With the accession of Edward the sixth, the boy king, in 1547, new projects began to develop for further discovery northward. Sebastian Cabot was again in England and settled at Bristol. He was now an old man, yet still stalwart in mind and red-blooded for action. His fame was widespread and he had come to be called “The Great Seaman.” While pilot major of Spain, he had, with other achievements, made important discoveries in South America. Heading an expedition originally planned to pursue discovery in the Pacific, through the Strait of Magellan (discovered and passed by that brilliant Portuguese, Fernao de Magalhães, in 1520, who the next year discovered the Philippines), he had explored the River Plate, naming it Rio de la Plata, the Silver River, because of the splendour of the silver ornaments worn by the Indians of the region, and had anchored off the site of the present city of Buenos Ayres; had built a fort at one of the mouths of the Parana and begun a settlement there; had further ascended the Parana; penetrated the Paraguay; and thence entered the Vermejo, where he and his party had a fierce fight with the savages. In Edward’s second year, 1549, he was appointed Grand Pilot of England, with an annual pension of £166 13s. and 6d. in consideration of the “good and acceptable service done and to be done” by him for the English crown.
Not long after he is found turning from the Northwest Passage and advising a new voyage for the discovery of a Northeast route to India.
From this a project of various London merchant adventurers developed which resulted in an expedition in 1553 starting under Sir Hugh Willoughby and continued by Richard Chancellor, which, although failing to find Cathay, made notable discoveries with the opening to Europe of the great empire of Russia.
X
THE OPENING OF RUSSIA
The Willoughby-Chancellor voyage was planned with much thoroughness, specifically for the expansion of trade. It was the outcome of the deliberations of “certaine grave Citizens of London and men of great wisdome and carefull for the good of their Countrey” seeking means to revive commercial affairs which had fallen into a dismal state. English commodities had come to be in small request by neighbouring peoples. “Merchandises” (as the term was) which foreigners in former times eagerly sought were now neglected and their prices lowered, although the goods were carried by the English traders to the foreign ports; while all foreign products were “in great account and their prices wonderfully raised.” Meanwhile English merchants had seen the wealth of Spaniards and Portuguese marvellously increase through the repeated discoveries of new countries and new trades for their nations. So these grave and wise citizens came at last to realize the imperative need of a similar course for England if she were to keep pace with her rivals: practically to adopt the policy which Robert Thorne had so sagely pressed a quarter of a century before.
Having resolved upon a “new and strange navigation” they first of all brought Sebastian Cabot into their councils, and forming a company chose him their head. “After much speech and conference together” it was decided that three ships should be prepared for discovery in the northern parts of the world to open the way for Englishmen to unknown kingdoms northeastward. The three ships were duly obtained, for the most part newly built craft of “very strong and well-seasoned planks.” One at least of them was made especially staunch by “an excellent and ingenious invention,” described as “the covering of a piece of keel with thin sheets of lead.” This is supposed to have been the first instance in England of the practice of sheathing. It had, however, been adopted in Spain nearly forty years before. The ships were well furnished with armours and artillery, and were victualled with supplies for eighteen months. They were severally: the “Bona Esperanza,” of one hundred and twenty tons, designated admiral (flag-ship) of the fleet, the “Edward Bonaventure,” one hundred and sixty tons, and the “Bona Confidentia,” ninety tons. Each was provided with a pinnace and a boat.
After securing the ships the next care was the selection of captains for the expedition. Many men of standing offered themselves for the headship. Among these most urgent for the appointment was Sir Hugh Willoughby, “a most valiant gentleman and well born.” Sir Hugh was chosen on account of his “goodly personage”—he appears to have been an exceptionally tall man—and for his “singular skill in the service of warre.” He had served under the Earl of Hertford, afterward the Duke of Somerset, in the expedition of 1544 against Scotland, and had received the honour of knighthood at Leith; and during the invasions of 1547–1549 he held a commission on the border, and was sometime captain of Lowther Castle. Afterward his “thoughts turned to the sea” through his association with naval men and his friendship with Sebastian Cabot. The title given him was captain-general of the Fleet. For second in command, also drawn from several candidates, Richard Chancellor was elected and named pilot-general. He was given the charge of the “Edward Bonaventure” as captain. Chancellor had been bred up in the household of Henry Sidney, the father of Sir Philip Sidney. He was strongly endorsed as a man of “great estimation for many good partes of wit in him.” In the prime of life, he had the advantage of an excellent reputation for knowledge of the sea with a genius for adventure. As masters of the several ships, William Gefferson was appointed for the “Bona Esperanza,” Stephen Borough (afterward chief pilot of England) for the “Edward Bonaventure,” and Cornelius Durfoorth for the “Bona Confidentia.” The captain-general, the pilot-general, the three ships’ masters, the minister—Master Richard Stafford—two of the merchants and one of the “gentlemen” joining the expedition, and the three masters’ mates, were designated a board of twelve counsellors for the voyage.
An elaborate book of orders and instructions for the conduct of the fleet was compiled by Cabot; while the king provided a letter, written in Latin, Greek, and other languages, designed for presentation to any potentate whom the voyagers might come across in journeying “toward the mighty empire of Cathay,” but most liberally addressed “to all Kings, Princes, Rulers, Judges, and Governours of the earth, and all others having any excellent dignity on the same in all places under the universall heaven.”
Hakluyt gives the text of both of these documents. Cabot’s book comprised thirty-three items, as a whole well illustrating his ripe judgment and good seamanship. Particularly wise were his instructions as to the attitude of the voyagers toward new peoples whom they might discover. “Every nation and region is to be considered advisedly.” The natives were not to be provoked by “any disdaine, laughing, contempt, or such like,” but were to be used with “prudent circumspection, with all gentlenes and courtesie.” “For as much,” he shrewdly observed, “as our people and shippes may appear unto them strange and wondrous, and their’s also to ours: it is to be considered how they may be used, learning much of their natures and dispositions by some one such person [native] as you may first either allure or take to be brought aboord of your ships, and there to learn as you may, without violence or force.” The native so taken to be “well entertained, used and apparelled; to be set on the land to the intent that he or she may allure other to draw nigh to shew the commodities.” But the succeeding instruction was vicious, though in accord with the brutality of the age: “and if the person taken may be made drunke with your beere or wine you shall know the secrets of his heart.”
The king’s letter-missive defined the voyage to be purely a commercial affair. It was an expedition by sea “into farre Countreis to the intent that betweene our people and them a way may be opened to bring in and cary out merchandises.” It was to seek in the countries that might be found heretofore unknown “as well such things as we lacke, as also to cary unto them from our regions such things as they lacke.” So “not onely commoditie may ensue both to them and to us, but also an indissoluble and perpetuall league of friendship be established betweene us both.” Free passage was asked for the voyagers through their dominions, with the assurance that nothing of theirs should be touched by the visitors unwillingly to them; and the same hospitality that they would expect their subjects to receive should they at any time pass by the regions of the English king.