[14] Id. ib.
Sebastian Cabot, on his return to England, found matters in a state which did not promise him any farther advantages as a mariner, on which he went into Spain, where he was employed by Ferdinand and Isabella, in whose service he explored the eastern coast of South America, and discovered the Rio Plata, up which he sailed above 360 miles, finding it to flow through a fine country, everywhere inhabited by great numbers of people, who flocked from all parts to admire his ships. After making many other voyages, which are not specified, he settled in Seville, where he employed himself in making sea charts, and had the appointment of pilot-major, all pilots for the West Indian Seas having to pass his examination, and to have his license[15]. He thought fit, however, to return into England, and was employed by Henry VIII. In the service of that sovereign he made a voyage to the coast of Brazil in 1516, under the superior command of Sir Thomas Pert, vice-admiral of England, of which the following imperfect account is preserved by Haklyut.
[15] Id. ib.
"That learned and industrious writer Richard Eden, in an epistle to the Duke of Northumberland, prefixed to a work which he translated from Munster in 1553, called A treatise of the New India, makes mention of a voyage of discovery made from England by Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabota, about the eighth year of Henry VIII. The want of courage in Sir Thomas Pert occasioned this expedition to fail of its intended effect; otherwise it might have happened that the rich treasury called Perularia, now in Seville, in which the infinite riches which come from the new-found country of Peru, would long since have been in the Tower of London to the great honour of the king, and the vast increase of the wealth of this realm. Gonsalvo de Oviedo, a famous Spanish writer, alludes to this voyage, in his General and Natural History of the West Indies, as thus quoted by Ramusio. In the year 1517, an English corsair, under pretence of a voyage of discovery, came with a great ship to the coast of Brazil, whence he crossed over to the island of Hispaniola, and arrived near the mouth of the harbour of St Domingo, where he sent his boat to demand leave of entry for the purpose of traffic. But Francis de Tapia, the governor of the castle, caused some ordnance to be fired from the castle at the ship, which was bearing in for the port; on which the ship put about, and the people in the boat went again on board. They then sailed to the island of St John, or Porto Rico, where they went into the harbour of St Germaine, where they required provisions and other necessaries for their ship, and complained against the inhabitants of St Domingo, saying that they came not to do any harm, but to trade for what they wanted, paying in money or merchandize. In this place they procured provisions, and paid in certain vessels of wrought tin and other things. They afterwards departed towards Europe, where it was thought they never arrived, as we never heard any more news of them[16]."
[16] Hakl. III. 591.
From the above hint respecting the riches of Peru finding their way to the Tower of London, and as combined with the former voyage of Cabot to the north-west; in search of a passage to India, it may be inferred, that the object of the present voyage was to discover a passage to India by the south-west, or by what is now called Cape Horn. The passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, had been granted exclusively by the Pope to the Portuguese; and Henry VIII. then a good catholic, wished to evade this exclusive privilege by endeavouring to discover a new route. It was well observed by one of the kings of France, in reference to the Pope having granted all the East to the Portuguese, and all the West to the Spaniards, "I wish my brothers of Spain and Portugal would shew me the testament of our father Adam, by which they claim such ample inheritance." The supposition that Cabot had perished on his voyage from Porto Rico to England was unfounded. He was alive there in 1549, in which year Edward VI. granted a yearly pension for life to him and his assigns, of L.166, 13s. 4d. to be paid quarterly, in consideration of the good and acceptable service done and to be done by him[17].
[17] Hakl. III. 31.
We have been induced to insert this long digression in this place, because no journals remain of the voyages to which they relate. The other early voyages of the English to the New World, were all for the purpose of discovering a N.W. passage by sea to India, or for colonizing the provinces of North America, and will fail to be particularly noticed in other divisions of our work.
DEDICATION.
To the most illustrious Renee, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Duke of Lorain and Bar, Americas Vespucius in all humble reverence and due gratitude, wisheth health and prosperity.