The erroneous citation by Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 6) of the second volume of Ramusio, instead of the first, was probably occasioned by this tract. Eden had said that the passage containing the Conversation of Butrigarius was to be found in the Italian History of Navigations. Hakluyt, in looking over the first and third volumes of Ramusio, found no leading title to catch his attention, whilst the spurious article in the second volume has the name of Cabot running ostentatiously at the top of the page. He probably conjectured that it was to be found there. Purchas (Pilgrims, vol. iii. p. 807) implicitly follows Hakluyt, and repeats the citation of the second volume. It is remarkable that in The History of Navigation," found in. Churchill's Collection (vol. i. p. lxxiv.) and usually attributed to Locke, there is an account of the contents of Ramusio, and this item of the second volume is represented as a description of Cabot's Voyage "to The North-West!"

Another instance of unwarrantable liberty taken with the text of Ramusio, occurs in a passage which has already been cited. In that Conversation, usually connected with the name of Butrigarius, the speaker is described in the edition of 1554 (vol. i. fol. 413, A.) merely as a gentleman, "un gentil'huomo," but in the editions of 1583, 1606, and 1613 (fol. 373), the expression is altered to "un gentil'huomo Mantovano," doubtless from mere conjecture.

The fact is remarkable, that owing to the deceptive instructions given for the purchase of this work, there is rarely found in the most carefully selected Libraries an uncorrupted copy-one which can be taken up without peril to the reader, at every turn, of being the dupe of rash, or fraudulent, alteration by an unknown editor.

Additional matter appearing in 2nd London Edition at Pages 77-78 and mentioned in Preface. To paragraph in Text ending "was first discovered by an expedition commissioned to 'set up the banner' of England." The following Note is appended:

"A passage in the Interlude of the Nature of the Four Elements" given in Mr. Collier's recent 'Annals of the Stage,' supplies a curious allusion to this fact. The Interlude is by some antiquarians referred to the year 1510, and by others to 1517:

"And also what an honorable thynge,

Both to the Realme and to the Kynge,
To have had his domnynyon extendynge
There into so far a grounde

Whiche the noble Kynge of late memory,
The most wyse prynce, the VII Herry
Caused furst for to bee founde".