Chapter VII: Front Matter (7)

The fact that the Northmen knew of the existence of the
Western Continent prior to the age of Columbus, was
prominently brought before the people of this country in the
year 1837, when the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at
Copenhagen published their work on the Antiquities of North
America, under the editorial supervision of the great
Icelandic scholar, Professor Rafn. But we are not to suppose
that the first general account of these voyages was then
given, for it has always been known that the history of
certain early voyages to America by the Northmen were
preserved in the libraries of Denmark and Iceland. ... Yet,
owing to the fact that the Icelandic language, though simple
in construction and easy of acquisition, was a tongue not
understood by scholars, the subject has until recent years
been suffered to lie in the background, and permitted, through
a want of interest, to share in a measure the treatment meted
out to vague and uncertain reports. ... It now remains to give
the reader some general account of the contents of the
narratives which relate more or less to the discovery of the
western continent. ... The first extracts given are very
brief. They are taken from the 'Landanama Book,' and relate to
the report in general circulation, which indicated one
Gunniborn as the discoverer of Greenland, an event which has
been fixed at the year 876. ... The next narrative relates to
the rediscovery of Greenland by the outlaw, Eric the Red, in
983, who there passed three years in exile, and afterwards
returned to Iceland. About the year 986, he brought out to
Greenland a considerable colony of settlers, who fixed their
abode at Brattahlid, in Ericsfiord. Then follow two versions
of the voyage of Biarne Heriulfson, who, in the same year,
986, when sailing for Greenland, was driven away during a
storm, and saw a new land at the southward, which he did not
visit. Next is given three accounts of the voyage of Leif, son
of Eric the Red, who in the year 1000 sailed from Brattahlid
to find the land which Biarne saw. Two of these accounts are
hardly more than notices of the voyage, but the third is of
considerable length, and details the successes of Leif, who
found and explored this new land, where he spent the winter,
returning to Greenland the following spring [having named
different regions which he visited Helluland, Markland and
Vinland, the latter name indicative of the finding of grapes].
After this follows the voyage of Thorvald Ericson, brother of
Leif, who sailed to Vinland from Greenland, which was the
point of departure in all these voyages. This expedition was
begun in 1002, and it cost him his life, as an arrow from one
of the natives pierced his side, causing death. Thorstein, his
brother, went to seek Vinland, with the intention of bringing
home his body, but failed in the attempt. The most
distinguished explorer was Thorfinn Karlsefne, the Hopeful, an
Icelander whose genealogy runs back in the old Northern
annals, through Danish, Swedish, and even Scotch and Irish
ancestors, some of whom were of royal blood. In the year 1006
he went to Greenland, where he met Gudrid, widow of Thorstein,
whom he married. Accompanied by his wife, who urged him to the
undertaking, he sailed to Vinland in the spring of 1007, with
three vessels and 160 men, where he remained three years. Here
his son Snorre was born. He afterwards became the founder of a
great family in Iceland, which gave the island several of its
first bishops. Thorfinn finally left Vinland because he found
it difficult to sustain himself against the attacks of the
natives. The next to undertake a voyage was a wicked woman
named Freydis, a sister to Leif Ericson, who went to Vinland
in 1011, where she lived for a time with her two ships, in the
same places occupied by Leif and Thorfinn. Before she
returned, she caused the crew of one ship to be cruelly
murdered, assisting in the butchery with her own hands. After
this we have what are called the Minor Narratives, which are
not essential.

_B. F. De Costa, Pre-Columban Discovery of America,
General Introduction._

By those who accept fully the claims made for the Northmen, as
discoverers of the American continent in the voyages believed
to be authentically narrated in these sagas, the Helluland of
Leif is commonly identified with Newfoundland, Markland with
Nova Scotia, and Vinland with various parts of New England.
Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod, Nantucket Island, Martha's
Vineyard, Buzzard's Bay, Narragansett Bay, Mount Hope Bay,
Long Island Sound, and New York Bay are among the localities
supposed to be recognized in the Norse narratives, or marked
by some traces of the presence of the Viking explorers. Professor
Gustav Storm, the most recent of the Scandinavian
investigators of this subject, finds the Helluland of the
sagas in Labrador or Northern Newfoundland, Markland in
Newfoundland, and Vinland in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton
Island.

_G. Storm, Studies of the Vineland Voyages._

{48}

"The only discredit which has been thrown upon the story of
the Vinland voyages, in the eyes either of scholars or of the
general public, has arisen from the eager credulity with which
ingenious antiquarians have now and then tried to prove more
than facts will warrant. ... Archælogical remains of the
Northmen abound in Greenland, all the way from Immartinek to
near Cape Farewell; the existence of one such relic on the
North American continent has never yet been proved. Not a
single vestige of the Northmen's presence here, at all worthy
of credence, has ever been found. ... The most convincing
proof that the Northmen never founded a colony in America,
south of Davis Strait, is furnished by the total absence of
horses, cattle and other domestic animals from the soil of
North America until they were brought hither by the Spanish,
French and English settlers."

_J. Fiske, The Discovery of America, chapter 2._

"What Leif and Karlsefne knew they experienced," writes Professor
Justin Winsor, "and what the sagas tell us they underwent,
must have just the difference between a crisp narrative of
personal adventure and the oft-repeated and embellished story
of a fireside narrator, since the traditions of the Norse
voyages were not put in the shape of records till about two
centuries had elapsed, and we have no earlier manuscript of
such a record than one made nearly two hundred years later
still. ... A blending of history and myth prompts Horn to say
that 'some of the sagas were doubtless originally based on
facts, but the telling and retelling have changed them into
pure myths.' The unsympathetic stranger sees this in stories
that the patriotic Scandinavians are over-anxious to make
appear as genuine chronicles. ... The weight of probability is
in favor of a Northman descent upon the coast of the American
mainland at some point, or at several, somewhere to the south
of Greenland; but the evidence is hardly that which attaches
to well established historical records. ... There is not a
single item of all the evidence thus advanced from time to
time which can be said to connect by archæological traces the
presence of the Northmen on the soil of North America south of
Davis' Straits." Of other imagined pre-Columban discoveries of
America, by the Welsh, by the Arabs, by the Basques, &c., the
possibilities and probabilities are critically discussed by
Professor Winsor in the same connection.

J. Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 1, chapter 2, and Critical Notes to the same._

ALSO IN
_Bryant and Gay, Popular History of the United States,
chapter 3._

_E. F. Slafter, Editor,
Voyages of the Northmen to America (Prince Society, 1877)_.

_E. F. Slafter, Editor,
Discovery of America by the Northmen (N. H. History
Society, 1888)_.

_N. L. Beamish, Discovery of America by the
Northmen._

_A. J. Weise, Discoveries of America, chapter 1._

AMERICA: A. D. 1484-1492.
The great project of Columbus, and the sources of its inspiration.
His seven years' suit at the Spanish Court.
His departure from Palos.

"All attempts to diminish the glory of Columbus' achievement
by proving a previous discovery whose results were known to
him have signally failed. ... Columbus originated no new
theory respecting the earth's form or size, though a popular
idea has always prevailed, notwithstanding the statements of
the best writers to the contrary, that he is entitled to the
glory of the theory as well as to that of the execution of the
project. He was not in advance of his age, entertained no new
theories, believed no more than did Prince Henry, his
predecessor, or Toscanelli, his contemporary; nor was he the
first to conceive the possibility of reaching the east by
sailing west. He was however the first to act in accordance
with existing beliefs. The Northmen in their voyages had
entertained no ideas of a New World, or of an Asia to the
West. To knowledge of theoretical geography, Columbus added
the skill of a practical navigator, and the iron will to
overcome obstacles. He sailed west, reached Asia as he
believed, and proved old theories correct. There seem to be
two undecided points in that matter, neither of which can ever
be settled. First, did his experience in the Portuguese
voyages, the perusal of some old author, or a hint from one of
the few men acquainted with old traditions, first suggest to
Columbus his project? ... Second, to what extent did his
voyage to the north [made in 1477, probably with an English
merchantman from Bristol, in which voyage he is believed to
have visited Iceland] influence his plan? There is no
evidence, but a strong probability, that he heard in that
voyage of the existence of land in the west. ... Still, his
visit to the north was in 1477, several years after the first
formation of his plan, and any information gained at the time
could only have been confirmatory rather than suggestive."

_H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 1,
summary appendix to chapter 1._

"Of the works of learned men, that which, according to
Ferdinand Columbus, had most weight with his father, was the
'Cosmographia' of Cardinal Aliaco. Columbus was also confirmed
in his views of the existence of a western passage to the
Indies by Paulo Toscanelli, the Florentine philosopher, to
whom much credit is due for the encouragement he afforded to
the enterprise. That the notices, however, of western lands
were not such as to have much weight with other men, is
sufficiently proved by the difficulty which Columbus had in
contending with adverse geographers and men of science in
general, of whom he says he never was able to convince any
one. After a new world had been discovered, many scattered
indications were then found to have foreshown it. One thing
which cannot be denied to Columbus is that he worked out his
own idea himself. ... He first applied himself to his
countrymen, the Genoese, who would have nothing to say to his
scheme. He then tried the Portuguese, who listened to what he
had to say, but with bad faith sought to anticipate him by
sending out a caravel with instructions founded upon his plan.
... Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had received from
the Portuguese Court, quitted Lisbon, and, after visiting
Genoa, as it appears, went to see what favour he could meet
with in Spain, arriving at Palos in the year 1485." The story
of the long suit of Columbus at the Court of Ferdinand and
Isabella; of his discouragement and departure, with intent to
go to France; of his recall by command of Queen Isabella; of
the tedious hearings and negotiations that now took place; of
the lofty demands adhered to by the confident Genoese, who
required "to be made an admiral at once, to be appointed
viceroy of the countries he should discover, and to have an
eighth of the profits of the expedition;" of his second
rebuff, his second departure for France, and second recall by
Isabella, who finally put her heart into the enterprise and
persuaded her more skeptical consort to assent to it--the
story of those seven years of the struggle of Columbus to
obtain means for his voyage is familiar to all readers.
{49}
"The agreement between Columbus and their Catholic highnesses
was signed at Santa Fe on the 17th of April, 1492; and
Columbus went to Palos to make preparation for his voyage,
bearing with him an order that the two vessels which that city
furnished annually to the crown for three months should be
placed at his disposal. ... The Pinzons, rich men and skilful
mariners of Palos, joined in the undertaking, subscribing an
eighth of the expenses; and thus, by these united exertions,
three vessels were manned with 90 mariners, and provisioned
for a year. At length all the preparations were complete, and
on a Friday (not inauspicious in this case), the 3d of August,
1492, after they had all confessed and received the sacrament,
they set sail from the bar of Saltes, making for the Canary
Islands."

_Sir A. Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America, book 2,
chapter 1._

ALSO IN
_J. Winsor, Christopher Columbus, chapter 5-9, and 20._

AMERICA: A. D. 1492.
The First Voyage of Columbus.
Discovery of the Bahamas, Cuba and Hayti.

The three vessels of Columbus were called the Santa Maria, the
Pinta and the Nina. "All had forecastles and high poops, but
the 'Santa Maria' was the only one that was decked amidships,
and she was called a 'nao' or ship. The other two were
caravelas, a class of small vessels built for speed. The
'Santa Maria,' as I gather from scattered notices in the
letters of Columbus, was of 120 to 130 tons, like a modern
coasting schooner, and she carried 70 men, much crowded. Her
sails were a foresail and a foretop-sail, a sprit-sail, a
main-sail with two bonnets, and maintop sail, a mizzen, and a
boat's sail were occasionally hoisted on the poop. The 'Pinta'
and 'Nina' only had square sails on the foremast and lateen
sails on the main and mizzen. The former was 50 tons, the
latter 40 tons, with crews of 20 men each. On Friday, the 3d
of August, the three little vessels left the haven of Palos,
and this memorable voyage was commenced. ... The expedition
proceeded to the Canary Islands, where the rig of the 'Pinta'
was altered. Her lateen sails were not adapted for running
before the wind, and she was therefore fitted with square
sails, like the 'Santa Maria.' Repairs were completed, the
vessels were filled up with wood and water at Gomera, and the
expedition took its final departure from the island of Gomera,
one of the Canaries, on September 6th, 1492. ... Columbus had
chosen his route most happily, and with that fortunate
prevision which often waits upon genius. From Gomera, by a
course a little south of west, he would run down the trades to
the Bahama Islands. From the parallel of about 30° N. nearly
to the equator there is a zone of perpetual winds--namely, the
north-east trade winds--always moving in the same direction,
as steadily as the current of a river, except where they are
turned aside by local causes, so that the ships of Columbus
were steadily carried to their destination by a law of nature
which, in due time, revealed itself to that close observer of
her secrets. The constancy of the wind was one cause of alarm
among the crews, for they began to murmur that the provisions
would all be exhausted if they had to beat against these
unceasing winds on the return voyage. The next event which
excited alarm among the pilots was the discovery that the
compasses had more than a point of easterly variation. ...
This was observed on the 17th of September, and about 300
miles westward of the meridian of the Azores, when the ships
had been eleven days at sea. Soon afterwards the voyagers
found themselves surrounded by masses of seaweed, in what is
called the Sargasso Sea, and this again aroused their fears.
They thought that the ships would get entangled in the beds of
weed and become immovable, and that the beds marked the limit
of navigation. The cause of this accumulation is well known
now. If bits of cork are put into a basin of water, and a
circular motion given to it, all the corks will be found
crowding together towards the centre of the pool where there
is the least motion. The Atlantic Ocean is just such a basin,
the Gulf Stream is the whirl, and the Sargasso Sea is in the
centre. There Columbus found it, and there it has remained to
this day, moving up and down and changing its position
according to seasons, storms and winds, but never altering its
mean position. ... As day after day passed, and there was no
sign of land, the crews became turbulent and mutinous.
Columbus encouraged them with hopes of reward, while he told
them plainly that he had come to discover India, and that,
with the help of God, he would persevere until he found it. At
length, on the 11th of October, towards ten at night, Columbus
was on the poop and saw a light. ... At two next morning, land
was distinctly seen. ... The island, called by the natives
Guanahani, and by Columbus San Salvador, has now been
ascertained to be Watling Island, one of the Bahamas, 14 miles
long by 6 broad, with a brackish lake in the centre, in 24°
10' 30'' north latitude. ... The difference of latitude
between Gomera and Watling Island is 235 miles. Course, West 5°
South; distance 3,114 miles; average distance made good daily,
85'; voyage 35 days. ... After discovering several smaller
islands the fleet came in sight of Cuba on the 27th October,
and explored part of the northern coast. Columbus believed it
to be Cipango, the island placed on the chart of Toscanelli,
between Europe and Asia. ... Crossing the channel between Cuba
and St. Domingo [or Hayti], they anchored in the harbour of
St. Nicholas Mole on December 4th. The natives came with
presents and the country was enchanting. Columbus ... named
the island 'Española' [or Hispaniola]. But with all this
peaceful beauty around him he was on the eve of disaster." The
Santa Maria was drifted by a strong current upon a sand bank
and hopelessly wrecked. "It was now necessary to leave a small
colony on the island. ... A fort was built and named 'La
Navidad,' 39 men remaining behind supplied with stores and
provisions," and on Friday, January 4, 1493, Columbus began his
homeward voyage. Weathering a dangerous gale, which lasted
several days, his little vessels reached the Azores February 17,
and arrived at Palos March 15, bearing their marvellous news.

_C. R. Markham, The Sea Fathers, chapter 2._

_C. R. Markham, Life of Columbus, chapter 5._

{50}

The statement above that the island of the Bahamas on which
Columbus first landed, and which he called San Salvador, "has
now been ascertained to be Watling Island" seems hardly
justified. The question between Watling Island, San Salvador
or Cat Island, Samana, or Attwood's Cay, Mariguana, the Grand
Turk, and others is still in dispute. Professor Justin Winsor
says "the weight of modern testimony seems to favor Watling's
Island;" but at the same time he thinks it "probable that men
will never quite agree which of the Bahamas it was upon which
these startled and exultant Europeans first stepped."

_J. Winsor, Christopher Columbus, chapter 9._

_J. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 2, chapter 1, note B._

Professor John Fiske, says: "All that can be positively
asserted of Guanahani is that it was one of the Bahamas; there
has been endless discussion as to which one, and the question
is not easy to settle. Perhaps the theory of Captain Gustavus
Fox, of the United States Navy, is on the whole best
supported. Captain Fox maintains that the true Guanahani was
the little Island now known as Samana or Attwood's Cay."

_J. Fiske, The Discovery of America, chapter 5 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN
_U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Report, 1880,
appendix 18._

AMERICA: A. D. 1493.
Papal grant of the New World to Spain.

"Spain was at this time connected with the Pope about a most
momentous matter. The Genoese, Cristoforo Colombo, arrived at
the Spanish court in March, 1493, with the astounding news of
the discovery of a new continent. ... Ferdinand and Isabella
thought it wise to secure a title to all that might ensue from
their new discovery. The Pope, as Vicar of Christ, was held to
have authority to dispose of lands inhabited by the heathen;
and by papal Bulls the discoveries of Portugal along the
African coast had been secured. The Portuguese showed signs of
urging claims to the New World, as being already conveyed to
them by the papal grants previously issued in their favour. To
remove all cause of dispute, the Spanish monarchs at once had
recourse to Alexander VI., who issued two Bulls on May 4 and 5
[1493] to determine the respective rights of Spain and
Portugal. In the first, the Pope granted to the Spanish
monarchs and their heirs all lands discovered or hereafter to
be discovered in the western ocean. In the second, he defined
his grant to mean all lands that might be discovered west and
south of an imaginary line, drawn from the North to the South
Pole, at the distance of a hundred leagues westward of the
Azores and Cape de Verd Islands. In the light of our present
knowledge we are amazed at this simple means of disposing of a
vast extent of the earth's surface." Under the Pope's
stupendous patent, Spain was able to claim every part of the
American Continent except the Brazilian coast.

_M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the
Reformation, book 5, chapter 6 (volume 3)._

ALSO IN
_E. G. Bourne, The Demarcation Line of Pope Alexander VI.
(Yale Review., May, 1892)_.

_J. Fiske, The Discovery of America, chapter 6 (volume 1)._

_J. Gordon, The Bulls distributing America
(American Society of Ch. Dist., volume 4)_.

See, also, below: A. D. 1494.

AMERICA: A. D. 1493-1496.
The Second Voyage of Columbus.
Discovery of Jamaica and the Caribbees.
Subjugation of Hispaniola.

"The departure of Columbus on his second voyage of discovery
presented a brilliant contrast to his gloomy embarkation at
Palos. On the 25th of September [1493], at the dawn of day the
bay of Cadiz was whitened by his fleet: There were three large
ships of heavy burden and fourteen caravels. ... Before
sunrise the whole fleet was under way." Arrived at the
Canaries on the 1st of October, Columbus purchased there
calves, goats, sheep, hogs, and fowls, with which to stock the
island of Hispaniola; also "seeds of oranges, lemons,
bergamots, melons, and various orchard fruits, which were thus
first introduced into the islands of the west from the
Hesperides or Fortunate Islands of the Old World." It was not
until the 13th of October that the fleet left the Canaries,
and it arrived among the islands since called the Lesser
Antilles or Caribbees, on the evening of November 2. Sailing
through this archipelago, discovering the larger island of
Porto Rico on the way, Columbus reached the eastern extremity
of Hispaniola or Hayti on the 22d of November, and arrived on
the 27th at La Navidad, where he had left a garrison ten
months before. He found nothing but ruin, silence and the
marks of death, and learned, after much inquiry, that his
unfortunate men, losing all discipline after his departure,
had provoked the natives by rapacity and licentiousness until
the latter rose against them and destroyed them. Abandoning
the scene of this disaster, Columbus found an excellent harbor
ten leagues east of Monte Christi and there he began the
founding of a city which he named Isabella. "Isabella at the
present day is quite overgrown with forests, in the midst of
which are still to be seen, partly standing, the pillars of
the church, some remains of the king's storehouses, and part
of the residence of Columbus, all built of hewn stone." While
the foundations of the new city were being laid, Columbus sent
back part of his ships to Spain, and undertook an exploration
of the interior of the island--the mountains of Cibao--where
abundance of gold was promised. Some gold washings were
found--far too scanty to satisfy the expectations of the
Spaniards; and, as want and sickness soon made their
appearance at Isabella, discontent was rife and mutiny afoot
before the year had ended. In April, 1494, Columbus set sail
with three caravels to revisit the coast of Cuba, for a more
extended exploration than he had attempted on the first
discovery. "He supposed it to be a continent, and the extreme
end of Asia, and if so, by following its shores in the
proposed direction he must eventually arrive at Cathay and
those other rich and commercial, though semi-barbarous
countries, described by Mandeville and Marco Polo." Reports of
gold led him southward from Cuba until he discovered the
island which he called Santiago, but which has kept its native
name, Jamaica, signifying the Island of Springs. Disappointed
in the search for gold, he soon returned from Jamaica to Cuba
and sailed along its southern coast to very near the western
extremity, confirming himself and his followers in the belief
that they skirted the shores of Asia and might follow them to
the Red Sea, if their ships and stores were equal to so long a
voyage. "Two or three days' further sail would have carried
Columbus round the extremity of Cuba; would have dispelled his
illusion, and might have given an entirely different course to
his subsequent discoveries. In his present conviction he lived
and died; believing to his last hour that Cuba was the
extremity of the Asiatic continent."
{51}
Returning eastward, he visited Jamaica again and purposed some
further exploration of the Caribbee Islands, when his toils
and anxieties overcame him. "He fell into a deep lethargy,
resembling death itself. His crew, alarmed at this profound
torpor, feared that death was really at hand. They abandoned,
therefore, all further prosecution of the voyage; and
spreading their sails to the east wind so prevalent in those
seas, bore Columbus back, in a state of complete
insensibility, to the harbor of Isabella,"--Sept. 4.
Recovering consciousness, the admiral was rejoiced to find his
brother Bartholomew, from whom he had been separated for
years, and who had been sent out to him from Spain, in command
of three ships. Otherwise there was little to give pleasure to
Columbus when he returned to Isabella. His followers were
again disorganized, again at war with the natives, whom they
plundered and licentiously abused, and a mischief-making
priest had gone back to Spain, along with certain intriguing
officers, to make complaints and set enmities astir at the
court. Involved in war, Columbus prosecuted it relentlessly,
reduced the island to submission and the natives to servitude
and misery by heavy exactions. In March 1496 he returned to
Spain, to defend himself against the machinations of his
enemies, transferring the government of Hispaniola to his
brother Bartholomew.

_W. Irving, Life and Voyages of Columbus, books 6-8
(volumes 1-2)._

ALSO IN
_H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States,
volume 1, chapter 2._

_J. Winsor, Christopher Columbus, chapter 12-14._

AMERICA: A. D. 1494.
The Treaty of Tordesillas.
Amended Partition of the New World between Spain and Portugal.

"When speaking or writing of the conquest of America, it is
generally believed that the only title upon which were based
the conquests of Spain and Portugal was the famous Papal Bull
of partition of the Ocean, of 1493. Few modern authors take
into consideration that this Bull was amended, upon the
petition of the King of Portugal, by the [Treaty of
Tordesillas], signed by both powers in 1494, augmenting the
portion assigned to the Portuguese in the partition made
between them of the Continent of America. The arc of meridian
fixed by this treaty as a dividing line, which gave rise,
owing to the ignorance of the age, to so many diplomatic
congresses and interminable controversies, may now be traced
by any student of elementary mathematics. This line ... runs
along the meridian of 47° 32' 56" west of Greenwich. ... The
name Brazil, or 'tierra del Brazil,' at that time [the middle
of the 16th century] referred only to the part of the
continent producing the dye wood so-called. Nearly two
centuries later the Portuguese advanced toward the South, and
the name Brazil then covered the new possessions they were
acquiring."

_L. L. Dominguez, Introduction to "The Conquest of the
River Plate" (Hakluyt Society Publications. No. 81)._

AMERICA: A. D. 1497.
Discovery of the North American Continent by John Cabot.

"The achievement of Columbus, revealing the wonderful truth of
which the germ may have existed in the imagination of every
thoughtful mariner, won [in England] the admiration which
belonged to genius that seemed more divine than human; and
'there was great talk of it in all the court of Henry VII.' A
feeling of disappointment remained, that a series of disasters
had defeated the wish of the illustrious Genoese to make his
voyage of essay under the flag of England. It was, therefore,
not difficult for John Cabot, a denizen of Venice, residing at
Bristol, to interest that politic king in plans for discovery.
On the 5th of March, 1496, he obtained under the great seal a
commission empowering himself and his three sons, or either of
them, their heirs, or their deputies, to sail into the
eastern, western, or northern sea with a fleet of five ships,
at their own expense, in search of islands, provinces, or
regions hitherto unseen by Christian people; to affix the
banners of England on city, island, or continent; and, as
vassals of the English crown, to possess and occupy the
territories that might be found. It was further stipulated in
this 'most ancient American State paper of England,' that the
patentees should be strictly bound, on every return, to land
at the port of Bristol, and to pay to the king one-fifth part
of their gains; while the exclusive right of frequenting all
the countries that might be found was reserved to them and to
their assigns' without limit of time. Under this patent,
which, at the first direction of English enterprise toward
America, embodied the worst features of monopoly and
commercial restriction, John Cabot, taking with him his son
Sebastian, embarked in quest of new islands and a passage to
Asia by the north-west. After sailing prosperously, as he
reported, for 700 leagues, on the 24th day of June, early in
the morning, almost fourteen months before Columbus on his
third voyage came in sight of the main, and more than two
years before Amerigo Vespucci sailed west of the Canaries, he
discovered the western continent, probably in the latitude of
about 56° degrees, among the dismal cliffs of Labrador. He ran
along the coast for many leagues, it is said even for 300, and
landed on what he considered to be the territory of the Grand
Cham. But he encountered no human being, although there were
marks that the region was inhabited. He planted on the land a
large cross with the flag of England, and, from affection for
the republic of Venice, he added the banner of St. Mark, which
had never been borne so far before. On his homeward voyage he
saw on his right hand two islands, which for want of
provisions he could not stop to explore. After an absence of
three months the great discoverer re-entered Bristol harbor,
where due honors awaited him. The king gave him money, and
encouraged him to continue his career, The people called him
the great admiral; he dressed in silk; and the English, and
even Venetians who chanced to be at Bristol, ran after him
with such zeal that he could enlist for a new voyage as many
as he pleased. ... On the third day of the month of February
next after his return, 'John Kaboto, Venecian,' accordingly
obtained a power to take up ships for another voyage, at the
rates fixed for those employed in the service of the king, and
once more to set sail with as many companions as would go with
him of their own will. With this license every trace of John
Cabot disappears. He may have died before the summer; but no
one knows certainly the time or the place of his end, and it
has not even been ascertained in what country this finder of a
continent first saw the light."

_G. Bancroft, History of the U. S. of Am._
(Author's last Revision), part 1, chapter 1.

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In the Critical Essay appended to a chapter on the voyages of the
Cabots, in the _Narrative and Critical History of America_,
there is published, for the first time, an English translation
of a dispatch from Raimondo de Soncino, envoy of the Duke of
Milan to Henry VII., written Aug. 24, 1497, and giving an
account of the voyage from which 'Master John Caboto,' 'a
Venetian fellow,' had just returned. This paper was brought to
light in 1865, from the State Archives of Milan. Referring to
the dispatch, and to a letter, also quoted, from the 'Venetian
Calendars,' written Aug. 23, 1497, by Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a
merchant in London, to his brothers in Venice, Mr. Charles
Deane says: "These letters are sufficient to show that North
America was discovered by John Cabot, the name of Sebastian
being nowhere mentioned in them, and that the discovery was
made in 1497. The place which he first sighted is given on the
map of 1544 [a map of Sebastian Cabot, discovered in Germany
in 1843] as the north part of Cape Breton Island, on which is
inscribed 'prima tierra vista,' which was reached, according
to the Legend, on the 24th of June. Pasqualigo, the only one
who mentions it, says he coasted 300 leagues. Mr. Brevoort,
who accepts the statement, thinks he made the periplus of the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, passing out at the Straits of Belle
Isle, and thence home. ... The extensive sailing up and down
the coast described by chroniclers from conversations with
Sebastian Cabot many years afterwards, though apparently told
as occurring on the voyage of discovery--as only one voyage is
ever mentioned--must have taken place on a later voyage."

_C. Deane, Narrative and Critical History of America, volume
3, chapter 1, Crit. Essay._

ALSO IN
_R. Biddle, Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, chapter 1-8._

AMERICA: A. D. 1497-1498.
The first Voyage of Americus Vespucius.
Misunderstandings and disputes concerning it.
Vindication of the Florentine navigator.
His exploration of 4,000 miles of continental coast.

"Our information concerning Americus Vespucius, from the early
part of the year 1496 until after his return from the
Portuguese to the Spanish service in the latter part of 1504,
rests primarily upon his two famous letters; the one addressed
to his old patron Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici (a
cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent) and written in March or
April, 1503, giving an account of his third voyage; the other
addressed to his old school-fellow Piero Soderini [then
Gonfaloniere of Florence] and dated from Lisbon, September 4,
1504, giving a brief account of four voyages which he had made
under various commanders in the capacity of astronomer or
pilot. These letters ... became speedily popular, and many
editions were published, more especially in France, Germany,
and Italy. ... The letter to Soderini gives an account of four
voyages in which the writer took part, the first two in the
service of Spain, the other two in the service of Portugal.
The first expedition sailed from Cadiz May 10, 1497, and
returned October 15, 1498, after having explored a coast so
long as to seem unquestionably that of a continent. This
voyage, as we shall see, was concerned with parts of America
not visited again until 1513 and 1517. It discovered nothing
that was calculated to invest it with much importance in
Spain, though it by no means passed without notice there, as
has often been wrongly asserted. Outside of Spain it came to
attract more attention, but in an unfortunate way, for a
slight but very serious error in proof-reading or editing, in
the most important of the Latin versions, caused it after a
while to be practically identified with the second voyage,
made two years later. This confusion eventually led to most
outrageous imputations upon the good name of Americus, which
it has been left for the present century to remove. The second
voyage of Vespucius was that in which he accompanied Alonso de
Ojeda and Juan de la Costa, from May 20, 1499, to June, 1500.
They explored the northern coast of South America from some
point on what we would now call the north coast of Brazil, as
far as the Pearl Coast visited by Columbus in the preceding
year; and they went beyond, as far as the Gulf of Maracaibo.
Here the squadron seems to have become divided, Ojeda going
over to Hispaniola in September, while Vespucius remained
cruising till February. ... It is certainly much to be
regretted that in the narrative of his first expedition,
Vespucius did not happen to mention the name of the chief
commander. ... However ... he was writing not for us, but for
his friend, and he told Soderini only what he thought would
interest him. ... Of the letter to Soderini the version which
has played the most important part in history is the Latin one
first published at the press of the little college at
Saint-Dié in Lorraine, April 25 (vij Kl' Maij), 1507. ... It
was translated, not from an original text, but from an
intermediate French version, which is lost. Of late years,
however, we have detected, in an excessively rare Italian
text, the original from which the famous Lorraine version was
ultimately derived. ... If now we compare this primitive text
with the Latin of the Lorraine version of 1507, we observe
that, in the latter, one proper name--the Indian name of a
place visited by Americus on his first voyage--has been
altered. In the original it is 'Lariab;' in the Latin it has
become 'Parias.' This looks like an instance of injudicious
editing on the part of the Latin translator, although, of
course, it may be a case of careless proof-reading. Lariab is
a queer-looking word. It is no wonder that a scholar in his
study among the mountains of Lorraine could make nothing of
it. If he had happened to be acquainted with the language of
the Huastecas, who dwelt at that time about the river
Panuco--fierce and dreaded enemies of their southern
neighbours the Aztecs--he would have known that names of
places in that region were apt to end in ab. ... But as such
facts were quite beyond our worthy translator's ken, we cannot
much blame him if he felt that such a word as Lariab needed
doctoring. Parias (Paria) was known to be the native name of a
region on the western shores of the Atlantic, and so Lariab
became Parias. As the distance from the one place to the other
is more than two thousand miles, this little emendation
shifted the scene of the first voyage beyond all recognition,
and cast the whole subject into an outer darkness where there
has been much groaning and gnashing of teeth. Another curious
circumstance came in to confirm this error. On his first
voyage, shortly before arriving at Lariab, Vespucius saw an
Indian town built over the water, 'like Venice.' He counted 44
large wooden houses, 'like barracks,' supported on huge tree-
trunks and communicating with each other by bridges that could
be drawn up in case of danger.
{53}
This may well have been a village of communal houses of the
Chontals on the coast of Tabasco; but such villages were
afterwards seen on the Gulf of Maracaibo, and one of them was
called Venezuela, or 'Little Venice,' a name since spread over
a territory nearly twice as large as France. So the amphibious
town described by Vespucius was incontinently moved to
Maracaibo, as if there could be only one such place, as if
that style of defensive building had not been common enough in
many ages and in many parts of the earth, from ancient
Switzerland to modern Siam. ... Thus in spite of the latitudes
and longitudes distinctly stated by Vespucius in his letter,
did Lariab and the little wooden Venice get shifted from the
Gulf of Mexico to the northern coast of South America. Now
there is no question that Vespucius in his second voyage, with
Ojeda for captain, did sail along that coast, visiting the
gulfs of Paria and Maracaibo. This was in the summer of 1499,
one year after a part of the same coast had been visited by
Columbus. Hence in a later period, long after the actors in
these scenes had been gathered unto their fathers, and when
people had begun to wonder how the New World could ever have
come to be called America instead of Columbia, it was
suggested that the first voyage described by Vespucius must be
merely a clumsy and fictitious duplicate of the second, and
that he invented it and thrust it back from 1499 to 1497, in
order that he might be accredited with 'the discovery of the
continent' one year in advance of his friend Columbus. It was
assumed that he must have written his letter to Soderini with
the base intention of supplanting his friend, and that the
shabby device was successful. This explanation seemed so
simple and intelligible that it became quite generally
adopted, and it held its ground until the subject began to be
critically studied, and Alexander von Humboldt showed, about
sixty years ago, that the first naming of America occurred in
no such way as had been supposed. As soon as we refrain from
projecting our modern knowledge of geography into the past, as
soon as we pause to consider how these great events appeared
to the actors themselves, the absurdity of this accusation
against Americus becomes evident. We arc told that he falsely
pretended to have visited Paria and Maracaibo in 1497, in
order to claim priority over Columbus in the discovery of 'the
continent.' What continent? When Vespucius wrote that letter
to Soderini, neither he nor anybody else suspected that what
we now call America had been discovered. The only continent of
which there could be any question, so far as supplanting
Columbus was concerned, was Asia. But in 1504 Columbus was
generally supposed to have discovered the continent of Asia,
by his new route, in 1492. ... It was M. Varnhagen who first
turned inquiry on this subject in the right direction. ...
Having taken a correct start by simply following the words of
Vespucius himself, from a primitive text, without reference to
any preconceived theories or traditions, M. Varnhagen finds"
that Americus in his first voyage made land on the northern
coast of Honduras; "that he sailed around Yucatan, and found
his aquatic village of communal houses, his little wooden
Venice, on the shore of Tabasco. Thence, after a fight with
the natives in which a few tawny prisoners were captured and
carried on board the caravels, Vespucius seems to have taken a
straight course to the Huasteca country by Tampico, without
touching at points in the region subject or tributary to the
Aztec confederacy. This Tampico country was what Vespucius
understood to be called Lariab. He again gives the latitude
definitely and correctly as 23° N., and he mentions a few
interesting circumstances. He saw the natives roasting a
dreadfully ugly animal," of which he gives what seems to be
"an excellent description of the iguana, the flesh of which is
to this day an important article of food in tropical America.
... After leaving this country of Lariab the ships kept still
to the northwest for a short distance, and then followed the
windings of the coast for 870 leagues. ... After traversing
the 870 leagues of crooked coast, the ships found themselves
'in the finest harbour in the world' [which M. Varnhagen
supposed, at first, to have been in Chesapeake Bay, but
afterwards reached conclusions pointing to the neighbourhood
of Cape Cañaveral, on the Florida coast]. It was in June,
1498, thirteen months since they had started from Spain. ...
They spent seven-and-thirty days in this unrivalled harbour,
preparing for the home voyage, and found the natives very
hospitable. These red men courted the aid of the white
strangers," in an attack which they wished to make upon a
fierce race of cannibals, who inhabited certain islands some
distance out to sea. The Spaniards agreed to the expedition,
and sailed late in August, taking seven of the friendly
Indians for guides. "After a week's voyage they fell in with
the islands, some peopled, others uninhabited, evidently the
Bermudas, 600 miles from Cape Hatteras as the crow flies. The
Spaniards landed on an island called Iti, and had a brisk
fight," resulting in the capture of more than 200 prisoners.
Seven of these were given to the Indian guides, who paddled
home with them. "'We also [wrote Vespucius] set sail for
Spain, with 222 prisoners, slaves; and arrived in the port of
Cadiz on the 15th day of October, 1498, where we were well
received and sold our slaves.' ... The obscurity in which this
voyage has so long been enveloped is due chiefly to the fact
that it was not followed up till many years had elapsed, and
the reason for this neglect impresses upon us forcibly the
impossibility of understanding the history of the Discovery of
America unless we bear in mind all the attendant
circumstances. One might at first suppose that a voyage which
revealed some 4,000 miles of the coast of North America would
have attracted much attention in Spain and have become
altogether too famous to be soon forgotten. Such an argument,
however, loses sight of the fact that these early voyagers
were not trying to 'discover America.' There was nothing to
astonish them in the existence of 4,000 miles of coast line on
this side of the Atlantic. To their minds it was simply the
coast of Asia, about which they knew nothing except from Marco
Polo, and the natural effect of such a voyage as this would be
simply to throw discredit upon that traveller."

_J. Fiske, The Discovery of America, chapter 7 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_C. E. Lester and A. Foster, Life and Voyages of Americus
Vespucius, part 1, chapter 7_.

_J. Winsor, Christopher Columbus, chapter 15._

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AMERICA: A. D. 1498.
Voyage and Discoveries of Sebastian Cabot.
The ground of English claims in the New World.

"The son of John Cabot, Sebastian, is not mentioned in this
patent [issued by Henry VII., February 3, 1498], as he had been in
that of 1496. Yet he alone profited by it. For the father is
not again mentioned in connection with the voyage. ...
Sebastian was now, if Humboldt's supposition is true that he
was born in 1477, a young man of about 20 or 21 years of age.
And as he had become proficient in astronomy and mathematics,
and had gained naval experience in the voyage he had made in
company with his father; and as he knew better than anyone
else his father's views, and also the position of the newly
discovered regions, he may now have well appeared to Henry as
a fit person for the command of another expedition to the
northwest. Two ships, manned with 300 mariners and volunteers,
were ready for him early in the spring of 1498; and he sailed
with them from Bristol, probably in the beginning of the month
of May. We have no certain information regarding his route.
But he appears to have directed his course again to the
country which he had seen the year before on the voyage with
his father, our present Labrador. He sailed along the coast of
this country so far north that, even in the month of July, he
encountered much ice. Observing at the same time, to his great
displeasure, that the coast was trending to the east, he resolved
to give up a further advance to the north, and returned in a
southern direction. At Newfoundland, he probably came to
anchor in some port, and refreshed his men, and refitted his
vessels after their Arctic hardships. ... He probably was the
first fisherman on the banks or shores of Newfoundland, which
through him became famous in Europe. Sailing from Newfoundland
southwest, he kept the coast in view as much as possible, on
his right side, 'always with the intent to find a passage and
open water to India.' ... After having rounded Cape Cod, he
must have felt fresh hope. He saw a coast running to the west,
and open water before him in that direction. It is therefore
nearly certain that he entered somewhat that broad gulf, in
the interior corner of which lies the harbor of New York. ...
From a statement contained in the work of Peter Martyr it
appears ... certain that Cabot landed on some places of the
coast along which he sailed. This author, relating a
conversation which he had with his friend Cabot, on the
subject of his voyage of 1498, says that Cabot told him 'he
had found on most of the places copper or brass among the
aborigines.' ... From another authority we learn that he
captured some of these aborigines and brought them to England,
where they lived and were seen a few years after his return by
the English chronicler, Robert Fabyan. It is not stated at
what place he captured those Indians; but it was not customary
with the navigators of that time to take on board the Indians
until near the time of their leaving the country. Cabot's
Indians, therefore, were probably captured on some shore south
of New York harbor. ... The southern terminus of his voyage is
pretty well ascertained. He himself informed his friend Peter
Martyr, that he went as far south as about the latitude of the
Strait of Gibraltar, that is to say, about 36° North latitude,
which is near that of Cape Hatteras. ... On their return from
their first voyage of 1497, the Cabots believed that they had
discovered portions of Asia and so proclaimed it. But the more
extensive discoveries of the second voyage corrected the views
of Sebastian, and revealed to him nothing but a wild and
barbarous coast, stretching through 30 degrees of latitude,
from 67½° to 36°. The discovery of this impassable barrier
across his passage to Cathay, as he often complained, was a
sore displeasure to him. Instead of the rich possessions of
China, which he hoped to reach, he was arrested by a New found
land, savage and uncultivated. A spirited German author, Dr.
G. M. Asher, in his life of Henry Hudson, published in London
in 1860, observes: 'The displeasure of Cabot involves the
scientific discovery of a new world. He was the first to
recognize that a new and unknown continent was lying, as one
vast barrier, between Western Europe and Eastern Asia.' ...
When Cabot made proposals in the following year, 1499, for
another expedition to the same regions, he was supported
neither by the king nor the merchants. For several years the
scheme for the discovery of a north-western route to Cathay
was not much favored in England. Nevertheless, the voyage of
this gifted and enterprising youth along the entire coast of
the present United States, nay along the whole extent of that
great continent, in which now the English race and language
prevail and flourish, has always been considered as the true
beginning, the foundation and cornerstone, of all the English
claims and possessions in the northern half of America."

_J. G. Kohl, History of the Discovery of Maine, chapter 4._

ALSO IN:
_R. Biddle, Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, chapter 1-10._

_J. F. Nicholls, Life of Sebastian Cabot, chapter 5._

AMERICA: A. D. 1498-1505.
The Third and Fourth Voyages of Columbus.

Discovery of Trinidad, the northern coast of S. America, the
shores of Central America and Panama.