.Ov. ^> v-k w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 m Ilia |50 ""'=^ 11? -_ ~ |40 112.2 12.0 IIIIIM U IIIIII.6 Vi (^ /}. '^^ VI ^' ooke of his generall history of the West Indies concerning the first discouerie of a great part of the West Indies, to wit, from 5S. to 38. degrees of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England. HE which brought most certaine newes of the countrey tSr people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was Sebastian Cabote a Venetian, which rigged vp two ships at the cost of K. Henry the 7. of England, hauing great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portingals did. He carried with him 300. men, and tooke the way towards Island from beyond the Cape of La- brador, vntill he found himselfe in 5S. degrees and better. He made relation that in the moneth of luly it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not passe any further : that the days were very long, in a maner without any night, and for that short night that they had, it was very cleare. Cabot feeling the cold, turned towards the West, refreshing himselfe at Baccalaos: and afterwards he sayled along the coast vnto 38. degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to returne into England. A note of Sebastian Cabots first discouerie of part of the Indies taken out of the latter part of Robert Fabians w H 8 Chronicle not hitherto printed, which is in the custodie of M. lohn Slow a diligent preseruer of Antiquities. IN the 13. yeere of K. Henry the 7. (by meanes of one lohn Cabot a Venetian which made himselfe very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world and Hands of the same, as by a Sea card and other demonstrations reasonable he shewed) the King caused to man and victual! a ship at Bristow, to search for an Island, which he said hee knew well was rich, and replenished with great commodities: Which shippe thus manned and victualled at the kings cost, diuers Marchants of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her as chiefe patron the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship, sailed also out of Ikistow three or foure small ships fraught with sleight and grosse marchandizes, as course cloth, caps, laces, points cv: other trilles. And so departed from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in this Maiors time returned no tidings. Of three Sauages which Cabot brought home and presented vnto the King in the foureteenth yere of his reigne, men- tioned by the foresaid Robert Fabian. THis yeere also were brought vnto the king three men taken in the Newfound Island that before I spake of, in William Pur- chas time being Maior : These were clothed in beasts skins, & did eate raw flesh, and spake such speach that no man could vnderstand them, and in their demeanour like to bruite beastes, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which vpon two yeeres after, I saw two apparelled after the maner of English- men in Westminster pal lace, which that time I could not dis- cerne from l-jiglishmen, til I was learned what they were, but as for speach, 1 heard none of them vtter one word. A briefc extract concerning the discouerie of Newfound- land, taken out of the booke of M. Robert Thorne, to Doctor Leigh, &c. I Reason, that as some sicknesses are hereditarie, so this inclination or desire of this discouery I inherited from my father, which with another marchant of Bristol named Hugh Eliot, were the discouerers of the Newfound-lands ; of the which there is no doubt (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the mariners would then haue bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, but the lands of the West Indies, from whence all the golde Cometh, had bene ours ; for all is one coast as by the Card appeareth, and is aforesaid. The large pension granted by K. Edward the 6. to Sebas- tian Cabota, constituting him grand Pilot of England. FH^ward the sixt by the grace of Ood, King of England, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, to all Christian people to whom these presents shall come, sendeth greeting. Know yee that we, in consideration of the good and acceptable seruice done, and to be done, vnto vs by our beloued seruant Sebastian Cabota, of our speciall grace, certaine knowledge, meere motion, and by the aduice and counsel of our most honourable vncle Edward duke of Somerset gouernour of our person, and Protector of our kingdomes, dominions, and sub- iects, and of the rest of our Counsaile, haue giiien iV granted^ and by these presents do giue and graunt to the said Sebastian Cabota, a certaine annuitie, or yerely reuenue of one hundreth, three-score & sixe pounds, thirteene shillings foure pence ster- ling, to haue, enioy, and yerely receiue the aforesaid annuitie, or yerely reuenue, to the foresaid Sebastian Cabota during his natural life, out of our Treasurie at the receit of our Exchequer at Westminster, at the hands of our 'Treasurers «Si paymasters, there remayning for the time being, at the feasts of the Annun- tiation of the blessed Virgin Mary, the Natiuitie of S. lohn Baptist, S. Michael y-' Archangel, & the Natiuitie of our Lord, to be paid by equal portions. And further, of our more speciall grace, and by the aduise and consent aforesaide wee doe giue, and by these presents doe graunt vnto the aforesaide Sebastian Cabota, so many, and so great summes of money as the saide annuitie or yeerely reuenue of an hundreth, three-score and sixe pounds, thirteene shillings 4. pence, doeth amount and rise vnto from the feast of S. Michael the Archangel last past vnto this present time, to be had and receiued by the aforesaid Sebastian Cabota, and his assignees out of our aforesaid Treasurie, at the handes of our aforesaide Treasurers, and officers of our Exchequer of our free gift without accompt, or any thing else therefore to be yeelded. payed, or made, to vs, our heires or successours, forasmuch as. herein expresse mention is made to the contrary. In witnesse whereof we haue caused these our Letters to be made patents : Witnesse the King at Westminster the sixt day of lanuarie, in the second yeere of his raigne. The yeere of our Lord 1548. >i' 1& lO " Sometimes in Wagner's musical dramas the introduction of a few notes from some leading melody foretells the inevitable catastrophe toward which the action is moving, as when in Lohengrin's bridal chamber the well-known sound of the distant Grail motive steals suddenly upon the ear, and the heart of the rapt listener is smitten with a sense of imjjending doom. So in the drama of maritime dis- covery, as glimpses of new worlds were beginning to reward the en- terprising crowns of Spain and Portugal, for a moment there came from the North a few brief notes fraught with ominous portent. The ])ower for whom destiny had reserved the world empire of which these Southern nations — so noble in aim, so mistaken in policy — were dreaming stretched forth her hand in quiet disregard of papal bulls, and laid it upon the western shore of the ocean. It was only for a moment, and long years were to pass before the consequences were developed. lUit in truth the first fateful note that heralded the coming English suprcniacy was sounded when John Cabot's liny craft sailed out from the Bristol channel on a bright May morning of 1497." — John Fiske, TJic Discovoy of A^nerica. The slight contemporary mention, which is all that we have of the voyages of the Cabots in r497 and 149^, does not enable us to deter- mine with precision the parts of the North American coast that were visited. We k )W that a chart of the tirst voyage was made ; for both the .Spanish envoys, Puebia and Ayala, writing between August 24, 1497, and July 25. 149-'^, mentioned having seen such a chart, and from an inspection of it they concluded that the distance run did not exceed 400 leagues. The \"enetian merchant. Pasqualigo, gave the distance more correctly as 700 leagues, and added that Cabot fol- lowed the coast of the "territory of the Grand Khan" fo" 300 leagues, and in returning saw two islands to starboard. An early tradition fixed upon the coast of Labrador as the region first visited, and until lately this has been the prevailing opinion. The chart seen by the Spanish ministers in London is unfortu- nately lost. But a map engraved in Germany or Flanders in 1544 or late, and said to be after a drawing by .Sebastian Cabt)t, has at the north of what we call the island of Cape Breton the legend '•'■ prima licrra vista,''' i.e. '^ first la)id seen "y and in this connection there is a marginal inscription. Spanish and Latin, saying, " This country was di'-covered by John Cabot, a \'enetian, and .Sebastian Cabot, his son. in the year of our Saviour Jesus Christ m. ( t cf. xciiii* on the 24th day of June in the morning, which country they called prima tierra vista, and a large island near by they named St. John because they discovered it on the same day." Starting from this information, it has been supposed that the navigators, passing this St. John, which we call Prince Edward Island, coasted around the Gulf of St. Law- rence and pa'^sed out through the Strait of Belle Isle. The two islands seen on the starboard would then be points on the northern \ 5 * This date is wrong, bottom, making .1 v. Tine first two letters after xc sliouid be jc.tred together at the It coast of Newfoundland, and a considerable part of Pasqualigo's 300 leagues of coasting would thus be accounted for. But inasmuch as the •' Matthew " had returned to Bristol by the first of August, it may be doubted whether so long a route could have been traversed within five weeks. If we could be sure that the map of 1544 in its present shape and with all its legends emanated from Sebastian Cabot, and was drawn with the aid of charts made at the time of discovery, its authority would be very high indeed. But there are some reasons for sup- posing it to iiave been amended or ''touched up ''by the engraver; and it is evidently compiled from charts made later than i 536, for it shows the results of Jacques Cartier's explorations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Its statement as to the first landfoll is, moreover, in con- flict with the testimony of the merchant Robert Thome, of Bristol, in 1527, and with that of two maps made at Seville in 1527 and 1529, according to which the '■^ prhna f terra 71/s/a'^ was somewhere on the coast of Labrador. It must be remembered, too, that John Cabot was instructed to take northerly and westerly courses, not southerly; and an important despatch from Raimondo de Soncino, in London, to the Duke of Milan, dated December 18, 1497, describes his course in accordance with these instructions. It is perfectly definite and altogether probable. According to this account Cabot sailed from Bristol in a small ship, manned by eighteen ])ersons, and, having cleared the western shores of Ireland, turned northward, after a few days headed for Asia, and stood mainly west till he readied •' Terra Firnia,"' where he planted the royal standard, and forthwith returned to England. In other words, he followed the common custom in those days of first running to a chosen parallel, and then following that parallel to the point of destination. Such a course could hardly have landed him anywhere save on the coast of Labrador. .Supposing his return voyage simply to have reversed this course, running south- easterly to the latitude of the English channel and then sailing due east, he may easily have coasted 300 leagues with land to starboard before finally bearing away from Cape Race. This view is in har- mony with the fact that on the desolate coasts passed he saw no Indians or other human beings. He noticed the abundance of cod- fish, however, in the waters about Newfoundland, and declared that the English would no longer need to go to Iceland for their fish. Our informant adds that Master John, toeing foreign-born and ])Oor, would ha\e been set down as a liar, had not his crew, who were mostly Bristol men, confirmed everything he said. — Fiske. John Cc^bot, like Columbus a native of Genoa, moved to England with his family from Venice, which had been his home for fifteen years, about 1490, and settled at Bristol. He may have been among those who were ii Hiienccd at that time by the arguments of Bartholomew Columbus. Ex- cited Ijy the news of the first voyage of ColumI)us, he sailed from Bristol with a crew of eighteen men, probably accompanied by his son Sebastia* m^ 12 Hi in a ship named the Matthew or Matthews^ early in Mav, 1497, and discov- ered what he supj50sed to be the Chinese coast, but what was the coast of Labrador or Newloundland, on the 24th of June. This was the first dis- covery of America by any navigators sailing under English autho. itv. It has been supposed that John Cabot died on a second expedition, which sailed from Bristol the next year, leaving the command to his son Sebastian, who may have conducted a third expedition in 1501 or 1503. There is much that is obscure concerning the Cabots and their voyages. The best modern work upon the subject is WdiXx\?>%€'i Jean ct Sehasticii Calwt, published in I'aris in 18S2, but not yet translated into English. Biddle's Sehastian Cabot should be consulted by the student. Mr. Fiske's account, in \\\i, Discm'cry of America, '\%\>x\ti,h\xX. clear and critical. The most impor- tant discussion in English of the voyages of the Cabots is that by Charles Deane, in the Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iii. The bib- liographical notes accompanying this arc very thorough, forming a complete guide to everything that is to be learned concerning the Cabots. The volume b^' kichnrd Hakluyt on The Principal Navij^^ations, Voy- ages, and Discoverier of the English Nation, containing the principal early notices of the Cabots, reprinted in ihe present leaflet, was published in London in 1589, several of the same notices having previously appeared in his Divers Voyages touching the DiscoT'ery of America, published in 1 5S2. In Richard Eden's Decades of tlie Newe tVorld, published in 1555, there had, however, appeared accounts of the Cabot voyages, the first in English which have come down to us. Richard Elden knew Sebastian Cabot, who was living in England at the time he wrote. Most of the early accounts of the Cabots, with careful historical notes, may be found in Kerr's Voyages and Travels, vol. vi. All of these old accounts are to be read with great care, and the student should refer to the narratives of Mr. Deane and Mr. Fiske for corrections of many of their palpable mistakes. Thus the discourse to Hutrigarius ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, given by Ramusio. places the death of John Cabot in 1496, and makes Sebastian himself conduct the first c-xpedition in that year. It also makes the purpose of the voyage of 1498 the discovery of a " north-west passage " to Asia, whereas the idea of a north-west passage through or around America to Asia did not enter men's minds for a quarter of a century after that. The passage which Ilakluyt cites from Stow's Chronicles does not mention John Cabot, as Hakluyt makes it, l)ut begins : " This year one Sebastian Gabato, a Genoa's son, born in Bristow," etc. Here, however, the change by Hakluyt is in the interest of truth. ' 3 scov- ist of dis- . It tfhich stian, ■ages. 'Jahof. jdle's nt, in ■npor- larles e bib- iplete , Voy- early ed in red in 2. In ; had, which was of the ts and t care, Fiske irse to gs the le first f 1498 a of a men's akluyt akiuyt 1, l)orn nterest