Part 6
The second “testimonie” is comprised in a report of a talk among a group of Italian savans at the villa of Hieronymo Fracastor, a maker of globes, at Caphi, near Verona. The principal speaker, “a most profound philosopher and mathematician,” but not named, discoursed about Sebastian Cabot and related an interview had with Cabot some years before at Seville, in which he described his adventures in detail. The identification of the speaker as “Galeacius Butrigarius, the Pope’s legate” in Spain, was copied by Hakluyt, it is said, from Richard Eden. But this has been shown to have been an error, the fact being ascertained that Butrigarius died some years before the gathering at Fracastor’s villa. Hakluyt reproduces the animated tale from Ramusio’s second book of voyages, the caption being his own:
"A discourse of Sebastain Cabot touching his discovery of part of the West India out of England in the time of King Henry the seventh, used to Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes Legate in Spaine, and reported by the sayd Legate in this sort.
"Doe you not understand sayd he (speaking to certaine Gentlemen of Venice) how to passe to India toward the Northwest, as did of late a citizen of Venice, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things pertaining to navigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he is preferred above all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither without his licence, and is therefore called Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. And when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Sivil, and desirous to have some knowledge of the navigations of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make Cardes [charts] for the Sea with his owne hand, and that by this report, seeking his acquaintance, hee found him a very gentle person, who entertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a large Mappe of the world, with certaine particular Navigations, as well of the Portugals [Portuguese] as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further unto him to this effect.
"‘When my father departed from Venice many yeres since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie and of the Sphere. And when my father died in that time when newes was brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genuese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7. who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane, to saile by the West into the East where spices growe, by a way that was never knowen before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I should saile by way of the Northwest, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two Carvels to bee furnished with all things appertayning to the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496 [_sic_] in the beginning of Sommer.
“‘I began therefore to saile toward the Northwest, not thinking to finde any other land then that of Cathay, & from thence to turne toward India, but after certaine dayes I found that the land ranne towards the North, which was to mee a great displeasure. Neverthelesse, sayling along by the coast to see if I could finde any gulfe that turned, I found the lande still continent to the 56. degree under our Pole. And seeing that there the coast turned toward the East, despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe, and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the Equinoctiall (ever with intent to finde the saide passage to India) and came to that part of this firme lande which is nowe called Florida, where my victuals failing, I departed from thence and returned into England, where I found great tumult among the people and preparation for warre in Scotland: by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage.’”
Here again the two voyages are confused; and besides, the date, 1496, is wrong, and John Cabot is ignored. This would reflect upon the veracity and generosity of Sebastian Cabot, were it not more than likely that the reporter bungled, or that the accuracy of the statement suffered through repetition. It is also to be taken into account that the interview was had half a century after the events, and when Sebastian Cabot was an old man.
The remainder of the interview touches briefly upon Sebastian Cabot’s exploits of later years for Spain, and again, for England, and closes cheerily: “... And waxing olde, I give my selfe to rest from such travels, because there are nowe many yong and lustie Pilots and Mariners of good experience, by whose forwardnesse I doe rejoyce in the fruit of my labours, and rest with the charge of this office, as you see.”
The third testimony, from Ramusio’s preface to his third volume, which was published in 1563, contrasts the Cabot voyages with those subsequently made for the king of France, which established “New France” in North America:
“In the latter part of this volume are put certaine relations of John de Vararzana [Verrazzano], Florentine, and of a great captaine a Frenchman, and the two voyages of Jaques Cartier a Briton [of Brittany], who sailed unto the land situate in 50 degrees of latitude to the North, which is called New France, which landes hitherto are not throughly knowen, whether they doo joyne with the firme land of Florida and Nova Hispania, or whether they bee separated and divided all by the Sea as Ilands: and whether that by that way we may goe by Sea unto the countrey of Cathaia. As many yeeres past it was written unto mee by Sebastian Cabota our Countrey man, a Venetian, a man of great experience, and very rare in the art of Navigation, and the knowledge of Cosmographie, who sailed along and beyond this lande of New France, at the charges of King Henry the seventh king of England: and he advertised mee that having sailed a long time West by North, beyond those Ilands unto the Latitude of 67 degrees and an halfe under the North pole, and at the 11 day of June finding still the open Sea without any maner of impediment, he thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaia, which is in the East, and would have done it, if the mutinie of the shipmaster and Mariners had not hindered him and made him to returne homeward from that place. But it seemeth that God doeth yet still reserve this great enterprise for some great prince to discover this voyage of Cathaia by this way, which for the bringing of the Spiceries from India into Europe, were the most easie and shortest of all other wayes hitherto found out. And surely this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most importance of all other that can be imagined to make his name great, and fame immortall, to all ages to come, farre more then can be done by any of all these great troubles and warres which dayly are used in Europe among the miserable Christian people.”
The fourth testimony is the most important of the six, being an account by Peter Martyr drawn directly from Sebastian Cabot’s statements to him. The Third Decade of Martyr’s history of the New World, from which Hakluyt takes it, was first printed in Seville, in 1516. At the time of Martyr’s writing Sebastian Cabot was in Spain, in the Spanish king’s service, and, as the text shows, an intimate friend of Martyr’s. This being the first printed account of the Cabot voyages, American historians based their relations of them upon it till its several inaccuracies were disclosed by other data. Hakluyt presents it in full as below.
"These North Seas have bene searched by one Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian borne, whom being yet but in maner an infant, his parents caried with them into England, having occasion to resort thither for trade of marchandise, as is the maner of the Venetians to leave no part of the world unsearched to obtaine riches. Hee therefore furnished two ships in England at his owne charges, and first with 300 men directed his course so far towards the North pole, that even in the moneth of July he found monstrous heapes of ice swimming on the sea, and in maner continuall day light, yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, which had bene molten by the heat of the Sunne. Thus seeing such heapes of yce before him, hee was enforced to turne his sailes and follow the West, so coasting still to the shore, that he was thereby brought so farre into the South, by reason of the land bending so much Southward, that it was there almost equall in latitude, with the sea Fretum Herculeum [Straits of Hercules], having the Northpole elevate in maner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so farre towards the West, that hee had the Island of Cuba on his left hand, in maner in the same degree of longitude. As hee traveiled by the coastes of this great land (which he named Baccalaos) he saith that hee found the like course of the waters toward the West, but the same to runne more softly and gently then the swift waters which the Spaniards found in their Navigations Southward. Wherefore it is not onely more like to be true, but ought also of necessitie to be concluded that betweene both the lands hitherto unknowen, there should be certaine great open places whereby the waters should thus continually passe from the East unto the West: which waters I suppose to be driven about the globe of the earth by the uncessant moving and impulsion of the heavens, and not to bee swallowed up and cast up againe by the breathing of Demagorgœn, as some have imagined, because they see the seas by increase and decrease to ebbe and flowe.
"Sebastian Cabot himselfe named those lands Baccalaos, because that in the Seas thereabout hee found so great multitudes of certaine bigge fishes much like unto Tunies (which the inhabitants call Baccalaos) that they sometimes stayed his shippe. He found also the people of those regions covered with beastes skinnes, yet not without the use of reason. He also saith there is great plentie of Beares in those regions which use to eate fish: for plunging themselves into ye water, where they perceive a multitude of these fishes to be, they fasten their clawes into their scales and so draw them to land and eate them, so (as he saith) the Beares being thus satisfied with fish, are not noisome to men. Hee declareth further, that in many places of these Regions he saw great plentie of Copper among the inhabitants.
“Cabot is my very friend, whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keepe mee company in mine owne house. For being called out of England by the commandement of the Catholique King of Castile, after the death of King Henry the seventh of that name King of England, he was made one of our councill and Assistants, as touching the affaires of the new Indies, looking for ships dayly to be furnished for him to discover this hid secret of Nature.”
The fifth testimony, out of Gomara’s “General History,” is the following extract from a history of the West Indies published in 1552–1553. Francisco Lopez de Gomara was a priest, sometime chaplain of Hernando Cortes, and was one of the most distinguished historical writers of Spain in his time.
"The testimonie of Francis Lopez de Gomara, a Spaniard, in the fourth Chapter of the second Booke of his generall history of the West Indies concerning the first discoverie of a great part of the West Indies, to wit, from 58 to 38 degrees of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England.
“He which brought most certaine newes of the countrey & people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was Sebastian Cabote a Venetian, which rigged up two ships at the cost of K. Henry the 7 of England, having great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portingales did. He carried with him 300 men, and tooke the way towards Island [Iceland] from beyond the Cape of Labrador, untill he found himselfe in 58 degrees and better. He made relation that in the moneth of July it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not passe any further: that the dayes 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 Bacalaos: and afterwards he sayled along the coast unto 38 degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to returne into England.”
The sixth is this brief passage from the Chronicle of Robert Fabian, “sometime alderman of London,” which Hakluyt received in manuscript from John Stow, the famous London antiquarian and annalist:
"A note of Sebastian Cabots first discoverie of part of the Indies taken out of the latter part of Robert Fabians Chronicle not hitherto printed, which is in the custodie of M. John Stow a diligent preserver of Antiquities.
“In the 13 yeere of K. Henry the 7 (by meanes of one John Cabot a Venetian which made himselfe very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world and Ilands of the same, as by a Sea card and other demonstrations reasonable he shewed) the king caused to man and victuall a ship at Bristow [Bristol] to search for an Island which he said hee knew well was rich, and replenished with great commodities: Which shippe thus manned and victualed at the kings cost, divers 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 Bristow three or foure small ships fraught with sleght and grosse marchandises, as course cloth, caps, laces, points & other trifles. And so departed from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in this Maiors [mayor’s] time returned no tidings.”
The following mention, by “the foresaid Robert Fabian,” “of three Savages which Cabot brought home and presented unto the King in the foureteenth yere of his raigne,” is given as a sort of supplementary testimony (the authenticity of which is questioned by Richard Biddle, Sebastian Cabot’s biographer, who charges this kidnapping of natives upon a later navigator):
“This yeere also were brought unto the King three men taken in the Newfound Island that before I spake of, in William Purchas time being Maior: These were clothed in beasts skins, & did eate raw flesh, and spake such speach that no man could understand them, and in their demeanour like to brute beastes, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which upon two yeeres after, I saw two apparelled after the manner of Englishmen in Westminster pallace, which that time I could not discerne from Englishmen, til I was learned what they were, but as for speach I heard none of them utter one word.”
And the whole is preceded by that legend of the first discovery of the West Indies by Madoc the Welshman, in the year 1170, which is cast in apparently for what it may be worth.
VIII VENTURES IN THE CABOTS’ TRACK
In the illustrious year of 1498, which witnessed Sebastian Cabot’s westward discoveries along North America, and Columbus’s sighting of South America, Vasco da Gama, pursuing his eastward navigations, crossed the Indian Ocean, dropped anchor off the city of Calicut, on the Malagar coast, and set up on shore a marble pillar as proof of his discovery of India by an ocean highway. Thus Portugal offset Spain’s claim to the West Indies by priority of discovery, with a claim through first discovery to the East Indies, and stood ready to assert it, while England allowed her right, by the same token, in the North American continent to lapse.
Spain and Portugal continued in sharp rivalry during the half decade immediately following. In 1499 the coast of South America was touched at about Surinam by the Spaniard Alonzo de Ojeda and the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Spain. The same year the coast of Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese navigator, Vincente Yarez Pinzon. He had been a companion of Columbus. The next year possession of Brazil was taken for the crown of Portugal by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese commander, who was driven to its coast by adverse winds when making a voyage to India by Vasco da Gama’s course. Three years later a settlement was begun there by Amerigo Vespucci, now in the service of Portugal. In 1500 Gaspar de Cortereal, Portuguese, attempted to follow the Cabots’ track of discovery opened in the northwest. Coming upon the coast of Labrador he explored it for six hundred miles. He discovered Nova Scotia, the St. Lawrence, and also Hudson’s Strait. Then he returned to Lisbon with his two caravals freighted with natives—men, women, and children—whom he had captured and brought home for slavery. The next year Cortereal departed on a second voyage for further discovery and presumably more slaves, and was never more heard from. His brother, Michael de Cortereal, sailed in search of him, and also was lost. Then two armed ships were sent out by the king of Portugal to search for both brothers; but no trace of either could be found. It was finally assumed that both fell victims to the vengeance of the natives for the thefts of their people. Upon the strength of Gaspar de Cortereal’s voyages Portugal attempted to establish a claim to the discovery of Newfoundland and the adjacent coast of North America. But in this she was not successful. Spain, however, held firmly to all of her American possessions, indefinitely defined.
England remained passive till 1501, when a new movement was started in the Cabots’ home city of Bristol. Three Bristol merchants—Richard Ward, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas—and three Portuguese mariners—John Fernandus, Francis Fernandus, and John Gundlur—came together for a venture in the track of the Cabots. A patent was obtained from King Henry, under date of March 19, 1501, which conferred upon them the same powers that had originally been given the Cabots, and was in terms similar to the Cabot patents. Whether they sent out an expedition that year is not known. The next year, however, the personnel of the company had changed, with the dropping of Ward and Thomas and the substitution of Hugh Eliot in their place; and under this organization, probably in 1503, a voyage was made which resulted in discovery at Newfoundland and along the Labrador coast. The only record of this voyage is given by Hakluyt in the following excerpt from the merchant Robert Thorne’s “Booke” of 1527, addressed to the English Ambassador at the court of Spain:
"A briefe extract concerning the discoverie of Newfound-land taken out of the booke of M. Robert Thorne, to Doctor Leigh &c.
“I reason that as some sickenesses are hereditarie, so this inclination or desire of this discovery I inherited from my father, which with another marchant of Bristol named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of the Newfound-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, but the lands of the West Indies, from whence all the golde commeth, had bene ours; for all is one coast as the Card appeareth, and is aforesaid.”
The “card” here referred to was a rude map of the world on which, along the line of the coast of Labrador, was written the inscription in Latin, “This land was first discovered by the English.” A short time after this voyage the fisheries about Newfoundland had become well known to Frenchmen, and were being frequented by the hardy fishermen of Brittany and Normandy. Hence the later name of the isle of Cape Breton.
No further patents for English navigations were issued for more than half a century. Still English interest in maritime discovery and commercial advancement was not altogether stagnant during this period. Early in Henry the eighth’s reign quite a promising enterprise was set on foot by Sebastian Cabot, then back in England, and in high standing for his knowledge in cosmography. He had been in Spain for seven years (having entered Spain’s service three years after the death of Henry the seventh, which occurred in 1509), acting part of that time as one of the council of the Indies, and latterly completing plans for a new expedition for the search of the Northwest passage under the Spanish flag, which he had been compelled to abandon by Ferdinand’s death, in 1516. Returned to England he had found Henry the eighth hospitable to his scheme and had induced him to fit out a small squadron for its pursuit. The supreme command, however, was given to another,—Sir Thomas Pert, at that time vice-admiral of England,—and this proved disastrous to the enterprise; for, it is recorded, Sir Thomas’s “faint heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect.” All that the expedition accomplished was a visit to the coast of Brazil, to San Domingo, and to Porto Rico, whence it returned to England. Hakluyt gives a narration which he supposes to relate to this voyage, written by the Spanish historian Gonzalo de Oviedo, and reprinted by Ramusio, from whom he translates it: