Sebastian Cabot.
For this voyage of 1498, English merchants adventured small stocks of different kinds of merchandise, besides despatching various small vessels, all of which were placed under charge of Sebastian Cabot;[58] so that England commenced trading operations with America in the course of the very first year after its discovery. Henry VII. appears also to have taken a pecuniary interest in this expedition, for in the account of the privy purse expenses there are the following entries:—
“22nd March, 1498. To Lancelot Thirkill of London, upon a prest (loan or advance) for his shipp going towards the New Islande, 20l.”
“Delivered to Lancelot Thirkill (for himself), going towards the New Isle, on prest, 20l.”
“April 1st, 1498. To Thomas Bradley, and Lancelot Thirkill, going to the New Isle, 30l.”
“To I. Carter, as going to the New Isle, in rewerde, 2l.”
Object of the second expedition.
Third expedition, March 1501.
The object of this second expedition seems to have embraced colonisation as well as commerce, for, in the words of the patent, it extended “to all such masters, mariners, pages and other subjects, as of their own free will, will go and pass with him in the same ships, to the said Lande or Isles.” Three hundred men altogether are said to have gone with Cabot on this occasion, but there is no description of the vessels in which they embarked, beyond the expression in the patent that they were to be of the “bourdeyn of C.C. tonnes or under.” Nor are there any clear and well-authenticated accounts of the voyage. It, however, does not appear to have been so successful as had been anticipated; and as the great interest which the discoveries had at first excited languished soon afterwards, no further patents were granted by Henry until March 1501, when he commissioned three merchants of Bristol and three Portuguese to proceed in search of lands to the west. Sebastian Cabot himself would seem to have abandoned for a time any further expedition from England, and to have either sought employment in Spain or perhaps settled for a time in America, as we lose sight of him for a few years about that period. Nor are there any authentic accounts of the result of the expedition fitted out under the patent of 1501, nor of one subsequently issued by Henry VII., the last during his reign, and bearing date 9th December, 1502; but an intercourse, which had for its object both trade and colonisation, was, from the following entries in the account of the privy purse expenses, evidently maintained for some years afterwards:—
“17th November, 1503. To one that brought hawkes from the Newfounded Island, 1l.”