certeyn Indians (for so caule wee all the nations of the new founde landes) of the which he brought sum with him from thense who are yet in Toledo at this present, and of greater stature than other of the firme lande as they are commonly. Theyr coloure is much lyke the other of the firme lande. They are great archers and go covered with the skinnes of dyvers beasts both wild and tame. In this lande are many excellent furres, as marterns, sables, and such other rych furres of the which the sayde Pylot brought some with him into Spayne, &c." It is of a voyage set forth under such auspices, and the results of which are thus minutely detailed, that Mr. Barrow declares "to what part of the Coast of America, or (!) Newfoundland, or Labrador he directed his course is not at all known." In vain has the Father of this portion of History given us the Decree of a Council at which he was personally present—and in vain has another Historian preserved the official report to the Emperor; Mr. Barrow will have it, that "so little is known as almost to induce a suspicion whether any such voyage was ever performed." While the writers of every language in Europe are full of its details— while Eden, who wrote half a century before the time of Gaspar Ens, gives us, in plain English, the very degrees of latitude visited by Gomez-while an account of the voyage is supplied by Sir William Monson, with whose writings it may be considered the official duty of a Secretary of the Admiralty to be familiar—that gentleman insists that "the only authority for the voyage" is the paltry compend published in 1612! Such is the mode in which The British Public is ministered to on the History of Maritime Enterprise, and such the character of a book which Dr. Dibdin pronounces, in his Library Companion, "a work perfect in its kind!" Mr. Barrow, it has been seen, throws out a suggestion that Gomez, from his name, was probably a native of Portugal, and finding it somewhere stated that he sailed with Magellan, appeals, in another passage of the book, to that fact with some complacency as countenancing his shrewd conjecture. A writer on such subjects ought surely to have known that in the brief narrative which we have of Magellan's memorable, but tragic, expedition, Gomez occupies a prominent, though not very cre ditable place, and that both Herrera (Dec. ii. lib. ix. ch. xv.) and Purchas (vol. i. book ii. ch. ii. p. 34) expressly state him to have been a Portuguese. The "Biographie Universelle", on the other hand, not only pronounces Gomez a Spaniard, but asserts, in the mere wantonness of rounding off a sentence, that his misconduct towards Magellan is to be attributed to impatience at being placed under the command of a Portuguese! (Art. Gomes.) Keeping in view our leading purpose, it is proper to note, emphatically, that in every account of this voyage distinct reference is made to the antecedent discoveries of Cabot-to the "Baccalaos" which had been rendered universally known by the work of Peter Martyr, published eight years before. It must be evident that if the Historian just named confided in Cabot's veracity he could not have anticipated a successful result to the enterprise of Gomez, for he had described our navigator as ranging along the coast of America with the same object in view, as far south as the latitude of Gibraltar. True, he tells us at the same time that the Spaniards were inclined to speak slightingly of Cabot, (Dec. iii. c. 6,) but his own language of respect, and even affection, shews that he himself cherished no disparaging suspicions, and we are, therefore, curious to know what part he took in the Council of the Indies when Gomez submitted his offer to find a passage in the very quarter which Cabot had carefully explored in vain. To the surprise of all those who have not looked closely into the subject, there will be found in the 8th Dec., c. 10, the following expressions :— “Nunc ad Stephanum Gomez quem in calce porrecti libelli (incipientis “ Priusquam") cum una missum caravela dixi ad fretum aliud inter Floridam tellurem et Baccalaos satis tritos quærendum. Is nec freto neque a se promisso Cataio repertis regressus est intra mensem decimum a discessu. Inanes hujus boni hominis fore cogitatus existimavi ego semper et præposui; non defuere in ejus favorem suffragia.' * "Now I come to Stephanus Gomez, who, as I have said in the ende of that Booke presented to your Holiness beginning ("Before that"), was sent with one Caravell to seeke another Straight between the land of Florida and the Bacalaos sufficiently known and frequented. He neither findinge the Straight The good old man tells, with great glee, the jest about "esclavos," and chuckles at the momentary triumph of Cabot's enemies : "Ubi accessit in portum Clunium unde vela fecerat unus quidam audito navis ejus adventu et quod esclavos (id est servos) adveheret nil ultra vestigans citatissimo equorum cursu ad nos venit anhelo spiritu inquiens clavis et preciosis gemmis onustam affert navim Stephanus Gomez, opimam se habiturum strenam arbitratus est. Ad hanc hujus hominis ineptiam erecti qui rei faverent, universam obtunderunt cum ingenti applausu curiam per aphæresim dictione detruncata pro esclavis clavos esse advectos præconando (esclavos enim Hispanum idioma servos appellat et gariophyllos nuncupat clavos) postea vero quam a clavis in esclavos fabulam esse transformatam Curia cognovit cum fautorum jubilantium erubescentia risum excitavit."* Of Gomara's account it might be superfluous to say any thing; but he was Cabot's contemporary, and the passage illustrates what has been said, in another place, as to his narrow feeling of jealousy towards that Navigator who had a few years before abandoned the service of Spain to rejoin that of his native country, and whom the King of England had refused, as we have seen, to send back on the requisition of Charles V. After stating the departure of Gomez in pursuit of the strait ("en demanda de un estrecho que se ofrecio de hallar en tierra de Baccalaos"), his return nor Cataia which he promised, returned backe within tenn Monethes after his departure. I always thought and presupposed this good man's imaginations were vayne and frivolous. Yet wanted he no suffrages and voyces in his favour and defence," (Lok's translation, fo. 317.) * "And when he came into the haven of Clunia from whence he set sayle, a certayne man hearing of the arrivall of his Shippe and that hee had brought Esclavos, that is to say slaves, seekinge no further, came postinge unto us with pantinge and breathless spirit sayinge that Stephanus Gomez bringeth his Shippe laden with cloves and precious Stones: and thought thereby to have received some rich present or reward: They who favoured the matter, attentive to this mann's foolish and idle report, wearied the whole Court with exceedinge great applause, cutting of the word by apheresis proclayminge that for esclavos hee hadd brought clavos (for the Spanish tongue calleth slaves esclavos and cloves clavos) but after the Court understoode that the tale was transformed from clavos to slaves they brake foorth into a great laughter to the shame and blushinge of the favourers who had shouted for joy." (Lok's translation, fol. 317.) without success, and the jest about the "esclavos," he says (c. xl.) that Gomez visited a region "que aun no estaba par otro vista ; bien que dicen como Sebastian Gabato la tenia primero tanteada," ("which had never before been seen by any one, though they say that it was first discovered by Sebastian Cabot.") These are his churlish expressions at a moment when he has no other epithet by which to designate the country visited, but that conferred on it by the very man whose merits he strives, in this despicable temper, to depreciate! In the "Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in the Polar Seas, &c. by Professor Leslie, Professor Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esq. F.R.S.E." published on the 1st October last, there is found (p. 161) the following passage: Only one very early voyage (from Spain to the North) is mentioned, that namely, which was undertaken in 1524 by Gomez, with a view of discovering a shorter passage to the Moluccas. He is said to have brought home a few of the natives; but no record is preserved either of the events which attended his enterprise or even of the coast on which he arrived. There remains of it, as has been observed, only a jest, and one so indifferent as not to be worth repeating." The writer might be excused, perhaps, for not knowing that Oviedo, in 1526, and Richard Eden, in 1555, name 40 and 41 degrees of latitude as points visited by Gomez, but what shall we say of his overlooking the following passage in a popular work, published in 1817 ? "Une ancienne carte manuscrite dressée en 1529 par Diego Ribeiro, cosmographe Espagnol, a conservé le souvenir du voyage de Gomez: on y lit au dessous de l'emplacement occupé par les états de New York, de Connecticut et de Rhode-Island Terre D'Etienne Gomez qu'il decouvrit en 1525 par l'ordre de S. M. Il y a beaucoup d'arbres, beaucoup de rodoballas, de saumons, et de soles; on n'y trouve pas d'or." (Biographie Universelle, tit. Gomes.) The Diego Ribeiro here named had been, on 10th June, 1523, appointed Royal Cosmographer, with a large salary, and the duty committed to him of preparing charts, astrolabes, and other nautical instruments (Navarette, Introd. tom. i. p. cxxiv. note 2.) The Map, with a valuable memoir, published at Weimar in 1795, is in the Library of The British Museum. CHAP. IX. EXPEDITION FROM ENGLAND IN 1527. ERRONEOUS STATEMENT THAT ONE OF THE VESSELS WAS NAMED THE DOMINUS MARY OF VOBISCUM-THEIR NAMES THE Second Expedition under the auspices of Henry VIII. in 1527, to discover a North-West Passage, has not been more fortunate than the First, in 1517, in escaping perversion. The statement of Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 129) is this:— "Master Robert Thorne of Bristoll, a notable member and ornament of his Country, as wel for his learning as great charity to the poore, in a letter of his to King Henry the 8th and a large discourse to Doctor Leigh, his Ambassador to Charles the Emperor (which both are to be seene almost at the beginning of the first volume of this my Work) exhorted the aforesaid King, with very weighty and substantial reasons, to set forth a discovery even to the North Pole. And that it may be known that this his motion took present effect, I thought it good herewithall to put down the testimonies of two of our Chroniclers, M. Hall and M. Grafton, who both write in this sort. "This same moneth' (say they) King Henry the 8th sent two faire Ships wel manned and victualled, having in them divers cunning men to seek strange regions, and so they set forth out of the Thames the 20th day of May in the 19th yeere of his raigne, which was the yeere our Lord 1527.' And whereas Master Hall, and Master Grafton say, that in those Ships there were divers cunning men, I have made great enquiry of such as, by their yeeres and delight in Navigation, might give me any light to know who those cunning men should be, which were the directors in the aforesaid Voyage. |