It will be remembered that in Hakluyt's earliest work, published in 1582, he speaks of all Cabot's Maps and Discourses written with his own hand as then in the possession of William Worthington. The facts disclosed may, perhaps, assist to account for their disappearance. It is obvious that such documents would be secured, at any price, by the Spanish Court, at the period of Hakluyt's publication, when English enterprise was scattering dismay amongst the Spanish possessions of America. The work of Hakluyt (six years before the Armada) showed where they were to be found. The depositary of them was the very man who had been the object of Philip's bounty during his brief influence in England. Were they not bought up? There can be now only a conjecture on the subject, yet it seems to gather strength the more it is reflected on.

Suspicion may even go back farther, and suggest that a main object in associating this man with Cabot was to enable him to get possession of the papers that they might be destroyed or sent to Spain. The fact that Worthington had received them was probably too well known to be denied by him; and his remark to Hakluyt may have been a mere mode of evading that person's prying curiosity. The same alarm which dictated the demand on Edward VI. for the return of Cabot would lead Philip to seize, with eagerness, an opportunity of getting hold of these documents, so that the author's dreaded knowledge might expire with himself. Of one thing we may feel assured. Hakluyt, who is found attaching so much importance to an "Extract" from one of Cabot's Maps, was not turned aside from efforts to get a sight of this precious Collection, but by repeated and peremptory refusals, for which, if it really remained in Worthington's hands, there occurs no adequate motive. The language of the Dedication seems to betray something of the sharpness of a personal pique.

Sixty-one years had now elapsed since the date of the first

See p. 40.

We

commission from Henry VII. to Sebastian Cabot, and the powers of nature must have been absolutely wearied out. lose sight of him after the late mortifying incident; but the faithful and kind-hearted Richard Eden beckons us, with something of awe, to see him die. That excellent person attended him in his last moments,* and furnishes a touching proof of the strength of the Ruling Passion. Cabot spoke flightily, "on his death bed," about a divine revelation to him of a new and infallible method of Finding the Longitude which he was not permitted to disclose to any mortal. His pious friend grieves that "the good old man," as he is affectionately called, had not yet, "even in the article of death, shaken off all worldlie vaine glorie." When we remember the earnest religious feeling exhibited in the Instructions to Sir Hugh Willoughby, and which formed so decided a feature of Cabot's character, it is impossible to conceive a stronger proof of the influence of long cherished habits of thought, than that his decaying faculties, at this awful moment, were yet entangled with the problem which continues to this day to vex, and elude, the human intellect. The Dying Seaman was again, in imagination, on that beloved Ocean over whose billows his intrepid and adventurous youth had opened a pathway, and whose mysteries had occupied him longer than the allotted span of ordinary life. The date of his death is not known, nor, except presumptively, the place where it occurred. From the presence of Eden we may infer that he died in London. It is not known where his Remains were deposited. The claims of England in the new world have been uniformly, and justly, rested on his discoveries. Proposals of colonization were urged, on the clearness of the Title thus acquired and the shame of abandoning it. The

See the Epistle Dedicatory to “A very necessarie and profitable book concerning Navigation compiled in Latin by Joannes Taisnerus, a publike Professor in Rome, Ferraria and and other Universities in Italie, of the Mathematicalles named a Treatise of Continual Motions. Translated into English by Richard Eden, Imprinted at London by Richard Jugge." There is a copy of the work in the King's Library, British Museum (title in Catalogue, Eden).

English language would probably be spoken in no part of America but for Sebastian Cabot. The Commerce of England and her Navy are admitted to have been deeply-incalculably-his debtors. Yet there is reason to fear that in his extreme age the allowance which had been solemnly granted to him for life was fraudulently broken in upon. His birthplace we have seen denied. His fame has been obscured by English writers, and every vile calumny against him eagerly adopted and circulated. All his own Maps and Discourses "drawn and written by himself" which it was hoped might come out in print, "because so worthy monuments should not be buried in perpetual oblivion," have been buried in perpetual oblivion. He gave a Continent to England: yet no one can point to the few feet of earth she has allowed him in return!

BOOK II.

CHAP. I.

VOYAGES SUBSEQUENT TO THE DISCOVERY BY CABOT-PATENT OF 19TH MARCH 1501, NOW FIRST PUBLISHED, IN FAVOUR OF THREE MERCHANTS OF BRISTOL AND THREE PORTUGUESE-NATIVES BROUGHT TO ENGLAND AND EXHIBITED AT COURT-ERRONEOUS REFERENCE OF THIS INCIDENT TO CABOT-HAKLUYT'S PERVERSION-SECOND PATENT 9TH DECEMBER 1502-DR ROBERTSON'S MISCONCEPTIONS-PROBABLE REASONS FOR THE ABANDONMENT OF THE ENTERPRISE.

Ir is now proposed to pass in review the efforts which have been made at different periods, and under various auspices, to follow up the project of Cabot, so far as may be necessary to exhibit the pervading influence of the original enterprise. This part of the subject has in it little of an attractive, or popular, character; yet the close and minute inquiry which it involves will, it is hoped, be sufficiently relieved by its high purpose of rendering an act of tardy justice to the fame of this great seaman. The same ignorance, or malevolence, which has so long obscured the evidence of what he himself achieved, has been even yet more successful in effecting its object by an absurd exaggeration of the merit of subsequent navigators.

Attention is naturally turned, in the first place, to the

country in which the scheme had its origin; and here we recognize distinctly the quickening impulse of its partial success, though rendered unavailing by accidental causes. The page of Lord Bacon which states the public exhibition by Cabot, on his return, of a "Card," showing his progress to 67° and-a-half, apprises us that "again in the sixteenth year of his reign, and likewise in the eighteenth, the King granted new commissions for the discovery and investing of unknown lands."

Singular as it may appear, the first of these interesting and curious documents has never yet been made public, and the reference to it in a subsequent paper printed by Rymer (vol. xiii. p. 42), has a mistake as to the date. After a tedious search at the Rolls Chapel, it has at length been discovered, and though, from unpardonable carelessness, a part of it has become illegible, yet no material portion is lost.

It was granted during the brief Chancellorship of the Bishop of Salisbury, and bears date 19th March, in the 16th year of Henry VII. (19th March 1501), and is in favour of Richard Warde, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas, "Merchants of the Towne of Brystowe," and John Fernandus, Francis Fernandus, and John Gunsolus, "borne in the Isle of Surrys, under the obeisance of the Kyng of Portugale." The following are its leading provisions.

Authority is given to these persons, their heirs, factors and deputies, to sail to and explore, at their own expense, all Islands, Countries, regions, and provinces whatever, in the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Seas heretofore unknown to Christians, and to set up the Royal Banner in such places as they may discover, and to subdue and take possession of the same in the name of the King of England. They are permitted to employ as many vessels as they may think proper, and of any burden.

The King's subjects, male and female, are permitted to go to and inhabit the regions which may be discovered, to take with them their vessels, servants, and property of every de