[66] A note on the margin of Hakluyt (vol. i. p. 213) adds, “in the eighth year of his reigne” i. e. 1516-7. This letter is not dated, but cannot be earlier than 1517, when Henry VIIIth’s voyage of discovery was undertaken.
[67] This malady had broken out before. It appears from the history of Bristol to have been very severe in 1486. Erasmus directly attributes it to the dirty habits of the English people at that period, and to the utter want of ventilation in their houses. Nicholls’s Life of Cabot, p. 33.
[68] Peter Martyr, dec. vi. cap. ix.
[69] Peter Martyr, dec. vi. cap. x.
[70] Nicholls says, that Thorne entered into this adventure chiefly that two English friends of his might go in one of the ships, and bring back an account of the lands discovered.—‘Life of Cabot,’ p. 115.
[71] The ships of the expedition must have been much larger than one hundred tons to have required or even found suitable accommodation for so many men.
[72] Peter Martyr, dec. vii. cap. vi.; Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ix. cap. iii. Letter from Robert Thorne to Dr. Ley, ambassador to the Emperor Charles V. Appendix. No. I.
[73] Peter Martyr, dec. vii. cap. vii.
[74] Peter Martyr, dec. iii. cap. x.
[75] Burnet’s ‘History of the Reformation,’ vol. ii. p. 225.