is all that remains to fill up fifteen years of Cabot's life subsequent to the first discovery.

One fact is too remarkable not to claim especial notice. Amerigo Vespucci accompanied Hojeda, and it is now agreed that this was the first occasion on which he crossed the Atlantic. Sebastian Cabot was found prosecuting his Third Voyage from England.* Yet, while the name of one overspreads the New World, no bay, cape, or headland recalls the memory of the other. While the falsehoods of one have been diffused with triumphant success, England has suffered to moulder in obscurity, in one of the lanes of the Metropolis, the very Record which establishes the discovery effected by her Great Seaman fourteen months before Columbus beheld the Continent, and two years before the lucky Florentine had been West of the Canaries.

• See Appendix (B.).

CHAP. XII.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN FERDINAND of SPAIN AND LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE-CABOT ENTERS THE SERVICE OF SPAIN 13TH SEPTEMBER, 1512-REVISION OF MAPS AND CHARTS, IN 1515-APPOINTED A MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE INDIES-PROJECTED EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH UNDER HIS COMMAND, TO SAIL IN MARCH 1516–DEATH OF FERDINAND IN JANUARY, 1516—INTRIGUES-CABOT RETURNS TO

ENGLAND.

THE disappearance of Cabot's Maps and Discourses, which were, so long after his death, in the custody of William Worthington, ready for publication, cannot but painfully recur to us in contemplating the long period during which we are absolutely without materials for even conjecturing the manner in which he was employed. These documents would, of course, have supplied abundant information; but in their absence we are compelled to pass abruptly to the new theatre on which he was called to perform a conspicuous part.

Singular as it may appear with regard to a fact so well settled, as the period at which he quitted his native country and entered the service of Spain, there exist on this point statements quite irreconcilable with each other, and yet equally unfounded. In the Conversation given by Ramusio, and with which the name of Butrigarius has been subsequently connected, Cabot is made to say that the troubles in England led him to seek employment in Spain where he was very graciously received by Ferdinand and Isabella. The queen died in 1504; and many English writers, relying on the Conversation, have assumed that Cabot entered a foreign service immediately after his return from the original discovery. Others say, that he first went abroad after the cxpedition from England in 1517. This assertion is found in the Biogra

phia Britannica, Pinkerton, Rees, Aikin, Chalmers, Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, &c. The Biographie Universelle postpones his departure to 1526.

We are told by Peter Martyr (Decade iii. cap. vi.), that Cabot did not leave England until after the death of Henry VII., which occurred in 1509. The venerable Historian of the Indies is right, and we thus find completed the circle of errors in that deceptive Conversation. Herrera, the writer of the highest authority on these subjects-Historiographer of the King of Spain, and enjoying familiar access to every document, stated, more than two centuries ago, that Cabot received his appointment from the King of Spain on the 13th September 1512, and even furnished the particulars of the negotiation.

It may readily be conceived that the wily Ferdinand would be anxious to withdraw, if possible, from the service of a youthful monarch, full of enterprise and ambition, and with the accumulated treasures of his thrifty father, a Navigator who had opened to England the glorious career of discovery. He had little reason to hope that Henry would pay greater deference than his father to the Papal Bull. Vespucci, too, who had filled in Spain the office of Pilot-Major, was just dead, as appears by a provision for his widow (Navarette, tom. iii. p. 305), on the 28th March, 1512. The period was favourable to Ferdinand's purpose. Henry had, already, consented to mingle rashly in the dissensions of the Continent, which finally dissipated the hoards of his father and the resources of his kingdom; and in this very year, an army was despatched from England, in vessels provided by Spain, to co-operate with his crafty father-in-law. It is now that Herrera (Dec. i. lib. ix. cap. xiii.) speaks of the king's anxiety to discover the long sought strait, his views on Baccalaos, and his wish to gather round him all the ablest Cosmographers of the time. We are expressly told that these motives induced him.

N

"A traer a su servicio a Sebastian Gaboto, Ingles, por tenir noticia que era esperto hombre de Mar y para esto escrivio a Milort Ulibi Capitan General del Rey de Ingleterra que se le embiasse y esto fue a treze de Septembre deste anno Sebastian Gaboto vino a Castilla y el Rey le dio titulo da su Capitan, y buenas gages, y quedo en su servicio y le mando residir en Sevilla, para lo que se le ordenasse.*"

There is no difficulty.in recognising, through the disguise of the Spanish orthography, the name of Lord Willoughby. That nobleman is found at the head of a Commission for levying troops, dated 29th March, 1511 (Rymer, vol. xiii. p. 297), and immediately followed by a letter from Ferdinand to Henry, dated Seville, 20th April, 1511, relative to the proposed co-operation. Lord Willoughby landed at Plaisance with the English army from the Spanish vessels on the 8th June, 1512 (Herbert's Life of Henry VIII., p. 20).

Surprise will doubtless be felt, that any misconception should exist as to a fact so clearly established. But Herrera is known in this country only through a wretched translation made about a century ago by a "Captain John Stevens," replete with errors, and in which many passages of the greatest interest are entirely omitted. Amongst the rest, not a syllable of what has just been quoted is found in it. Unfortunately, too, for the credit of those who cite Herrera, this translator has changed the order of Decades, Books, and Chapters, and yet given no notice that he had taken such a liberty. The reader, therefore, who attempts to verify the references of most English authors, will find them agreeing very well with the book of Stevens, but furnishing no clew to the passages of the original.

The Correspondence referred to by Herrera between Ferdinand and Lord Willoughby, would seem to have been

"To draw into his service Sebastian Cabot, an Englishman, having heard of his ability as a seaman; and with this view he wrote to Lord Uliby, Captain-General of the King of England, to send him over, and it was on the 13th of September of this year (1512) that Cabot came to Spain. The King gave him the title of his Captain, and a liberal allowance, and retained him in his service, directing that he should reside at Seville to await orders."

extant about a century ago, if we may judge from the language used in the "Ensaio Cronologico Para La Historia General De Florida," published at Madrid in 1723. This work, though it appeared under the name of Cardenas, is understood to have been the production of Andre Goncalez Barcia, Auditor of the supreme council of War of the King of Spain. In the Introduction, the author, after conjecturing the motives which led Cabot to abandon England without reluctance, remarks

"Y aunque conservo siempre la Fama de Cosmografo, no se hico caso de el, en Inglaterra, hasta que el Rei de Espana, por el mes de Septembre de 1512, entendiendo de Algunas Cosmografos que avia algun estrecho a la parte de la Tierra de los Baccalaos y otro a occidente, escrivio a Milord Ulibi, Capitan General de Inglaterra, le embiase a Gaboto, lo qual egecuto luego, como cosa que le importaba poco."*

The readiness with which Lord Willoughby yielded to the request of the Spanish monarch, and his making light of the favour conferred, would seem to be facts that could only be gathered from the Correspondence itself. We may presume it to be not now in existence, or documents so curious would doubtless have been published by Navarette.

No specific duties were, in the first instance, assigned to Cabot; but his value was quickly discerned and appreciated. We find him, in 1515, mentioned (Herrera, Dec. ii. lib. i. cap. xii.) in connexion with an object, about which the King was very solicitous—a general revision of Maps and Charts; and in that year, Peter Martyr (Dec. iii. cap. vi.) speaks of him as holding the dignified and important station of a Member of the Council of the Indies. The same writer informs us

• "And though he maintained always his reputation as cosmographer, yet no account was made of him in England; and, at length, the King of Spain, in the middle of September 1512, understanding from cosmographers that there was a Strait in some part of the land of Baccalaos, communicating with another in the West, wrote to Lord Vlibi, Captain-General of England, to send Cabot to him, which he did forthwith as a thing of little moment.”