FOOTNOTES:
[48] 1 Hen. VII. c. 8.
[49] Hen. VII. c. 8; see Parl. Hist. vol. i. p. 407.
[50] Rymer’s ‘Fœdera,’ vol. xii. p. 335.
[51] According to Hakluyt, “In the yeeres of our Lord 1511, 1512, &c., till the year 1534” (ii., p. 96).
[52] Hakluyt’s remark here is worthy of note, “Neither did our merchants onely employ their owne English shipping before mentioned, but sundry strangers also—Candiots, Raguseans, Venetian galiasses, Spanish and Portugal ships” (II., p. 96).
[53] Macpherson, vol. ii. p. 46.
[54] Macpherson, vol. ii. p. 11. The charter of patent is dated at Westminster, March 5, 1495-6.—Rymer, xii. p. 595.
[55] A close examination of the story of Cabot shows that the spot first seen by him could not have been Newfoundland. Moreover, Ortelius, who had Cabot’s own map before him, places an island of St. John in lat. 56° N., off the coast of Labrador, with which the account of its general sterility and the abundance of Polar bears agrees much better than with Newfoundland. The present Isle of St. John’s, off the coast of Newfoundland, was so called by Cartier, A.D. 1534 (Hakluyt, iii. p. 204). The second patent, too, speaks of “land and islands” as distinct discoveries of the first voyage. The fact is, all the territory round that neighbourhood was called “New Land,” as in the Stat. 33 Henry VIII., and Robert Thorne (ap. Hakluyt, i. p. 214) speaks of “our New found lands.” Thus, West Indies once meant the whole of America. That Cabot reached 67½° of N. lat. cannot be doubted, as Ramusio, in the Preface to the third volume of his ‘Voyages,’ distinctly states that the navigator had written to him to that effect (Ramusio, iii. 417). The presumption is, further, strong that John Cabot, the father, did not make any voyages, but that all the credit of the new discoveries is due to Sebastian and his brothers. Indeed, Sir George Peckham (ap. Hakluyt, iii. p. 165) asserts this as a fact. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, too, while saying that Sebastian was specially sent, makes no allusion to the father.
[56] Hakluyt, ibid.
[57] A very interesting memoir of Sebastian Cabot, recently published (1869) by Mr. J. F. Nicholls, the City Librarian of Bristol, enables us to add some particulars of his life (and of that of his father) which have been only just discovered. Thus we learn from Mr. Rawdon Brown’s ‘Venetian Calendars’ that John Cabot (the father) was made a citizen of Venice, A.D. 1476; and from the Spanish State Papers, vol. i. p. 177, under date July 25, 1498, “that the people of Bristol sent out every year two or three light ships, caravelas, in search of the island of Brazil and the seven cities, according to the fancy of that Italian Cabot; and that they have done so for the last seven years,” (i. e., before Columbus had landed on Guanahani). Mr. Nicholls further quotes from a hitherto unpublished tract by Hakluyt, only lately discovered (see Wood’s Maine Hist. Soc., 1868), the following remarkable words. “A great part,” says Hakluyt, “of the continent (of America) as well as of the islands was first discovered for the king of England by Sebastian Gabote, an Englishman, born in Bristowe, son of John Gabote, in 1496; naye, more, Gabote discovered this large tracte of prime lande two years before Columbus saw any part of the continent.” Again, under the date of Aug. 24, 1497, Mr. Rawdon Brown quotes from the Venetian Archives this passage: “Also some months ago, his Majesty Henry VII. sent out a Venetian (so called, naturally, as having been made a Venetian citizen), who is a very good mariner, and has good skill in discovering new islands, and he has returned safe ... and next spring his Majesty means to send him with twenty ships.” All this shows the strong presumption that the first charter was granted after discoveries that Cabot had made previously on his own or his father’s account. Mr. Nicholls also gives an engraving of a remarkable portrait of Cabot, then a very old man, and a copy of the unique map of his travels, dated 1544, preserved in the Bibliothèque at Paris. On this map it is stated in Latin and Spanish that John and Sebastian Cabot together discovered the New Land on June the 24th, 1494, and that Cabot himself “made this figure extended in plane” (i. e. the Map) in 1544. The street in Bristol where Canynge, and probably the Cabots, lived is still called ‘Cathay.’
[58] ‘Memoir of Sebastian Cabot,’ by Biddle, p. 86, Lond., 1832.
[59] ‘Memoirs, Historical and Topographical, of Bristol and its neighbourhood, from the earliest period down to the present time,’ by the Rev. J. W. Seyer, vol. ii. p. 208.
[60] Tom. iii. p. 41.
[61] In a tract addressed to Sir Philip Sydney and published in 1582, Hakluyt says: “But, shortly, God willing, shall come out in print all his (Sebastian Cabot’s) own mappes and discourses drawne and written by himselfe;” at the same time, stating that these were then in the “custody of Mr. William Worthington.”
[62] Peter Martyr speaks of Cabot as “his very friend whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keep me company in mine own house; for being called out of England, by command of the Catholic King of Castile, after the death of King Henry VII., he was made one of our council, as touching the affair of the New Indies, looking daily for ships to be furnished for him, to discover this hid secret of nature (i. e. why the seas in these parts ran with so swift a current from the east to the west), this voyage is appointed to be begun in March in the year next following, being the year of Christ 1516.”—Decades, ii. c. 12.
[63] Herrera, dec. i. lib. ix. cap. xiii.
[64] R. Eden’s ‘Munster,’ Lond., 1553. Cabot calls himself on the map previously referred to “Captain and Pilot-Major of his sacred Imperial Majesty the Emperor Don Carlos the Vth.” Robert Thorne (said by Stowe to have been born in 1492) was one of the most eminent of the Bristol merchants of his days. He died in London in 1532, and is buried in the Temple Church. At his death he forgave all his debtors, at the same time leaving £4440 for charitable purposes, and £5140 to poor relations.
[65] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 112.
[66] A note on the margin of Hakluyt (vol. i. p. 213) adds, “in the eighth year of his reigne” i. e. 1516-7. This letter is not dated, but cannot be earlier than 1517, when Henry VIIIth’s voyage of discovery was undertaken.
[67] This malady had broken out before. It appears from the history of Bristol to have been very severe in 1486. Erasmus directly attributes it to the dirty habits of the English people at that period, and to the utter want of ventilation in their houses. Nicholls’s Life of Cabot, p. 33.
[68] Peter Martyr, dec. vi. cap. ix.
[69] Peter Martyr, dec. vi. cap. x.
[70] Nicholls says, that Thorne entered into this adventure chiefly that two English friends of his might go in one of the ships, and bring back an account of the lands discovered.—‘Life of Cabot,’ p. 115.
[71] The ships of the expedition must have been much larger than one hundred tons to have required or even found suitable accommodation for so many men.
[72] Peter Martyr, dec. vii. cap. vi.; Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii. Letter from Robert Thorne to Dr. Ley, ambassador to the Emperor Charles V. Appendix. No. I.
[73] Peter Martyr, dec. vii. cap. vii.
[74] Peter Martyr, dec. iii. cap. x.
[75] Burnet’s ‘History of the Reformation,’ vol. ii. p. 225.
[76] Strype’s ‘Historical Memorials,’ ii. p. 190.
[77] Biddle’s ‘Life of Sebastian Cabot,’ pp. 177-180.
[78] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 243.
[79] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 243.
[80] Burnet’s ‘History of the Reformation,’ vol. ii., from the Cotton MSS.
[81] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 243.
[82] Ibid. vol. i. p. 244.
[83] Strype’s ‘Memorials,’ vol. ii. p. 76. The Coronation Medal of Edward VI. gives his titles in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
[84] Hakluyt, vol. i. pp. 226-229.
[85] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 245, who calls the place “the Ward-house,” probably a small fort or guard-house.
[86] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 246.
[87] Chancellor was drowned, according to Hakluyt, Nov. 7, 1556 (vol. ii. p. 286).
[88] Hakluyt, vol. i. pp. 286, 287.
[90] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 297.
[91] Barrow’s ‘Chronological History,’ &c., p. 36.
[92] Campbell’s ‘Lives of the Admirals.’
[93] Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 307.
[94] Among the first acts of Elizabeth, when she ascended the throne, was to address a letter on the subject of commercial intercourse “To the right mightie and right victorious Prince, the Great Sophie, Emperor of the Persians, Medes, &c., &c., and the people on this side and beyond the river of Tigris.”
[95] Treaties of Commerce, by Wheeler, ed. of 1601, p. 97.
[96] The last public appearance recorded of Cabot was his dining on board the pinnace Seathrift, Capt. W. Burroughs, at Gravesend, on April 27, 1556. But he is known to have been alive on May 27, 1557, when Philip of Spain compelled him to resign his pension. It further appears that Eden (see his ‘Taisnerus’ in the King’s Library, British Museum) was present at his death; but he has not noted either the place or date thereof.—J. F. Nicholls, ‘Life of Cabot,’ p. 186, Lond. 1869. One of the most eminent early members of the Merchant Adventurers’ company was Sir Andrew Judde, the founder of Tonbridge School, whose name appears as the owner of two ships despatched to Russia in 1577, one of them being commanded by Anthony Jenkinson, who went on the first embassy from England to Persia. Judde in early life had been to Guinea, and had brought back some gold dust for Edward VI., as is recorded on his monument in St. Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate. Hakluyt thus describes an elephant’s head which he saw in his house. “This head divers have seen in the house of the worthy merchant Sir Andrew Judde, where also I saw it and beheld it, not only with my bodily eyes, but more with the eyes of my mind and spirit considering by the worke, the cunning and the wisdome of the work maister.” Judde was Lord Mayor in 1550-1, and took an active part against Wyatt in his rebellion.—Rivington, ‘Histy. of Tonbridge School,’ 4to., 1869, p. 10.