From the “Harford” portrait attributed to Holbein
The hardy Norsemen, realizing the advantage of hunting and barter among the natives of Greenland, made permanent settlements at Brattelid and Einarsfjord. As far as 73° north latitude a cairn was found, and upon a runic stone was a date 1235, and there is evidence that other settlers reached as far as latitude 75° 46´ N. and Barrow Strait in 1266 or thereabouts. Toward the middle of the fourteenth century Norway was cursed with the Black Death, and the colonists in far-off Greenland were forgotten. Forsaken by their own countrymen, they received little assistance from the native Eskimos, for we read they were overrun and attacked by them about 1349. A rare old document, the oldest work on Arctic geography, consisting of sailing directions for reaching the colony from Ireland, was written by one Iva Bardsen, the steward of the Bishopric of Gardar, in the East Bygd. Bardsen was a native of Greenland and went forth for the purpose of helping the sister colony. All of this early history is vague and unsatisfying, but it shows the adventurous spirit of those early mariners. Within the next hundred years, that is to say between 1348 and 1448, at rare intervals there was some communication with the Greenland settlements, but finally it ceased altogether. Later the desire to find a short route to India inspired merchantman and mariner to cross the Arctic Circle, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries expeditions of note, led by men of dauntless spirit, find their record upon the pages of history.
THE CABOTS
Born in Bristol, England, about 1476, Sebastian Cabot, ambitious son of an adventurous father, John Cabot, became zealous at an early age, through the successes of Columbus, to attempt a like achievement. Father and son proposed to Henry VII to sail west, and reach India by a shorter route. The king, pleased with the idea of entering a new field of maritime discovery, confided to the Cabots the execution of this plan. A patent was granted March 5, 1496. “It empowered them to seek out, subdue, and occupy, at their own charges, any regions which before had been unknown to all Christians.” They were empowered to take possession of such lands and set up the royal banner. They were authorized to return to the port of Bristol and no other, and a fifth of the gains of the voyage were to be turned over to the crown. The following year, 1497, John and Sebastian sailed from Bristol in the good ship Mathew.
By the records of an old map of this period the land first seen by the Cabots was the coast of Nova Scotia or Island of Cape Breton. The Cabots designated the mainland as “Prima Terra Vesta,” and is outlined between 45° and 50°, showing land called St. Juan, no doubt Prince Edward Island and mouth of the St. Lawrence. In the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII there is the following interesting expenditure, “10th of August, 1497. To him that found the new Isle, £10.” No doubt, this modest sum was paid for Newfoundland.
With the enthusiasm of the first voyagers stimulating them to fresh effort, the Cabots secured a second “patent” to John Cabot, dated February 3, 1498, giving him the command of six vessels, of not more than two hundred tons each, and to quote the exact words of this document, “them convey and lede to the lande and isles of late found by the said John in oure name and by oure commandment.”
But before the small fleet was in readiness, the father died, and to his son fell the enterprise. With five vessels, Sebastian set sail from Bristol in May, 1498, and reaching the American coast ascended as high as 67° north latitude, probably passing into Hudson Bay. He determined to press on in a desire to find an open channel to India. His men became appalled at the dangers that beset navigation in those higher latitudes and mutinied, compelling him to retrace his course.
There is a vague rumour that he had with him upon this voyage over a hundred emigrants, whom he landed in these high latitudes, and who all perished from cold, although the season was midsummer. However, he brought back to England three natives of the countries he had visited, and for his successful discoveries of more than eighteen hundred miles of our North American coast, the king rewarded him by conferring upon him the office of Grand Pilot of England.
The interest and exertions of Sebastian Cabot did not abate, for this hero, extolled by contemporary writers for his character and courage, by his unflagging perseverance and indomitable will promoted the successful expeditions of 1553, for which he was appointed governor for life of the Muscovy Company. This company was established by the merchants of London for the purpose of extending commerce and trade in India and Cathay, and to find a northeast route that would expedite their enterprise.