and he had no inclination to be brought into a quarrel with the Spanish sovereigns by trespassing on the more southern territories which, by the unquestionable verdict of the Pope, were their exclusive property.

Sebastian Cabot, however, inheriting all his father's zeal for maritime research, did not abandon the work. In 1499, we are told, "with no extraordinary preparation, he set forth from Bristol, and made great discoveries."*

As to the nature of those discoveries we are altogether ignorant. It is very much to be regretted that the memoirs and descriptions of his and his father's voyages which Sebastian Cabot carefully prepared, and which existed in London nearly a hundred years later,† have all been lost. Had they survived, we might have had a record as full and interesting as that detailing the work of Columbus and his followers, of enterprises quite as daring, and eventually quite as important in their consequences as anything in the brilliant and affecting history of Spanish voyaging to the West Indies and the neighbouring districts of South and North America. As it is, all our information has to be derived from a few bald entries in state papers and official account books, a few chance letters and contemporary anecdotes, and a few meagre and often contradictory reports of statements made by the younger Cabot and his comrades

*SEYER, Memoirs of Bristol (1821), vol. ii., p. 208.

HAKLUYT, Divers Voyages touching the Discovery of America, first published in 1582 (Hakluyt Society), p. 26. Much of the information before cited from Hakluyt occurs in this earlier work; but I have referred to the later publication as one more generally accessible.

1499-1502.] First English Settlements in America.

39

many years after the occurrences to which they refer.

From these stray records it would appear that, though there was no fruitful English colonization of Labrador and its neighbourhood akin to the Spanish colonization of the West Indies and the adjoining mainland, several smaller expeditions, led by Sebastian Cabot and other adventurous merchants of Bristol, succeeded the more famous voyages of 1497 and 1498; and that in these was attempted, not only the further exploration of the districts, but also some sort of English settlement upon them. On the 19th of March, 1501, for instance, letters patent were granted by King Henry to three men of Bristol, named Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas, and to three Portuguese associated with them, empowering them, at their own expense, to discover, take possession of, and trade with any islands, countries, regions, and provinces, in the eastern, western, northern, or southern seas, which were not yet known to Christendom ;* and a similar patent, granted on the 9th of December, 1502, to Thomas Ashehurst, Hugh Eliot, and two of the Portuguese adventurers,† shows that their general authority to sail all over the world was used in furtherance of the explorations already made in the region of Labrador. Under date of the 7th of January, 1502, are two entries in the King's account book, showing that a sum of 57. was given "to men of Bristol that found the Isle," and another sum of 207. "to the merchants of Bristol that have been in BIDDLE, pp. 226, 227, 312. † RYMER, vol. xiii., p. 37.

.*

the New-found-land." "This year also," says an old chronicler, "were brought unto the King three men taken in the New-found-island. These were clothed in beasts' skins, and ate raw flesh and spake such speech that no man could understand them, and in their demeanour like to brute beasts, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which, upon two years past after, I saw two, apparelled after the manner of Englishmen, in Westminster Palace, which at the time I could not discern from Englishmen, till I was learned what they were; but as for speech, I heard none of them utter one word." †

North American Indians were not the only curiosities imported by the Bristol merchants. On the 17th of November, 1503, the King's privy purse was charged with 17., paid "to one that brought hawks from the New-found-island," and in August, 1505, it is recorded that "wild cats and popinjays of the New-found-islands were conveyed to the King's palace at Richmond, at a cost of 138. 4d.‡

*BIDDLE, p. 230.

BIDDLE, p. 234.

+ STOW.

In The Four Elements, a philosophical poem, printed in London in 1519, and lately brought to light by Mr. COLLIER,

there is this allusion to the Atlantic Ocean :

"This sea is called the Great Ocean;

So great it is that never man

Could tell it sith the world began,

Till now within this twenty year
Westward be found new landes

That we never heard tell of before this,

By writinge nor other meanës

Yet many nowë have been there.

1502-1512.]

Sebastian Cabot in Retirement.

41

There is nothing to show that Sebastian Cabot had anything to do with these later enterprises of Henry VII.'s reign, and, if he was ever personally engaged in Bristol commerce, he appears to have abandoned it at an early age, in order that he might apply himself exclusively to geographical studies and pursuits connected with maritime discovery. We may guess something of his occupations from another account-book entry, coming after a dozen years of entire silence concerning him, to the effect that, in May, 1512, he received 208. from Henry VIII.'s exchequer, for making a chart of Gascony and Guienne.*

That was not exactly the sort of work on which his heart was set. Therefore, having some ground for discontentment at the way in which, of late years, Henry VII. had treated him, and receiving even less sympathy in his daring projects from Henry VIII., he was willing to turn elsewhere for employment. This

And that country is so large of room,

Much longer than all Christendom,
Without fable or guile;

For divers mariners have it tried

And sailed straight by the coastë-side

Above five thousand mile.

And also what an honourable thing
Both to the realm and to the King
To have had his dominion extending
There into so far a ground

Which the noble King of late memory,

The most wise prince, the Seventh Harry,

Caused first for to be found."

* BREWER, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII., preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and Elsewhere in England, vol. i. (1862), p. 1456.

was offered him, in the summer of 1512, by King Ferdinand of Spain. The Spanish monarch, more zealous than his English allies in the work of American discovery, and long before jealous of the services which Cabot had proposed to render to them, took advantage of the presence of Lord Willoughby, who went to him as ambassador from England in 1511, and asked him to send the great voyager to Seville," which," says the sarcastic historian," he did as a thing of little moment.'

Cabot arrived in Spain in September, 1512. He was at once made a captain and a member of the Council of the New Indies, provided with a liberal allowance, and ordered to reside in Seville, there to be in readiness for any work that might be assigned to him. In Seville, Peter Martyr made his acquaintance. "Cabot is my very friend," he said, "whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keep me company in my own house."+

During this first term of Spanish service, however, Cabot was only employed as a map-maker and stay-athome adviser in maritime affairs. After three years' waiting, he was instructed to make preparations for a voyage of discovery; but before the arrangements were completed, in January, 1516, Ferdinand died, and the jealous conduct of Cardinal Ximenes, as Regent, caused a further delay, and led to Cabot's return to England towards the close of the year. Here he repeated his

* CARDENAS, Ensaio Cronologico para la Historia General de Florida, (1723), cited by BIDDLE, p. 100.

† HERRERA, dec. i, lib. ix., cap. xiii.

Dec. iii., cap. vi., translated by EDEN, fol. 119.