CABOT AND VERRAZZANO.
(A.D. 1497‒1524.)
Illustration: SHIP OF THE 15TH CENTURY.
The first of these extracts in regard to the Cabots may be found
in one of the Hakluyt Society’s volumes, entitled “Henry Hudson
the Navigator, edited by G. M. Asher,” London, 1860, p. lxix.
The extracts which follow are from another volume of the same
series, entitled “Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages,” London, 1850,
pp. 23‒26.
Verrazzano’s narrative is taken from “Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages,”
same edition, pp. 55‒71. Another translation, by J. G. Cogswell,
may be found, with the original Italian narrative, in the
Collections of the New York Historical Society, second series,
vol. 1.
CABOT AND VERRAZZANO.
I.――FIRST NEWS OF JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT.
[From a letter written by Lorenzo Pasqualigo, from London, to
his brothers in Venice, and dated Aug. 23, 1497.]
THIS Venetian of ours, who went with a ship from Bristol in quest of
new islands, is returned, and says that seven hundred leagues hence
he discovered “terra firma,”[63] which is the territory of the Grand
Cham.[64] He coasted for three hundred leagues, and landed. He saw no
human being whatsoever; but he has brought hither to the king certain
snares which had been set to catch game, and a needle for making nets;
he also found some felled trees: wherefore he supposed there were
inhabitants, and returned to his ship in alarm.
He was three months on the voyage, it is quite certain; and, coming
back, he saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time being
precious, as he was short of provisions. The king is much pleased with
this intelligence. He says that the tides are slack, and do not flow
as they do here.
The king has promised, that, in the spring, he shall have ten ships
armed according to his own fancy; and, at his request, he has conceded
to him all the prisoners, except such as are confined for high treason,
to man them with. He has also given him money wherewith to amuse
himself till then; and he is now at Bristol with his wife, who is a
Venetian woman, and with his sons. His name is Zuan[65] Cabot; and they
call him the great admiral. Vast honor is paid him, and he dresses in
silk; and these English run after him like mad people, so that he can
enlist as many of them as he pleases, and a number of our own rogues
besides.
The discoverer of these places planted on his new-found land a large
cross, with one flag of England, and another of St. Mark, by reason of
his being a Venetian; so that our banner has floated very far afield.
II.――SEBASTIAN CABOT’S VOYAGE.
[The following notes, preserved in “Hakluyt’s Voyages,” give the
earliest authentic information about Sebastian Cabot.]
A NOTE of Sebastian Cabot’s Voyage of Discovery, taken out of an old
Chronicle written by Robert Fabian, sometime Alderman of London, which
is in the custody of John Stowe, Citizen, a diligent searcher and
preserver of Antiquities.
This year[66] the King[67]――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, as by a card and other demonstrations reasonable
he showed,――caused to man and victual a ship at Bristol, to search for
an island which he said he knew well was rich and replenished with rich
commodities. Which ship thus manned and victualled 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 Bristol three or four small ships fraught with
slight and gross merchandises, as coarse cloth, caps, laces, points,
and other trifles, and so departed from Bristol in the beginning of May:
of whom in this Mayor’s time returned no tidings.
* * * * *
Of three savage men which he brought home, and presented unto the King
in the seventeenth year of his reign.
This year also were brought unto the King three men taken in the new
found island, that before I spake of in William Purchas’ time, being
Mayor. These were clothed in beast’s skins, and ate raw flesh, and
spake such speech that no man could understand them, and in their
demeanor like to brute beasts, whom the King kept a time after. Of the
which upon two years past after, I saw two apparelled after the manner
of Englishmen, in Westminster Palace, which at that time I could not
discern from Englishmen, till I was learned what they were. But as for
speech, I heard none of them utter one word.
* * * * *
John Baptista Ramusius, in his Preface to the third volume of the
Navigations, writeth thus of Sebastian Gabot:[68]――
In the latter part of this volume are put certain relations of John
De Verarzana,[69] a Florentine, and of a great captain, a Frenchman,
and the two voyages of Jaques Cartier, a Briton,[70] who sailed into
the land set in fifty degrees of latitude to the north, which is called
New France: and the which lands hitherto it is not thoroughly known
whether they do join with the firm land of Florida and Nova Hispania,
or whether they be separated and divided all by the Sea as Islands: and
whether by that way one may go by sea into the country of Cathaio:[71]
as many years past it was written unto me by Sebastian Gabot, our
countryman Venetian, a man of great experience, and very rare in the
art of Navigation and the knowledge of Cosmography: who sailed along
and beyond this land of New France, at the charges of King Henry the
seventh, King of England. And he told me that having sailed a long time
West and by North beyond these islands unto the latitude of sixty-seven
degrees and a half under the North Pole, and at the 11 day of June,
finding still the open sea without any manner of impediment, he thought
verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaio, which is
in the East and would have done it, if the mutiny of the shipmaster and
mariners had not rebelled, and made him to return homewards from that
place. But it seemeth that God doth yet reserve this great enterprise
for some great Prince to discover this voyage of Cathaio by this
way: which for the bringing of the spiceries from India into Europe
were the most easy and shortest of all other ways hitherto found out.
And, surely, this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most
importance of all other, that can be imagined, to make his name great,
and fame immortal, to all ages to come, far more than can be done by
any of all these great troubles and wars, which daily are used in
Europe among the miserable Christian people.
This much concerning Sebastian Gabot’s discovery may suffice for a
present cast: but shortly, God willing, shall come out in print, all
his own maps and discourses, drawn and written by himself, which are
in the custody of the worshipful master William Worthington, one of
her Majesty’s Pensioners, who――because so worthy monuments should not
be buried in perpetual oblivion,――is very willing to suffer them to be
overseen and published in as good order as may be, to the encouragement
and benefit of our countrymen.[72]
III.――VERRAZZANO’S LETTER TO THE KING.
[This letter is said to have been written at Dieppe, July 8,
1524, being addressed to King Francis I. of France.
This narrative, if authentic, is the earliest original account
of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Its authenticity
has been doubted; and Mr. Bancroft, in the new edition of his
History, does not refer to it at all. But, as the question is
still unsettled, the letter is included here.]
Illustration: VERRAZZANO.
I WROTE not to your Majesty (most Christian king), since the time
we suffered the tempest in the north parts, of the success of the four
ships which your Majesty sent forth to discover new lands by the ocean,
thinking your Majesty had been already duly informed thereof. Now
by these presents I will give your Majesty to understand how, by the
violence of the winds, we were forced with the two ships, the “Norman”
and the “Dolphin,” in such evil case as they were, to land in Brittany.
Where after we had repaired them in all points as was needful, and
armed them very well, we took our course along by the coast of Spain.
Afterwards, with the “Dolphin” alone, we determined to make discovery
of new countries, to prosecute the navigation we had already begun;
which I purpose at this present to recount unto your Majesty, to make
manifest the whole proceeding of the matter. The 17th of January, the
year 1524, by the grace of God we departed from the dishabited rock,[73]
by the Isle of Madeira, appertaining to the King of Portugal, with
fifty men, with victuals, weapon, and other ship munition very well
provided and furnished for eight months. And, sailing westwards with
a fair easterly wind, in twenty-five days we ran five hundred leagues;
and the 20th of February we were overtaken with as sharp and terrible
a tempest as ever any sailors suffered: whereof, with the divine help
and merciful assistance of Almighty God, and the goodness of our ship,
accompanied with the good hap of her fortunate name, we were delivered,
and with a prosperous wind followed our course west by north. And in
other twenty-five days we made about four hundred leagues more, where
we discovered a new land[74] never before seen of any man, either
ancient or modern. And at the first sight it seemed somewhat low; but,
being within a quarter of a league of it, we perceived, by the great
fires that we saw by the seacoast, that it was inhabited, and saw that
the land stretched to the southwards....
While we rode[75] upon that coast, partly because it had no harbor,
and for that we wanted water, we sent our boat ashore with twenty-five
men, where, by reason of great and continual waves that beat against
the shore, being an open coast, without succor none of our men could
possibly go ashore without losing our boat. We saw there many people
which came unto the shore making divers signs of friendship, and
showing that they were content we should come a-land; and by trial
we found them to be very courteous and gentle, as your Majesty shall
understand by the success. To the intent we might send them of our
things, which the Indians commonly desire and esteem, as sheets of
paper, glasses, bells, and such like trifles, we sent a young man, one
of our mariners, ashore, who swimming towards them, and being within
three or four yards off the shore, not trusting them, cast the things
upon the shore. Seeking afterwards to return, he was with such violence
of the waves beaten upon the shore, that he was so bruised that he lay
there almost dead, which the Indians perceiving, ran to catch him, and,
drawing him out, they carried him a little way off from the sea. The
young man, perceiving they carried him, being at the first dismayed,
began then greatly to fear, and cried out piteously. Likewise did
the Indians, which did accompany him, going about to cheer him and
give him courage; and then setting him on the ground at the foot of a
little hill against the sun, began to behold him with great admiration,
marvelling at the whiteness of his flesh. And, putting off his clothes,
they made him warm at a great fire, not without our great fear, which
remained in the boat, that they would have roasted him at that fire and
have eaten him. The young man having recovered his strength, and having
staid a while with them, showed them by signs that he was desirous to
return to the ship. And they with great love, clapping him fast about
with many embracings, accompanying him unto the sea, and, to put him in
more assurance, leaving him alone, went unto a high ground, and stood
there, beholding him until he was entered into the boat. This young man
observed, as we did also, that these are of color inclining to black,
as the others were, with their flesh very shining, of mean stature,
handsome visage, and delicate limbs, and of very little strength, but
of prompt wit; farther we observed not....
Illustration: VERRAZZANO IN NEWPORT HARBOR.
Departing from hence, following the shore, which trended somewhat
toward the north, in fifty leagues’ space we came to another land,
which showed much more fair, and full of woods, being very great, where
we rode at anchor; and, that we might have some knowledge thereof, we
sent twenty men a-land,[76] which entered into the country about two
leagues, and they found that the people were fled to the woods for fear.
They saw only one old woman with a young maid of eighteen or twenty
years old, which, seeing our company, hid themselves in the grass for
fear. The old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind
her neck a child of eight years old. The young woman was laden likewise
with as many. But, when our men came unto them, the old woman made
signs that the men were fled into the woods as soon as they saw us. To
quiet them, and to win their favor, our men gave them such victuals as
they had with them to eat, which the old woman received thankfully; but
the young woman disdained them all, and threw them disdainfully on the
ground. They took a child from the old woman to bring into France; and
going about to take the young woman, which was very beautiful, and of
tall stature, could not possibly, for the great outcries that she made,
bring her to the sea; and especially having great woods to pass through,
and being far from the ship, we purposed to leave her behind, bearing
away the child only. We found those folks to be more white than those
that we found before, being clad with certain leaves that hang on the
boughs of trees, which they sew together with threads of wild hemp.
Their heads were trussed up after the same manner as the former were.
Their ordinary food is of pulse,[77] whereof they have great store,
differing in color and taste from ours, of good and pleasant taste.
Moreover they live by fishing and fowling, which they take with
gins[78] and bows made of hard wood, the arrows of canes being headed
with the bones of fish and other beasts. The beasts in these parts are
much wilder than in our Europe, by reason they are continually chased
and hunted.
We saw many of their boats, made of one tree, twenty feet long and four
feet broad, which are not made of iron, or stone, or any other kind of
metal, because that in all this country, for the space of two hundred
leagues which we ran, we never saw one stone of any sort. They help
themselves with fire, burning so much of the tree as is sufficient for
the hollowness of the boat: the like they do in making the stern and
forepart, until it be fit to sail upon the sea....
Illustration: INDIANS MAKING CANOES.
And we came to another land,[79] being fifteen leagues distant from the
island, where we found a passing good haven, wherein being entered, we
found about twenty small boats of the people, which, with divers cries
and wonderings, came about our ship. Coming no nearer than fifty paces
towards us, they staid and beheld the artificialness of our ship, our
shape, and apparel, that they all made a loud shout together, declaring
that they rejoiced. When we had something animated[80] them, using
their gestures, they came so near us, that we cast them certain bells
and glasses and many toys, which when they had received, they looked
on them with laughing, and came without fear aboard our ship. There
were amongst these people two kings of so goodly stature and shape as
is possible to declare: the eldest was about forty years of age; the
second was a young man of twenty years old. Their apparel was on this
manner: the elder had upon his naked body a hart’s[81] skin, wrought
artificially with divers branches like damask. His head was bare, with
the hair tied up behind with divers knots. About his neck he had a
large chain garnished with divers stones of sundry colors. The young
man was almost apparelled after the same manner. This is the goodliest
people, and of the fairest conditions, that we have found in this our
voyage. They exceed us in bigness. They are of the color of brass, some
of them incline more to whiteness: others are of a yellow color, of
comely visage, with long and black hair, which they are very careful
to trim and deck up....
There are also of them which wear on their arms very rich skins of
leopards: they adorn their heads with divers ornaments made of their
own hair, which hangs down before on both sides their breasts: others
use other kind of dressing themselves, like unto the women of Egypt and
Syria. These are of the elder sort; and, when they are married, they
wear divers toys,[82] according to the usage of the people of the East,
as well men as women....
Among whom we saw many plates of wrought copper, which they esteem more
than gold, which for the color they make no account of, for that among
all other it is counted the basest. They make the most account of azure
and red. The things that they esteemed most of all those which we gave
them were bells, crystal of azure color, and other toys to hang at
their ears or about their neck. They did not desire cloth of silk or
gold, much less of any other sort; neither cared they for things made
of steel and iron, which we often showed them in our armor, which they
made no wonder at; and, in beholding them, they only asked the art
of making them. The like they did at our glasses,[83] which when they
beheld, they suddenly laughed, and gave them us again....
And oftentimes one of the two kings coming with his queen, and many
gentlemen for their pleasure, to see us, they all staid on the shore,
two hundred paces from us, sending a small boat to give us intelligence
of their coming, saying they would come to see our ship. This they
did in token of safety; and, as soon as they had answer from us,
they came immediately, and, having staid awhile to behold it, they
wondered at hearing the cries and noise of the mariners. The queen
and her maids staid in a very light boat, at an island a quarter of
a league off, while the king abode a long space in our ship, uttering
divers conceits[84] with gestures, viewing with great admiration
all the furniture of the ship, demanding the property of every thing
particularly. He took likewise great pleasure in beholding our apparel,
and in tasting our meats, and so courteously taking his leave departed.
And sometimes our men staying for two or three days on a little island
near the ship for divers necessaries,――as it is the use of seamen,――he
returned with seven or eight of his gentlemen to see what we did, and
asked of us ofttimes if we meant to make any long abode there, offering
us of their provision; then the king, drawing his bow, and running up
and down with his gentlemen, made much sport to gratify our men....
We found another land[85] high, full of thick woods, the trees
whereof were firs, cypresses, and such like as are wont to grow in cold
countries. The people differ much from the other, and look! how much
the former seemed to be courteous and gentle, so much were these full
of rudeness and ill manners, and so barbarous, that by no signs that
ever we could make, we could have any kind of traffic with them. They
clothe themselves with bears’ skins, and leopards’, and seals’, and
other beasts’ skins. Their food, as far as we could perceive, repairing
often unto their dwellings, we suppose to be by hunting and fishing,
and of certain fruits, which are a kind of roots which the earth
yieldeth of her own accord. They have no grain, neither saw we any kind
or sign of tillage; neither is the land, for the barrenness thereof,
apt to bear fruit or seed. If, at any time, we desired by exchange to
have any of their commodities, they used to come to the seashore upon
certain craggy rocks, and, we standing in our boats, they let down
with a rope what it pleased them to give us, crying continually that
we should not approach to the land, demanding immediately the exchange,
taking nothing but knives, fish-hooks, and tools to cut withal; neither
did they make any account of our courtesy. And when we had nothing left
to exchange with them, when we departed from them, the people showed
all signs of discourtesy and disdain as was possible for any creature
to invent. We were, in despite of them, two or three leagues within the
land, being in number twenty-five armed men of us. And, when we went
on shore, they shot at us with their bows, making great outcries, and
afterwards fled into the woods....
Having now spent all our provision and victuals, and having discovered
about seven hundred leagues and more of new countries, and being
furnished with water and wood, we concluded to return into France.