Cabot's The Ambaffador de. mands a perfonal interview. At which cidedly refufes to go either into Spain or Flanders, but is willing to give the Emperor all the information he feeks. made that he was not detain'd here by us, but that he of himself refused to go either into Spain or to the Emperor in Flanders; and that he being of that mind, and the King Edward's fubject (Bristol born), no reason or equity would that he should be forced or compelled to go against his will. Upon the which answer the ambaffador demanded that Cabot fhould vivâ voce, in the presence of some one whom the council should appoint, declare this to be his mind and anfwer. "Whereunto we condefcended, and at the laft fent the faid Cabot, with Richard Shelley, to the ambassador, who, as the faid Shelley hath made report to us, affirmed to the said ambaffador that he was not minded to go, neither into Spain nor to the Emperor. "Nevertheless, having knowledge of certain things very neceffary for the Emperor's knowledge, he was well contented, for the good-will he bore the Emperor, to write his mind unto him, or to declare the fame here to any fuch as fhould be appointed to hear him. "Whereunto the faid ambassador asked the faid Cabot, in cafe the King's majesty, or we the council, fhould command him to go, whether then he would not do it."" с "Whereunto the faid Cabot made answer: If the King's Highness, or we, fhould fo command, he knew well enough what he had to do.'" "But it seemeth that the ambassador took this answer of Cabot to mean that, on being fo commanded by the King or by us, he would be content to go." "Wherein we reckon the faid ambaffador to be deceived, for Cabot had divers times before declared unto us that he was fully determined not to go hence at all." Cabot answers the ambaffa dor. Tells the Council he certainly will not go. his penfion, Edward gives him one. Spain, of course, ftruck off his penfion, and Spain ftops Edward immediately gave him one of 250 marks, or £166 13s. 4d., a very handsome fum for the period. L Cabot is made fuperintendent of the naval affairs of the kingdom. . CHAPTER IX. Cabot's office; be explains the variation of the Compass to the King; State of Trade in England; depreffion thereof, caused by the monopoly of the Stilliard merchants. The London merchants confult Cabot; his advice followed; is made Governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company for life; frequent interviews with the King; breaks the foreign monopoly is liberally rewarded by the grateful monarch; builds the hips for the new expedition at Bristol, fheaths them with lead plates; firft introduction of this fyftem into England; Sir Hugh Willoughby chofen for the command; Cabot's wife failing and business inftructions. E have no name given for the office which Cabot now filled under the English Government; but he seems to have exercised a general fupervifion over the maritime affairs of the kingdom, under the king and the council. We have one instance left on record in which he vetoed John Allday, who, " Wanting to go as mafter in a ship to the Levant, was stayed By the prince's letters, which my master, Sebaftian Gabote, had obtained for that purpose, to my great grief.'" We hear, alfo, of his being present at the examination of a French pilot, who had long frequented the Coaft of Brazil. He licenses, and examines pilots. Rio de la There is alfo every reafon for believing that Chart of the the minute inftructions for navigating the Rio de La Plata, given in Hakluyt, are from his pen. The boy king had himself a great taste for maritime affairs; when quite a child he knew all the harbours and ports in France and Scotland, as well as thofe in his own dominions; how much water they had, and the way to get into them. King Edward VI. ftudies navigation. to him the variation of the compass. "Geogra We have it on the testimony of the noble Venetian, Sanuto, that Cabot had explained Cabotexplains to the king the whole fubject of the variation of the needle, which Guido Gianeti, their mutual friend in London, informed Sanuto phia," Sanuto, "That Sebaftian Cabot was the first discoverer of this hid fecret of nature; that he fhowed the extent of the variation, and also that it was different in different places." lib. prim. fol. 2. Venice, 1588. High esteem in which Cabot is held. Sanuto's inftrument. Bartholomew &c. Sanuto proves the correctness of Cabot's deductions. Three copies of Cabot's charts mentioned. Gianeti refided near to Cabot, and from him and others Sanuto learned that Cabot was held in the highest esteem. Sanuto had conftructed at Venice an inftrument for measuring the longitude; hence it became a matter of great importance to him to ascertain a point of no variation. This, after Gianeti had left England, he got from Cabot through another friend, who also tells him he faw "a chart of navigation, executed by hand with the greatest care, and carefully compared with one made by Cabot himself, in which the position of this meridian was seen to be 110 miles weft of Flores. Sanuto remarks that he had proofs of the accuracy of the report thus made; he refers repeatedly to the map, which appears to have been fent to him, and adverts to obfervations made by Cabot as to the variation of the compass at the Equator. Where can all these maps, &c. be? For, befides those which Worthington's fhade muft anfwer for, we have at least three copies traced -one each to Sanuto, Ortelius, and the Duke of Bedford, at Cheynies-to say nothing of |