGS HIS 

SHARE  IN  THE  NORTH-EAST  VENTURE  OF    1553 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT'S  employment  in  England,  as  we 
have  hinted  already,  seems  not  to  have  been  so  definite 
as  in  Spain.  There  he  was  the  Royal  Chief  Pilot ;  here 
he  enjoyed  an  increased  salary  ;  but  as  to  his  duties,  it 
is  difficult  to  describe  them  more  precisely  than  in 
Riddle's  words,  'he  would  seem  to  have  exercised  a 
general  supervision  over  the  maritime  concerns  of  the 
country,  under  the  eye  of  the  King  and  Council,  and 
to  have  been  called  upon  whenever  there  was  occasion 
for  nautical  skill  and  experience.'  His  work  also 
included,  as  in  Spain,  a  supervision  of  pilots  and  ship 
masters.  Thus  Hakluyt  gives  us  the  case  of  one  John 
Alday,  who  was  'letted  [from  going  to  the  Levant] 
by  the  Prince's  letters,  which  my  master  Sebastian 
Cabot  had  obtained  ...  to  my  great  grief.'  The 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  177 

same  great  collector  has  inserted  a  notice  of  Cabot's 
being  present  at  the  examination  (in  England)  of  a 
French  pilot,  well  acquainted  with  the  coast  of  Brazil. 
But  the  most  important  of  Cabot's  enterprises,  in  this 
last  period  of  his  life,  was  his  promotion  of  the  North- 
East  venture  of  1553,  and  possibly  of  other  new  move 
ments,  through  his  connection  with  the  Company 
of  Merchant  Adventurers,  of  which  he  was  Governor. 
Hakluyt  has  preserved  the  instructions  drawn  up  by 
Cabot  for  the  use  of  the  mariners  on  this  voyage,  and 
his  share  in  the  whole  scheme  is  borne  out  by  many 
evidences.  For  instance,  when  the  Company  (cof 
Merchant  Adventurers  '  or  '  of  Muscovy ')  was 
formally  incorporated  on  February  6,  1555,  it  is 
with  this  proviso  :  '  In  consideration  that  Sebastian 
Cabot  hath  been  the  chief  setter-forth  of  this 
journey  : *  therefore  we  make,  ordain,  and  constitute 
the  said  Sebastian  to  be  the  first  and  present  Governor 
of  the  same  fellowship  and  commonalty.  .  .  .  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  before  coming  to  the  voyage  of  1553,  we  have 
to  notice  Cabot's  alleged  leadership  of  the  Merchant 
Adventurers  in  their  struggle  with  the  Easterlings  of 
the  Hanse  towns.  This  story,  in  its  connection  with 
Sebastian,  appears  first  to  be  found  in  Campbell's  Lives 

1  Namely,  the  journey  of  Chancellor  and  Willoughby,  A.D.  1553. 


1 78       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  the  British  Admirals,  written  in  1742,  in  the  follow 
ing  shape  : — 

6  At  last  the  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  our  Sebastian  Cabot,  on 
the  29th  of  December,  1551,  exhibited  to  the  Council 
an  Information  against  the  Merchants  of  the  Steel 
yard,1  to  which  they  were  directed  to  put  in  their 
answer.  They  did  so,  and  after  several  hearings  and 
a  reference  to  the  King's  Solicitor-General,  his  Counsel 
learned  in  the  law  and  the  Recorder  of  London,  a 
decree  passed  on  the  24th  of  February,  whereby  these 
Merchants  of  the  Steelyard  were  declared  to  be  no 
legal  corporation.' 

The  Merchant  Adventurers,  known  in  mediaeval 
times  (at  least,  from  1399)  as  the  '  Brotherhood  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury,'  had  gained  their  later  title  in 
1513  as  the  '  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers  of 
England,'  and  successfully  routed  their  Easterling 
rivals  of  the  Steelyard  in  1551,  as  above  stated.  But 
no  official  document,  Government  record,  or  chronicle 
of  the  time,  mentions  the  name  of  Cabot  in  connection 
with  this  commercial  struggle.  The  grant  of  Edward 
VI.  to  Cabot  in  March,  1551,  as  given  by  Strype — 
4  To  Sebastian  Cabot  (the  great  seaman),  ^200,  by 
way  of  the  King's  Majesty's  reward ' — has  been 
supposed  by  Biddle  and  others  to  be  an  acknowledg 
ment  of  his  services  on  this  occasion,  but  there  is  no 
positive  proof  of  this.  John  Wheeler,  in  his  account 

1   The  London  House  of  the  Hanse  Merchants. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  179 

of  the  Company,  written  by  him  as  Secretary  of  the 
same  in  1601,  does  not  refer  to  Cabot's  supposed 
championship,  and  the  same  is  true  of  all  other 
contemporary  evidence.  Records  were  not,  however, 
then  so  exhaustive  and  so  careful  that  their  omission 
of  a  circumstance  need  absolutely  preclude  all  possi 
bility  of  it  ;  and  if  we  could  prove  that  Sebastian  had 
as  early  as  December,  1551,  become,  as  Campbell 
says,  head  of  the  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers, 
it  would  then  be  not  merely  possible,  but  probable, 
that  he  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  contest  with  the 
Easterlings.  But  the  earliest  documentary  evidence 
of  Sebastian's  Governorship  is  of  the  Qth  of  May, 
1553,  when  in  the  instructions  given  to  the  expedi 
tion  of  Chancellor  and  Willoughby,  it  is  stated  that 
these  same  instructions  were  c  compiled,  made,  and 
delivered  by  the  right  reverend  Sebastian  Cabota, 
Governor  of  the  Mystery  and  Company  of  the 
Merchant  Adventurers,'  and  his  signature  is  appended 
in  a  corresponding  form,  c  I,  Sebastian  Cabota, 
Governor.'  But  in  March,  1551—52,  viz.,  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  Steelyard  contest,  William 
Dansell  was  still  Governor  of  the  Company,  as  John 
Sturgeon  had  been  in  1549.  Cabot  therefore  can 
only  be  assumed  to  have  been  Governor  of  the 
Merchant  Adventurers  in  the  spring  of  1553,  before 
the  incorporation  of  the  Company  in  1555,  but  not 
(in  that  case)  before  the  battle  of  the  Company  with 
the  Easterlings. 


i  So        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

And  now  we  come  to  the  North-East  venture  of 
1553,  the  real  beginning  of  English  exploring  activity, 
of  our  wider  commercial  ambitions,  and  of  national 
interest  in  schemes  of  discovery,  leading  to  trade. 
With  this  Sebastian  Cabot  was,  beyond  all  cavil, 
intimately  associated  ;  and  it  is  curious  that  the  same 
family  should  have  had  such  a  share  in  furthering 
English  enterprise  both  to  the  North- West  and  the 
North-East.  Up  to  this  time  all  our  efforts  had  been 
turned  Westwards ;  the  Portuguese  voyage  to  Novaia 
Zemlya1  in  search  of  the  North-East  waterway  to 
Cathay  (in  1484)  had  not  drawn  many  imitators  in 
its  track  ;  and  only  the  repeated  failure  of  all  attempts 
to  the  North- West  2  drove  the  English  adventurers 
to  consider  seriously  the  other  alternative. 

It  was  time  something  fresh  was  done,  for  the 
prosperity  of  English  commerce  was  now  at  a  very 
low  ebb,  and  the  outlook  sufficiently  dreary,  as 
Hakluyt  tells  us  :  'At  what  time  our  merchants 
perceived  the  commodities  and  goods  of  England  to 
be  in  small  request  with  the  countries  and  people 
about  us  and  near  to  us  ;  and  that  those  merchandises 
which  strangers  did  earnestly  desire  were  now 
neglected  and  the  price  thereof  abated,  though  by  us 
carried  to  their  own  ports,  and  all  foreign  merchandises 
in  great  account,  certain  grave  citizens  of  London 

1  Under  King  John  II. 

3  And  the  increased  knowledge  of  the  length  and  difficulties  of  this 
enterprise,  after  the  discoveries  of  Balboa,  Magellan,  Cartier,  and  others. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  181 

began  to  think  how  this  mischief  might  be  remedied. 
Neither  was  there  a  remedy  wanting — for  as  the 
wealth  of  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  by  the 
discovery  and  search  of  new  trades  and  countries,  was 
marvellously  increased  ;  supposing  the  same  to  be  a 
means  for  them  to  obtain  the  like,  they  thereupon 
resolved  upon  a  new  and  strange  navigation.' 

The  first  suggestion  of  a  North-,EW  attempt  to  reach 
Cathay,  in  the  English  service,  seems  to  have  been 
made  in  1525  by  Paulo  Centurioni  to  Henry  VIII. 
His  plan  was  exactly  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Adventurers  of  1553 — 'to  bring  the  merchandise  ot 
Calicut  to  the  north  part  of  Europe  by  way  of 
Muscovy.'  Centurioni's  premature  death  postponed 
his  enterprise,  which  had  found  great  favour  with 
Henry  VIII.  ;  but,  after  Cabot's  first  departure  from 
England,  the  voyage  of  John  Rut  in  1527,  of  Grube 
and  an  unnamed  adventurer  in  the  same  year,  and  of 
Hore  in  1536  (all,  however,  to  the  North- West),  as 
well  as  the  plan  already  noticed  in  1541  for  finding  a 
passage  between  Iceland  and  Greenland,  and  the  letter 
of  Robert  Thorne  from  Seville  in  1527,  bore  witness 
to  the  interest  still  taken,  so  many  years  after  the 
Cabots  had  first  essayed  it,  in  the  plan  of  a  northern 
passage  to  Asia. 

It  was,  however,  with  the  enterprise  of  1553  that 
the  English  nation,  as  a  whole,  woke  up  to  their 
opportunities  and  their  mission  in  exploration,  trade, 
and  colonisation.  The  half-century  that  had  elapsed 


i8z        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

between  the  first  voyage  of  John  Cabot  and  the 
present  year  (1553)  had  been  singularly  barren  of 
discovering  enterprises  on  the  part  of  Englishmen  ; 
but  from  this  time,  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.,  and  still  more  from  the  beginning  of 
that  of  Elizabeth,  England  fairly  entered  into  com 
petition  with  the  other  exploring  nations  ;  and 
Sebastian  Cabot,  as  one  of  the  leading  figures,  at  any 
rate,  among  the  English  Merchant  Adventurers,  was 
here  certainly  engaged  in  the  work  of  building  up 
Greater  Britain.  It  is  childish  and  unfair  to  detract 
from  his  credit  by  the  argument  that  his  object  was 
only  an  expedition  to  Cathay,  that  he  had  no  idea  of 
the  Muscovy  trade,  and  that  the  real  success  of  the 
expedition  was  unintended  and  unexpected  by  him. 
The  same  is  true  both  of  Willoughby  and  of 
Chancellor,  who  actually  made  so  much  of  the 
incidental  success.  It  is  also  true,  of  course,  in  the 
case  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus. 

The  voyage  of  1553,  which  discovered  Russia  to 
English  politics  and  trade,  is  in  one  sense  the  most 
important  of  all  our  commercial  ventures.  For  in 
this  we  have  the  start  of  Greater  Britain, 'and  the 
first  step  in  such  a  movement  must  always  have  a 
place  of  its  own.  John  Cabot's  success  in  1497  and 
1498  had  not  really  aroused  the  nation  ;  our  destiny 
had  to  wait  another  half-century  before  its  fulfilment 
began  ;  and  it  is  only  in  1553  *hat  continuous 
English  enterprise  begins.  The  first  half  of  the  six- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  183 

teenth  century,  though  it  cannot  be  included  in  our 
mediaeval  period,  is  still  less  a  part  of  modern  explora 
tion.  It  is  essentially  a  time  of  change  and  prepara 
tion,  when  foreign  mariners  and  their  disciples  from 
amongst  ourselves  drilled  into  the  English  mind 
some  understanding  of  that  expansion  of  Europe 
which  men  saw  going  on  all  around  them.  By  the 
time  of  this  new  c  trial '  of  the  Russian  trade  and 
North-East  passage,  native  English  feeling  was  ready 
to  work  in  its  own  interest  for  its  own  gains,  and 
with  this  voyage  we  have  fairly  entered  upon  the  age 
of  the  adventurers  and  discoverers  who  founded  our 
colonies  and  our  modern  commerce. 

Sebastian  Cabot  himself  took  no  part  in  the  actual 
voyage  of  1553.  He  was  now  an  old  man — seventy- 
eight,  at  least — and  his  office  as  Governor  of  the 
Adventurers'  Company  required  of  him  rather  the 
stay-at-home  work  of  general  supervision  than  the 
duties  of  pioneer  enterprise.  But  one  task  obviously 
fell  to  his  share — the  issuing  of  general  instructions  ; 
and  as  these  instructions  have  especial  interest  from 
various  points  of  view,  we  give  the  substance  of  all 
the  three  and  thirty  articles  now  composed  for  the 
fleet.  For  they  are  the  only  writings  that  have  come 
down  to  us  (with  the  possible  exception  of  some 
of  the  'Legends'  on  the  map  of  1544)  from  either 
John  or  Sebastian  Cabot ;  they  are  interesting  in 
themselves,  and  full  of  shrewdness  and  experienced 
wisdom — of  devoutness,  too,  as  became  one  who 


1 84        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

was  a  servant  of  a  Puritan  regime.  In  the  thirty- 
second  article  we  have  a  clear  reference  to  oppo 
nents  and  their  arguments — so  excellent  against  the 
North-East  passage  in  itself,  so  happily  ineffective 
against  the  spirit  of  enterprise,  which  even  in  its 
failures  brought  to  England  so  much  incidental  gain. 
Taking  Cabot's  thirty-three  articles  together,  they 
make  up  a  sort  of  Whole  Duty  of  Man,  as  seaman, 
as  Protestant,  and  as  trader  ;  it  is  curious  to  see  how 
far  their  tone  has  been  preserved  in  the  expansion  of 
England  from  that  day  onward  ;  in  the  light  of  such 
counsels  we  may  understand  something  of  our  success. 
They  are  a  good  charter  for  the  men  who  were 
beginning  to  work  at  the  creation  of  an  English 
empire.  The  first  four  enjoin  loyalty  and  obedience, 
and  warn  against  dissensions  ;  the  seventh  prescribes 
the  keeping  of  a  log  and  journal — a  very  early  case  of 
systematic  attention  to  such  matters  ;  the  ninth  orders 
weekly  accounts  of  expense ;  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
are  concerned  with  religious  matters — prayers  are  to 
be  read  on  board  twice  a  day  ;  but  by  the  twenty- 
second  there  was  to  be  no  religious  controversy  and 
no  preaching  or  proselytising  in  foreign  ports  ;  where 
necessary,  the  mariner's  religion  was  to  be  c  dissembled.' 
Articles  20  and  21  forbid  all  private  bargaining — 
every  one  is  to  remember  that  he  belongs  to  a 
Company  and  Mystery  ;  by  the  twenty-third,  infor 
mation  is  to  be  got  by  all  means  possible  from  the 
natives  of  new  countries  ;  '  and  if  the  person  taken,' 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  185 

suggests  Article  24,  c  may  be  made  drunk  with  your 
beer  or  wine,  you  shall  know  the  secrets  of  his  heart.' 
Moreover,  the  crews  are  never  to  go  far  inland  ;  and 
are  never  to  enrage  foreigners  by  laughing  at  their 
customs,  however  odd  they  may  seem  ;  descriptions 
of  all  new  lands  are  to  be  written  down  ;  and  natives 
must  be  allured  to  the  ships  by  a  brave  show  and  noise. 
If  any  go  to  entertainments  on  shore,  it  must  be  armed, 
and  in  a  strong  party  ;  watch  is  always  to  be  kept 
on  board,  and  the  London  merchants  are  to  be  well 
advertised  of  everything  that  is  being  done. 


CHAPTER   XII 

THE     INSTRUCTIONS      DRAWN     UP     BY     SEBASTIAN     FOR 

THE    NORTH-EAST     VOYAGE    OF     1 553 RENEWED 

ATTEMPTS    OF    CHARLES    V.    TO    RECLAIM    CABOT*S 
SERVICES    IN    1553 

THE  full  text  of  Sebastian's  instructions  to  the  fleet 
of  Willoughby  and  Chancellor  is,  with  some  unim 
portant  omissions,  as  follows  : — 

'  Ordinances,  Instructions,  and  Advertisements  of 
and  for  the  direction  of  the  intended  voyage  for 
Cathay,  compiled,  made,  and  delivered  by  the  right 
worshipful  M.  Sebastian  Cabota,  Esquire,  Governor  of 
the  Mystery  and  Company  of  the  Merchant  Adven 
turers,  for  the  discovery  of  Regions,  Dominions, 
Islands,  and  places  unknown  .  .  .  the  ninth  of  May 
in  the  year  .  .  .  1553  and  in  the  seventh  year  of  the 
reign  of  ...  Edward  VI. 

4  First,  the  Captain-General,  with  the  pilot-major, 
the  masters,  merchants,  and  other  officers,  to  be  so 
knit  and  accorded  in  unity,  love,  conformity,  and 

1 86 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  187 

obedience  in  every  degree  on  all  sides,  that  no  dissen 
sion,  variance,  or  contention  may  rise  or  spring  betwixt 
them  and  the  mariners  of  this  Company,  to  the 
damage  or  hindrance  of  the  voyage  ;  for  that  dissen 
sion,  by  many  experiences,  hath  overthrown  many 
notable,  intended,  and  likely  enterprises  and  exploits. 

'  2.  Item,  forasmuch  as  every  person  hath  given  an 
oath  to  be  true,  faithful,  and  loyal  subjects  and  liege 
men  ...  it  behoveth  every  person  ...  to  remember 
his  said  charge  .  .  .  [of  loyalty  to  the  English  service]. 

4  3.  Item,  where  furthermore  every  mariner  or 
passenger  in  his  ship  hath  given  like  oath  to  be 
obedient  to  the  Captain-General  and  to  every  Captain 
and  master  in  his  ship,  for  the  observation  of  these 
present  orders  contained  in  this  book  and  all  other 
which  hereafter  shall  be  made  by  the  12  Counsellors 
in  the  present  book  named  .  .  .  therefore  it  is  con 
venient  that  this  present  book  shall  once  every  week 
(by  the  discretion  of  the  Captain)  be  read  to  the  said 
Company,  to  the  intent  that  every  man  may  the 
better  remember  his  oath,  conscience,  duty,  and  charge. 

'  4.  Item,  every  person,  by  virtue  of  his  oath,  to  do 
effectually,  ...  as  shall  be  ...  commanded  by  the 
Captain-General  .  .  . 

<  5.  Item,  all  courses  in  Navigation  to  be  set  by  the 
.  .  .  Captain,  Pilot-Major,  Masters,  and  Master 
Mates,  with  the  assent  of  the  Counsellors  ...  so 
that  the  Captain-General  shall  in  all  Councils  and 
assemblies  have  a  double  voice. 


1 88        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

c  6.  Item,  that  the  fleet  shall  keep  together  and  not 
separate  ...  as  much  as  by  wind  and  weather  may 
be  ...  permitted,  and  that  the  Captains,  Pilots,  and 
Masters  shall  speedily  come  aboard  the  Admiral,  when 
and  as  often  as  he  shall  seem  to  have  just  cause  to 
assemble  them  for  consultation.  .  .  . 

'  7.  Item,  that  the  Merchants  and  other  skilful 
persons  in  writing  shall  daily  .  .  .  describe  .  .  .  the 
Navigation  of  every  day  and  night,  with  the  points 
and  observations  of  the  lands,  tides,  elements,  altitude 
of  the  Sun,  course  of  the  Moon  and  Stars — and  the 
same  so  noted  by  the  order  of  the  Master  and  Pilot  of 
every  ship  to  be  put  in  writing — the  Captain-General 
assembling  the  Masters  together  once  every  week  (if 
wind  and  weather  shall  serve)  to  confer  all  the  obser 
vations  and  notes  of  the  said  ships,  to  the  intent  it 
may  appear  wherein  the  notes  do  agree,  and  wherein 
they  dissent  ;  and  upon  good  debatement  ...  to  put 
the  same  into  a  common  ledger,  to  remain  of  record 
for  the  Company  ;  the  like  order  to  be  kept  in  pro 
portioning  of  the  Cards,  Astrolabes,  and  other  instru 
ments  prepared  for  the  Voyage,  at  the  charge  of  the 
Company. 

'  8.  Item,  that  all  enterprises  ...  of  discovering  or 
landing  to  search  Isles  ...  and  such  like  ...  to  be 
determined  advisedly.  And  that  in  all  enterprises, 
notable  ambassages  or  presents  to  Princes  to  be 
done  and  executed  by  the  Captain-General  in  person 
or  by  such  other  as  he  by  common  assent  shall 
appoint.  .  .  . 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  189 

c  9.  Item,  the  Steward  and  Cook  of  every  ship  and 
their  associates,  to  give  and  render  to  the  Captain  and 
other  head  officers  of  their  ship  weekly  (or  oftener) 
...  a  just  .  .  .  account  of  expense  .  .  .  and  so  to 
order  the  same  that  no  waste  be  made. 

4 10.  Item,  when  any  inferior  .  .  .  officer  .  .  . 
shall  be  tried  untrue,  remisse,  negligent,  or  unprofit 
able  .  .  .  then  every  such  officer  to  be  punished  .  .  . 
at  the  discretion  of  the  Captain  and  assistants.  .  .  . 

4  1 1.  Item,  if  any  mariner  or  officer  inferior  shall 
be  found  not  worthy  the  place  that  he  is  shipped  for 
.  .  .  such  person  may  be  unshipped  ...  at  any 
place  within  the  King's  Majesty's  .  .  .  dominion, 
and  one  more  .  .  .  worthy  to  be  put  in  his  place 
.  .  .  and  Order  to  be  taken  that  the  party  dismissed 
shall  be  allowed  proportionally  the  value  of  that  he 
shall  have  deserved  to  the  time  of  his  .  .  .  dis 
charge. 

'  12.  Item,  that  no  blaspheming  of  God,  or  detest 
able  swearing  be  used  in  any  ship,  nor  communication 
of  ribaldry,  filthy  tales,  or  ungodly  talk  to  be  suffered 
in  the  company  of  any  ship,  neither  dicing,  carding, 
tabling,  nor  other  devilish  games  to  be  frequented, 
whereby  ensueth  not  only  poverty  to  the  players,  but 
also  strife,  variance,  brawling,  fighting,  and  oftentimes 
murder,  to  the  .  .  .  destruction  of  the  parties  and  pro 
voking  of  God's  ...  just  wrath.  .  .  .  These  and  all 
such-like  pestilences  and  contagions  of  vices  and  sins 
to  be  eschewed,  and  the  offenders  once  monished,  and 


190       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

not  reforming,  to  be  punished  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Captain  and  master.  .  .  . 

'  13.  Item,  that  morning  and  evening  prayer,  with 
other  common  services  appointed  by  the  King's 
Majesty  and  laws  of  this  Realm  to  be  ...  read  in 
every  ship  daily  by  the  minister  in  the  Admiral  and 
[by]  the  Merchant,  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  obtained  by  humble  prayer  of  the 
Navigants  accordingly. 

'14.  Item,  that  every  officer  is  to  be  charged  by 
inventory  with  the  particulars  of  his  charge,  and  to 
render  an  ...  account  of  the  same,  together  with 
.  .  .  temperate  dispending  of  powder,  shot,  and  use 
of  all  kind  of  artillery,  which  is  to  be  ...  preserved 
for  the  necessary  defence  of  the  fleet,  together  with 
due  keeping  of  all  instruments  of  your  Navigation. 

4  15.  Item,  no  liquor  to  be  spilt  on  the  ballast,  or 
filthiness  to  be  left  within  board  ;  the  cook  room  and 
all  other  places  to  be  kept  clean  for  the  better  health 
of  the  company — the  gromals  and  pages  to  be  brought 
up  according  to  the  laudable  orders  ...  of  the  sea, 
as  well  in  learning  of  Navigation  as  in  exercising  of 
that  which  to  them  appertaineth. 

'  1 6.  Item,  the  liveries  in  apparel  given  to  the 
mariners  to  be  kept  by  the  Merchants,  and  not  to  be 
worn,  but  by  order  of  the  Captain.  .  .  . 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  191 

'17.  Item,  when  any  mariner  or  passenger  have 
need  of  any  necessary  furniture  of  apparel  for  his  body 
and  conservation  of  his  health,  the  same  shall  be 
delivered  him  by  the  Merchant  .  .  .  without  any 
gain  to  be  exacted  by  the  Merchant.  .  .  . 

4 1 8.  Item,  the  sick,  diseased,  weak  .  .  .  person 
aboard  to  be  ...  holpen  in  the  time  of  his  infirmity, 
and  every  manner  of  person  without  respect  to  bear 
another's  burden,  and  no  man  to  refuse  such  labour  as 
...  be  put  to  him  for  the  .  .  .  public  wealth.  .  .  . 

4  19.  Item,  if  any  person  shall  fortune  to  die,  such 
.  .  .  goods  as  he  shall  have  at  the  time  of  his  death 
...  to  be  kept  by  order  of  the  Captain  and  Master 
of  the  ship,  and  an  Inventory  to  be  made  and  conveyed 
to  the  use  of  his  wife  and  children,  or  otherwise 
according  to  his  ...  will  .  .  .  and  the  day  of  his 
death  to  be  entered  in  the  Merchants'  .  .  .  Books 
...  to  the  intent  it  may  be  known  what  wages  he 
shall  have  deserved  to  his  death.  .  .  . 

'  20.  Item,  that  the  Merchants  appointed  for  this 
voyage  shall  not  make  any  show  or  sale  ...  or  open 
their  commodities  to  any  .  .  .  without  the  consent 
of  the  Captains,  the  Cape  Merchants,  and  the  assis 
tants,  or  four  of  them  .  .  .  and  all  wares  .  .  . 
trucked  ...  to  be  booked  by  the  Merchants  .  .  . 
and  inventory  of  all  goods  ...  so  trucked  ...  to 
be  presented  to  the  Governor,  Consults,  and  Assistants 
in  London  .  .  .  and  no  embezzlement  shall  be  used, 
but  the  truth  of  the  whole  voyage  to  be  opened,  to  the 


192       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

common  benefit  of  the  whole  Company  and  mystery, 
as  appertaineth  without  guile,  fraud,  or  male  engine. 

C2i.  Item,  no  particular  person  to  hinder  or  pre- 
judicate  the  common  stock  of  the  Company  in  sale 
of  his  own  .  .  .  wares. 

4  22.  Item,  not  to  disclose  to  any  nation  the  state 
of  our  Religion,  but  to  pass  it  over  in  silence,  seeming 
to  bear  with  such  rites  as  the  place  hath,  where  you 
shall  arrive. 

4  23.  Item,  forasmuch  as  our  people  and  ships  may 
appear  unto  them  strange  ...  it  is  to  be  considered, 
how  they  may  be  used,  learning  much  of  their  natures 
and  disposition,  by  ...  such  ...  as  you  may  cither 
allure  or  take  .  .  .  aboard  .  .  .  and  there  to  learn 
as  you  may,  without  violence  or  force,  and  no  woman 
to  be  tempted  to  dishonesty. 

'24.  Item,  the  person  so  taken  to  be  well  enter 
tained,  and  be  set  on  land  .  .  .  that  he  ...  may 
allure  other  to  draw  nigh  .  .  .  and  if  the  person  taken 
may  be  made  drunk  with  your  beer  or  wine,  you  shall 
know  the  secrets  of  his  heart. 

4  25.  Item,  our  people  may  not  pass  further  into  a 
land  than  that  they  may  be  able  to  recover  their 
pinnaces  or  ships,  and  not  to  credit  the  fair  words  of 
the  strange  people,  which  be  many  times  tried  subtle 
and  false,  nor  to  be  drawn  into  peril  of  loss,  for  the 
desire  of  ...  riches  .  .  .  ;  and  esteem  your  own  com 
modities  above  all  other,  and  in  countenance  show  not 
much  to  desire  the  foreign  commodities ;  nevertheless, 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  193 

take  them  as  for  friendship  or  by  way  of  permuta 
tion. 

4  26.  Item,  every  nation  and  region  is  to  be  con 
sidered  advisedly,  and  not  to  provoke  them  by  any 
disdain,  contempt,  or  such  like,  but  to  use  them  with 
prudent  circumspection,  with  all  gentleness  and  cour 
tesy,  and  not  to  tarry  long  in  one  place,  until  you 
shall  have  attained  the  most  worthy  place  that  may  be 
found.  .  .  . 

'  27.  Item,  the  names  of  every  people  of  every 
Island  arc  to  be  taken  in  writing  with  the  com 
modities  ...  of  the  same,  their  natures,  qualities  .  .  . 
the  site  of  the  same,  what  .  .  .  they  will  most  wil 
lingly  depart  with  [export],  and  what  metals  they  have. 

4  28.  Item,  if  people  shall  appear  gathering  of  stones, 
gold,  or  other  like  on  the  sand,  your  pinnaces  may 
draw  nigh,  marking  what  .  .  .  they  gather,  playing 
upon  the  drum  or  other  such  ...  as  may  allure  them 
to  barkening,  to  fantasy  .  .  .  but  keep  you  out  of 
danger  and  show  to  them  no  sign  of  hostility. 

c  29.  Item,  if  you  shall  be  invited  into  any  Ruler's 
house,  to  dinner  or  other  parliance,  go  in  such  order 
of  strength,  that  you  may  be  stronger  than  they ;  and 
be  wary  of  woods  and  ambushes,  and  that  your 
weapons  be  not  out  of  your  possessions. 

4  30.  Item,  if  you  shall  see  them  wear  Lions'  and 
Bears'  skins,  ...  be  not  afraid  .  .  . 

'31.  Item,  there  are  people  that  can  swim  in  the 
sea,  havens,  and  rivers,  naked,  having  bows,  coveting 


194       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

to  draw  nigh  your  ships,  which  if  they  find  not  well 
watched  .  .  .  they  will  assault  ;  if  you  resist,  they  dive 
.  .  .  therefore  diligent  watch  is  to  be  kept  both  day 
and  night  in  some  islands. 

'  32.  Item,  if  occasion  serve,  that  you  give  adver 
tisements  of  your  proceedings  in  such  things  as  may 
correspond  to  the  expectation  of  the  Company  .  .  . 
passing  such  impediments  which  by  divers  writers 
have  ministered  .  .  .  suspicion  in  some  heads  that 
this  voyage  could  not  succeed  for  the  extremity  of 
the  North  Pole,  lack  of  passage,  and  such  like  ;  which 
have  caused  wavering  minds  and  doubtful  heads  not 
only  to  withdraw  themselves  from  the  adventure  of 
this  voyage,  but  also  dissuaded  others  from  the  same  ; 
.  .  .  for  declaration  of  the  Truth  .  .  .  you  may  by 
common  consent  of  Counsel  send  either  by  land  or 
other  ways,  such  two  or  one  person  to  bring  the  same 
by  credit,  as  you  shall  think  may  pass,  for  that  you  be 
not  ignorant  how  many  desire  to  know  .  .  .  your 
welfare,  and  in  what  likelihood  you  be  to  obtain  this 
notable  enterprise,  which  is  hoped  no  less  to  succeed 
to  you  than  the  Orient  or  Occident  Indies  have  to 
the  benefit  of  the  Emperor  and  Kings  of  Portugal. 

c  33.  Item,  that  no  conspiracies  be  suffered  .  .  . 
but  always  obedience  to  be  used  by  all,  not  only  for 
conscience'  sake  towards  God,  under  whose  merciful 
hand  navigants,  above  all  other  creatures,  naturally  be 
most  high  and  vicine,  but  also  for  prudence  and 
worldly  policy.  .  .  . 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  195 

'  In  witness  whereof  I,  Sebastian  Gabota,  Governor 
aforesaid,  to  these  present  Ordinances  have  subscribed 
my  name  and  put  my  Seal,  the  day  and  year  above 
written.' 

As  Sebastian  himself  did  not  sail  with  the  expedi 
tion,  it  will  be  sufficient  for  the  present  purpose  to  say 
that  Chancellor  and  Willoughby  started  from  the 
Thames  on  the  aoth  of  May,  were  separated  off  the 
Norway  coast,  and  never  met  again — Willoughby  and 
his  crew  being  frozen  to  death  near  Kola  in  Lapland 
(1554),  while  Chancellor  successfully  rounded  the 
North  Cape,  entered  the  White  Sea  and  by  a  daring 
journey  from  the  Dwina  to  Moscow,  opened  com 
munication  with  the  Russia  of  Ivan  the  Terrible. 
Before  the  close  of  1554  Chancellor  returned  to 
England,  with  letters  from  the  Czar  to  Edward  VI., 
offering  entertainment  to  Willoughby  '  when  he  shall 
arrive,'  and  declaring  that  Russia  was  c  willing  that 
you  send  to  us  ships  and  vessels.  And  if  you  send  one 
of  your  Majesty's  Council  to  treat  with  us  ... 
your  merchants  may,  with  all  kinds  of  wares  and 
where  they  will,  make  their  market  .  .  .  with  all 
liberties  throughout  my  dominions,  to  come  and  go  at 
their  pleasure.' 

But  when  Chancellor  returned,  Queen  Mary  was 
already  on  the  throne,  Cabot  however  apparently 
retaining  for  some  years  both  his  pension  from  the 
Crown  and  his  Governorship  of  the  Merchant  Adven 
turers.  At  the  beginning  of  her  reign  the  old  ques- 


196       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

tion  of  the  Spanish  claim  on  his  services  reappears. 
Charles  had  waited  till  July  n,  1552,  before  filling  up 
his  place  in  Cosmography  at  the  '  Contractation 
House '  of  Seville  ;  he  did  not  even  then  appoint  any 
successor  to  him  as  Pilot-Major  ;  and  we  find  Alonzo 
de  Santa  Cruz,  in  the  very  last  years  of  Sebastian's 
life,  alluding  to  him  as  the  '  Pilot-Major  of  His 
Majesty,  [now]  in  England.'  Further,  soon  after  the 
accession  of  Queen  Mary,  who  (both  as  a  staunch 
Catholic  and  as  a  possible  daughter-in-law  of  his  own), 
might  be  supposed  far  more  amenable  to  his  influence 
than  Edward  VI.,  the  Emperor  made  another  effort 
(September  9,  1553)  to  recover  'his  share  in'  Cabot, 
couching  his  request x  to  the  Queen  of  England  under 
forms  of  studied  moderation :  'Most  high,  most  excel 
lent  and  most  powerful  Princess,  our  very  dear  and  be 
loved  kind  sister  and  cousin ;  As  I  desire  to  confer  about 
certain  matters  relative  to  the  safety  of  the  navigation 
of  my  kingdoms  and  dominions  with  Captain  Cabote, 
previously  pilot  of  my  Spanish  realms,  and  who  with 
my  assent  and  consent  went  to  England  several  years 
ago,  I  very  affectionately  ask  of  you  to  grant  leave  to 
the  said  Cabot,  and  allow  him  to  come  near  me,  so 
that  I  may  make  to  him  the  aforesaid  communication. 
And  by  so  doing  you  will  give  me  great  pleasure,  as  I 
have  directed  my  Ambassador  at  your  Court  to  state 
particularly  to  you.'  To  this  Sebastian  replied,  after  the 
lapse  of  more  than  a  month,  with  a  somewhat  elaborate 

1  Forwarded  from  Mons  in  Hainault. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  197 

letter  of  excuse  (November  15,  1553),  accompanied 
by  pretended  disclosures  of  English  plots  against  Spain, 
as  follows  :  c  I  was  almost  ready  to  start  on  my  journey 
to  kiss  the  hand  of  your  Majesty  and  give  explana 
tions  of  the  affair  which  Francisco  de  Urista  has 
related  [to  you]  on  my  behalf,  when  I  was  seized  with 
a  quotidian  fever,  and  according  to  the  severity 
(or  otherwise)  of  this  illness,  it  depends  whether 
I  shall  be  able  to  undertake  this  journey,  or  no,  being 
as  I  am,  very  weak  and  feeling  sure  that  I  shall  die 
before  reaching  my  destination  .  .  .  but  before  I 
arrive  at  such  an  end  I  wish  to  declare  unto  your 
Majesty  the  secret  which  I  possess.  And  because  I 
cannot  come  in  person  for  the  reasons  I  have  stated, 
and  also  because  by  putting  it  off  harm  would  result, 
I  have  determined  to  say  it  to  your  Majesty  by  writing, 
and  to  send  it  to  you  by  the  hands  of  the  aforesaid 
Francisco  de  Urista.  For  the  fact  of  the  matter  is 
that  the  French  Ambassador  Boisdauphin  has  asked 
me  several  times — and  so  has  the  Duke  of  Northum 
berland — as  to  the  land  of  Peru,  what  sort  of  country 
it  was,  and  what  force  your  Majesty  had  there,  and 
whether  that  land  was  as  rich  as  it  was  said  to  be. 
And  I  said  your  Majesty  had  a  very  good  force  of 
Spaniards  in  those  parts,  very  well  equipped  with  all 
necessaries,  both  in  the  matter  of  arms  and  horses, 
and  I  added  that  the  country  abounded  in  mines  of 
silver  and  gold.  And  I  would  have  your  Majesty 
know  that  I  ascertained  from  both  my  questioners  that 


198        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

they  were  seeking  to  make  ready  an  expedition  to  go 
to  the  river  of  the  Amazons,  and  that  the  expedition 
in  question  was  to  be  made  ready  in  France,  and  that 
in  the  said  fleet  were  to  go  4,000  soldiers,  besides  the 
crews,  and  that  they  were  to  take  with  them  ten 
pinnaces.  Also  that  at  the  mouth  of  the  said  river  of 
the  Amazons  they  were  to  build  a  fortress  and  [then] 
to  ascend  the  river  with  the  ten  pinnaces,  there  to 
destroy  and  slay  all  the  Spaniards  and  to  take  possession 
of  the  land.  And  seeing  that  in  the  said  river  they 
might  very  easily  catch  the  Spaniards  unprepared  or 
dispersed  throughout  the  land,  they  have  a  chance  of 
succeeding  with  their  evil  plan,  from  which  your 
Majesty  would  receive  the  greatest  injury.  Against 
this  then  let  your  Majesty  order  measures  to  be  quickly 
taken  as  your  Majesty  shall  think  best,  for  this  which 
I  write  to  your  Majesty  is  very  certain  and  true.  Also 
as  I  ascertained  and  was  given  to  understand  the  said 
Boisdauphin  when  he  left  here  [England]  carried  with 
him  2,000  pounds  which  the  Duke  [of  Northumber 
land]  gave  him  for  the  purpose  I  have  described,  and 
especially  to  make  a  beginning  with  the  said  expedi 
tion. 

'  And  as  regards  the  situation  [  ?]  of  the  coast  of 
Guinea,  conformably  to  the  variation  of  the  mariner's 
needle  from  the  Pole,  if  the  King  of  Portugal  should 
guess  at  it  [the  position  on  the  map]  your  Majesty 
knows  from  what  I  have  said  how  to  meet  him. 
Moreover,  the  said  Francisco  de  Urista  carries  with 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  199 

him  (for  your  Majesty  to  see)  certain  plans,  one  of 
which  is  a  mappemonde  plotted  out  to  show  the 
equinox  by  which  your  Majesty  may  see  the  causes  of 
the  variation  of  the  mariner's  needle  from  the  Pole, 
and  the  causes  why  at  other  times  it  [the  needle]  turns 
directly  to  the  Arctic  or  Antarctic  poles;  and  the  other 
plan  is  to  show  the  longitude  under  any  parallel  [  ?  ]  in 
which  a  man  may  be.  And  these  two  plans  the  said 
Francisco  de  Urista  will  explain  to  your  Majesty  and 
demonstrate  the  use  of  them,  since  I  have  completely 
instructed  him  in  all  this  ;  and,  being  a  man  conversant 
with  maritime  art  [in  general],  he  thoroughly  under 
stands  this  particular  matter.  And  as  to  the  maritime 
chart  which  the  said  Francisco  de  Urista  has  charge  of, 
I  have  written  to  your  Majesty  some  time  since  about 
it  and  have  shown  how  important  it  is  for  your  service ; 
also  I  gave  an  account  [of  it]  backed  by  my  own 
name  and  handwriting  to  Juan  Esquete,  your  Majesty's 
Ambassador,  which  he  was  to  forward  to  your  Majesty. 
And  as  I  am  informed  this  account  is  now  in  the 
possession  of  Secretary  Eraso  ;  and  to  this  I  would 
refer  you  and  say  that  the  aforesaid  communication  [a 
map]  is  of  very  great  service  to  your  Majesty  in  the 
matter  of  determining  the  line  of  partition  made 
between  the  Crown  Royal  of  Spain  and  that  of  Por 
tugal,  for  the  reasons  I  have  stated  in  the  said  commu 
nication.  I  beg  your  Majesty  to  accept  the  assurance  of 
my  good  will,  and  of  the  desire  which  (by  the  grace  of 
God  and  of  His  most  holy  mother)  I  always  have  and 


200        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

shall  have  to  serve  your  Majesty.  And  on  this  you 
may  rely ;  for  if  it  were  not  for  my  indisposition,  I 
would  come  to  kiss  your  Majesty's  hand  and  give 
my  relation  in  person  concerning  all  that  I  have  said 
rather  than  send  it  in  writing  [but  my  illness  hinders 
me].  May  God  grant  your  Majesty,  &c.  From 
London,  the  15  November,  1553.  SEBASTIAN  CABOT.' 
Nor  was  this  communication  without  effect  :  for 
on  the  1 6th  of  February,  1554,  Charles  V.  refers 
his  son  Philip  to  Cabot's  warning  :  c  Herewith  is 
enclosed  a  copy  of  a  letter  which  Sebastian  Cabot  has 
written  me,  whereby  you  will  see  what  he  says  about 
the  expedition  which  the  French  are  intending  to 
make  ;  you  will  give  order  that  the  necessary  measures 
be  taken  in  this  matter.' 

Three  explanations  seem  possible  here  on  general 
grounds.  Either  Cabot  was  betraying  the  English 
Government,  while  taking  its  pay  ;  or,  like  Hawkins 
with  Philip  II.  in  after  days,  he  was  trying  to  draw 
valuable  secrets  from  the  Spanish  authorities  by  a 
pretence  of  treachery  ;  or,  lastly,  he  was  endeavouring 
to  keep  up  his  credit  with  his  old  master  by  the  reve 
lation  of  plots  invented  by  himself  to  enhance  his 
own  value  in  view  of  a  possible  return  to  the 
Spanish  service.  As  we  might  expect,  the  ordinary 
Cabotian  difficulties  crop  up  in  this  question  as  in 
others.  Sebastian  writes  as  if  the  Duke  of  Northum 
berland  were  still  one  of  the  directors  of  this  Franco- 
English  plot  against  Spain.  But  he  had  been  beheaded 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  201 

in  the  previous  summer — August  22,  1553.  Since  then 
Mary  Tudor  had  become  firmly  established  on  the 
throne,  and  had  shown  a  distinct  welcome  to  the  pro 
posal  of  her  marriage  with  Philip.  Both  from  her  reli 
gion,  her  politics,  and  her  past  and  prospective  connection 
with  Charles  V.  himself,  it  was  not  inherently  probable 
that  England,  under  her  rule,  would  enter  into  the 
scheme  here  described.  Besides  which,  no  other 
evidence  of  the  alleged  conspiracy  is  forthcoming.  At 
a  time  when,  as  in  1553—4,  the  Spanish  and  English 
Governments  were  in  agreement,  the  idea  of  simulated 
treachery  lacks  point  altogether ;  and  in  view  of  Cabot's 
previous  negotiations  with  Venice  while  in  the  service 
first  of  Charles  V.  and  then  of  Edward  VI.,  it  is 
difficult  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  whole  of  his 
disclosures  in  the  letter  quoted  above  (as  far  as  English 
statesmen  are  concerned)  was  a  fabrication  for  his  own 
safety  against  another  change  of  fortune. 

The  last  action  recorded  of  Sebastian  in  the  English 
service  was  his  share  in  superintending  another 
expedition  to  the  North-East  in  1556.  This  was  the 
relieving  fleet  of  Stephen  Burrough,  intended  for  a 
search  after  the  missing  ship  and  crew  of  Sir  Hugh 
Willoughby  ;  and  Burrough  himself  describes  how 
Cabot  came  down  to  Gravesend  and  attended  to  the 
final  equipment  of  the  new  enterprise,  joining  in  the 
parting  festivities  with  surprising  vigour  : — On  the 
ayth  of  April,  1556,  'being  Monday,  the  right  wor 
shipful  Sebastian  Cabot  came  aboard  our  pinnace  [the 


202        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Search-Thrift"]  at  Gravesend  accompanied  by  divers 
gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  who,  after  they  had 
viewed  our  pinnace  .  .  .  went  on  shore  .  .  .  and  the 
good  old  gentleman,  Master  Cabota,  gave  to  the  poor 
most  liberal  alms,  wishing  them  to  pray  for  the  good 
fortune  of  the  Search-Thrift.  And  at  the  sign  of 
The  Christopher  he  and  his  friends  banqueted  and 
made  me  (Burrough)  and  them  that  were  in  the  com 
pany  great  cheer,  and  for  very  joy  that  he  had  to  see 
the  towardness  of  our  intended  discovery,  he  entered 
into  the  dance  himself  with  the  rest  of  the  young 
and  lusty  company  ; — which  being  ended  he  and  his 
friends  departed,  most  gently  commending  us  to  the 
governance  of  Almighty  God.' 

Soon  after  this  Cabot  ceases  to  be  active  Governor 
of  the  Muscovy  Company  ;  it  appears  probable  that 
he  was  dismissed,  in  spite  of  the  assurance  of  the 
grant  in  the  Charter  of  Incorporation  that  his 
office  was  for  life.  Anthony  Hussie  appears  as  his 
successor  on  February  21,  1556-57.  The  pension 
conferred  on  Sebastian  by  Edward  VI.  is  either  re- 
granted,  or  a  precisely  similar  though  technically  new 
pension  is  conferred,  on  the  2yth  of  November,  1555  ; 
but  on  the  29th  of  May,  1557,  he  appears  as  having 
'  retroceded  '  or  resigned  the  grant  and  a  new  grant 
is  made  to  himself  and  William  Worthington  jointly 
— in  a  word  his  salary  is  halved,1  and  an  additional 

1  Harrisse  disputes  this,  but  there  cannot  be  any  reasonable  doubt 
of  it. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  203 

provision  is  inserted,  that  on   Cabot's  death  his  whole 
salary  is  to  revert  to  Worthington. 

c  Know  ye  that  by  our  Letters  Patent,  dated 
Westminster,  November  27th,  the  second  and  third 
year  of  our  reign,  by  virtue  of  our  special  grace  .  .  . 
and  also  in  consideration  of  the  good,  true,  and 
acceptable  service  done  and  to  be  done  unto  us  by 
our  beloved  servant  Sebastian  Cabot,  .  .  .  we  have 
granted  to  the  aforesaid  Sebastian  a  ...  yearly 
revenue  of  £166  133.  4d.  .  .  .  The  said  Sebastian 
and  his  assigns  to  enjoy  the  said  annuity  .  .  .  from 
the  Feast  of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
Mary  last  past,  for  and  during  the  life  of  the  said 
Sebastian,  out  of  our  Treasury  and  out  of  the  Treasury 
of  our  heirs  and  successors.  .  .  .  The  same  to  be  paid 
annually  by  equal  portions  at  the  feasts  of  the 
Nativity  of  St.  John  Baptist,  St.  Michael  the 
Archangel,  the  Nativity  of  our  Lord,  and  the 
Annunciation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  the  first 
payment  to  be  made  at  the  Feast  of  the  Nativity  of 
St.  John  Baptist  just  past.  .  .  .  And  whereas  the 
same  Sebastian  Cabot  has  returned  and  retroceded  the 
said  Letters  Patent  to  our  Chancery  to  be  recorded 
.  .  .  that  we  may  .  .  .  grant  other  Letters  Patent 
relative  to  the  said  annuity,  to  the  said  Sebastian 
and  to  our  beloved  servant  William  Worthington 
and  the  survivor  of  them  : 

Know  ye  therefore  that  we,  in  consideration  of  the 
above  ...    do    grant    for    ourselves,    our    heirs,    and 


204        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

successors  ...  to  the  said  Sebastian,  and  William, 
and  the  survivor  of  them,  the  said  annuity  of 
j£i66  135.  4d.  The  said  Sebastian  Cabot  and  William 
Worthington  to  enjoy  .  .  .  yearly  the  same  annuity 
.  .  .  they  and  the  survivor  of  them,  their  assigns  and 
the  assigns  of  the  survivor  of  them,  from  the  feast  day 
of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  last 
past,  for  the  terms  of  the  lives  of  the  said  Sebastian 
and  William  and  the  survivor  of  them,  payable 
annually  by  equal  portions  out  of  our  Treasury.' 

We  may  suppose  that  Cabot  died  shortly  after 
this;  on  December  25th  of  the  same  year  (1557) 
Worthington  draws  the  quarterly  pension  alone  [and 
in  his  own  name],  in  other  words,  one  fourth  instead 
of  one-eighth  of  the  whole  sum  of  j£i66  135.  4d.  ; 
and  we  may  fairly  infer  that  the  old  pilot  died 
somewhere  between  September  29th,  the  date  of  his  last 
payment,  and  the  Christmas  day  next  following  when 
he  has  disappeared  from  view.  In  a  famous  passage 
where  he  discusses  the  difficulties  of  finding  the 
longitude  at  sea,  Richard  Eden  probably  gives  us 
the  last  glimpse  we  have  of  Sebastian  Cabot.  The 
problem  in  question,  he  tells  us,  was  supposed  by 
some  to  be  in  the  way  of  solution  through  some 
recent  discoveries  and  inventions ;  in  any  case,  it 
was  '  a  thing  greatly  to  be  desired  and  hitherto 
not  certainly  known,  although  Sebastian  Cabot  on 
his  death-bed  told  me  that  he  had  the  knowledge 
thereof  by  Divine  revelation,  yet  so  that  he  might 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  205 

not  teach  any  man.  But  I  think  that  the  good  old 
man  in  that  extreme  age  somewhat  doted,  and  had 
not  yet,  even  in  the  article  of  death,  utterly  shaken 
off  all  worldly  vainglory.'  This  was  written  in 
1574—75,  and  probably  refers  to  a  year  considerably 
preceding  that  in  which  Eden  put  down  the  recollec 
tion  quoted  ;  but  the  context  affords  us  no  clue 
beyond  a  somewhat  vague  impression  of  <a  certain 
distance  off.' 

A  more  exact  indication  has  been  sought  in 
the  fact  that  Machyn's  diary  'from  1550  to  1563' 
omits  the  name  of  Cabot  among  all  the  patrons  or 
leaders  of  exploration  who  are  mentioned  as  dying 
in  these  years.  This  worthy  c  citizen  and  merchant- 
taylor  '  of  London  describes  the  obsequies,  for  instance, 
of  Sir  George  Barnes,  Sir  John  Gresham,  and  Anthony 
Hussie,  who  all  appear  in  the  Muscovy  Company's 
Charter  of  1555  as  co-grantees  along  with  Cabot.  It 
is  therefore  suggested  that  Sebastian  may  have  survived 
the  disappearance  of  his  name  from  the  pension-grants 
of  1557,  and  that  he  did  not  die  till  after  the  year 
1563,  when  the  diary  of  Henry  Machyn  comes  to  an 
end.  But  if  he  had  lived  through  the  first  few  years 
of  Elizabeth's  reign  we  should  probably  have  heard 
of  him  in  connection  with  some  of  the  exploring 
ventures  now  so  vigorously  taken  up  in  England. 
The  omission  of  his  name  by  Machyn  may  be 
accidental,  and  is  quite  insufficient  to  ground  any 
positive  theory  upon  ;  —  taking  one  thing  with 


2o6        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

another  we  cannot  assume  that  he  survived  the 
re-arrangement  of  his  pension  more  than  a  few 
months. 

No  will  of  Sebastian  Cabot's  has  ever  been  found  ; 
but  in  1582  Hakluyt  alludes  to  some  of  his  literary 
remains,  and  alludes  to  them  in  a  way  that  scarcely 
strengthens  the  theory  of  some  critics  as  to  Worthing- 
ton's  hostility  to,  and  intrigues  against,  his  old  partner  : 
'  Shortly,  God  willing,  shall  come  out  in  print  all 
his  own  maps  and  discoveries,  drawn  and  written 
by  himself,  which  are  in  the  custody  of  the  worshipful 
Master  William  Worthington,  one  of  her  Majesty's 
pensioners,  who,  because  so  worthy  monuments  should 
not  be  buried  in  perpetual  oblivion,  is  very  willing 
to  suffer  them  to  be  overseen  and  published,  in  as 
good  order  as  may  be,  to  the  encouragement  and 
benefit  of  our  countrymen.' 

None  of  these,  however,  are  now  known  to  exist ; 
it  is  not  certain  from  Hakluyt's  language  that  he  had 
personally  inspected  them  ;  but,  in  any  case,  his  language 
is  worth  weighing  by  those  who  would  deny  Sebastian 
Cabot  any  real  merit  as  a  scientific  geographer. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  'CABOT'  MAP  OF    1544 — REFERENCES   TO   LOST 

MAPS     OF     CABOT OTHER     MAPS    OF     THIS     TIME 

ILLUSTRATING     THE      PLANISPHERE      OF      1544 — 

DESCRIPTION     OF      THE     LATTER THE      LEGENDS 

OF    THIS    MAP 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT,  it  has  been  repeatedly  said,  left 
only  one  map  out  of  all  the  designs  with  which  his 
name  was  connected  during  his  life  or  shortly  after 
wards  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  even  this  one  surviving 
specimen  of  his  work  is  only  his  in  the  same  sense 
that  a  painter  of  the  school  of  Titian  might  ascribe 
one  of  his  own  productions  to  his  master.  Yet,  if  only 
from  the  fact  that  it,  and  it  alone,  bears  his  official 
authorisation,  it  would  deserve  some  notice  in  this 
place  ;  and  there  is  a  further  reason.  Although  it 
is  not  probable  that  Sebastian  himself  either  drew  the 
Planisphere  of  1544,  or  wrote  the  Legends  which 
accompany  it,  it  is  almost  certain  that  he  supplied 
material  for  its  inscriptions  and  commentary  ;  he  was 

probably  well  aware  that  in  one  of  the  Legends  the 

207 


208        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

authorship  was  distinctly  attributed  to  himself ;  and  as 
such,  the  design  in  question  was  copied  and  reproduced 
in  England,  whose  claim  on  a  good  share  of  the  North- 
West  regions  here  received  a  more  ample  recognition 
than  in  any  chart  since  the  issue  of  La  Cosa's  in  1500. 

In  all,  we  possess  seven  separate  references  to  lost 
maps  of  Sebastian  Cabot — not  necessarily  to  seven 
separate  maps,  however,  as  some  two  or  more  of  these 
references  are  probably  to  the  same  original. 

I.  First  of  all  there  is  the  mappemonde  ordered  by 
Juan  de  Samano  for  the  Council  of  the  Indies  in 
1532  or  1533.  This  is  described  in  the  only  remain 
ing  autograph  letter  of  Sebastian's,  addressed  to  Juan 
de  Samano,  as  follows  : — 

c  VERY  NOBLE  LORD, — On  the  day  of  the  blessed  St. 
John  I  received  a  letter  from  the  Adelantado  of  Canary, 
by  which  it  appears  that  he  still  wishes  to  undertake  an 
expedition  to  the  River  Parana,  which  cost  me  so  dear. 
A  dependent  of  the  said  Adelantado  gave  me  the 
letter  and  told  me  that  he  is  going  thither  and  is 
taking  the  letter  of  the  said  Adelantado  to  the  Lords 
of  the  Council  in  the  matter  of  the  aforesaid  enter 
prise.  May  it  please  our  Lord  God  so  to  order  every 
thing  that  His  holy  Catholic  Faith  may  be  increased 
and  the  Emperor  our  Lord  duly  served.  My  Lord,  the 
map  which  your  Grace  has  ordered  me  to  make  is  now 
quite  finished  and  given  to  the  Director  of  the  Con- 
tractation  House  [at  Seville]  in  order  that  he  may  for- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  209 

ward  it  to  your  Grace.  I  entreat  your  Grace  to  pardon 
me  for  not  having  finished  it  sooner  ;  and,  in  truth,  if 
it  had  not  been  for  the  death  of  my  daughter  and  the 
affliction  of  my  wife  you  would  have  received  it  many 
days  ago.  Indeed,  I  intended  to  have  brought  the  same 
with  me  [from  Seville]  along  with  two  others  which 
I  have  made  for  his  Majesty.  I  trust  that  his  Majesty 
and  the  Council  will  be  satisfied  with  these  [especially] 
as  they  can  see  [by  means  of  them]  how  one  may 
navigate  in  all  directions  by  the  indications  [of  the 
compass]  as  one  does  with  a  chart — and  the  reason 
why  the  needle  points  to  the  North-East  and  North- 
West,  and  why  it  cannot  do  otherwise — and  to  what 
extent  it  points  to  the  North-East  and  North- West 
before  pointing  again  [due]  North,  and  through  what 
meridians.  Hereby  his  Majesty  will  have  a  sure  way 
of  finding  the  longitude.  My  Lord,  I  beg  your 
Grace  to  write  to  my  Lords  the  Officers  of  the  Con- 
tractation  House  to  help  me  by  the  grant  of  a  third  of 
my  salary,  in  order  that  I  may  be  able  to  get  rid  of  my 
debts  [which  keep  me  in  Seville]  and  come  to  kiss  the 
hands  of  your  Grace  and  to  speak  with  the  Lords  of  the 
Council,  and  to  bring  before  them  one  of  my  servants 
who  was  left  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  the  which  servant 
came  with  the  Portuguese,  who  came  from  thence,  in 
order  that  he  might  give  an  account  of  all  that  the 
Portuguese  have  done  there. 

'And  I  make  bold  to  ask  this  of  your  Grace,  besides 
the  many  other  favours  which  I  have  received  of  your 


210        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

Grace.  May  God  our  Lord  guard  the  noble  person 
of  your  Grace  and  increase  your  estate  as  your  Grace 
may  desire  and  as  your  servants  wish. 

'  I  kiss  the  hand  of  my  Lady  Dona  Juana. 

4  From  Seville  on  the  day  of  the  blessed  St.  John, 

'533- 

c  SEBASTIAN  CABOT, 

c  Your  most  humble  servant,  kisses  the  hand  of  your 
Grace.' 

To  this  we  need  only  add  that  much  of  the 
geographical  theory  of  the  letter  here  transcribed, 
especially  as  to  the  use  of  the  magnet,  is  revived  in 
the  inscriptions  which  accompany  the  < Cabot'  plani 
sphere  of  1544. 

2.  Next  we    have    the  allusion   of   the  'Mantuan 
gentleman '   in    Ramusio    to  a  map  which    Sebastian 
himself  had  shown  him  while   in   Seville,  some  time 
before   1547.     This  was  an   example   cof  large  size, 
exhibiting  particularly  the  navigations  of  the  Portu 
guese  and   Spaniards.'      It   may  have   been   identical 
with  the  map  ordered  by  Samano  (No.  i),  with  one  of 
the  two  accompanying  charts   specially  designed  for 
the  Emperor,  as  recorded  in   the  preceding  letter,  or 
with  another  of  the  examples  hereafter  cited.     We  do 
not  suppose,  however,  that  it  corresponds  with  the  map 
of  1544  or  with  No.  (4). 

3.  Thirdly,  there  is  mention  of  a  map  in  the  Library 
of  Juan  de  Ovando,  some  time  President  of  the  Council 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  211 

of  the  Indies.  This  was  executed  by  Cabot  on  parch 
ment  and  illuminated,  but  we  know  nothing  more 
about  it,  save  that  it  was  sold  at  Ovando's  death  in 
1575.  It  is  probably  not  identical  with  the  plan  of 

I544- 

4.  In   the   fourth    place,    the   letter   of    Cabot    to 
Charles  V.,  under  date  of  the  I5th  of  November,  1553, 
already    quoted,    refers    to     a    map     which    he    was 
sending  to  his  old  master  by  the  hand  of  Francisco 
de  Urista.     Sebastian,  in  the  aforesaid  letter,  describes 
this  work  as  consisting  of  '  certain  plans,  one  of  which 
is  a  mappemonde  ...  by  which  your  Majesty  may 
see  the  causes  of  the  variation  of  the  mariner's  needle 
from  the  Pole,  and  the  causes  why  at  other  times  it 
turns  directly  to  the  Arctic  or  Antarctic  poles  ;  and 
the  other  plan  is  to  show  the  longitude    under   any 
parallel  [?]  in  which  a  man  may  be.' *      In  the  same 
letter,  Cabot  refers  to  a  fuller  account  of  this  map, 
which  he  had  sent  to  Eraso,  Secretary  of  the  Council 
of  Charles  V.,  but  this  is  not  discoverable  at  the  present 
day,  any  more  than  the  original  chart  which  it  was 
written  to  explain. 

5.  Once  more,  Guido  Gianetti  de  Fano  saw  a  map 
in  the  possession   of  its  designer,  Sebastian  Cabot,  in 

1  M.  Harrisse  (Cabot,  1896,  pp.  285-6)  interprets  this  as  « meaning 
that  there  was  only  one  map,  but  in  two  sheets,  one  for  the  Northern, 
the  other  for  the  Southern  Hemisphere  ;'  and  adds,  'The  letter  doubtless 
set  forth  a  magnetic  point,  or  line  with  no  variation,  upon  which '  Cabot 
'  based  his  .  .  .  pretension  for  finding  the  longitude  at  sea,' 


212        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

London,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. ;  and  Livio 
Sanuto  tells  us  what  he  heard  about  this  plan,  viz., 
that  it  marked  a  meridian  based  upon  a  point  of  no 
magnetic  variation,  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
west  of  Flores  in  the  Azores.1 

6.  In    1598    Andres   de    Cespedes,    Cosmographer 
Royal  of  Spain,   wrote  of  a  map  of  Cabot's,  once 
presented   by   the   author   to   the    King   of   Castille, 
informing  us  that  this  design,  '  like  Jodocus  Hondius, 
placed   43    degrees   of   longitude   between    Goa   and 
Mozambique.' 

7.  Lastly,  there  are  the  plans  mentioned  by  Hakluyt 
in   1582  as  then  in  the  possession  of  William  Wor- 
thington,    Sebastian's    co-grantee    in    the    pension    of 
Philip  and  Mary,  already  mentioned.     This  allusion 
of  the  Divers  Voyages  is  fully  transcribed  on  p.  206  ; 
and   it   is    highly   probable,    though   now   of  course 
unprovable,  that  among  these  charts  was  at  least  one 
copy  of  the   design   of   1544,  either  in  the  original 
edition  or  in  the  English  re-issue  of  1549. 

And  now,  continuing  this  summary  of  Cabotian 
cartography,  and  proceeding  from  the  vanished  to  the 
still  existent,  we  should  naturally  come  to  the  map 
of  1544.  But  before  dealing  with  this  we  must 
briefly  review  our  evidence  along  another  line.  We 
have  summarised  all  that  is  at  present  known  of  lost 
maps  whose  authorship  is  attributed  to  Sebastian 
Cabot  ;  we  have  seen  reason  to  believe  in  the  exis- 
1  See  PP-  254-5- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  213 

tence  of  at  least  a  fair  number  of  separate  and 
independent  designs  of  the  kind  ;  we  must  now  look 
at  the  more  important  of  existing  maps  of  this  period, 
by  which  we  may  better  estimate  the  relative  impor 
tance  of  the  mappemonde  of  1544.  In  other  words, 
we  must  briefly  examine,  in  chronological  order,  the 
chief  cartographical  documents  which  serve  to  illus 
trate  the  discoveries  of  the  English  in  North  America 
during  the  period  of  this  survey  (c.  1 500-1 55°)- 

i.  And  first  we  come  to  the  chart  of  Juan  de  la 
Cosa  of  A.D.  1500.  Although  this  was  discovered 
by  Baron  Walckenaer  in  1832,  it  remains  a  disputed 
point  among  cartographers  whether  the  coast-line  in 
the  north-west  portion  of  the  map  represents  the 
south  shores  of  Labrador  within  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  or  the  coast  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  including  Nova  Scotia  and  terminating  at 
Cape  Race,  in  Newfoundland.  A  comparison  of 
the  La  Cosa  map,  with  other  Spanish  and  Italian 
charts  of  a  slightly  later  date,  which  certainly  indicate 
English  discoveries,  has  given  rise  to  the  suggestion 
that  the  Legend  of  the c  Mar  descubierta  por  Ingleses  ' 
on  the  La  Cosa  plan  is  indicative  of  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence,  and  not  of  the  open  Atlantic,  otherwise 
designated  by  the  same  author  as  c  Mare  Oceanus.' 
From  this  it  would  follow  that  the  accompanying 
coast-line  decorated  with  English  flags  [only],  and 
terminating  with  Cavo  de  Ynglaterra,  is  no  other  than 
Southern  Labrador.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has 


214        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

been  often  and,  in  our  opinion,  rightly  maintained  that 
the  aforesaid  coast-line  corresponds  to  the  whole  stretch 
of  the  North  American  shore,  from  Cape  Race  to  Cape 
Hatteras. 

2.  Next  we  have  the  allusion  in  Johann  Ruysch's 
Ptolemy,  edited  in  1508  under  the  title  of  Unlversallor 
cogniti  Orbis  tabula.    Here  we  observe  '  Terra  Nova ' 
joined    on    to    the    mainland    of    Asia,    undoubtedly 
referring   to     Newfoundland    with    its    south-eastern 
termination  at  Cape  Race,  here  named   c  C[avo]   de 
Portogesi.'     To  assume,   with   some    modern    critics, 
that    the   Cavo   de   Ynglaterra  of  the   La  Cosa  map 
is  synonymous  with  the  Cavo  de  Portogesi  of  Ruysch 
provides  a  convenient  escape  from  various  difficulties, 
but    can    hardly  be    treated    as  a  certain  solution  of 
some    of   the    most  vexatious   problems    in    the    yet 
inexact    science    of    comparative  cartography.      The 
special    interest  which    attaches    to  this  map   is  that 
Ruysch    sailed    from    the    southern    part   of  England 
some  years  before  the  production  of  his  Ptolemy  and 
arrived  on  the  eastern  coast  of   Newfoundland  soon 
after  its  first  discovery.     This  voyage  may  or  may  not 
have  been   in  the  company  of  the   Cabots  ;  if  so,  it 
was  probably  made  in  1498  ;  but  there  is  rather  more 
evidence  to  establish  the  conjecture  that  Ruysch  sailed 
with  Nicholas,  the  father  of  Robert,  Thorne. 

3.  Next    we    may    take     the    anonymous     Italian 
portolano  of  1508,   which  as  yet  seems   to  have  been 
unnoticed  by  cartographers.     Thus   the  Vesconte  di 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  215 

Maggiola  portolano  of  1511  has  been  generally  sup 
posed  to  be  the  earliest  example  of  map-work  in  this 
period  which  clearly  shows  the  Continent  of  North 
America  ;  whereas  it  is  decisively  anticipated  by  the 
newly-acquired  British  Museum  MS.  (Egerton,  No. 
2803)  here  referred  to.  On  folio  I  of  this  we 
observe  c  Terra  de  Labrados '  and  '  Terra  de  los 
Baccallaos'  correctly  located,  together  with  the  un 
named  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  Straits  of  Belle 
Isle,  marked  as  an  inland  sea,  and  possibly  answering 
to  the  Mar  descubierta  of  the  La  Cosa  chart.  On 
the  general  map  of  the  then  known  world  in  this 
portolano^  folio  ib,  is  to  be  seen  a  roughly  painted 
outline  of  part  of  the  shore  of  a  North-Western 
continent,  bearing  three  inscriptions — c  Terra  de  Le- 
brados,'  c  Terra  de  los  bacalos '  and  c  Septem  civitates.' 

4.  The  Vesconte    di  Maggiola  portolano   of    1511 
is  noteworthy  in  this  connection,  because,  as  far  as  we 
know,  it  contains  the  earliest  plain  reference  by  name 
to    Labrador  as  the  *  land  of  the  English ' — or  part 
of    America    discovered    by   them    ('  Terra    de    los 
Ingres ').     Further,  this  reference  is  the  earliest  con 
firmation  of  the  meaning  assigned  by  the  '  Labradorean  ' 
school  to  the  c  English '  coast-line  on  the  La  Cosa  map 
of  1500. 

5.  Our  fifth   example  is  Robert  Thome's   map  of 
1527.      'This  .  .  .  form  of  a  map  sent  1527  from 
Seville  in  Spain  ...  to  Doctor  Ley,  Ambassador  for 
King  Henry  VIII.  to  Charles  the  Emperor '  is  found 


216        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

in  Hakluyt's  Divers  Voyages  of  1582.  Off  the  coast 
of  Newfoundland  (unnamed),  and  of  the  c  New  Land 
called  Labrador '  (Nova  terra  laboratorum  dicta),  we 
read:  cThis  land  was  first  found  by  the  English.' 
Our  discoveries  are  here  plainly  referred  to  both 
regions — Newfoundland  and  Labrador. 

6.  Sixth  comes  the  Verrazano  map  of  1529.  M. 
Harrisse,  in  his  Discovery  of  North  America,  pp.  575~7> 
by  some  oversight  neglects  to  give  the  legend  of  this 
chart,  which  refers  to  the  English  discoveries,  though 
he  alludes  to  it  in  his  latest  work  upon  Cabot  (JJohn 
Cabot  .  .  .  and  Sebastian  his  son,  p.  79).  The  in 
scription,  like  the  Maggiola  portolano,  attributes  the 
discovery  of  Labrador,  and  of  that  only,  to  the 
English.  c  The  land  of  Labrador  ' — it  runs — c  this 
land  was  discovered  by  the  English  '  (Terra  Laboratoris 
— Ouesta  terra  fu  discoperta  da  Inghilesi). 

7  and  8.  In  the  same  way  the  two  Ribeiro  maps 
of  1529  also  ascribe  the  discovery  of  Labrador  to 
our  adventurers.  But  with  a  difference.  On  the 
earlier  one,  preserved  at  Weimar,  we  read  :  '  This 
land  the  English  discovered.  There  is  in  it  nothing 
profitable '  (Esta  tierra  descubrieron  los  Ingleses,  no 
ay  en  elk  cosa  de  provecho).1  On  the  later  copy, 
which  is  in  the  College  of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome, 
appears  an  interesting  variant,  as  follows  :  c  Land  of 
Labrador,  discovered  by  the  English  of  the  town  of 
Bristol: 

1  '  Labrador,  the  land  allotted  by  God  to  Cain,'  as  Cartier  called  it. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  217 

9.  After  these  we  come  to  the  map,  executed  about 
A.D.  1530,  known  as  Wolfenbiittel  B.     The  portion 
of  this  which  is  preserved  seems  to  have  been  based 
upon  a  copy  of  the  Second  Ribeiro  chart  (No.  8)  just 
noticed  ;    it  has   a   legend  about    Labrador  and    the 
English  from  Bristol  of  precisely  similar  tenor. 

The  united  testimony  of  the  Spanish  and  Italian 
maps  already  described  amounts  to  this — the  English 
discoveries  are  generally  referred  (except,  on  one  inter 
pretation,  in  the  plan  of  La  Cosa),  to  the  Southern 
part  of  Labrador,  but  there  is  no  direct  evidence  of 
Cabot  cartography  in  these  examples,  and  it  is  not 
absolutely  certain  (as  it  has  been  sometimes  assumed 
from  the  language  of  contemporary  letters)  that  a  chart 
of  the  discoveries  of  1497  an<^  J49^j  drawn  by  John 
Cabot  himself,  is  embodied  in  La  Cosa's  map  of  1500. 

The  only  two  remaining  maps,  which  call  for  notice 
prior  to  the  appearance  of  the  so-called  Cabot  mappe- 
monde  in  1544,  are  : 

10.  The  Harleian  (Descelier)  mappemonde  of  1536— 
40,  and 

11.  The  map  of  1541,  executed  by  Nicholas  Des- 
liens,  and  rediscovered   in  our  own  day  by  Dr.  Ruge, 
in  Dresden. 

The  special  interest  of  these  two  Dieppese  charts 
arises  from  this  circumstance.  M.  Harrisse,  in  his  most 
recent  work  on  the  Cabots,  has  charged  Sebastian 
with  plagiarising  portions  of  Desliens'  chart  of  1541 
for  his  own  delineation  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 


218        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

and  Newfoundland.  A  careful  comparison  of  these 
two  examples  (Desliens  of  1541  and  'Cabot'  of 
1 544),  and  of  the  evidence  brought  forward  in  support 
of  the  charge,  seems  to  show  a  certain  weakness  in 
the  accusation.  Finding  that  the  comparative  nomen 
clature  of  these  regions  fails  to  work  out  beyond  seven 
names,  out  of  a  list  of  fourteen  selected  from  the 
4  Cabot '  map,  the  accuser  invites  us  to  compare  these 
chosen  Cabotian  names  with  fifteen  others,  not  derived 
from  Desliens  at  all,  but  from  another  work,  described 
as  of  '  Cartierean  origin.'  Again,  on  being  unable  to 
find  the  c  Lago  di  Golesme '  of  the  Cabot  map  upon 
the  Desliens  example,  M.  Harrisse  once  more  shifts  his 
ground  (to  all  appearance)  and  declares  that  Cabot's 
prototype  was  not,  after  all,  the  Desliens  plan  of  i54r> 
but  a  derivative  of  some  other  Desliens  map,  con 
structed  in  1542  or  1543. 

Both  Dr.  Ruge  and  M.  Harrisse  seem  to  be  quite 
mistaken  in  asserting  that  the  Desliens  map  is  the 
earliest  of  the  Dieppese  school.  This  position  must 
be  assigned  to  our  loth  example,  the  Harleian  chart  of 
1536-40  (anonymous  Descelier ;  Additional  MSS., 
Brit.  Mus.  5413),  which  will  shortly  be  reproduced 
in  natural  size  for  private  circulation. 

The  surviving  'Cabot'  mappemonde  of  1544,  now 
preserved  in  the  Geographical  Cabinet  of  the  Biblio- 
theque  Nationale  in  Paris,  was  rediscovered  in  1844, 
in  the  house  of  a  priest  in  Bavaria,  and  purchased 
in  the  same  year  by  the  French  Government  for 


THE    NORTH-AMERICAN    SECTION    OF   THE    CAI'.oT    MAPPEMOXDE    OF    1544. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  219 

4,000  francs.  The  projection  is  orthographic  (ac 
cording  to  the  method  devised  by  Apianus  in 
1524),  on  an  ellipse  with  a  longitudinal  axis  of 
39  inches  and  a  parallel  axis  of  44  inches,  the 
whole  engraved  on  copper  and  richly  coloured. 
Besides  the  delineation  of  the  world  itself,  this  piece 
is  accompanied  by  various  ornaments  and  additional 
inscriptions,  viz.,  (i)  a  large  head  of  Eolus  in  each 
of  the  four  corners  of  the  map  ;  (2)  an  engraving 
of  the  Annunciation,  with  a  Latin  inscription  of  five 
lines  on  the  upper  part  of  the  design,  to  the  left  of 
the  reader;  (3)  an  apparently  untranslateable  legend, 
to  the  right,  accompanying  the  engraved  arms  of  the 
Empire,  and  reading  as  follows  :  '  Solas  del  solo  en  el 
mundo  en  servicio  de  las  quales  muriendo  viven 
leaks'  ;  (4)  cosmographical  tables  on  each  side,  right 
and  left,  of  the  lower  part  of  the  map,  within  the 
frame;  and  most  important  of  all,  (5)  two  tables 
of  legends,  forming  a  commentary  upon  the  chart 
itself,  pasted  on  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  map — 
each  table  being  28  centimetres  wide. 

The  map  surface  is  composed  of  '  four  separately- 
printed  parts,  each  measuring  80  centimetres  by  62,' 
all  pasted  together  on  pasteboard  ;  it  i  contains  indica 
tions  of  magnetic  lines,  with  no  variation  (which 
Cabot  transforms  into  meridians),  and  of  starting  points 
calculated,  as  he  thought,  to  find  the  longitude  at  sea.' 

The  legends,  twenty-two  in  number,  seem  to  have 
been  written  first  in  Spanish  by  a  certain  Dr.  Grajales, 


220        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  the  Puerto  de  Santa  Maria  in  Andalusia,  and  then 
sent  with  the  map  itself  to  some  place  out  of  Spain,1 
but  within  the  Emperor's  dominions,  where  the  design 
was  engraved.  This  place  was  possibly  Antwerp, 
then  and  long  afterwards  a  centre  of  scientific  printing 
and  engraving  and  a  home  of  cartographical  study. 
Before  being  printed,  the  Spanish  text  of  these 
legends  2  was  also  translated  into  Latin,  and  the  version 
accompanied  the  original  on  the  map  as  we  have  it, 
but  it  seems  also  to  have  been  separately  printed  in 
pamphlets  form  (without  the  Spanish)  for  separate 
use  and  for  the  elucidation  of  copies  of  the  chart  in 
its  simple  form,  without  pasted  commentary. 

These  famous  legends  we  now  give  at  length,  as 
the  best  and  most  complete  account  of  the  map  itself, 
and  as  one  of  the  fullest  expositions  now  remaining  of 
Sebastian  Cabot's  views  on  practical  and  scientific 
geography — only  premising  that  the  inscriptions  may 
be  placed  at  the  following  points,  as  indicated  by 
numbers  in  our  Paris  example  : — 

The  ist  lies  between  the  Bermuda  Islands  and  the 
West  Indies,  the  and  north  of  Antigua,  the  3rd  oppo 
site  to  the  West  Coast  of  Mexico,  the  4th  opposite  to 

1  E.g.,  the  n  was  not  much  at  the  printer's  disposal,  so  he  usually 
doubles  the  letter  to  denote  the  Spanish  sound,  thus  Sennor  for  Senor. 

2  Some  of  these  are  engraved  in  the  body  of  the  work,  much  corrupted 
by  the  copyist. 

3  A  copy  of  this  has  been  recently  found  in  Germany,  consisting  of 
twenty-four  unnumbered   leaves   or  pages,   with  the  title,    *  Declaratio 
Chartae  Novae  Navigatoriae  Domini  Almirantis,'  as  if  the  copyist  thought 
the  inscriptions  accompanied  a  map  by  Christopher  Columbus. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  221 

Magellan's  Straits,  the  5th  at  the  Moluccas,  the  6th 
over  against  the  coast  of  Peru,  the  yth  at  the  mouth 
of  the  La  Plata  river,  the  8th  in  Hudson's  Bay,  the 
9th  opposite  Iceland,  the  loth  in  the  North  of  Russia, 
the  nth  in  the  North-East  of  Asia  (where  the 
reference  is  incorrectly  given  to  Table  II.,  No.  2), 
the  1 2th  in  the  North  of  Asia,  the  I3th  in  Mid 
Africa,  the  I4th  in  Hindostan  (without  numerical 
reference,  but  indicated  by  a  picture  of  Suttee),  the 
1 5th  in  the  North  of  Japan,  the  i6th  near  Sumatra, 
the  i yth  on  the  east  side  of  the  map,  just  south  of 
the  Equator,  the  i8th  running  over  some  of  the 
North-East  of  Europe  and  North-West  of  Asia, 
the  I gth  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  just  south  of  India 
itself,  the  2Oth  directly  below  the  preceding  (i9th), 
the  2 ist  also  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  south-west  from 
No.  19,  the  22nd  and  last  near  Ceylon. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

THE    *  CABOT'    MAP    OF     1544    CONTINUED  —  THE 

LEGENDS   ON   THE   MAP   OF    1544 FULL   TEXT 

OF  INSCRIPTIONS  I- 1 6 

THE    full    text,   in    English,   of  these   legends   is   as 
follows  : — 

First  Table*      Of  the  Admiral. 

No.  i.  The  Admiral  Don  Christoval  Colon,  a 
Genoese  by  birth,  offered  to  their  Catholic  Majesties 
of  glorious  memory  to  discover  the  islands  and  main 
land  of  the  Indies  2  by  the  West,  provided  they  gave 
him  for  this  purpose  a  sufficient  fleet  and  favour  ;  3 
and  having  obtained  this,  and  having  fitted  out  three 
caravels  in  the  year  1492,  he  proceeded  to  discover 
them  [the  Indies]  ;  and  from  that  time  on  many 

1  See  the  version  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  Proceed 
ings  for  1890-91  (vol.  vi.).     Important  words  found  in  the  Spanish  text, 
and  not  in  the  Latin  version,  are  in  italics.     Important  additions  of  the 
Latin  version  (very  few  in  number)  are  in  footnotes.     At  the  beginning 
all  the  additions  of  the  same  have  been  transcribed. 

2  'Western  Lands,'  Lat. 

3  'If  they  provided    him    sufficiently    with   the    things    needful    for 
him,'  Lat. 

222 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  223 

other  persons  have  continued  the  same  discovery  as  is 
shown  by  the  present  description. 

No.  2.  In  the  island  Espanola  there  is  much  virgin 
gold,  and  very  fine  lapis  lazuli,  and  much  sugar  and  cassia 
fistula,  and  an  infinite  number  of  cattle  of  all  kinds. 
The  swine  of  this  island  they  give  to  the  sick,  as  here  in 
our  parts  they  give  mutton.  The  said  island  contains 
many  harbours,  and  very  good  ones,  and  the  chief  of 
them  is  the  city  of  Santo  Domingo,  which  is  a  very 
good  city,  and  of  much  trade,  and  all  the  others  are 
places  built  and  settled  by  the  Spaniards.  And  in  the 
island  of  Cuba  and  of  San  Juan,  and  in  all  the  other 
islands,  and  on  the  mainland,  virgin  gold  is  found  ;  and 
in  the  city  of  Santo  Domingo  his  Majesty  has  his 
royal  chancery,  and  in  all  the  other  towns  and  pro 
vinces  governors  and  rulers  who  govern  and  rule  them 
with  much  justice  ;  and  every  day  are  discovered  new 
lands  and  provinces,  very  rich,  by  means  of  which  our 
Holy  Catholic  Faith  is,  and  will  be,  much  increased, 
and  these  kingdoms  of  Castille  have  become  great 
with  much  and  glorious  fame  and  riches. 

No.  3.  This  mainland  which  the  Spaniards  named 
New  Spain,  the  most  illustrious  gentleman  Don  Fer 
nando  Cortez,  Marquis  dell'  Valle  de  Guaxacon, 
conquered.  There  are  in  this  land  provinces  and  cities 
innumerable  ;  the  chief  of  them  is  the  city  of  Mexico,1 
which  contains  more  than  50,000  inhabitants  ;  it  is  in 
a  salt  lake  which  extends  over  forty  leagues.  There 

1  :  Is  called  Mexico  by  the  name  of  the  Indians,'  Lat. 


224.        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

is  in  the  said  city,  and  in  all  the  other  provinces,  much 
gold,  virgin  silver,  and  all  kinds  of  precious  stones  ; 
and  there  is  produced  in  the  said  land  and  provinces 
much  very  good  silk  and  cotton,  alum,  orchil,  dye- 
wood,  cochineal,  and  saffron,  and  sugar  r — of  all  the 
aforesaid  great  quantities,  with  which  many  ships  come 
loaded  to  these  kingdoms  of  Spain.2  The  natives  or 
this  land  are  very  expert  in  all  that  relates  to  trade  ; 
instead  of  coins,  they  make  use  of  certain  kernels, 
split  in  halves,  which  they  call  Cacao  or  Cacanghnate, 
a  barbarous  expression.  3  They  have  much  wheat  and 
barley  and  many  other  grains  and  vines,  and  many 
fruits  of  different  kinds.  It  is  a  land  of  many  animals, 
deer,  mountain  boars,  lions,  leopards,  tigers,  and  much 
other  game,  both  birds  and  land  animals.  It  is  a  people 
very  skilful  in  moulding  any  object  after  nature  and  in 
painting  pictures.  The  women  usually  adorn  them 
selves  with  precious  stones  and  valuable  pearls.  These 
Indians  use  a  certain  kind  of  paper,  on  which  they 
draw  what  they  want  to  express  with  figures  [pictures] 
instead  of  letters.  They  never  had  peace  among 
themselves  ;  on  the  contrary,  some  persecuted  others 
in  continuous  fights,  in  which  the  prisoners  on  either 
side  were  sacrificed  by  their  enemies  to  their  gods,  and 
their  bodies  were  given  to  the  army,  as  public  banquets. 
They  were  idolaters  and  adored  whatever  took  their 
fancy.  They  were  very  fond  of  eating  human  flesh, 

1  '  Or  juice  of  the  cane,'  Lat.         ~  '  To  Seville  of  Andalusia,'  Lat. 
3  '  By  the  barbarous  Indian  name,'  Lat. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  225 

whereas  now  they  have  laid  aside  their  fierce  and  cruel 
customs  and  have  clad  themselves  in  Jesus  Christ, 
believing  heartily  in  our  holy  Evangelical  faith, *  and 
obeying  our  most  holy  mother2  Church,  and  its  most 
holy  precepts. 

No.  4.  This  Strait  of  All  Saints  was  discovered  by 
Hernando  de  Magallanes,  commander  of  an  expedition 
which  his  Sacred  Caesarean  Catholic  Majesty,  the 
Emperor  and  King  Don  Carlos  our  Lord,  ordered  to 
be  made  to  discover  the  Maluco  Islands.  There  are 
in  this  strait  men  of  such  great  stature  that  they  seem 
giants  ;  it  is  a  very  desolate  land,  and  they  dress  them 
selves  in  the  skins  of  animals. 

No.  5.  These  islands  of  Maluco  3  were  discovered 
by  Fernando  de  Magallanes,  commander  of  an  expe 
dition  which  his  Majesty  ordered  to  be  made  to  dis 
cover  the  said  islands,  and  by  Juan  Sebastian  del  Cano.4 
That  is  to  say,  the  said  Fernando  de  Magallanes 
discovered  the  Strait  of  All  Saints,  which  is  in  52^ 
degrees  towards  the  Antarctic  Pole  ;  and  after  having 
passed  the  said  strait  [not]  without  very  great  labour 
and  difficulty,  he  continued  his  way  towards  the  said 
islands  ;  after  many  days  he  arrived  at  certain  islands, 
of  which  the  southern  one  is  situated  in  12  degrees  5  ; 


1  *  And  the  religion  of  the  Christians,'  Lat. 

2  « The  orthodox  Catholic  Church,'  Lat. 


3  '  Long  closed  to  us,'  Lat. 

4  '  Which   said  expedition  set  sail   from  the  port   of  Seville,  a  famed 
city  of  the  province  of  Andalusia,'  Lat. 

5  '  North  Latitude,'  Lat. 


226        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

and  because  the  people  were  so  turbulent,  and  because 
they  stole  from  him  the  boats  of  one  of  his  ships, 
they  gave  it  the  name  of  the  isle  of  Ladrones  (or 
Thieves).  And  thence  continuing  the  journey,  as 
has  been  said,  they  discovered  an  island  which  they 
called  La  Aguada,  because  they  took  in  water  there  ; 
and  from  thence  on  they  discovered  another,  which  is 
called  .  .  .  Aceilani,  and  another  which  is  called 
Cubu,  in  which  island  died  the  said  Captain 
Hernando  de  Magallanes,  in  a  skirmish  which  took 
place  with  the  natives  thereof;  and  the  survivors  of  the 
said  expedition  chose  Juan  Sebastian  del  Cano  as  com 
mander  of  it,  who  afterwards  discovered  the  island  of 
Bendanao,  in  which  there  is  much  virgin  gold  and  very 
fine  cinnamon,  and  in  the  same  way  he  discovered  the 
island  of  Poloan,  and  that  of  Brunay,  and  that  of 
Gilolo,  and  the  island  of  Tridore,  and  that  of  Terenati, 
and  Motil,  and  many  others  in  which  there  is  much 
gold  and  cloves  and  nutmeg  and  other  kinds  of  spices 
and  drugs.  The  said  Sebastian  del  Cano  loaded  two 
ships  which  r  remained  to  him  out  of  five,  from  those 
they  took  with  them,  with  cloves  in  the  said  island  of 
Tidori,  for  in  it,  and  in  the  said  island  of  Terenati,  the 
said  cloves  are  said  to  grow  and  not  in  any  other  ;  and  in 
the  same  way  he  took  much  cinnamon  and  nutmeg  2  ; 
and  coming  on  through  the  Indian  Ocean  in  the 

1  '  Which  he  had  saved  from  shipwreck,'  Lat. 

2  *  Much  cinnamon  and   nutmeg  is  collected   in  Bendanao,  of  which 
likewise  he  took  thence  great  quantities,'  Lat. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  227 

direction  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  one  ship  was 
forced  to  put  back  and  return  to  the  said  island  of 
Tidori,  from  which  it  had  set  out,  on  account  of  the 
great  amount  of  water  it  was  making,  and  the  said 
Captain  Juan  Sebastian  del  Cano,  with  his  ship  called 
Santa  Maria  de  la  Victoria,  came  to  these  kingdoms 
of  Castille,  to  the  city  of  Seville,  in  the  year  1522,  by 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ;  whereby  it  clearly  appears 
that  the  said  Juan  Sebastian  del  Cano  *  sailed  round 
the  whole  universe,2  because  he  proceeded  only  towards 
the  West,  although  not  on  one  parallel,  through  the 
East  to  the  place  in  the  West  whence  he  set  out. 

No.  6.  These  provinces  were  discovered  3  by  the 
honoured  and  valiant  gentleman,4  Francisco  Pizarro, 
who  5  was  governor  of  them  during  his  life ;  in 
which  there  is  infinite  gold  and  virgin  silver  and 
mines  of  very  fine  emeralds.  The  bread  which  they 
have  they  make  of  maize,6  and  the  wine  likewise  ; 
they  have  much  wheat  and  other  grain.  It  is  a  war 
like  race  ;  they  use  in  their  wars  bows  and  slings  and 
lances  ;  their  arms  are  of  gold  and  silver.  There  are 
in  the  said  provinces  certain  sheep  of  the  form  of  small 
camels  ;  they  have  very  fine  wool.  They  are  an 
idolatrous  people  and  of  very  subtle  mind  ;  and  on  all 
the  sea-coast  and  for  more  than  twenty  miles  inland 

1  Canno  in  text.         2  '  In  a  circle,'  Lat.         3  'And  conquered,'  Lat. 

4  c  Knights  Francisco  Pizarro  and  Almagro,'  Lat. 

5  '  That  is,  Francisco  Pizarro,'  Lat. 

6 '  Very  large  corn,  which  in  the  language  of  the  Indians  is  called 
maize,'  Lat. 


228        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

it  never  rains.  It  is  a  very  healthy  land.  The 
Christians  have  made  many  settlements  in  it,  and 
continually  keep  increasing  them. 

No.  7.  The  Indians  call   this  oreat  river  the  river 

/  iD 

Huruai,  the  Spaniards  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  (or  River  of 
Silver).  They  take  this  name  from  the  river  Huruai, 
which  is  a  very  mighty  river  *  which  runs  into  the 
great  river  Parana.  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,2  Pilot-Major 
of  their  Catholic  Majesties,3  of  glorious  memory,  dis 
covered  it,  and  he  explored  it  as  far  as  an  island,  to 
which  the  said  Juan  Diaz  gave  the  name  of  the  island 
of  Martin  Garcia,  because  in  it  he  buried  a  sailor  who 
was  called  Martin  Garcia,  which  said  island  is  about 
thirty  leagues  above  the  mouth  of  this  river,  and  the 
said  discovery  cost  him  very  dear,  for  the  Indians  of  the 
said  land  slew  him  and  ate  him  ;  and  after  many  years 
had  gone  by  it  was  again  discovered  by  Sebastian 
Cabot,  Captain  and  Pilot-Major  4  of  his  Sacrea 
Ctesarean  Catholic  Majesty  the  Emperor  Don  Carlos, 
fifth  of  the  name,  [who  is]  also  the  King  our  Lord, 
who  was  Commander  of  an  expedition  which  his 
Majesty  ordered  should  be  made  to  discover  Tarsis 
and  Ophir  and  Oriental  Cathay  ;  which  said  Captain 
Sebastian  Cabot  came  to  this  river  by  chance,  for  the 
commander's  ship  in  which  he  was  was  lost,  and 
seeing  that  he  could  not  continue  his  said  voyage,  he 

1 '  Into  which  runs,'  Lat.  2  '  Conquering  and,'  Lat. 

3  *  Ferdinand  and  Isabel,'  Lat. 

4 '  Most  skilful  in  the  art  of  Navigation  and  of  Astronomy,'  Lat. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  229 

determined  to  explore  with  the  people  he  had  with 
him  the  said  river,  by  reason  of  the  very  great  account 
which  the  Indians  of  the  land  gave  him  of  the  very 
great  wealth  in  gold  and  silver  which  there  was  in  the 
land,  and  not  without  very  great  labour  and  hunger, 
and  dangers  both  of  his  own  person  and  of  those  who 
were  with  him.  And  the  said  captain  endeavoured 
to  make  near  the  said  river  certain  settlements  of  the 
people  whom  he  brought  from  Spain.  This  river  is 
larger  than  any  that  is  known  up  to  the  present  time. 
Its  breadth  at  the  mouth  where  it  enters  the  sea  is  thirty- 
five  leagues  and  three  hundred  leagues  above  the 
said  mouth  it  is  two  leagues  in  breadth.  The  cause 
of  its  being  so  great  and  mighty  is  that  there  run  into 
it  many  other  and  mighty  rivers.  It  is  a  river  in 
finitely  full  of  fish  and  of  the  best  there  is  in  the 
world.  The  people  on  arriving  in  that  land  wished 
to  learn  if  it  were  fertile  and  fit  to  plough  and  raise 
bread  ;  and  they  planted  in  the  month  of  September 
fifty-two  grains  of  wheat — for  there  was  no  more  in 
the  ships  : — and  they  gathered  soon  in  the  month  of 
December  fifty- two  thousand  grains  of  wheat  ;  and 
this  same  fertility  was  found  with  all  the  other  seeds. 
Those  who  live  in  that  land  say  that  not  far  from 
there,  in  the  country  inland,  there  are  certain  great 
mountain  ranges  from  which  they  take  infinite  gold, 
and  further  on  in  the  same  mountains  they  take  in 
finite  silver.  There  are  in  this  land  certain  sheep 
as  large  as  ordinary  asses,  of  the  shape  of  camels,  except 


230        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

that  the  wool  they  bear  is  fine  as  silk,  and  other 
animals  of  different  kinds.  The  people  of  the 
country  differ  very  much  ;  for  those  who  live  on  the 
slopes  of  the  mountains  are  white  like  us,  and  those 
who  are  near  to  the  banks  of  the  river  are  dark. 
Some  say  that  in  the  said  mountains  there  are  men  who 
have  faces  like  dogs  and  others  are  from  the  knee 
down  like  ostriches,  and  that  these  are  great  workers, 
and  that  they  raise  much  maize,  of  which  they  make 
bread  and  wine.  Many  other  things  they  say  of  that 
land,  which  are  not  put  down  here  lest  they  be 
tedious. 

No.  8.  This  land  was  discovered  by  John  Cabot,  a 
Venetian,  and  by  Sebastian  Cabot,  his  son,  in  the  year 
of  the  birth  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  1494,  on  the 
24th  of  June,  in  the  morning,  to  which  they  gave  the 
name  of  First  Land  seen  (Prima  Tierra  Vista)  ;  and  to 
a  large  island  which  is  situated  along  the  said  land  they 
gave  the  name  San  Juan,  because  it  had  been  discovered 
the  same  day.  The  people  of  it  are  dressed  in  the 
skins  of  animals.  They  use  in  their  wars  bows  and 
arrows,  lances  and  darts  and  certain  clubs  of  wood  and 
slings.  It  is  a  very  sterile  land.  There  are  in  it 
many  white  bears  and  very  large  stags  like  horses  and 
many  other  animals  ;  and  likewise  there  is  infinite  fish 
— sturgeons,  salmon,  very  large  soles  a  yard  in  length, 
and  many  other  kinds  of  fish — and  the  greatest 
quantity  of  them  is  called  Baccallaos  (codfish)  ;  like 
wise  there  are  in  the  same  land  hawks  black  as  crows, 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  231 

eagles,  partridges,    linnets,  and    many  other  kinds  of 
birds  of  different  species. 

No.  9.  In  this  same  island  of  Iceland  (Islanda) 
there  is  a  great  quantity  of  fish.  They  take  it  in 
winter  and  dry  it  by  the  means  of  the  very  great  cold 
which  is  there,  because  this  said  island  is  within  the 
Arctic  circle  ;  and  in  summer  men  go  there  from  many 
parts  and  barter  for  this  fish,  thus  dried,  in  exchange 
for  meal  and  beer  ;  and  this  said  fish  is  so  dry  and 
hard,  that  to  eat  it  they  beat  it  with  certain  hammers 
of  iron  on  certain  stones  hard  as  marble  and  then  they 
put  it  to  soak  for  a  day  or  two,  and  thus  they  eat  it, 
stewed  with  butter.  And  in  all  this  Northern  Sea 
there  is  a  very  great  quantity  of  fish,  and  many  of 
them  large  and  of  monstrous  shape  ;  those  who  sail  in 
these  seas  have  seen  very  large  lampreys  which  re 
semble  great  serpents  and  attack  ships  in  order  to  eat 
the  sailors.  The  natives  of  the  said  island  most  of 
them  build  their  houses  underground  and  the  walls  of 
fish  bones.  They  have  no  wood  except  some  ex 
tremely  small  trees,  and  of  these  very  few  and  in  few 
places  ;  but  the  Provider  of  all  things  provides  every 
year  that  there  comes  to  them  by  sea  on  the  northern 
parts  of  the  said  island  a  very  great  quantity  of  trees  of 
different  kinds  and  sizes,  as  driftwood,  borne  by  furious 
north  winds  to  the  coast  of  the  said  island,  with  which 
the  natives  provide  themselves,  and  make  use  of  it  for 
all  that  is  needful  to  them.  And  they  say  that  often 
they  hear  spirits  speak  and  call  each  other  by  name 


232        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

and  take  the  form  of  living  persons  and  tell  them  who 
they  are  ;  and  in  certain  parts  of  the  said  island  there 
rise  up  certain  very  dreadful  fires,  and  other  wonders 
the  natives  of  the  said  island  say  there  are  in  it. 

No.  10.  The  men  who  dwell  in  this  region  are 
savages  ;  they  are  destitute  of  bread  and  wine,  they 
tame  deer  and  ride  upon  them,  and  they  fight  with 
another  people  which  is  situated  further  to  the  North, 
and  which  they  call  the  Nocturnal  people,  for  they  go 
about  in  the  night  and  perform  their  business  as  here 
[we  do]  in  the  day,  and  this  because  the  days  here 
from  the  I4th  of  September  to  the  loth  of  March  are  so 
short  that  there  is  not  an  hour  of  light.  They  are  a 
very  wicked  people,  quarrelsome,  they  rob  all  those 
who  pass  [through  their  country]  so  that  no  ship  dares 
to  ride  at  anchor  near  the  coast  for  fear  of  these  night 
people,  because  they  slay  and  rob  all  who  fall  into 
their  hands  ;  and  a  little  beyond  these  night  people 
towards  the  S.E.  they  say  there  are  certain  monsters 
which  have  bodies  like  those  of  human  beings  except 
the  head,  which  is  like  that  of  a  pig,  and  that  they 
understand  one  another,  grunting  like  pigs. 

No.  ii.  Those  who  inhabit  this  region,  some  adore 
the  sun,  others  the  first  thing  they  see  in  the  morning, 
others  adore  a  piece  of  coloured  cloth  which  they  place 
on  a  lance,  and  thus  each  worships  what  he  prefers ;  they 
are  under  the  sway  of  the  Great  Khan,  Emperor  of 
the  Tartars. 

No.    12.    Here   there  are   monsters  like   unto  men 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  233 

who  have  ears  so  large  that  they  cover  the  whole 
body,  and  they  say  that  further  on  towards  the  East 
there  are  certain  men  who  have  no  joints  whatever  at 
the  knee  nor  in  the  feet ;  they  are  under  the  sway  of 
the  Great  Khan.  In  the  province  of  Balor,  which  is 
fifty  days'  journey  in  extent,  there  are  wild  men  ;  they 
live  in  the  mountains  and  forests. 

No.  13.  Here  dwells  that  mighty  King  of  Aziumba 
and  Auxuma  whom  some  call  Prester  John,  to  whom 
sixty  kings  yield  obedience  ;  he  is  very  wealthy  in  all 
riches  and  there  is  no  record  that  he  was  ever  defeated 
in  any  battle  ;  but  often  has  he  come  back  with 
glorious  victory  from  the  South  from  the  Troglodyte 
people,  a  race  naked  and  black,  which  people  extend 
as  far  as  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Among  which 
people  there  is  a  race  which  does  not  speak,  but  they 
understand  each  other  by  whistling ;  and  this  is  not 
Prester  John,  because  Prester  John  had  his  Empire  in 
Eastern  and  Southern  India  until  Genghis  Khan,  first 
King  of  the  Tartars,  defeated  and  overcame  him  in 
a  very  cruel  battle,  in  which  he  died,  and  the  said 
Genghis  took  from  him  all  his  kingdoms  and  lord 
ships,  and  allowed  the  Christians  to  live  in  their  own 
faith  and  gave  them  a  Christian  king  to  rule  and 
govern  them,  which  king  was  called  George,  and 
from  that  time  till  now  all  the  kings  who  succeed 
him  are  called  George,  as  Marco  Polo  relates  more  at 
large  in  the  42nd  and  48th  chapters  of  his  book. 

No.   14.  The  king  of  this  province  and  kingdom 


234       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  Bengal  is  a  very  mighty  lord,  and  has  under  his  rule 
many  cities  very  large  and  of  great  trade.  There  Is 
in  this  kingdom  and  province  much  cinnamon,  cloves, 
ginger,  pepper,  sandalwood,  lacquer,  and  silk  in  great 
quantities.  They  are  wont  in  this  province  and 
kingdom  to  burn  bodies  after  death,  and  when  the 
husband  dies  before  the  wife  the  wife  burns  herself 
alive  with  her  husband,  saying  that  she  is  going  to  be 
happy  with  him  in  the  other  world.  And  it  is  done 
in  this  way,  that  the  husband  dying,  the  wife  gives  a 
great  entertainment  and  dresses  herself  in  the  richest 
garments  she  has — to  which  entertainment  come  all 
her  relatives  and  those  of  her  husband  ;  and  after 
having  eaten,  she  goes  with  all  the  people  to  a  place 
where  a  very  great  fire  has  been  built,  singing  and 
dancing  until  she  reaches  the  said  fire,  and  then  they 
throw  in  the  dead  body  of  the  husband,  and  at  once 
she  bids  farewell  to  her  relatives  and  friends  and  leaps 
into  the  fire,  and  she  who  most  nobly  throws  herself 
into  the  fire  brings  most  honour  upon  her  family  ; 
but  even  now  this  custom  is  not  observed  as  it  used  to 
be,  since  the  Portuguese  have  traded  with  them  and 
given  them  to  understand  that  our  Lord  God  is  not 
served  by  such  a  practice. 

No.  15.  The  Grand  Khan  of  the  Tartars  is  a  very 
great  lord  and  very  mighty,  he  is  called  King  of 
Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords ;  he  is  wont  to  give  gar 
ments  to  his  liegemen  thirteen  times  a  year,  at  thirteen 
very  great  feasts  which  he  holds  each  year  ;  and  these 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  235 

garments  are  of  greater  or  less  value  according  to  the 
quality  of  the  person  to  whom  they  are  given,  and  to 
each  one  is  given  a  belt  and  leggings,  a  hat  adorned 
with  gold  and  pearls  and  precious  stones  according  to 
the  greatness  of  the  personage  ;  and  these  garments 
which  the  said  Grand  Khan  gives  every  year  are 
156,000  ;  and  this  he  does  to  give  greatness  and 
magnificence  to  his  feasts,  and  when  he  dies  they 
bear  him  to  be  buried  to  a  mountain  which  is  called 
Alcay,  where  are  buried  the  Grand  Khans,  Emperors 
of  the  Tartars,  and  those  who  bear  him  to  burial  slay 
all  those  they  find,  saying  to  them  :  '  Go  and  serve 
our  master  in  the  other  world  '  ;  and  in  the  same  way 
they  slay  all  his  horses,  camels,  and  baggage-mules 
which  they  have,  thinking  that  they  will  go  to  serve 
their  lord.  When  Mongui  Khan,  Emperor  of  the 
Tartars,  died,  there  were  slain  300,000  men,  whom 
those  who  bore  him  to  burial  met  on  the  way,  as 
Marco  Polo  says  in  his  book,  chapter  42.  Poggio,  the 
Florentine  Secretary  of  Pope  Eugenius  IV.,  towards 
the  end  of  his  second  book,  which  he  wrote  on  the 
variations  and  changes  of  fortune,  does  much  to  con 
firm  what  the  said  Marco  Polo  wrote  in  his  book. 

No.  1 6.  There  are  various  opinions  as  to  what  is 
Trapovana,  since  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  have 
navigated  the  Indian  Ocean.  How  Ptolemy  places 
it  in  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude  I  think  is  well 
known  to  all.  Some  modern  explorers  hold  that  the 
island  of  Ceylon  is  Trapovana  ;  others  hold  that  it  is 


236        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

the  island  of  Sumatra.  Pliny  writes  of  Trapovana  in 
his  sixth  book,  chapter  22,  and  says  that  there  was 
a  time  when  the  opinion  was  held  that  Trapovana 
was  another  world,  and  that  it  was  called  Antichthon  ; 
and  that  Alexander  was  the  first  to  inform  us  that  it 
was  an  island  ;  and  that  Onesicritus,  Admiral  of  the 
fleet,  says  that  in  the  said  island  of  Trapovana  there 
are  larger  and  more  warlike  elephants  than  in  India  ; 
and  that  Magasaene  gives  as  its  length  7,000  stadia,  and 
as  its  width  5,000  ;  that  there  is  no  walled  city  in  it, 
but  700  villages  ;  and  that  in  Claudius'  reign  ambas 
sadors  came  from  the  said  island  to  Rome.  In  this 
way  the  freedman  Damius  Plocamius,  who  had  bought 
of  the  Republic  the  taxes  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  sailing 
round  Arabia  was  carried  by  the  north  wind  in  such 
a  way  that  on  the  I5th  day  he  entered  a  port  of  the 
said  island  called  Hippius,  and  was  very  generously 
received  and  treated  by  the  King ;  and  that  after 
having  remained  in  the  said  island  six  months  he 
learned  the  language  ;  and  that  one  day  talking  with 
the  King  he  told  him  that  the  Romans  and  their 
Emperor  were  incredibly  just ;  and  that  the  King, 
seeing  that  the  coins  which  the  said  Freedman  had 
were  of  equal  weight,  though  the  stamp  showed  they 
were  of  different  Emperors,  moved  by  this,  sent 
ambassadors  to  Rome,  the  chief  of  whom  was  Rachia, 
to  make  friendship  with  Claudius,  from  which  ambas 
sadors  he  heard  that  in  the  said  island  there  were  five 
hundred  cities  ;  and  that  the  said  ambassadors  were 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  237 

astonished  to  see  in  these  heavens  of  ours  the  North 
Star  and  the  Pleiades  as  something  new  and  to  them 
unknown  ;  and  that  they  said  that  in  the  said  island 
they  only  saw  the  moon  above  the  earth  from  the 
8th  day  to  the  i5th  ;  and  they  were  especially 
astonished  that  shadows  turned  towards  our  sky  and 
not  towards  theirs,  and  that  the  sun  rose  on  the  right 
and  set  on  the  left  ;  from  which  aforesaid  reasons  it 
seems  that  in  the  said  island  where  the  said  freedman 
made  harbour  the  North  Star  is  not  seen,  which  is 
seen  in  the  island  Trapovana  ;  whence  it  might  be 
said,  considering  whence  the  said  freedman,  Damius 
Proclamius  [«V],  started,  and  the  course  he  might  have 
made  with  a  raging  north  wind,  that  the  island  where 
he  made  harbour  was  the  island  of  San  Lorenzo  and  not 
Trapubana  [«V],  And  that  as  king  of  the  said  island 
an  old  and  mild  man  without  children  is  usually 
elected,  and  if  after  being  elected  he  should  beget 
any,  they  at  once  depose  him  ;  and  when  they  elect 
him  they  give  him  thirty  counsellors;  and  that  the  said 
King  can  condemn  no  one  if  the  majority  of  his  said 
thirty  counsellors  are  not  agreed  with  him  ;  and  that 
afterwards  the  said  condemned  man  can  appeal  to  the 
people,  which  thereupon  elects  seventy  judges  who 
examine  his  case  ;  and  if  they  find  he  was  wrongly 
sentenced  they  set  him  free  and  those  counsellors  who 
agreed  in  condemning  him  are  deprived  of  their  offices 
and  are  held  infamous  for  ever  after. 


CHAPTER    XV 

THE  LEGENDS  OF  THE  MAP  OF   1544,  CONTINUED 

NOS.  17-33 REMARKS  ON  THE  LEGENDS  AND  ON 

THE  WORKMANSHIP  OF  THE  MAP QUESTION  OF 

SEBASTIAN'S    AUTHORSHIP  —  QUESTION    OF    THE 
LANDFALL  OF  1497  AS  MARKED  ON  THIS  MAP — 

VARIOUS    EDITIONS   OF    THE    MAP SEBASTIAN^ 

CLAIMS  OF  NAUTICAL  INVENTIONS. 

No.  17.  INSCRIPTION  of  the  author  with  certain  reasons 
for  the  variation  which  the  needle  of  the  compass 
makes  with  the  Pole  Star.  Sebastian  Cabot,  Captain 
and  Pilot-Major  of  his  Sacred  Caesarean  Catholic 
Majesty,  the  Emperor  Don  Carlos,  fifth  of  the  name,  and 
King,  our  Lord^  made  this  figure  projected  on  a  plane 
in  the  year  of  the  Birth  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
1544,  drawn  by  degrees  of  latitude  and  longitude  with 
its  winds  as  a  navigating  chart,  imitating  in  part 
Ptolemy,  and  in  part  the  modern  discoverers,  both 
Spanish  and  Portuguese^1  and  partly  discovered  by 

i  *  And  likewise  the  experience  and  labours  of  the  long  nautical  life  of 
the  most  honest  man  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian  by  birth  ;  and  the  know 
ledge  of  the  stars  and  of  the  art  of  navigation  of  Sebastian,  his  most 
learned  son  and  my  author,  who  discovered  some  part  of  the  world 
which  had  long  been  unknown  to  us,'  Lat. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  239 

his  father  and  himself,  by  which  you  may  navigate 
as  by  a  navigating  chart,  bearing  in  mind  the 
variation  which  the  needle  of  the  compass  makes 
with  the  Pole  Star.  For  example,  if  you  wish  to 
get  out  from  Cape  St.  Vincent  in  order  to  make  Cape 
Finisterre,  you  will  give  orders  to  steer  your  ship  to 
the  North  according  to  the  needle  of  the  compass, 
and  you  will  strike  within  the  said  Cape  ;  but  the 
real  course  which  your  ship  made  was  to  the  North, 
a  quarter  North-East,  because  your  compass-needle 
North-Easts  you  a  quarter  at  the  said  Cape  of  St. 
Vincent ;  so  that,  commanding  your  ship  to  be  steered 
North  by  the  compass-needle,  your  course  will  be 
North,  quarter  North-East ;  and  in  the  same  way 
from  Salmedina,  which  is  a  shoal,  as  you  go  out  of 
San  Lucar  de  Barrameda,  to  go  to  the  point  of  Naga 
on  the  island  of  Teneriffe,  you  will  give  orders  to  steer 
S.W.  by  the  needle,  and  you  will  make  the  said  point 
of  Naga  because  it  is  situated  on  the  navigating 
chart.  But  your  course  will  not  be  to  the  south 
west,  inasmuch  as  your  compass-needle  north-easts 
you  a  wide  quarter-point  at  Salmedina,  but  your 
course  will  be  S.W.,  a  wide  quarter  south.  So  that 
you  may  say  that  sailing  from  St.  Vincent  to  the 
North,  your  course  will  be  North,  quarter  North- 
East  ;  and  sailing  from  Salmedina  to  the  South-West, 
your  course  will  be  South-West,  quarter  South.  And 
so  consequently  you  will  do  in  every  other  part  of  this 
universe,  watching  the  variation  which  the  said  needle 


240        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

of  the  compass  makes  with  the  North  Star,  for  the 
said  needle  does  not  turn  or  stay  fixed  to  the  North 
in  every  place,  as  the  vulgar  think,  since  the  magnet 
stone,  as  it  appears,  has  not  the  power  to  make  it  turn 
to  the  North  in  every  place,  but,  as  is  seen  and 
acquired  by  experience,  it  has  only  the  power  to  make 
it  remain  still  and  fixed  in  one  place.  Wherefore  it 
must  point  necessarily  in  a  straight  line  whatever 
wind  you  may  have,  and  not  in  a  curved  line,  and 
this  cause  brings  about  the  said  variation.  For  if  the 
needle  were  to  turn  to  the  North  always  and  in  every 
place  there  would  be  no  variation,  for  then  it  would 
follow  a  curved  line,  because  you  would  always  be  on 
one  parallel,  which  cannot  be  when  you  go  in  a 
straight  line  on  a  sphere.  And  you  must  notice  that 
the  further  you  move  from  the  meridian  on  which  the 
needle  points  directly  North,  towards  the  West  or 
East,  so  much  the  more  will  your  compass  move  from 
the  North,  that  is  from  the  Flower  de  Luce  in  it 
which  marks  the  North.  Wherefore  it  clearly  appears 
that  the  said  needle  points  along  a  straight  line  and  not 
along  a  curved  line.  And  you  must  know  that  the 
meridian  where  the  Flower  de  Luce  of  the  needle  points 
directly  North  is  about  thirty-five  leagues  from  Flores, 
the  last  island  of  the  Azores  towards  the  West, 
according  to  the  opinion  of  certain  experts,  because  of 
the  great  experience  which  they  have  of  this,  on 
account  of  the  daily  navigation  which  is  made  towards 
the  West,  to  the  Indies  of  the  Ocean.  The  said 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  241 

Sebastian  Cabot,  sailing  towards  the  West,  found 
himself  in  a  place  where  North-East  quarter  North 
[of  the  compass]  stood  directly  North,  on  account  of 
which  observations  aforesaid  it  appears  clearly  that 
defects  and  variations  which  the  said  needle  of  the 
compass  makes  with  the  North  Star  really  exist. 

No.  1 8.  Pliny,  in  the  second  book,  chapter 
79,  writes  that  from  Cadiz  and  the  Columns  of 
Hercules,  sailing  around  Spain  and  Gaul,  the  whole 
West  was  sailed  over.  The  greater  part  of  the 
Northern  Ocean  was  sailed  over  in  the  time  of 
Augustus,  passing  by  all  Germany  as  far  as  the 
Cimbrian  Cape  and  thence  as  far  as  Scythia.  And 
from  the  East  the  fleet  of  Macedonia  sailed  along 
the  Indian  Ocean  towards  the  North,  until  the 
Caspian  Sea  was  to  the  South  of  them,  in  the  time 
that  Seleucus  and  Antiochus  reigned,  and  they  ordered 
that  that  region  should  be  called  Seleuchida  and 
Antiochida.  And  to  the  North  of  the  Caspian  many 
parts  have  been  sailed  over,  so  that  the  Northern  Sea 
has  really  been  all  traversed.  And  he  likewise  says 
in  the  same  chapter  that  Cornelius  Nepos  writes,  that 
to  Quintus  Metellus  Celer,  who  had  been  consul 
with  Apanius,  and  who  was  then  proconsul  in  Gaul, 
there  were  sent  certain  Indians  by  the  King  of  the 
Suevi,  who,  starting  from  the  Indian  Ocean,  had 
without  mischance  been  carried  to  Germany. 

No.  19.  In   these  Rocos  Islands  there  are  birds  of 
such  size,  as  they  say,  and  strength,  that  they  take 

Q 


242        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

up  an  ox  and  bear  it  in  their  flight  in  order  to  eat 
it  ;  and  still  more,  they  say,  that  they  take  a  vessel, 
no  matter  how  great  it  may  be,  and  raise  it  a  great 
height  and  then  let  it  drop,  and  they  eat  the  men. 
Petrarch  likewise  says  so  in  his  books  of  Prosperous 
and  Adverse  Fortune. 

No.  20.  There  are  in  the  island  of  the  people 
of  Calenguan,  lions,  tigers,  panthers,  deer,  and  many 
other  different  kinds  of  animals  j  likewise  there  are 
eagles  and  white  parrots  who  speak,  as  clearly  as 
human  beings,  what  is  taught  them,  and  many  other 
countless  birds  of  various  kinds.  The  people  of  the 
island  are  idolaters  ;  they  eat  human  flesh. 

No.  21.  A  ship  from  Cambaya  discovered  this 
island  of  Mamorare,  and  it  is  said  there  was  so 
much  gold  in  it  that  they  loaded  it  with  nothing 
else,  according  to  what  the  Portuguese  say. 

No.  22.  There  are  in  this  island  of  Ceylon  native 
cinnamon,  and  rubies,  and  hyacinths,  and  cats'  eyes,  and 
other  kinds  of  precious  stones.  Ciapangu  is  a  large 
island  lying  in  the  high  seas,  which  island  is  fifteen 
hundred  miles  distant  from  the  mainland  of  the  Grand 
Khan  towards  the  East.  They  are  idolaters,  and 
a  gentle  and  handsome  race.  It  has  an  independent 
king  of  its  own,  who  is  tributary  to  no  one.  It 
contains  much  virgin  gold,  which  is  never  taken 
away  from  the  said  island,  because  ships  never  touch 
there  as  it  is  so  distant  and  out  of  the  way.  The 
king  of  this  island  has  a  very  great  and  wonderful 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT          243 

palace  all  made  of  gold  in  ingots  of  the  thickness 
of  two  reals,  and  the  windows  and  columns  of  the 
palace  are  all  of  gold.  It  [the  island]  contains 
precious  stones  and  pearls  in  great  quantities.  The 
Grand  Khan,  having  heard  the  fame  of  the  riches  of 
the  said  island,  desired  to  conquer  it,  and  sent  to  it 
a  great  fleet,  and  could  never  conquer  it,  as  Marco 
Polo  more  amply  relates  and  tells  us  in  his  book, 
the  io6th  chapter.' 

Besides  these  twenty-two  legends  there  are  also 
some  additional  inscriptions,  viz.  :  i.  In  the  S.W. 
quadrant  of  the  map.  '  In  this  figure,  projected  on 
a  plane,  are  contained  all  the  lands,  islands,  ports, 
rivers,  waters,  bays,  which  have  been  discovered  down 
to  the  present  day,  and  their  names  and  who  were  the 
discoverers  of  them,  as  is  made  more  manifest  by  the 
inscriptions  [tables]  of  this  said  figure — together  with 
all  the  rest  that  was  known  before  and  all  that  has 
been  written  by  Ptolemy,  such  as  provinces,  regions, 
cities,  mountains,  rivers,  climates,  and  parallels — 
according  to  their  degrees  of  longitude  and  latitude, 
both  of  Europe,  and  of  Asia,  and  of  Africa.  And 
you  must  note  that  the  land  is  situated  according  to 
the  variation  which  the  needle  of  the  compass  makes 
with  the  North  Star,  for  the  reason  of  which  you  may 
look  in  the  second  table,  No.  17.' 

2.  In  the  S.  E.  quadrant  of  the  map  : — c  Pliny  writes 
in  his  ninth  book,  chapter  35,  of  a  fish  which  is  called 
Nichio,  which  he  describes  as  being  round,  and  says 


244        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

that  when  it  attaches  itself  to  a  ship  it  holds  the  same 
fast,  even  though  it  be  under  sail.  And  Petrarch, 
in  the  preface  to  the  second  book  of  his  work  on 
Prosperous  and  Adverse  Fortune^  says  that  the  echenis 
or  remora,  a  fish  of  half  a  foot  in  length,  stops  a  ship, 
though  it  be  very  large  and  though  wind  and  waves,  oars 
and  sails,  aid  its  course.  Alone,  and  with  no  other 
agency  save  its  attachment  to  the  planks  of  the  ship, 
with  no  other  force  than  its  own  nature,  it  overpowers 
the  strength  of  the  elements  and  of  man.  And  this 
fish  is  like  mud  or  mire,  and  if  it  be  taken  out  of  the 
water  it  loses  its  power.  The  aforesaid  is  found  in 
very  famous  writings,  which  are  not  quoted  here  lest 
too  much  space  should  be  taken  up.' 

So  far  the  Legends.  And  to  their  text  we  may  add 
the  following  remarks,  (i)  The  Spanish  original  is 
so  incorrect  that  as  printed  it  is  apparently  not  the 
work  of  a  Spaniard ;  at  any  rate,  if  the  manuscript  was 
in  good  Spanish,  the  (Flemish  ?  )  copyist  must  have 
worked  his  will  upon  it  pretty  freely.  (2)  Further, 
Spaniards  would  not  be  likely  to  write  (or  to  read 
without  a  smile)  such  explanations  as  that  of  Seville, 
4  a  famous  city  in  Andalusia,'  added  in  the  Latin 
version,  whose  readings,  evidently  designed  for  a 
people  who  were  not  fully  in  the  swim  of  things 
American,  are  usually  of  the  most  simple  and 
educational  character,  merely  amplifying  and  explain 
ing  the  words  of  the  Spanish  text.  Nor  would  a 
Latin  version  have  been  inserted  at  all  for  a  merely 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  245 

Spanish  public.  (3)  The  said  Latin  version,  once 
more,  is  as  rough  and  ungrammatical  as  the  Spanish 
it  accompanies,  and  when  Chytraeus  transcribed  it  he 
apologises  for  the  language,  and  excuses  himself  for 
his  trouble  on  the  score  of  the  important  matter  con 
tained  in  these  barbarous  paragraphs.  Both  as  to 
Spanish  and  Latin  forms,  in  fact,  the  inscriptions  show 
a  hand  fully  as  careless  and  under-educated  as  that 
of  the  draughtsman  who  executed  the  map  itself. 
(4)  The  Legends,  like  many  of  the  entries  in  the 
body  of  the  map,  abound  with  obvious  mistakes,  as 
well  as  with  highly  doubtful  or  improbable  statements. 
As,  for  instance  : — The  Latin  version  of  the  eighth 
legend  gives  July  24,  1494,  for  the  date  of  John 
Cabot's  first  landfall,  while  the  Spanish  text  of  the 
same  legend  supplies  the  elsewhere  corroborated  June 
24.  The  reference  to  Pliny  in  the  eighteenth  legend 
cites  the  wrong  chapter.  The  lake  of  St.  Peter, 
called  Lac  d'Angoulesme,  is  rendered  in  Spanish  as 
Laaga  de  Golesme.  In  the  seventh  legend,  where  the 
Rio  de  la  Plata  is  discussed,  mention  is  made  of  the 
opinion  of  some  people  that  in  the  mountains  near 
that  river  are  dog-faced  and  ostrich-legged T  tribes  ; 
also  that  on  the  banks  of  the  said  river,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  Cabot  sowed  fifty-two  grains  of  wheat  in 
September  and  reaped  fifty-two  thousand  in  December 
— the  same  story  which  Sebastian  afterwards  repeated 
to  Eden.  In  the  ninth  and  tenth  legends,  dealing 

1  I.e.,  '  From  the  knee  down.' 


246        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

with  Iceland  and  other  countries  that  border  on  the 
Northern  Sea,  are  mentioned  lampreys  like  serpents, 
which  will  attack  ships,1  ghosts  in  human  form  as 
well  as  ghosts  invisible  but  audible  (according  to  the 
native  belief)  and  monstrous  races  with  pigs'  heads 
and  grunting  speech,  or  with  flap  ears  (Legend  12) 
great  enough  to  cover  their  whole  body,  or  with 
jointless  limbs.  The  thirteenth  legend  notes  in  the 
far  South,  among  the  Troglodytes,  extending  to  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  a  people  who  only  converse  by 
whistling.  Lastly,  the  spelling  of  the  names,  even  for 
that  time,  is  of  unusual  barbarity  and  contrariety— 
c  Tridore,'  '  Trapobana,'  c  Trapubana,'  c  Aziumba,' 
t  Damius  Proclamius,'  and  so  forth,  do  not  show  a 
high  standard  of  cartographical  scholarship. 

And,  as  already  suggested,  if  such  is  the  character 
of  the  legends,  that  of  the  map  itself  is  not  much 
better.  It  is  in  the  closest  relation  to  certain  existing 
Portuguese  and  French  examples,  though  it  can 
hardly  be  assumed  that  it  is  copied  bodily  from  any 
single  one,  as  the  Dieppese  chart  of  1541  emanating  from 
Nicholas  Desliens.  But  the  works  of  Diego  Homem 
and  the  charts  of  Jacques  Cartier  unquestionably  form 
the  basis  of  our  planisphere  of  1544,  a  planisphere 
which,  compiled  as  it  is  by  an  inferior  hand  from  a 
variety  of  well-known  sources,  without  original  infor 
mation  (certain  exceptions  allowed  for)  or  even  an 
average  amount  of  accuracy  and  scholarship,  was  in 

1  This  is  in  the  Olaus  Magnus  Map  of  1539,  §  B. 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  247 

all  probability  neither  drawn  nor  revised  by  Sebastian 
Cabot.  Yet  the  *  exceptions '  we  have  alluded  to 
(especially  in  the  8th  and  iyth  inscriptions)  are 
matters  which  at  least  show  that  the  compiler  had 
original  and  fairly  correct  information  about  the  first 
voyage  of  John  Cabot  to  North  America,  and  make 
it  probable  that  Sebastian  knew  of  the  work  in 
question  and  supplied  its  author  with  some  details, 
allowing  the  whole  to  pass  under  his  name,  as  the 
i yth  legend,  or  'inscription  of  the  author,'  inti 
mates.  The  main  body  of  material  here  employed, 
however,  may  be  called  rather  Cartierean  than 
Cabotian  ;  most  of  Cartier's  names  reappear  in  the 
Canadian  portions  of  this  map  ;  and  the  results  of  his 
second  voyage  are  detailed,  with  mistakes  which  can 
mostly  be  corrected,  as  Mr.  Dawson  has  pointed  out, 
by  reference  to  other,  and  especially  Dieppese,  charts 
of  this  period. 

As  examples  of  the  slovenly  workmanship  of  this 
example  we  may  notice  :  a  reference  in  the  right-hand 
margin  to  90  degrees  where  80  should  be  read  ;  the 
legend  about  the  Cod  Fish  Country,  really  No.  8, 
quoted  as  No.  3  ;  a  station  called  Brest,  repeated 
on  the  Labrador  coast  ;  and  various  corruptions  of 
Cartier's  (and  other)  names,  as  c  De  Tronot '  and 
c  Y'  de  Tronot '  for  <  Cap.  Tiennot,'  c  S.  Quenain  ' 
and  c  Saqui '  for  '  Saguenay,  c  tuttonaer  '  for  <  Tude- 
mans,'  'Loreme'  for  c  Laurent ' — to  go  no  further  than 
those  North- West  parts  of  which  Sebastian  claimed  to 


248        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

have  peculiar  and  extensive  knowledge.  Once  more  : 
it  is  indeed  surprising,  if  Sebastian  were  in  any  real 
sense  the  author,  that  Bristol  is  not  marked  in 
England  ;  that  Ireland  is  made  almost  to  equal  Great 
Britain  ;  and  that  the  delineation  of  Newfoundland  is 
so  far  from  the  truth  ; — a  multitude  of  little  islands 
(many  of  them  obviously  conventional)  being  laid  down 
here  as  off  the  coast  of  Labrador,  just  as  if  the 
draughtsman  was  working  in  the  dark  from  some 
vague  narrative  which  stated  c  Here  are  to  be  found 
many  islands.'  In  a  word,  this  map,  in  its  picture  of  the 
Old  World  as  well  as  the  New,  is  inferior  to  the  better 
Italian,  French,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese  maps  of 
this  time  ;  even  the  Mediterranean  is  much  mis 
shapen  ;  while  the  representation  of  the  La  Plata 
region,  which  Sebastian  unquestionably  visited  in 
1528—1530,  contains  some  serious  errors  of  fact.1  Once 
more,  whereas  in  the  Columbus  lawsuit  of  1535 
Cabot  had  declared  himself  uncertain  as  to  whether 
north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  America  was  conti 
nental,  without  any  intervening  break,  or  no — in  this 
map  the  New  World  is  set  forth  as  one  mass  of 
undivided  land  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Antarctic  Seas. 
It  will  not,  therefore,  appear  very  probable  that 
Sebastian  really  designed  the  planisphere  of  1544,  or 
wrote  or  even  revised  any  part  of  the  legends  which 

1  Thus  'the  all-important  elbow  (of  the  Parana)  found  near  Cor- 
rientes  and  carrying  the  stream  eastward,  is  entirely  omitted  ..."  Cabot 
'continuing  the  Parana  due  North,  confusiag  it  with  the  Paraguay* 
(Harrisse). 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  249 

accompanied  it,  except  perhaps  those  two  (Nos.  8 
and  17)  which  concerned  the  place  and  date  of  the 
landfall  of  1497(94),  and  the  name  and  share  of 
John  Cabot  in  the  original  discovery.  It  seems  also 
pretty  clear,  from  the  general  history  we  have  already 
recounted,  that  in  these  paragraphs,  which  appear  to 
come  more  directly  from  Sebastian  himself,  the  false 
and  the  true  are  inextricably  blended.  His  father  and 
and  himself,  we  are  told,  sighted  land  on  the  24th  of 
June,  1494,  at  Cape  Breton,  according  to  the  apparent 
indication  of  the  Prima  Vista  of  the  map.  Now  all 
this  had  not  only  been  suppressed  but  implicitly  con 
tradicted  in  the  maps  published  in  Spain  for  many 
years  past,  under  Sebastian's  superintendence  or  during 
his  residence  in  the  Peninsula.  The  English  share  in 
the  Western  world  had  been  relegated  to  the  extreme 
North  ;  now  that  Cabot  is  meditating  a  return  to 
the  Tudor  service,  that  English  share  is  immensely 
increased  by  a  placing  of  the  landfall,  not  high  up  on  the 
Labrador  coast,  but  well  to  the  south  of  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence.  To  crown  all,  a  very  early  date  is  assigned 
to  the  English  expedition — too  early,  as  we  know  now, 
by  three  years.  It  does  not  seem,  therefore,  that  we 
have  here  anything  of  great  weight  in  favour  of  the 
Cape  Breton  landfall,1  granting  that  the  Prima 
Vista  applies  to  this  point.  But  it  is  just  possible 

1  That  is,  as  against  a  landfall  at  Cape  Race,  Cape  Bonavista  or 
Cape  Charles.  The  question  is  rather  different  when  we  widen  the 
issue,  as  is  discussed  a  little  later. 


250       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

that  these  words,  written  right  across  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  may  be  intended  to  refer  to  the  Northern 
instead  of  to  the  Southern  shore,  to  the  lowest  point 
of  Labrador  (say  at  Cape  Charles)  rather  than  to  Cape 
Breton  and  Nova  Scotia.  In  any  case,  the  character  of 
the  workmanship  both  in  the  map  and  the  inscriptions, 
is  not  such  that  any  confident  theory  can  be  built  upon 
its  apparent  statements.  For  the  workmanship  is  not 
only  unskilful  and  careless,  but  essentially  second-hand  ; 
it  is  not  the  production  of  an  explorer  who  was  well 
acquainted  with  America. 

We  believe,  however,  that  the  indication  of  the 
Prima  Vista  represents,  with  whatever  inaccuracy 
of  detail,  the  general  truth  that  the  first  English 
expedition  to  America  was  commanded  by  John  Cabot, 
and  that  it  reached  land  in  a  temperate  rather  than  in 
a  sub-arctic  zone,  in  the  latitude  of  Newfoundland  and 
not  in  that  of  the  Upper  Labrador  coast  ;  and  we  are 
inclined  also  to  believe  that  this  resuscitation  of  the 
(approximately)  true  landfall,  as  well  as  of  the  true 
discoverer,  after  a  suppression  of  forty  years,  was  due 
to  Sebastian's  interest  in  pleasing  the  English  Govern 
ment  and  paving  the  way  for  his  return  to  our  island. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  Spanish  authorities  objected, 
Cabot  might  reply  that  the  map  was  not  published  in 
Spain  under  his  supervision,  that  it  was  fathered  on 
him  without  his  consent,  and  that  he  was  not  respon 
sible  for  any  of  its  statements. 

We  see  no  reason  to  believe  with  M.  Harrisse  that  the 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  251 

day  and  month  of  the  landfall  (June  24)  are  spurious, 

like  the  year  J  (1494  for  1497)  5  st^  ^ess  tnat  t^ie  ^t> 
John  Island  near  Cape  Breton  2  is  purely  imaginary, 
originating  in  a  mistaken  entry  of  earlier  maps,  and 
that  the  date  of  June  24  (St.  John  Baptist's  Day)  was 
c  invented  to  tally  with  the  name  of  St.  John  then 
existing '  in  charts  of  that  region.  Whether,  as  Mr. 
Dawson  contends,  the  St.  John  Isle  of  1497  is  Scatari, 
just  at  Cape  Breton  ;  whether  the  same  name  as  placed 
on  the  map  of  1544  corresponds  to  the  Great  Mag 
dalen,  discovered  by  Cartier  in  1534,  and  attached  to 
that  point  by  the  draughtsman  of  our  planisphere,  who 
was  using  French  information,  each  inquirer  must 
judge  for  himself — these  points  do  not  seem  to  us 
finally  solved,  or  indeed  solvable.  Whatever  we  think, 
it  is  surely  rash  to  use  this  map  for  establishing  any 
precise  theory ;  its  whole  character  supports  us  in 
depending  upon  it  for  nothing  but  general  and  vague 
conclusions.3 

1  Which  Sebastian  ante-dated  in  almost  every  reported  conversation  of 
his.    There  is  also  the  possibility  mentioned  before  of  a  copyist's  mistake, 
IIII.  for  VII.,  if  the  V.  was  carelessly  written  \/. 

2  So  important  from  the   8th   inscription,  which  asserts  that  it   was 
discovered  the  same  day  as  the  landfall.       It  is   in  the  underlined  words 
that  we  suspect  the  exaggeration  lies. 

3  Thus  when  M.  Harrisse  suggests  that  the  map  of  1544  '  records,  per 
haps  unconsciously,  the  mishap  of  Cartier  (when  on  September  28,  1535, 
he  was  unable  to  cross  with  his  ship  the  western  extremity  of  the  Angou- 
leme   or  St.  Pierre  lake,  and  was  compelled  to  continue  the  voyage  in 
boats)  in  the  words,  '  Here  it  is  not  possible  to  pass,'  we  can  only  admire 
the  ingenuity  of  detraction  which  elsewhere  suggests  that  because  Adams 
is  not  known  to  have  learnt  map-engraving,  therefore  he  could  not  possibly 
have  'cut'  the  Cabot  planisphere  (copy  of  1549). 


252        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

The 'Cabot'  chart  of  1544  seems  to  have  been 
reissued  in  1549,  wlt^  tne  Latin  version  (only)  of  the 
Legends,  and  a  rearrangement  of  their  number,  as 
19  instead  of  22.  In  this  form  the  German  scholar 
Chytraeus  (Nathan  Kochhaff)  apparently  saw  it  at 
Oxford  in  A.D.  1565,  and  Richard  Hakluyt  at  West 
minster  and  London  in  A.D.  1584  (or  earlier) — 
c  Cabot's  own  map  (in  the  latter's  words)  which  is  in 
the  Queen's  Privy  Gallery  at  Westminster  and  in 
many  merchants'  houses  in  London.'  Hakluyt  adds 
that  the  Queen's  copy  was  'set  out'  by  Clement 
Adams,  and  elsewhere  credits  the  same  copyist  with 
c  cutting,'  or  engraving,  examples  of  this  work  for 
English  use.  If  all  this  be  accepted,  we  have  here  the 
earliest  English  map  engraving  (by  five  and  twenty 
years),  but  even  if  we  refuse  to  believe  that  an  English 
man  could  engrave  maps  so  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  we  may  at  least  agree  on  the  words  of 
Purchas,  where  he  says  that  the  Adams  copy  of  1549 
was  'taken  out  of  Sir  Sebastian  Cabot's.'  In  other 
words,  we  may  admit,  as  M.  Harrisse  puts  it,  that  simple 
impressions  from  the  map  of.  1544  were  imported 
from  the  Continent,  and  that  the  Legends  were  set 
up  in  Latin  only,  and  printed  (twice)  by  Clement 
Adams  in  1549 — first  with  the  date  of  1494  as  that 
of  the  original  Cabotian  discovery,  and  afterwards 
with  the  true  year  (1497)  as  it  is  definitely  stated  by 
Purchas,  and  probably  copied  by  Hakluyt  in  his  final 
edition  of  the  Principal  Navigations  (1599-1600), 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  253 

by  Michael  Lok  in  his  map  of  1582,  and  by  Moly- 
neux  in  the  map  drawn  to  illustrate  the  completed 
and  corrected  Hakluyt  of  1599-1 600. *  One  or  other 
of  these  editions  by  Adams,  we  may  be  pretty  sure,  is 
intended  by  Richard  Willes  in  1577,  when  he  writes 
of  'Cabot's  table  which  the  Earl  of  Bedford  hath 
at  Cheynies.' 

The  work  of  1544,  thus  associated  with  a  famous 
name,  was  in  some  request  for  a  time  on  the  Con 
tinent  as  well  as  in  England  ; 2  it  has  been  supposed 
(without  much  probability)  that  this  was  the  Cabotian 
map  sold  among  the  remains  of  Juan  de  Ovando  in 
September,  1575 ;  it  is  certainly  mentioned  by  Ortelius 
among  the  authorities  for  his  Theatrum  of  1570  ;  it 
seems  to  have  been  a  model  in  the  Italian  Carto 
graphical  School  of  Gastaldo  ;  and  in  our  own  day  it 
has  been  studied  and  argued  upon,  and  its  importance 
magnified,  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  merits. 

1  Hakluyt  in  the  Principal  Navigations,  as  edited  in  1589,  gives  1484  ; 
in  the  same,  as  edited  in   1599-1600,  148?  ;  and  in  the  Western  Plant 
ing  of  1584,  1486,  in  the  last  borrowing  from  Ramusio  and  Peter  Martyr. 

2  Dr.  Dee  is  probably  referring  to  this  map  when  on  the  back  of  his 
own  map  of  America,  A.D.  1580  (B.  Mus.  Cotton.  MSS.  Aug.  I.  i),  he 
bases  'the   Queen's  Majesty's   title  royal   to  these   foreign  regions  and 
islands'    on  the  discoveries    of  Cabot,  &c., — one  of  the  earliest  formal 
statements  of  this  claim.     (Thus,  e.g.,  '  Circa  an.  1497,  Sebastian  Caboto 
sent  by  King  Henry  VII.  did  discover  from  Newfoundland  so  far  along 
and  about  the  coast  next  to  Laborador  till  he  came  to  the  latitude  of  67^°. 
And  still  found  the  seas  open  before  him.')    In  the  same  way  Hakluyt,  in 
dedicating  his  Divers  Foyages  of  1582  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  derives  the 
*  title  which  England  has  to  that  part  of  America  which  is  from  Florida 
to  67°  North  .  .  .'  from  the  letters  patent  granted  to  John  Cabot  and  his 
three  sons. 


254        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

The  present  volume  is  not  the  place  for  an  elaborate 
discussion  of  Sebastian's  claims  as  a  scientific  geo 
grapher,  a  leading  inventor  in  the  seaman's  art,  or  a 
student  of  the  most  mysterious  problems  of  navigation. 
But  it  must  be  said  that  he  owed  a  great  deal  of  his 
reputation  to  these  claims,  and  that  he  has  been  freely 
credited  with  the  discovery  both  of  the  declination 
and  of  the  variation  of  the  magnetic  needle,  of  the 
line  with  no  variation,  and  of  more  than  one  method 
of  finding  the  longitude  at  sea. 

Now  the  declination  and  variation  of  the  magnetic 
needle  were  both  observed  by  Columbus  on  the  night 
of  the  1 3th  of  September,  1492,  in  the  Mid-Atlantic, 
and  these  first  observations  were  checked  by  the  same 
great  navigator  on  the  2ist  of  May,  1496,  and  the 
1 6th  of  August,  1498. 

Similarly  the  conjecture  of  a  line  with  no  varia 
tion,  which  Livio  Sanuto  tells  us x  was  demonstrated  to 

1  Sanuto's  language  is  :  '  Being  the  friend  of  a  certain  gentleman  named 
Guido  Giannetti  cli  Fano  ...  I  ascertained  from  him  that  the  needle 
of  the  mariner's  compass,  rubbed  with  the  loadstone,  does  not  always 
indicate  the  meridian  of  the  observer,  but  a  point  some  degrees  from  that 
meridian  ;  and  this  place,  whatever  its  distance  may  be,  is  indicated  by 
the  needle.  .  .  .  Sebastian  Cabot,  a  Venetian  and  admirable  pilot,  dis 
covered  this  secret  by  means  of  experiments  which  he  undertook  when 
he  sailed  to  the  Indies  ;  and  this  he  afterwards  disclosed  to  the  most 
serene  King  of  England.  Giannetti  had  the  honour  of  being  present,  as 
I  have  understood  from  others.  On  the  same  occasion  Cabot  showed 
what  the  distance  was  [of  the  needle's  indication  from  the  observer], 
and  [proved]  that  it  did  not  appear  the  same  in  every  place.'  Sanuto, 
Geografia  dht'mta  in  XII.  libri  Vinegia  D.  Zenaro,  1588,  bk.  i.,  fol.  2. 
The  work  in  question  was  apparently  written  within  S.  Cabot's  lifetime, 
before  1553,  and  probably  'between  1548  and  1551.'  Nothing  more  is 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT          255 

Edward  VI.  himself  by  Sebastian  Cabot,  is  fully  ex 
pounded  by  Columbus  on  May  23,  1496,  and  in 
almost  exactly  similar  language.  Cabot  showed  the 
English  King,  we  are  informed,  the  meridian  where 
the  needle  pointed  to  the  North,  and  inscribed  the 
meridian  (on  a  chart)  as  no  miles  west  of  Flores 
in  the  Azores.  Columbus,  fifty  years  earlier,  expressed 
his  view  that  the  compass  in  certain  parts  of  the 
Atlantic  approached  nearer  to  the  Pole  Star  (then 
supposed  to  indicate  the  true  North)  in  some  parts  of 
the  Atlantic  than  anywhere  in  the  Mediterranean,  and 
declared  his  belief  that  the  needle  pointed  absolutely 
North  a  few  days'  sail  west  of  Flores. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  we  may  judge  from  the 
planisphere  of  1544,  Sebastian  did  construct  maps 
exhibiting  the  magnetic  variations,  and  for  all  we 
know  he  may  have  been  the  first  to  do  so,  although 
this  honour  has  often  been  claimed  for  Alonzo  de 
Santa  Cruz  and  the  year  1536. 

But  perhaps  his  most  cherished  hope  was  the  inven 
tion  of  an  accurate  method  for  finding  the  longitude 
at  sea.  This  he  proposed  to  do  in  two  ways  :  first,  by 
the  variation  of  the  magnetic  needle  ;  second,  by  the 
declination  of  the  sun.  Of  these  the  former  (which 
Sebastian  explained  to  Contarini  at  the  famous  inter 
view  on  Christmas  Day,  1522)  seems  to  have  been  quite 

known  of  Giannetti  di  Fano.  Biddle  is  wrong  in  his  conjecture  that 
Giannetti  was  ambassador  in  England  at  this  time.  See  Harrisse,  Cabot, 
1896,  pp.  465-6. 


ER3ITY 

V  OF 


256        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

as  fully  examined  and  set  forth  by  Columbus  on  May 
23,  1496  ;  but  the  second  appears  to  be  much  more 
his  own  speculation,  though  unfortunately  inadequate 
for  its  purpose,  and  is  thus  explained  by  Alonzo  de 
Santa  Cruz,  some  time  after  1547  : 

'The  method  of  Sebastian  Caboto,  Pilot-Major  to 
his  Majesty  in  England,  for  obtaining  the  longitude. 

'  First,  in  order  to  find  the  difference  in  the  longitude 
of  any  points  however  distant  ...  we  must  know 
that  in  a  little  less  than  a  year  the  sun  .  .  .  passes 
through  all  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  taking  some 
thing  more  or  less  than  a  month  to  move  through 
each  of  these  divisions.  Thus  it  passes  through 
almost  one  degree  per  day. 

'  Moreover,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Zodiac 
retreats  from  the  Equator,  after  cutting  it  at  two 
points  which  are  the  zero-points  of  the  signs  Aries 
and  Libri  graduated  into  degrees  and  minutes. 

'Now  the  declination  of  any  part  of  the  heavens, 
whether  divisions  of  the  Zodiac  or  stars,  &c.,  being 
merely  the  distance  of  that  part  from  the  Equator, 
the  two  points  of  intersection  of  the  Zodiac  and 
the  Equator  have  a  declination  zero ;  likewise  the 
declinations  of  the  divisions  of  the  Zodiac  increase 
with  their  distances  from  the  Equator  up  to  the 
signs  of  Cancer  and  Capricorn,  which  are  at  a 
distance  of  about  23^°  from  the  Equinoctial ;  when 
in  one  of  these  two  signs  the  sun's  declination 
equals  23^° — its  greatest  possible  value.  In  every 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  257 

other  sign  its  declination  is  more  or  less  great, 
according  to  the  position  of  the  sign  in  the  Zodiac, 
but  it  is  always  less  than  23^°.  Moreover,  we  must 
note  that  as  every  degree  of  the  Zodiac  has  a  decli 
nation  of  a  definite  value,  so  also  the  sixty  minutes  of 
any  degree  have  certain  declinations  proportional  to 
the  distance  of  these  minutes  from  minute  zero. 

'  Thus  the  zero-point  of  the  first  minute  of  the  first 
degree  of  Aries  having  a  declination  zero,  and  the  zero- 
point  of  the  first  minute  of  the  second  degree  of  the 
same  sign  having  a  declination  of  24' ,  it  is  evident  that 
these  24'  must  be  distributed  proportionately  among 
each  of  the  60'  through  which  the  sun  moves  in  the 
Ecliptic  in  a  day — the  approximate  time  necessary  for 
the  sun  to  pass  through  one  degree  of  the  Ecliptic. 
By  calculation  we  see  that  a  movement  of  2j'  in  the 
Ecliptic  causes  a  variation  of  a  minute  in  the  declination 
of  the  sun. 

4  Now  supposing  that  on  March  loth  the  sun  were  at 
the  zero-point  of  the  first  minute  of  the  first  degree  in 
the  sign  of  Aries,  its  declination  being  zero,  and  that 
at  the  same  moment  it  crossed  the  meridian  of  Seville 
— then,  when  in  consequence  of  the  daily  rotation  of 
the  Celestial  Sphere,  the  sun  had  come  to  the  QOth 
degree  West  of  the  meridian  of  Seville,  its  proper 
motion  in  the  Ecliptic  would  have  brought  it  to 
the  1 5th  minute  of  the  first  degree  in  Aries,  and 
at  this  moment  its  declination  would  be  6'. 

4  And  continuing  its  course  towards  the  West,  in 

R 


£58        BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

accordance  with  the  daily  rotation  of  the  sphere, 
when  it  arrived  at  180°  West  longitude  from  Seville 
it  would  have  passed,  in  its  proper  motion,  through  30' 
of  the  first  degree  in  Aries,  and  would  then  have  a 
declination  of  12'.  Similarly  when  it  reached  the 
point  of  270°  West  longitude  from  Seville,  it  would 
be  at  the  4Qth  minute  of  the  first  degree  of  Aries  with 
a  declination  of  18'. 

'Again,  on  returning  to  the  meridian  of  Seville,  it 
would  have  passed  through  360  degrees  by  its  apparent 
diurnal  motion,  plus  the  6o/x  of  the  first  degree  in 
Aries,  and  its  declination  will  then  be  equal  to  the  24' 
above  stated. 

'  And  now  the  sun  will  enter  the  first  minute  of  the 
second  degree  in  Aries,  moving  through  the  minutes 
of  this  degree  in  its  own  proper  motion,  just  as  has 
been  expounded  for  the  first  degree. 

'From  all  this  we  see  that  the  transit  of  the  sun, 
over  the  meridian  just  described,  will  give  us  the 
power  of  perceiving  what  is  the  sun's  declination 
for  the  moment  of  transit,  although  the  difference 
of  the  sun's  declination  from  one  meridian  to  another 
diminishes  as  the  sun  approaches  the  tropics.  The 
difference  of  declination  between  two  positions  of  the 
sun  in  the  Zodiac,  being  distant  one  minute  from  each 
other,  cannot  be  more  than  24' ;  it  is  very  little  indeed 
when  near  the  tropics  ;  and  when  the  sun  is  actually 
at  one  of  the  tropics  the  difference  is  nil. 

c  With  this  principle  a  book  of  tables  should  be  con- 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  259 

structed,  wherein  should  be  inscribed  the  declination 
of  the  sun  for  every  day  in  the  year,  reckoned  for  the 
meridian  of  Seville — as  that  is  the  starting-point  of 
navigators  setting  out  for  the  West  and  North,  and 
is  near  the  meridian  of  Lisbon,  the  starting-point  for 
the  South  and  East. 

c  And  to  get  tables  of  more  precision,  the  sun's 
declination  should  be  inscribed  for  each  minute  of 
degree  in  the  Ecliptic,  because  the  differences  of 
declination  are  not  always  the  same  between  one 
minute  and  another.  This  Ptolemy  shows  in  his 
Almagest,  where  the  differences  of  declination  are 
obtained  by  arcs  and  chords  from  which  come  angles 
of  precision. 

'Thus,  knowing  the  differences  of  declination  for 
an  interval  of  our  degree  in  the  Ecliptic,  we  now  by 
the  Rule  of  Three  get  the  difference  of  declination 
for  an  interval  of  one  minute  in  the  same  degree — 
arguing  :  If  an  arc  of  a  certain  number  of  minutes 
in  the  Ecliptic  corresponds  to  a  certain  chord  or 
difference  of  declination,  then  another  arc  of  the 
Ecliptic  will  correspond  in  the  same  proportion  to 
another  chord  or  difference  of  declination.  .  .  . 
Ptolemy  noted  the  declination  of  the  sun  for  all  the 
degrees  of  the  Zodiac  on  the  assumption  that  the 
sun's  greatest  declination  was  23°  53'  .  .  .  now  this 
is  supposed  to  be  23°  33'  .  .  .  my  own  observations, 
made  at  Seville,  with  graduated  instruments  of  great 
precision,  gave  me  23°  26'. 


26o       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

'  On  this  as  a  foundation  I  have  reckoned  the  sun's 
declination  for  the  Seville  meridian,  so  that  by  increas 
ing  or  lessening  the  declinations  as  computed,  according 
to  the  place  of  observation  pilots  can  get  the  sun's 
declination  for  any  meridian. 

*  The  books  now  used  by  pilots  are  very  inaccurate 
in  their  computation  of  the  sun's  declination.  And  a 
mistake  of  one-third  of  a  degree  in  this,  coupled  with 
an  error  of  the  same  amount  in  the  observation  of  the 
altitude  of  the  sun,  may  give  an  error  of  almost  one 
degree  in  the  latitude.  .  .  . 

'Eliminating  this  cause  of  error,  let  us  suppose 
our  tables  to  be  desirably  precise — we  should  then 
construct  an  instrument  graduated  into  90°,  each 
degree  being  again  graduated  into  60'. 

'  This  instrument  may  be  a  quadrant  with  an  alidade 
or  ruler  fixed  at  the  centre,  as  in  the  Astrolabe,  and 
furnished  with  two  pinules  for  observation  of  altitudes. 

'  That  done,  we  must  know,  for  the  place  of  obser 
vation,  the  highest  meridian  altitude  of  the  sun  in 
Cancer,  the  lowest  meridian  altitude  in  Capricorn, 
and  the  mean  meridian  altitude  at  the  Equator. 
These  being  noted  and  marked  on  our  instrument, 
the  intermediate  altitudes  will  give  us  the  sun's 
declinations  on  either  side  of  the  Equator. 

'Also  one  of  the  sides  of  this  instrument  of  ours 
(say  quadrant)  should  be  fixed  to  the  ground,  so  that 
it  will  be  stationary,  and  not  move  to  either  side.  .  .  . 
And  the  declination  of  the  sun  for  the  meridian  of 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  261 

Seville  being  known  for  all  the  days  in  the  year,  and 
its  declination  for  any  given  meridian  being  obtained 
by  observation,  we  can  deduce  the  difference  of  the 
sun's  declination  on  the  Seville  meridian  and  on  the 
meridian  in  question,  and  so  get  the  difference  in 
longitude  in  the  way  already  expounded.'1 

To  all  this  Santa  Cruz  objects,  that  pilots  could  not 
use  the  quadrant  suggested  at  sea  because  of  the  great 
size  which  would  be  necessary  in  an  instrument 
graduated  with  degrees  and  minutes  ;  that  the  motion 
of  the  ship  would  prevent  the  stability  essential  for 
the  proper  observation  ;  and  that  the  sun's  declination 
for  the  days  of  the  whole  year  could  not  be  ascertained 
with  the  needful  accuracy. 

Certain  French  naval  experts  have  also  calculated, 
for  the  information  of  M.  Harrisse  and  his  readers,  the 
practical  working  of  Sebastian  Cabot's  method  above 
stated,  and  have  concluded  that  it  would  be  extremely 
inaccurate,2  but  in  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  not 

1  In  short,  as  M.  Harrisse  summarises,  with  the  assistance  of  Admiral 
Fleuriais  and  Lieutenant  Bauvieux,  the  method  given  is  as  follows  : — 
The  latitude  being  known,  the  question  is  to  determine  the  declination 
of  the  sun  by  observation  of  its  meridian  altitude.    The  sun's  declination, 
at  the  moment  of  transit  over  the  first  meridian,  is  also  known,  for  the 
date  of  observation,  by  means  of  tables  established  for  every  day  of  the 
year.     From  the  difference  of  these  two  declinations  is  computed  the 
time  elapsed  between  the  two  transits  of  the  sun  over  the  first  meridian 
and  the  meridian  of  observation,  viz.,  the  longitude — on  the  hypothesis 
that  for  this  interval  of  time  the  motion  of  declination  is  proportional 
to  the  time  elapsed. 

2  *  The  error  in  longitude,  when  following  Cabot's  method,  would   .  .  . 
have  reached  60°,  i.e.,  one-sixth  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe.' 


262       BUILDERS  OF  GREATER  BRITAIN 

without  its  merits — c  a  very  clever  way  of  finding  the 
longitude  at  sea,'  (as  Contarini  says  of  his  other  method), 
albeit  not  perfect,  was  evidently  the  judgment  of  his 
best-informed  contemporaries. 

Lastly,  Cabot's  sailing  directions,  as  given  in  the 
lyth  Legend  of  the  map  of  1544,  have  been  criticised 
by  the  same  French  experts  in  three  particulars 
among  others.  First,  Cabot  makes  the  South-West 
course  magnetic,  with  one  point  of  easterly  variation, 
correspond  to  South-West  one  quarter  South  true, 
whereas  it  really  corresponds  to  South-West-by-West 
true.  Secondly,  he  appears  to  state  here,  as  elsewhere, 
that  curves  of  equal  magnetic  declination  are  meridians, 
bases  his  sailing  directions  upon  this  hypothesis,  and 
with  its  aid  tries  to  explain  the  cause  of  the  magnetic 
declination.  Thirdly,  he  seems  to  believe  that  the 
direction  of  a  face  can  be  circular — <  For  if  the  needle 
pointed  to  the  North  always  ...  it  would  not  vary 
at  all,  being  then  directed  in  a  circular  line.' 


ADDITIONAL  NOTE. 
ON  SEBASTIAN  CABOT'S  PORTRAIT  AND  ALLEGED  KNIGHTHOOD. 

i.  There  still  exist  copies  of  a  portrait  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  one  of  which 
is  reproduced  as  the  frontispiece  for  the  present  volume.  The  original 
referred  to  was  discovered  by  C.  A.  Harford,  of  Bristol,  at  the  Scottish 
residence  of  a  nobleman  in  1792  ;  it  was  identified  by  him  as  probably  iden 
tical  with  a  picture  described  by  Purchas,  and  brought  to  London  in  1832, 
whence  it  was  taken  to  Pittsburg,  in  Pennsylvania,  U.S.A.,  on  becoming 
the  property  of  Richard  Biddle,  the  author  of  the  Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot 
(1831).  It  perished,  however,  in  the  conflagration  of  Biddle's  house  in 


JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT  263 

1845.  After  Harford  had  first  obtained  possession  of  it,  it  was  engraved 
by  Rawle  for  Seyer's  Memoirs  of  Bristol  (1824).  It  has  also  been  copied 
for  the  galleries  of  the  Massachusetts  and  New  York  Historical  Societies, 
and  for  the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Bristol  in  1839.  Long  believed  to  be 
a  Holbein,  £500  was  given  for  it  by  Biddle.  It  bears  the  following  in 
scriptions  :  (i)  'Spes  mea  in  Deo  est.'  (2)  'Effigies  Sebastiani  Caboti 
Angli  filii  Johannis  Caboti  Veneti  militis  aurati  primi  inventoris  terrae 
nova[e]  sub  Henrico  VII.  Angliae  rege,'  which  corresponds  very  closely 
with  the  earliest  reference,  in  Purchas,  Pilgrims,  of  1625  (iii.  807  ;  iv. 
1812)  ;  'Sir  Seb.  Cabota  :  his  picture  in  the  privy  gallery  at  Whitehall 
hath  these  words,  "  Effigies  Seb.  Cabot,  Angli  filii  Joannis  Caboti  Veneti 
militis  aurati." '  Hence  Harford  conjectured  his  find  to  be  the  same  as, 
or  a  copy  of,  that  possessed  by  Charles  I.  The  portrait  in  question  does 
not  appear  in  the  Harleian  catalogue  of  that  king's  pictures,  drawn  up 
before  1649  (Harleian  MSS.  4718),  nor  in  the  Ashmolean  catalogue  of  the 
same,  dating  from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  (Catalogue 
and  description  of  King  Charles  the  First's  capital  collect  ion,  1757.) 
The  Holbein  tradition  is  unreliable  (except  as  referring  to  the  '  School ' 
of  that  master),  for  (i)  The  dress  and  chain  Cabot  appears  to  be  wearing 
is  probably  that  belonging  to  his  office  of  governor  of  the  Merchant  Ad 
venturers,  or  Muscovy  Company — which  office  he  assumed  in  1553.  (2) 
Holbein  died  in  1543,  before  Cabot's  'second  English  period'  begins,  and 
the  former's  residence  in  this  country,  (a)  1526—29,  (b)  1532—43,  is  not 
known  to  coincide  with  Cabot's  visits  to  our  shores  at  any  point. 

A  portrait  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  conjectured  to  be  also  a  copy  of  the 
*  Harford '  picture,  is  said  to  have  been  painted  in  1763  for  the  Sala  della 
Scudo  in  the  Ducal  Palace  at  Venice.  The  wording  of  the  inscription 
leaves  it  doubtful  whether  Sebastian  or  John  is  intended  as  the  *  finder  of 
the  New  World.'  From  the  position  of  the  words  'filii  .  .  .  Veneti,' 
Humboldt  argued  that  the  father  was  meant  5  it  may  well  be  that  the  form 
is  intentionally  doubtful. 

2.  This  inscription  and  Purchas's  reference,  above  quoted,  have  given 
rise  to  the  theory  that  either  Sebastian  or  his  father  was  knighted  by  the 
Crown  of  England.  No  conclusive  evidence  of  this  is  forthcoming.  The 
only  distinction  attached  to  either  Cabot  in  English  records  is  that  of 
Armiger,  or  Esquire,  given  to  Sebastian  in  documents  of  1555  and  1557. 
His  name  does  not  occur  (nor  his  father's)  in  the  Cotton  MS.  (Claudius 
C  III.)  list  of  men  raised  to  knighthood  under  Henry  VII.,  and  his 
descendants,  to  the  death  of  Elizabeth. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX   I. 

DOCUMENTS    MAINLY    ILLUSTRATING   THE    ENGLISH 
CAREER  OF  JOHN  AND  SEBASTIAN  CABOT. 

N.B. — Documents  relating  solely  to  the  foreign  life  of  the 
Cabots  are  in  square  brackets. 

1476.  i.  [The  order  for  John  Cabot's  naturalisation  as 
a  Venetian  citizen,  granted  on  March  28, 
1476,  in  the  Doge-ship  of  Andrea  Vend- 
ramin.  By  this  the  privilege  of  citizen 
ship  c within  and  without'  is  bestowed 
on  the  said  John  in  consideration  of 
fifteen  years  of  residence. 

'Quod  fiat  privilegium  civilitatis  de 
intus  et  extra  loani  Caboto  per  habita- 
tionem  annorum  xv.,  juxta  consuetum. 

De    Parte    (=  Ayes),     149;    De     Non 
265 


266  APPENDICES 

(=z  Noes),  o;  Non  Sinceri  (=  Neu 
trals),  o.' 

See  Rawdon  Brown,  Venetian  Calendar 
State  Papers,  vol.  i.,  No.  453.  Original  in 
the  Senatorial  Registers,  entitled  Terra, 
for  A.D.  1473-77,  vol.  vii.,  fol.  109. 

See  text  of  this  vol.,  p.  34.] 

1472—6.  2.  [Decree  of  Doge  Nicolao  Trono,  of 
August  n,  1472,  and  consequent  grant 
to  Cabot,  &c.  Original  in  series  of 
records  entitled  Privilegii^  dealing  with 
years  1425-1562,  vol.  ii.,  fol.  53.  See 
p.  35  of  this  vol.] 

1496.  3.  The  petition  of  John  Cabot,  and  of  Lewis, 
Sebastian,  and  Sancto  his  sons,  delivered 
on  March  5,  1496,  and  answered  by  the 
First  Letters  Patent,  granted  to  the 
Cabots  by  Henry  VII. 

Both  (a)  the  Petition  and  (j3)  the 
Letters  Patent  are  in  the  Public  Record 
Office,  London,  viz. — 

(a)  Privy  Seals  and  Chancery  Signed 
Bill,  ii  Henry  VII.,  No.  51,  7th  fol.  in 
packet. 

(/3)  French  Roll,  ii  Henry  VII.,  mem 
brane  23  (8). 

(|3)  is  reprinted  in  Rymer's  c  Foedera,' 


APPENDICES  267 

ed.  of  1741,  vol.  v.,  part  iv.,  p.  89; 
in  Hakluyt's  c  Divers  Voyages,'  and 
c  Principal  Navigations '  (see  the  latter, 
iii.  4,  in  ed.  of  1598-1600)  ;  in  Desi- 
moni's  '  Intorno  a  Giovanni  Caboto,'  p. 
47  ;  and  in  some  other  collections.  An 
English  version  in  Hakluyt  (as  above)  ; 
also  in  Nicholls,  Bristol,  iii.,  294,  and  else 
where.  See  text  of  this  vol.,  p.  48,  &c. 
The  date  (March  5,  1496)  is  not  that  of 
the  petition  itself,  but  only  of  the  delivery, 
and  of  the  grant  following  thereon. 

1496.  4.  The  despatch  of  March  28,  1496,  from  the 

Spanish  sovereigns  to  Ruy  Goncales  de 
Puebla,  Senior  Ambassador  of  their 
Majesties  in  England. 

This,  as  already  noticed,  replies,  among 
other  things,  to  a  letter  from  Puebla  of 
January  21,  1496,  now  lost,  but  which 
evidently  gave  notice  of  John  Cabot's 
projects  and  compared  them  to  those  of 
Columbus. 

See  Bergenroth,  Spanish  Calendar,  i. 
pp.  88-9,  No.  128  ;  text  of  this  vol., 
p.  51,  &c.  Original  at  Simancas,  Capi- 
tulaciones  con  Inglaterra  Leg.,  2,  fol.  16. 

1497.  5.  The   grant   of  ^10    from    Henry  VII.   to 


268  APPENDICES 

'him  that  found  the  new  isle.'  Dated 
August  10,  1497  (British  Museum 
Additional  MSS.,  7099,  fol.  41  ;  copy 
by  Craven  Orde  of  original  entry  in 
Remembrancer  Office).  This  fixes,  more 
nearly  than  any  other  record  yet  known, 
the  exact  time  of  John  Cabot's  return 
from  his  first  voyage.  See  text  of  this 
vol.,  pp.  55,  92. 

1497.  6.  The  letter  of  Lorenzo  Pasqualigo,  in 
London,  to  his  father  and  brothers  in 
Venice  (August  23,  1497),  describing 
John  Cabot's  first  voyage.  Here  the 
duration  of  the  voyage  is  stated  at  three 
months. 

See  Rawdon  Brown,  Venetian  Calendar, 
vol.  i.,  p.  262,  No.  752  ;  and  text  of  this 
vol.,  p.  60,  &c.  (Original  in  Marin 
Sanuto's  Diarii  in  Marciana  Library  at 
Venice  ;  printed  at  Venice  1879,  vol.  i.  pp. 
806-8.) 


1497.  7-  The   Despatch   of  August   24,    1497, 

Raimondo    di    Soncino    to    the   Duke  of 
Milan. 

See  Rawdon  Brown,  Venetian  Calen 
dar,  vol.  i.,  p.  260,  No.  750;  *  and  text  of 

1   Harrisse  misprints,  759. 


APPENDICES  269 

this  vol.,  p.  62.     (Original   in   Archives 
of  the  Sforzas,  Milan.) 

1497.  8.  The  pension-grant  of  ^20  a  year  from 
King  Henry  VII.  to  John  Cabot,  dated 
December  13,  1497.  The  order  is 
addressed  to  Cardinal  Morton  as  Chan 
cellor,  and  was  sealed  on  January  28, 


In  Public  Record  Office,  London, 
Privy  Seals,  December  13,  13  Henry 
VII.,  No.  40,  fol.  22. 

'  The  text  of  this  was  first  made 
known  by  Mr.  Deane,  who  printed  it 
in  Winsor's  "  Narrative  and  Critical 
History  of  America,"  iii.  56'  (Winship). 
See  pp.  92-3  of  this  vol. 

1497.  9'  The  Despatch  of  December  18,  1497,  from 
Raimondo  di  Soncino  to  the  Duke  of 
Milan. 

In  State  Archives,  Milan,  Potenze 
Estere,  Inghilterra,  December,  1497. 
First  published  in  'Annuario  Scientifico  * 
for  1865,  Milan,  1866,  p.  700.  A 
careful  English  version,  revised  by  Prof. 
B.  H.  Nash,  in  Winsor  (Deane),  <  Narra 
tive  and  Critical  History  of  America,' 
iii.  54-5.  See  text  of  this  vol.,  p.  62,  &c. 


270  APPENDICES 

1498.  10.  The  new  (second)  Letters  Patent  of 
February  3,  1498,  granted  by  Henry 
VII.  to  John  Cabot  alone,  without 
mention  of  his  sons. 

Latin  text  in  Public  Record  Office, 
London,  French  Roll,  13  Henry 
VII.,  No.  439,  membrane  I.  First 
printed  by  Harrisse,  1896,  p.  393. 
A  contemporary  English  version  of  the 
same,  which  is  referred  to  by  Hakluyt, 
is  also  in  P.R.O.  Chancery  Signed 
Bill,  13  Henry  VII.,  No.  6  (5th  in 
packet).  This  is  used  in  text,  pp.  95-6. 
The  value  of  this  translation  was  first 
pointed  out  in  modern  times,  by  Biddle 
(Memoir  of  1831,  pp.  74-5).  A 'revised 
text'  is  given  in  Desimoni,  'Intorno,' 
56—7.  Hakluyt  quotes  under  this  form  : 
c  The  King  upon  the  3rd  day  of 
February,'  &c.  ;  he  prints  in  his 
'Principal  Navigations,'  as  early  as 
1589,  the  Rolls  Office  Memorandum 
of  this  license.  See  text  of  this  vol., 
pp.  92,  95. 

The  Latin  reads  as  follows :  c  D 
licencia  Caboto.  R[ex]  omnibus,  etc. 
Sciatis  quod  nos  de  gratia  nostra  speciali 
ac  certis  consideracionibus  nos  specialiter 
moventibus  dedimus  ac  concessimus  .  .  . 


APPENDICES  271 

Johanni  Caboto  Veneciano  .  .  .  quod 
ipse  .  .  .  sex  naves  .  .  .  portagii  ducen- 
torum  doliorum  vel  infra  .  .  .  pro 
salvo  conductu  earundem  navium  ad 
libitum  suum  capiendi  et  providendi 
navesque  illas  ad  terram  et  insulas  per 
ipsum  Johannem  nuperrime  inventas 
conducendi  solvendo  pro  eisdem  navibus 
et  earum  qualibet  tantum  quantum  nos 
solveremus  et  non  ultra  si  pro  nostro 
negocio  captae  fuissent  .  .  .  Et  quod 
idem  Johannes  .  .  .  omnes  et  singulos 
marinarios  magistros  pagettos  ac  subditos 
nostros  .  .  .  qui  .  .  .  usque  terram  et 
insulas  predictas  transire  .  .  .  voluerint 
.  .  .  recipere  possit.  .  .  .' 

1498.  ii.  The  authorisation  for  the  immediate  pay 
ment  of  John  Cabot's  pension  of  ^20 
first  granted  on  December  13,  1497  (see 
above  p.  269),  which  had  been  delayed. 
In  Public  Record  Office,  Warrants  for 
Issues  1 3  Henry  VII.,  February  22,  1498 
(8th  in  packet).  See  p.  93  of  this  vol. 

1498.  12.  Memorandum  of  a  Loan  of  ^20  from 
the  King  (Henry  VIL)  to  Lanslot  or 
Launcelot  Thirkill  of  London,  <  going 
towards  the  new  island,'  probably  with 


272  APPENDICES 


John  Cabot,  dated  March  22  [1498]. 
Also  of  another  loan  of  ^30,  on  April 
i,  1498,  to  Thomas  Bradley  and 
Launcelot I  Thirkill  c  going  to  the  new 
isle'  [apparently  one  grant  of  ^30  to 
the  two  adventurers,  not  two  grants  as 
M.  Harrisse  has  understood]. 

And  of  a  third  grant  of  40 
shillings  and  5  pence  [not  ^40  55.  od. 
as  given  by  M.  Harrisse]  to  John  Carter 
'going  to  the  new  isle.' 

B.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.  7099,  fol.  45. 

With  these  may  be  connected  the  entry 
of  June  6,  1501,  in  B.  Mus.  Addit. 
MSS.  21,480,  fol. .  35,  which  states 
that  Launcelot  Thirkill  was  then  i  bound 
in  two  obligations  to  pay  at  Whit- 
Sunday  next  coming  ^20,  and  that  day 
twelvemonth  40  marks  for  livery  of 
Flemings'  lands.'  In  this  bond  he  is 
associated  with  Thomas  Par,  Walter 
Stickland,  and  Thomas  Mydelton,  who 
perhaps  were  his  securities.  If  we  can 
be  sure  that  Thirkill  went  with  Cabot 
in  1498,  this  would  show  that  he  had 
returned  safely  from  this  voyage,  like 
his  commander.  See  pp.  102,  109  of 
this  vol. 

Not  Thomas  Thirkili  as  given  by  Harrisse. 


APPENDICES  273 

1498.  13.  Despatch  from  Puebla  to  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  undated,  but  probably  written 
about  25th  July,  1498,  warning  them 
of  the  start  of  the  second  Cabot  ex 
pedition.  In  Archives  of  Simancas, 
Patronato  real.  Capitulaciones  con 
Inglaterra,  Leg.  2,  fol.  198.  Copy  in 
Public  Record  Office,  London.  See 
text  of  this  vol.,  p.  100. 

1498.  14.  Despatch   of  July   25,   1498,   from   Pedro 

d'Ayala  to  the  Spanish  Sovereigns,  about 
same  expedition.  Original  in  Simancas 
Archives,  Estado,  Tratado  con  Inglaterra 
Legajo  2.  Translated  in  Bergenroth, 
Spanish  Calendar,  i.  pp.  176-7,  No.  210, 
with  omission  of  one  clause,  re  Treaty 
of  Tordesillas  ('the  convention  with 
Portugal')  which  is  supplied  by  M. 
Harrisse,  p.  396  of  his  book  on  the  Cabots 
[1896],  Copy  in  Public  Record  Office, 
London.  See  text  of  this  vol.,  p.  101. 

1499.  15.  The  newly  discovered  memorandum  in  the 

Westminster  Chapter  Archives  (Chapter 
Muniments,  12,243).  Endorsed  :  Brys- 
tolle  the  Acompts  of  the  Custymers 
Entry  No.  2.  Bristoll.  Arturus  Kemys 
et  Ricardus  A.  Meryk  Collectores 


274  APPENDICES 


custumarum  et  subsidiorum  regis  ibidem 
a  festo  Sancti  Michaelis  Archangeli  Anno 
xujmo  Regis  nunc  usque  idem  festum 
Sancti  Michaelis  tune  proximo  sequens 
reddunt  computum  de  J^MCCIIIJXX  ij  ti 
VITJS  xjd  ob 
De  quibus 

Etiam  in  thesauro  in  una  tallia  pro 
Thoma  Lovell,  milite  ...  Cti 

Etiam  in  thesauro  in  una  tallia  pro 
Johanne  Caboot  xx  ti 

Entry  No.  3.  Bristoll.  Arturus 
Kemys  et  Ricardus  Ap  Meryke  Collec- 
tores  custumarum  et  subsidiorum  Regis 
ibidem  a  festo  Sancti  Michaelis  Arch 
angeli  anno  xinjmo  Regis  nunc  usque 
idem  festum  Sancti  Michaelis  tune 
proximo  sequens  reddunt  computum  de 
^MCCCCXXIIIJ  ti  vn  xd  quadr. 

De  quibus 

Etiam  in  thesauro  in  una  tallia  pro 
Johanne  Heron  ...  xnj  ti  vns  vnjd 

Etiam  in  thesauro  in  una  tallia  pro 
Johanne  Cabot  ...  ...  xx  ti 

This,  as  already  noticed,  apparently 
proves  that  John  Cabot  was  alive  in  the 


APPENDICES  275 

autumn  of  1499,  that  he  had  returned 
from  his  voyage  of  1498,  and  was 
drawing  his  pension  a  year  after  our 
previous  knowledge  lost  sight  of  him. 
The  memorandum  here  quoted  was 
discovered  by  Mr.  E.  J.  L.  Scott,  Keeper 
of  Manuscripts  at  the  British  Museum, 
in  the  Chapter  Muniments  at  West 
minster,  in  the  course  of  the  year  1897  > 
it  was  verified  as  an  entirely  new  docu 
ment  by  Mr.  C.  H.  Coote  of  the  Map 
Department  in  the  British  Museum, 
and  is  here  printed  for  the  first  time. 
Announcement  of  this  find  was  made 
by  the  Marquis  of  DufFerin  and  Ava, 
at  the  Cabot  Centenary  Meeting  in 
Bristol,  June  24,  1897.  See  pp.  94,  116 
of  this  vol. 

1508-9.  1 6.  The  entry  in  the  'Cronicon  regum  Angliae 
re  et  series  Majorum  et  Vicecomitum 

1498.  Civitatis  London  ab  anno  primo  Henrici 

[tertium]  tertii  ad  annum  primum 
Henrici  Octavi,'  probably  written 
1508-9,  but  inserted  under  date  of 
1497,  presumably  refers,  as  noticed  in 
text  (p.  98),  to  the  second  Cabot  voyage 
of  1498,  though  Harrisse  is  wrong  in 
supposing  that  the  Cronicon  dates  this 
passage  under  1498. 


276  APPENDICES 

The  MS.  is  in  B.  Mus.  MSS.  Cotton. 
Vitell.  A  xvi.,  fol.  173.  This  is 
apparent  original  of  statements  in  Stow, 
p.  862  of  edition  of  1580  ;  and  in 
Hakluyt,  <  Divers  Voyages,'  1582, '  Prin 
cipal  Navigations,'  ed.  of  1589,  and 
'  Principal  Navigations/  ed.  of  1598- 
1600,  vol.  iii.  ;  p.  9. 

On  this  MS.,  Mr.  James  Gairdner 
reported  that  it  was  a  quite  trustworthy 
source  of  contemporary  information,  its 
earlier  part  being  derived  from  a  source 
common  to  several  London  Chronicles, 
such  as  Gregory's,  and  its  later  portions 
having  something  in  common  with 
Fabyan,  but  containing  a  good  deal 
for  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  not  to 
be  found,  at  least  in  print,  anywhere  else. 

1500.   17.  The  La  Cosa  Map  of  1500. 

Now  in  Naval  Museum  at  Madrid. 
No.  553.  A  mappemonde  on  an  oval 
sheet  of  vellum,  measuring  I  metre  and 
80  centimetres  by  96  centimetres, 
coloured  and  illuminated.  First  de 
scribed  by  Alexander  Humboldt,  who 
had  lighted  upon  it  in  the  library  of 
Baron  Walckenaer  (in  Paris)  in  1842. 
Sold  at  Walckenaer's  death,  April  21, 


APPENDICES  177 

1853.  Bought  by  Spanish  Government 
for  4020  francs.  No  degrees  of  latitude 
are  given  in  this  map.  Its  Cavo  d' 
Ynglaterra  probably  marks  the  landfall 
of  John  Cabot,  as  La  Cosa  understood 
it  ;  this  point  Kohl  identifies  (rightly  ?) 
with  Cape  Race.  See  text  of  this 
vol.,  p.  104,  &c.  The  best  reproduc 
tion  of  this  chart  is  perhaps  in  Jomard, 
4  Monuments  de  la  Geographic,'  No.  xvi. 

1502.  1 8.  Entry     from     Fabyan's     lost     manuscript 

chronicle,  given  by  Stow's  Chronicle, 
London,  1580,  p.  875,  and  dated  18 
Henry  VIL,  A.D.  1502.  This  reference 
to  savages  brought  home  by  Cabot 
(probably  in  1498)  has  been  construed 
into  evidence  for  a  third  Cabot  voyage 
in  1501—2,  and  is  quoted  by  Hakluyt, 
4  Divers  Voyages,'  as  being  concerned 
with  the  eighteenth  year  of  Henry  VII.  ; 
by  the  same  compiler  in  later  days, 
'  Principal  Navigations,'  vol.  iii.,  p.  9, 
(Edition  of  1598-1600)  under  the  I4th 
year  of  Henry  VIL,  Aug.  1498,  Aug. 
1499.  See  p.  99  of  this  vol. 

1503.  19.  Appropriation  for  the  pension  of  Fernandes 

and  Concedes.     December  6,  1503. 


278  APPENDICES 

In  the  Public  Record  Office  Warrants 
for  issues  13  Henry  VIL,  December  6, 
1503.  No.  i. 

This  is  an  evidence  that  the  earlier 
grants  to  the  Cabots  had  now  expired. 
Seep.  121  of  this  vol. 

1512.  20.  Entry  of  payment  to  Sebastian  Cabot 
for  a  map  of  Gascony  and  Guyenne, 
May,  1512. 

Original  in  Book  of  King's  Payments 
1-9  Henry  VIIL,  p.  183  ;  see  Brewer, 
Dom.  and  For.  Calendar  Henry  VIIL, 
vol.  ii.  part  ii.  p.  1456,  and  p.  126  of 
this  vol. 

1516.  21.  Letters  from  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  to 
(a)  Lord  Willoughby  de  Brooke,  (j3)  to 
Sebastian  Cabot  ;  both  of  September  13, 
1512.  See  in  Munoz  Transcripts, 
vol.  xc,  fols.  109,  115  ;  also  p.  126 
of  this  vol.  With  these  may  be  taken 
a  letter  of  Ferdinand's  '  concerning 
Seb.  Cabot,'  dated  October  20,  1512. 
See  Harrisse,  'Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,' 
document  xvii.  p.  332. 

1516.  22.  Memorandum  in  Testament  of  William 
Mychell  of  London,  chaplain,  under  date 
of  January  31,  1516-17  : — 


APPENDICES  279 

'Lego  Elizabeth  Filie  Sebastini 
Caboto  filiole  mee,  iijs.,  iiijd.'  See 
Travers  Twiss,  '  Nautical  Magazine,' 
London,  July,  1876,  p.  675  and  p.  134 
of  this  volume.  Original  in  Principal 
Registry  of  the  Probate,  Divorce,  and 
Admiralty  Division  of  High  Court  of 
Justice. 

1518.  23.  [Seb.  Cabot  appointed  Pilot- Major  of  Spain, 

February  5,  1518.  Notice  in  Mufioz 
Transcripts,  vols.  Ixxv.  fol.  213  ;  Ixxvi. 
fol.  28.  See  p.  128  of  this  vol.] 

1519.  24.  'A      new      interlude  ...  of     the      IV. 

Elements,'  circa  1519-20  ?  Only  copy 
in  British  Museum  ;  once  belonged  to 
Garrick.  Printed  by  J.  Rastell  (?) 
1519-1520?  Press  mark  C  39  b  17. 
At  the  first  leaf  the  following  MS. 
notes,  'An  interlude  of  the  IV. 
Elements,  &c.,  by  John  Rastell,  juxta 
anno  1519.  This  interlude  was  bound 
with  Rastell's  abridgment  of  the 
Statutes.  First  impression  dated  25th 
Oct.  ii  Henry  VIII.'  See  p.  131  of 
this  vol. 

This    play   seems    in    part    at    least 
designed    to    pourtray   the    struggle    of 


280  APPENDICES 


c  higher  and  lower '  things  for  man's 
attention,  as  exemplified  by  Experience, 
Sensual  Appetite,  and  the  Student,  who 
finally  refuses  to  follow  the  latter  any 
longer.  At  first  Sensual  Appetite  has 
it  all  his  own  way  ;  then,  while  he  is 
absent,  enters  Experience,  who  enchants 
the  Student  with  a  picture  of  the  coun 
tries  of  the  world. 

The  Student  asks  him  about  Jeru 
salem,  England  and  Scotland,  and  the 
countries  of  Europe ;  arriving  at  last 
in  the  course  of  his  answers  at  Norway, 
his  teacher  then  proceeds  to  Iceland 
(as  quoted  on  p.  131).  From  Iceland 
he  goes  West  to  the  new  lands,  illus 
trating  to  what  extent  he  has  been 
4  in  sundry  nations,  with  people  of 
divers  conditions.' 

After  the  passage  (quoted  in  text) 
alluding  to  the  discovery  of  America 
in  the  time  of  Henry  VII.,  Experience 
continues — 

;  And  what  a  great  meritorious  deed 
It  were  to  have  the  people  instructed 
To  live  more  virtuously. 
And  to  learn  to  know  of  men  the  manner 
And  also  to  know  God  their  maker, 
Which  as  yet  live  all  beastly  ; 
For  they  neither  know  God  nor  the  Devil, 
Nor  never  heard  tell  of  Heaven  nor  Hell, 


APPENDICES  281 

Writing  nor  other  Scripture. 

But  yet  in  the  stead  of  God  Almighty 

They  honour  the  Sun  for  his  great  light, 

For  that  doth  them  great  pleasure. 

Building  nor  house  they  have  none  at  all, 

But  woods,  cotes,  and  caves  small — 

No  mar  veil  though  it  be  so  ; 

For  they  use  no  manner  of  iron, 

Neither  in  tool  nor  other  weapon 

That  should  keep  them  thereto. 

Copper  they  have  which  is  found 

In  divers  places  above  the  ground, 

Yet  they  dig  not  therefore.  .  .  . 

Great  abundance  of  wood  there  be, 

Most  part  fir  and  pine  apple  tree. 

Great  riches  might  come  thereby, 

Both  pitch  and  tar  and  soap  ashes 

As  they  make  in  the  East  lands 

By  burning  thereof  only. 

Fish  they  have  so  great  plenty 

That  in  havens  taken  and  slain  they  be 

With  staves  withouten  sail. 

Now  Frenchmen  and  other  have  found  the  trade 

That  yearly  of  fish  there  they  lade 

Above  an  hundred  sail. 

But  in  the  south  part  of  that  country 

The  people  there  go  naked  alway, 

The  land  is  of  so  great  heat, 

And  in  the  North  part  all  the  clothes 

That  they  wear  is  but  beasts'  skins  ; 

They  have  none  other  feet. 

But  how  the  people  first  began 

In  that  country  or  whence  they  came 

For  clerks  it  is  a  question.  .  .  . 

These  new  lands,  by  all  cosmography, 

From  the  Khan  of  Cathay's  land  cannot  lie 

Little  past  a  thousand  miles.' 

Experience  finishes  his  reference  to 
the  New  Lands  by  stating  that  men  can 
sail  thence  c  plain  eastwards  and  come 


282  APPENDICES 

to  England  again.'  He  then  describes 
other  parts  of  the  world,  as  he  has 
already  dealt  with  Europe,  the  Mediter 
ranean,  Africa,  India,  and  the  New 
Lands. 

1521.  25.  Protest  of  the  London  Livery  Companies 

against  the  employment  of  Sebastian 
Cabot  on  an  English  expedition  to  the 
New  World.  March  i  to  April  9,  1521. 
Original  in  Wardens'  Accounts  of 
Drapers'  Company.  Reprinted  in  full  in 
Harrisse,  '  Discovery  of  North  America,' 
pp.  747-750.  See  also  W.  Herbert's 
'  History  of  the  Twelve  Great  Livery 
Companies,'  i.  p.  410,  and  p.  136  of  this 
vol. 

1522.  26.  [Despatch  from  Council  of  Ten  to  Caspar 

Contarini  and  reward  given  by  same 
Council  to  Cabot's  secret  messenger, 
both  of  September  27,  1522.  Originals 
in  State  Archives,  Venice,  Capi  del 
Consiglio  dei  X.  Lettere  Sottoscrite 
Filza  No.  5,  1522.  See  Rawdon  Brown, 
Venetian  Calendar,  vol.  iii.  No.  557  and 
p.  142  of  this  vol.] 

1522.  27.   [Despatch  from  Contarini  to  (Council  of 

1523.  Ten    and)     Senate    of    Venice,     dated 


APPENDICES  283 

December  31,  1522.  Original  in 
Marciana  Library,  Cl.  vii.,  Cod.  mix. — 
(/.£.,  Contarini's  Original  Letter- 
Book,  No.  193  St.  Mark's  Library) 
cart.  281-283.  See  Rawdon  Brown, 
Venetian  Calendar,  vol.  iii.  No.  607,  pp. 
293-5,  and  p.  143  of  this  vol.] 

[With  this  we  must  group  —  (a) 
Despatch  from  Contarini  of  March  7, 
1523,  to  Venetian  Senate.  Original  in 
Contarini's  Letter-Book,  No.  201,  St. 
Mark's  Library.  See  Rawdon  Brown, 
Venetian  Calendar,  vol.  iii.  No.  634,* 
p.  304,  and  p.  149  of  this  vol. 

[(£)  Letter  from  Hieronimo  de  Marino 
to  Seb.  Cabot,  dated  April  28,  1523. 
Original  in  Capi  del  Consiglio  dei  X. 
Lettere  Sottoscritte  Filza  No.  6,  1523. 
See  Rawdon  Brown,  Venetian  Calendar, 
vol.  iii.  No.  670,2  p.  315,  and  p.  151  of 
this  vol.] 

[(c)  Letter  from  Caspar  Contarini  to 
the  Chiefs  of  the  Ten,  dated  July  26, 
1523.  Original  in  Contarini's  Letter- 
Book,  No.  220,  St.  Mark's  Library. 
See  Rawdon  Brown,  Venetian  Calendar, 
vol.  iii.  p.  328,  No.  710,  and  p.  150  of 
this  vol.] 

Not  632  as  in  Harrisse.  -  Not  669  as  in  Harrisse. 


284  APPENDICES 

1523.  28.  Payment  of  435.  4d.  (February  18,  1523) 
to  John  Goderyk  of  Foly,1  (Fowey) 
Cornwall,  for  conducting  Seb.  Cabot  to 
London  sometime  before,  1 5 19 or  1520  ? 
See  Brewer,  Cal.  For.  and  Dom.  H. 
VIII.  vol.  iv.  part  i.  p.  154;  Harrisse, 
'Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,'  document 
xxxii.  A  and  p.  139  of  this  vol. 

This  is  an  item  in  the  will  of  Sir 
Thomas  Lovell  and  the  transportation 
of  Cabot  was  done  'at  our  testator's 
request.' 

We  omit  the  numerous  Spanish  docu 
ments  of  this  period  relative  to  Seb. 
Cabot,  as  they  do  not  bear  on  his  English 
career,  and  are  of  no  great  importance  in 
illustrating  our  text,  except 

1533.  29.  [Seb.  Cabot's  letter  to  Juan  de  Samano, 
June  24,  1533.  Original  in  Archives  of 
the  Indies,  Seville,  Est.  143,  Caj.  3, 
Leg.  2.  See  Harrisse,  'Cabot'  of  1896, 
pp.  429-430  and  p.  208  of  this  vol.] 

1538.  30.  Note  of  Remembrance  (December,  1538) 
from  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  English 
Ambassador  in  Spain,  recommending 
Cabot  to  Henry  VIII.  (per  Philip  Hoby, 
on  his  return  from  Spain  to  England) 

1  Not  "Tory"  as  in  Harrisse,  Cabot,  p.  405. 


APPENDICES  285 

B.  Mus.  Add.  MSS.  5498  fol.  8.  See 
Gairdner  Letters  and  Papers  For.  and 
Dom.  H.  VIII.  vol.  xiii.  part  2,  p.  415, 
No.  974;  and  p.  163  of  this  vol. 

1541.  31.  Despatch  from  Chapuys  to  the  Queen  of 
Hungary,  for  information  of  Charles  V., 
May  26,  1541.  Original  in  Imperial 
Archives  at  Vienna  Rep.  P.  Fasc.  C.  232 
ff.  24-7.  See  Gayangos,  Spanish  Calendar, 
vol.  vi.  part  i.  No.  163,  p.  327  and 
p.  163  of  this  vol. 

1544.  32«  The  Cabot  Map  of  1544.  Original  in 
Geog.  Department  Bibl.  Nat.,  Paris. 
Reproduced  in  Jomard,  'Monuments 
de  la  Geographic,'  PL  xx.,  and  (at  least 
in  part)  in  most  modern  works  of  good 
quality  on  the  Cabots — as  Harrisse's, 
„  Deane's,  Dawson's,  &c.  See  pp.  218- 
53  of  this  vol. 

1547.  33-  Warrant  of  October  9,  1547,  to  'Mr. 
Peckham '  for  £100  against  expenses  in 
curred  in  bringing  '  Shabot'  (=  Cabot)  to 
England.  Dasent, '  Acts  of  Privy  Coun 
cil,'  ii.  137.  Harrisse,  'Jean  et  Sebastien 
Cabot,'  doc.  xxxiv.  p.  358.  See  p.  166  of 
this  vol.  The  original  is  on  fol.  236  in 


286  APPENDICES 

MS.  No.  2  in  the  Council  Office  Series 
of  MS.  Registers  of  Privy  Council. 

1549.  34-  Warrant  of  September  2,  1549,10  Henry 
Oystryge  for  j£ioo  expenses  incurred  in 
bringing  Sebastian  '  Sabott  '  to  England. 
Dasent,  'Acts  of  Privy  Council'  (Lon 
don,  1890),  ii.  320.  The  original  is 
on  fol.  578  in  MS.  No.  2  in  the  Council 
Office  Series  of  MS.  Registers  of  Privy 
Council.  See  p.  169  of  this  vol. 


1549.  35-  Despatch   of   November    25,    1549, 

English  Ambassadors  in  Brussels  to  Privy 
Council,  conveying  demand  of  Charles 
V.  on  Seb.  Cabot's  services. 

B.  Mus.  Cotton  MSS.  Galba  B.  xii., 
fol.  1  24.  Harrisse  c  Jean  et  Sebastien 
Cabot,'  document  xxxiv.  A.,  p.  359. 
'  Notes  and  Queries,'  1862.  Vol.  i.  p. 
125.  See  p.  170  of  this  voL 

1550.  36.  Pension-grant    (January    6,    1549-50)    of 

;£i66  135.  4d.  yearly  to  Sebastian  Cabot 
from  Edward  VI.  Patent  Roll.  2 
Edward  VI.,  part  2,  membr.  10  (32). 
See  Hakluyt,  'Principal  Navigations,' 
iii.  10  (edition  of  1598-1600)  ;  Rymer, 
'  Foedera  '  (edition  of  1  741  ),  VI.,  iii.  1  70, 
and  p.  1  66,  &c.,  of  this  vol. 


APPENDICES  287 

1550.  37.  Answer  of  Privy  Council  to  Emperor, 
January  29,  1549-50,  and  April  21, 
1550.  See,  Dasent,  'Acts  of  Privy 
Council/  ii.  374;  and  p.  170-1  of 
this  vol.  The  original  is  on  fol.  65  of 
MS.  No.  3  in  the  Council  Office  Series 
of  MS.  Registers  of  Privy  Council. 

1550.  38.  Cabot's  own  answer  to  Charles  V.,  April 
21,  1550.  B.  Mus.  Harleian  MSS.  No. 
523,  fols.  6  bis.~7  bis  [not  fol.  9  as  in 
Harrisse, '  Cabot,'  449].  See  also  Harrisse, 
'Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,'  document 
xxxiv., pp.  359-60;  and  p.  171  of  this  vol. 

1550.  39.  Certificated  copy  of  Letters  Patent  to  John 
Cabot  (originally  issued  in  1496)  granted 
to  Seb.  Cabot,  June  4,  1550.  Original 
in  Patent  Roll,  4  Edward  VI.,  Part  vi., 
membr.  10.  See  p.  172  of  this  vol. 

1550.  40.  Gratuity  of  ^200  from  Edward  VI.  to 
Sebastian  Cabot.  'ICI  K  [=  £200  ?]  by 
way  of  the  K.  M.  reward,'  1550*  See 
Harrisse, '  Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,'  docu 
ment  xxxiv.  C.  p.  360.  This  is  followed 
by  warrant  to  Exchequer  to  pay  this 
sum.  Dasent,  '  Acts  of  Privy  Council,' 
iii.  55,  June  26,  1550. 

Strype,  'Memorials,'  ii.,  2,  76,  probably 


288  APPENDICES 

refers  to  this  same  grant,  under  wrong 
date,  March,  1551.  See  p.  173  of  this 
vol.  Original  on  p.  59  in  MS.  No.  4  of 
Council  Office  Series  of  MS.  Registers  of 
Privy  Council. 

1551.  41.  Entry  of  April  17,  1551,  of  Cabot  drawing 
his  pension.  Public  Record  Office. 
Tellers  Rolls  100.  See  pp.  166-7  of  this 
vol. 

1551.  42.  Despatch  of  September  12,  1551,  from 
Venetian  Council  of  Ten  to  Sorenzo, 
Venetian  Ambass.  in  England.  (Rawdon 
Brown,  Venetian  Calendar,  vol.  v.,  No. 
711.)  Harrisse, '  Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,' 
document  xxxv.  p.  361. 

With  this  also  a  despatch  of  same  date 
from  Peter  Vannes  to  Privy  Council — in 
Turnbull,  Foreign  Calendars,  Edward  VI. 
171 ;  Harrisse,  'Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,' 
document  xxxvi.  Original  in  Public 
Record  Office ;  Foreign  Papers  of  Edward 
VI.,  vol.  viii.  (July-September,  1550-51 ) 
No.  444,  p.  noi.  In  the  original  the 
following  unimportant  sentence  is  added  : 
'and  the  said  Secretary  [Ramusio]  hath 
promised  me  so  to  do,  and  I  shall  not 
fail  to  raise  this  matter  often  to  be  put 
in  his  remembrance.'  See  pp.  173-5  of 
this  vol. 


APPENDICES  289 

1553.  43'  Ordinances,  &c.  issued  (May  9,  1553)  by 
Sebastian  Cabot  as  Governor  of  Mus 
covy  Company  for  Chancellor  and 
Willoughby's  Voyage  in  1553. 

See  Hakluyt,  '  Principal  Navigations,' 
i.  266,  Edition  of  1598-1600  ;  cf. 
W.  N.  Sainsbury,  Colonial  Calendar, 
i.  3  ;  and  pp.  179,  187,  &c.,  of  this  vol. 

1553.  44.  Letter  of  September  9,  1553,  from  Charles 

V.  to  Queen  Mary,  pressing  for  Sebastian 
Cabot's  services. 

See  Harrisse,  'Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,' 
document  xxxvi.  pp.  362-63  ;  Turnbull, 
Calendars,  Foreign,  1553-58,  vol.  i.,  No. 
30,  p.  10.  <  Notes  and  Queries,'  1862  ; 
vol.  i.  p.  125.  See  p.  196  of  this  vol. 

I553-  45-  Letter  of  November  15,  1553,  from  Sebas 
tian  Cabot  to  Charles  V.  Original  at 
Simancas,  Estado  Correspond,  de  Ingla- 
terra,  Legajo,  808.  See  Coleccion  de 
documentos  ineditos  para  la  Historia  de 
Espana,  vol.  iii.  p.  512;  and  p.  197  of 
this  vol. 

1554.  46.  Entry  of  September  29,   1554,  °f  Cabot 

drawing    his    pension    (this    time    on   a 
different    footing).      See    text,    p.   195. 


290  APPENDICES 

Public    Record    Office,    Tellers    Rolls, 
103. 

X555'  47»  Charter  of  Incorporation  to  Merchant  Ad 
venturers,  February  6,  1555.  Calendar 
Domestic  State  Papers,  1547-80,  vol. 
i.  p.  65.  See  p.  177  of  this  vol.  Original 
in  Public  Record  Office ;  Domestic 
Papers,  Mary  (January-July,  I555)5 
fols.  25-33  5  numbered  (4)  ;  reprinted 
in  Hakluyt,  '  Principal  Navigations,'  ed. 
of  1598-1600,  vol.  iii. 

1555.  48.  Entry  of  March  25,  1555.  Cabot  draws 
half  of  pension  on  footing  of  September 
29,  1554 — viz.,  100  marks.  Public 
Record  Office,  Tellers  Rolls,  103.  See 
p.  195  of  this  vol. 

1555.  49.  Entry  of  September  29,  1555.  Cabot 
draws  half  of  (larger)  pension  (viz., 
£83  6s.  8d.,  the  half  of  £166  135.  4d.). 
per  William  Worthington.  Public  Record 
Office,  Tellers  Rolls,  104. 

1555.  50.  Pension-grant  by  Queen  Mary  to  Cabot, 
November  27,  1555,  apparently  a  re 
newal  of  his  old  pension  from  Edward 
VI.  (new  grant  is  of  same  yearly  amount 


APPENDICES  291 

— 250  marks  or  £166  135.  40!.).  See 
Rymer,  <  Fcedera*  ( 1741 ),  VI.,  iv.  p.  40  ; 
and  p.  202  of  this  vol. 

15SS-  51-  Entry  of  December  25,  1555.  Cabot 
draws  a  quarter  of  his  original  pension, 
viz.,  ^41  135.  4d.  Public  Record 
Office,  Tellers  Rolls,  104  (back  of 
fol.  42,  near  foot). 

1556-7.  52.  Similar  entries  under  June  24,  1556  ; 
September  29,  1556 ;  December  25, 
1556;  March.  25,  1557;  June  24, 
1557  ;  September  29,  1557.  Public 
Record  Office,  Tellers  Rolls,  104,  105, 
1 06. 

I557-  53«  Retrocession  of  Cabot's  pension  of  1555 
and  new  grant  of  the  aforesaid  to  Cabot 
and  William  Worthington,  May  29, 

1557- 

Rymer,  'Foedera'  (1741),  VI.,  iv.  55  ; 
Harrisse,  '  Cabot '  (1896),  459,  &c. ;  and 
p.  202,  &c.,  of  this  vol. 

Worthington  on  December  25,  1557, 
first  draws  pension  without  Cabot.  Public 
Record  Office,  Tellers  Rolls,  106.  See 
p.  204  of  this  vol. 


APPENDIX   II. 
CABOT   LITERATURE. 

1.  Anspach,    L.   A.,    'History   of  Newfoundland,' 
London,  1819.     See  especially  p.  25. 

2.  Arber,  Edward,  c  First  Three  English  Books  on 
America.'       See  especially  pp.  xx-xxi.      '  Interlude  ' 
passage,  xxxvii. 

3.  'Archivo  dos  Azores,'  1894.     See  especially  vol. 
xii.  p.  530. 

4.  Avezac,  M.  A.  P.  d'A  .  .  .  Ma$aya.     (a)  '  Les 
Navigations    de    J.    et    S.    Cabot,'  Paris,    1869.     (b) 
Various  papers  in  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  de  Geographic, 
Paris,  viz.,  Aug.-Sept.,  1857,  x*v-  PP-  89-368  ;  Sept.- 
Oct.,  1856,  xvi.  pp.  258-312  ;  May,  1869,  xvii.  pp. 
406-7  (in  last  Avezac  mentions  a  Venetian  portrait  of 
John  and  also  of  Sebastian  Cabot),     (c)  Revue  Critique, 
April  23,  1870,  vol.  v.  pp.  264-9. 

5.  Bancroft,  G.,  'History  U.S.A.,'  edition  of  1883. 
See  i.  pp.  9-12. 

6.  Barrett,  W.,  'History  and  Antiquities  of  Bristol,' 

1789.     See  pp.  171-4. 

292 


APPENDICES  293 

7.  Beaudoin,  J.  D.   (Abbe),   'Jean  Cabot/   in  Le 
Canada  Franfais^  Oct.,  1889. 

8.  Belleforest,  '  Cosmographie    Universelle,'    Paris, 
1575.     See  ii.  p.  2175. 

9.  Bergenroth,    Calendar    of    State    Papers,    &c., 
relating  to  Negotiations  between  England  and  Spain, 
1485-1543,  London,  1862-95.      See  especially  vol  i. 
pp.  88-9,  176-7  ;  vol.  ii.  p.  68. 

10.  Biddle,  Richard,  'Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot,' 
1831. 

11.  Bourinot,  J.  G.,  'Cape  Breton,'  &c.,  in  Trans 
actions   of  Royal   Society   of  Canada ,  May    27,   1891, 
vol.  ix.,  pt.  ii.,  pp.   173-343- 

12.  Brevoort,  J.  Carson, 'John  Cabot's  Voyage  of 
1497.'    ^n  Historical  Magazine.    Morris.    New  York, 
March,  1868.     2nd  Series,  III.  (xiii.),  pp.  129-135. 

13.  Brewer,  'Letters  and  Papers  ...  of  Reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,    1509-1540,'  London,    1862-96.      See 
especially  vol.  i.   p.    694;    vol.    ii.,   pt.   ii.,   pp.    101, 
1456;  vol.  iv.,  pt.  i.,  p.  154. 

14.  Brown,  Rawdon.  (a]  'Ragguagli  sulla  vita  et 
sulle   opere    di    Marin    Sanuto,'    Venice,    1837.     See 
especially  pt.  i.  pp.  99—100.     'In  the  Boston  Public 
Library  copy  of  this  work  (Library  Call  No.  4196-9, 
V.  i )  is  inserted  a  MS.  note,  "  Mr.  Rawdon  Brown 
will  gladly  show   Mrs.  R.  E.  Apthorp  what  he  con 
siders  documentary  evidence  of  John  Cabot's  English 
origin,    and   of    his   never    having    come    to    Venice 
(where  he  married  a  Venetian  woman,  who  bore  him 


294  APPENDICES 

Sebastian  and  his  other  sons)  until  the  year  1461. 
Casa  della  Vida,  Thursday,  2  p.m."  The  same 
copy  contains  (i.  100-103)  anotner  marginal  MS. 
note:  "I  printed  this  in  the  year  1837;  but  in 
1855—6  it  became  manifest,  through  documents  dis 
covered  in  the  Venice  Archives,  that  John  Cabot 
really  owed  his  birth  to  England."  :  (/>)  Calendar  of 
State  Papers,  &c.,  .  .  .  relating  to  English  Affairs  in 
the  Archives  of  Venice,  &c.,  vol.  i.,  A.D.  1202-1509, 
continued  in  nine  vols.  down  to  1591.  See  especially 
vol.  i.  p.  260  ;  vol.  iii.,  Nos.  557,  558,  607,  632,  634, 
635,  666,  669,  670,  750,  1115;  vol.  v.,  No.  711, 
p.  264. 

15.  Bullo,  Carlo,  c  La  vera  patria  di  .  .  .  Giovanni 
Caboto,'  Chioggia,  1880.      See  especially  pp.  22,  61— 
70. 

16.  Campbell.        (a]    c  Navigantium     Bibliotheca,' 
London,  1743—8,  enlarged  from  Harris's  Collection  of 
1705.     See  ii.   p.    190.       (b]  'Lives  of  the   British 
Admirals,'  London,  1748  and   1817.      See  i.  pp.  312- 
16,  373—387  of  later  edition. 

17.  Cespedes,  A.    G.    de,    c  Regimiento  de   Nave- 
gacion,'  Madrid,  1606.     See  fols.  137,  148,  149. 

1 8.  Chauveton,    '  Histoire    Nouvelle    de    Nouveau 
Monde,'  Geneva,   1579.     See  p.    141   (Peter  Martyr 
is  credited  with  the  summary  of  Cabot's  voyage  here 
made). 

19.  Chytraeus   (Nathan   Kochhaff),  'Variorum  in 
Europa  itinerum  deliciae,'  Herborn,  1594. 


APPENDICES  295 

20.  '  Coleccion    de    Documentos  ineditos    para    la 
historia  de  la  Espafia.'     See   especially   iii.   pp.   512, 
&c. 

21.  'Coleccion    de    Documentos   ineditos    de    las 
Indias.'      See  especially  xxxii.  p.  479  ;  xlii.  p.   481. 

22.  Coote,   C.   H.,  Notices  of  '  Sebastian   Cabot,' 
and  'Richard  Hakluyt,'  in  the  'Dictionary  of  National 
Biography.' 

23.  Correa,    Gaspar,    'Lendas    da    India,'    Lisbon, 
1858—62.     Speaks  of  Sebastian  Cabot  as  a  Basque  in 
iii.  p.  109. 

24.  Cortambert,  'Nouvelle    histoire    des  Voyages,' 
1883-4.     See  pp.  207-17. 

25.  Crowley,    Robert,    'Epitome    of    Chronicles,' 
London,  1559.     See  sub.  ann.  1552.     See  Lanquet. 

26.  Daly,    '  Early    History    of    Cartography,'    in 
American  Geographical  Society's  Journal,  New  York, 
1879.     See  xi.  pp.  1—40. 

27.  Dasent,  J.  R.,  c  Acts  of  Privy  Council,'  London, 
1890,  &c.     See  vol.  ii.  pp.  37,  320,  374  ;  vol.  iii.  pp. 

55,487,501,53!' 

28.  Davis,    John,    'The    World's    Hydrographical 

Description,'  London,  1595. 

29.  Dawson,  Samuel,  '  Voyages  of  the  Cabots,'  in 
Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada^  May  22, 
1894,  xi.  pp.  51-112. 

30.  Deane,    Charles,     (a)    'On    Sebastian    Cabot's 
Mappemonde,'    in    American    Antiquarian    Society's 
Proceedings,  October  20,   1866,  pp.   10-14;  and  in 


296  APPENDICES 

same  for  April  24,  1867,  pp.  43-50.  (b)  '  Voyages 
of  the  Cabots,'  in  Justin  Winsor's  'Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,'  iii.  pp.  1-58. 

31.  Dee,   John,    'Map  of  America,'  in   B.   Mus. 
Cotton  MSS.,  Aug.  I.  i,  art.  i.     (MS.  dated  1580.) 
See  especially  inscription  re  Sebastian  Cabot  on  back 
of  map. 

32.  Desimoni.    (a)  '  Scopritori  Genovesi  in  Giornale 
Ligustico,'    Genoa,     1874.      See    pp.    308-16.       (£) 
c  Intorno  a  Giovanni  Caboto  in  Atti  della  Soc.  Lig.  di 
Storia  Patria,'  Genoa,  1881,  xv.  pp.  177-239.     Also 
separately  printed. 

33.  Dexter.       (a)     '  Early    European    Voyages    in 
Massachusetts  Bay,'  in  Winsor's  'Memorial  History 
of  Boston,'  i.  pp.  23-36.    (Boston,  1880.)    (b)  'Testi 
mony  of  Fabyan's  Chronicle  to  Hakluyt's  Account 
of  the    Cabots,'    in    American  Antiquarian    Society's 
Proceedings,  New  Series,  1882,  i.  pp.  436-441. 

34.  Dionne,     Review    of    Harrisse's    '  Cabot '    (of 
1896),  in    American    Historical  Review^   July,   1896. 
See  vol.  i.  pp.  717-21. 

35.  Doyle,  J.  A.,  'English  Colonies  in  America,' 
1889.     See  especially  chap.  iii.  pp.  20—41. 

36.  Duro,  Fernandez,  'Area  de  Noe.'     See  p.  521. 

37.  Eden,    Richard,     (a)    '  Treatise    of  the    New 
India  .  .  .  after  .  .  .  Sebastian    Munster,'    London, 
I553-     See  especially  Dedication  preceding  pt.  v.     (b} 
'  Decades    of  the    New    World  .  .  .  translated  from 
Peter  Martyr,'  London,  1555.     See  especially  Preface, 


APPENDICES  297 

leaf  c.  i,  and  folios  249,  255,  268,  324.  (c)  'Book 
Concerning  Navigation  .  .  .  translated  from  John 
Taisnierus  (Jean  Taisnier).'  See  especially  Epistle 
dedicatory.  London,  about  1575. 

38.  Fox,  c  North- West,'   1635.     See  pp.  31-37  of 
Hakluyt  Society  reprint,  1894. 

39.  Gairdner,    James,     'Calendar     Henry    VIII.' 
(continuation  of  Brewer).  See  especially  vol.  iii.,  pt.  i., 
p.  415. 

40.  Galvano,    'Discoveries   of  the   World,'   1563, 
translated  by  Hakluyt,  1601.    See  pp.  8 7-9  of  Hakluyt 
Society's  reprint  of  latter,  1862. 

41.  Ganong,  W.  F.,  '  Cartography  of  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence.'       In   Transactions  of  the  Royal   Society  of 
Canada^  May  8,  1889,  vol.  viii.,  pt.  ii.,  pp.  17-58  (also 
in  1887,  vol.  v.,  pt.  ii.,  pp.  121—136). 

42.  Gayangos,  Pascual  de,  '  Spanish  Calendar.'    See 
especially  vol.  vi.,  pt.  i.,  p.  327. 

43.  Gilbert,  Humphrey,  '  Discourse  of  a  Discovery 
for  a  New  Passage  to  Cathaia,'  London,  1576  (written 
in  or  before  1566).     See  fol.  iii. 

44.  Godwin,  'Annals  of  England,'  London,  1630. 
Speaks  of  '  Sebastian  Cabota  a  Portugal.' 

45.  Gomara,  Francisco  Lopez  de, '  Historia  General 
de  las  Indias,'  1553.     See  especially  chap,  xxxix. 

46.  Grafton,  Richard, '  Chronicle,'  London,  1 568-9. 
See  especially  vol.  ii.  p.  1323. 

47.  Hakluyt,  Richard,    (a)  'Discourse  on  Western 
Discovery'   (Western  Planting),   15845  first  printed, 


298  APPENDICES 

Portland,  1870,  in  vol.  ii.  of  'Documentary  History 
of  Maine.'  See  especially  p.  126.  (b)  'Divers 
Voyages  touching  Discovery  of  America,'  1582, 
reprinted  Hakluyt  Society,  1850.  See  especially 
Dedication  and  pp.  23,  26,  93,  176  of  latter,  (c) 
'Principal  Navigations,'  2nd  edition  of  1598-1600 
(ist  edition  of  1589).  See  especially  pp.  4-11,  498-9, 
509-516  of  vol.  iii. 

48.  Hale,  E.  E.      In  Proceedings  of  the  American 
Antiquarian    Society,    1866,   pp.    14—53,  and   in    same 
Proceedings  for  April  25,  1860,  pp.  36-38. 

49.  Hamersley,  J.    H.,  'John    Cabot,'    in   Century 
Magazine  for  May,  1897. 

50.  Harrisse,     H.     (a]      '  Bibliotheca    Americana 
Vetustissima,'   1866.     See  especially  pp.   59—60.     (/>) 
'Jean  et  Sebastien   Cabot,'   Paris,   1882.       (c)  'Dis 
covery  of  North  America,'  1892.     See  especially  pp. 
1-50,    107-8,    406-8,   706-8,    747-50.       (d]    'John 
Cabot  and  Sebastian  his  Son,'    1896.     (<?)   Contribu 
tions    to   the  Revue    de    Geographic^   Paris,    1894  and 
1895.     See  vol.  xxxv.  pp.  381-8,  474-81  ;  vol.  xxxvi. 
16-23,   I9~IO4>  2O°-7-     (f)  Paper  in  Forum,  New 
York,  June,  1897,  'When  did  John  Cabot  discover 
America?'    (g)  Diplomatic  history  of  America,  1897. 

51.  Hart,  A.  B.     'American  History  told  by  Con 
temporaries,'  New  York,  1897.     See  especially  chap, 
i.  pp.  69-72. 

52.  Hellwald,  F.   von,  'Sebastian   Cabot,'    Berlin, 
1871. 


APPENDICES  299 

53.  Herbert,   William.     '  History   of  the   Twelve 
Great  Livery  Companies  of  London,'  London,  1837. 
See  especially  vol.  i.  pp.  410—11. 

54.  Herrera.      c  Historia     general'     (1492—1531), 
Madrid,   1601-15.     See  especially  Decade  I.,  bk.  ix., 
chap.  xiii.  ;  Decade  II.,  bk.  i.,  chap.  xii.  ;  Decade  III., 
bk.  iv.,  chap,  xx; ;  bk.  ix.  chap  iii.  ;  Decade  IV.  bk. 
viii.,  chap.  xi. 

55.  Higginson,    'Book    of    American    Explorers,' 
Boston,  1877.     See  pp.  55-9. 

56.  Holinshed,   R.,  'Chronicles  of  England,'   &c. 
London,  1577.     See  vol.  ii.  p.  1714. 

57.  Horsford,    E.    N.,    'John    Cabot's    Landfall,' 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  1886. 

58.  Howley,  M.  F., '  Cabot's  Landfall,'  in  Magazine 
of  American  History^  New  York,  October,  1891,  vol. 
xxvi.  pp.  267-88. 

59.  Howley,  J.  P.,  'Landfall  of  Cabot,'  in  Bulletin 
of  Geographical   Society^    Quebec,     1886—9,     ^o.     v. 
pp.  67-78.     Quebec,  1889. 

60.  Hugues,    Luigi,    '  Navigazioni     di     G.    e    S. 
Cabotto,'  in  Mem.  Soc.  Geog.   Ital.  Rome,  1878,  vol. 
i.,  pt.  iii.,  pp.  275-313. 

61.  Hunt,    W.,     'Bristol'    ('Historic    Towns'), 
London,  1887.     See  pp.  126-35. 

62.  Jomard,  '  Monuments  de  la  Geographic,'  Paris, 
1855-62.      See  Nos.  xvi.  and  xx.  for  the  Cosa  and 
Cabot  Maps. 

63.  Jurien  de  la  Graviere,  J.  B.  E.,  '  Les  Marins 


300  APPENDICES 

du  XVI.  Siecle,'  Paris,  1876,  &c.     See  especially  vol. 
i.  p.  215. 

64.  Kidder,   F.,   '  Discovery  of  America  by   John 
Cabot,'  Boston,    1878.     Reprinted   from   New    Engl. 
Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  Oct.  1878. 

65.  Kohl,    J.    G.    (a)    '  Descriptive    Catalogue    of 
Maps  relating  to  America,'  Washington,  1857.     See 
pp.  11-16.     (b]  'Die  Beiden  altesten  General-Karten 
von  Amerika.'    Weimar,  1860.    (c)  '  History  of  .  .  . 
Discovery  of  ...  East  Coast  of  North  America  and 
particularly   of    Maine'   ('Documentary    History    of 
Maine'),  Portland,    1869,  &c.     See  especially  chap, 
iv.,  pp.  121,  163,  and  pp.  199,  219,  362-3,  506. 

66.  Lanquet,  Thomas  (with  Robert  Crowley  and 
Thomas  Cooper),  'Epitome  of  Chronicles,'  London, 
1559.     See  Crowley. 

67.  La  Roque,  '  Armorial  de  la  Noblesse,'  Mont- 
pellier,  1860.     See  ii.  pp.  163-5. 

68.  Lemon,   Calendar  of  Domestic   State   Papers, 
1547-80.     See  vol.  i.  p.  65. 

69.  Lok,  Michael,  Map  dedicated  to  Philip  Sidney, 
1582,  published  in  Hakluyt, '  Divers  Voyages,'  1582. 

70.  Madero,  E.,  Study  on  Cabots,   Buenos  Ayres. 
See  Prowse,  Newfoundland,  30  (ist  ed.). 

71.  Major,  R.  H., '  True  date  of  English  Discovery 
of   America,'    reprinted    from   '  Archaeologia,'    1871, 
xliii.  pp.  17—42. 

72.  Markham,  C.  R.   (a)   'Journal  of  Columbus,' 
with  documents  relating  to  the  Cabots  and  Cortereals, 


APPENDICES  301 

London  Hakluyt  Society,  1893.  See  especially  pp. 
ix-xliv.,  197-226.  (b)  Paper  read  at  Roy.  Geo. 
Soc.,  London,  June,  1897. 

73.  Martyr,  Peter  M.  d'Anghiera,  c  Decades  of  the 
New  World J   (De  orbe  novo   decades).     First  three 
decades    published     1516    at    Alcala,    trans,    by    R. 
Eden,     1555.     The     whole     eight     decades,     1530, 
Alcala.     See  especially  Decade   III.,  bk.  vi.,  fol.  46, 
&c.  ;  Decade  VII.,  bk.  vii.,  fol.  97. 

74.  Mason,  J.,  'Newfoundland  described  by  J.  M., 
an  Industrious  Gent,'  1626.     Has  a  map  giving  Cabot 
landfall  at  Cape  Bona  Vista. 

75.  Navarrete.     (a]    '  Coleccion     de    los    Viajes,' 
Madrid,    1825-37.     See    iii.    pp.    308,    319  ;    iv.    p. 
3395     [v-    P«     333]'       (^)     ( Disertacion     sobre    la 
historia    de    la    Nautica,'    Madrid,    1846.     See    espe 
cially  p.  134.     (c]  <  Coleccion  de  opuscules,'  Madrid, 
1848.     See  i.  pp.  65-6.     (d)  *  Bibliotheca    Maritima 
Espanola,'  Madrid,  1851.     See  ii.  pp.  697-700. 

76.  Nicholas,  Harris, '  Excerpta  historica,'  London, 
1831.     See  especially  pp.  113,  126. 

77.  Nichols,  J.  G.,  c  Literary  Remains  of  Edward 
VI.,'  London,  1857. 

78.  Ortelius, c  Theatrum  Orbis  terrarum,'  Antwerp, 
1570. 

79.  Oviedo,   G.   F.   de,  *  Historia  General    de   las 
Indias,'   1535.     Best   edition,  Madrid,    1851-5.     See 
bk.  vi.,  chaps,  xxxv.,  xlii. ;  bk.  xxiii.,  chaps,  i.,  ii. 

80.  Peschel,  Oscar,  (a)  '  Geschichte  der  Erdkunde,' 


302  APPENDICES 

Munich,  1877.  See  pp.  287-319.  (b)  'Geschichte 
der  Zeitalters  der  Entdeckung,'  Stuttgart,  1858  (1877, 
2nd  ed.).  See  pp.  274-282. 

81.  Pezzi,  <G.  Cabotto,'  Venice,  1881. 

82.  Prowse,  D.  W.,   'History  of  Newfoundland,' 
London,  1895.     See  chap.  ii.  pp.  4-17,  29-30. 

83.  Purchas,  Samuel,  <  Pilgrims,'  1625.     See  espe 
cially  iii.  pp.  806-9  5  iy*  PP-  Ir77>  1812. 

84.  '  Raccolta  Colombiana,'  vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  137. 

85.  Ramusio,   G.    B.,   '  Navigationi,'    &c.,     1550, 
vol.  i.,  Venice.     Complete    ed.,   1563-5.     See  vol.  i. 
p.  374  ;  vol.  iii.,  preface,  and  fols.  4,  35,  55,  374,41? ; 
cf.  Eden,   '  Decades,'    fol.   255,   Hakluyt,   '  Principal 
Navigations,'  vol.  iii.  pp.  6-7. 

86.  Reumont,  A,  'I  due  Caboto,'  Florence,  1880. 

87.  Ribaut,  Jean,    '  Discovery    of  Terra  Florida,' 
English  trans.,  London,  1563.     See  Hakluyt,  'Divers 
Voyages,'  in  Hak.  Soc.  reprint,  p.  92. 

88.  Romanin,  S.,    '  Storia    Documentata,'   Venice, 
1853-61.     See  iv.  p.  453. 

89.  Ruge,  S., c  Entwickelung  der  Kartographie  von 
Amerika,  bis  1570.'    In  supplement  No.  106  to  Peter- 
manns  Mittheilungen. 

90.  Rymer,  '  Foedera,'  ed.  of  1741,  vol.  v.,  pt.  iv. 
pp.  55,  89,  186;  vi.,  pt.  iv.  pp.  40,  55  ;  vi.,  pt.  iii.  p. 
170. 

91.  Santa  Cruz,  Alonzo  de  (a)  'Islario'  MS.   in 
Besan^on  Library,  fol.  56.     (b}   Libro  de  Longitudes, 
Madrid  National  Library,  AA,  97. 


APPENDICES  303 

92.  Sanuto,    Livio,    '  Geografia  .  .  .   1588."     See 
i.  fol.  2  ;  ii.  fol.  17. 

93.  Sanuto,   Marino,    'Diarii,    1496-1527.'      Best 
ed.,  Venice,  1879-95.    See  especially  i.  pp.  806-8  ;  iv. 

P-  377- 

94.  Seyer,  S.,  'Memoirs  of  Bristol,'  1821-3.     See 

ii.  pp.  208,  210. 

95.  Stevens,    Henry,     (a]     '  Historical    and    Geo 
graphical  Notes,  1453-1530'  (1869).     (b]  'Sebastian 
Cabot  minus  John  Cabot  =  o  '  (1870). 

96.  Stow,  John,  *  Chronicles  of  England,'  London, 
1580.     See  pp.  862,  872,  875. 

97.  Strachey,  W.,  '  History  of  Travel  into  Virginia 
.  .  .   1612,'   pp.  6,   139  of  Hak.  Soc.  reprint,  1849- 

51. 

98.  Strype,     '  Ecclesiastical     Memorials,'     ed.     of 
1721.     See  ii.  p.  190  ;  ii.  p.  402. 

99.  Tarducci,    '  Giovanni    e    Sebastiano    Caboto,' 
Venice,   1892,  English  trans.  Detroit,   1893. 

100.  Thevet,  A.  (a)  'Le  Grand  Insulaire,  written 
before    1558,'  Paris,   Bibliotheque    Nationale,    Fonds 
Francais,   Nos.   15,   452,   vol.  i.   fol.    143.     (b]  'Les 
Singularites  de  la  France  Antarctique,'  Paris,   1558  ; 
Eng.  trans.  London,  1568.     See  chap.  Ixxiv.  fol.  148. 
(c]    '  Cosmographie    Universelle,'    Paris,    1575.      See 
bk.  xxiii.,  chap,  vii.,  fol.  IO22. 

101.  Thorne,      Robert,      in     Hakluyt's     'Divers 
Voyages'  (map)   and  'Principal  Navigations,' vol.  ii. 
pt.  ii. 


3°4  APPENDICES 

102.  Turnbull,     W.     B.     (a)  Foreign    Calendar, 
Edward  VI.,  p.   171.     (b)  Foreign  Calendar,  Mary, 
vol.  i.  p.  10. 

103.  Tytler,     '  Progress  of  Discovery,'  Edinburgh, 
1823.     See  pp.  417-44. 

104.  Varnhagen,  Adolf  de, '  Historia  .  .  .  de  Brazil,' 
Madrid,  1854.     See  i.  p.  439. 

105.  Verreau  (Abbe),  in  Memoirs  of  Royal  Society 
of  Canada^  1891-2,  iii.  pp.  103-152  ;   ix.  pp.  73-83. 

1 06.  Weare,  G.  E.,  '  Cabot's  Discovery  of  North 
America,'  1897. 

107.  Weise,  '  American  Discoveries  ...  to  1525,' 
London,  1884.     See  chap.  vi.  pp.  186-204. 

1 08.  Willes,  Richard, '  History  of  Travel,'  London, 
1577.     See  fols.  232-3. 

109.  Winsor,  Justin,   (a)  'Narrative   and   Critical 
History  of  America.'     Especially  iii.  pp.  1-58  (Deane's 
contribution),  London  ed.,    1886;   also  viii.   p.   384. 
(b)  'Christopher  Columbus,'  Boston,  1892.      See  pp. 
339—46.     (c)  Contributions  to  Nation^  September   29 
and  October  6,  1892  ;  also  December  7,  1893.     (d) 
'  Cabot    Controversies'    in   Massachusetts   Hist.  Soc., 
2nd  Series  (vi.),  reprinted,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  1896. 

no.  Woodbury,  'Relation  of  Fisheries  to  Dis 
covery  ...  of  North  America,'  Boston,  1880  (claims 
that  Basques  preceded  Cabot). 

in.  Zeri,  CG.  e  S.  Caboto,'  Rome,  1881.  From 
'Ri  vista  Maritima,'  March,  1881. 

112.  Ziegler,  J.,  'Opera  Varia,'  Strasburg,  1532. 


APPENDICES  305 

See  fol.  xcii.     Copies  Martyr.  See  Eden,  <  Decades,' 
fol.  268  ;  and  Santo  Cruz,  c  Islario.' 

113.  Zurla,    D.     Placida,     'Marco     Polo,'     &c., 
Venice,    1818-19.     See  ii.  pp.  274-86. 


INDEX 


ADAMS,  Clement,  251-2—3. 

Affonso  V.,  King  of  Portugal,  46. 

Agramonte,  Juan,  127. 

Alday,  John,  176. 

Anglo-Portuguese  Syndicate  of 
1501  (R.  Warde,  T.  Ashe- 
hurst,  J.  Thomas,  J.  Fer 
nandez^),  F.  Fernandez(s),  J. 
Gonsalez,  or  Goncales),  119— 
120-1-2,  277-8. 

Antillia  and  the  Seven  Cities, 
(fabulous  islands),  19,  22,  62. 

Arco,  Fernao  D.,  30. 

Arnold,  Bishop  of  Gardar,  14. 

Asbrandson,  Bjarni,  13. 

Ayala,  Pedro,  37,  38,  39,  41,  42, 
43,  100-1,  273. 


B 


BACCALLAOS,  or  Cod  Fish  Country, 
75~6>  J58>  215,  247. 

Badajos,  Conference  at,  153. 

Barcellos,  Pedro,  28. 

Barinth,  16. 

Barrett  (History  of  Bristol),  57. 

Behaim,  Martin,  19,  30. 

Bengal,  234. 

Bethencourt,  25. 

Bianco,  Andrea,  27. 

Biddle,  Richard,  255,  262-3,  270. 

Bisagudo,  Pero  Vaz,  30. 

Boisdauphin,  M.  de,  197-8. 

Bonavista,  C.  (possible  Newfound 
land  landfall  of  Cabot  in 
1497),  70,  249. 

Bradley,  Thomas,  102,  272. 


Brandan,   St.,   and    his    Island,    I, 

15-22,  46. 
Brazil,  island,  41. 
Breton,  Cape  (possible  Landfall  of 

Cabot  in  1497),  71,  249-50. 
Brown,  Sir  Wolston,  135. 
Brugge,  Sir  John  (Lord  Mayor  of 

London,  1521),  139. 
Buil,  Friar,  101. 
Burrough,  Stephen,  168-9,  201-2. 


CABOT,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Sebastian,  134,  278-79. 

Cabot,  John,  i,  32,  33-73  (passim), 
92-111  (passim),  119,  182, 
217,  230,  238,245,247,  249, 
265-77  (passim). 

Cabot,  Lewis,  49,  266. 

Cabot,  Sanctius,  49,  266. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  33,  34,  38,  42,  49, 
54—6,  74-91  (passim],  96—8, 
99,  104,  112-263  (passim), 
266,  277-91  (passim). 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  HIS  MAP,  71-2, 
86,  159,  218-53  (passim). 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  HIS  PORTRAIT, 
262-3. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  HIS  KNIGHTHOOD, 
263. 

Cabral,  Goncalo,  25-6. 

Cabral,  Pedro  Alvarez(s),  29. 

Cadamosto,  L.,  26—7. 

Cam  (or  Cao),  Diego,  41. 

Camara,  R.  G.  de,  28. 

Cambay  (Gujerat),  242. 

Campbell,  (Lives  of  British 
Admirals],  177-8-9. 


307 


INDEX 


Cano    (El   Cano),  Juan  Sebastian, 

225-6-7. 

Carter,  John,  102,  272. 
Cartier,  Jacques,  71,  83,  84,  246, 

aS1- 

Centurion!,  P.,  181. 

Cespedes,  A.,  212. 

Chancellor,    Richard,     179,    182, 

186,  195. 

Chapuys,  Eustace,  163-4-5,  284. 
Charles  V.,    Emperor,    and   King 

of  Spain,  128,  140,  143,  145, 

155-6,   164,   170-1-2,   196- 

201,  211,  286,  289. 
Chaves,  Alonzo  de,  155. 
Chioggia,  37. 
Chytraeus  (Nathan  Kochhaff),  245, 

252. 

Cipango  (u)  64,  242-3. 
Claudius,  Emperor,  236. 
Collona,  Sebastian,  145. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  i,  28,  31, 

40.   J33>   !57-8»   222»  254~ 

5-6. 

Columbus,  Ferdinand,  19. 
Columbus,    Luis,  lawsuit   brought 

by,  157-8,  248. 
Conchillos,  L.,  126. 
Contarini,  Caspar,  42,  113,  139, 

142-51,  255,  282-83. 
Contarini,  Marc  Antonio,  123-4. 
Corte  Real,  Caspar,  109. 
Corte  Real,  J.  V   de  Costa,  30. 
Cortes,  Fernando,  223. 
Cosa,   Juan   de  la  (Map  of),   104, 

106-8,213-4-5,217,  276-7. 
Coftonian    Chronicle,    56,    98,    103, 

275-6. 
Crowley,  R.,  38. 


DANSELL,  William,  179. 
Dee,  Dr.  John,  253. 
Descelier  Map,  217-8. 
Desimoni  ('Intorno')  267,  270. 
Desliens,    Nicolas,     Map    of,    72, 

115,  159,  217-8,  246. 
Diaz,  Bartholomew,  41. 
Drogeo,  23. 


Dulmo,  Fernao,  30. 
E 

EAST£RLiNGs(Hanse  towns),  177-9. 
Eden,   Richard,  77,  80,  85,   113, 

128,   135,   175,  204-5,  245- 
Edrisi,  20. 
Edward    VI.,    King   of  England, 

166, 168, 173,  186,  195,  202, 

254. 

Elliott,  Hugh,  120,  130. 
Engroneland,  23,  164. 
Eraso  (Secretary),  199,  21 1. 
Eric,  the  Red,  8. 
Eric,  Bishop,  13. 
Ericson,  Leif,  8-10. 
Ericson,  Thorwald,  10. 
Ericson,  Thorstein,  10,  12. 
Esquete,  Juan,  199. 
Estotiland,  23. 
Estreito,  J.  A.,  30. 


FABYAN,  Robert    (Chronicle),   99, 

118,277. 
Fano,Guido  Giannetti  di,  2 1 1, 254- 

Ferdinand,  of  Aragon,  51,  no, 
122,  125-6-7-8,  145,  273, 
278. 

Fernando,  Infant  Don,  30. 

Frascator,  Hieronymus,  77,  79. 

Freydis,  12. 

Fusang,  2,  &c. 

Fust  MS.,  58,  90. 


GALVANO,  29,  81-2. 
Garcia,  Diego,  154. 
Garrick,  David,  134,  279. 
Gastaldo   (Cartographical    School), 

253- 

Ghenghis  Khan,  233. 
Goderyk,  John,  139,  284. 
Gomara,  F.  L.,  80-1. 
Gomez,  Diego,  27. 
Gomez,  Estevam,  165. 
Grafton,  R.,  38. 


INDEX 


Grajales,  Dr.,  219. 
Gudlangson,  Gudleif,  13. 
Gudrid,  12. 
Gunnbiorn,  7. 
Gutierrez.  Diego,  160-1. 

H 

HAKLUYT,    Richard,     79,   82,  99, 
114,    168-9,   X7^'   I^°»  2°6? 

212,  215,  252,253,  267,270, 
276-7,  286. 

Harford,  C.,  262-3. 

Harrisse,  M.  Henri,   69,  72,   123, 

167,  202,211,216-7-8,250- 

J»   255,  273,  282,  284,  285- 

291. 

Helgasons,  13. 
Hellulancl,  8,  n. 
Henry  the  Navigator,  Prince,  20, 

25-6,  44. 
Henry  VII.,  King  of  England,  49, 

55,    102,    119,    125,    266-7, 

269,  270-1—2. 
Herjulfson,  Bjarni,  8. 
Henry   VIII.,   King  of  England, 

126,  128-9,  13S>  l63>  2I5- 
Hieronimo  the  Ragusan,  142—3-4, 

146,  151,  283. 
Hoby,  Sir  Philip,  163,  284. 
Hoei-Sin,  2-7. 
Hojeda,  A.,  no. 

Holbein  (portrait  of  S.  Cabot),  263. 
Holinshed,  R.,  38. 
Homem,  Diego,  246. 
Hungary,  Queen  of,  163. 
Hussie,  Anthony,  202. 


ICARIA  and  Trim,  23-4. 

Iceland,  7-8,    n,    13-14,  60,    64, 

164,  231-2. 
Interlude   of    the    IV.   Elements, 

131-4,  279-82. 
Isabel  of  Burgundy,  26. 
Isabel  of  Castille,  51. 


JAY,  John,  41 

Japan,  5. 


John   II.,  King  of   Portugal,   28, 

31*  46. 
John,     Physician      and      Cosmo- 

grapher,  30. 
John,   or   Ivan,    IV.    Emperor    of 

Russia,  "The  Terrible,"  195. 


KAKLSEFNE,  Thorfinn,   10— 12. 
Kingdoms     "of     Women,"     "of 
Marked  Bodies,"  &c.,  3,  &c. 
Kola  in  Lapland,  195. 


"LABRADOR"  (  =  Lavrador),  215- 

6-7. 

Lanquet,  Thos.,  38. 
La    Plata,   Sebastian's  Voyage   to, 

153-5,  228-30,  248. 
Lnvrador,  J.  F.,  28. 
Leme,  Antonio,  28. 
Ley  (Lee),  Dr.,  215. 
Livery     Companies     of     London 

(protest    against     S.     Cabot), 

98,    113-4-5,     130,     135-9, 

282. 
Lloyd,  Llyde  or   Thylde,  Seaman, 

4i. 

Lok,  Michael,  253. 

Lovell,  Sir  Thomas,  139,  284. 


M 


MACHIN,  25. 
Machyn  (Diary),  205. 
Magdalen  Islands,  72,  251. 
Magellan,   Fernando,    127,  152-3, 

174,  225-6. 
Malo,  St.,  1 6,  17. 
Malocello,  24. 
"  Mantuan      gentleman,"      76-9, 

86-7,  210. 

Markham,  Sir  Clements,  70,  108. 
Markland,  8-14. 
Mary,    Queen    of    England,     195, 

20 1,  289—90. 
Medina,  Pedro,  160. 
Medrano,  Catalina,  123. 


3io 


INDEX 


Merchant  Adventurers'  (Muscovy) 
Company,  177—9,  J^2»  I^3» 
186,  195,  202,  289-90. 

Mernoc,  16. 

Mocenigo,  G.  (Doge),  36. 

Moluccas,  dispute  as  to,  150,  152 

Molyneux  Map,  253. 

Monstrous  Races,  mentioned  in 
'  Cabot '  Map,  246. 

Morton,  Cardinal,  92-3,  269. 

Mount  Hope,  9. 

Munster,  Sebastian,  128. 

Mychell,  William,  134,  278-9. 

N 

NAVAGERO,  Andrea,  113. 

Nolli,  Antonio  de,  27. 

Northumberland,  Duke  of,  128, 
197-8,  200. 

Novaia  Zemlya  (Portuguese  dis 
covery  of),  1 80. 


ORTELIUS,  Abraham,  253. 
Ovando,  Juan,  210-11,  253. 
Oviedo,  114,  154. 
Oystryge,  Henry,  169,  286. 


PADRON,  General,  156. 
Pasqualigo,   Lorenzo,   55,   56,   57, 

60-1,  67-8,  92,  100,  268. 
Peckham,  Sir  E.,  166,  169,  285. 
Pert    [or    Spert],    Thomas,    129, 

134- 
Peter  Martyr  d'  Anghiera,  55,  56, 

74-6,  114-15,  125,  128. 
Petrarch  (quoted),  242. 
Philip  II.,  King  of  Spain,  200. 
Pimlico  Sound,  160. 
Pizarro,  Francisco,  227. 
Pliny,  236,  241,  243. 
Polo,  Marco,  44,  233,  235,  243. 
Portolano  of  1508,  214-5. 
Prester  John,  233. 
Ptolemy,  46,  235,  238,  243. 
Puebla,  Ruy  Goncales  de,  37,  51, 

100,  267,  273. 
Purchas,  Samuel,  252,  263. 


Purchas,  William  (Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  1498),  99. 


RACE,  Cape,  73,  213-14. 
Rafn,  13. 

Ramusio,  55,  56,  76-80,  113,  129, 

157,  174,210,  288. 
Ribaut,  Jean,  84-5. 
Ribeiro  Maps,  216-7. 
Roc  Islands,  241-2. 
Ruge,  Dr.  217-8. 
Rut,  John,  181. 
Ruysch,  101,  104,  214. 
Rymer  ('  Fosdera  '),  266,  278. 


ST.  JOHN  ISLAND,  72,  251. 

St.  Louis,  Cape  (possible  Labrador 

landfall    of    John    Cabot    in 

1497),  69. 
St.  Lawrence  (San  Lorenzo)  Island 

[  =  Madagascar],  237. 
Samano,  Juan  de,  208—10,  284. 
Santa  Cruz  (Islario),  119,  196,255. 
Sanuto,  Livio,  212,  254,  256-261. 
Seville,  Diego  de,  25. 
Seville,     treatment     of    town     in 

'  Cabot '  Map-Legends,  244. 
Seville,   '  Hydrographical  Bureau  ' 

of,  156. 
Seville,  '  Contractation  House  of," 

196,  208-9. 

Shelley,  Richard,  171-2. 
Sinclair,   Henry,  Earl  of  Orkney, 

23-4- 

Sindbad  the  Sailor,  20-1. 

Skraelings,  10-14. 

Snorre,  son   of   Thorfinn   Karlse- 

fne,  12. 
Solinus,  quoted  by  Sebastian  Cabot, 

*57- 

Solis,  J.  D.  de,  143,  165,  228. 
Somerset,  Duke  of,  167. 
Soncino,  Raimondo,   37,    55,    56, 

59,    62-6,    100,     103,    268, 

269. 
Sorenzo  (-anzo),   Giacomo,  173—4, 

288. 


INDEX 


Steelyard  (London  House  of  Eas- 
terlings,  or  Hanse  Mer 
chants),  178—9. 

Stow,  John,  38,  118-9, 

Strype,  173,  178,  287. 

Sturgeon,  John,  179. 


TANAIS,  63. 

Trapubana     ('  Trapovana,'    &c.  = 

Sumatra,  Ceylon  ?),  235-7. 
Tavira,  G.  F.  de,  27. 
Teive,  Diego,  27. 
Telles,  Fernao,  28. 
Thevet,  Andre,  83-4. 
Thirkill,    Launcelot,      102,     109, 

271-2. 

Thome,  Nicolas,  130,  214. 
Thorne,  Robert,   130,    181,    214, 

215. 

Toscanelli,  40,  41,  46 
Troglodytes,  233,  246. 
Trono,  Nicolao,  Doge  of  Venice, 

35,  36,  266. 
Tyrker,  9. 


u 


URISTA,  Francisco,  197-8-9,  211. 


Vendramin,    Andrea    (Doge),   37, 

265. 
Verrazano  ('  Sea  of,'  '  Map    of,'), 

159-60,  216. 
Vesconte    di   Maggiola    portolano, 

215. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  133,  143,  165. 
Viking  discoveries,  7,  &c. 
Vinland,  9—14. 
Vivaldi  (and  Doria),  24. 

W 

WESTMINSTER    Chapter    Archives 
(Cabot  document  in),  103-4, 

273-5- 

Willes,  Richard,  253. 
Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  179,  182, 

186,  195. 
Willoughby  de  Brooke,  Lord,  126, 

278. 

Wolfenbiittel  Map  [B],  216-17. 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  135,  139,  145. 
Worcester,  William  of,  41. 
Worthington,     William,     202-4, 

206,  212,  290-1. 
Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  162,  284. 
Wynkfield,  Sir  Robert,  135. 


VANNES,  Peter,  174,  288. 
Velasco,  Pedro,  27. 


ZARCO  and  Vaz,  25. 
Zeni,  travels  of,  23—4. 
Ziegler,  Jacob,  80. 


Appendix  II.  being  arranged  alphabetically  is  not  indexed. 


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LAWLESS. 

11.  Chaldea.       By     ZENAIDE     A. 
RAGOZIN. 

12.  The  Goths.    By  HENRY  BRADLEY. 

13.  Assyria.    By  ZENAIDE  A.  RAGOZIN. 

14.  Turkey.      By    STANLEY    LANE- 
POOLE. 

15.  Holland.      By  Professor    J.    E. 
THOROLD  ROGERS. 

16.  Mediaeval  France.   By  GUSTAVE 
MASSON. 

17.  Persia.    By  S.  G.  W.  BENJAMIN. 

18.  Phoenicia.     By  Prof.  GEORGE 
RAWLINSON. 

IQ.  Media.    By  ZENAIDE  A.  RAGOZIN. 

20.  The  Hansa  Towns.    By  HELEN 

ZlMMERN. 

21.  Early     Britain.      By    Professor 
ALFRFD  J.  CHURCH. 

22.  The    Barbary    Corsairs.     By 

STANLEY  LANE-POOLE. 

23.  Russia.    By  W.  R.  MORFILL. 

24.  The  Jews  under  the  Roman 
Empire.    By  W.  D.  MORRISON. 

"Such  a  universal  history  as  the  series  will  present  us  with  in  its  completion  will  be  a 
possession  such  as  no  country  but  our  own  can  boast  of.  ...  Its  success  on  the  whole 
has  been  very  remarkable."— Daily  Chronicle. 


25.  Scotland. 
LL.D. 

26.  Switzerland. 
LINA  HUG. 

27.  Mexico.    By  SUSAN  HALE. 

28.  Portugal.  By  H.MORSE  STEPHEN'S. 

29.  The  Normans.    By  SARAH  OKXK 
JEWETT. 

30.  The  Byzantine  Empire.     Cy 
C.  W.  C.  OMAN,  M.A. 

31.  Sicily:    Plicaniciaii,    Greek 
and    Roman.      By  the  late  E.  A. 
FREEMAN. 

32.  The    Tuscan   and   Genoa, 
Republics.    By  BELLA  DUFFY. 

33.  Poland.    By  W.  R.  MORFILL. 

34.  Parthia.    By  Prof.  GEORGE  KAW- 
LINSON. 

35.  The    Australian    Common 
wealth.     By   GRKVILLE  TREGAR- 
THEN. 

36.  Spain.    By  H.  E.  WATTS. 

37.  Japan.    By  DAVID  MURRAY,  Ph.D. 

38.  South   Africa.     By  GEORGE  M. 
THEAL. 

39.  Venice.      By  the    Hon.  ALETHEA 
WIEL. 

40.  The  Crusades:    The  Latin  Kir;^- 
dom  of  Jerusalem.     By  T.  A.  ARCHICR 
and  CHARLES  L.  KIXGSFORD. 

41.  Yedic    India.      By  ZENAIDE  A. 
RAGOZIN. 

42.  The    West    Indies   and    the 
Spanish     Main.      By    JAMES 

RODWAY,  F.L.S. 

43.  Bohemia.    By  C.  E.  MAURICE. 

44.  The  Balkans.    By  W.  MILLER. 

45.  Canada.    By  Dr.  BOURINOT. 

46.  British  India.    By  R.  w.  FRAZER, 

LL.B. 

47.  Modern  France;    By  ANDRS  LE 
BON. 

The  Franks.  By  LEWIS  SERGEANT, 
B.A. 


11,  Paternoster  Buildings,  London,  E.G. 


T.    FISHER  UNWIN,  Publisher, 


BUILDERS  OF  GREATER 
BRITAIN 


EDITED  BY 

H.  F.  WILSON 


A  Set  of  10  Volumes,  each  with  Photogravure  Frontispuce, 
and  Map }  large  crown  Svo.,  cloth,  £»S.  each. 


The  completion  of  the  Sixtieth  year  of  the  Queen's  reign  will  be  the  occasion  of  much 
retrospect  and  review,  in  the  course  of  which  the  great  men  who,  under  the  auspices  of  Her 
Majesty  and  her  predecessors,  have  helped  to  make  the  British  Empire  what  it  is  to-day, 
will  naturally  be  brought  to  mind.  Hence  the  idea  of  the  present  series.  These  biographies, 
concise  but  full,  popular  but  authoritative,  have  been  designed  with  the  view  of  giving  in 
each  case  an  adequate  picture  of  the  builder  in  relation  to  his  work. 

The  series  will  be  under  the  general  editorship  of  Mr.  H.  F.  Wilson,  formerly  Fellow 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  and  now  private  secretary  to  the  Right  Hon.  J.  Chamberlain 
at  the  Colonial  Office.  Each  volume  will  be  placed  in  competent  hands,  and  will  contain 
the  best  portrait  obtainable  of  its  subject,  and  a  map  showing  his  special  contribution  to 
the  Imperial  edifice.  The  first  to  appear  will  be  a  Life  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh,  by  Major 
Hume,  the  learned  author  of  "  The  Year  after  the  Armada."  Others  in  contemplation  will 
deal  with  the  Cabots,  the  quarter-centenary  of  whose  sailing  from  Bristol  is  has  recently  been 
celebrated  in  that  city,  as  well  as  in  Canada  and  Newfoundland  ;  Sir  Thomas  Maitland,  the 
"  King  Tom "  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  Rajah  Brooke,  Sir  Stamford  Raffles,  Lord  Clive, 
Edward  Gibbon  Wakefield,  Zachary  Macaulay,  &c.,  &c. 

The  Series  has  taken  for  its  motto  the  Miltonic  prayer  : — 

**  £0ou  JB0o  of  £02  free  grace  tftost  fiuflfc  up  t$i&  (gritf  annicft 
€m.ptre  fo  a  glorious  an£>  enBiafile  $etg$f0+  8?if0  all  $er 
JJalan&B  afiouf  0er+  stag  UB  m  fflia  feltcitfe/* 


1.  SIR  WALTER  RALEQH.    By  MARTIN  A.  S.  HUME,  Author 

of  "  The  Courtships  of  Queen  Elizabeth,"  &c. 

2.  SIR  THOMAS  MAITLAND;  the  Mastery  of  the  Mediterranean. 

By  WALTER  FREWEN  LORD. 

3.  JOHN    CABOT    AND    HIS    SONS;    the  Discovery  of    North 

America.    By  C.  RAYMOND  BEAZLEY,  M.A. 

4.  LORD   CLIVE;    the  Foundation  of  British  Rule  in  India.    By 

Sir  A.  J.  ARBUTHNOT,  K.C.S.I.,  C.I.E. 

5.  EDWARD  GIBBON  WAKEFIELD;  the  Colonisation  of  South 

Australia  and  New  Zealand.     By  R.  GARNETT,  C.B.,  LL.D. 

6.  RAJAH    BROOKE;    the  Englishman  as  Ruler  of   an  Eastern 

State.    By  Sir  SPENSER  ST.  JOHN,  G.C.M.G 

7.  ADMIRAL  PHILIP;   the  Founding  of  New  South  Wales.    By 

Louis  BECKE  and  WALTER  JEFFERY. 

8.  SIR  STAMFORD  RAFFLES;  England  in  the  Far  East.    By 
the  Editor. 

11,  Paternoster  Buildings,  London,  E.C,  66 


T.   FISHER  UNWIN,  Publisher, 


THE    CENTURY     DIG 
TIONARY 

Six  volumes  bound  in  cloth,  gilt  lettered,  sprinkled  edges, 

per  vol.    £2  '25s. 

Do.  in  half  morocco,  marbled  edges,  per  vol.    £52  16s. 
24  Parts,   strongly    bound    in   cloth,  per  part,  HOs.  ©dl. 
BOOKCASE  for  holding   the  Dictionary,  price    £33    3s. 
Size  of  each  volume  13  in.  x  9£  in.  x  2\  in. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 
"The  exceptional  merits  of  the  'Century  Dictionary'  are  beyond  dispute."— Times. 

"One  of  the  most  notable  monuments  of  the  philological  industry  of  the  age." 

Daily  Telegraph. 

"  It  is  a  work  of  great  ability,  fine  scholarship,  and  patient  research  in  many  widely 
different  departments  of  learning." — Standard. 

"As  we  turn  the  leaves  of  this  splendid  work,  we  feel  acutely  the  inadequacy  of  any 
description  apart  from  actual  handling  of  the  volumes." — Daily  Chronicle. 

"  It  is  fuller,  more  complete,  with  fewer  faults  than  any  rival."— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 


THE   CYCLOPEDIA   OF 

NAMES 

Cloth,  £2  2s.  net. ;  half  morocco,  £2  15s.  net 
Size— 13  in.  x  9J  x  2|  in. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

"A  book  of  ready  reference  for  proper  names  of  every  conceivable  kind."— Daily  News. 

"The  'Cyclopaedia  of  Names'  deserves  to  rank  with  important  works  of  reference, 
for  though  its  facts  on  any  given  subject  are,  of  course,  elementary,  they  can  be  quickly 
found,  and,  on  the  whole,  they  are  admirably  chosen." — Standard. 

"A  most  handsome  and  solid  volume    ....    It  will  be  found  exceedingly  useful. 

.    .     It  is  beautifully  printed."— Daily  Chronicle. 

"A  most  valuable  compilation,  and  one  whch  will  be  valued  for  the  great  mass  of 
information  which  it  contains." — Glasgow  Herald. 

"  Every  library  of  reference,  no  matter  how  richly  stocked,  will  be  the  richer  for 
having  it  ....  may  be  consulted  freely  without  the  inconveniences  of  human 
haul  age." — Scotsma  n . 


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