After Making Many Other
Voyages, Which Are Not Specified, He Settled In Seville, Where He Employed
Himself In Making Sea Charts, And Had The Appointment Of Pilot-Major, All
Pilots For The West Indian Seas Having To Pass His Examination, And To
Have His License[15].
He thought fit, however, to return into England, and
was employed by Henry VIII.
In the service of that sovereign he made a
voyage to the coast of Brazil in 1516, under the superior command of Sir
Thomas Pert, vice-admiral of England, of which the following imperfect
account is preserved by Haklyut.
"That learned and industrious writer Richard Eden, in an epistle to the
Duke of Northumberland, prefixed to a work which he translated from
Munster in 1553, called A treatise of the New India, makes mention of a
voyage of discovery made from England by Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian
Cabota, about the eighth year of Henry VIII. The want of courage in Sir
Thomas Pert occasioned this expedition to fail of its intended effect;
otherwise it might have happened that the rich treasury called Perularia,
now in Seville, in which the infinite riches which come from the new-found
country of Peru, would long since have been in the Tower of London to the
great honour of the king, and the vast increase of the wealth of this
realm. Gonsalvo de Oviedo, a famous Spanish writer, alludes to this voyage,
in his General and Natural History of the West Indies, as thus quoted by
Ramusio. In the year 1517, an English corsair, under pretence of a voyage
of discovery, came with a great ship to the coast of Brazil, whence he
crossed over to the island of Hispaniola, and arrived near the mouth of
the harbour of St Domingo, where he sent his boat to demand leave of entry
for the purpose of traffic. But Francis de Tapia, the governor of the
castle, caused some ordnance to be fired from the castle at the ship,
which was bearing in for the port; on which the ship put about, and the
people in the boat went again on board. They then sailed to the island of
St John, or Porto Rico, where they went into the harbour of St Germaine,
where they required provisions and other necessaries for their ship, and
complained against the inhabitants of St Domingo, saying that they came
not to do any harm, but to trade for what they wanted, paying in money or
merchandize. In this place they procured provisions, and paid in certain
vessels of wrought tin and other things. They afterwards departed towards
Europe, where it was thought they never arrived, as we never heard any
more news of them[16]."
From the above hint respecting the riches of Peru finding their way to the
Tower of London, and as combined with the former voyage of Cabot to the
north-west; in search of a passage to India, it may be inferred, that the
object of the present voyage was to discover a passage to India by the
south-west, or by what is now called Cape Horn. The passage to India by
the Cape of Good Hope, had been granted exclusively by the Pope to the
Portuguese; and Henry VIII. then a good catholic, wished to evade this
exclusive privilege by endeavouring to discover a new route. It was well
observed by one of the kings of France, in reference to the Pope having
granted all the East to the Portuguese, and all the West to the Spaniards,
"I wish my brothers of Spain and Portugal would shew me the testament of
our father Adam, by which they claim such ample inheritance." The
supposition that Cabot had perished on his voyage from Porto Rico to
England was unfounded. He was alive there in 1549, in which year Edward VI.
granted a yearly pension for life to him and his assigns, of L.166, 13s.
4d. to be paid quarterly, in consideration of the good and acceptable
service done and to be done by him[17].
We have been induced to insert this long digression in this place, because
no journals remain of the voyages to which they relate. The other early
voyages of the English to the New World, were all for the purpose of
discovering a N.W. passage by sea to India, or for colonizing the
provinces of North America, and will fail to be particularly noticed in
other divisions of our work.
[1] Novus Orbis, p. 111.
[2] Vol. I. 262, and Vol. V. 479.
[3] Nov. Orb. 87.
[4] Mod. Geogr. III. 8.
[5] Harris, Col. of Voy. and Trav. II. 167.
[6] Harris, Coll. of Voy. and Trav. II. 62.
[7] Id. II. 87.
[8] Harris, II. 33.
[9] Harris, II. 38.
[10] Hakluyt, III. 25.
[11] Hakluyt, III. 27.
[12] Hakl. III. 28.
[13] Id. III. 29.
[14] Id. ib.
[15] Id. ib.
[16] Hakl. III. 591.
[17] Hakl. III. 31.
DEDICATION.
To the most illustrious Renee, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Duke
of Lorain and Bar, Americas Vespucius in all humble reverence and due
gratitude, wisheth health and prosperity.
Most illustrious sovereign, your majesty may perhaps be surprised at my
presumption in writing this prolix epistle, knowing, as I do, that your
majesty is continually engaged in conducting the arduous affairs of
government. I may deserve blame for presuming to dedicate to your majesty
this work, in which you will take little interest, both because of its
barbarous style, and that it was composed expressly for Ferdinand king of
Spain. But my experience of your royal virtues has given me a confident
hope that the nature of my subject, which has never yet been treated of by
ancient or modern writers, may excuse me to your majesty. The bearer,
Benvenuto, a servant of your majesty, and my valued friend, whom I met
with at Lisbon, earnestly entreated me to write this history, that your
majesty might be informed of all those things which I had seen during the
four voyages to different parts of the world, which I had undertaken for
the discovery of unknown countries.
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