deputies, be holden and bounden of all the fruits, profits, gaines, and
commodities growing of such navigation, for every their voyages as often
as they shall arrive at our port of Bristoll (at the which port they
shall be bound and holden onely to arrive) all maner of necessary costs
and charges by them made, being deducted, to pay unto us in wares or
money the fift part of the capitall gaine so gotten. We giving and
granting unto them and to their heires and deputies, that they shall be
free from all paying of customes of all and singular such merchandize as
they shall bring with them from those places so newly found. And
moreover, we have given and granted to them, their heires and deputies,
that all the firme lands, isles, villages, townes, castles and places
whatsoever they be that they shall chance to finde, may not of any other
of our subjects be frequented or visited without the license of the
foresayd John and his sonnes, and their deputies, under paine of
forfeiture aswell of their shippes as of all and singuler goods of all
them that shall presume to saile to those places so found. Willing, and
most straightly commanding all and singuler our subjects aswell on land
as on sea, to give good assistance to the aforesayd John and his sonnes
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
sayd navigation, they do give them all their helpe and favour.
“In witnesse whereof we have caused to be made these our Letters
patents. Witnesse our selfe at Westminster the fift day of March, in the
eleventh yeare of our reigne.”
Under this patent, the following year—1497—John Cabot sailed out of
Bristol with one small vessel, and supplemented the discovery of
Columbus in finding the mainland of America.
John Cabot, like Columbus, was a Genoese, but neither the exact place
nor the date of his birth is known. He was in Venice as early as 1461,
as appears from a record in the Venetian archives of his naturalization
as a citizen of Venice under date of March 28, 1476, after the
prescribed residence of fifteen years. There he was apparently a
merchant. It is said that he also made voyages at times as a shipmaster.
He became proficient in the study of cosmography and in the science of
navigation. With Columbus he accepted the theory of the rotundity of the
earth, and is said to have been early desirous of himself putting it to
a practical test. At one time he visited Arabia, where at Mecca he saw
the caravans coming in laden with spices from distant countries. Asking
where the spices grew, he was told by the carriers that they did not
know; that other caravans came to their homes with this rich merchandise
from more distant parts, and that these others told them that it was
brought from still more remote regions. So he came to reason in this
wise: that “if the Orientals affirmed to the Southerners that those
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.” On this argument he later based
his Northwest Passage scheme. He moved to England probably not long
before the development of this scheme (some early writers, however,
place the date about the year 1477), and took up his residence in
Bristol, to “follow the trade of merchandise.” His wife, a Venetian, and
his three sons, all supposed to have been born in Venice, accompanied
him. Sebastian, the second son, who became the most illustrious of the
family, was then a youth, but sufficiently old to have already some
“knowledge of the humanities and the sphere,” as he long afterward
stated. The brothers, it is supposed, were all of age when the king’s
patent was issued, and Sebastian about twenty-three.
John Cabot’s expedition sailed early in May and was absent three months.
It was essentially a voyage of discovery. His vessel was a Bristol ship,
and called the “Matthew.” The ship’s company comprised eighteen persons,
“almost all Englishmen and from Bristol.” The foreigners were a
Burgundian and a Genoese. Sebastian, it is believed, accompanied his
father, but neither of the other sons. The chief men of the enterprise
were “great sailors.”
The brave little ship plowed the mysterious sea for seven hundred
leagues, as estimated, when on the twenty-fourth of June, in the
morning, land was sighted. This was supposed by the early historians,
and so set down in their histories, to have been the island of
Newfoundland. But through nineteenth century findings of data it has
been made clear that it was the north part, or the eastern point of the
present island of Cape Breton, off the coast of Nova Scotia. This is
demonstrated by the inscription “prima tierra vista” at the head of the
delineation of that island, on a map attributed to Sebastian Cabot
composed in 1544, nearly half a century after the voyage, and
subsequently missing till the discovery of a copy three centuries later,
in 1843, in Germany, at the house of a Bavarian curate, whence it passed
to the National Library at Paris. On this map Cape Breton island forms a
part of the mainland of Nova Scotia, the Gut of Canso not then having
been discovered. On the same day that the landfall was made a “large
island adjacent” to it was discovered, and named St. John because of its
finding on the day of the festival of St. John the Baptist. It is marked
the “I del Juan” on this map, and is the present Prince Edward Island.
A landing was made at the landfall and Cabot planted a large cross with
“one flag of England, and one of St. Mark by reason of his being a
Venetian,” and took possession for the English king. No human beings
were seen, but “certain snares set to catch game, and a needle for
making nets,” showing that the place was inhabited, were found and taken
to be displayed to the king upon the return home. In one contemporary
account, a letter of another Venetian merchant in England, Lorenzo
Pasqualigo, written from London to his brothers in Venice, Cabot is said
to have coasted, after striking land, for three hundred leagues, and to
have seen “two islands at starboard.” Accepting this statement as
authentic, with other data subsequently found, his course from his
“Prima Vista” has been traced by later historical authorities in this
wise: northwesterly, to obtain a good view of his Isle of St. John;
northerly, through the present Northumberland Strait, sighting the coast
of New Brunswick near Miramichi Bay; along the Gulf of St. Lawrence;
northeasterly, passing to the north of Newfoundland through the Strait
of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador; and thence homeward.
It is well indicated on the accompanying sketch-map originally published
in connection with a paper contributed to the Maine Historical Society
by Frederick Kidder, a competent authority, in 1874.
Cabot believed that the lands he had discovered lay in “the territory of
the Grand Cham,” as Columbus thought his were of eastern Asia.
The expedition arrived back at Bristol early in August and the story it
brought created a sensation. With his report to the king Cabot exhibited
a map of the region visited and a solid globe, and presented the
game-snares and net-needle which he had found. He told the king that he
believed it practicable by starting from the parts which he had
discovered, and constantly hugging the shore toward the equinoctial, to
reach an island called by him Cipango, where he thought all the spices
of the world and also the precious stones originated; and this region
found and colonized, there might be established in London a greater
storehouse of spices than the chief one then existing, in Alexandria.
All this much moved the king, and he promised to promote a second
expedition for this purpose in the following spring.
[Illustration: Kidder’s sketch-map of John Cabot’s voyage in 1497.]
Meanwhile John Cabot became the hero of the hour, and great honours were
paid him. The king gave him money and granted him an annual pension of
twenty pounds (equal to two hundred modern pounds in purchasing value),
which was to be charged upon the revenues of the port of Bristol; he
dressed in silk; and he was styled the “Great Admiral.” He also appears
to have been knighted. He distributed largess with a free hand, if the
tales of the letter-writers of the day are to be accepted. One wrote
that he gave an island to the Burgundian of his crew and another to the
Genoese, “a barber of his from Castiglione, of Genoa.” And this writer
adds, “both of them regard themselves counts.” Reports of his exploits
and of the king’s further intentions were duly made known to rival
courts by their envoys in England, and excited their jealousy.
The second expedition was provided for by the king’s license dated the
third of February, 1497/8. This was a patent granted to John Cabot
alone, the sons not being named. Hakluyt gives only the following record
from the rolls:
“The king upon the third day of February, in the 13 yeere of his reigne,
gave license to John Cabot to take sixe English ships in any haven or
havens of the realme of England, being of the burden of 200 tunnes, or
under, with all necessary furniture, and to take also into the said
ships all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the king as willingly
will go with him, &c.”
The patent itself did not find print till the nineteenth century. It was
published for the first time in 1831, in the _Memoirs of Sebastian
Cabot_, by Richard Biddle, an American lawyer of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, sometime resident in London, by whom, after painstaking
search, it was found in the rolls. Quaint of style as well as of
spelling, it runs as below:
“To all men to whom theis Presenteis shall come send Gretyng: know ye,
that We of our Grace especiall, and for divers causes us movying We have
geven and graunten, and by theis Presentis geve and graunte to our
welbeloved John Kabotto, Venecian, sufficiente auctorite and power, that
he, by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficient, may take at his pleasure
VI Englisshe Shippes in any Porte or Portes or other place within this
our Realme of England or obeisance, so that and if said Shippes be of
the bourdeyn of C C tonnes or under with their apparail requisite and
necessarie for the safe conduct of the said Shippes, and them convey and
lede to the Londe [land] Isles of late founde by the seid John in oure
name and by our commaundemente. Paying for theym and every of theym as
if we should in or for our owen cause paye and noon [none] otherwise. An
that the said John by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficiente, maye take
and receyve into the said Shippes, and every of theym all such maisters,
maryners, Pages, and other subjects of their owen free wille woll goo
[would go] and passe with him in the same Shippes to the said Lande or
Iles, without anye impedymente, lett or perturbance of any of our
officers or ministres or subjects whatsoever they be by theym to the
sayd John, his Deputie, or Deputies, and all other our seid subjects, or
any of theym passinge with the sayd John in the said Shippes to the said
Londe or Iles to be doon, or suffer to be doon or attempted. Geving in
commaundemente to all and every our officers, ministres and subjects
seying or herying theis our Lettres Patents, without any ferther
commaudement by Us to theym or any of theym to be geven to perfourme and
secour the said John, his Deputie and all our said Subjects so passyng
with hym according to the tenor of theis our Lettres Patentis. Any
Statute, Acte, or Ordennance to the contrarye made or to be made in any
wise notwithstanding.”
Five ships were got together for this expedition. Three of them are
supposed to have been furnished by Bristol merchants and two by the
king; one chronicler, however, says that the Cabots contributed two.
London merchants joined with Bristol men in the adventure. It was
understood to be an enterprise for colonization combined with further
discovery. The number of men enlisted for the voyage was placed at three
hundred. Among them, as on the first voyage, were mariners experienced
in venturesome undertakings. The fleet sailed off at the beginning of
May, 1498. One of the ships, aboard of which was the priest, “Friar
Buel,” put back to Ireland in distress. The other four continued the
voyage.
With the departure from Bristol nothing more is heard of John Cabot. He
drops out of sight instantly and mysteriously. Various conjectures as to
his fate are entertained by the historians. Some contend that he died
when about to set sail. But confronting this theory is a letter of the
prothonotary, Don Pedro de Ayala, residing in London, to Ferdinand and
Isabella, under date of July 25, 1498, reporting the sailing of the
expedition. “His [the king’s] fleet consisted of five vessels which
carried provisions for one year. It is said that one of them ... has
returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being much damaged. The
Genoese [John Cabot, as appears in the text elsewhere] has continued the
voyage.” If so important a man as John Cabot had now become had died
before May and the departure of the expedition of which he was the
acknowledged head, it is fairly reasoned that Ayala would have been
aware of it. No shred of satisfactory information has rewarded the
searcher for a solution of the problem. Nobody knows what became of him.
At this point Sebastian Cabot enters upon the scene in the leading part.
That he started with the expedition there is no doubt. Doubtless he
succeeded to its leadership as the “Deputie” of his father in accordance
with the terms of the patent. The conduct of it and the discoveries that
followed, big in import, were his from the outset.
Sebastian Cabot, though not over twenty-four, was an experienced
mariner, and accomplished, like his father, in the science of
navigation. He was full of ardour to achieve distinction as a
discoverer. The news of Columbus’s exploits had kindled in his heart “a
great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing.” As the master
spirit of this second Cabot expedition and with its results his heart’s
desire was splendidly attained; although the expedition was counted a
failure by its backers, and the value of its discoveries to England was
lost to the now indifferent king.
No contemporary account of this remarkable voyage was published, and
historians have founded their descriptions of it mainly on reports of a
much later period, derived from conversations with Sebastian Cabot at
first, second, or third hand. These reports are contradictory in
essential parts, and their authors confuse this second with the first
expedition or treat the two as one voyage. Its story, as most
satisfactorily picked out, runs practically in this wise: Sebastian
steered first northwest and directed his course by Iceland. At length he
came upon a formidable headland running to the north. This coast he
followed for a great distance, expecting to find the passage to Cathay
around it. In the month of July his ships were encountering “monstrous
heaps” of ice floating in the water, and daylight was almost continual.
At length failing to find any passage the ships’ prows were turned about
and in course of time Newfoundland was reached, where the expedition
sought refreshment. How far north Sebastian had penetrated it is
impossible to determine from the conflicting statements. He himself is
quoted as saying, twenty years and more afterward, that he was at
fifty-six degrees when compelled to turn back. But modern authorities
find presumptive evidence that he discovered Hudson’s Strait and gained
the sixty-seventh degree through Fox’s Channel before he turned. From
Newfoundland he sailed south, and coasted down along the North American
coast, still hopeful of finding the much-sought-for passage, till, the
company’s provisions falling short, he was obliged to take the homeward
course. The southernmost point reached is as indefinite as the northern,
but authorities generally agree that it was near thirty-six degrees, off
North Carolina, or about the latitude of Gibraltar.
Cabot is declared by early writers to have named the “great land” along
which he first coasted, assumed to be Newfoundland, “Baccaloas,” a
German term then in use in the south of Europe for codfish, because of
the multitudes of “big fish” found in the region. Later authorities,
however, say that this name was applied by Portuguese navigators who
came after Cabot. The name subsequently settled down upon a small island
on the east coast of Newfoundland. It seems to be agreed that landings
were made by Cabot’s company at several points. The natives, probably of
Newfoundland, were seen dressed in beasts’ skins, and they were found
making use of copper. Great sailors’ yarns were spun about the abundance
of the fish of the region, so great that “the progress of the ships were
sometimes impeded by them.” Bears, of which there were a plenty, were
accustomed to feed on the fish, plunging into the sea and catching them
with their claws.
Just when the expedition reached the home port of Bristol is not known.
It was expected back in September; it had not arrived in October. There
is no printed record of its arrival. Not having been successful in
finding the passage and reaching Cathay, it was regarded as a failure by
its princely and mercantile backers. The king, too, was found to have
lost his interest in western discovery or colonization. He was most
deeply engrossed in domestic affairs. “Great tumults” were happening,
“occasioned by the rising of the common people and the war in Scotland.”
Moreover, this Henry was now concerned in the pending Spanish alliance
and he was loath to run counter to the Pope’s Bull of 1493. The
geographical value of the Cabot discoveries was unappreciated, and no
more talk was then heard of further western voyaging.
Sebastian Cabot himself was not at that time aware that his father and
he had discovered a continent. His opinion was that all of the north
part of America was divided into islands.
VII
THE ENGLISH CLAIM TO AMERICA
Hakluyt reproduces the several conflicting accounts of the two Cabot
voyages extant in his day and marshals them as the “testimonies”
confirming the English claim to North America. They are thus summarized
in his catalogue of contents of the _Principal Navigations_.
“The first taken out of the mappe of Sebastian Cabota cut by Clement
Adames;
“the second used by Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes legate, and reported
by him;
“the third out of the preface of Baptista Ramusius [Giovanni Battista
Ramusio] before his third volume of Navigations;
“the 4. out of the thirde decade of Peter Martyr ab Angleria;
“the 5. out of the general history of Lopez de Gomara
“and the 6. out of Fabians Chronicle.”
The first “testimonie” is from a map which Hakluyt saw in the queen’s
privy gallery at Westminster, and of which copies were also to be seen
in several country houses of “ancient merchants.” It was attributed to
Sebastian Cabot, but whether it was actually his has been a much
discussed question by historical writers. Clement Adams was not an
engraver but a learned schoolmaster. His “cut” was apparently an
inscription from data furnished by Cabot. It was in Latin and is
supposed to have been made in the year 1549. This is the extract as
Hakluyt gives it:
“In the yere of our Lord 1497 John Cabot a Venetian, and his sonne
Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discovered that
land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of June,
about five of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima
vista, that is to say, First seene, because as I suppose it was that
part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth
out before the land, he called the Island of S. John upon this occasion,
as I thinke, because it was discovered upon the day of John the Baptist.
The inhabitants of this Island use to weare beasts skinnes, and have
them in as great estimation as we have our finest garments. In their
warres they use bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings.
The soile is barren in some places, & yeeldeth litle fruit, but it is
full of white beares and stagges farre greater then ours. It yeeldeth
plenty of fish, and those very great, as seales, and those which
commonly we call salmons: there are soles also above a yard in length:
but especially there is great abundance of that kinde of fish which the
Savages call baccalaos. In the same Island also there breed hauks, but
they are so blacke that they are very like to ravens, as also their
partridges, and egles [eagles] which are in like sort blacke.”
Here is seen the first mixture of the two expeditions and the
observations of their masters.
The second “testimonie” is comprised in a report of a talk among a group
of Italian savans at the villa of Hieronymo Fracastor, a maker of
globes, at Caphi, near Verona. The principal speaker, “a most profound
philosopher and mathematician,” but not named, discoursed about
Sebastian Cabot and related an interview had with Cabot some years
before at Seville, in which he described his adventures in detail. The
identification of the speaker as “Galeacius Butrigarius, the Pope’s
legate” in Spain, was copied by Hakluyt, it is said, from Richard Eden.
But this has been shown to have been an error, the fact being
ascertained that Butrigarius died some years before the gathering at
Fracastor’s villa. Hakluyt reproduces the animated tale from Ramusio’s
second book of voyages, the caption being his own:
"A discourse of Sebastain Cabot touching his discovery of part
of the West India out of England in the time of King Henry the
seventh, used to Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes Legate in
Spaine, and reported by the sayd Legate in this sort.
"Doe you not understand sayd he (speaking to certaine Gentlemen of
Venice) how to passe to India toward the Northwest, as did of late a
citizen of Venice, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things
pertaining to navigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this
present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he
is preferred above all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who
may not passe thither without his licence, and is therefore called
Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. And when we sayd that we knew
him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of
Sivil, and desirous to have some knowledge of the navigations of the
Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a
Venetian borne named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those
things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make
Cardes [charts] for the Sea with his owne hand, and that by this report,
seeking his acquaintance, hee found him a very gentle person, who
entertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a
large Mappe of the world, with certaine particular Navigations, as well
of the Portugals [Portuguese] as of the Spaniards, and that he spake
further unto him to this effect.
"‘When my father departed from Venice many yeres since to dwell in
England, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to
the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthelesse
some knowledge of letters of humanitie and of the Sphere. And when my
father died in that time when newes was brought that Don Christopher
Colonus Genuese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great
talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7. who then raigned, insomuch
that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine
than humane, to saile by the West into the East where spices growe, by a
way that was never knowen before, by this fame and report there
increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable
thing. And understanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I should saile
by way of the Northwest, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I
thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately
commanded two Carvels to bee furnished with all things appertayning to
the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496 [_sic_]
in the beginning of Sommer.