broke out into open insolence, presuming that disaffection would thus reach its height, and a new arrangement take place conformably to the indication of the Sealed Orders.

The situation of Cabot would to one of ordinary stamp have been appalling. The three persons highest in authority, and to whom he ought to have been able to look for support at such a crisis, had artfully, and in concert, fomented discontent, and were now ready to place themselves at its head. He was in the midst of those who disliked and undervalued him as a foreigner. There were but two of his own countrymen on board. De Rojas, he might anticipate, had made sure of his own crew of the Trinidad, and De Rodas, a man of varied service and high reputation, was likely to rally round him the confidence and enthusiasm of the spirited young cavaliers, volunteers in the expedition. Cabot had performed no memorable service for Spain. There now comes over us, too, almost with dismay, what before had scarcely excited attention. The Spaniards, Peter Martyr said, denied that Cabot had achieved what he pretended, even in the service of England. Such an insinuation could not have escaped the eager malevolence of those now around him. Here then was exercised, harshly and haughtily, over Castilians, an authority yielded, incautiously, to the adroit falsehoods of the English adventurer !

But Cabot belonged to that rare class of men whose powers unfold at trying moments. There seems to belong to command on the Ocean a peculiar energy, the offspring of incessant peril and of that very isolation which throws the brave man on himself, and leads him to muse habitually over all the exigencies that may, on a sudden, task to the uttermost his fortitude or his intrepidity. Cabot saw that his only safety lay in extreme boldness. He was no longer, as with Sir Thomas Pret, a mere guide in the career of discovery. A high responsibility was on him. He knew that by a daring exercise of that rightful authority, to which habit lends a moral influence, men may be awed into passive instruments, who, but the moment before, medi

tated fierce mutiny. His determination was instantly made, and well justified that reputation for dauntless resolution borne back to Spain and to England from this expedition. He seized De Rojas-took him out of his ship the Trinidad—and placing him with Mendez and de Rodas in a boat, ordered the three to be put. on shore. The scene was one of deep humiliation; and these men long afterwards are found dwelling with bitterness on the indignity, in their memorial to the Emperor.* The effect was instant. Discord vanished with this knot of conspirators. During the five years of service through which the expedition passed, full as they were of toil, privation, and peril, we hear not the slighest murmur; on the contrary, every thing indicates the most harmonious action and the most devoted fidelity.

Curiosity runs eagerly forward to learn the view taken by the Emperor of this high-handed measure. It can only be inferred from circumstances, for there is no account of any formal trial. That a thorough investigation took place cannot be doubted. Miguel de Rodas had been in the Victory, the ship of Magellan's squadron which effected the circumnavigation of the globe, had received from the Emperor a large pension for life, and a device for his Coat of Arms, commemorative of that achievement.† Martin Mendez had been in the same ship, and the device prepared for him is of a yet more flattering description. It was doubtless found, without going into the question of Portuguese bribery, that their accidental association with so memorable an enterprise, had given to them a reputation quite beyond their merit, and that these very marks of distinction, and a certain feeling as veterans, had led to an insolent assumption which rendered it indispensable for Cabot to vindicate the ascendancy due to his station and to his genius. By a Portuguese vessel the three mutineers gave notice of their situation, and com

* "Con tanta afrenta suia." Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.

+ Herrera, Dec. iii. lib. iv. cap. xiv.

Ibid.

plained in the bitterest terms of the conduct of Cabot.* The Emperor sent orders to have them conveyed to Spain in order that justice might be done. Hernando Calderon and Jorge Barlo despatched by Cabot, afterwards reached Toledo, and made report of all that had taken place. The Emperor yielded to the solicitations of Cabot for succour and permission to colonise the country, (Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.) and the merchant adventurers declining to co-operate in what had ceased to be a mercantile speculation, the Emperor undertook to bear the whole expense himself, (Dec. iv. lib. viii. cap. xi.) As we never hear of any censure on Cabot, and know that he afterwards resumed his high and honourable office in Spain; and that when, long after, he went to England, the Emperor earnestly solicited his return, we cannot doubt that his vindication was complete.

A singular proof here occurs of the disingenuousness of the Spanish historians. It is manifest, that Cabot could not have escaped the sharpest rebuke, and punishment, without making out a clear justification of his conduct; yet, while not a syllable is given of his statement, which must, from the result, have triumphed, all the disparaging suggestions that malignity could invent, and the falsehood of which must have been established at the time, are eagerly detailed. There can only be wrung from Gomara a cold acknowledgement that the voyage was frustrated, "not so much, as some say, by his fault, as by that of his associates."+

It might be superfluous, under such circumstances, to examine these allegations, yet they are on their face so improbable, that we may safely advert to them, even in the absence of Cabot's Defence.

It is asserted, that at the island of Patos, (the present St. Catherine's,) where he was treated with the utmost kindness by

* Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. iii. cap. i.

↑ "No tanto, a lo que algunos dicen, por su culpa como por la de su gente." Gomara, cap. lxxxix.

the inhabitants, and took in refreshments, he basely seized the sons of some of the principal chiefs and carried them forcibly away. This story is taken from the report of the Portuguese, Diego Garcia, who, although denounced for fraud on his own employers, is considered a good witness against Cabot. He represents himself to have subsequently visited the island, and to have been very graciously received, notwithstanding the recent outrage. This last circumstance is not the least of the improbabilities involved in his tale, for putting that out of view, as well as the polluted source from which the charge proceeds, let us consider its claims to credit. The seizure is represented to have taken place not on the return, but on the outward, voyage. What, then, was the object of so wanton a piece of cruelty? But further, the orders of the Council of the Indies were

peremptory that no violence should be used. Peter Martyr, (Dec. viii. cap. x.) speaking of the expedition of Gomez in 1524, adverts with indignation to his having brought away a number of natives, and expressly states it to be in violation of the standing orders of the Council. Now, Cabot had been, as early as 1515, a member of that Council, was familiar with the orders, and instrumental in framing them. He was in Spain when Gomez returned, and knew of the indignation excited by the abduction. Is it at all likely, then, that he would subject himself to a similar rebuke without any conceivable motive? It is remarkable, that in Cabot's own instructions to Sir Hugh Willoughby, long afterwards, we recognise the analogy to those of the Council of the Indies, for while he enjoins every effort, by gentleness, to get a thorough knowledge of the natives, he expressly forbids the use of "violence or force," (§. 23 of Instructions, Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 228.)

We must advert again, more particularly, to the indignation which, in 1524, Peter Martyr expresses at the conduct of Go

mez.

"Contrary to the laws made by us, that no violence should be offered to any nation, he freighted his ship with people of both

sexes taken from certain innocent half-naked nations, who contented themselves with hovels instead of houses."*

It is with this historian that Cabot is found on terms of intimacy more than ten years before, and the good old man speaks of him as one of a congenial temper, or as Eden and Hakluyt have it "Cabot is my very friend whom I use familiarly and delight to have him sometimes keep me company in mine own house." At the moment of his penning the denunciation of Gomez, Cabot was his associate with the ripened friendship of the intermediate years. Yet Mr. Southey (History of Brazil, p. 52) has not only consented to echo the calumny of a vile Portuguese convicted of fraud and falsehood, but adds this coarse and cruel invective-" Cabot touched at an island on the coast called Ilha dos Patos, or Duck Island, and there took in supplies; requiting the good will which the natives had manifested with the usual villany of an old discoverer, by forcibly carrying away four of them." And the same writer (ib.) denounces, as "an act of cruelty," the energetic proceeding by which Cabot quelled the mutiny, and probably saved his own life.

Another item of criticism is derived from the report of the same Portuguese, Diego Garcia. He sailed from the Canaries on the first September, and before he reaches the Cape de Verd Islands a boast is uttered of his superior skill in the choice of a route. So earnest is the wish to make this impression that we are again told he proceeded from the Cape de Verds" for Cape St. Augustine, [on the coast of Brazil] which he places in eight degrees ten minutes of Southern latitude, and this route, on account of the great currents from the rivers of Guinea, which drive the ships to the North-West, is perilous, and Sebastian Cabot did not know how to take advantage of it, (as has been already said,) because

* "Contra Leges a nobis dictatas ne quis ulli gentium vim afferat, ab innoccutibus quibusdam seminudis populis magalibus pro domibus contentis," &c. (Dec. viii, cap. x.)