From what we have been able to conclude as to Sebastian Cabot’s character, it seems reasonable to suppose that, in consequence of his position as Pilot Major in Spain, he was acquainted with the various maps and accounts of voyages in western and north-western waters, and that from this knowledge he constructed the whole story of his alleged voyage; he was then incautious enough to magnify his exploits to such an extent that he made the whole story improbable; for his claim was nothing less than that he had first discovered land as far north as between 55° and 60°, that is to say, to about Hudson Strait, and then sailed along and discovered the whole coast of North America to about 36° N. lat., that is, to Cape Hatteras or Florida; in other words, a voyage of discovery to which we have no parallel in history, and it is truly remarkable that we should have had no certain information about it, while we have so much about other expeditions which step by step discovered the various parts of this same extent of coast.
Another doubtful voyage of Sebastian Cabot in 1516 or 1517 ?
Sebastian Cabot seems to have laid claim to having made yet another voyage in north-western waters, unless, indeed, it is the same one again with variations. In the third volume of his “Navigationi et Viaggi,” etc., published at Venice 1556, Ramusio says (writing in Venice, June 1553) that
“Sebastian Gabotto, our Venetian, a man of great experience, etc., wrote to me many years ago.” Sebastian is said to have sailed “along and beyond the land of New France, at the charges of Henry VII., King of England. He told me that after having sailed a long time west by north [ponente e quarta di Maestro] beyond these islands, lying along the said land, as far as to sixty-seven and a half degrees under our pole [i.e., the North Pole], and on June 11th [20th] finding the sea still open and without any kind of impediment, he thought surely by that way to be able to sail at once to Cataio Orientale [China], if the mutiny [malignità] of the master and mariners had not compelled him to return.”[334]
As will be seen, this statement is altogether different from those previously mentioned; but such assertions as that Cabot had got so far to the north-west by June 11, and found the sea free of ice in 67½° N. lat., are not of a kind to strengthen our confidence. It might seem to be the same voyage that is referred to in a statement of Richard Eden, which he may have had from Sebastian Cabot himself. In the dedication (written in June 1553) of Eden’s translation of the fifth part of Sebastian Munster’s “Cosmographia” we read that
“Kinge Henry the viij. about the same yere [i.e., the eighth year] of his raygne, furnished and sent forth certen shippes vnder the gouernaunce of Sebastian Cabot yet liuing, and one Syr Thomas Perte, whose faynt heart was the cause that that viage toke none effect; yf (I say) such manly courage whereof we haue spoken, had not at that tyme bene wanting, it myghte happelye haue comen to passe, that that riche treasurye called Perularia, (which is now in Spayne in the citie of Ciuile, and so named, for that in it is kepte the infinite ryches brought thither from the newe found land of Peru) myght longe since haue bene in the town of London.”[335]
As Peru is mentioned, it might doubtless appear as though a voyage to South America were in question; but we often see that the western countries beyond the sea were spoken of as a continuous possession (cf. Robert Thorne’s letter, above, [p. 334]), and it may therefore refer to the same alleged expedition as is spoken of by Ramusio; for both Ramusio and Eden have evidently the same statements from Sebastian Cabot, and the latter can hardly have spoken of two expeditions which were both unsuccessful merely because his companions failed him.
If this is correct, the voyage took place in the eighth year of Henry VIII.’s reign, i.e., April 16, 1516, to April 15, 1517[336]; but, as Harrisse contends, it is very doubtful whether the voyage was made at all. It is true that a poem of Henry VIII.’s time also speaks of an English expedition which may have taken place at this time, and which failed on account of the cowardice of the crew. Robert Thorne, too, as we have seen ([p. 335]), tells of a voyage made by his father and Hugh Eliot, on which the sailors would not “follow their pilot’s mind.” It may, indeed, have occurred on several voyages that the crews refused to proceed farther, and for that matter these statements need not refer to the same voyage; but at the same time it is by no means incredible that Sebastian Cabot may have heard of such an expedition, and, when it was more appropriate than the ice, used it as an explanation of his not having discovered the north-west passage to China. We know that Sebastian Cabot was in the service of Spain (and appointed “Pilot Major”) in 1515, and that he was occupied with plans of a voyage to the north-west for the King of Spain; for Peter Martyr writes of him in that year that he was impatiently looking forward to March 1516, when he had been promised a fleet with which to complete his discoveries [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 71]. As Ferdinand of Aragon died on January 23, 1516, nothing came of this voyage, and as we hear nothing of Sebastian Cabot before February 5, 1518, when he was appointed Pilot Major by Charles V., it is not impossible that in the meantime he may have been in England, and have taken part in an English expedition; but no record of his having come to England is extant, and it would hardly agree with the protest against him of the Drapers’ Company a few years later.
Henry VIII.’s attempted expedition in 1521
There may yet be mentioned the attempts made by Henry VIII. in 1521 to prepare an expedition to north-western waters under the command of Sebastian Cabot, chiefly at the expense of the merchants of London, which, however, evoked a powerful protest against Sebastian on the part of these merchants (see above, [p. 330]). It is true that, upon pressure from the King, they afterwards declared themselves willing to give a smaller sum, but the expedition never came to anything. Sebastian Cabot was at that time, as he had been since 1512, in the service of Spain, and he remained so until in 1547 he again took up his abode in England and entered the service of the English King. In December 1522 Sebastian Cabot informed the Venetian Minister in Spain, Contarini, that he had been in England three years before [i.e., in 1519], and that the Cardinal there [i.e., Wolsey, who was trying on behalf of Henry VIII. to get together the expedition of 1521] had endeavoured to persuade him to undertake the command of a fleet which was almost ready [sic!], for the discovery of new lands; but he had replied that, as he was in the service of Spain, he must first obtain the permission of the Emperor; and that he had then written to the Emperor, requesting him not to grant such permission, but to recall him. This Sebastian asserted that he had done on account of his desire of serving his own city of Venice; for in 1522 and later he was carrying on treacherous intrigues with Contarini to enter the Venetian service, presumably with the hope of a high salary. Thus, wherever we are able to check Sebastian Cabot’s utterances, they prove to be extremely untrustworthy.