influence on his own ardent temperament is well described, "by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing.*" While such expressions would rebuke an attempt to connect his name with the disparagement of Columbus, they heighten the gratification with which we recognise his claim to the place that a foreign poet of no contemptible merit-the companion of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his voyage to the North, and writing from that region-has assigned to him: Hanc tibi jamdudum primi invenere Britanni Tum cum magnanimus nostra in regione Cabotus * "Mi nacque un desiderio grande, anzi un ardor nel core di voler far anchora io qualche cosa segnalata, &c." Ib. † Budeius-in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 143. CHAP. XXV. PERVERSION OF FACTS AND DATES BY HARRIS AND PINKERTON-CABOT'S RETURN TO ENGLAND PROBABLE INDUCEMENTS-ERRONEOUS REASON ASSIGNED BY MR BARROW-CHARLES V. MAKES A DEMAND ON THE KING OF ENGLAND FOR HIS RETURN-REFUSED-PENSION TO CABOT-DUTIES CONFIDED TO HIM-MORE EXTENSIVE THAN THOSE BELONGING TO THE OFFICE OF PILOT-MAJOR-INSTANCES.. Or the manner in which the order and nature of Cabot's services have been misrepresented by English writers, some idea may be formed from the following passage of Harris transplanted into Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages (vol. xii. p. 160). "Sebastian Cabot was employed by their Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, [Isabella having been dead twenty-two years, and Ferdinand ten years before he sailed] on a voyage for the discovery of the coast of Brasil (!) in which he had much better success than Americus Vespucius, who missed the river of Plate, whereas Cabot found it, and sailed up 360 miles [Hakluyt's six score leagues], which gave him such a character at the Court of their Catholic Majesties, that on his return [in 1531] he was declared piloto maggiore or grand pilot of Spain, and resided several years at Seville with that character, and had the examination and approbation of all the pilots intrusted by that government. Yet after some years, he thought fit to return into England, and was employed by King Henry VIII. in conjunction with Sir Thomas Pert, who was Vice-Admiral of England, and built a fine house near Blackwall, called Poplar, which name still remains, though the house is long ago decayed. This voyage of his was in 1516, [fifteen years before the return from the La Plata !] on board a ship of 250 tons with another of the like size." (Mistaken reference to the English Expedition of 1527.) The motives which really induced Cabot to abandon a situation of high honour and emolument in Spain, as well as the exact period of his return to England, we have no means of determining. It is plain, from what will presently appear, that he had experienced no mortifying slight of his services, or attempt to withdraw the ample provision for his support. We are permitted, therefore, to believe that he was drawn to England by an attachment, strengthening with the decline of life, to his native soil and the scene of his early associations and attachments: The ties were not slight or likely to decay. Born in Bristol and returning from Venice whilst yet a boy, he had grown up in England to manhood, and it was not until sixteen years after the date of the first memorable patent that he entered the service of Spain, from which again he withdrew in 1516. A reasonable presumption must, however, be distinguished from rash and absurd assertion. Mr Barrow supposes (Chronological History of Voyages, p. 36), that Cabot returned on the invitation of Robert Thorne of Bristol. Unfortunately for this hypothesis it appears that Thorne died in 1532, sixteen years before the period at which Cabot quitted Spain. The same writer remarks (p. 36), "His return to England was in the year 1548, when Henry VIII. was on the throne." Surely Mr Barrow cannot seriously think that, at this late day, his bare word will be taken against all the historians and chroniclers who declared that Henry VIII. died in January 1547+. At his return Cabot settled in Bristol,‡ without the least anticipation, in all probability, of the new and brilliant career on which he was shortly to enter, fifty-three years after the date of his first commission from Henry VII. Whatever may have been the motives of the Emperor for consenting to the departure of the Pilot-Major, he would seem to have become very soon alarmed at the inconvenience that might result from his new position. The youth who then filled the throne of England had already given such evidence of capacity as to excite the attention of Europe; and anticipations were universally expressed of the memorable part he was destined to perform. Naval affairs had seized his attention as a sort of passion. Even when a child" he knew all • Fuller's Worthies, Somersetshire; and Stow's Survey of London. †This blunder is gravely copied into Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia, History of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 138, together with Mr Barrow's assertion, that the pension of £166. 13s. 4d. was equal to five hundred Marks! Strype's Historical Memorials, vol. ii. p. 190. the harbours and ports both of his own dominions and of France and Scotland, and how much water they had, and what was the way of coming into them."* The Emperor saw how perilous it was that a youthful monarch, with these predispositions, should have within reach the greatest seaman of the age, with all the accumulated treasures of a protracted life of activity and observation. A formal and urgent demand, therefore, was made by the Spanish ambassador, that "Sebastian Cabote, Grand Pilot of the Emperor's Indies, then in England," might be sent over to Spain" as a very necessary man for the Emperor, whose servant he was, and had a Pension of him."+ Strype, after quoting from the documents before him, dryly adds, "Notwithstanding, I suspect that Cabot still abode in England, at Bristol, (for there he lived) having two or three years after set on foot a famous voyage hence, as we shall mention in due place." It is a pleasing reflection, adverted to before and which may here be repeated, that Cabot was never found attempting to employ, to the annoyance of Spain, the minute local knowledge of her possessions, of which his confidential station in that country must have made him master. The Public Records now supply us with dates. On the 6th January, in the second year of Edward VI., a pension was granted to him of two hundred and fifty marks (1667. 13s. 4d.). Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 10) seems irresolute as to the year, according the ordinary computation; for, at the close of the grant, in the original Latin, he declares it to be 1549, and at the end of his own translation, 1548. The former is undoubtedly correct, and so stated by Rymer (vol. xv. p. 181). The pension is recited to be "In consideratione boni et acceptabilis servitii nobis per dilectum servientem nostrum Sebastianum Cabotum impensi atque impendendi" (in consideration of the good and acceptable service done and to be done unto us by our beloved servant Sebastian Cabot). The precise nature of the duties imposed on him does not • Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 225. appear. It is usually stated, and amongst others by Hakluyt, that the office of Grand Pilot of England was now created, and Cabot appointed to fill it; but this is very questionable.* Certain it is that his functions were far more varied and extensive than those implied in such a title. He would seem to have exercised a general supervision over the maritime concerns of the country, under the eye of the King and the Council, and to have been called upon whenever there was occasion for nautical skill and experience. One curious instance occurs of the manner in which the wishes of individuals were made to yield to his opinion of what was required by the exigences of the public service. We find (Hakluyt, vol. ii. part ii. p. 8) one James Alday offering as an explanation of his not having gone as master on a proposed voyage to the Levant, that he was stayed "By the prince's letters which my master Sebastian Gabota had obtained for that purpose to my great grief." He is called upon (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 719) to be present at the examination of a French pilot who had long frequented the coast of Brasil, and there is reason to believe that the minute instructions for the navigation of the La Plata (ib. p. 728) are from himself. • See Appendix (C.). |