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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film^s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 . 2 3 4 i « ^*^ With the Compliments of the Author Mr. Henry Harrisse p No. 30 Rue Cambac6r^s PARIS I ^^^1^ OF THE Cabot Quater-Centenary BY HENRY HARRISSE (Reprinted from the AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW.) NEW YORK October, 1898 T 4/ i* 1/ The Outcome jt OF THE '1 Cabot Quater-Centenary BY HENRY HARRISSE (Reprinted from the AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW.) NEW YORK October, 1898 \l THE OUTCOME OF THE CABOT QUATER- CENTENARY It cannot be said that the foui -hundredth anniversary of the dis- covery of the American continent by John Cabot was celebrated with as much enthusiasm as that of the West Indies by Columbus. A good test is the number of historical and literary productions published on those two occasions. For the achievement of the great Genoese, we know of six hundred and fifty books and pam- phlets printed in 1891 and 1892, in nearly all the languages of Europe, in prose and verse. Concerning Cabot's discovery, we have heard of only two or three volumes, a dozen review and news- paper articles, three memoirs, an address, four speeches, two med- leys of barefaced plagiarism, the one fabricated in Bristol, the other, quite recently, in London, and no poem at all. The in- difference of the public, at home and abroad, was further shown by the utter failure of the subscription which Americans residing in England started for the purpose of arranging a plan whereby ade- quate notice might be taken of the event in Bristol. Yet John Cabot is certainly more to the people of England and of the United States than Christopher Columbus is in many respects, although he cannot be justly credited with greater forecast in the accomplishment of his famous deed. " Scanty as those publications may be, they nevertheless afford a certain interest. Three or four of them are curious on different ac- counts. One shows original investigations, and although based upon positive errors, with conclusions quite as erroneous, it does credit to its author. Another exhibits honest recantations, indica- ting that conscientious historians now generally adopt notions con- cerning the Cabots, particularly Sebastian, which a few years ago were almost hooted at. A third and fourth afford fair samples of the historical erudition of distinguished orators, lay and clerical. We only propose to examine the questions alleged to have been solved in all these Cabotian effusions, and especially the intrinsic worth of the statements brought forward to bolster delusions re- garding the memorable transatlantic voyage of 1497. The Outcome of the Cabot Qiiater-Centcnary I. Wc first notice a paper of Dr. Samuel Edward Dawson inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada} It is called in that country " an admirable monograph, incomparably the best thing ever written on the subject, and to the author of which we must all doff our caps." That paper is also represented, in certain academic quarters, " to have settled the long-disputed question of Cabot's landfall. "2 The problem has been mooted by Dr. Dawson, we confess, with skill and an adequate knowledge of the subject. To us, personally, it is a positive relief to see at last a critic who answers facts, argu- ments and documents, not with shallow and puerile reasons, betray- ing an incredible ignorance of the matter, as is so often the case, but by resorting to objections which deserve to be seriously discussed, however erroneous they may prove to be in important particulars. Dr. Dawson is convinced that the landfall of John Cabot in 1497 is the easternmost point of Cape Breton ; and he has endeavored to prove it by a theory of his own concerning the magnetic variations, at first as follows : " If Columbus on a direct western course dropped tivo hundred and forty miles from Gomera his point of departure to his landfall in the Antilles in 1492 with a variation of one point west, it is altogether probable that John Cabot with a variation of a point and a half would have dropped, in 1497, three hundred and sixty miles to the south on his tvestern course across the Atlantic ; and, again, if John Cabot laid his course to the west by compass from latitude 53° north the variation, so much greater than that observed by Colum- bus, would have carried him clear of Cape Race and to the next probable landfall, Cape Breton."* If language means anything, it is plain thai, according to the above extract. Dr. Dawson's premises were Columbus's course from Gomera and Cabot's course from latitude 53° north. It likewise sets forth as the basis for measuring the length of the line of diver- gence the length of the course from Gomera to Guanahani. For what can be clearer than the phrase which we underscore ? Nor is the wording corrected or contradicted anywhere in Dr. Dawson's memoir. At the outset it must be said that even admitting, for the sake of argument, Dr. Dawson's hypothesis that John Cabot experienced a magnetic variation of a point and a half, he nevertheless would J Vol. XII., Sec. II., 1894, and Vol. II., Sec. II., 1896. «Dr. Harvey's remarks in op. cit , 1896, Vol. II., Sec. II., p. 3. »0/. cit., 1894, p. 58. //. Harrisse not have dropped three hundred and sixty miles, as Dr. Dawson has said and believed. It has been demonstrated ' hy a ■\- h that Cabot would have dropped one hundred and eif:;hty-three miles only. And, consequently, (always as a logical inference from Dr. Dawson's theory, such as we find it explicitly stated in the said memoir), instead of making his landfall at Cape Breton, as our learned opponent asserts or asserted, Cabot would have made it just one hinithrd and scvcnty-sn'cn miles more to tlie nortlnoard ; that is to say, in Newfoundland, on the eastern shore of Cape Bauld. So much for " incomparably the best thing ever written on the subject," and "the settlement of the long-disputed question of Cabot's landfall at Cape Breton," as Canadian savants declare. That was four years ago. Dr. Dawson now holds and claims to have meant that in measuring the length of the line of divergence south of a due western course, " we must commence in the case of Cabot near the coast of Ireland, and in the case of Columbus at a con- siderable distance west of Gomera."^ That is a new proposition al- together, and absolutely adverse to the very precise expressions em- ployed by him in 1894. Under the circumstances, it is surprising that Dr. Dawson, as the expert writer that he is, should have writ- ten so clearly " If Columbus on a direct western course dropped 240 m\\c% from Goinera," instead of writing as he does at this late hour, and again erroneously as we propose to show : " Columbus dropped 240 miles from the place where the westing of his compass reached one point," or "in 40° longitude," or "at a considerable distance west of Gomera." Be that as it may. Dr. Dawson's new position is just as un- tenable as the first. I^ again rests upon an aggregation of bare hy- potheses.^ He gratuitously assumes that the laws of secular motion of the curves of equal variation on the surface of the- globe are suf- ficiently known to enable him to infer from the variations which Columbus experienced in 25° north latitude, the variations which Cabot experienced in 53° north latitude. He also takes for granted ' For a mathematical demonstration of the fallacy, see the Nachrichten von dcr k'dnigl. Geselhchaft der Wissenschajten zti Gottingen, Philolog.-histor. Klasse, 1897, Heft 3, pp. 345-348- * The Voyages of the Cabots. Roy. Soc. Can., Vol. III., Sec. II., 1897, p. 161. ' " In a brief interview I had with Mr. Fox, I took occasion to express my convic tion of the impossibility of arriving at any very definite conclusion, partly on account of the extremely scanty material as to facts and partly in consequence of the want of assist- ance derivab'e from purely theoretical grounds ; the cause of the phenomenon of the sec- ular change of the magnetic declination being quite unknown and the time comparatively short during which to trace the law of change as hitherto observed. ' ' Qiarles A. Schott, An Inquiry into the Variation of the Compass, Coast Survey Reports for 1880. The Outcome of the Cabot Qiiater-Centcnary (theoretically) that the variations experienced by Cabot cannot pos- sibly have been inferior or superior to one point and a half west, or castvvardly, or nil \ which assumption, whether expressed or im- plied, is entirely unwarranted. The learned Canadian likewise arfjucs as if we were as well posted ref^ardin^ the particulars of Cabot's voyage as we are concerning that of Ci>luinbus. lie forgets that we know nothing whatever about Cabot's course, beyond the naked fact that he sailed west from some undetermined point on the western coast of Ireland and "wandered a good deal : — liavciido assixi crrato." How can a re- flective and investigating mind build upon such vague data, were it partly only, the asseveration that Cabot's course was west magnetic, and that the corresponding true course was this magnetic course west, corrected by one point and a half of variation ? As a sort of apology, Dr. Dawson at present inio. ms his readers that the "increment of variation was not intended to be, and could not be, an argument in the least degree amenable to mathematical treatment." Why then did he take it as the basis of his postulate, when stating that John Cabot " with a variation of one point and a half would have dropped 360 miles to the south," or that if the bold navigator " laid his course to the west by compass from lati- tude 53° N., a variation of one point and a half would have carried him clear of Cape Race ?" Was not this alleged consequence predi- cated upon mathematical treatment ? Driven away from this position. Dr. Dawson appeals to "the uniformity of the laws of nature, by which we are led to assume that in whatever way the magnetic pole and curves of variation are shifting now they were shifting then, in that slow change which is still going on from year to year." Dr. Dawson confuses two ver>' distinct things, viz. : the uni- formity of the laws of nature, by virtue of which occur around us the movements which we observe, and the uniformity of these movements. Because a movement is produced by the uniform laws of nature, it does not follow that this movement must necessarily be uniform. In nature, on the contrary, movements are exceed- ingly varied ; as is shown constantly in astronomy, natural philo- sophy, and all the sciences in which movements are studied. It is therefore inexact and unscientific, from beginning to end, to maintain that the magnetic variation at Cape Race in 1497 can be u°termined from the fact that "it is at present 30° west, and that the viriation now at the Admiral's point of observation in 1492, is 20° west." The relative positions of the curves of equal variation between tht coast of Ireland and Newfoundland at the time of //. Harrisse Cabot are totally unknown,' and cannot be therefore declucec* from their actual position. We have only to examine on an Admiralty chart the present distribution of those curves, to see at a fjlance that if mentally or otherwise we move the network or entire series of them (supposing, for the experiment, that they are rigid or material) the magnetic curves which pass over any portion of the globe ivill no lony^cr hear to each other the relations ivhich they had before we displaeeii the entire set of said curves, in the manner aforesaid. Dr. Dawson therefore has not proved and cannot prove by what he calls the uniformity of the laws of nature that " Cabot in a northern parallel would, of necessity, cross the magnetic meridians in quicker succession," and still less that the total result of variation experi- enced by Cabot between Ireland and Newfoundland was " a point and a half." We mu.st now revert to Dr. Dawson's new specific theory. He says that " from the sum total of 3 I 50 miles [given by his oppo- nent as the length of Columbus's course from Gomera to Guanahani] mu.st be deducted at lea.st 672 miles, leaving a di.stance of 2478 miles,- because [as Dr. Dawson again alleges] it was not until he reached the longitude of 40° that the Admiral noticed a variation of a full point." He completes his postulate with the further asser- tion that " the length of the course should be counted, for the pur- pose of this argument, from the point where the disturbing influence first began to act." But where did it first begin to act ? That is the question. All we know on the subject is comprised within these few words of Co- lumbus in his log-book : " Jueves, 1 3 de Sctiembre. En este dia^ al comienzo de la noche, las agujas noruesteaban, y a la manana noruestcaban algun tanto." The Admiral does not state, and we have no means whatever of knowing, in what meridian the westing of his compasses was thus noticed. ' Dr. Dawson in support of his aeory refers to Reinel's chart of 1505 (monograph of 1898, p. 161 ) which, he says, " shows plainly upon it, by its double scale, a variation on the Newfoundland coast of nearly two points." That will be news to the student of cartography. It is true that in one of the scales Cape Race has the latitude of '30% ° N. , and in the other it has the latitmlc of 47° N. , which is nearer the truth. But neither the one nor the other has anything to do with the magnetic variation. The oblique scale is merely a graphic correction of an original error in the perpendicular one. Kohl ( Doc. Hist, of Maine, p. 178) and Peschel {Zeilalt. iter Entdeck., 1858, p. 332, note 2), both of them high authorities, who describe the scale on the chart, would not have failed to notice the fact if they had ever dreamt that magnetism was at all involved in the matter. Supposing even that one or the other of these scales was intended to show a variation (which hypothesis is scarcely admissible) and that the variation was exact, it would apply only to the east coast of Newfoundland, and not to the marine space between Ireland and Newfoundland ; the totality of which has to be taken into account in a computation of that sort. *By Columbus's course, as worked out by Capt. Fox, the distance was 3105 miles ; but this difference of 45 miles is insignificant. 6 The Outcome of the Cabot Qtiater-Centenary According to the recent map produced by Dr. Dawson himself, the agonic Hnc was met by Columbus in the meridian of about 30°. The fact that he noticed the westing of his compasses on the 1 3th of September* does not prove that his course until then had been constantly due west from Gomera to the meridian of 40° longitude, adopted by Dr. Dawson, and especially between 30° and 40°. This he is bound to show before assuming to deduct 672 miles from the course. Further, what we know of the matter has no other basis than Capt. Schott's above-mentioned conjectural chart, and, curious to say, it even contradicts Dr. Dawson's theory in a most important particular. We see, for instance, from this hypothetical tracing of the line of no variation that the westing of Columbus's compasses com- menced near 30° west, and went on increasing until 40°, when the Admiral noticed that the variation had reached one full point west. From 40° W., in a western course, it could but continue to increase and was more than one point until the landfall was made at Guana- hani. It follows that if, according to Dr. Dawson's new theory, "the length of the course should be counted from the point where the disturbing influence first began to act," we must count, not from 40°, as Dr. Dawson now maintains, but from a meridian situated nine or ten degrees more to the eastwards, viz.: in the longitude of jo° (in round figures). Even with the minimum length (2433 miles) assumed by him for the portion of the course which alone, he now says, experienced the variation west, we find for a linear deviation of 240 miles, an an- gular deviation of 5° 38'.^ It follows that if with a variation of one point west (11° 15') Columbus's angular deviation was 5° 38', Cabot's angular deviation, with Dr. Dawson's alleged variation of one point and a half (16° 52' 30"), will be one-and-a-half times 5° 38', or 8° 27'. And now, what is the practical outcome of all these technical demonstrations ? ' It is well to recollect that we do not possess the original complete text of Columbus's log-book. We only have an abridgment made by Bishop Las Casas, and even this was made from ,1 mere copy, now lost. 'We kr\ow that '> Dawson does not like logarithms and mathematical proofs, but they cannot well be avoided at this present juncture. Calling r the angle of deviation of the course of Columbus from the true direction east and west, this angle j( is given by the relation tan x = ^^^^j. Log 240=2.380211 Colog 2433 = 4-6138 58 Log tan jf=: 2.994069 H. Harfisse This angular deviation of 8° 27' corresponds with a linear devi- ation of 233 miles south of the parallel of 53° latitude north, in which Cabot's magnetic course is supposed to have lain. Theo- retically, this magnetic course amounted exactly to 162 1 miles, Dr. Dawson to the contrary notwithstanding.' He says 1740 miles. But 1740 miles is the distance fiom the Irish coast in 53° latitude north, to Cape Race, and the learned Canadian is simply begging the question when he sets forth a priori this distance of 1740 miles before having first proved that Cabot actually passed close to Cape Race ; which is the gist of the problem. Admitting therefore (still for the sake of argument) a variation of one point and a half (16° 52' 30") west for Cabot, we find that the angular deviation in his course was only 8° 27', which, as above stated, corresponds with a linear deviation of 238 miles,^ instead of 360 miles alleged by our painstaking opponent. These 238 miles of linear deviation would fix Cabot's landfall at 360— 238 = 122 miles more to the northwards than the landfall which Dr. Dawson strenu- ously advocates ; as he can readily ascertain by borrowing " the chart, the ruler and the protractor" of a highly impartial and consid- erate Toronto critic, but making a more judicious use of the same. In other words, the landfall of Cabot, which, according to Dr. Dawson's interpretation of i8g6, was at Cape Breton, would have been (under his first theory) far up in Newfoundland, at White Bay. The landfall which, according to his interpretation of 1898, was also at Cape Breton, would have been (under his latest theory) in a very different place, viz. : in the Bay of Bonavista. Withal, we do not wish to be understood to say that the land- fall was at Bonavista rather than at Cape Breton, or anywhere else. Our sole object has been to prove that on this point Dr. Dawson erred as much in 1898 as he did in 1894 and 1896. As to our private opinion, it is that we do not know and apparently never shall know where John Cabot first sighted the New World. II. So recently as 1893, Sir Clements Markham, the distinguished ' The magnetic course is the only one that should be taken into account in the com- putation of the linear deviation in Cabot's real course, as being the only length knmvn, in concurrence with the tangent of the angle of deviation ; and no mathematician will gain- say this. 'Calling X Cabot's linear deviation, the deviation is given by the relation X = i6oo X tan 8° 27'. Log tan 8° 2^' = i. 71899 l,og i6cx> = 3.204120 Log jf = 2.376019 j:=237 miles 7. w 8 T/ie Otiicome of the Cabot Qtiaicr- Centenary President of the Royal Geographical Society, maintained as regards Cabot's landfall the following opinion •} " The great value of the 1 544 map of Sebastian Cabot is that it fixes the landfall of his father's first voyage ; that on this point he is the highest authority, and that his evidence is quite conclusive, if it was given in good faith " (p. xxxiii.). Sir Clements reached the climax as follows : " As Sebastian Cabot had no motive for falsifying his map he did not do so, and the ' Prima Vista ' [/. e., Cape Breton] where he placed it, is the true landfall of John Cabot on his first voyage'' (p. xxxiv.). In reply, among other cogent reasons, it was urged that Seuas- tian did have motives for falsifying his rnap ; that is, in placing in 1 544 the landfall at Cape Breton, after having constantly, for thirty years previous, caused it to be inscribed in Labrador. These motives were that the explorations of Jacques Cartier had brought to notice a valuable region which France, then at war with England, was attempting to colonize ; that Sebastian Cabot, to advance his own interest, was always engaged in plotting^ and corresponding in secret with foreign rulers ; that so early as I5.'i8, he was intriguing with the English ambassador in Spain to be employed by Henry VIII. ; that his cartographical statements, as embodied in the i 544 map, may well have been a suggestion of British claims and a b'd for the King of luigland's favor, considering that to plape the land- fall near the gulf of St. Lawrence was tantamount to declaring Cape Breton and Newfoundland (instead of bleak and worthless Labrador) to be Elnglish territory ; and that in fact, a couple of years afterwards, he removed to England, where His Majesty pen- sioned and employed him. These reasons, which we innocently believed to be worth listening to, were unceremoniously dismissed by Sir Clements Markham as being "quite inadequate," and with- out his taking the trouble, as, under the circumstances, he should have done, to explain the cartographical change brought about by Sebastian Cabot. In consequence, the positive belief of Sir Clem- ents that Cape Breton Island was Cabot's landfall remained, for the time being, unshaken. The eminent geographer also maintained the following asser- tion : " Cabot after a voyage of fifty days reached land at five o'clock in the morning of Saturday^ tlie 2^th of June, being St. John's Day" (p. XV.). ' The Journal of Christopher Columbus, Hakluyt Society Public. No. LXJ'.XVI., 1893. V //. Harrisse ;ards in As regards the participation of Sebastian Cabot in that memor- able expedition, which had been the object of grave doubts, Sir Clements expressed this opinion : " On the whole it seems most probable that John Cabot did take his young son [/. e., Sebastian] with him" (p. xxiv.). We are now made to witness a sudden revolution of opinions on these important points of maritime history. In a paper read at the Royal Geographical Society, April 12, 1897,' Sir Clements Markham frankly acknowledges that " some of his views [on the subject of the Cabots] have bren modified." This time (employing the saine argument which had been ad- vanced five years ago to batter down his advocacy of the landfall at Cape Breton, viz. : the brief account which John Cabot himself gave to Raimondo di Soncino of his voyage), Sir Clements Mark- ham throws overboard both tht Cabotian planisphere and the Prima Vista at that very Cape Breton. It should also be noticed that with Dr. Dawson's chief argument for proving that Cape Breton was the real landfall, Sir Clements reaches an entirely different conclusion : " The same amount ''i southing," says he, " caused by the varia- tion of the compass whicn took Columbus to Guanahani would have taken Cabot to Bonavista bay, and taking Soncino's account of the voyage by itself, there can b: no question that Bonavista bay, on the east coast of Newfoundland, ivas the landfall" (p. 608). Unfortunately, Sir Clements neglects to initiate us into the ar- cana of his computations. It would have pioved interesting to subject them to the same experimentum cnicis as Dr. Dawson's. Meanwhile the change of front from Cape Breton to Bonavista is already a point gained. Further on it will be shown what we are to think of this new landfall. As to the date. Sir Clements is no longer so positive : " It was not necessarily on June 24th," he now says (p. 610). With regard to his previous opinion that ^' most probably Sebastian Cabot joined the expedition of 1497, Sir Clements at present rejects it altogether. " Stuustian" says he, " zvas not himself on board the Matthexv ;'' adding even : " and it is very doubtful whether he accompanied his father on cither of his voyages " (p. 612). These departures from opinions formerly held and energetically defended by the eminent geographer deserve to be noted, particu- larly in connection with a recantation of the same kind which stands to the credit of Dr. Dawson. For instance, this savant has found fault with one of Cabot's biographers who, he says (most erroneously however) after fixing the landfall at Cape Breton, wrote ten years ' The Geographical Jourtial, London, June, 1897. I o The Outcome of the Cabot Quater- Centenary afterwards in favor of the coast of Labrador. Yet, himself, after believing the landfall to have been in Newfoundland,' he now places it at Cape Breton. So far from blaming such changes of view, in this or any other historical investigation, on the part of Dr. Dawson, or on the part of Sir Clements Markham, we consider that they bespeak the true .spirit of experienced and loyal historians. He is indeed a very poor student of history who imagines that the book he writes embodies the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, for all times to come. Even if every source of information had been exhausted, there would still remain the parallel evolution of kindred sciences and the faculty to appreciate, which, it is almost a truism to say, becomes keener and keener through constant exercise and a more thorough knowledgv. of the facts. " L' Histoire est une enquete perpetuelle." Only the wiseacres whose method and profound learning consist exclusively in collecting, as with a spoon, so to speak, the footnotes and statements of others, think otherwise. III. Dr. Dawson, after publishing his interesting monograph of 1894, wrote another,^ not less elaborate, which may be called an attempt at elucidating the first, and wherein new Cabotian theories are ad- vanced. One of these concerns the fact that after causing during thirty years the landfall to be marked in Labrador or Greenland, Sebastian Cabot removed it to Cape Breton. The question involves, besides, a point of capital interest concerning the cartographical history of America. Dr. Dawson disposes of it as follows : " Sebastian Cabot was not in truth English born, and had no patriotic obligation to guard English interests. Therefore, when he was made grand pilot of Spain, and head of the department of car- tography at Seville, he quietly acquiesced in the suppression on the maps he supervised of all traces of his father's voyage and his father's discoveries for England. . . Cabot was well recompensed by the King of Spain for the use of that knowledge of the Bacca- laos, which he above others possessed ; and that knowledge, under- rated and even despised in England, was suppressed upon the Spanish and Portuguese maps. That is the answer to the question : Why, if Cabot's landfall had been really at Cape Breton in Bacca- ' " For many years, under the influence of current traditions and cursory reading, 1 believed the landfall of John Cabot to have been in Newfoundland."- Dr. Dawson in Trans. Royal Soc. Can. for 1894, p. 55. * Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada relative to a Cabot celebration in i8gb, Vol. II., Sec. II. ; and The Voyages of the Cabots ; Latest Phases of the Controversy, N. S., Vol. III., Sec. II., 1897. I : ! H. Harrisse II Irios, did he not record it upon the maps he supervised while grand pilot of Spain?" (monograph of 1894, p. 84). This alleged suppression of maps is a pure invention. Tho English discoveries were so little suppressed in the Spanish maps, that all we know about them cartographically is to be found exclu- sively in Spanish maps of the time and in contemporaneous copies of them. First, before Cabot came to Spain, in La Cosa's plani- sphere (i 500), which delineates the " Mar dcsaibierta par inglescJ' Then, while Sebastian Cabot held the office of pilot major of Spain, in the mappcmonde sent from Seville by Robert Thorne (1527), where we read : " Terra luc ab Aiiglis priinum fiat inventa." After- wards, in the VVei-.nar Ribeiro ( l 5 29), bearing t! e inscription : " Esta ticrra dcscubricron los Itiglcscs," and in the Propaganda map (i 529), which inserts the legend: " laqual dcscubrieron los Inglescs de la villa de Bristol,'' a statement also inscribed in the Wolfenbiittel map- pemonde [circa 1530), all of which are maps openly made in Se- ville, most of them while Charles V. sat upon the throne and by his own chart-makers. If Dr. Dawson's theory is sound, let him say why the Spanish royal cartographers should have inscribed the English discoveries in official charts at all ? On the other hand, at that time, or at any time, what difference could it make to Spain to place the English discoveries in Greenland or in Labrador rather than at Cape Breton, if the latter was the true place ? Neither the one nor the other be- longed to her. Ever since 1494 those three countries had been re- linquished by Spain in favor of Portugal, officially and forever. We still possess two original maps^ based upon the Royal Pattern {Padron real) and endorsed by cosmographers of Charles V. The one, dated 1527, states that it contains all that which was discovered up to date : "todolo que del Mundosc a descubierto fasta aora.'' The other, dated i 529, adds to this statement the following words : " ac- cording to the treaty which was entered into by the Catholic Sover- eigns of Spain and King John of Portugal at Tordesillas in 1494: " conforme a la capitnlacion que hizieron los Catholicos Reyes de Espana y el Rey don Juan de Portugal en Tordesillas ano de 14^4,'' and both are signed by a " Costnographo de Su Magestad." These authentic maps trace the line of demarcation between Spain and Portugal, marking with a Spanish flag the region within which westwardly the one could accomplish maritime discoveries, and with a Portuguese standard the region allotted eastwardly to the other for the same purpose.^ Now, that line in those, and • Kohl, Die beiden Sltesten General- Karten von Amerika, Weimar, i860, folio. ' Alleged Partition of the Globe, in The Diplomatic History of America^ its first chapter, i4S2-r4gj-i4g4., London, 1897, pp. 74-77. 12 The Outcome of the Cabot Qiiater-Centenary in fact in all the Spanish maps of the sixteenth century, is maue to pass through the longitude of Halifax, ascribing therefore the greatest part of Nova Scotia, the whole of Cape Breton Island and of New- foundland, as well as the east coast of Labrador, to Portugal exclu- sively. It is plain to any unbiassed mind tbat under the circumstances Spain had no interest whatever in making a mystery of the geo- graphical configuration of the Atlantic borders north of the Caro- linas ; particularly as the Tierra de Ayllon, in about 35" latitude, was the extreme limit of what she claimed as her own, or attempted to coloni/.e in that region. Nor were ihe discoveries accomplished by the English a secret for any one. If the country discovered by them was Cape Breton, how is it that all the old maps and mappemondes name that region, not Tierra dc los Inglcscs, but Tierra de los Bretones, and even, in unmistakable language, Terra que foy descubierta por bcrtomes f Why should the Portuguese, the Catalans, the Italians, etc., who certainly had no reasons whatever for preferring the Bretons to the English, ascribe to Brittany a merit alleged to belong to England ? This legend is so deeply rooted that we must be permitted to expatiate upon its improbability. It is difficult to conceive any- thing more inconsistent with the records of Spanish maritime his- tory than the assertion that Spain ever possessed geographical data concerning North America, of which other nations knew nothing, and which it was a crime to disclose in maps. In those days, the Castilian kings (to whom alone the Indies belonged, Aragon having no share in them) made known all their public orders not v erbally, but by written ordinances {cedulas) duly promulgated. And it must be said that no monarchs in Europe indulged in the practice more than they did. We still possess all the prohibitions of a public character and decrees enacted by them. If there had even existed under their reign a law making it unlawful to communicate maps of the newly-discovered regions, we should certainly find it in one at least of the numerous Recopilaciones de Leyes, particularly among their elaborate and minute clauses relative to nautical matters.' Now there is not a single one containing the least trace of anything of the kind.^ Nor did any searcher ever find in the records of the Casa de Contratacion a ^ngle case of pilots or seamen, or mer- • Besides the Rtcopilaciones, see Veytia Linage, Norte de la Contratacion, Seville, 1672, folio. 'Dr. Dawson says: "In 1511 an edict was issued forbidding the communication of charts to foreigners" (monograph of 1894, p. 68). This edict exists only in the learned Canadian's imagination. VOL. IV. — 4 H. Harrisse n chants, or underwriters, or cartographers having been molested on that account.' On the contrary, a number of examples could be cited to prove how great was the immunity regarding the communication of map^, even to foreigners. For instance, the; greatest events in the naval history of Spain are the discoveries of Columbus and Magellan. Isabella and Charles V. well knew that Venice beheld those new seaways as bespeaking the downfall of her commercial influence in the far East. Still, when Angelo Trivigiano asked of Columbus, for the use of the celebrated Venetian Admiral Domenico Malipiero, .'' map of the newly-discovered regions, the great Genoese at once sent his own copy to Palos, to have a perfect and complete repro- duction made by a pilot of the place : " fata et copiosa, et particular di quanto paese e stato scoperto."^ As to the all-important strait discovered by Magellan, it was openly disclosed and delineated, with the exact route, in maps and globes supplied by Maximil- ianus Transylvanus, the secretary of Charles V.^ Yet, a priori, what required more to be kept secret than the way to the Spice Islands ? Furthermore, the advocates of the theory that geographical data were withheld by Spain, should first show in what respects any of the numerous Spanish maps of the time which we possess, and which set forth North American configurations, omit anything of impor- tance that was then known. Peter Martyr, Las Casas, Oviedo, the mass of letters patent and judicial inquests concerning the trans- atlantic discoveries, etc., etc., state in detail the objects and results of Spanish voyages to the Indies, as America was then called. Not a single topographical datum worth recording can be pointed out as having been omitted in any of the semi-official Sevillan maps which have reached us. Nor is there one which does not contain all that the Casa de Contratacion, with its means of information could then know. This fact will not be gainsaid by any one at all familiar with the Spanish archives and cartography. And as re- gards the northeast coast, if those charts servilely set forth the de- lineations, and even the very nomenclature of the Portuguese portulans, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it is ' As to the argument of Dr. Dawson upon a pas^e from a letter sent from Seville in 1527 by Robert Thome with a map to Dr. Lee, see the Discovery of North America by John Cabot, 3d edit, pp. 20, 21. "Letter "Ex Granata die 21 Aug. 1501," in Christophe Colomb, Vol. II., p. II9. The original MS. of those highly interesting letters was discovered only five years ago in the library of Mr. Sneyd at Newcastle. ^De Mobucis insulis, Coloniae, 1523, and Epistle addressed l)y Sch6ner to Reymer von Streytpergk, in Wieser's MigalAdes-Sirasse, Innsbruck, l83i. 14 The Outcome of the Cabot Qiiater- Centenary \\ ' because Spain possessed no other source of information, and, con- sequently, she had nothing wiiatevcr to conceal in that respect.' In keeping with all those legends, is the following statement of Dr. Dawson : " One fact stares us in the face at the outset, that w'lile maps were freely engraved and printed in all pa»io of Italy, rii rmany and France, none were printed in Spain " (monograph of 1898, p. 187). To interpret this fact as showing " how effectually the Council of the Indies had concealed the cartographical records of their office," Dr. Dawson should commence by proving that the absence of American maps of Spanish make was an exception and that the Spaniards engraved and printed maps of Spain or of other coun- tries at that time. This has not yet been shown by anybody. The plain reason is that no maps of America, and n. fact no maps at all, were engraved or printed in Spain before the second half of the six- teenth century ; ^ simply because at that time the art of engraving maps, particularly on copper, did not yet exist in that country, as was also the case in England and Portugal. IV. Now comes the question of Sebastian Cabot's character as a cosmographer, a scientist, a navigator and a man, which, it must be said, is at present somewhat damaged. Dr. Dawson meets a mass of documentary proofs, absolutely authentic, with an argument which he doubtless believes to be decisive, viz. : " Ferdinand and Charles V. were good judges of men, and they trusted Sebastian Cabot to the last" (monograph of 1898, p. 182). Even if it were so (for the word "trusted" is not generally synonymous with " employed"), what of it ? History teems with instances of famous kings and great emperors, all " good judges of men," who were, nevertheless, imposed upon by charlatans to the last. How many crowned heads and important perse nages, as well as lesser ones, do we not see at all times and everyw here deluded by the fallacious promise held out to them of converting the baser metals into pure gold ? For Ferdinand and Charles V., for Henry VII. and the advisers of Edward VI., even for Queen Mary,^ the ' See Oviedo, Historia General de las Indias, Vol. II., p. 148. He was state chronicler of the Indies and wrote' on the subject of American cartography, shortly after IS4«- 'The only map of Spanish make known to have been engrav2d in Spain before lS4St is a rough and small wood-cut inserted in the second or third issue of the 1511 edition of Peter Martyr' s /«>jif Decade. Even the map in Medina's Arte de Navegar (1545) is only a rough and badly executed wood-cut, scarcely any better than Peter Martyr's. 3 Richard Willes, speaking of Sebastian Cabot's map which the Earl of Bedford had at I henies, says : " In his card drawn with his own hand, the mouth of the North- M > ill U H. Harrisse 15 philosopi "r's stone was the discovery of a North- West Passage to Cathay ; and it was by making those monarchs believe that he posi- tively knew of the existence of such a passage, first in the Baccalaos region (15 12), then at the south (1525), and finally towards the North Pole (1553), that Sebastian Cabot prospered both in Spain and in England, after having vainly endeavored to deceive the Re- public of Venice (1523 and 1551) by the same pretence. " This man," again says Dr. Dawson (ironically), " served some of the most capable princes who ever sat upon a throne, and it re- mained after 350 years for us to find him out" (monograph of 1897, p. 184). Just as if there was a time of prescription for mistakes and de- lusions, or as if the real estimate of Sebastian Cabot's character, under every aspect, was not based altogether upon authentic docu- ments ! To a blind admiration, which has no other source than stereotyped averments of suspicious origin and constantly repeated, without control and without proofs, critical historians oppose Sebas- tian Cabot's own writings and theories. These are amply sufficient to form a correct opinion of his professional and scientific worth. They have been recently examined — for the first time in three cen- turies — with care and impartiality. Let the champions and admi- rers quand mime of Sebastian Cabot come forward and refute, not with legends, with empty words or with objurgations, but by dint of facts and .'igures, if they can, the opinion formed by painstaking critics of the wily Venetian's value as a commander and a seaman,' as a pretended discoverer in magnetics,^ as an expert in nautical sci- ence,'' nay as a cosmographer.^ Let them endeavor, if it be within their reach, to trace back to him the least invention or progress in maritime devices or applications ; let them even show any act or ef- fort on his part which ever proved beneficial to anything or to any one beside himself. As to his private character, it is worse still. ' We will not Western Strait lieth near the 318 meridian, between 61° and 64° in elevation, continuing the same breadth about ten degrees West, where it openeth Southerly more and more." History of Travayle, 1577) f°- 832. According to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sebastian even boasted having " entered the same fret until he came to the septentrional latitude of 67^ degrees. ' ' • Documents in John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America, pp. 227-255, 412-427 ; and Drapeyron's Rexnie de Giographie, Nov., 1897. 'Doc... mjohn Cahot, etc., pp. 290-295, 296-308. 'Docs, in op. cit., pp. 309-317, 454-456. ♦Docs, in op. cit., pp. 281-288, and Draprvron's Revue, 1897. ' Every document which we now disco^'er co.Uinues to tell against Sebastian Cabot's honesty in some way or other. As a professional cartographer, see how he acted toward the Fuggers. We read the following entry in their books, lately brought to light : " Sebas- tian Gabato, a cosmographer. Loss suffered on his account. He was to make a map- i!ll 1 6 The Outcome of the Cabot Quatcr-Ccntenary again enlarfje on this topic, further than by expressing our surprise at tlic sort of ethics now cniph)ycd to whitewash Sebastian Cabot. To cite a single example. In 1522, when Magellan's companions had returned to Spain and brought news of the discovery of the southern strait, all the technical details of which had been communicated to Sebastian Cabot by virtue of his office as pilot major, he concocted a plan, which, had it been realizable, would have set at naught the results of that great deed and proved extremely prejudicial to Spain. He called repeatedly on the Venetian ambassador, proposing to carry into effect schemes concerning the spice trade for the Signory's bene- fit ; and finally sent an agent secretly to Venice to proffer his services. Contarini, the ambassador at Valladolid, was at once instructed to confer with Cabot. The official desjjatch relating the interview is extremely dramatic and exhibits in a vivid light the character of the man. They met at night. The information that the Signory heark- ened to his treacherous pro{>osals elated him. Suddenly, he be- came al.irmed, turned pale and, quaking with fear/ besought the ambassador never to divulge the matter, as otherwise "it would cost him his life." The fact is that if Charles V. had been informed of such a plot, the disloyal pilot major would soon have found his way to the gallows. Cabot, to enhance the reward which he expected to receive from Venice, took pains to inform Contarini that Ferdinand had made him a captain with a salary of 50,000 maravedis, had subsequently given him the office of pilot major with an additional salary of 50,000 maravedis and 25,000 besides as a gratuity. Then, to show, in his own peculiar way, his gratitude to Spain, he proposed to lead a Venetian fleet to Cathay or to the Spice Islands through a passage which he pretended to have discovered : " come e il vero che io I'ho ritrovato." Is it not plain that if such a knowledge ex- isted, its disclosure belonged, as of right, to the government which employed and paid him and should never have been imparted by the pilot major of Spain to a rival nation ? E^'ery impartial his- pemonde for us. He never did, and notwithstanding repeated eflforts we have been un- al)le to recover the money we had paid him for it, viz. : 2250 maravedis." " I5S3- He left .Spain to go to England, and we do not know whether he is still alive. Loss for (ieorge Stecher, 2250 mrs." Konrad Haebler, Zeitschrift der Gesellsch. f. Erdkunde z« Berlin, Bd. XXX., 1895. '"Li detti la lettera, lui la lesse et legiendola si mosse tutto di colore. L, poij letta, stete cussi un pocheto senza dirmi altro quasi sbigot'to et dubio . . . ma vi prego quanto posso che la cosa sij secreta perche a me anderebbe la vita. ' ' Dispatch of Contarini, Dec. 31, 1522, in Rawdon Brown's Calendar, Vol. IIL, p. 607, seq. i ; lii^iMMMt //. Harrisse «7 toiian must acknowlcd^je Sebastian Cabot to hj^'e ahown himself, on that occasion at least, both an impostor and a trp tor. Not so, however, with a certain Italian commcntat jr, who declares this course and repeated acts of the same kind on the part of Cabot to have been perfectly lej^Mtimate and admirable. As to Dr. Daw- son, having in mind either the present instance of treachery, or one precisely like it attempted by Cabot against England when in the employ of Edward VI., he meekly observes that " it must be re- membered how common it was in those days for sailors to pass from the service of one prince into that of another, and necessarily some negotiations must have preceded every such transfer " (monograph of 1897, p. 185). The less said about this explanation the better. poij V. In connection with Cabot's quatercentenary, the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava delivered a patriotic address in Bristol' and wrote an elaborate article for a New York magazine.^ They are such as to prompt the supposition that, being absorbed by official duties, his Lordship, who is a distinguished man of letters, not having time to make the required searches himself, may have entrusted to .some one else the task of preparing the material for his eloquent Cabotian disquisitions. At all events, the monograph contains a number of historical novelties and, to siy the least, questionable averments. Let us cite a few : " Cabot successfully negotiated for King Henry an agreement with the King of Denmark in reference to matters affecting the English trade in Ireland." This statement occurs for the first time in Anspach's History of Neivfoundland, written so recently aL l8ig (p. 25), and is supported by no authority whatever. Further, there are no traces of anything of the kind in a single known document, printed or manuscript, whether in England or in Denmark or in the Hansereccssc, which should contain information on the subject if the statement was true. " Sebastian Cabot was born in Bristol." He said so to Eden, in his old age, in England ; but it is one of the many falsehoods uttered by him whenever it was to his in- terest. To be a grantee of letters patent under the Tudors, as well as now, it was necessary to be of full age ; that is, 2 1 years old. As Sebastian figures as grantee in the letters patent of March 5, 1496, conjointly with his father and brothers as second son, he was ^London Times, June 27, 1897. * Scribner'i Magazine, July, 1897, pp. 7^-75. I I '■I t8 T/ic Ouicome of the Cabot Quatcr Centenary then not less than twenty-two, and came to life consequently before March 1474. Now, John Cr'bot was made a Venetian citizen on March 28, 1476, " in conseciiience of a constant residence of fifteen years next preceding" in Venice: — "per habitationem annoriim XV, juxta consuetudinem." Sebastian Cabot therefore was born in that city ; further, that was the general opinion everywhere. When the great liveries of London objected to Sebastian being put in command of an luiglish expedition, they intimated to the King and to Cardinal Wolsey, on March i, 1521, that " he was not naturally born within the realm of England." When he treacher- ously offered his services to the Republic of Venice, his agent repre- sented to the Council of Ten, in September 1522, that Sebastian was " di questa citta w . " He him.self told Gasparo Contarini, the Venetian ambassa< • i. - court of Charles V., on December 30, 1522, " To tell eve. g to Your Lordship, I was born in Venice, but brought up in England : — Signor Ambassator, per dirve il tutto io naqui a Vonetia ma sum nutrito in Ingelterra." Peter Martyr, Navagero, Ovicdo, Ramusio, the " Mantua Gentle- man," Soranzo, all men of great veracity and high character, who derived their information from his own lips, always call Sebastian Cabot " Venetiano." How can any one presume to set up against this array of positive admissions and logical deductions from au- thentic documents, the unsupported and solitary statement made to Eden by Sebastian that he was an Englishman by birth, although he represented himself to the envoy of Venice so late as 1 551 as a Venetian born ? " Before his arrival in Bristol, John Cabot's reputation as an ex- perienced seaman and navigator had been fully recognized." This novel piece of information rests upon no evidence whatever. " The more probable conjecture, as well as an unbroken local tradition, points to Cape Bonavista, in Newfoundland, as the first land seen." The word " conjecture" is too elastic to be of much weight in an inquiry of this character. Nor is it, by far, " the more probable." Biddle, Humboldt and Kohl (the latter with the 1544 map before him) conjectured that Labrador was the landfall. Dr. Dawson con- jectures that it is Cape Breton ; others conjecture that it must be located in Greenland, and even at Salem Neck. As to the " un- broken local tradition " invoked by Lord Dufiferin, Dr. Dawson justly makes the following remark : " A tradition presupposes set- tlers c ' the coast to hand it down. But there were no settlers for a hundred years after Cabot ; the Indians all perished, and when living, their relations with Europeans were relations of hatred and //. Harrisse J9 aversion. ICvcn their lan^niayc perished with th;.'ni." Hesidcs, John Cabot himself says that he did not see a sinjjle living soul : " non a visto persona alguna." Who then could have started the alleged " tradition ?" Jiut let us not be too skeptical. This " unbroken tradition" may have been transmitted by the ghosts who were often heard conversing : — " muchas vezesoyen hablar spiritus," according to the ninth legend of Cabot's map. Wc also notice the following asseveration : " The conception of an intermediate continent [between Europe and Asia] was absent from the mind of Cabot as it was from that of Columbus." His Lordship then says : " In fact, Cabot's notion was that of a north- west passage." What for ? It stands to reason that if the Atlantic Ocean bathed the shores of Asia, there woukl have been no necessity on the part of Cabot, or any one else, to go in search of a northwestern strait to reach the Asiatic regions. " In 1526, Sebastian Cabot set out on an important expedition, whose object was the exploration of the Pacific Ocean, but, owing to the dissatisfaction of his subordinates, this intention was frus- trated, and Cabot put into La Plata." The intention was frustrated because Sebastian Cabot, who showed himself a very poor seaman, and apparently had never led a maritime expedition before, went headlong into the " Black pot,'" contrarily to the repeated advice of his pilots. In consequence, after a serus of professional mishaps, he lost his flagship in the channel of St. Catherine, which shipwreck decided the fate of the enterprise. On his return to Spain, Cabot, for this and other mis- demeanors, was arrested and tried by the Council of the Indies, which found him guilty each time in four successive trials, and sen- tenced him to four years' banishment in a penal colony in Africa. " His attempts to found a colony did not prove successful, on account of quarrels with the natives, which in some measure owed their origin to an indigenous chief having fallen in love with the wife of one of his officers." This extraordinary love-story is a fabrication of the whole cloth (not by His Lordship, however). No officer had his wife with him ; nay, no woman whatever accompanied or joined Cabot's expedition at any time. " Sebastian Cabot threw up the enterprise, and returning to Eng- land, made his permanent home among us." Sebastian Cabot returned direct to Spain in July, 1530, where he was forbidden to absent himself from Ocana, a town of Castile. ' See the map in Drapeyron's Revue de Giographie for November, 1897. TT T f I 90 The Outcome of the Cabot Quatcr- Centenary iK He did not return to England until eighteen years afterwards, in 1548. " In 1549 Edward the Sixth gave him the title of Grand Pilot." Sebastian Cabot never was grand pilot of England. The office did not even exist in the time of Edward the Sixth — Hakluyt to the contrary notwithstanding. It was created about six years after the death of Sebastian Cabot, on January 3, 1563, by Queen Elizabeth, and Stephen Burrough was the first incumbent. " Before the [second] expedition was ready John Cabot died, leaving the new adventure to be prosecuted by his son . . . Sebas- tian Cabot started from Bristol in May 1498 with a fleet of five vessels." There is not a shadow of evidence that John Cabot died before May 1498 and that his son Sebastian sailed then or at any time from Bristol with a fleet. Nay, the name of Sebastian Cabot was not uttered in England in connection with the voyage until March II, 1 521, wlvn the wardens of the great liveries of London ex- pres.sed the prevailing opinion on the subject in a memorial ad- dressed to the king, to Cardinal Wolsey and to the royal council in these words: " Sebastyan, as we here say, was neuer in that land hymself, all if he maks reporte of many things as he hath hard his father and other men speke in tymes past."' As to the alleged death of John Cabot before the second expe- dition sailed out, it is interesting to note that the redeeming trait in Lord Dufierin's displays of historic lore is his disclosure of a cus- toms roll showing that John Cabot received payment for a tally of ;^20, either in London or in Bristol, between September i497