Cabota, an excellent pilot, sent thither by King Henry, the year
1498, and many others, who never could attain to any habitation, nor
take possession thereof one only foot of ground, nor yet approach or
enter into these parts and fair rivers into the which God hath brought
us.”[55]
This passage from Ribault is cited principally for the date there
given, 1498, as the year of Sebastian Cabot’s visit to the northern
shores. It was not the year of the discovery, but was the year of the
second voyage. Where did Ribault pick up this date? No one of the
notices of Cabot’s voyage hitherto cited contains it. I have already
called attention to Peter Martyr’s language, in 1524, that Sebastian
Cabot discovered the Baccalaos twenty-six years before, from which by a
calculation that date is arrived at.[56]
In 1570 Abraham Ortelius published at Antwerp the first edition of
his celebrated _Theatrum orbis terrarum_, containing fifty-three
copperplate maps, engraved by Hogenberg.[57] In the beginning of
the book is a list of the maps which Ortelius had consulted, and he
mentions among them one by “Sebastianus Cabotus Venetus, Universalem
Tabulam: quam impressam æneis formis vidimus, sed sine nomine loci et
impressoris.” This would seem to describe, so far as it goes, the Cabot
map in the National Library, at Paris, which is a large engraved map of
the world, “without the name of the place or the printer.”
Mr. Biddle was impressed with the belief that Ortelius was largely
influenced in the composition of his map by the map of Cabot. He
contended that Cabot’s landfall was the coast of Labrador, and he found
near that coast, on the map of Ortelius, a small island named St.
John, which he supposed was that discovered by Cabot on St. John’s day
and so named, and was taken by Ortelius from Cabot’s map.[58] But an
examination of the Paris map fails to confirm Biddle’s hypothesis. The
“Y. de s. Juan,” is in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near where the _prima
vista_ is placed. A delineation of what might be called Hudson Bay
appears on the map of Ortelius, and Biddle supposed that Cabot’s map
furnished the authority for it. But no such representation of that bay
appears on Cabot’s map.
In 1574 there appeared at Cologne another edition of Peter Martyr’s
three Decades, published in connection with some writings of the
distinguished Fleming, Damiani A. Goès.[59] The third Decade of Martyr,
as I have already said, contained the earliest notice of Sebastian
Cabot.
* * * * *
We have arrived at a period now when the public men of England
began especially to interest themselves in voyages of discovery and
colonization, and successfully to engage the good offices of the
Queen in their behalf. “There hath been two special causes in former
age,” says George Beste in “the Epistle Dedicatory” to his voyages of
Frobisher, published in 1578, “that have greatly hindered the English
nation in their attempts. The one hath been lack of liberality in the
nobility; and the other, want of skill in the cosmography and the art
of navigation,—which kind of knowledge is very necessary for all
our noblemen, for that, we being islanders, our chiefest strength
consisteth by sea. But these two causes are now in this present age
(God be thanked!) very well reformed; for not only her Majesty now,
but all the nobility also, having perfect knowledge in cosmography,
do not only with good words countenance the forward minds of men, but
also with their purses do liberally and bountifully contribute unto the
same; whereby it cometh to pass that navigation, which in the time of
King Henry VII. was very raw, and took (as it were) but beginning (and
ever since hath had by little and little continual increase), is now in
her Majesty’s reign grown to his highest perfection.”[60]
Frobisher sailed on his first voyage in June, 1576. The tract of Sir
Humphrey Gilbert, entitled, _A Discourse of Discovery for a new Passage
to Cataia_, principally written ten years before, was published before
Frobisher left the Thames. The reference in this tract to Sebastian
Cabot—who “by his personal experience and travel hath set forth and
described this passage [that is, the Straits of Anian] in his charts,
which are yet to be seen in the Queen’s Majesty’s Privy Gallery at
Whitehall, who was sent to make this discovery by King Henry VII.,
and entered the same fret,” etc.—has led Mr. Biddle to suppose that
Frobisher had the benefit of Cabot’s experience, and that his maps or
charts hanging in the gallery at Whitehall had delineated on them the
strait or passage through to the Pacific, which Cabot entered, and
would have passed on to Cathay, if he had not been prevented by the
mutiny of the master and mariners.[61]
One would naturally infer that Gilbert wrote this passage after
inspecting the map in Whitehall, but the full passage of which we have
here given an extract is taken from Cabot’s letter in Ramusio,[62] to
which work Gilbert refers in the margin of his tract thus: “Written
in the Discourses of Navigation.”[63] I may add that in the following
year, 1577, Richard Willes published a new edition of Eden,[64]
containing all the references to Cabot in the genuine edition, and also
a paper on Frobisher’s first voyage, with some speculations, added to
those of Gilbert, as to the northwest passage. In this paper, addressed
to the Countess of Warwick, he makes frequent reference to Cabot’s
card or table, in possession of the countess’s father “at Cheynies,”
as proving by Cabot’s experience the existence of such a strait as had
been spoken of by Gilbert, and of which Frobisher in his first voyage
was in search. He says: “Cabota was not only a skilful seaman but a
long traveller, and such a one as entered personally that strait, sent
by King Henry VII. to make this aforesaid discovery, as in his own
discourse of navigation you may read in his card drawn with his own
hand; the mouth of the northwest strait lieth near the 318 meridian,
betwixt 61 and 64 degrees in elevation, continuing the same breadth
about 10 degrees west, where it openeth southerly more and more.”[65]
If the Countess of Warwick’s father, the Earl of Bedford, had a map
by Cabot, with a northwestern strait delineated on it in degrees of
latitude and longitude as described by Willes, it could not be a
copy of the recently recovered Paris map. In the latter the coast to
the north of Labrador from latitude 58 to 65 runs in a northeasterly
direction, when it suddenly trends in a northwesterly direction, its
delineation ceasing at latitude 68, where is this inscription, “Costa
del hues norueste” (coast west-northwest). Dr. Kohl is of opinion that
Cabot is here delineating, from his own experience, Cumberland Island
in Davis’s Strait; but Mr. Biddle thinks that Cabot’s highest northern
latitude was reached in Fox’s Channel on the shores of Melville
Peninsula. All these speculations seem to me to be based on very
uncertain data.[66]
One is impressed with the ambiguous language of Willes when he speaks
of Cabot’s “own discourse of navigation [which] you may read in his
card drawn by his own hand.” The phrase “discourse of navigation”
sounds so much like Gilbert’s reference in the margin of his tract to
Ramusio, that I am disposed to refer it to that source.
Clement Adams, as we shall see farther on, made a copy of Cabot’s map
or a copy of some reputed map of Cabot, in 1549 (if the supposition as
to the date is correct), which in Hakluyt’s time hung in the gallery at
Whitehall, and of which copies were also to be seen in many merchants’
houses; yet it is difficult to understand how different copies of a
genuine map of Cabot could contain such variations. Certainly they are
all unsatisfactory, and throw but little light on the voyage of the
Cabots.
The indefatigable compiler and translator Belleforest issued in
1576,[67] in Paris, his _Cosmographie Universelle_, on the basis of
the work of Sebastian Munster; and he says[68] that Sebastian Cabot
attempted, at the expense of Henry VII. of England, to find the way
to Cathay by the north; that he discovered the point of Baccalaos,
which the Breton and Norman sailors now call the Coast of Codfish, and
proceeding yet farther reached the latitude of 67 degrees towards the
Arctic pole. Substantially the same passage may be found in Chauveton’s
_Histoire Nouvelle du Nouveau Monde_, p. 141, published at Geneva, in
1579, being a translation of Benzoni, and of other writers.
In connection with Frobisher’s voyage there was published in London,
in 1578, _A Prayse and Report of Maister Martyne Frobisher’s Voyage to
Meta Incognita_, by Thomas Churchyard, a miscellaneous and voluminous
writer, who says: “I find that Cabota was the first in King Henry
VII.’s days that diserned this frozen land or seas from 67 towards the
north, from thence toward the south along the coast to 36 degrees.”[69]
The work of George Beste, the writer of the account of Frobisher’s
three voyages, before mentioned, published in London in 1578, speaks of
Sebastian Cabot as having discovered sundry parts of new-found-land,
and attempted the passage to Cathay, and as being an Englishman, born
in Bristowe. And a yet further reference is made to him, with the
singular additional statement that the date of his discovery was 1508.
This date may be a clerical or typographical error.
These brief notices of Sebastian Cabot are cited as showing how a
tradition is kept alive by one author or compiler quoting another,
neither of which is of the slightest authority in itself.
In 1582 there appeared at Paris a work entitled _Les Trois Mondes_,
etc. by L. V. Popellinière. It is a mere compilation, and embraces
translations from various authors relating to the discoveries of the
different maritime nations of Europe in various parts of the world. His
third world is Australia, called by the Spaniards, he says, Terra del
Fuego, which is here represented on a map as a large continent.[70] On
fol. 25 it is said that Cabot was the first to conduct the English to
the Baccalaos, which was better known to him than to any other; that
he armed two ships at the charge and with the consent of Henry VII. of
England to go there, and took out with him three hundred Englishmen,
and sailed along 48½ degrees in a strait, but was so baffled by the
extremity of the cold which he found there in July, that, although the
days were long, and the nights were clear, he did not dare to pass
beyond with his men to the island to which he wished to conduct them.
This is substantially a resumé of the account in Gomara, with a
discrepancy in stating the latitude reached.
Following a long resumé in French of the conversation in the first
volume of Ramusio, this writer remarks: “This then was that Gabote
which first discovered Florida for the King of England, so that the
Englishmen have more right thereunto than the Spaniards; if to have
right unto a country, it sufficeth to have first seen and discovered
the same.”[71]
In 1580 was published the first edition of Stow’s _Chronicle_ (or
_Annals_) _of England_, etc., which contains, under the year 1498, the
alleged passage from Fabian, which Mr. Biddle[72] charges Hakluyt with
perverting, by prefixing in his larger work the name of John Cabot to
the “Venitian” as it appeared in the _Divers Voyages_ of 1582. The
passage in Stow begins thus: “This year one Sebastian Gabato, a Genoa’s
son, born in Bristow,” etc. Reference will be made to this document
farther on.
In 1582 Richard Hakluyt published his _Divers Voyages_, his first book,
which contains many curious and important documents. It is dedicated to
Master Philip Sidney, Esquire, who, with other statesmen and public men
of England, was then deeply interested in American Colonization, being
largely inspired by political considerations. The dedication contains
an interesting summary of what had been done by other nations, and the
reasons why England should now enter upon this work. Reasons are also
given for believing that “there is a strait and short way open into
the west even unto Cathay,” which they had so long desired to find.
And finally the claim of England to the large unsettled territory in
America is set forth, “from Florida to sixty-seven degrees northward,
by the letters patent granted to John Gabote and his three sons, Lewis,
Sebastian, and Santius, with Sebastian’s own certificate to Baptista
Ramusius of his discovery of America, and the testimony of Fabian our
own chronicler.”
We begin now to approach for the first time a document which is of
the highest authenticity and value. I mean the letters patent, which
Hakluyt here prints,[73] under which the discovery of North America
was made by authority of England. John Cabot, the father, now emerges
from obscurity, for we find the grant is to him and to his three sons,
of whom Sebastian is the second. The patent gave them permission to
sail with five ships, at their own costs and charges, under the royal
banners and ensigns, to all countries and seas of the east, of the
west, and of the north, and to seek out and discover whatsoever isles,
countries, and provinces of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they
be, which before this time had been unknown to Christians. They also
had license to set up the royal banners in the countries found by them,
and to conquer and possess them as the king’s vassals and lieutenants.
This document is dated 5 March, 1495 (that is 1496, new style). Hakluyt
also prints an extract from Fabian’s chronicle, furnished him by John
Stow, and supposed to have been in manuscript, as it is not contained
in any printed edition of Fabian. In the heading which Hakluyt gives
to the paper as printed, he says it is “a note of Sebastian Gabote’s
voyage of discovery.” The document reads: “This year the King (by means
of a Venetian which made himself very expert and cunning in knowledge
of the circuit of the world and islands of the same, ...) caused to man
and victual a ship at Bristowe to search for an island which, he said
he knew well, was rich and replenished with rich commodities,—which
ship thus manned and victualed at the King’s cost, divers merchants
of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her as chief patron
the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship sailed also out
of Bristowe three or four small ships fraught with slight and gross
merchandizes; ... and so departed from Bristowe in the beginning of
May, of whom in this Mayor’s time returned no tidings.” This of course
refers to the voyage of 1498.
In the margin against this paper Hakluyt has this note: “In the 13
year of King Henry the VII., 1498,” and also “William Purchas, Mayor
of London,” whose time expired the last of October, 1498. Stow, as
has been seen, had already printed this paper, two years before, in
his _Annals_; and it is reprinted in later editions of that work.
What precise shape the original paper was in, which was used by Stow
and Hakluyt, we do not know. If they had but one original it was not
followed in all its details by both. Dr. E. E. Hale printed in the
_Proceedings_ of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1865, a
paper from the Cotton manuscripts in the British Museum, Vitellius, A.
xvi, which he thought was the original paper used by each, and to which
Hakluyt’s copy conforms more nearly than does that of Stow. The Cotton
manuscript gives no name to the navigator, but calls him a stranger
“Venetian,” as does Hakluyt. Stow, who probably rarely heard of the
name of John Cabot, and was very familiar with that of Sebastian, calls
him “Sebastian Gaboto, a Genoa’s son.”[74]
Hakluyt also prints in this precious little volume the substance of
Sebastian Cabot’s letter to Ramusio, printed in the beginning of his
third volume, in which he mentions the degree of latitude, 67½° N.,
which Cabot reached in his voyage in search of a way to Cathay.
He also prints for the first time the two well-known letters of Robert
Thorne, in the latter of which, addressed to Dr. Ley, the English
ambassador to Spain, the writer says that his father and another
merchant of Bristol, Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of the new-found
lands. Some have conjectured that these merchants went out with the
Cabots, and others that they were in some later expedition not well
defined. Hakluyt also prints here an English version of “Verarzanus,”
and Hacket’s “Ribault.” The volume also contains two maps, one of
which, prepared by Michael Locke, was made, he says, “according to
Verarzanus’s plat,” an “old excellent map, which he gave to King Henry
VIII., and is yet in the custody of Master Locke.” The map of Locke was
probably made only in its general features according to the original
model, and contained some more modern additions by its compiler. It has
one interesting inscription upon it,—namely, on the delineation of C.
Breton we read, “J. Gabot, 1497.” This is the first time I have seen
this date assigned as the date of the discovery.[75]
Hakluyt’s little volume expressed the interest felt in England on the
subject of North American colonization, and furnished the ground on
which England based her title to the country. He also announced in
this book that Sebastian Cabot’s maps and discourses were then in the
custody of one of Cabot’s old associates, William Worthington, who was
willing to have them seen and published.
* * * * *
The interest in the contemplated voyage of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who
made the first serious attempt in that century at colonization for
England, culminated next year, when he sailed and never returned. Among
the reports of that voyage was one written by Mr. Edward Haies in 1583,
in which he says: “The first discovery of these coasts (never heard of
before) was well begun by John Cabot the father, and Sebastian the son,
an Englishman born, who were the first finders out of all that great
tract of land stretching from the Cape of Florida unto those islands
which we now call the Newfoundland; all which they brought and annexed
unto the crown of England.”[76]
Sir George Peckham, a large adventurer with Gilbert, also wrote in 1583
on the same theme, and he makes mention of the title of England in the
following language: “In the time of the Queen’s grandfather of worthy
memory, King Henry VII., letters patent were by his Majesty granted to
John Cabota, an Italian, to Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, his three
sons, to discover remote, barbarous, and heathen countries, which
discovery was afterwards executed to the use of the Crown of England in
the said King’s time by Sebastian and Sancius, his sons, who were born
here in England.”[77] It seems to have been thought that the title of
England would be strengthened by the statement that the discoverers,
or some of them, were native subjects of the Crown of England. This
seems to have been one reason why it has always been insisted on that
Sebastian Cabot, so long supposed to be the discoverer, was born in
England.[78]
[Illustration: LOK’S MAP, 1582.—REDUCED.]
I have already spoken of an edition of Peter Martyr’s _Decades_ in the
original Latin, _De Orbe Novo_, published at Paris in 1587, under
the editorship of Richard Hakluyt, who was then residing in that
city in connection with the British Embassy. It was dedicated to Sir
Walter Raleigh, for whom, three years before, Hakluyt had written the
_Discourse on Westerne Planting_. It was the first time the _Decades_
had been printed entire since the first edition of them appeared at
Alcala in Spain in 1530. It has been suggested by Mr. Brevoort that the
Spanish Government did not favor their circulation, or encourage their
republication. In Hakluyt’s edition there was inserted an excellent
map of North and South America, of small size, six and a half by seven
and a half inches, and dedicated to him by the maker, “F. G.” On the
delineation of the coast of Labrador, there is inscribed just north
of the River St. Lawrence, “Baccalaos Ab Anglis, 1496.” This date was
without doubt supplied by Hakluyt himself, who, in his _Discourse on
Westerne Planting_, insisted on that erroneous date as the true year of
discovery,—citing the conversation in the first volume of Ramusio for
his authority, as we have seen.
In tracing down the notices in print of John or Sebastian Cabot, we
come now to a book of considerable interest, published in Venice in
1588, some years after the death of its author, Livio Sanuto. It was
entitled _Geographica Distincta_, etc., and related in part to matters
connected with naval science. The author was deeply interested in the
subject of the variation of the needle, and having heard that Sebastian
Cabot had publicly explained this subject to the King of England
(supposed to be Edward VI., on Cabot’s return to England), he applied
to the Venetian ambassador there resident to ascertain from Cabot
himself where he had fixed the point of no variation. The information
was accordingly procured and published by Sanuto. In the course of
his investigations the author made use of a map composed by Cabot
himself, in which the position of this meridian was seen to be one
hundred and ten miles to the west of the island of Flores, one of the
Azores. Mr. Biddle,[79] who dwells at some length on this volume, calls
attention to the fact “that the First Meridian on the maps of Mercator,
running through the most western point of the Azores, was adopted with
reference to the supposed coincidence in that quarter of the true and
magnetic poles.” Sanuto makes frequent reference to the map of Cabot
in his book, and also makes mention of Cabot’s observations relating
to the variation of the compass at the equator. I have already called
attention to one of the legends on Cabot’s map of 1544, no. 17, which
relates in part to the variation of the needle. In _Prima Parte_, lib.
ii. fol. 17, Sanuto gives a brief account of Cabot’s voyage, which
Mr. Biddle[80] says corresponds minutely with that which Sir Humphrey
Gilbert derived from the map hung up in Queen Elizabeth’s gallery.
Sanuto, however, evidently copied from Cabot’s letter in the preface of
the third volume of Ramusio, from which also the language in Gilbert is
drawn.
In 1589 Hakluyt published his first folio of 825 pages entitled, _The
Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation_,
a monument of his industry as a collector. In this first folio Hakluyt
included several pieces from his little quarto tract of 1582, and he
collected and put into English other most important evidence relating
to the discovery of North America by the Cabots. He gave the passage
in Peter Martyr, the conversation in Ramusio, the extract from Gomara,
added to those documents reprinted from the quarto tract, all of which
have been here noticed in the order in which they appeared in print.
It may be added that in the passage from Fabian Hakluyt introduced
the name of John Cabot as the Venetian, though he allowed the name of
Sebastian to stand in the heading, probably through inadvertence. He
also brought the marginal date into the text.
[Illustration: A SKETCH OF THE HAKLUYT-MARTYR (1587) MAP.
[This sketch-map is taken from the fac-simile in Stevens’s _Historical
and Geographical Notes_, and needs the following key:—
1. Groenlandia.
2. Islandia.
3. Frislandia.
4. Meta incognita ab Anglis inventa An. 1576.
5. Demonum ins.
6. S. Brandon.
7. Baccalaos ab Anglis, 1496.
8. Hochelaga.
9. Nova Albion inventa An. 1580, ab Anglis.
10. Nova Francia.
11. Virginia, 1584.
12. Bermuda.
13. Azores.
14. Florida.
15. Nueva Mexico.
16. Nova Hispania.
17. Caribana.
18. Brasilia.
19. Fretum Magellani.
20. Peru.
This map is so rare that the copies in some of the choicest collections
lack it, such as the Huth (p. 920,) Brinley (no. 42), and Carter-Brown
(no. 370). Rich priced a copy in 1832 with the map at £4 4s., which
would to-day be a small sum for the book without the map; while a copy
with the map is now worth £20. Quaritch, Cat. 331, no. 1. The Boston
Athenæum copy has the map. See Norton’s _Lit. Gazette_, new series, i.
272. _Bull. Soc. Géog._, Oct. 1858, p. 271.—ED.]]
He also produced here from the Rolls Office a memorandum of a license
granted by the King to John Cabot alone, to take five English ships of
two hundred tons or under, with necessary furniture, and mariners and
subjects of the King as would willingly go with him,—dated the 3d day
of February in the thirteenth year of his reign (1497/8).
The full copy of this license Hakluyt probably never saw, and the
significance of this brief memorandum was never known until, two
hundred and forty years afterwards, the entire document was found and
published by Mr. Richard Biddle in his _Memoir of Sebastian Cabot_.[81]
It was therefore often interpreted, in connection with the letters
patent previously issued, as a grant to take up ships for the first
voyage, which, as was supposed, did not take place till 1498.
The original grant of this license, of which Hakluyt publishes a brief
memorandum, is found to be a permit to enlist ships and mariners, etc.,
“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.”
The part I have italicized is most significant, and shows that a
previous voyage had been made by John Cabot under the authority of the
Crown.
Hakluyt also reprinted for the first time, in Latin, with an English
version, an extract from Sebastian Cabot’s map, being no. 8 of the
Legends inscribed upon it, relating to the discovery of North America,
already recited on p. 21. And in saying that it was taken from
Sebastian Cabot’s map, I should explain that Hakluyt says it was “an
extract taken out of the map of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams,
... which is to be seen in her Majesty’s Privy Gallery at Westminster,
and in many other ancient merchants’ houses.” This language is a little
equivocal, and some have supposed that Hakluyt intended to say that
the extract simply was cut by Adams, and not that the whole map was
copied by him. Clement Adams was a schoolmaster and a learned man, and
probably was not an engraver. But Hakluyt is elsewhere more explicit.
In his _Westerne Planting_,[82] he says: “His [Cabot’s] own map is in
the Queen’s Privy Gallery at Westminster, the copy whereof was set out
by Mr. Clement Adams, and is in many merchants’ houses in London.”
It was probably reproduced under the inspection of Adams. We do not
know the year in which Adams’s copy was made, unless an equivocal date
in the margin of Purchas[83] may be regarded as expressing the year,
namely “1549.” Purchas has fallen into great confusion in attempting to
describe Cabot’s map and his picture as they hung in Whitehall in his
time.[84]
All these documents relative to the Cabot voyages were reprinted by
Hakluyt in the third volume of his larger work—bearing a similar
general title to that of 1589—published in 1600.[85] In the extract
from Cabot’s map, cut by Clement Adams, there reproduced, he changed
the date of the year of the discovery from 1494 to 1497. This latter
is no doubt the true date, but on what authority did Hakluyt make the
change? M. D’Avezac, who contended that 1494 was the true date of the
discovery, that being the date on Cabot’s map, believed that the change
was the result of a typographical error.[86] That it was deliberate
and that the change was not made by an error of the printer, is shown
by the fact that the altered date appears both in the Latin extract
and the English version of it; and that the index or general catalogue
at the beginning of the third volume, in noticing the authorities for
Sebastian Cabot’s voyage, gives “1497” as the year. Again, a copy of
Emeric Molyneaux’s map, prepared about this time, and inserted in some
copies of this volume of Hakluyt, has on the delineation of Labrador,
which some suppose to have been the _prima vista_ of Cabot, the
following inscription: “This land was discovered by John and Sebastian
Cabot for King Henry VII., 1497.”[87] I have already referred to the
earliest use of this date as the year of the discovery, inscribed on a
map of Locke in Hakluyt’s _Divers Voyages_ of 1582. But the true source
of the date is not here revealed.[88]
Clement Adams’s map is yet a mystery. I have already called attention
to two editions of Cabot’s map, one of which is in the National Library
at Paris, and another from which the legends in Chytræus were copied.
The extract from Adams’s edition, first made by Hakluyt in 1589,[89]
was in Latin, but from a text quite different from that of Chytræus,
or from the Paris map. It is Legend No. 8 of the inscriptions, and was
the “Chapiter of Gabot’s mapp _De terra nova_,” as set out by Adams,
which Hakluyt tells us of in his _Discourse_.[90] This heading is the
same as that in Chytræus. Here we have two different translations from
a Spanish original. Did Adams transcribe from another copy of Cabot’s
map yet to be discovered—for we can hardly suppose he would make a new
Latin version of the legends, with one already before him—or did he
translate from a map with the Spanish legends only?—neither of which
precious documents is to be found in our bureaus of cartography, and
they are yet to be added to Dr. Kohl’s list of lost maps!
Following Hakluyt’s extract from Adams’s map is an English version by
him, beginning thus:—
“In the year of our Lord 1494, John Cabot, a Venetian, and his son
Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristol), discovered
that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24th of
June, about five of o’clock early in the morning. This land he called
Prima vista, that is to say, First seen, because, as _I suppose_, it
was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That island
which lyeth out before the land he called the Island of S. John, upon
this occasion, as _I think_, because it was discovered upon the day of
St. John the Baptist.”
It is scarcely necessary to say that the passage in parenthesis is not
in the original, but is introduced by Hakluyt. But the words which I
have italicized are represented in the extract by “credo” and “opinor,”
and are not authorized by the language of the Paris map, nor by the
same legend in Chytræus. In the concluding part of this extract, not
here quoted, Hakluyt speaks of a certain kind of fish seen by the
Cabots, “which the _Savages_ call Baccalaos.” The Latin of Adams’s map
and of the Paris map is _vulgus_, which may mean the common people of
Europe, or the fishermen. In the Spanish of the Paris map, it is said
that the fish are called Baccalaos, but it does not say by whom. The
“white bears” of the Spanish crept into the Latin of Adams, and of
course into Hakluyt’s English, as “white lions.”
An interesting discussion as to the authenticity of this map of Cabot
in the Paris Library, in connection with the genuineness of the date
1494, as expressing the true year of the discovery of North America,
may be seen in the letter of M. D’Avezac to President Woods, already
referred to. M. D’Avezac accepts the map and the date as genuine and
authentic, while Dr. Kohl rejects both. Mr. Richard Henry Major, in
his paper on “The True Date of the English Discovery,” etc., ably
reviews the whole question discussed by those distinguished _savans_,
and adopts a somewhat modified view. He believes that Sebastian Cabot
originally drew a map with _legends_ or inscriptions upon it in Spanish
only, but that he had no hand in publishing it, or in correcting it
for the press, and that the errors in the engraved map arose from
the ignorance or inadvertence of transcribers; that the date of the
discovery, 1497, was expressed in Roman numerals in the manuscript;
that the letter V. in the numerals VII. was carelessly drawn, and not
well joined at the base, so that a reader might well take it for a
II.; and that such an error might more easily occur in a manuscript,
especially on parchment, than on an engraved map on paper. As evidence
that the Paris map, which Dr. Kohl thinks was made in Germany or
Belgium, was copied from a Spanish manuscript, Mr. Major cites the
instance of the name Laguna de Nicaragua being rendered into “Laguna
de Nicaxagoe.” The Spanish manuscript _r_ being in the form of our
northern x, the transcriber showed his ignorance by substituting the
one letter for the other. So also as regards the copy made by Clement
Adams from the Spanish original. He made an independent translation of
the inscriptions into Latin, which accounts for the two Latin versions,
and also made the same error for the same reason, in giving the date
1494, instead of 1497.
Mr. Major believes that Hakluyt had good reason for making the
change of date from 1494 to 1497 as the true date of discovery, as
in the same volume in which the change was made he introduced the
remarkable map of Molyneaux, referred to above, on which that date
was inscribed as the year of the discovery; and furthermore that he
may have consulted the papers of Cabot in the possession of William
Worthington.[91]
* * * * *
To return again from this long digression to the volumes of Hakluyt
in which he has brought together his various authorities relating
to the voyages of the Cabots, one is impressed with a feeling of
disappointment that he makes no attempt to reconcile their apparent
glaring discrepancies,—that is to say, as to the different dates given
in them to the voyage of discovery, and the variation in the different
degrees of latitude reached; while no opinion is expressed as to the
comparative agency of John or Sebastian Cabot, or the question as to
whether there was more than one voyage,—I mean a second immediately
following the first which was of discovery. In the general catalogue
prefixed in 1600 to the third volume of his larger work, he refers to
these several “testimonies” as proving a voyage of discovery in 1497,
while in reality no one of them proves that date, bearing in mind that
the date in the extract from Adams’s map was in this later reprint
inserted by him on some evidence not found in his volumes,—the truth
being that all these testimonies, taken as a whole, refer probably to
two if not three voyages, as we have already seen.[92]
I do not forget that these volumes of Hakluyt contain other interesting
documents relating to Cabot,—namely, the record of the pension granted
by Edward VI., dated Jan. 6, 1548-49, of £165 13_s._ 6_d._, to date
from the preceding Michaelmas Day (September 29); the Ordinances and
Instructions compiled by Cabot for the intended voyage for Cathay, May
9, 1553; his appointment in the charter of the Muscovy Company, Feb.
6, 1555-56, as its governor; the story of his presence on board the
“Serchthrift” at Gravesend on the 13th of April, 1556, about to sail
on a voyage of discovery to the northeast, where the venerable man
“entered into the dance himself.”[93]
I have already referred to a volume of Chytræus, containing the
Latin legends on Sebastian Cabot’s map, which was published about
this time,—the first edition in 1594, a second in 1599, and a third
edition in 1606. We can hardly suppose that Hakluyt ever saw this book,
at least in the earlier editions, as he could hardly have failed to
incorporate the inscriptions into his larger work. The date 1494 given
in the 8th Legend as the year of the discovery of the new lands, and
the same date incorporated in Hakluyt’s folio of 1589 from Adams’s
map, gave currency to its use to a limited extent.[94] But Hakluyt’s
larger work of 1598-1600 quite superseded in use his previous books,
and Chytræus was probably rarely seen or consulted; yet Mr. Biddle, who
never could have seen Chytræus or Hakluyt’s folio of 1589, could never
understand why later writers, like Harris and Pinkerton, adopted that
date.
I did not propose, in presenting this sketch of authorities relating to
the Cabots, in chronological order, to pursue the inquiry much beyond
the period to which I have arrived. Neither do I flatter myself that
I have, in the field already traversed, embraced everything in printed
form that should have been noticed, and something of value may have
escaped me. In proceeding, therefore, to notice two or three important
works relating to my theme published about the period now reached, I
shall conclude this chapter by introducing some important material
which has come to light at a later time, from the slumbering archives
of foreign States, and much of it within a few years.[95]
One of the most important books relating to the history of America
was published at Madrid, 1601-15, by Herrera,—_Historia General_. It
contains nothing relating to the first voyages of the Cabots, except
the passage from Gomara already cited; but it gives other interesting
facts respecting Sebastian Cabot’s residence in Spain, drawn from
official documents. In citing passages from this work below, I have
also made use of the more recently published works of Navarrete, and
even of other writers, where they relate to the same subject. In the
“deceptive conversation” given in the first volume of Ramusio, Cabot
is made to say that the troubles in England induced him, that is,
on his return from his voyage of discovery, to seek employment in
Spain. But Peter Martyr informs us that Cabot did not leave England
until after the death of Henry VII., which took place in 1509.[96]
Herrera[97] mentions the circumstances under which the invitation from
Ferdinand was given and accepted, and Cabot arrived in Spain, Sep. 13,
1512.
He was taken into service as “capitan,” with pay of fifty thousand
maravedis by a royal grant made at Lagroño, Oct. 20, 1512.[98]
Eden,[99] in a translation of Peter Martyr, makes that author say
that Cabot had been, at the time at which Martyr was writing, 1515,
appointed a member of the Council of the Indies, but it is believed
that the original language of Martyr, “concurialis noster,” will not
bear that interpretation.[100] In 1515 he was appointed “Cosmographo
de la Casa de la Contratacion,” an office which involved the care of
revising maps and charts.[101] And in that same year, Peter Martyr
tells us, there was projected a voyage under the command of Cabot, to
search for that “hid secret of Nature” in the northwest, to sail in
the following year, 1516. But the death of King Ferdinand, on the 23d
of January of that year, put an end to the expedition. In November,
1515, Cabot and Juan Vespucius gave an opinion (_parecer_) concerning
the demarcation line in Brazil.[102] I have already spoken of the
alleged voyage of Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert from England, of 1516-17,
concerning which serious doubts have been expressed. Herrera makes
no mention of Cabot’s leaving Spain at this time; and De Barcia,
not perhaps the highest authority, in the preface to his _Ensayo
Chronologico_, etc., Madrid, 1723, says that Cabot was residing quietly
in Spain from 1512 to 1526, and that “he never intended or proposed to
prosecute the proposed discovery.” On Feb. 5, 1518, he was appointed
“Piloto Mayor y Examinador de Pilotos,” succeeding Juan de Solis, who
had been killed on the La Plata River in 1516, with the same pay in
addition to that of capitano.[103] In 1520 this appointment is again
confirmed, with orders that no pilot should pass to the Indies without
being first examined and approved by him.[104] On April 14, 1524, the
celebrated Congress at Badajos was held, which was attended by Cabot,
not as a member but as an expert; and he and several others delivered
an opinion on the questions submitted, April 15, the second day of the
session.[105] Immediately after the decision of the Congress, which
was pronounced practically in favor of the Spanish interest, a company
was formed at Seville to prosecute the trade to the Moluccas, through
the Straits of Magellan, and Cabot was invited to take the command;
and in September of this year he received the sanction of the Council
of the Indies to engage in the enterprise, and the agreement with
the Emperor was executed at Madrid on March 4, 1525, and the title
of Captain-General was conferred upon him. It was intended that the
expedition should depart in August, but it was delayed by the intrigues
of the Portuguese, and did not sail till April 3, 1526.[106] Cabot’s
expedition to the La Plata, it having been diverted on the coast from
its original destination, will be considered in another volume. On Oct.
25, 1525, his wife, Catalina Medrano, was directed by a royal order to
receive fifty thousand maravedis as a “gratificacion.”[107]
Cabot returned from South America to Seville with two ships at the end
of July or the beginning of August, 1530, and laid his final report
before the Emperor, of which an abstract may be found in Herrera.
Private complaints were laid against him, and at the suit of the
families of some of his companions who had perished in the expedition
he was arrested and imprisoned, but liberated on bail. Public charges
were preferred against him for misconduct in the affairs of the La
Plata, and the Council of the Indies by an order dated from Medina del
Campo, Feb. 1, 1532, condemned him to a banishment of two years to
Oran, in Africa. But the sentence was not carried into execution. Under
the date of 1531, Herrera speaks of his wife and children.[108]
During Cabot’s absence, that is to say, on April 4, 1528, Alonzo de
Chaves was appointed “Piloto Mayor,” with Ribero;[109] but the office
was resumed by him not long after his return. Navarrete quotes from
the Archivo de Indias a declaration made in 1574, by Juan Fernandez
de Ladrillos, of Moguer, a great pilot, over seventy years old, who
had sailed to America for twenty-eight years, that he was examined by
Sebastian Cabot in 1535.[110] This office Cabot retained till he left
Spain and returned to England.
I may as well introduce here as elsewhere a few passages from that
part of the history of Oviedo recently published at Madrid, for the
first time, by the Academy of History. Oviedo is very severe on Cabot
for his want of knowledge and skill in his operations on the La Plata.
But my citations are for another purpose. “Another great pilot (piloto
mayor), Sebastian Cabot, Venetian by origin, educated in England, who
at present is Piloto Mayor and Cosmographer of their Royal Majesties,
etc.... I will not defend from passions ... and negligence Sebastian
Cabot in the affairs of this expedition, since he is a good person and
skilful in his office of cosmography, and making a map of the whole
world in plane or in a spherical form; but it is not the same thing to
command and govern people as to point a quadrant or an astrolabe.”[111]
Several interesting episodes in the life of Cabot during his residence
in Spain have been recently made public from the Venetian archives.
They may be related here.
The story of Cabot’s intrigue with the authorities of Venice is told
in a remarkable and interesting letter of Gasparin Contarini, the
Venetian ambassador to Charles V., dated Valladolid, Dec. 31, 1522.
Cabot was at this time holding a high office under the Emperor, and
was drawing large pay. It appears that he had made secret proposals
to the Council of Ten through a friend of his, a certain friar, named
Hieronimo de Marin, a native of Ragusa, to enter into the service of
Venice, and disclose the strait or passage which he claimed to have
discovered, whereby she would derive a great commercial benefit. He
proposed to visit Venice and lay the whole plan before the Council.
The Council of Ten, though they had but little confidence in the
scheme, made all this known to their ambassador by letter, in which
they enclosed a letter also for Cabot, which they had instructed the
friar to write to him. Contarini sent for Cabot, who happened then
to be residing at the court, and gave him his letter, which he there
read with manifest embarrassment. After his fears had been quieted he
told Contarini that he had previously, in England, out of the love he
bore his country, spoken to the ambassadors of Venice on the subject
of the newly discovered countries, through which he had the means of
benefiting Venice, and that the letter had reference to that subject;
but he besought the ambassador to keep the thing a secret, as it would
cost him his life. Contarini told him that he was thoroughly acquainted
with the whole affair, but they would talk further on the subject in
the evening. At the hour appointed, when they were closeted alone in
the ambassador’s chamber, Cabot said:—
“My Lord Ambassador, to tell you the whole truth, I was born in
Venice, but was brought up in England (Io naqui a Venetia, ma sum
nutrito in Engelterra), and then entered the service of their Catholic
Majesties of Spain, and King Ferdinand made me a 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.”
He then proceeded to say that being in England some three years
before, Cardinal Wolsey offered him high terms if he would sail with
an armada of his on a voyage of discovery, for which preparations were
making; but he declined unless the Emperor would give his consent,
in which case he would accept the offer. But meeting with a Venetian
who reproached him for not serving his own country instead of being
engaged altogether for foreigners, his heart smote him, and he wrote
the Emperor to recall him, which he did. And on his return to Seville,
and contracting an intimate friendship with this Ragusan friar, he
unbosomed himself to him; and, as the friar was going to Venice,
charged him with the aforesaid message to the Council of the Ten, and
to no one else; and the Ragusan “swore to me a sacred oath to this
effect.” Cabot then said he would go to Venice, and lay the matter
before the Council, after getting the Emperor’s consent to go, “on the
plea of recovering his mother’s dowry.” The ambassador approved of
this, but made some serious objections to the feasibility of the scheme
which Cabot proposed for the benefit of Venice. Cabot answered his
objections. In the course of the conversation he told Contarini that he
had a method for ascertaining by the needle the distance between two
places from east to west, which had never been previously discovered
by any one. The interview was concluded by his promising to go to
Venice at his own expense, and return in like manner if his plan was
disapproved by the Council. He then urged Contarini to keep the matter
secret.
On the following 7th of March the ambassador again wrote to the Chiefs
of the Ten, saying that Cabot had been several times to see him, and
that he was disposed to come to Venice to carry his purpose into
effect, but that he did not then dare ask leave for fear he might be
suspected of going to England, and he must wait three months longer;
and that Cabot desired the Council to write him a letter urging him to
come to Venice for the dispatch of his affairs (meaning his private
business). On the 28th of April the Council, in the name of the Ragusan
friar, wrote to Cabot what had been done to discover where his property
was; that there was good hope of recovering the dower of his mother
and aunt, and that had he been present no doubt the object would have
been attained before. He is therefore urged to come at once, “for your
aunt is very old.” The Council say they have caused this letter to be
written “touching his private affairs, in order that it may appear
necessary for him to quit Spain.” On the 26th of July, Contarini again
writes that Cabot, who had been residing at Seville, had come to
Valladolid on his way to Venice, and was endeavoring to get leave of
the Imperial Councillors to go, and that the Signory would be informed
of the result of the application. Probably he never went. The next
mention of him in the Venetian correspondence, during his residence in
Spain, is under the date of September 21, 1525,—that Sebastian Cabot
is captain of the fleet preparing for the Indies.[112]
Cabot still kept up his intrigues with Venice, even after his return
to England. On the 12th of September, 1551, the Council of Ten write
to their ambassador in England, telling him to assure Cabot that they
are gratified by his offer, and that they will do all they can about
the recovery of his property there, but that it is necessary that he
should come personally to Venice, as no one there knows him; that the
matters concerned are over fifty years old, and by the death of men,
decay of houses, and perishing of writings, as well as by his own
absence, no assured knowledge can be arrived at. He should therefore
come at once. Ramusio, the Secretary of the Council, had been put in
trust by Cabot of all such evidences as should come to hand regarding
Cabot’s business, and he would use all diligence towards establishing
his rights. In the mean time the ambassador is to learn from him all he
can about this navigation.
Whether this talk about Cabot’s property in Venice, the dowry from his
mother and his aged aunt, was all fictitious, perhaps never can be
known. That these alleged facts were used as a pretext or “blind” in
this correspondence, was on both sides avowed.[113]
It has been already mentioned, that, after Cabot’s return to England,
and his entry into the service of Edward VI.,—a warrant for his
transportation hither from Spain having passed the Privy Council on the
9th of Oct. 1547,—the King, on the 6th of January, 1548/9, granted him
a pension for life of £166 13_s._ 4_d._, “in consideration of good and
acceptable service done and to be done by him.” But in the following
year a little _contretemps_ occurred between Cabot and the Emperor
Charles V. Through the Spanish ambassador, Jan. 19, 1549/50, Charles
had demanded the return of Cabot to Spain, saying that he was the
“Grand Pilot of the Emperor’s Indies, ... a very necessary man for the
Emperor, whose servant he was, and had a pension of him.” The Council
replied that Cabot was not detained by them, but that he had refused
to go, saying that being the King’s subject there was no reason why he
should be compelled to go. The ambassador insisted that Cabot should
declare his mind to him personally; and an interview was held, at which
Cabot made a declaration to the same import, but said he was willing
to write to the Emperor, having good-will towards him, concerning some
matters important for the Emperor to know. He was then asked if he
would return to Spain if the King of England and the Council should
demand of him to go; to which Cabot made an equivocal answer, but which
the Council, to whom a report of the conversation was made by a third
person present, interpreted to mean that he would not go, as he had
divers times before declared to them.[114]
In March, 1551, Sebastian Cabot received from the King a special reward
of £200. On the 9th of September, 1553, soon after the accession of
Philip and Mary, the Emperor, Charles V., again made an earnest request
that Cabot should return to Spain. But he declined to go. On the 27th
of November, 1555, Cabot’s pension was renewed to him. Edward VI.
having died two years previous, the former grant had probably expired
with him. On the 27th of May, 1557, Cabot resigned his pension, and
on the 29th a new grant was made to him and to William Worthington,
jointly, of the same amount, so that Cabot was bereft of half his
pay.[115] Cabot died not long afterwards, the precise date, however,
not being known.
Mr. Biddle was strongly impressed with the belief that Cabot suffered
great neglect and injustice in his last days from Philip, through the
jealousy of Spain of the growing commerce and maritime enterprise
of England, stimulated by one who had left his father’s service and
refused to return, and “who was now imparting to others the benefit
of his vast experience and accumulated stores of knowledge.” And he
believed that William Worthington, who was associated with Cabot in the
last grant to him of his pension, was a creature of Spain, who finally
got possession of Cabot’s papers, and confiscated them beyond the reach
of the students and statesmen of England.
I will now call attention to some documents recently made public,
principally derived from the archives of Venice and of Spain, which
reveal John Cabot again to our view and show him to have been the real
discoverer of North America.[116]
John Cabot, or in the Venetian dialect, Zuan Caboto, was probably born
in Genoa or its neighborhood, and came to Venice as early as 1461. He
there married a daughter of the country, by whom he had three sons. On
the 28th of March, 1476, by the unanimous consent of the Senate, he
obtained his naturalization as a citizen of Venice,[117] “within and
without,” having resided there fifteen years.[118] He engaged in the
study of cosmography and the practice of navigation, and at one time
visited Mecca, where the caravans brought in the spices from distant
lands. He subsequently left Venice with his family for England and
took up his residence in Bristol, then one of the principal maritime
cities of that country. Sebastian is reported as saying that his father
went to England to follow the trade of merchandise. When this removal
took place is uncertain. Peter Martyr says that Sebastian, the second
son, at the time was a little child (_pene infans_), while Sebastian
himself says, if correctly reported, that he was very young (_che egli
era assai giouare_), yet that he had some knowledge of the _humanities_
and of the sphere. He therefore must have arrived at some maturity of
years.[119] Eden[120] says that Sebastian told him that he was born
in Bristol, and was taken to Venice when he was four years old, and
brought back again after certain years. He told Contarini, at a most
solemn interview, that he was born in Venice and bred (_nutrito_) in
England, which is probably true. It is reasonable to suppose that the
three sons were of age when the letters patent were granted to them and
their father in March, 1496, in which case Sebastian, being the second
son, must have been born as early as 1473, or three years before his
father took out his papers of naturalization in Venice.[121]
In a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella to Doctor de Puebla, in London,
dated March 28, 1496, they say, after acknowledging his letter of
the 21st of January: “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 Puebla is further charged to
see that the King of England, who they think has had this temptation
laid before him by the King of France, is not deceived in this matter,
for that these undertakings cannot be executed without prejudice to
Spain and Portugal.[122]
A reasonable inference from this would be, that John Cabot had arrived
in England not long before the date of Puebla’s letter to their
Majesties, to lay his proposals before Henry VII., as Columbus had done
some years before through his brother, and not that he had been a long
resident in the country. The letters patent had already been issued,
that is to say, on the 5th of March.[123] This letter from Spain may
have caused some delay in the sailing of the expedition, which did not
depart till the following year. But some time was necessary to beat
up recruits for the voyage, and to enlist the aid of the substantial
citizens of Bristol in the undertaking. John Cabot, accompanied perhaps
by his son Sebastian, finally sailed in the early part of May, 1497,
with one small vessel and eighteen persons, “almost all Englishmen
and from Bristol,” says Raimondo; who adds, “The chief men of the
enterprise are of Bristol, great sailors.” A few foreigners were
included in the company, as we learn from the same authority that a
Burgundian and a Genoese accompanied them. The name of the vessel is
said to have been the “Matthew.” Mr. Barrett[124] says: “In the year
1497, June 24th, on St. John’s day, as it is in a manuscript in my
possession, ‘was Newfoundland found by Bristol men in a ship called
the Matthew.’” How much of this paragraph was in the manuscript is not
clear. The first part of it was evidently taken from Hakluyt. And we
are not told whether the manuscript was ancient or modern. It cannot
now be found.[125]
John Cabot returned in the early part of August. The following
well-known memorandum, from the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.,
“August 10, 1497: To him who found the New Isle, 10_l._,” is supposed
to refer to him.[126]
Additional evidence concerning the voyage will now be given. The
following is a letter from Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a merchant residing in
London, to his brothers in Venice, dated August 23d, 1497, which I have
somewhat abridged:—
“The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol, is
returned, and says that 700 leagues hence he discovered land in the
territory of the Grand Cham. He coasted 300 leagues and landed, saw
no human beings, but brought to the king certain snares set to catch
game, and a needle for making nets. Was three months on the voyage.
The king has promised that in the spring our countryman shall have ten
ships. The king has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself
till then, and he is now in Bristol with his wife, who is also a
Venetian, and with his sons. His name is Zuan Cabot, and he is styled
the great Admiral. Vast honor is paid him. The discoverer planted on
his new-found land a large cross, with one flag of England and one of
St. Mark, by reason of his being a Venetian.... London, 23d of August,
1497.”[127]
On the following day, August 24, 1497, Raimondo de Soncino, envoy of
the Duke of Milan to Henry VII., wrote the following passage in a long
dispatch to his Government:
“Also, some months ago, 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 discovered The Seven Cities, four hundred
leagues from England in the western passage. This next spring his
Majesty means to send him with fifteen or twenty ships.”[128]
In the following December, Raimondo de Soncino wrote another letter
from London, making more particular mention of John Cabot’s discovery,
and of the intention of the King to authorize another expedition. This
letter, from the State Archives of Milan, was first published in the
_Annuario Scientifico_, in 1865,[129] and is now published in English
for the first time. There is some obscurity in the letter in a few
places, in naming the direction in which the vessel sailed, as the
east when the west was evidently intended. Whether this was a clerical
error, or whether by the term “the east” was meant “the land of the
spices” to which the expedition was bound, and which in the language
of the day lay to the east, is uncertain. Neither is the geographical
object named as “Tanais” recognized. This letter throws no light on
the Landfall. I am indebted to Professor Bennet H. Nash, of Harvard
College, for revising the translation of this letter.
MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND EXCELLENT MY LORD:—
Perhaps among your Excellency’s many occupations, it may not
displease you 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 Caboto 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 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 northward he began to steer
eastward, leaving (after a few days) the North Star on his right
hand; and, having wandered about considerably, at last he fell in
with _terra firma_, where, having planted the royal banner and taken
possession on behalf of this King, and taken certain 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 the chart and the globe]
shows where he landed, and that going toward the east 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 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 fishes that
this kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from which country
there comes a very great store of fish which are called stock-fish.
But Master John has set his mind on something greater; for he expects
to go farther on toward the East (Levant,) 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 [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 King here, who is wise and not lavish, likewise puts some
faith in him; for (ever) 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 themselves as Counts,
nor does my Lord the Admiral esteem himself anything less than a
Prince. I think that with this expedition there 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; and therefore
I beg that if these should fall vacant in my absence, you will cause
possession to be given to me, taking measures to do this rather
[especially] where it is needed, in order that they be not taken from
me by others, who because they are present can be more diligent than
I, who in this country have been brought to the pass of eating ten or
twelve dishes at every meal, and sitting at table three hours at a
time twice a day, for the sake of your Excellency, to whom I humbly
commend myself.
Your Excellency’s
Very humble servant,
RAIMUNDUS.
LONDON, Dec. 18, 1497.
These letters are sufficient to show that North America was discovered
by John Cabot, the name of Sebastian being nowhere mentioned in them,
and that the discovery was made in 1497. The place which he first
sighted is given on the map of 1544 as the north part of Cape Breton
Island, on which is inscribed “prima tierra vista,” which was reached,
according to the Legend, on the 24th of June. Pasqualigo, the only one
who mentions it, says he coasted three hundred leagues. Mr. Brevoort,
who accepts the statement, thinks he made the _periplus_ of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, passing out at the straits of Belle Isle, and thence
home.[130] He saw no human beings, so that the story of men dressed in
bear-skins and otherwise described in the Legend must have been seen by
Sebastian Cabot on a later voyage. The extensive sailing up and down
the coast described by chroniclers from conversations with Sebastian
Cabot many years afterwards, though apparently told as occurring on
the voyage of discovery,—as only one voyage is ever mentioned,—must
have taken place on a later voyage. There was no time between the 24th
of June and the 1st of August for any very extensive explorations.
Indeed, John Cabot intimated to Raimondo that he intended on the next
voyage to start from the place he had already found, and run down the
coast towards the equinoctial regions, where he expected to find the
island of Cipango and the country of jewels and spices. No doubt he
was anxious to return and report his discovery thus far, and provide
“for greater things.” The plea of a shortness of provisions may have
covered another motive. The great abundance of fish reported might have
supplied any immediate want.
[Illustration: PORTUGUESE PORTOLANO. 1514-1520.
[This map, at no. 5, places the Breton discovery at the Cabot landfall.
The original is dated by Kohl (_Discovery of Maine_, 179) in 1520; and
by Kunstmann in 1514. Stevens, _Hist. and Geog. Notes_, pl. v., copies
Kunstmann. The points and inscriptions on it are as follows:—
1. Do Lavrador (Labrador). Terram istam portugalenses viderunt atamen
non intraverunt. (The Portuguese saw this country, but did not enter
it.)
2. Bacaluaos (east coast of Newfoundland).
3. (Straits of Belle Isle.)
4. (South entrance to Gulf of St. Lawrence.)
5. Tera que foij descuberta por bertomas. (Land discovered by the
Bretons.)
6. Teram istam gaspar Corte Regalis portugalemsis primo invenit, etc.
(Nova Scotia. Gaspar Cortereal first discovered this country, and he
took away wild men and white bears; and many animals, birds and fish
are in it. The next year he was shipwrecked and did not return, and
so was his brother Michael the following year.) The voyages of the
Cortereals will be described in Vol. IV.—ED.]]
John Cabot was now in high favor with the King, who supplied him with
money, by which he was able to make a fine appearance. Indeed, the King
granted him under the great seal, during the royal pleasure, a pension
of twenty pounds sterling per annum, having the purchasing value of
two hundred pounds at the present time; to date from the preceding
25th of March. The grant was a charge upon the customs of the port of
Bristol. The document authorizing this grant we are able to present
here for the first time in print. The order from the King is dated the
13th of December, 1497, and it passed the seals the 28th of January,
1498:[131]—
“Memorandum quod xxviii. die Januarii anno subscripto istæ litteræ
liberatæ fuerunt domino Cancellario Angliæ apud Westmonasterium
exequendæ:—
“Henry, by the Grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of
Ireland, to the most reverend father in God, John Cardinal Archbishop
of Canterbury, primate of all England and of the apostolic see legate,
our Chancellor, 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 twenty pounds
sterling to be had and yearly paid from the feast of the Annunciation
of Our Lady last past, during our pleasure, of our customs and
subsidies coming and growing in our port of Bristowe 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 patents in good and effectual form.
Given under our privy seal, at our palace of Westminster, the xiiith
day of December, the xiiith year of our reign.”
Preparations were now made for a second voyage, and a license to John
Cabot alone, as we have already seen, was issued by the King, for leave
to take up six ships and to enlist as many of the King’s subjects
as were willing to go. This was evidently a scheme of colonization.
Peter Martyr says, if this is the voyage which he is describing, that
Sebastian Cabot—for he never speaks of John—furnished two ships
at his own charge, and Sebastian Cabot, in Ramusio, says that the
King furnished them, and the Bristol merchants are supposed to have
furnished three others; and they took out three hundred men.[132] The
Fabian manuscript quoted by Hakluyt says they sailed in the beginning
of May; and De Ayala says they were expected back by September. There
is no doubt that Sebastian Cabot accompanied his father on this voyage.
From the documents already cited from Peter Martyr and Ramusio there is
some reason to believe that the expedition coasted some distance to the
north, and then returning ran down the coast as far as to the 36° N.
without accomplishing the purpose for which they went. That this latter
course was pursued receives some confirmation from the declarations
of John Cabot on his return from the first voyage, that he believed
it practicable to reach in that direction the Island of Cipango and
the land of the spices. But the prospects were discouraging and their
provisions failed. Gomara, in noticing this voyage, says that on their
return from the north they stopped at Baccalaos for refreshment. But
all the accounts relied on for this voyage are vague and, as we have
already seen, unsatisfying.
The following letter from the Prothonotary, Don Pedro de Ayala,
residing in London, to Ferdinand and Isabella, dated July 25, 1498,
relates to the sailing of this expedition:
“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 in 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 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 they brought certain news that they had found land. His
fleet consisted of five vessels, which carried provisions for one
year. It is said that one of them, in which Friar Buel 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
your Highnesses already possess. It is expected that they will be
back in the month of September.... I think it is not further distant
than 400 leagues.... I do not now send the chart, or _mapa mundi_,
which that man 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.”[133]
We see by this letter that this “Genoese,” who had discovered land the
year before, had again sailed on the expedition here described. If so
important a person as John Cabot now was to the King had died before
its departure, the fact would have been known at court, and De Ayala
would surely have mentioned it, as the Spaniards were very jealous of
all these proceedings. The statement that the King had equipped the
fleet may only mean that the expedition was fitted and sent out under
his countenance and protection. De Ayala says it was expected back
in September, but it had not returned by the last of October. No one
knows when the expedition returned, and no one knows what became of
John Cabot. When the domestic calendars of the reign of Henry VII. are
published, some clew to him may turn up. In the mean time we must wait
patiently.
The enterprise was regarded as a failure, and no doubt the Bristol and
London adventurers suffered a pecuniary loss. All schemes of Western
discovery and colonization were for years substantially abandoned by
England. Some feeble attempts in this direction appear to have been
made in 1501 and 1502, when patents for discovery were granted by
Henry in favor of some merchants of Bristol, with whom were associated
several Portuguese, but it is not certain that anything was done under
their authority.[134]
[Illustration: Autograph Charles Deane]
* * * * *
NOTE.—Henri Harrisse’s _Jean et Sébastien Cabot, leur origine et leurs
voyages_, has been published since this chapter was completed.