"‘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.”