CHAPTER XIV

JOHN CABOT AND THE ENGLISH DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA

[Sidenote: Awakening of geographical research]

Over the cloud-bridge of illusion lies the path of human progress. The greatest achievements in history have been brought about more by the aid of ideas than of truth. Religious illusions have ennobled the rude masses and raised them to higher forms of society; in the domain of science intuition and hypothesis have led to fresh victories, as also in geographical exploration; there too illusions, like a fata Morgana, have impelled men forward to great discoveries.

It is true that Columbus's plan was based on the correct idea that the world was round; but if he had known the real distance of India--if he had not been fettered by the ancient dogmas of the Greeks about the great extension of the continent to the east, and their low estimate of the earth's circumference, which made India appear so enticingly near--if he had not believed in myths of lands in the west--he certainly would never have been the discoverer of a new world.

The people of the Middle Ages lived, as we have seen, to a great extent on remnants of the geographical knowledge and conceptions of the Greeks. It was the age of superstition and speculation; with the exception of the Norsemen and the Arabs, and in some degree also the Irish monks, there was during the earlier part of this period no enterprise that broke through the bounds of the known, except in the mythical world of fancy. It was not until the Crusades that the horizon began to be widened. The eastern trade of the Italian republics and the development of capable Italian seamen were of great significance. At an early date they made discoveries along the west coast of Africa. Of even greater importance was it that the Portuguese learned seamanship from them, and no doubt from the Arabs as well, and displayed great enterprise on the ocean along the shores of Africa, finding groups of islands in the west, and finally the Azores in 1427; but these must have been discovered earlier, since similar islands occur on Italian maps of the fourteenth century (cf. the Catalan Atlas of 1375).

When Ptolemy's work, and through it the geography of the Greeks, became known in Western Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century, it created a greater stir in the learned world than even the discovery of America did later; the circle of geographical ideas was greatly changed, and the world was regarded with new eyes as a sphere. The doctrine of the possibility of circumnavigating the earth was especially framed and scientifically established by the celebrated astronomer Toscanelli of Florence. But this was not a new doctrine; for the Greeks, Eratosthenes and Posidonius, for example (cf. vol. i. pp. 77, 79), had already announced it clearly enough, and even in the Middle Ages it was not forgotten. We saw that Mandeville, the writer of fabulous narratives, fully understood the possibility of sailing round the globe, and related ancient tales about such a voyage (cf. p. 271). But at the close of the fifteenth century the idea was seriously taken up by two men of action, both Genoese. One of them was Columbus, the other Cabot. Whether the latter had already conceived the idea before the first voyage of Columbus we do not know for certain, but it is not improbable; the thought was latent in the age, and many must have come near it. Another force impelling men to the western voyage, and perhaps as powerful a one as these scientific speculations, was the belief in the mythical world of enticing islands that lay out in the ocean to the west of Europe and Africa; the Isles of the Blest of the Greeks and the Atlantis of Plato, conceptions, originally derived from the East, which were still alive, though in other forms. There lay Antillia, the Isle of the Seven Cities, mythical islands of the Arabs, and the Irish legendary world, Brandan's isles and many others; some of them had had a part in creating the Norse idea of Wineland and the White Men's Land; now they were given a fresh lease of life, and power over the imagination of Western Europe. Possibly in connection with echoes of tales of the Norsemen's discoveries--coming from Iceland to Bristol, and thence to the continent--these mythical islands helped to form a widespread belief in countries in the far west across the ocean. The fact that the Portuguese, as has been said, really found islands, the Azores, out in the Atlantic in 1427, also contributed to establish this belief. From these islands many expeditions set out in the course of the fifteenth century to search for new lands farther west.[278]

[Sidenote: Connection of Bristol with Iceland]

From the beginning of the fifteenth century Bristol was in frequent communication with Iceland, both for the fishery and for trade. As already pointed out, this was certainly due in no small degree to the number of Norwegians who had settled in the town. Sailors and merchants returning from voyages to Iceland doubtless brought thence many tales of marvels and of unknown islands and countries out in the ocean; legends of the Icelanders' voyages to Greenland and Wineland may have served to entertain the winter evenings in Bristol.[279] It was therefore surely not an accident that attempts to find land in the west should originate precisely in this enterprising sea-port.

[Sidenote: The Isle of Brazil]

On the maps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there lay out in the ocean to the west of Ireland the Isle of Brazil (cf. p. 228). It was the Irish fortunate isle Hy Breasail, of which it is sung:

"On the ocean that hollows the rocks where ye dwell, A shadowy land has appeared, as they tell; Men thought it a region of sunshine and rest, And they called it O'Brazil--the isle of the blest.

From year unto year, on the ocean's blue rim, The beautiful spectre showed lovely and dim; The golden clouds curtained the deep where it lay, And it looked like an Eden, away, far away." [Gerald Griffin.]

[Sidenote: Expedition to find Brazil, 1480]

We have seen that on certain maps this round fabled isle was brought into connection with an "Insula verde," probably Greenland, and this conception of the latter probably came from Iceland by way of England. We do not know what myths were associated with Brazil at that time; but the belief in it was so much alive that ships were sent out from Bristol to search for the island. A contemporary account of such an attempt made in 1480 has come down to us:[280]

"On the 15th of July [25th of July N.S.] ships ... [belonging to ?] ... and John Jay junior, of 80 tons burthen, sailed out of the port of Bristol [to navigate] as far as the island of Brazil ["insulam de Brasylle"] on the west side of Ireland, ploughing the seas by ... and ... Thlyde [Thomas Lyde or Lloyd ?] is the most expert seaman in the whole of England, and on the 18th of September [27th of September N.S.] the news reached Bristol that after having sailed the seas for about 9 months they had not discovered the island, but on account of storms had returned to the port ... in Ireland to allow the ships and men to rest."

Parts of the MS. being illegible, it does not appear whether John Jay, junior, was one of the leaders of the expedition or (as Harrisse thinks) one of the owners of the ships, but in any case we must suppose that the Thomas Lyde mentioned above was the actual leader or navigator. The "nine months" ("9 menses") must either be a clerical error for two months or for nine weeks, either of which would fit the dates given, while nine months is meaningless. This must at any rate have been a serious attempt to find lands in the west, twelve years before Columbus's discovery of the West Indies; and this was not the last attempt made from Bristol to find this happy land, for in 1497 Ayala, the Spanish Minister in London, writes:

"For the last seven years the Bristol people have equipped every year two, three, or four caravels to go in search of the islands of Brazil and of the Seven Cities,[281] following the imagination of this Genoese."

[Sidenote: Giovanni Caboto]

"This Genoese" is Giovanni Caboto, or John Cabot, as he was called in England. We find only a few casual statements about this man, who was to give England the right of discovery to a new continent, and who, together with his fellow townsman, Columbus, forms the great turning-point in the history of discovery; for the most part an impenetrable obscurity rests upon his life and activity.[282] As he is often called, e.g., in letters from the contemporary Spanish Ambassadors in London, "this Genoese," or "a Genoese like Columbus," we must suppose that he was born in Genoa; but from existing State documents of the republic of Venice it appears that Joanni Caboto obtained his freedom in Venice on March 28, 1476, after having lived there fifteen years, which was the legal period necessary to enable a foreigner to become a citizen of the republic.[283] From the statements of contemporaries we must conclude that John Cabot was a capable seaman and navigator, with a good knowledge of charts and cartography; he also constructed a globe to illustrate his voyages. This is no more than was to be expected of a Genoese, trained in the Venetian school, which at that time was the foremost in seamanship. It may, therefore, be regarded as probable that John Cabot was familiar with the leading ideas of the geographical world of his time. Thus, while still living at Venice, he may have heard of the idea of reaching Eastern Asia by sailing to the west, which was put forward, notably by Toscanelli, as early as 1474, and in this way it is possible that, independently of Columbus, he may have thought of accomplishing this voyage to the fabulous riches of the East by a shorter route than that which the Portuguese sought to the south of Africa. In support of this it may be mentioned that in 1497 he himself told the Minister of Milan in London, Raimondo di Soncino, that

"he had once been at Mecca, whither spices were brought by caravans from distant lands, and that those who brought them, when asked where the said spices grew, answered that they did not know, but that other caravans came to their home with this merchandise from more distant lands, and these [other caravans] again say that it is brought to them from other regions situated far away." Soncino adds that "Cabot reasons thus--that if the eastern people tell those in the south that these things come from places far distant from them, and so on from hand to hand, then, granting the earth to be round, the last people must obtain them in the north-west; and he says it in such a way that, as it does not cost me more than it costs, I too believe it...."[284]

It is not improbable that Cabot may have thought that as, on account of the spherical form of the earth, the circumference of the lines of latitude decreases towards the north, the shortest way over the western ocean to the east coast of Asia must lie along the northern latitudes (cf. Posidonius, vol. i. p. 79). But we cannot lose sight of the fact that Cabot did not advance this until long after the first voyage of Columbus, and it is, therefore, uncertain whether the idea occurred to him before or after that time. When this journey to Mecca took place we do not know.

Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish Minister in London, says in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in 1498, that Cabot is "another Genoese like Columbus, who has been in Seville and Lisbon, endeavouring to obtain help for this discovery" [i.e., of land in the west]. The question is whether this "who" refers to Columbus or Cabot. The latter appears more likely, as it seems superfluous for the Minister to inform Ferdinand and Isabella that Columbus had been in Seville. But here again we do not learn when Cabot may have made this journey to Spain and Portugal, whether before or after Columbus's voyage in 1492. In any case it may point to his having been occupied for a long time with plans of this sort.

[Sidenote: John Cabot arrives in England, circa 1490 ?]

Nor do we know when John Cabot came to England; but perhaps it was about 1490 that he settled in Bristol. If he really came there with ideas of making for Asia across the western ocean, he certainly found a favourable soil for such plans in the port which had already sent out ships in 1480 to look for the island of Brazil. But it is also very possible that these plans occurred to him after he had heard of this expedition, and had become familiar at first hand with the ideas of western lands which dominated the minds of the sailors of Western Europe (Englishmen and Portuguese) of that time. With the many fresh arguments he brought with him from Italy and the Mediterranean countries, it cannot have been difficult for him to induce the merchants of Bristol to make fresh attempts to find these countries in the west or north-west; and, to judge from Ayala's letter of 1497 about the expeditions sent out annually for the previous seven years, he seems to have been persistent.

We do not know whether Cabot himself took part in the attempts made after 1490. None of them seems to have met with any success before 1497, for otherwise it would have been mentioned. But it was while the people of Bristol were occupied with such enterprises that Cabot's great fellow-countryman, Columbus, made his remarkable voyage across the ocean farther to the south, in 1492, and found a new world, which he took to be India. With that came the awakening with which the time was pregnant. The news of the achievement, which fired all the adventurers of Europe, must soon have reached Bristol, and put new life and a wider purpose into the old plans.[285] That Cabot now became the soul of these plans is clear enough from all the facts, and we see from existing public documents that at the beginning of 1496 he was making special efforts to get an important expedition sent out, and was applying to the King of England for protection and letters patent to assure to himself and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian and Sancto, the profit of the discoveries he expected to make on this expedition, which was to consist of five ships.

[Sidenote: Cabot's letters patent, 1496]

The letters patent were accorded on March 5 (14th N.S.), 1496,[286] and give Cabot and his sons the right under the English flag

"to sail in all parts, regions and bays of the sea, in the east, west and north, with five ships or vessels of whatever burthen or kind, and with as many men as they wished to take with them, at their own expense, and to find, discover and investigate whatever islands, countries, regions or provinces belonging to heathens or infidels, in whatsoever part of the world they might be, which before that time were unknown to all Christians." They also had the right as vassals or governors of the King of England, to take possession of whatsoever towns, camps or islands they might discover and be in a position to capture and occupy. They were to give the king a fifth part of all merchandise, profits, etc., of this voyage or of each voyage, as often as they came to Bristol, to which port alone they were bound to return. They were exempted from all duty on goods they might bring from newly discovered lands, and were given a monopoly of all trade and traffic with them. Furthermore, all English subjects, both by land and sea, were ordered to afford the said John, his sons, heirs and assigns, good assistance, "both in fitting-out their ships or vessels, and in supplying them with provisions which were paid for with their own money."

As the south is not mentioned among the regions which might be explored, and as the new countries might not be known to Christians, it is clear that Cabot is here enjoined not to frequent those waters where the Spaniards and Portuguese had just made their most important discoveries, and thus run the risk of bringing England into conflict with the Spanish or Portuguese Crown.

[Sidenote: Cabot's preparations and plans]

As the letters patent bear the same date (March 5) and are to some extent couched in the same terms as Cabot's petition, they must have been granted as the result of previous negotiation and agreement between Cabot and the King, and must therefore contain Cabot's plans for the new voyage, which were thus already formed in March 1496, when he had doubtless made at all events some preparations for the expedition.

That Cabot's plans had been spoken of at the English Court as early as January of that year appears from an existing letter from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to the Spanish Ambassador in England, Dr. Ruy Gonzales de Puebla. The letter is dated March 28 (April 6, N.S.), 1496, and is an answer to a letter, now lost, of January 21 (30, N.S.) from the Ambassador. The answer is as follows:

"You write that one like Columbus has come to propose to the King of England another enterprise like that of the Indies, without prejudice to Spain or Portugal. He has full liberty. But we believe that this enterprise was put in the way of the King of England by the King of France in order to divert him from other business. Take care that the King of England be not deceived in this or any other matter. The French will try as much as they can to lead him into such enterprises; but they are very uncertain undertakings, and are not to be commenced for the moment. Moreover they cannot be put into execution without prejudice to us and to the King of Portugal."[287]

It will be understood from this that Cabot's plans had attracted attention in London, and that great importance was attached to them; consequently they must have been discussed for some time before the granting of letters patent. For this reason also, we must suppose that Cabot was prepared for his expedition in March 1496. It seems therefore unlikely that this was the expedition which did not leave until the year following that in which he applied for the letters patent, all the more so as the expedition of 1497 consisted of only one ship.[288] If we may interpret Ayala's words of 1498 literally, that Bristol had sent out ships yearly for the seven previous years to search for the island of Brazil, etc., then we must suppose that Cabot actually set out in 1496 with the projected expedition of five ships, but for some reason or other turned back without having accomplished his object. After having been unfortunate in so large an undertaking, Cabot may have found it less easy to enlist support for a fresh attempt in 1497, and was thus obliged to content himself with one small ship and a scanty crew (eighteen men).[289] It may also be supposed that as the earlier expeditions consisting of several ships had failed to find the land they were looking for, Cabot as a practical seaman wished to make a pioneer expedition with a small swift-sailing craft and a picked crew, before again embarking on a large and costly undertaking. He was more independent, and could sail farther and more rapidly to the west, than when he was tied by having to keep a fleet of several ships together.

[Sidenote: Sebastian Cabot's participation in 1497 doubtful]

Cabot's sons, who are mentioned in the letters patent, may have taken part in the voyage of 1496; on the other hand, it is less probable that they were among the eighteen men in 1497.[290] It is true that his son Sebastian claimed to have been present as one of the leaders of the expedition, but he also claimed to have made the voyage alone, so that no weight can be attached to his words. In any case, he must have been very young at that time, and he cannot have played any important part. Nor is a word said about him in a single one of the letters from contemporary foreign ambassadors in London, and in Pasqualigo's letter of August 23, 1497, we are told of John Cabot after his return that "in the meantime [i.e., until his next voyage] he is staying with his Venetian wife and his sons in Bristol." This does not seem to show that any of the sons had been with him; and the protest of the Wardens of the Drapers' Company of London (see later) against Sebastian as a navigator points in the same direction.

Not a line have we from Cabot's own hand either about this important voyage of 1497 or any other. We hear that he made maps of his discoveries; but these too have been lost, like so many other maps that must have been drawn during this period before 1500.[291] We can, therefore, only draw our conclusions from the statements of others, some contemporary and some later.

The most important documents giving trustworthy information about John Cabot's voyage in 1497 are the following:

[Sidenote: Most important authorities for the voyage of 1497]

(1) The three letters from his two compatriots in London: one from the Venetian, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, to his two brothers in Venice, dated August 23 (September 1, N.S.), 1497; and two letters from the Milanese Minister, Raimondo di Soncino, to the Duke of Milan, dated August 24 (September 2, N.S.) and December 18 (27), 1497.

(2) An entry in the accounts of the King of England's privy purse, from which we see that Cabot was back in London by August 10 (19, N.S.), 1497.

(3) The map of the world, drawn in 1500, by the well-known Spanish pilot, Juan de la Cosa.

(4) A Bristol chronicle by Maurice Toby, written in 1565, but from older sources.

Besides these may be mentioned a legend on the map of the world of 1544 which, according to what is written on it, was the work of Sebastian Cabot. But even if this be correct, the legend is of no great value, as he cannot be regarded as a trustworthy authority.[292]

[Sidenote: Pasqualigo's letter of Aug. 23, 1497]

Lorenzo Pasqualigo writes on August 23 (September 1, N.S.), 1497, to his two brothers in Venice, amongst other things:

"Our Venetian, who set out with a little ship from Bristol to find new islands, has returned, and says that he has discovered 700 leagues [Italian nautical leagues] away the mainland of the kingdom of the Great Khan ('Gran Cam') [China], and that he sailed 300 leagues along its coast and landed, but saw no people; but he brought here to the King some snares that were set up to catch game, and a needle for making nets, and he found some trees with cuts in them, from which he concluded that there were inhabitants. Being in doubt he returned to the ship,[293] and was three months on the voyage, and this is certain; and on the way back he saw two islands on the right hand, but would not land so as not to lose time, as he was short of provisions. He says that the tides are sluggish and do not run as here [i.e., in England]. The King has promised him next time ten ships fitted out according to his desires, and has given him as many prisoners to take with him as he has asked, except those who are in prison for high treason; and he has given him money to enjoy himself with in the meantime, and now he is with his Venetian wife and his sons at Bristol. His name is Zuam Talbot [sic, for Cabot], and he is called the Grand Admiral and great honour is shown him, and he goes dressed in silk and the Englishmen run after him like madmen, but he will have nothing to do with any of them, and so [do] many of our vagabonds. The discoverer of these things has planted on the soil he has found the banner of England and that of St. Mark, as he is a Venetian; so that our flag has been hoisted far away" [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 322].

[Sidenote: Soncino's letter of Aug. 24, 1497]

The Minister, Raimondo di Soncino, writes on August 24 (September 2, N.S.), 1497, to the Duke of Milan, amongst other things:

"Some months ago ('sono mesi passate') his majesty the King [of England] sent out a Venetian who is a good sailor, and has much ability in finding islands, and he has returned safely and has discovered two very large and fertile islands, and found as it seems the seven cities[294] 400 leagues to the west of the island of England. His majesty the King here will on the first opportunity send him with fifteen or twenty ships..." [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 323].

[Sidenote: Soncino's letter of Dec. 18, 1497]

On December 18 (27), 1497, Soncino again writes to the Duke more fully about Cabot's voyage:

"Perhaps amongst Your Excellency's many occupations it may not be unwelcome to hear how this Majesty has acquired a part of Asia without drawing his sword. In this kingdom is a Venetian called Messer Zoanne Caboto, of gentle bearing, very skilful in navigation, who, seeing that the most serene Kings, first of Portugal and then of Spain, had taken possession of unknown islands, proposed to himself to make a similar acquisition for the said Majesty. After having obtained the royal privilege, which assured to him the use of the dominions he might discover, while the Crown retained the sovereignty over them, he gave himself into the hands of fortune with a small ship and eighteen men, and sailed from Bristol, a port on the west of this kingdom; and after passing Ireland farther west, and then steering to the north, he began to sail towards the eastern regions [i.e., westwards to the lands of the Orient, thus making for the east coast of Asia], leaving (after some days) the pole-star on his right hand; and after a good deal of wandering ('havendo assai errato') he finally came to the land ('terra ferma'), where he raised the royal banner and took possession of the country for this Highness, and after having taken some tokens [of his discovery] he returned. As the said Messer Zoanne [John] is a foreigner and poor, he would not be believed, if his crew, who are nearly all English and belong to Bristol, had not confirmed the truth of what he said. This Messer Zoanne has the description of the world on a chart, and also on a solid sphere which he has made, showing on it where he has been; and in travelling towards the East he went as far as to the land of the Tanais [i.e., Asia], and they say that the country there is excellent and temperate, and expect that brazil-wood (il brasilio) and silk[295] grow there, and they declare that this sea is full of fish which can be caught not only with the seine, but also with a dip-net [or bow-net ?], to which is fastened a stone to sink it in the water, and this I have heard related by the said Messer Zoanne. And the said Englishmen, his companions, say that they took so many fish that this kingdom will no longer have any need of Iceland, from which country there is a very great trade in the fish they call stockfish. But Messer Zoanne has set his mind on higher things, and thinks of sailing from the place he has occupied, keeping along the coast farther to the east, until he arrives opposite to an island called Cipango [i.e., Japan], lying in the equinoctial region, where he thinks that all the spices of the world, as well as jewels, are to be found." Then follows the reference to his visit to Mecca, already cited (p. 296). The letter continues: "And what is more, this Majesty, who is prudent and not prodigal, has such confidence in him on account of what he has accomplished, that he gives him a very good subsidy, as Messer Zoanne himself tells me. And it is said that his Majesty will shortly fit out some ships for him, and will give him all the criminals to go out to this land and form a colony, so that they hope to establish in London an even greater emporium of spices than that at Alexandria. The principals in this enterprise belong to Bristol; they are great sailors, and now that they know where to go, they say that the voyage thither will not take more than fifteen days, if they have a favourable wind on leaving Ireland. I have also spoken with a Burgundian of Messer Zoanne's company, who confirms all this, and who wishes to return thither, because the Admiral (for this is the title they give Messer Zoanne) has given him an island; and he has given another to his barber [surgeon ?] from Castione,[296] a Genoese, and both consider themselves counts, nor do they reckon Monsignor the Admiral for less than a prince. I believe some poor Italian monks who have been promised bishoprics will also go on this voyage. And if I had made friends with the Admiral when he was about to sail, I should at least have got an archbishopric; but I thought the benefits that Your Excellency has reserved for me were more certain..." [cf. Harrisse, 1882, pp. 324, ff.].

As confirming and to some extent supplementing what is said in these letters, we have various statements in the letters of the two Spanish Ambassadors about the voyage in the following year (see later); they both say that the newly discovered country lay not more than four hundred Spanish leagues distant.

[Sidenote: Toby's chronicle]

In Maurice Toby's Bristol chronicle of 1565, we read of the year 1497:

"This year, on St. John the Baptist's day, the land of America was found by the merchants of Bristowe in a shippe of Bristowe called the 'Mathew,' the which said shippe departed from the port of Bristowe the second day of May, and came home again the 6th of August next following."[297]

Of course this chronicle was written long after the voyage took place; but it is extremely probable that it was taken from older sources; for it agrees in every way (both as to the length of the voyage and the time of the return) with the contemporary statements of the Italian Ministers, with whose letters the author of the chronicle cannot possibly have been acquainted. I can, therefore, see no reason why this statement should not be correct. But the most important authorities are the letters referred to.

[Sidenote: Cabot's western course in 1497]

If we compare all this we shall get a fairly complete idea of the voyage of 1497. After sailing round the south of Ireland, probably in the middle of May according to our calendar, Cabot would at first have held a somewhat northerly course. If this is correct, he may have done so for several reasons: unfavourable winds, which in May are prevalent from the south-west; the idea that great-circle sailing would prove the shortest way;[298] fear of encroaching on the waters of the Spaniards and Portuguese to the south; finally, perhaps, an idea that the course to Asia was shorter in northern latitudes (?). But we cannot tell what reasons decided him, nor whether he steered very far to the north at all; for it must be remembered that in speaking to a foreign Minister he may have had good reason for making his course appear somewhat northerly, lest it might be said that the lands he had arrived at were those discovered by the Spaniards. In any case, it was not long before he made for the west as rapidly as possible towards his goal, and we cannot, therefore, suppose that he went very far north. And it is expressly stated in Soncino's first letter that the lands lay to the west of England, and in the letters of the Spanish Ambassadors in the following year we read that, after having seen the direction taken by Cabot, they thought that the land he had found was that belonging to Spain, or was "at the end of that land." This again does not point to any northerly course.

Many writers have thought that from Soncino's statements about the courses a conclusion might be drawn as to where on the American coast Cabot made the land; but this is impossible. In the first place Soncino's words are anything but definite; besides which, of course, Cabot could not steer in a straight line across the Atlantic, but with the frequent contrary winds of May and June was obliged to shape many courses, and often had to beat; in fact, we are told as much in Soncino's words, "havendo assai errato." Every one who has had experience of the navigation of sailing ships knows how difficult it is under such conditions to make way in the precise direction one wishes, however good one's reckoning may be; currents and lee-way set one far out of the reckoned course, and on a voyage so long as across the Atlantic the lee-way may be considerable. Whether Cabot was able to correct his reckoning by the aid of astronomical observations (with a Jacob's staff or an astrolabe) we do not know, but we hear nothing of latitudes, so that it is not very probable (cf. also Columbus's gross error in latitude). Especially during the first part of the voyage currents and prevailing winds may have set Cabot to the north-east; but he may also have encountered, particularly during the latter part of the voyage in June, heavy north-westerly gales which set him still farther to the south, and he may thus have had a southerly lee-way. In addition, as Dawson has so strongly insisted, the error of the compass must have set him to the south. Whether Cabot was aware of the error, and remarked its variation during the westward voyage, we do not know; it is possible, since we know that Columbus remarked this variation during his first voyage; but in any case, Cabot doubtless paid as little attention to it as Columbus in his navigation. Unfortunately we do not know the amount of the error at that time, but by examining the relation between the true direction of the coast-lines and those we find on the most trustworthy compass-charts (especially the Cantino chart) of a little later than 1500 (which are drawn in ignorance of the error), I have attempted to reconstruct the distribution of the error in the Atlantic Ocean at that time (cf. chart below); of course, this is purely hypothetical. According to this, during Cabot's voyage westwards the error would have varied from about 6° east at Bristol to about 30° west off the coast of America. If we suppose that he was able to follow a magnetic western course the whole way from the south coast of Ireland, then he must have passed quite to the south of Cape Race in Newfoundland. But we are told that he first held somewhat to the north, though we do not know how much, and, on the other hand, his lee-way may have set him at least as far to the south. The assertion that the course mentioned by Soncino must have brought Cabot to land in Labrador or Newfoundland is thus untenable. Nor does it agree with Soncino's allusion to the country as excellent and temperate, and one where dye-wood and silk might be expected to grow. If this be explained away as due to the usual propensity of discoverers at that time to exhibit the newly found countries in the most favourable light, which is very possible, it is not so easy to explain why we do not hear a word about their having encountered ice on the voyage. If on his western voyage Cabot came to Labrador or the north-east coast of Newfoundland some time in June, it is improbable that he should not have seen icebergs, and it is equally unlikely that the Italian Ministers should not have mentioned this, which to them would be a great curiosity, if they had heard of it; we see, too, that later, in descriptions of Sebastian Cabot's alleged voyage, the ice is mentioned above all else. Even if John Cabot might have kept quiet about the ice, lest it should cool the hopes raised by his narrative, it is not likely that his crew would have done so, if they had met with it. But although other statements of the crew are reported, we do not hear a single word about ice, nor even of icebergs, which are common enough on the Newfoundland Banks at that time of the year, and would be an entirely new experience even to Bristol sailors who were accustomed to the voyage to Iceland. From this we must suppose that in the course of his beating to the west Cabot was set so far to the south of the Newfoundland Banks that he did not encounter icebergs, and that he first made land somewhere farther west.[299]

[Sidenote: Cabot sighted America June 24, 1497]

According to the Bristol chronicle already quoted (Toby, 1565), and according to a legend on the map of 1544, which is ascribed to the collaboration of Sebastian Cabot, it was on St. John's Day (July 3, N.S.) that the first land was discovered. In spite of Harrisse's objections[300] it does not appear to me unlikely that this may be correct. If he sailed on May 2 (11), he was fifty-three days at sea. Supposing that he landed at Cape Breton, the distance in a straight line on the course indicated is about 2200 nautical miles. Consequently he would have made an average of forty-two miles a day in the desired direction. This is doubtless not very fast sailing, but agrees with just what we should expect, since he often had to beat, and "wandered a good deal," in the words of Soncino.

[Sidenote: La Cosa's map represents Cabot's discoveries in 1497]

For determining the question, what part of North America it was that Cabot discovered, it appears to me there is no trustworthy document but La Cosa's map of the world of 1500.[301] The Basque cartographer, Juan de la Cosa, who owned and navigated Columbus's ship in 1492, and who was afterwards entrusted with many public undertakings, enjoyed a reputation in Spain as a map-maker and sailor. He was commissioned by the Spanish Crown to produce a map of the world, and we must suppose that for this work he was provided with all the maps and geographical information that were available in Spain. From a letter of July 25, 1498, to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, from Ayala, the Spanish Minister in London, we know that the latter had obtained a copy of "the chart or mapa mundi" that John Cabot had made in order to set forth his discoveries of 1497; and there can be no doubt that a copy of this was also sent to Spain, as Ayala says he believes their Majesties already had the map. It may, therefore, be regarded as a matter of course that La Cosa was in possession of this map when, less than two years later, he was about to make his own, and that it is from this source and no other that he derived his information about the English discoveries. We do not know of any other map being sent from England to Spain during these two years, and there is no ground whatever for assuming that La Cosa's information may be derived from Cabot's voyage of 1498, which in any case must have been a failure.

For the understanding of La Cosa's map it must be remarked first of all that it is a compass-chart, and that it takes no notice of the magnetic variation on the American coast. This explains the fact that, for instance, lines of coast which in reality run from west to south-west, are made to appear on the chart as running from west to east. Furthermore, the latitude of the coast of North America is made too northerly, through coasts which, for instance, lie magnetic west of Ireland, being placed on the chart true west of it. In this way Cape Breton (or Cape Race in Newfoundland ?) can be brought to about the same latitude as the south of Ireland, whereas in reality it lies nearly 5° farther south.

The coast marked with five English flags is, of course, the land discovered by Cabot. That La Cosa had a map of this district is further shown by the details, which distinguish it from his delineation of the remainder of the North American coast, but which give it a resemblance to that part of South America which is marked with Spanish flags and of which he had a map. Curiously enough only part of the English district has names; we must suppose that this is the coast that Cabot is said to have sailed along. La Cosa's representation of the rest of the North American coast is doubtless guesswork, although it has features which bear a remarkable resemblance to reality; but it is not altogether impossible that he may have had oral or written reports of later voyages (?), which are unknown to us.

La Cosa's map is in complete agreement with the statements in the letters of Pasqualigo, Soncino, and the two Spanish Ambassadors. Soncino says that the country lies four hundred Italian leagues to the west of England, while both Puebla and Ayala say that they believe the distance to be no more than four hundred Spanish leagues. On the other hand, according to Pasqualigo, Cabot said that at a distance of seven hundred Italian leagues he had discovered the mainland of the kingdom of the Great Khan, and that he had sailed [i.e., after having sailed ?] three hundred leagues along the coast. It has been thought that there is here a disagreement between the four hundred leagues of the three first-named and the seven hundred of Pasqualigo, but if we interpret it, in what must be the most reasonable way, as meaning that the distance of seven hundred leagues does not refer to the nearest land, but to the most distant, where Cabot thought that he had at last come within the boundaries of the kingdom of the Great Khan (China) and did not venture to go farther, then we have complete agreement, since the three hundred leagues he must first have sailed along the coast must be deducted in order to get the distance from England to the nearest land. The length of a Venetian "lega," or a Spanish "legua," cannot be precisely determined. If we assume [cf. Kretschmer, 1909, pp. 63, ff.] that between 20 and 17-1/2 went to a degree of latitude, each league would correspond to between 3 and 3.43 geographical miles (minutes), or between 5.6 and 6.3 kilometres. According to the former estimate (three miles), four hundred leagues will be about equal to 1200 miles, and seven hundred leagues to about 2100 miles.[302] The first distance is, at any rate, a good deal too small, while the second is too great. This may easily be explained by Cabot, or his crew, having naturally wished to make the voyage to the newly discovered country appear as little deterrent as possible, and, therefore, having underestimated the distance, while, desiring to make the country itself as large as possible, they greatly over-estimated the length of their sail along the coast. That the voyagers really supposed the distance to the newly discovered land to be four hundred leagues from Ireland agrees also with Soncino's statement that the Bristol sailors thought the voyage would not occupy more than fifteen days from Ireland.

La Cosa's map is drawn as an equidistant compass-chart, and we can therefore make ourselves a scale of miles by using the distance between the Equator and the Tropic. In this way we find that the easternmost headland, "Cauo de Ynglaterra" (Cape England), on the coast discovered by Cabot lies four hundred leagues from Ireland, while the distance from it to the most western headland with a name, "Cauo descubierto" (the discovered cape), is about three hundred leagues.[303] Furthermore this coast lies on the map due west of Bristol and southern England, as it should according to Soncino's first letter.

[Sidenote: Cabot's discovery, according to La Cosa's map, is probably Nova Scotia]

There is thus full agreement between this map and all the contemporary information we have of the voyage, and there is no room for doubt that its names represent John Cabot's discoveries of 1497, which thus extended from Cauo de Ynglaterra on the east (with two islands, Y. verde and S. Grigor, to the east of it) to Cauo descubierto on the west. But it seems to me that this tract must be either the south coast of Newfoundland or the south-east coast of Nova Scotia, and Cauo de Ynglaterra must be either Cape Race or Cape Breton; the latter is more probable;[304] this also agrees best with all the documents we possess and involves fewest difficulties. It might then seem probable that Cabot first arrived off the land at Cauo de Ynglaterra or Cape Breton,[305] and that he sailed westward (magnetic) from there to explore the newly discovered country. The main direction of the coast of Nova Scotia is about W.S.W., and if we suppose that the compass error at Cape Breton was then about 28° W., which I have found in another way[306] (cf. above, p. 308; it is now 25° W.), this will mean that the coast extended a little to the north of west by compass, which exactly agrees with La Cosa's map. On account of contrary winds, and of the care necessary in sailing along an unknown coast, the voyage may have proceeded slowly, and Cabot greatly over-estimated his distances, which is not an uncommon thing with explorers in unknown waters, ever since the days of Pytheas. Finally, about three hundred miles on, Cabot came to the south-western point of Nova Scotia, which at first he must have taken for the end of the land. But as he certainly would be bent upon deciding this, he may have continued to sail across the mouth of the Bay of Fundy until he again sighted land, the fertile coast of smiling Maine, stretching westward as far as the eye could reach, and he would then have thought that he had surely arrived at the coast of the mainland of the vast kingdom of the Great Khan. Here it must have been that he landed, as related by Pasqualigo and Soncino,[307] and saw signs of inhabitants, but met with none. He may, of course, have landed earlier at Cape Breton or in Nova Scotia without finding trace of inhabitants, and said nothing about it; for he was not looking for an uninhabited country, but the wealthy Eastern Asia. It may also very well be the spot where he first found signs of men that is called Cauo descubierto; for it is striking that on La Cosa's map this name is not placed on any projecting headland of the coast, but in front of a comparatively deep gulf, which in that case might be the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. And it is in the sea to the west of this bay, across which Cabot sailed, that La Cosa has placed his "mar descubierta por jnglese" (sea discovered by the English). La Cosa's "mar" will then be probably the whole gulf between Cape Sable and Cape Cod.[308]

[Sidenote: Cabot's homeward voyage, 1497]

Cabot now thought he had found what he so eagerly sought. He was not provisioned for any long stay, and with his small crew he could not expose himself to possible attacks of the inhabitants of the country. Consequently he had good reason for turning back. To provide himself with the necessary water, and perhaps wood, for the homeward voyage would not take long. Food was a greater difficulty, and we are told that he was so short of it that on the way back he would not stop at new islands; it is true that we hear of abundance of fish, but this cannot have been sufficient. He then returned to Cauo de Ynglaterra, and thence homewards as quickly as possible.[309] The distance from Cape Breton past the southern point of Nova Scotia to the coast of Maine is 420 geographical miles. There and back, with a cruise in the open sea towards Cape Cod, it might be 1200 miles. If we suppose Cabot to have taken twenty days to do it, including the time occupied in going ashore, this will be sixty miles a day, which may seem a good deal; but if on the way back he had a favourable wind and was able to sail a somewhat straight course, it is possible; and, in that case, he may have been back at Cape Breton or Cauo de Ynglaterra about July 14 (23), and then have laid his course for home east by compass out to sea. This course took him off Newfoundland, and he had the island of Grand Miquelon, with Burin Peninsula to the east of it ["S. Grigor" on La Cosa's map ?], in sight on his starboard bow, or on his right hand, as Pasqualigo says. As he was afraid of more land in that direction, which would be awkward to come near, especially when sailing at night, he bore off to the south-east, where he knew from the outward voyage that there was open water. After a time, thinking himself safe, he again set his course east by compass, but then had fresh land, Avalon Peninsula, ahead or on his starboard bow, and again had to bear off. He took this for another large island ["Y. verde"], but would not land, both on account of shortness of provisions, and because he wanted to be home as soon as possible with the news of his discovery, and to prepare a larger expedition to take possession of the new country.[310] To be quite sure of encountering no more land, Cabot may then have borne off well to the south-east, thus reaching the Newfoundland Banks on the south, and keeping quite clear of the icebergs which are found farther north. For his eastern voyage he was well served by the wind, since nearly all the winds in this part of the Atlantic are between south and west or north-west in July and the beginning of August. He was further helped by the current to some extent, and may, therefore, very easily have made the homeward voyage in twenty-three days, and sailed back into the port of Bristol about the 6th (15th) of August, 1497. That Cabot cannot have taken much more than twenty days on the return voyage also appears from the statement already quoted of the Bristol sailors, that they could make the voyage in fifteen days.[311]

[Sidenote: Legend on the map of 1544]

The view of John Cabot's voyage of 1497 set forth above agrees also with the map of the world of 1544, which is attributed to the collaboration of Sebastian Cabot, but which the latter in any case cannot have seen or corrected after it was engraved, probably in the Netherlands, and by an engraver who did not understand Spanish, the language of the map [cf. Harrisse, 1892, 1896; Dawson, 1894]. Its delineation of the northern east coast of North America is for the most part borrowed from the representation on French maps of Cartier's discoveries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (cf. Deslien's map of 1541). Cape Breton is called "Prima tierra vista," and in the inscription referring to the northern part of the American coast,[312] the import of which must apparently be derived from Sebastian Cabot, we read:

"This land was discovered by Joan Caboto Veneciano and Sebastian Caboto his son in the year 1494 [sic] after the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ, the 24th of June in the morning; to which they gave the name 'Prima Tierra Vista,' and to a large island which is near the said land they gave the name of St. John, because it was discovered the same day" [i.e., St. John's Day].[313]

The remainder of this legend--that the natives wear the skins of animals, that the country is unfertile, that there are many white bears, vast quantities of fish, mostly called bacallaos, etc. etc.--cannot refer, as Harrisse appears to think, to this land (Cape Breton) which was first discovered, but to the northern regions of the new continent as a whole. It is characteristic of this map, as of the earlier French ones, that Newfoundland is cut up into a number of small islands. If the view is correct that Y. Verde and S. Grigor on La Cosa's map are also parts of Newfoundland, it may explain the fact of Sebastian Cabot having no difficulty in bringing this map, or his father's, into agreement with the French ones, since he must have thought that a number of "islands," discovered later, had been added.

[Sidenote: The island of St. John]

No island of St. John is to be found on La Cosa's map, but there is a Cauo S. Johan not far from Cauo de Ynglaterra and close to the island that is called Illa de la trinidat. That the name is attached to a cape instead of to an island may be due to a transposition in the course of repeated copyings. On the Portuguese map of Pedro Reinel, of the beginning of the sixteenth century (that is, only a few years after 1497), Cape Breton is marked without a name, but an island lies off it, called "Sam Johã" [St. John]; on Maggiolo's map of 1527 there is "C. de bertonz," with an island, "Ja de S. Ioan," in the same place; and on Michael Lok's map, in Hakluyt's "Divers Voyages," 1582, we have "C. Breton" with the island of "S. Johan," lying off it, and on Cape Breton Island (or Nova Scotia), called Norombega, is written "J. Cabot, 1497" (see p. 323). There seems thus to have been a definite tradition that it was here that John Cabot made the land, and St. John may then be the little Scatari Island which lies on the outside of Cape Breton Island [cf. Dawson, 1897, pp. 210, ff.]. That the "I. de S. Juan" on the map of 1544 lies on the inside of "Prima tierra vista" and answers to the Magdalen Islands is of minor importance; we do not even know whether Sebastian Cabot can be made responsible for it, as it may be due to a confusion on the part of the draughtsman. More importance must be attached on this point to the agreement between the earlier maps of 1500, 1527, and that of Reinel (compared with Lok's map in Hakluyt), than to the map of 1544.[314]

[Sidenote: Cabot's return]

John Cabot returned to Bristol at the beginning of August, probably about the 6th (15th, N.S.). He naturally hastened to London to tell the King of his discovery, and we know that he must have been there on the 10th (20th) August, for there is an entry in the accounts of the King's privy purse:

"10 August, 1497. To hym that found the new isle, £10."

This cannot be called an exaggerated regal payment for discovering a new continent, even though £10 in the money of that time corresponds to about £120 now. Later in the same autumn Cabot was granted a pension from the King of £20 a year.

Meanwhile, as the letters already quoted show, his discovery attracted much attention in England, and gave rise to great expectations.

What Cabot accomplished by his voyage of 1497 was in the first place to prove the existence of a great country beyond the ocean to the west of Ireland, which country he himself assumed to belong to Asia and to be part of China. Besides this he discovered great quantities of fish off the newly discovered coast; a discovery which was soon to create a great fishery, carried on by several nations, off Newfoundland, and one which surpassed the Iceland fishery, hitherto the most important. But John Cabot evidently had little idea of the importance of this last discovery. He had, as Soncino says, "set his mind on higher things," for he thought that by following the coast of the mainland farther to the west he would be able to reach the wealthy Cipango (Japan) and the Spice Islands in the equatorial regions.

[Sidenote: Cabot's voyage of 1498]

Here we have in brief the plan of his next voyage. Cabot himself had great expectations and saw a brilliant future before him, when he would rule as a prince over newly conquered kingdoms which he would make subject to the English Crown. And, as we have seen, he was liberal in distributing islands to his barber, to a Burgundian, etc.

At the beginning of 1498 Cabot obtained new letters patent, dated February 3, in the thirteenth year of Henry VII.'s reign.[315] These letters are in John Cabot's name alone (his sons are not mentioned this time).

They give him the right of taking at his pleasure six English ships in any English port, of 200 tons or under, with their necessary equipment, "and theym convey and lede to the Londe and Iles of late founde by the seid John in oure name and by oure commaundemente, payng for theym and every of theym as and if we should in or for our owen cause paye and noon otherwise." And the said John might further "take and receyve into the seid shippes and every of theym all suche maisters maryners pages and our subjects, as of their owen free wille woll goo and passe with hym in the same shippes to the seid Londe or Iles," etc. etc.

It thus seems as if this not very prodigal king had on second thoughts considerably reduced his first plan of sending a fleet of ten, fifteen or twenty ships with all the prisoners of the realm.

[Sidenote: Authorities for the voyage of 1498]

The most important documents on this voyage are:

(1) Two contemporary letters, written before the return of the expedition, by the older Spanish Ambassador in London, Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, and the younger contemporary Spanish Minister in London, Pedro de Ayala, to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The latter's is dated July 23 (August 3, N.S.), 1498; the former's is undated, but of about the same time.

(2) A narrative in the so-called "Cottonian Chronicle"[316] (the contents of which are the same as in Robert Fabyan's Chronicle) undoubtedly refers to this voyage of 1498 and not, as many have assumed, to the voyage of 1497. It appears to be a contemporary notice of 1498, written before the return of the expedition.

These documents contain all that we know with certainty about John Cabot's voyage of 1498.

[Sidenote: Puebla's letter of July 1498]

The Spanish Ambassador, Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, writes in 1498 to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (probably in July):

"The King of England sent five armed ships with another Genoese like Columbus to search for the island of Brasil and others near it,[317] and they were provisioned for a year. It is said that they will return in September. Seeing the route they take to reach it, it is what Your Highnesses possess. The King has spoken to me at various times about it, he hopes to derive great advantage from it. I believe that it is not more than 400 leagues distant from here" [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 328].

[Sidenote: Ayala's letter of July 25, 1498]

Pedro de Ayala writes, July 25, 1498:

"I believe Your Highnesses have heard how the King of England has fitted out a fleet to discover certain islands and mainland that certain persons, who sailed out of Bristol last year, have assured him they have found. I have seen the chart that the discoverer has drawn, who is another Genoese like Columbus, who has been in Seville and Lisbon to try to find some one to help him in this enterprise. The people of Bristol have sent out yearly for the last seven years a fleet of two, three or four caravels to search for the island of Brasil and the Seven Cities, following the fancy of this Genoese. The King has determined to send out an expedition because he is certain that they found land last year. One of the ships, on which a certain Fray Buil sailed, recently came into port in Ireland with great difficulty, the ship being wrecked.

"The Genoese continued his voyage. After having seen the course he has taken and the length of the route, I find that the land they have found or are looking for is that which Your Highnesses possess, because it is at the end of that which belongs to Your Highnesses according to the convention with Portugal. It is hoped that they will return in September. I will let Your Highnesses know of it. The King of England has spoken to me at various times about it; he hopes[318] to derive great advantage from it. I believe the distance is not more than 400 leagues. I told him I believed the lands that had been found belonged to Your Highnesses, and I have given him a reason for it, but he would not hear of it. As I believe Your Highnesses are now acquainted with everything, as well as with the chart or mapa mundi that he [i.e., this Genoese] has drawn, I do not send it yet, though I have it here, and it seems to me very false to give out that it is not the islands in question."

[Sidenote: Cottonian Chronicle]

According to the Cottonian Chronicle, the King

"at the besy request and supplicacion of a Straunger venisian [i.e., John Cabot], ... caused to manne a ship ... for to seche an Iland wheryn the said Straunger surmysed to be grete commodities,"[319] and it was accompanied by three or four other ships of Bristol, "the said Straunger" [i.e., Cabot] being leader of this "Flete, wheryn dyuers merchauntes as well of London as Bristowe aventured goodes and sleight merchaundises, which departed from the West Cuntrey in the begynnyng of Somer, but to this present moneth came nevir Knowlege of their exployt."[320]

[Sidenote: Fabyan's account]

Hakluyt, in "Divers Voyages" (1582) [cf. Hakluyt, 1850, p. 23], has a rather fuller version of this account, quoted from Robert Fabyan, where we read that the ships from Bristol were

"fraught with sleight and grosse merchandizes as course cloth, Caps, laces, points, and other trifles, and so departed from Bristowe in the beginning of May: of whom in this Maior's time returned no tidings."[321]

"This Mayor" would be William Purchas, who was Lord Mayor of London until October 28 (November 6, N.S.), 1498. Thus, if this is correct, the expedition had not yet returned in the late autumn.

[Sidenote: John Cabot probably never returned from the voyage of 1498]

The information contained in Ayala's letter, that one of Cabot's ships had put in to Ireland, is the last certain intelligence we have of this expedition, which was looked forward to with such great hopes. John Cabot now disappears completely and unaccountably from history, and his discovery, which the year before had attracted so much attention, seems to have been more or less forgotten in the succeeding years, and is never referred to in the later letters of the Spanish Ambassadors in London. It may, therefore, seem reasonable to suppose that the expedition disappeared without leaving a trace. The probability of this is confirmed by the fact that two years and a half later, in March 1501, Henry VII. again granted letters patent, for the discovery of lands, to three merchants of Bristol and three Portuguese, without mentioning Cabot; it is merely stated that all former privileges of a similar kind were cancelled. But according to some old account books from Bristol, found at Westminster Abbey, John Cabot's royal pension of £20 a year was paid as late as the administrative year beginning September 29, 1498. This, as Harrisse and others think, shows that Cabot returned from the voyage and was still alive in that year. But this seems to be uncertain evidence. The money need not have been paid to him personally; it may have been paid to his wife or his sons or other representatives during his absence on the voyage, and we cannot conclude anything certain from it. As the pension is not entered in the following years, it seems rather to show that Cabot was really lost, and the money was only paid during the first year of his absence.

It has been supposed that the following is another proof of the participators in the voyage of 1498 having returned: the accounts of Henry VII.'s privy purse for 1498 show that on March 22 and April 1 the King advanced money (sums of £20, £3, and 40s. 5d., in all about £650 in the money of the present day) to Launcelot Thirkill (who seems to have had a ship of his own), Thomas Bradley and John Carter, who were all going to "the new Isle." Probably these men may have fitted out their own ships to accompany Cabot's expedition; but we do not know whether they sailed. This is probably the same Launcelot Thirkill who, according to an old document, was in London on June 6, 1501, when he and three others whose names are given (perhaps his sureties) were "bounden in ij obligations to pay" £20 to the King before next Whitsuntide. Possibly it was this loan received from the King for the voyage, which he then had to repay. If he really started, it may be supposed that his ship was the one that put back to Ireland; and this document is therefore no certain proof of any of the other four ships having ever returned. For that matter they may all have been lost in the same gale. But in the year 1501 the ship that returned from Gaspar Corte-Real's expedition is reported to have brought back to Lisbon a broken gilt sword of Italian workmanship from the east coast of North America; and it is also stated that two Venetian silver rings had been seen on a native boy from that country. It has been assumed that these objects may have belonged to some of the participators in John Cabot's expedition of 1498, which in that case must have reached America, and there met with some disaster.

It is difficult to say more of this voyage. That John Cabot should have returned after having reached America, and after having sailed a greater or less distance along the coast without finding the riches he was in search of, appears to me unlikely. Such an assumption would provide no explanation of the complete silence about him. As the foreign Ministers had followed this expedition with so much attention, we might surely expect them to say something about its having disappointed the great expectations that were formed of it; and in any case it was unlikely that the whole should be buried in complete silence, which, on the other hand, is easily comprehensible if nothing more was heard of the expedition, since it may all have been forgotten for other things which claimed attention. Thus the story of Giovanni Caboto, the discoverer of the North American continent, ends, as it began, in obscurity. He was too early with his discovery. England had not yet developed her trade and navigation sufficiently to be able to follow it up and avail herself of it; this was not to come until about eighty years later.

[Sidenote: Sebastian Cabot's voyages doubtful]

But John Cabot's discovery was not altogether unheeded in the years that followed; it was considered of sufficient importance for his son, Sebastian Cabot, by appropriating the honour of it, to acquire much fame and reputation in his day as a great discoverer and geographer. But whether he ever made discoveries on the east coast of North America is very doubtful; indeed, it is not even certain that he ever undertook a voyage to these regions. There can be no doubt that he himself asserted he had done so repeatedly and to different men, though his various utterances, so far as we know them, agree imperfectly. We see, too, that as early as 1512 he had the reputation of being acquainted with north-western waters, since he obtained an appointment in the service of King Ferdinand of Aragon on account of the remarkable knowledge he claimed to possess of "la navigacion á los Bacallaos" (the voyage to Newfoundland) [cf. Harrisse, 1892, p. 20]. But Sebastian Cabot seems, on the whole, to have been one of those men who are more efficient in words than deeds. It was the habit of the time to be not too scrupulous about the truth, if one had any advantage to gain from the contrary, and Sebastian was evidently no better than his age. If his utterances are correctly reported, he endeavoured, when his father had long been dead and forgotten, to claim for himself the honour of his voyages, in which he succeeded so well that for many centuries he, and not his father, was regarded as the discoverer of the continent of America. In the legend on the map of the world of 1544, it is true, he was modest enough to share the honour with his father, and this legend is at the same time the only evidence which might point to Sebastian as having been present on that occasion; but, as we have already seen, no great importance can be attached to it, and it is not confirmed by contemporary statements about the voyage. His assertion that he had been in north-western waters is in direct conflict with statements in the protest made on March 11, 1521, by the Wardens of the Drapers' Company of London against King Henry VIII.'s attempt to obtain contributions towards an expedition to "the newe found Iland" (the coast of North America) in 1521 under the command of Sebastian Cabot. The protest says:

"... And we thynk it were to sore aventʳ to joperd V shipps wᵗ men and goods vnto the said Iland vppon the singuler trust of one man callyd as we vnderstond Sebastyan, whiche Sebastyan as we here say was neuʳ in that land hym self, all if he maks reports of many things as he hath hard his Father and other men speke in tymes past," etc.

This statement is clear enough, and, coming as it does from men who were acquainted with his father's services, it cannot be disregarded. It is also confirmed by a remarkable statement in Peter Martyr's narrative (in 1515) of an alleged voyage of Sebastian Cabot (see later), which concludes:

"Some of the Spaniards deny that Cabot [i.e., Sebastian] was the first discoverer of the land of Bacallaos, and assert that he had not sailed so far to the west."

This might point to his really having made a voyage, but, in the opinion of the Spaniards, never having reached the coast of North America.

[Sidenote: Beginning of the Newfoundland fishery]

The immediate consequence of John Cabot's discovery of the continent of North America was probably that the practical merchants of Bristol, who were accustomed to fishing ventures in Iceland, at once sent out vessels to take advantage of the great abundance of fish that John Cabot had found in 1497 and that had evidently made so deep an impression on his crew that they told every one about it. But the English fishermen were soon followed, and, indeed, outstripped, by Portuguese, Basque and French (chiefly Breton) fishermen, and thus arose the famous Newfoundland fisheries. The cause of the fishermen of Portugal and other countries having followed so soon was doubtless the discovery of Newfoundland by the Portuguese Corte-Real on his voyages of 1500 and 1501 (see next chapter).

But of the development of this fishery we hear little or nothing in literature; just as in the Icelandic literature of earlier times these fishing expeditions of ordinary seamen are passed over; in the first place, they were not "notable" travellers, and in the second, men of that class in all ages have preferred to avoid advertising their discoveries for fear of competition.

[Sidenote: Expeditions from Bristol in 1501 and following years]

From various documents and statements we may conclude that fresh expeditions were sent out from Bristol in 1501 and the following years; but these were Anglo-Portuguese undertakings and may have been occasioned, at any rate in part, by the discoveries of the Portuguese, although, of course, the knowledge of Cabot's voyage may have had some significance.[322]

On March 19 (28), 1501, Henry VII. issued letters patent to Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst and John Thomas, merchants of Bristol, who were in partnership in the enterprise with three Portuguese from the Azores, John and Francis Fernandus [i.e., João and Francisco Fernandez] and John Gunsolus [João Gonzales ?].[323] They were given the right for ten years "to explore all Islands, Countries, Regions, and Provinces whatever, in the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas, heretofore unknown to Christians," and all former privileges of this kind, granted to "any foreigner or foreigners," were expressly cancelled. This last provision must refer to the letters patent granted to Cabot in 1496 and 1498.

[Sidenote: Expedition in 1502]

That this new expedition from Bristol really took place and returned before January 1502, seems to result from the accounts of Henry VII.'s privy purse, where on January 7, 1502, there is an entry: "To men of Bristoll that found Thisle £5."[324] In 1502 there was possibly a new expedition, as in the same accounts there is an entry of September [24], 1502: "To the merchants of Bristoll that have bene in the Newfounde Lande, £20."[324] According to a document of December 6, 1503, Henry VII. further granted on September 26, 1502, to the two Portuguese, ffranceys ffernandus [Francisco Fernandez] and John Guidisalvus [Gonzales ?] a yearly pension of ten pounds each, for the service they had done to the King's "singler pleasur as capitaignes unto the new founde lande."

Hakluyt states (1582) in "Divers Voyages" [1850, p. 23], after Robert Fabyan's Chronicle, that in the seventeenth year of the reign of Henry VII. [i.e., August 22, 1501, to August 21, 1502][325]

"were brought unto the king three men, taken in the new founde Iland, that before I [i.e., Fabyan ?] spake of in William Purchas time, being Maior.[326] These were clothed in beastes skinnes, and ate rawe fleshe, and spake such speech that no man coulde understand them, and in their demeanour like to bruite beastes, whom the king kept a time after. Of the which vpon two yeeres past after I [i.e., Fabyan] saw two apparelled after the maner of Englishmen, in Westminster pallace, which at that time I coulde not discerne from Englishemen, till I was learned what they were. But as for speech, I heard none of them vtter one worde."[327]

These natives must have been brought back from the expedition of 1501 or from that of 1502 (if the latter returned before August 21 ?). They were most likely Eskimo, since Indians with their darker skin could scarcely have looked like Englishmen. It might even be supposed that they came from Greenland, and were descendants of the Norsemen there, in which case their resemblance to Englishmen is most naturally explained.

[Sidenote: English voyage in 1503]

On December 9 (18), 1502, Henry VII. again granted letters patent to Thomas Ashehurst, Joam Gonzales, Francisco Fernandes and Hugh Elliott for a voyage of discovery to parts not hitherto found by English subjects. That this projected expedition took place in 1503 is possibly shown by an entry in the accounts of the King's privy purse: "1503, Nov. 17. To one that brought hawkes from the Newfounded Island. 1.L." [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 270].

It seems that it must be the same voyage to the north-west that is mentioned by Robert Thorne of Bristol in his letter of 1527 to Henry VIII.'s Ambassador in Spain. Thorne was then living in Seville, and was interested in Indian enterprises. He tries to induce Henry VIII. to send an expedition to the Indies by way of the Polar Sea, and sends with his project a rough copy he has had made of a Spanish mappamundi. He says that he has inherited the "inclination or desire of this discoverie" from his

"father, which with another marchant of Bristow named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of the New found lands, of the which there is no doubt, (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the mariners would then have bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, the lands of the West Indies (from whence all the gold commeth) had bene ours. For all is one coast, as by the Carde appeareth, and is aforesayd."

On the map the northern east coast of America extends uninterruptedly to the north (see the reproduction), and upon it is written: "the new land called laboratorum," and along the coast there is: "the land that was first discovered by the English." It might appear as though it was really the present Labrador that was then discovered; but this is hardly the case; what we see on the map is probably Greenland,[328] which is here moved over to America as on other Spanish maps, and the east coast of which is given a northerly direction as on Ruysch's map of 1508.

It is possible that another expedition set out in 1504; for in the accounts of the King's privy purse we find an entry on April 8, 1504, of £2 "to a preste that goeth to the new Islande." We see thus that there is a probability of many expeditions having left England for the west and north-west at this time, and that thus Greenland, Newfoundland, and doubtless also Labrador had been reached by the English; and this would explain their being recorded on Spanish maps as discoverers of the northern part of the east coast of America. But we have no further information about these voyages.

Just as we have seen that the note on Robert Thorne's map of 1527 (that the English had discovered the northern part of the east coast of America) must probably refer to the expedition of 1501 or to one in the following year, so it is doubtless discoveries of the same voyages that are alluded to on Maggiolo's compass-chart of 1511 (see reproduction, p. 359), where a peninsula to the north of Labrador is marked as "Terra de los Ingres" [the land of the English]. On later maps, such as Verrazano's of 1529, Ribero's of 1529 (see reproduction, p. 357), the Wolfenbüttel map of 1530, and others, Labrador is marked as having been discovered by the English, sometimes, indeed, with the addition that they came from Bristol. As already mentioned, no hint is to be found in trustworthy documents of Sebastian Cabot's having taken part in these expeditions or having been in any way connected with them, and there is therefore no ground for assuming this. And the remarkable thing is that even his father's name is not mentioned in connection with them, though it was so few years since he had sailed from the same port.

[Sidenote: Accounts of a voyage of Sebastian Cabot in 1508-1509]

We find, however, in various works of the sixteenth century records of voyages to northern or north-western waters, supposed to have been made by Sebastian Cabot; which may be due, directly or indirectly, to himself. Formerly there was a tendency to connect these statements with John Cabot's voyages of 1497 and 1498 [cf. Harrisse], but this assumption seems to have little probability. G. P. Winship [1899, pp. 204, ff.], on the other hand, has pointed out with good reason that according to Sebastian Cabot's own words the voyage was undertaken by himself in the years 1508-9; but even this appears to me uncertain; in any case I doubt that he reached America.

We hear of a voyage to the north-west said to have been undertaken by Sebastian Cabot from Peter Martyr (in his Decades, 1516), from the Venetian Minister to Spain, Contarini, especially in a report to the Venetian Senate in 1536, from Ramusio (1550-1554 and 1556), from Gomara (1553), and from Antonio Galvano (1563).[329]

We may expect the most trustworthy of these authorities to be Peter Martyr, who was the oldest, and who knew Sebastian Cabot personally; but certain main features of the voyage are to some extent common to all the accounts. If we compare these, the voyage is said to have taken place somewhat in the following manner: the expedition, consisting of two ships with three hundred men,[330] was according to Peter Martyr fitted out at Sebastian's own cost, but according to Ramusio it was sent out by the King. They sailed so far to the north (according to Gomara, even in the direction of Iceland) that in the month of July they found enormous masses of ice floating on the sea; daylight was almost continuous, and the land was in places free of ice which had melted away. According to the various accounts Cabot is said to have reached 55°, 56°, 58°, or 60°.[331]

According to Galvano they first "sighted land in 45° N. lat. and then sailed straight to the north until they came to 60° N. lat., where the day is eighteen hours long [sic], and the night is very clear and light. There they found the air cold and great islands of ice [icebergs ?] but no bottom with soundings of seventy, eighty, or one hundred fathoms,[332] but they found much ice which terrified them."

When, according to Peter Martyr, their hopes of making their way to the west in these northern latitudes were thus annihilated by the ice, they sailed back to the south and south-west along the North American coast, as far as the latitude of Gibraltar, 36° (according to Peter Martyr), or to 38° (according to Gomara and Galvano), while according to Ramusio's anonymous informant they sailed as far as Florida.[333] From thence the expedition returned to England.

With regard to the date of this voyage, we are told in the continuation of Peter Martyr's Decades [Dec. vii], written in 1524 (published 1530), that "Bacchalaos [i.e., Newfoundland, or the northern east coast of America] was discovered from England by Cabot sixteen years ago." According to this the voyage took place in 1508. In Contarini's report of 1536 [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 36] it is said of Sebastian Cabot's voyage that on his return he "found the King dead, and his son cared little for such an enterprise." As Henry VII. died on April 21, 1509, it would be during the autumn of that year that Cabot returned; but then he must have sailed before April, which is unlikely, at any rate if it is a question of a voyage up into the ice to the north or north-west, such as is described. That he should have sailed in the previous year and not returned until after the King's death is still more improbable.

These accounts contain so many improbabilities, and to some extent impossibilities, that it is on the whole extremely doubtful whether Sebastian Cabot ever made such a voyage to the north-west. That he did so is contradicted in the first place by the already quoted protest against Sebastian of the Wardens of the Drapers' Company, which was issued in the name of the various Livery Companies of London, and which is of great significance, as it was written so soon after the events are supposed to have taken place that they must have been in the memory of most people; and it must have been easy for the King to inquire into the justification of the protest (cf. above, p. 330).

The map of 1544, which is attributed to the collaboration of Sebastian Cabot, may also point to his having never sailed along the northern part of the coast of America, since, according to the custom of that time, the coast of Labrador is made to run to the east and north-east. This agrees with the statement of Ramusio's anonymous informant, that Sebastian had to turn back because in 56° N. lat. he found the land turning eastward (Galvano says the same). This is evidently derived from the study of maps. As such a delineation of the coast had not yet occurred on maps of Peter Martyr's time, it is natural that this reason for turning back is also absent from his account.

In addition to all this, there are in the various accounts several statements which we must suppose to be really derived from Sebastian Cabot, but which are evidently untruthful. Thus Ramusio's anonymous guest attributes to Sebastian the words that his father was dead when the news of the discovery of Columbus reached England, and that it was then Sebastian conceived the plan of his voyage which he submitted to the King. That, as stated by Peter Martyr, he should have fitted out two ships with crews of three hundred men at his own expense, is extremely improbable. He is also reported to have told Peter Martyr that he

"called these countries Baccallaos, because in the seas about there he found such great quantities of certain large fish--which might be compared to tunny [in size], and were thus called by the inhabitants--that sometimes they stopped his ships."

These are nothing but impossibilities. In the first place, _he_ never gave the name of Bacallaos; in the second, the inhabitants cannot have called the fish so, if by inhabitants is meant the native savages. These statements are, therefore, of the same kind as that of the masses of fish stopping the ships. Peter Martyr further relates that he said of these regions that

"he also found people in these parts, clad in skins of animals, yet not without the use of reason." He says also that "there are a great number of bears in these parts, which are in the habit of eating fish; for, plunging into the water where they see quantities of these fish, they fasten their claws into their scales, and thus draw them to land and eat them, so that (as he says) the bears are not troublesome to men, when they have eaten their fill of fish. He declares also that in many places of these regions he saw great quantities of copper among the inhabitants."

The statement about the bears may come from older literary sources, and resembles a similar statement in the Geographia Universalis (see above, p. 191). That the inhabitants have copper and are clad in skins may be derived from reports of the various voyages.

From what we have been able to conclude as to Sebastian Cabot's character, it seems reasonable to suppose that, in consequence of his position as Pilot Major in Spain, he was acquainted with the various maps and accounts of voyages in western and north-western waters, and that from this knowledge he constructed the whole story of his alleged voyage; he was then incautious enough to magnify his exploits to such an extent that he made the whole story improbable; for his claim was nothing less than that he had first discovered land as far north as between 55° and 60°, that is to say, to about Hudson Strait, and then sailed along and discovered the whole coast of North America to about 36° N. lat., that is, to Cape Hatteras or Florida; in other words, a voyage of discovery to which we have no parallel in history, and it is truly remarkable that we should have had no certain information about it, while we have so much about other expeditions which step by step discovered the various parts of this same extent of coast.

[Sidenote: Another doubtful voyage of Sebastian Cabot in 1516 or 1517 ?]

Sebastian Cabot seems to have laid claim to having made yet another voyage in north-western waters, unless, indeed, it is the same one again with variations. In the third volume of his "Navigationi et Viaggi," etc., published at Venice 1556, Ramusio says (writing in Venice, June 1553) that

"Sebastian Gabotto, our Venetian, a man of great experience, etc., wrote to me many years ago." Sebastian is said to have sailed "along and beyond the land of New France, at the charges of Henry VII., King of England. He told me that after having sailed a long time west by north [ponente e quarta di Maestro] beyond these islands, lying along the said land, as far as to sixty-seven and a half degrees under our pole [i.e., the North Pole], and on June 11th [20th] finding the sea still open and without any kind of impediment, he thought surely by that way to be able to sail at once to Cataio Orientale [China], if the mutiny [malignità] of the master and mariners had not compelled him to return."[334]

As will be seen, this statement is altogether different from those previously mentioned; but such assertions as that Cabot had got so far to the north-west by June 11, and found the sea free of ice in 67-1/2° N. lat., are not of a kind to strengthen our confidence. It might seem to be the same voyage that is referred to in a statement of Richard Eden, which he may have had from Sebastian Cabot himself. In the dedication (written in June 1553) of Eden's translation of the fifth part of Sebastian Munster's "Cosmographia" we read that

"Kinge Henry the viij. about the same yere [i.e., the eighth year] of his raygne, furnished and sent forth certen shippes vnder the gouernaunce of Sebastian Cabot yet liuing, and one Syr Thomas Perte, whose faynt heart was the cause that that viage toke none effect; yf (I say) such manly courage whereof we haue spoken, had not at that tyme bene wanting, it myghte happelye haue comen to passe, that that riche treasurye called Perularia, (which is now in Spayne in the citie of Ciuile, and so named, for that in it is kepte the infinite ryches brought thither from the newe found land of Peru) myght longe since haue bene in the town of London."[335]

As Peru is mentioned, it might doubtless appear as though a voyage to South America were in question; but we often see that the western countries beyond the sea were spoken of as a continuous possession (cf. Robert Thorne's letter, above, p. 334), and it may therefore refer to the same alleged expedition as is spoken of by Ramusio; for both Ramusio and Eden have evidently the same statements from Sebastian Cabot, and the latter can hardly have spoken of two expeditions which were both unsuccessful merely because his companions failed him.

If this is correct, the voyage took place in the eighth year of Henry VIII.'s reign, i.e., April 16, 1516, to April 15, 1517[336]; but, as Harrisse contends, it is very doubtful whether the voyage was made at all. It is true that a poem of Henry VIII.'s time also speaks of an English expedition which may have taken place at this time, and which failed on account of the cowardice of the crew. Robert Thorne, too, as we have seen (p. 335), tells of a voyage made by his father and Hugh Eliot, on which the sailors would not "follow their pilot's mind." It may, indeed, have occurred on several voyages that the crews refused to proceed farther, and for that matter these statements need not refer to the same voyage; but at the same time it is by no means incredible that Sebastian Cabot may have heard of such an expedition, and, when it was more appropriate than the ice, used it as an explanation of his not having discovered the north-west passage to China. We know that Sebastian Cabot was in the service of Spain (and appointed "Pilot Major") in 1515, and that he was occupied with plans of a voyage to the north-west for the King of Spain; for Peter Martyr writes of him in that year that he was impatiently looking forward to March 1516, when he had been promised a fleet with which to complete his discoveries [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 71]. As Ferdinand of Aragon died on January 23, 1516, nothing came of this voyage, and as we hear nothing of Sebastian Cabot before February 5, 1518, when he was appointed Pilot Major by Charles V., it is not impossible that in the meantime he may have been in England, and have taken part in an English expedition; but no record of his having come to England is extant, and it would hardly agree with the protest against him of the Drapers' Company a few years later.

[Sidenote: Henry VIII.'s attempted expedition in 1521]

There may yet be mentioned the attempts made by Henry VIII. in 1521 to prepare an expedition to north-western waters under the command of Sebastian Cabot, chiefly at the expense of the merchants of London, which, however, evoked a powerful protest against Sebastian on the part of these merchants (see above, p. 330). It is true that, upon pressure from the King, they afterwards declared themselves willing to give a smaller sum, but the expedition never came to anything. Sebastian Cabot was at that time, as he had been since 1512, in the service of Spain, and he remained so until in 1547 he again took up his abode in England and entered the service of the English King. In December 1522 Sebastian Cabot informed the Venetian Minister in Spain, Contarini, that he had been in England three years before [i.e., in 1519], and that the Cardinal there [i.e., Wolsey, who was trying on behalf of Henry VIII. to get together the expedition of 1521] had endeavoured to persuade him to undertake the command of a fleet which was almost ready [sic!], for the discovery of new lands; but he had replied that, as he was in the service of Spain, he must first obtain the permission of the Emperor; and that he had then written to the Emperor, requesting him not to grant such permission, but to recall him. This Sebastian asserted that he had done on account of his desire of serving his own city of Venice; for in 1522 and later he was carrying on treacherous intrigues with Contarini to enter the Venetian service, presumably with the hope of a high salary. Thus, wherever we are able to check Sebastian Cabot's utterances, they prove to be extremely untrustworthy.

[Sidenote: Cabot's discovery before its time]

Even, if, therefore, there was no lack of attempts after 1500 to follow up John Cabot's great and important discoveries in the west, it is nevertheless surprising how little persistence seems to have been shown. The love of discovery and adventure which had been so prominent a feature of the Northern Viking nature had not yet awakened in earnest among the English people. England's mercantile marine was at that time still comparatively unimportant, it had not the strength for such great enterprises or for colonisation. The earliest voyages were mainly the work of a foreigner, an Italian, and the later ones were in part undertaken by Portuguese; they did not grow naturally from the English people themselves. Cabot's plan was like an exotic flower springing up in immature soil, and more than half a century before its time. Another factor was doubtless the disappointment of the King and of the merchants; they had ventured their money in fitting out ships in the hope of immediate profit. What they were looking for was the way to the rich East of Asia, where mountains of spices lay ready to hand, and gold and precious stones in heaps, only waiting to be picked up. What they found was nothing but new, unknown countries on the ocean, inhabited by wandering tribes of hunters, countries the opening up of which demanded much time and labour. All this had scarcely more than a geographical interest for the time being, and for that they cared little.