On Cabot’s return to Spain, in 1531, he resumed his former position of pilot-major, and about eighteen years afterwards, or fifty-three years after the date of his first commission from Henry VII., he, then an old man, returned to Bristol, the place of his birth in 1549. Whatever may have been the motives of the king of Spain for consenting to the departure of his pilot-major, he soon became alarmed at the event. To England the services of a man of Cabot’s skill and knowledge was then invaluable. The youth who had then just ascended the English throne had already given such evidence of capacity as to excite the attention of Europe, and anticipations were universally expressed of the memorable part he was destined to perform. Edward VI. saw the advantages to be derived from the services of Sebastian Cabot. Naval affairs had from his boyhood seized his attention as a sort of passion. Even when a child “he knew all the harbours and ports both of his own dominions and of France and Scotland, and how much water they had, and what was the way of coming into them: and, hence,”[75] Charles V., seeing the mistake he had made in parting with Cabot, endeavoured by various means, though without avail, to induce him to return to Spain.[76]
But for some time after his arrival in England Cabot lived in comparative retirement, devoting himself to the consideration of questions of importance to navigators, and endeavouring to improve the means whereby they were enabled to shape their courses with greater safety and certainty across the ocean. Not the least important of his studies was the variation of the compass; if not the first he was among the first who showed the extent of these variations in different places, and who attempted to frame a theory on this important subject. His earliest transatlantic voyage had carried him to a quarter where the variations of the needle are most sudden and striking. Nor are they much less sudden in the La Plata, where, from Cabot’s long residence, they must have secured his deliberate attention and careful consideration. But, in the absence of his “maps and discourses,” there are now no means extant of ascertaining the nature of the theory he had formed, though it must have been of a practical character, as the seamen brought up in his school, and sailing under his instructions, were particularly attentive in noting the variations of the needle.[77]
Though seeking retirement, his knowledge and experience, were of too varied and valuable a character to be allowed any lengthened repose. Frequently consulted, and his advice generally adopted, many adventures owe their origin to his genius; and one of the greatest of these, which arose out of the then prevailing stagnation of trade, is especially worthy of note. “Our merchants,” remarks Hakluyt,[78] “perceived the commodities and wares of England to be in small request about us and near unto us, and that their merchandise, which strangers, in the time and memory of our ancestors, did earnestly seek and desire, were now neglected and the price thereof abated, although they be carried to their own parts.”
Cabot forms an association for trading to the North,
Cabot, having been consulted as to the best mode of remedying this depressed state of things, recommended, after a conference with the merchants of London, “that three ships should be prepared and furnished out for the search and discovery of the northern part of the world, to open a way and passage to our men for travel to new and unknown kingdoms.”[79]
So general was the desire to secure a continuation of Cabot’s services, that, notwithstanding his advanced age, the Letters Patent incorporating the association for carrying out the expedition he had recommended declared him to be governor, an office he was to enjoy “during his natural life, without a moving or dismissing from the same room.” But the association had to encounter the opposition of the Steel-yard, the powerful foreign body whose monopoly had long exercised a very prejudicial influence on English manufactures and commerce.
known as the Merchant Adventurers’ Company.
For the interests, therefore, of England, and to afford a fair field in the then known markets of the world to her merchants and manufacturers, it became necessary to break down the monopoly exercised by the Germans, from their privileged site on the banks of the Thames, and the “Merchant Adventurers’ Company,” with Sebastian Cabot as its governor, was made the instrument of effecting this desirable change. Edward himself, fully alive to the necessity of abolishing the foreign monopoly, seems, by the records in his journals,[80] to have taken great interest in the formation and progress of this company of English traders, and, in spite of the vast influence of the Steel-yard, to have afforded to his merchants every facility in his power for the despatch of the expedition which Cabot had recommended.
Despatch of the first expedition under Sir H. Willoughby.
“Strong; and well-seasoned planks for the building of the requisite ships were provided,” and to guard against the worms, “which many times pearceth and eateth through the strongest oak,” it was resolved for the first time in England, though sheathing had been used for some years previously in Spain, “to cover a piece of the keel of the shippes with thinne sheets of lead.”[81] Sir Hugh Willoughby, “a most valiant gentleman and well borne,” and highly recommended for his “skill in the services of war,”[82] was placed in command of the expedition. Nor were these the only requisite qualities, for it seems to have been thought no slight recommendation that he should be of “tall and commanding stature.” Richard Chancellor, the second in command, with the title of Pilot-Major, is described as a man of highly-cultivated intellect and refined manners, combined with great shrewdness and powers of observation, and withal a skilful and intrepid seaman.