A reasonable inference from this would be, that John Cabot had arrived in England not long before the date of Puebla’s letter to their Majesties, to lay his proposals before Henry VII., as Columbus had done some years before through his brother, and not that he had been a long resident in the country. The letters patent had already been issued, that is to say, on the 5th of March.[123] This letter from Spain may have caused some delay in the sailing of the expedition, which did not depart till the following year. But some time was necessary to beat up recruits for the voyage, and to enlist the aid of the substantial citizens of Bristol in the undertaking. John Cabot, accompanied perhaps by his son Sebastian, finally sailed in the early part of May, 1497, with one small vessel and eighteen persons, “almost all Englishmen and from Bristol,” says Raimondo; who adds, “The chief men of the enterprise are of Bristol, great sailors.” A few foreigners were included in the company, as we learn from the same authority that a Burgundian and a Genoese accompanied them. The name of the vessel is said to have been the “Matthew.” Mr. Barrett[124] says: “In the year 1497, June 24th, on St. John’s day, as it is in a manuscript in my possession, ‘was Newfoundland found by Bristol men in a ship called the Matthew.’” How much of this paragraph was in the manuscript is not clear. The first part of it was evidently taken from Hakluyt. And we are not told whether the manuscript was ancient or modern. It cannot now be found.[125]
John Cabot returned in the early part of August. The following well-known memorandum, from the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII., “August 10, 1497: To him who found the New Isle, 10l.,” is supposed to refer to him.[126]
Additional evidence concerning the voyage will now be given. The following is a letter from Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a merchant residing in London, to his brothers in Venice, dated August 23d, 1497, which I have somewhat abridged:—
“The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol, is returned, and says that 700 leagues hence he discovered land in the territory of the Grand Cham. He coasted 300 leagues and landed, saw no human beings, but brought to the king certain snares set to catch game, and a needle for making nets. Was three months on the voyage. The king has promised that in the spring our countryman shall have ten ships. The king has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then, and he is now in Bristol with his wife, who is also a Venetian, and with his sons. His name is Zuan Cabot, and he is styled the great Admiral. Vast honor is paid him. The discoverer planted on his new-found land a large cross, with one flag of England and one of St. Mark, by reason of his being a Venetian.... London, 23d of August, 1497.”[127]
On the following day, August 24, 1497, Raimondo de Soncino, envoy of the Duke of Milan to Henry VII., wrote the following passage in a long dispatch to his Government:
“Also, some months ago, his Majesty sent out a Venetian who is a very good mariner, and has good skill in discovering new islands, and he has returned safe, and has found two very large and fertile new islands, having likewise discovered The Seven Cities, four hundred leagues from England in the western passage. This next spring his Majesty means to send him with fifteen or twenty ships.”[128]
In the following December, Raimondo de Soncino wrote another letter from London, making more particular mention of John Cabot’s discovery, and of the intention of the King to authorize another expedition. This letter, from the State Archives of Milan, was first published in the Annuario Scientifico, in 1865,[129] and is now published in English for the first time. There is some obscurity in the letter in a few places, in naming the direction in which the vessel sailed, as the east when the west was evidently intended. Whether this was a clerical error, or whether by the term “the east” was meant “the land of the spices” to which the expedition was bound, and which in the language of the day lay to the east, is uncertain. Neither is the geographical object named as “Tanais” recognized. This letter throws no light on the Landfall. I am indebted to Professor Bennet H. Nash, of Harvard College, for revising the translation of this letter.
Most Illustrious and Excellent My Lord:—
Perhaps among your Excellency’s many occupations, it may not displease you to learn how his Majesty here has won a part of Asia without a stroke of the sword. There is in this kingdom a Venetian fellow, Master John Caboto by name, of a fine mind, greatly skilled in navigation, who seeing that those most serene kings, first he of Portugal, and then the one of Spain, have occupied unknown islands, determined to make a like acquisition for his Majesty aforesaid. And having obtained royal grants that he should have the usufruct of all that he should discover, provided that the ownership of the same is reserved to the crown, with a small ship and eighteen persons he committed himself to fortune; and having set out from Bristol, a western port of this kingdom, and passed the western limits of Hibernia, and then standing to the northward he began to steer eastward, leaving (after a few days) the North Star on his right hand; and, having wandered about considerably, at last he fell in with terra firma, where, having planted the royal banner and taken possession on behalf of this King, and taken certain tokens, he has returned thence. The said Master John, as being foreign-born and poor, would not be believed if his comrades, who are almost all Englishmen and from Bristol, did not testify that what he says is true. This Master John has the description of the world in a chart, and also in a solid globe which he has made, and he [or the chart and the globe] shows where he landed, and that going toward the east he passed considerably beyond the country of the Tanais. And they say that it is a very good and temperate country, and they think that Brazil-wood and silks grow there; and they affirm that that sea is covered with fishes, which are caught not only with the net but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order that the baskets may sink in the water. And this I heard the said Master John relate, and the aforesaid Englishmen, his comrades, say that they will bring so many fishes that this kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from which country there comes a very great store of fish which are called stock-fish. But Master John has set his mind on something greater; for he expects to go farther on toward the East (Levant,) from that place already occupied, constantly hugging the shore, until he shall be over against [or “on the other side of”] an island, by him called Cipango, situated in the equinoctial region, where he thinks all the spices of the world, and also the precious stones, originate; and he says that in former times he was at Mecca, whither spices are brought by caravans from distant countries, and that those who brought them, on being asked where the said spices grow, answered that they do not know, but that other caravans come to their homes with this merchandise from distant countries, and these [caravans] again say that they are brought to them from other remote regions. And he argues thus,—that if the Orientals affirmed to the Southerners that these things come from a distance from them, and so from hand to hand, presupposing the rotundity of the earth, it must be that the last ones get them at the North toward the West; and he said it in such a way, that, having nothing to gain or lose by it, I too believe it: and what is more, the King here, who is wise and not lavish, likewise puts some faith in him; for (ever) since his return he has made good provision for him, as the same Master John tells me. And it is said that, in the spring, his Majesty afore-named will fit out some ships, and will besides give him all the convicts, and they will go to that country to make a colony, by means of which they hope to establish in London a greater storehouse of spices than there is in Alexandria; and the chief men of the enterprise are of Bristol, great sailors, who, now that they know where to go, say that it is not a voyage of more than fifteen days, nor do they ever have storms after they get away from Hibernia. I have also talked with a Burgundian, a comrade of Master John’s, who confirms everything, and wishes to return thither because the Admiral (for so Master John already entitles himself) has given him an island; and he has given another one to a barber of his from Castiglione-of-Genoa, and both of them regard themselves as Counts, nor does my Lord the Admiral esteem himself anything less than a Prince. I think that with this expedition there will go several poor Italian monks, who have all been promised bishoprics. And, as I have become a friend of the Admiral’s, if I wished to go thither I should get an archbishopric. But I have thought that the benefices which your Excellency has in store for me are a surer thing; and therefore I beg that if these should fall vacant in my absence, you will cause possession to be given to me, taking measures to do this rather [especially] where it is needed, in order that they be not taken from me by others, who because they are present can be more diligent than I, who in this country have been brought to the pass of eating ten or twelve dishes at every meal, and sitting at table three hours at a time twice a day, for the sake of your Excellency, to whom I humbly commend myself.