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custodire sustinere et manutere: Habenda et Tenenda eadem Terras Insulas et loca prædicta sibi, hæredibus et assignatis suis et cujuslibet eorem de nobis et hæredibus nostris imperpetuum per Fidelitatem tantum absque aliquo Compoto seu aliquo alio nobis aut hæredibus nostris proinde reddendo seu faciendo, Dignitate Dominio, Regalitate, Jurisdictione, et pre-eminentia in éisdem nobis semper salvis et omnino reservatis.

Et ultius concessimus præfatis Ricardo, Thomæ, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco, Johanni quod ipsi hæredes et assignati sui prædicti dictas terras-firmas, insulas et provincias ipsis et hæredibus suis prædictis ut præmittitur sic concessas, postquam inventæ et recuperatæ sint, ac cum in plena possessione earundem fuerint teneant possideant et gaudeant libere, quiete, et pacifice absque impedimento aliquali nostri aut hæredum nostrorum quarumcunque. Et quod nullus ex subditis nostris eos eorum aliquem de et super possessione et titulo suis de et in dictis terris-firmis, insulis et provinciis se aliqualiter contra voluntatem suam expellat quovis modo seu aliquis extraneus ·aut aliqui extranei virtute aut colore alicujus concessionis nostræ sibi Magno Sigillo Nostro per antea factæ aut imposterum faciendæ cum aliquibus aliis locis et insulis

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et contiguis ac membris et Parcellis præfatis Insulis Terris-firmis Provinciis et locis

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absque licensubditorum nostrorum et alio

tia. rum prænominatorum aliquo modo intromittat nec intromittant [Through the words in italics the pen is drawn in the original, and a space then occurs, from which the writing has been carefully and completely erased].

Promittentes bona-fide et in verbo regio Nos ratum gratum et firmum habituros totum et quicquid præfati Ricardus, Thomas, Johannes, Johannes Franciscus et Johannes et eorum quilibet pro præmissorum complemento fecerint fierique procuraverint in hac parte. Et quod Nos aut hæredes nostri nullo unquam tempore in futuro ipsos aut eorum aliquam hæredes et assignatos suos in jure, titulo et possessione suis inquietabimus, impediemus aut molestium eis faciemus nec per alios nostros subditos aut alios quoscunque quantum in nobis fuerit fieri seu procurari permittemus seu procurabimus, nec ipsos hæredes et assignatos suos pro aliqua causa imposterum emergente seu contingente ab eisdem Terris-firmis, provinciis et locis nullo modo amovebimus.aut amoveri seu expelli per subditos nostros procurabimus. Et ultius ex uberiori gratia nostra et mero motu nostro concessimus et per Præsentes concedimus pro Nobis et hæredibus

quantum in nobis est Johanni Johanni Fernandus, Francisco Fernandus et Johanni Gunsalos, Armigeris de Insulis de Surrys subditos Regis Portugaliæ oriundis et eorum cuilibet quod ipsi et eorum quilibet ac omnes liberi sui tam procreati quam procreandi in perpetuam sint indigeni et ligei nostri et hæredum nostrorum et in omnibus causis, querelis, rebus et materiis quibuscumque habeantur pertractarentur teneantur, reputentur et gubernentur tanquam veri et fideles Ligei Nostri infra Regnum nostrum Angliæ oriundi et non aliter nec alio modo. Et quod ipsi et omnes liberi sui prædicti omnimodo actiones reales personales et mixtas in omnibus Curiis, locis et jurisdictionibus nostris quibuscunque habere exercere eisque uti et gaudere ac eas in eisdem placitare et implacitari respondere et responderi, defendere ac defendi possint et eorum quilibet possit in omnibus sicuti veri et fideles Ligei nostri infra Regnum nostrum prædictum oriundi. Et quod ipsi et eorum quilibet Terras, Tenementa, reditus, reversiones, servitia et alios possessiones quæcunque tam in dominio quam in reversione infra dictum regnum nostrum Angliæ ac alia dominia et loca sub obedientia nostra perquirere, capere, recipere, habere tenere possidere et hæreditare sibi, hæredibus et assignatis sui imperpetuum vel alio modo quocunque ac ea dare, vendere, alienare et legare cuicunque personæ sive quibus cunque personiis sibi placuerit libere, quiete, licite et impune possint et quilibet eorum possit ad libitum suum adeo libere integre et pacifice sicut possit et valeat aliquis Ligeorum nostrorum infra regnum nostrum Angliæ oriundus. Ita tamen quod prædicti Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus et omnes liberi sui prædicti solvant aut solvi faciant et eorum quilibet solvat seu solvi faciat talia custumas subsidia et alia demandia pro bonis, mercibus, mercandisis et mercimoniis suis in Regnum nostrum Angliæ adducendis vel extra idem Regnum educendis qualia alienigeni nobis solvant aut solvere deberent vel consueverunt. Et quod idem Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus et omnes liberi sui prædicti de cætero in futuro colore seu vigore alicujus Statuti, Ordinacionis sive concessionis in Parliamento nostro aut extra Parliamentum nostrum facti vel fiendi non arcteantur seu compellantur nec eorum aliquis arcteneatur teneatur seu compellatur ad solvendum, dandum vel supportandum nobis vel alicui hæredum nostrorum seu cuicunque alteri aliqua Taxas, Tallagia seu alia onera quæcunque pro terris, tenementis, bonis vel personis suis præterquam talia et tanta qualia et quanta alii fideles Ligei nostri infra dictum Regnum nostrum oriundi pro bonis, terris tenementis seu personis suis solvunt dant faciunt vel supportant aut

solvere, dare, facere vel supportare consueverunt et teneantur sed quod prædicti Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus et omnes liberi sui prædicti habere et possidere valeant et possint et eorum quilibet valeat et possit omnia et omnimodo alia Libertates, privilegia, franchesias et custumas ac eis uti et gaudere possint et eorum quilibet possit infra dictum Regnum nostrum Angliæ, jurisdictiones et dominia nostra quæcunque adeo plene libere, quiete, integre et pacifice sicut cæteri Ligei nostri infra idem Regnum nostrum oriundi habent utunt et gaudent aut habere, possidere, uti et gaudere debeantet valeant aliquo statuto, acto, ordinacione vel aliqua alia causa, re, vel materia quacunque nonobstante,

Proviso semper quod præfati Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus homagium ligeum nobis faciunt et eorum quilibet faciat ac Lotto et Scotto et aliis oneribus in Regno nostro prædicto debitis et consuetis contribuant et eorum quilibet contribuat sicut alii ligei nostri infra dictum, regnum nostrum oriundi faciunt.

Proviso etiam quod iidem Johannes Fernandus, Franciscus et Johannes Gunsolus solvant et eorum quilibet solvat nobis et hæredibus nostris tot et tanta custumas subsidia et alia deveria pro bonis et mercandisis suis prout alienigeni nobis solvere et reddere teneantur.

Et ulterius ex uberiori gratia nostra concessimus præfatis Ricardo, Thomæ, Johanni, Johanni, Francisco, et Johanni quod ipsi habeant Præsentes Literas Nostras in Cancellaria nostra absque aliquo fine seu feodo aut aliquibus finibus seu feodis pro eisdem Literis nostris aut aliqua parte corundem aut pro Magno Sigillo nostro ad opus nostrum in Hannaperio dictæ Cancellariæ nostræ aliqualiter solvendis.

Et volumus et concedimus per Præsentes quod Reverendissimus in Christo Pater Henricus Episcopus Salisb. Custos Magni Sigilli nostri auctoritate præsentis Concessionis nostræ fieri faciat et sigillari tot et talia Brevia sub Magno Sigillo nostro sigillanda Custodi sive clerico Hanaperii nostri dirigenda pro exoneratione dictorum Finium et Feodorum quot et qualia in hac parte necessaria fuerint et requisita, absque aliquo alio Warranto aut prosecutione penes Nos in hac parte faciendis.

In cujus, &c.

(E.)

(See page 276.)

CONJECTURE AS TO THE NAME “DÓMINIS VOBISCUM" ERRONEOUSLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE VOYAGE OF 1527-FORSTER'S MISTAKE AS TO NORUMBEGA-NAVARETTE, &C., AS TO THE PERIOD AT WHICH NEWFOUNDLAND WAS FIRST FREQUENTED FOR FISHING.

WHENCE Could have arisen the misconception of Frobisher as to the words Dominus Vobiscum associated with this enterprise? Assured that he was wrong, a conjecture may be hazarded. Were they the final adieu and benediction of Wolsey to his ecclesiastical protegé and correspondent-perhaps as the vessel passed Greenwich? Such an exclamation would linger on the popular ear. One of the ships was never heard of, but all hopes of her could not have been abandoned for many years, and the fate of those on board must have long been a subject of painful speculation, and to their relatives of agonizing suspense. The invocation of the odious Cardinal may have been recalled as little likely to propitiate Heaven-in fact of evil omen-and the impression, coloured highly at the time by the imagination, might be confusedly traced by Frobisher, half a century afterwards, amidst the faded reminiscences of the Expedition.

Forster (p. 436, note) is very much puzzled at the name of Norumbega, which occurs in the heading of Hakluyt's account of the voyage, and supposes " that some of the toys which were presented to the savages, consisting of looking-glasses, bells, &c., were of Nuremberg manufacture, and that by the name given to the country they meant to preserve the memory of this fact!" The name is found distinguishing the country immediately to the southward of Newfoundland on the maps or descriptions of Ortelius, De Laet, Bertius, and Cluverius. In another passage of Hakluyt, (vol. iii. p. 163) reference is made to the same Norumbega in connexion with the enterprise of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and in a way not to be miss understood. As to the origin of the name, it might have occurred to Forster, from the termination Hochlega, &c. and the usual custom of the French of preserving Indian names, that it was aboriginal.

He has not only overlooked these considerations, but something else of which his ignorance is less excusable. The article which immediately follows the account of Verrazani's voyage of 1524, in Ramusio, (tom. iii. fol. 423, F.) is "a Discourse by a great Sea Captain of France," relative to these regions, written fifteen years after the time of Verrazani. He describes the "terra di Norumbega" as lying where we have stated, and expressly states it to be so called by the natives, "la terra é detta da pasani suai Norembega." So, too, Thevet, in his Cosmographie Universelle, (Paris ed. of 1575, tom. ii. fol. 1010) says of this region, "que aucuns ont appelee Terre Francayse et ceux du pays Norumbeque."

There is one incidental point which the Letter of Rut conclusively settles. Navarette has a long dissertation to prove that the Newfoundland fishery was not pursued at so early a period as has been usually supposed. This opinion is adopted by a recent writer, (Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia, History of Maritime and Inland discovery, vol. ii. p. 24) who says "Don M. de Navarette, whose authority on this point seems conclusive, is disposed to think that the Biscayans did not discover Newfoundland till 1526, and he shews that they did not frequent the Banks till 1540." Now we have the positive statement of the English Commander to Henry VIII. that on entering St John's on the 3rd of August, 1527, he found "eleven sail of Normans, and one Brittaine, and two Portugall Barkes, and all a fishing." Herrera (Dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.) gives this same report by an English vessel which had touched. in the West-Indies, as to her having been at the Baccalaos, and found there engaged in fishing fifty vessels, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. The misfortune of Don M. Navarette is that with no firm hold of the History of the New World, even as found in the works of his own countrymen, he attaches an importance altogether exaggerated, and sometimes absurd, to the Documents over which he is incumbent, and when he finds a scrap of manuscript exhibits it with a sort of triumph and as quite decisive, when, in a majority of cases, it owes its origin to ignorance or fraud, Thus, on this point, he gravely cites the negative testimony of half-a-dozen masters of vessels taken on a trial of which he has a MS. account. These persons, it seems, were unable to carry back further the history of the fishery. Infinite discretion is necessary on the part of a writer circumstanced like Don M. Navarette. The eye quickly becomes diseased unless the microscope be often withdrawn, and a healthy look taken round the natural horizon

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