It would appear that a commencement of the American enterprise was made in 1501, soon after the granting of the patent. It was usual to set out on such expeditions in the early summer so as to enjoy the maximum of good weather, and also to take advantage of the longest days when examining a new coastline. The only positive evidence of a voyage having been made in 1501 is an entry in Henry VII’s Privy Purse accounts[[73]] on January 7, 1502: ‘To men of Bristol that found the Isle, £5.’ Scanty as it is, this entry may be taken as proving conclusively that a voyage was made in 1501. It was customary to make such donations on the arrival in England of the persons concerned: John Cabot had received a similar gift within a few days of his return from his first voyage in 1497; and the obvious inference here is that the Anglo-Portuguese syndicate dispatched an expedition in 1501, news of the safe arrival of which came to England at the end of that year. It is uncertain whether a colony was planted and messengers sent back with news to England, or whether the first voyage was made simply for the purpose of exploring and choosing a suitable site. It should be noted that the phrase employed does not necessarily imply that the new land was an island in the usual acceptation of the word; most newly discovered regions were commonly referred to as islands until exploration proved their continental nature.
A series of three documents, all referring to the last week of September 1502, imply the arrival of another ship or fleet from the new land at that time. A Privy Purse entry of September 23: ‘To a mariner that brought an eagle, 6s. 8d.’, may or may not relate to the enterprise; but another of September 30 is more explicit: ‘To the merchants of Bristol that have been in the Newfound land, £20.’ The third piece of evidence is the grant, on September 26, 1502, of pensions of £10 each per annum to Francisco Fernandes and João Gonsalves, ‘in consideration of the true service which they have done unto us to our singler pleasure as capitaignes unto the newe found lande’.[[74]] Here again the phraseology is tantalizingly vague, and leaves us completely in the dark as to the real nature of the undertaking. It would apply equally well to a colony, a trading voyage, or a voyage of exploration. Two facts may, however, be deduced: first, that something of real importance had been accomplished, as is shown by the unwonted liberality of the king, whose habitual parsimony became accentuated in his later years; and, secondly, that João Fernandes severed his connexion with the enterprise at this time or earlier, since he is not recorded as obtaining either gratuity or pension.
Indeed, the next step of which we have evidence is a reconstruction of the whole syndicate and the grant of a new patent by the king on December 9, 1502.[[75]] The number of the patentees was now reduced to four, namely, Hugh Elyot, Thomas Ashehurst, João Gonsalves, and Francisco Fernandes. Nothing is known of the causes of this change, by which three of the original adventurers dropped out and one new one was introduced; but it may safely be assumed that it was not due to an entire lack of commercial success, since that would probably have resulted in the winding-up of the whole concern.
The new patent was very similar in its terms to the old one, with the following exceptions: In the general licence to conquer and colonize, a special exception was made of the lands of the King of Portugal and any other ‘principum, amicorum & confoederatorum nostrorum’; the period during which the patentees might have a monopoly of trade was extended to forty years; two shiploads, instead of one, might be imported duty free; and Gonsalves and Francisco Fernandes were now placed on a complete equality with Englishmen as regards the payment of customs. Richard Ward, John Thomas, and João Fernandes were expressly debarred from exercising privileges granted in the patent of 1501, which was thus, for practical purposes, cancelled. The clause aiming at the rights of the Cabots was not repeated.
On the whole, the new patent was more favourable than the old, and the contrast seems to be intentionally emphasized between the status of the four new patentees and that of Ward, Thomas and João Fernandes, who were now excluded. The conduct of the latter had evidently been as displeasing to the king as that of the former had been satisfactory.
An entry in Stow’s Chronicle with reference to these expeditions has already been discussed in connexion with the Cabot voyages. It states that in the year 1502 three men were brought to the king, who had been taken in the new-found islands. They were clothed in skins, ate raw flesh, and spoke an unintelligible language. Two of them were to be seen at Westminster two years later, when they resembled Englishmen in clothing and appearance. These men must have arrived in the ships which returned in September 1502.
The new patent granted by Henry VII was followed by a renewal of the energies of the adventurers, and a Privy Purse entry of November 17, 1503, indicates the arrival in England of ships at that time. Like the others, it affords very little information, merely recording the payment: ‘To one that brought hawkes from the Newfoundland Island, £1’. Another entry, ‘April 8, 1504, to a prest that goeth to the new island, £2,’ points to a fresh sailing soon after that date, although there is no information as to the corresponding homeward voyage in the autumn. The Privy Purse accounts afford only one more piece of evidence, and that is of doubtful bearing on the subject. On August 25, 1505, we find entered: ‘To Clays going to Richemount with wylde catts and popyngays of the Newfound Island, for his costs, 13s. 4d.’, and on the same date, ‘To Portyngales that brought popyngais and catts of the mountaigne with other stuf to the Kinges Grace, £5.’ The word ‘popinjays’ was generally used to mean parrots, and no clear instance exists of the word being applied to any other bird.[[76]] Parrots are not now to be found in the northern part of North America, but one species at least existed on the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario at the beginning of the nineteenth century,[[77]] and it is quite possible that Indians in Newfoundland and Labrador bartered them to Europeans in the time of Henry VII. Hence the extract in question need not be absolutely rejected as applying to the present subject.
The interesting and valuable transcripts of Privy Purse accounts in Add. MS. 7099 cease at the year 1505. They are continued to the end of the reign by a manuscript[[78]] in the Record Office (first entry, October 1, 1505), but there is no further mention of donations to American adventurers. At this point, therefore, all contemporary information ceases. The enterprise may have been continued during the succeeding years, but it was certainly not very long before it was abandoned, as certain statements of a later date tend to prove.
About the period 1517–19 a play in rhymed verse was printed, entitled The New Interlude of the Four Elements, of which the only known copy is at present in the British Museum.[[79]] The page which should bear information as to its origin is missing, and the date given above is arrived at on internal evidence. The following lines vaguely refer to the early transatlantic voyages (spelling modernized):
This sea is called the great Ocean,