diligent searcher and preserver of Antiquities," and he there, with the recent communication before him, actually states the seventeenth year of Henry VII. as the date of this exhibition of savages. But when he came to publish his larger, and more ambitious, work, he seems to have paused over the several scraps of information he had collected, and which appeared so little to harmonise. There is no evidence, it may be remarked, that he had any knowledge of the two Patents to the Bristol Merchants and the Portuguese. He thought it, then, unaccountable how Cabot should be found, at so late a period, exhibiting savages evidently just from the woods. He determined, therefore, to set the matter right, and the "seventeenth" year of his original work is actually converted into "fourteenth" so as to correspond with the date of Cabot's. voyage. In the work of 1582, the passage is headed "Of three savage men which he brought home and presented unto the King in the XVII yeere of his raigne," but in 1600, (vol. iii. p. 9) "Of three savages which Cabot brought home and presented unto the King in the fourteenth yeare of his raigne mentioned by the foresaid Robert Fabian." Thus the names of Stowe and Fabyan, cited, in 1582, for the statement then made, are retained to sanction his own perversion eighteen years after!

Whatever may have been the result of these Commissions, a mere glance at their dates, and contents, will suffice to show how idle are the speculations by which respectable writers have sought to account for what they term the apathy of Henry VII. The following passage from Dr Robertson's History of America may serve as a specimen :

"But by the time that Cabot returned to England, he found both the state of affairs and the King's inclination unfavourable to any scheme, the execution of which would have required tranquillity and leisure. Henry was involved in a War with Scotland, and his Kingdom was not yet fully composed after the commotion excited by a formidable insurrection of his own subjects in the West. An Ambassador from Ferdinand of Arragon was then in London: and as Henry set a high value upon the friendship of that Monarch, for whose character he professed much admiration, perhaps from its similarity to his own, and was endeavouring to strengthen their union by negotiating the marriage which afterwards took place between his eldest Son and the Princess Catharine, he was cautious of giving any offence to a Prince jealous to excess of all his rights.

"From the position of the Islands and Continent which Cabot had discovered, it was evident that they lay within the limits of the ample donative which the bounty of Alexander VI had conferred upon Ferdinand and Isabella. No person, in that age, questioned the validity of a paper grant; and Ferdinand was not of a temper to relinquish any claim to which he had a shadow of title. Submission to the authority of the Pope, and deference for an ally whom he courted, seem to have concurred with Henry's own situation, in determining him to abandon a scheme, in which he had engaged with some degree of ardour and expectation.

"No attempt towards discovery was made in England during the remainder of his reign; and Sebastian Cabot, finding no encouragement for his active talents there, entered into the service of Spain."

The four Commissions from Henry VII. bear date, respectively, 5th March 1496, 3rd February 1598, 19th March 1501, and 9th December 1502. Of these, the second was granted to John Cabot after the close of the war in Scotland, and the putting down of Perkin Warbeck's Insurrection in the West. The others follow at such intervals as show a continued patronage of the project, and there is not the slightest evidence of refusal, or even of hesitation, from the considerations suggested by Dr Robertson. At the very moment when, according to that writer, Henry was influenced by a dread of ecclesiastical censure, and a timid deference to foreign powers, he is found conferring under the Great Seal authority to make discoveries and to treat as enemies, and pursue to condign punishment, all who should presume to visit the countries discovered without permission, even though subjects of a monarch in alliance with England. As to the suggestion that the enterprise was finally abandoned on account of the contemplated marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine, not only do we find the dates above-mentioned running over the period of negotiation, but it happens that the last patent (the one in Rymer) is dated seven months after the Prince's death. The indisposition of Henry to give way to arrogant pretensions is abundantly clear. The Patentees are to respect the prior discoveries of Portugal and other countries only where actual possession had been maintained, "in terris prius repertis et in quarum possessione ipsi Principes jam existunt."

Dr Robertson had seen the title of the last Patent, as given by Rymer, but assuredly could not have read it, or he must have struck out the whole of the passage quoted. The reader

will smile at the indolent credulity of the following sentence: "If any attempt had been made in consequence of this Patent, it would not have escaped the knowledge of a compiler so industrious and inquisitive as Hakluyt." We have just seen, that the writer on whose accuracy and research Dr Robertson' relies so implicitly as to waive any examination for himself, has contrived, by a nefarious perversion, to obscure the very fact in question.

The real character of Henry VII. seems to have been that of a thrifty, calculating, man of business. Caring little about the niceties of the point of honour, he was inclined to submit to many slights, and some injustice, rather than go to War, which he shunned as the same prudent personage would, in private life, have deprecated a lawsuit, as a remedy involving, necessarily, much trouble and expense, and being, at last, of uncertain issue. He often obtained by negotiation what a more proud and impetuous spirit would have vindicated by the sword. But wherever the obvious interests of the country, or of his own coffers, were concerned, he was sturdy, persevering, fearless. The influence of his reign on the commercial history of England has never been adequately appreciated, because no one, since the time of Bacon, has taken up the subject in a temper to do him justice. There is nothing in his character to dazzle or excite, and Treaties of Commerce are a poor substitute for Battles to the light reader or brilliant historian.

In reference to the projects under consideration, it is plain that Henry did not, for one moment, suffer the Pope's Bull, or the remonstrances of Spain, to interfere with the eager and resolute pursuit of what seemed a profitable speculation. But when he found that the only quarter of the new world which remained unoccupied held out no prospect of speedy or rich returns, and that the prosecution of these enterprises, instead of proving a mine of wealth, only, perhaps, furnished an appeal to his princely generosity for pecuniary aid, his interest naturally languished.* The Foreigners who had resorted to

• That an intercourse was kept up for several years with the newly-discovered

his Court were obliged to seek, elsewhere, for Patrons either more ambitious of the mere glory of discovery or more longsighted, in looking patiently to ultimate, though tardy, results. John Gunsolus, is doubtless the "Juan Gonzales, Portugais," whose name appears as a witness in the celebrated trial of the Fiscal with Diego Columbus (Navarette, Viages, tom. iii. p. 553). Of his own fair standing some proof is, perhaps, found in his being called on to testify to the estimation in which Alonzo Pinzon was held by the seamen of that period (Ib. p. 569). He mentions his having sailed with Diego de Lepe, and probably proceeded to England about the date (May, 1500) of the letter of the King and Queen of Spain to Dorvelos, which Navarette (tom. iii. p. 42) refers to a project on the part of Spain to follow up the discoveries of Cabot. Lepe himself, after his return, is found in the November of the same year at Palos, entangled in some vexatious law proceedings (Navarette, tom. iii. p. 80).

Repeated reference is found in Herrera to John and Francis Goncalez, but as there are several individuals thus designated it is impossible to know what incidents to refer to the English patentees.

region, is apparent from the following entries in the account of the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.

"17 November, 1503. To one that brought hawkes from the Newfounded Island, 17.

"8 April, 1504. To a preste [priest] that goeth to the new Islande, 21.

"25 August, 1505. To Clays going to Richmount with wylde catts and popyngays of the Newfound Island, for his costs, 13s. 4d.

"To Portugales [Portuguese] that brought popyngais and catts of the mountaigne with other stuff to the King's grace, 51."

Can it have been that Sebastian Cabot, meanwhile, was attempting to colonize the new region? The mission of the Priest would seem to countenance the idea of a settlement; and we might thus account for the long disappearance of our Nav. igator, as well as for the language of Thevet (see p. 87 of the present volume).

CHAP. II.

FIRST VISIT OF COLUMBUS TO TERRA FIRMA ON HIS THIRD VOYAGE-AP. PRISED BEFORE LEAVING SPAIN OF CABOT S DISCOVERIES-PROJECTED EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH FROM SPAIN.

Ir cannot be supposed that the two great maritime contemporaries of Henry, would regard with indifference the enterprise of Cabot, since the "Card," which that navigator exhibited on his return, according to Lord Bacon, plainly showed how little respect was paid to the arrogant meridian line which had received the highest ecclesiastical sanction.

The Continent of America was first visited by Columbus in August 1498, in the course of what is called his Third Voyage, on which he sailed 30 May 1498. The bare mention of these dates will establish the impossibility that he could have been ignorant of the great discoveries of Cabot which, commencing at the point seen on the 24 June 1497, had extended over the "Londe and Isle," recited in the second patent. Not only had the first expedition returned, and the mariners been dispersed in every direction, but a new expedition, with the King at its head, is subsequently planned, and the royal authority, of 3rd February 1498, for its sailing precedes, by nearly four months, the departure of Columbus. To suppose him ignorant of events so momentous would involve an absurdity which becomes the more glaring in proportion as the circumstances are considered. The court of Henry VII. was filled with the agents of foreign powers,* through whom the news would not fail to be spread, at once, over Europe.

"It grew also from the airs which the princes and states abroad received from their ambassadors and agents here; which were attending the court in great number," &c. "So that they did write over to their superiors in high terms concerning his wisdom and art of rule; nay, when they were returned, they did commonly maintain intelligence with him." Bacon's Henry VII.