DEATH OF COLUMBUS.

265

Columbus sailed for Spain on the 12th September, and arrived at San Lucar, the ship having lost her main and mizzen masts during the voyage. He recruited his shattered health for some months at Seville, and, in May, 1505, proceeded to the Court at Seguin. Queen Isabella, who had always been friendly towards him, was dead, and Ferdinand only answered with fair words the several petitions he presented, setting forth the services he had rendered and his great sufferings, and desiring the performance of the promises that had been made to him. At length, on the 20th May, 1506, Columbus, broken down with disease contracted by his arduous labours in the service of an ungrateful sovereign, whose reign he had rendered illustrious by his discoveries, and disappointed at the unworthy treatment to which he had been subjected, expired, broken hearted— as it is said, in a poor inn at Valladolid, attired in his Franciscan habit, leaving directions, with his latest breath, that the fetters with which an ungrateful monarch had rewarded his gift of a new world, should be buried with him.

Seven years after his death, his body, which had been interred in the convent church of the Franciscans, at Valladolid, was carried with great pomp to Seville, and thence, in 1536, was transferred, according to his wish, to Hispaniola, also known as Hayti and San Domingo. Here the ashes of the great discoverer lay until the year 1795, when, on the cession of the remaining half of that island to the French, in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Basilia, concluded on the 20th December, in that year, his body was supposed to have been removed to the Cathedral of Havanna. We say, supposed, because, on the 10th September, 1877, his remains were discovered near the altar, enclosed in a

coffin bearing the following inscription in German

Gothic characters:

'Illtre Esdo.
Faron

Don Christobel Colon.'

During his voyages Columbus settled Hispaniola, examined Cuba, visited Jamaica and Port Rico, and discovered most of the West Indies, including Trinidad, the nearest to the South American Continent. He also left behind him projects for extending his discoveries, and among his conjectures was one to the effect that there lay a sea on the other side of the newly-discovered continent, through which there might be a passage to the Indies, the justice of which was verified by Magellan fifteen years after his death. His personal appearance is described by a Spanish historian in the following terms: Columbus was tall of stature, long visage, of a majestic aspect, his nose aquiline, his eyes grey, of a clear complexion and ruddy, his beard and hair, when young, fair, though through many hardships they soon turned grey.'

CHAPTER XII.

Sebastian Cabot and his Family-Discovery of Labrador and Newfoundland-The Voyage and sad Fate of Gaspar de Corte RealCabot explores the River La Plata--Jacques Carthier colonises Canada-The Discoveries of Spanish Navigators-The Voyage of Juan Ponce de Leon on the Coast of Florida, and of Diego Velasquez in Central America-The Career of Hernando Cortez as a Navigator-Discovery of California by Francisco de Ulloa-Nunez de Balboa sights the Pacific Ocean-Magellan rounds South America, discovers the Ladrones and the Philippines, where he is killed-The Expedition continues the Voyage, and making various Discoveries of Islands, completes the first Circumnavigation of the Globe.

IN, or about, the year 1497, Sebastian Cabot, who is said to have been of English origin, but brought up at Venice, which he quitted with his father for Bristol, discovered Labrador, Newfoundland, and thus-excluding the claims of the Norse navigators from Iceland, who are said to have visited these parts, some centuries before to the Cabot family belongs the honour of having first sighted the shores of America, as Columbus did not discover the mainland of that continent until his

third voyage, in August, 1498, after leaving Trinidada. It appears that Henry VII., who then occupied the English throne, in granting Cabot a royal commission to discover and trade with these new countries, was actuated by no more worthy motive than a desire to rival the Spaniards and Portuguese, whose wealth and grandeur, derived chiefly from their discoveries and ex

tensive commercial ventures, inflamed the cupidity of this avaricious but sagacious monarch.

It is impossible to make out the exact date of the discovery of Newfoundland,* as Hakluyt publishes no less than six accounts, which cannot be reconciled. The patent of Henry VII., granted to John Cabot, the father, and Lewis, Sebastian, and Saucias, his three sons, is dated the 5th of March, 1496, or 1495, according to Harris, and it gives them authority to sail, with five ships, upon discoveries to the East, West and North, with full property of such country or countries as they should discover, with this reservation only, that they should return to Bristol and pay the king one-fifth of the net profits of the voyage. Harris says that in the year before this patent was granted, that is, in 1494, John Cabot, with his son, Sebastian, had sailed on a voyage of discovery, and had actually seen Newfoundland, to which they gave the name Prima Vista (or First Seen), and, on the 24th of June in the same year, went ashore on an island which, because it was discovered on that day, they called St. John's. It was in consequence of the report of Cabot on this voyage, that the patent above-mentioned was granted.

On the 3rd of February, 1497, a new grant, says Harris, was made to John Cabot, but he died soon after, and Sebastian, his son, applied to the king, proposing to

The first attempt to colonise Newfoundland ended disastrously. It was made in the year 1536, by Mr. Hore, a merchant of London, who, receiving the support of the Crown, in April sailed from Gravesend with the Trinity (of 140 tons) and the Minion, with 120 people on board, including thirty young men of good family. A colony was formed on the east side of the island, but they were reduced to such dire distress that they resorted to cannibalism, and, taking advantage of the arrival of a French ship, seized her and returned to England (Harris, vol. ii. p. 192).

DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA BY CABOT. 269

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discover a north-west passage to the East Indies, and, for this purpose, fitted out one ship at the king's expense, at Bristol, and three or four others at the charges of Mr. Thorne and Mr. Hugh Elliot, merchants of that city. Cabot says in his account, given to the Papal Legate in Spain, printed in Ramusio's Collection and Hakluyt's Voyages: When my father died, in that time when news was brought that Don Cristoval Colon, the Genoese, had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talk in all the Court of King Henry VII., who then reigned, insomuch that all men, with great admiration, affirmed it to be a thing more divine than human to sail by the west into the east, where spices grow, by a way that was never known before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing, and understanding by reason of the sphere, that, if I should sail by way of the north-west, I should by a shorter track come to India, I therefore advised the king to be advertised of my device, who immediately commanded two caravels to be furnished with all things appertaining to the voyage, which was, as far as I remember, in the year 1496, in the beginning of summer. I began, therefore, to sail towards the north-west, not thinking to find any other land than that of Cathay, and from thence to run towards India; but after certain days I found that the land ran towards the north, which was to me a great displeasure. Nevertheless, sailing along by the coast to see if I could find any gulf that turned, I found the land still continued to the fifty-sixth degree under our pole. And seeing that there the coast turned towards the east, despairing to find the passage, I turned back again, and sailed down by the coast of that land towards the equinoctial (ever with intent to find the said passage to India), and came