The Present Chapter Consists Of
Voyages To The New World Which Were Contemporary With Those Of The
Immortal Columbus, And
All surreptitiously intended to abridge the vast
privileges which he had stipulated for and obtained the grant of for his
Inestimable services; but which the court of Spain was anxious to procure
pretexts for abrogating or circumscribing.
Of the other early voyages of discovery to America, very imperfect notices
now remain. England lays claim to have been the next nation in succession,
after the Spaniards and Portuguese, to explore the New World; yet, like
Spain, under the guidance of an Italian. We have already seen that
Columbus, when disappointed in his first views of patronage from the king
of Portugal, and while he went himself to offer his services to the court
of Spain, dispatched his brother Bartholomew into England, to lay his
proposals for discovery before Henry VII. and the circumstances have been
already detailed by which this scheme was disappointed, though Henry is
said to have agreed to the proposals of Columbus four years before that
archnavigator began his career in the service of the crown of Castile.
After the king of England had thus, as it were by accident, missed reaping
the advantage and glory of patronizing the first discovery of the New
World, he is said to have encouraged other seamen of reputation to exert
their talents in his service, by prosecuting the faint light which had
transpired respecting the grand discovery of Columbus. Giovani Gabota, or
John Cabot, a citizen of Venice, who had been long settled in Bristol, was
among those who offered their services to the king of England on this
occasion, and his services appear certainly to have been employed. By
patent, dated 5th of March 1495 at Westminster, John Cabot and his three
sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancio, their heirs and deputies, were
authorised, with five ships of any burthen they thought fit, and as many
mariners as they pleased, to sail under the flag of England to all
countries of the East, West, and North, at their own cost and charges, to
seek out and discover whatever isles, countries, regions, or provinces of
the heathens and unbelievers were hitherto unknown to all Christians; with
power to subdue, occupy, and possess all such towns, cities, castles, and
isles as they were able, leaving the sovereignty to the crown of England,
and bound to bring back to Bristol all fruits, profits, gains, and
commodities procured in their voyages, paying the fifth part of the profit
to the king, all necessary costs and charges first deducted from the
proceeds. And forbidding all the subjects of England from frequenting or
visiting their discoveries, unless by license from the Cabots, their heirs
or deputies, under forfeiture of their ships and goods[10].
In pursuance of the authority of this patent, and of a farther licence
dated 13th February 1497, allowing John Cabot to sail from any of the
ports of England with six ships of 200 tons burthen or under, John Cabot
and his son Sebastian sailed from Bristol, and discovered a land which had
never been before seen, on the 24th June 1497, about five in the morning,
to which they gave the name of Prima Vista, because that part was first
seen from sea. The island seen opposite, they named the Island of St John,
because discovered on the day of St John the Baptist. The inhabitants of
this island wore the skins of beasts, which they held in as much
estimation as we do our finest garments. In their wars they used bows,
arrows, spears, darts, wooden clubs, and slings. The land is barren and
unfruitful, but has white bears, and stags of unusual size. It abounds in
fish of great size, as seawolves, or seals, salmon, and soles above a yard
long; but chiefly in immense quantities of that kind which is vulgarly
called bacalaos. The hawks of this island are as black as crows, and the
eagles and partridges are likewise black[11].
The foregoing account is given by Hakluyt on the authority of a map,
engraved by Clement Adams after the design of Sebastian Cabot, which map
was then to be seen in the private gallery of Queen Elizabeth at
Westminster, and in the houses of many of the merchants of London. From
Ramusio, however, Hakluyt gives rather a different account of this matter.
By this account, it would appear that the father John Cabot had died
previous to the voyage, and that Sebastian went as commander of two
vessels furnished by King Henry. He sailed to the north-west, not
expecting to find any other land than Cathay, or northern China, and from,
thence to proceed for India. But falling in with land, he sailed
northwards along the coast, to see if he could find any gulf that
permitted him to proceed westwards in his intended voyage to India, and
still found firm land to lat 56 deg. N. Finding the coast here turning to the
east, he despaired of finding a passage in that direction: he sailed again
down the coast to the southwards, still looking everywhere for an inlet
that would admit a passage by sea to India, and came to that part of the
continent now called Florida; where, his victuals failing, he took his
departure for England[12]. In the preface to the third volume of his
navigations, Ramusio, as quoted by Hakluyt, says that Sebastian Cabot
sailed as far north in this voyage as 67 deg. 30', where on the 11th June the
sea was still quite open, and he was in full hope of getting in that way
to Cathay, but a mutiny of his people forced him to return to England[13].
Peter Martyr of Angleria, as likewise quoted by Hakluyt, says that
Sebastian was forced to return to the southwards by the immense quantities
of ice which he encountered in the northern part of his voyage[14].
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.
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