These overtures of Caboto appear to have been made about the beginning of the year 1496. Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, the Spanish ambassador, residing in England, having learned what Caboto had proposed to King Henry, at once communicated the information to their majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Their royal highnesses, in a letter to their representative at the English court, dated at Tortosa, the twenty-eighth of March, 1496, thus refer to what he had written them:
“You say that a person like Colon has come there to place before the king of England another undertaking similar to that of the Indies, without prejudice to Spain or Portugal. If in this way he helps him, he will be as free to go to the Indies as we were. We believe that this undertaking is thrown in the way of the king of England by the king of France in order to withdraw him from his other affairs. See that the king of England be not deceived in this or in a similar matter. The French will endeavor as best they can to lead him into such enterprises, inasmuch as they are very uncertain, and are not easily prosecuted. Likewise see that those ...[233] he is not able to undertake this thing without prejudice to us and the king of Portugal.”[234]
On the fifth of March, 1496, King Henry VII. complied with Caboto’s request as set forth in the following petition:
“To the kyng our souvereigne lord
“Please it your highnes of your moste noble and haboundant grace to graunt unto John Cabotto, citezen of Venes, Lewes, Sebestyan and Sancto his sonneys your gracious lettres patentes under your grete seale in due forme to be made according to the tenour hereafter ensuyng. And they shall during their lyves pray to god for the prosperous continuance of your moste noble and royale astate long to enduer.”[235]
The letters-patent granted to Giovanni Caboto and his sons, Lodovico, Sebastiano, and Sanctus, to his and their heirs and deputies, commissioned them to sail, with five ships of any burden, under the banners, flags, and ensigns of England, to all parts, regions and gulfs of the eastern, the western, and the northern seas, in order to seek, discover, and explore whatever islands, countries, regions, or provinces of the heathen and of the infidels, in whatever part of the world they were situate, which were then unknown to all Christians. As set forth in the document, the cost and expense of the expedition were to be defrayed by Caboto and his sons.[236]
With this commission Giovanni Caboto set sail from the port of Bristol, in the spring of 1497, with two ships, one of which was named the Matthew.[237] Sailing westward from England he reached a land which he believed to be that of Cathay, where he planted the flag of England and that of Venice. Having explored the coast of the country for three hundred leagues, he returned to England, where the news of his discoveries was enthusiastically received by the interested people.
A brief description of this voyage is contained in a a letter written by Lorenzo Pasqualigo, in London, on the twenty-third of August, 1497, to his brothers, Alvise and Francesco, residing in Venice: