Hugh Murray, Esq. F.R.S.E." published on the 1st October last, there is found (p. 161) the following passage :

"Only one very early voyage (from Spain to the North) is mentioned, that namely, which was undertaken in 1524 by Gomez, with a view of discovering a shorter passage to the Moluccas. He is said to have brought home a few of the natives; but no record is preserved either of the events which attended his enterprise or even of the coast on which he arrived. There remains of it, as has been observed, only a jest, and one so indifferent as not to be worth repeating."

The writer might be excused, perhaps, for not knowing that Oviedo, in 1526, and Richard Eden, in 1555, name 40 and 41 degrees of latitude as points visited by Gomez, but what shall we say of his overlooking the following passage in a popular work, published in 1817?

"Une ancienne carte manuscrite dressee en 1529 par Diego Ribeiro, cosmographe Espagnol, a conservé le souvenir du voyage de Gomez: on y lit au dessous de l'emplacement occupé par les états de New York, de Connecticut et de RhodeIsland Terre D'Etienne Gomez qu'il decouvrit en 1525 par l'ordre de S. M. Пy a beaucoup d'arbres, beaucoup de rodoballas, de saumons, et de soles; on n'y trouve pas d'or." (Biographie Universelle, tit. Gomes.)

The Diego Ribeiro here named had been, on 10th June, 1523, appointed Royal Cosmographer, with a large salary, and the duty committed to him of preparing charts, astrolabes, and other nautical instruments (Navarette, Introd. tom. i. p. cxxiv. note 2). The Map with a valuable memoir, published at Weimar in 1795, is in the Library of the British Museum.

CHAP. IX.

EXPEDITION FROM ENGLAND IN 1527.

ERRONEOUS STATEMENT THAT ONE OF THE VESSELS WAS NAMED 66 DOM. INUS VOBISCUM"-THEIR NAMES THE "SAMPSON" AND "THE MARY OF GUILFORD"-LETTERS FROM THE EXPEDITION DATED AT NEWFOUNDLAND, ADDRESSED TO HENRY VIII. AND CARDINAL WOLSEY-THE ITALLAN NAVIGATOR, JUAN VERRAZANI, ACCOMPANIES THE EXPEDITION AND IS KILLED BY THE NATIVES-LOSS OF THE SAMPSON-THE MARY OF GUILFORD VISITS BRAZIL, PORTO RICO, &c.-ARRIVES IN ENGLAND, OCTOBER 1527-ROBERT THORNE OF BRISTOL-HIS LETTER COULD NOT HAVE LED TO THIS EXPEDITION.

THE Second Expedition under the auspices of Henry VIII. in 1527, to discover a North-West Passage, has not been more fortunate than the First, in 1517, in escaping perversion. The statement of Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 129) is this:

"Master Robert Thorne of Bristoll, a notable member and ornament of his Country, as wel for his learning as great charity to the poore, in a letter of his to King Henry the 8th and a large discourse to Doctor Leigh, his Ambassador to Charles the Emperor (which both are to be seene almost at the beginning of the first volume of this my Work) exhorted the aforesaid King, with very weighty and substantial reasons, to set forth a discovery even to the North Pole. And that it may be known that this his motion took present effect, I thought it good herewithall to put down the testimonies of two of our Chroniclers, M. Hall and M. Grafton, who both write in this sort. This same moneth' (say they) 'King Henry the 8th sent two faire Ships wel manned and victualled, having in them divers cunning men to seek strange regions, and so they set forth out of the Thames the 20th day of May in the 19th yeere of his raigne, which was the yeere our Lord 1527.'

"And whereas Master Hall, and Master Grafton say, that in those Ships there were divers cunning men, I have made great inquiry of such as, by their yeeres and delight in Navigation, might give me any light to know who those cunning men should be, which were the directors in the aforesaid Voyage. And it hath been tolde me by Sir Martine Frobisher, and M. Richard Allen, a Knight of the Sepulchre, that a Canon of Saint Paul in London, which was a great Mathematician, and a Man indued with wealth, did much advance the action, and went therein himselfe in person, but what his name was I cannot learne of any. And furthur they tolde that one of the ships was called the Dominus Vobiscum, which is a name likely to be given by a religious man of those dayes: and that sayling very farre Northwestward, one of the Ships was cast away as it entered into a dangerous Gulph,

about the great opening, betweene the North parts of Newfoundland, and the Country lately called by her Majestie, Meta Incognita. Whereupon the other ship shaping her course towards Cape Briton, and the Coastes of Arambec, and oftentimes putting their men on land to search the state of those unknown regions, returned home about the beginning of October, of the yere aforesayd. And thus much (by reason of the great negligence of the writers of those times, who should have used more care in preserving of the memories of the worthy actes of our Nation) is all that hitherto I can learne or find out of this voyage."

This is copied into every History of Discovery since that period down to Mr Barrow, Dr Lardner, and the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, with the same expression of regret and indignation that no record should have been preserved of the persons and vessels employed in the enterprise.

Incredible as it may appear, after what has been said, there is found in Purchas (vol. iii. p. 809), the very Letter written by John Rut, the commander of one of the vessels engaged in this expedition, to Henry VIII. from Newfoundland, and an account of another Letter written from the same place by Albert de Prato, an Ecclesiastic, to Cardinal Wolsey. The Letter to the King thus appears in Purchas, with some obvious imperfections:

"Pleasing your Honorable Grace to heare of your Servant John Rut, with all his company here, in good health, thanks be to God and your Graces ship, The Mary of Guilford, with all her [a blank in Purchas] thanks be to God; and

if it please your honorable Grace, we ranne in our course to the Northward, till we came into 53 degrees, and there we found many great Ilands of Ice and deepe water, we found no sounding, and then we durst not goe no further to the North. ward for feare of more Ice, and then we cast about to the Southward, and within foure dayes after we had one hundred and sixtie fathom, and then we came into 52 degrees and fell with the mayne Land, and within ten leagues of the mayne Land we met with a great Пland of Ice, and came hard by her, for it was standing in deepe water, and so went in with Cape de Bas, a good Harbor, and many small Ilands, and a great fresh River going up farre into the mayne Land, and the Mayne Land all wildernesse and mountaines and Woods, and no naturall ground, but all mosse, and no inhabitation nor no people in these parts: and in the woods we found footing of divers great beasts, but we saw none not in ten leagues. And please your Grace, The Samson and wee kept company all the way till within two dayes before we met with all the Ilands of Ice, that was the first day of July at night, and there rose a great and a marvailous great storme, and much foule weather; I trust in Almightie Jesu to heare good newes of her. And please your Grace, we were considering and a writing of all our order, how we would wash us and what course we would draw and when God do and foule weather that with the Cape de Sper shee should goe, and he that came first should tarry the space of sixe weeks one for another, and watered at Cape de Bas ten dayes, oruering of your Graces ship

and fishing, and so departed towards the Southward to seeke our fellow: the third day of August we entered into a good Haven, called St John, and there we found eleven saile of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes, and all a fishing, and so we are readie to depart toward Cape de Bas, and that is twentie five leagues, as shortly we have fished, and so along the Coast till we may meete with our fellow, and so with all diligence that lyes in me toward parts to that Ilands that we are commanded by the Grace of God as we were commanded at our departing : and thus Jesu save and keepe your Honorable Grace, and all your honorable Rever. in the Haven of Saint John, the 3 day of August, written in haste, 1527.

"By your Servant John Rut to his uttermost of his power."

The Letter to Cardinal Wolsey from Albert de Prato was thus addressed:

"Reverend. in Christo Patri Domino Cardinali et Domino Legato Angliæ." It began

"Reverendissime in Christo Pater Salutem.

Reverendissime Pater, placeat Reverendissimæ paternitati vestræ scire, Deo favente postquam exivimus a Plemut quæ fuit X. Junii," &c.

Purchas says, "the substance is the same with the former, and therefore omitted." The date is "apud le Baya Saint Johan in Terris Novis die X. Augusti 1527, Revr. Patr. vest. humilis servus, Albertus de Prato."

We have here the name of the master of the vessel, and also that, it is to be presumed, of the Canon of St Paul's, and learn, further, that neither of the vessels was called the "Dominus Vobiscum," but that one was " The Mary of Guilford," and the other "The Samson." We may infer that the latter perished in the "marvellous great Storm," by which the two vessels were separated.

The direct Correspondence with the King and the Cardinal sufficiently assure us of the interest taken by these personages in the enterprise, and the commands of which Rut speaks" at our departing" as to the ultimate destination of the vessels were doubtless from the Monarch to whom the letter is addressed.

We have to state, in reference to this enterprise, a conviction that there went in it the celebrated Italian Navigator, Juan Verrazani, over whose fate a singular mystery has existed. The circumstances which seem to establish the fact are the following:

In the year 1524, Verrazani, employed by Francis the First, coasted North America from the latitude of 34° to 50°. The account of his voyage, found in Ramusio, is dated at Dieppe, 8th July, 1524. From this period we have no distinct intelligence of him. It is said that he made a subsequent voyage, but whence or whither is unknown, for the French and Italian writers do not offer even a conjecture as to the circumstances under which it took place. That he made it in the service of France will appear improbable when we look at the history of that period.

On the 24th February 1525 the disastrous battle of Pavia was fought, and Francis was conducted a prisoner to Madrid. The deplorable condition of the country is thus described:

"Meanwhile France was filled with consternation. The King himself had early transmitted an account of the rout at Pavia in a letter to his Mother delivered by Pennalosa which contained only these words, Madam, all is lost except our Honour.' The officers who made their escape when they arrived from Italy brought such a melancholy detail of particulars as made all ranks of men sensibly feel the greatness and extent of the calamity. France without its Sovereign, without money in her Treasury, without an Army, without Generals to command it, and encompassed on all sides by a victorious and active enemy, seemed to be on the very brink of destruction."

On the 5th June, 1525, the mother of Francis appointed commissioners to seek relief from Henry VIII. (Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xiv. p. 37), and ultimately a loan was obtained of two millions of crowns (ib. p. 130). Every document of that period serves to show the utter prostration of France, and the anxiety to exhibit a sense of gratitude to England for having suddenly become from an enemy a preserver. Thus, there appears (Rymer, vol. xiv. p. 232) a document from the King of France, dated 25 September 1527, having reference to the inconvenience to which the commerce of England might be subject in Flanders in consequence of her new position, and appointing Commissioners to secure to English merchants equivalent privileges in his dominions. It closes thus:

Robertson's Charles V. Book iv