Chapter VI

1496-1498.

The notable part which England took in searching for a navigable passage to Cathay, by exploring the sea toward the west, was incited by the success attending the explorations of Columbus in the New World. For it is said that when the news reached England that the Genoese seaman had discovered the coasts of India there was great talk in the court of King Henry VII., and that men declared with much admiration that it was more divine than human to sail toward the west to go to the East where spices grow[231]. The bold projector, who obtained for England the distinguished honor of being the second European power to enter the western hemisphere with her ships, was Giovanni Caboto (John Caboto), a Venetian[232], who had lived a number of years in London. With confessed confidence he explained to King Henry and his learned counsellors the grounds of his belief that the eastern coast of Asia could be reached by sailing in a direct westward course from England, and how this course would be a shorter way than the one taken by Columbus. He proposed to undertake the voyage at his own expense should the king grant him the necessary license.

These overtures of Caboto appear to have been made about the beginning of the year 1496. Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, the Spanish ambassador, residing in England, having learned what Caboto had proposed to King Henry, at once communicated the information to their majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Their royal highnesses, in a letter to their representative at the English court, dated at Tortosa, the twenty-eighth of March, 1496, thus refer to what he had written them:

“You say that a person like Colon has come there to place before the king of England another undertaking similar to that of the Indies, without prejudice to Spain or Portugal. If in this way he helps him, he will be as free to go to the Indies as we were. We believe that this undertaking is thrown in the way of the king of England by the king of France in order to withdraw him from his other affairs. See that the king of England be not deceived in this or in a similar matter. The French will endeavor as best they can to lead him into such enterprises, inasmuch as they are very uncertain, and are not easily prosecuted. Likewise see that those ...[233] he is not able to undertake this thing without prejudice to us and the king of Portugal.”[234]

On the fifth of March, 1496, King Henry VII. complied with Caboto’s request as set forth in the following petition:

“To the kyng our souvereigne lord

“Please it your highnes of your moste noble and haboundant grace to graunt unto John Cabotto, citezen of Venes, Lewes, Sebestyan and Sancto his sonneys your gracious lettres patentes under your grete seale in due forme to be made according to the tenour hereafter ensuyng. And they shall during their lyves pray to god for the prosperous continuance of your moste noble and royale astate long to enduer.”[235]

The letters-patent granted to Giovanni Caboto and his sons, Lodovico, Sebastiano, and Sanctus, to his and their heirs and deputies, commissioned them to sail, with five ships of any burden, under the banners, flags, and ensigns of England, to all parts, regions and gulfs of the eastern, the western, and the northern seas, in order to seek, discover, and explore whatever islands, countries, regions, or provinces of the heathen and of the infidels, in whatever part of the world they were situate, which were then unknown to all Christians. As set forth in the document, the cost and expense of the expedition were to be defrayed by Caboto and his sons.[236]

With this commission Giovanni Caboto set sail from the port of Bristol, in the spring of 1497, with two ships, one of which was named the Matthew.[237] Sailing westward from England he reached a land which he believed to be that of Cathay, where he planted the flag of England and that of Venice. Having explored the coast of the country for three hundred leagues, he returned to England, where the news of his discoveries was enthusiastically received by the interested people.

A brief description of this voyage is contained in a a letter written by Lorenzo Pasqualigo, in London, on the twenty-third of August, 1497, to his brothers, Alvise and Francesco, residing in Venice:

“The Venetian, our countryman, who went with a ship from Bristol to search for a new island, is returned, and says that seven hundred leagues from here he discovered firm land (_Terra ferma_), the territory of the Grand Khan. He coasted for three hundred leagues and landed; saw no human beings, but he has brought here to the king certain snares which had been set to catch game, and a needle for making nets; he also found some felled trees, by which he judged there were inhabitants. He returned to his ship in doubt, and he was three months on the voyage, and on his return saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time being precious, as he was short of provisions. This has greatly pleased the king. He [Caboto] says that the tides are slack there and do not flow as they do here.

“The king has promised him, in the spring, ten ships, armed to his order, and at his request has conceded him all the prisoners, except those confined for high treason, to man his fleet. The king has also given him money with which he may amuse himself until that time, and he is now in Bristol with his sons and his wife, who is also a Venetian.[238] His name is Juam Talbot and he is called the great admiral. Great honor is paid him; he dresses in silk, and these English run after him like insane people, so that he can enlist as many of them as he pleases, and a number of our own rogues besides.

“The discoverer of these places planted on this newly found land a large cross, with one flag of England and another of Saint Mark, on account of his being a Venetian, so that our banner has floated very far afield.”[239]

Raimondo di Soncino, the minister of the duke of Milan, at the court of England, in a letter, written on the twenty-fourth of August, 1497, also speaks of the return of Caboto, saying that he “found two very large and fertile islands, having likewise discovered the Seven Cities, four hundred leagues from England, on the western passage. This next spring his majesty intends to send him with fifteen or twenty ships.”[240]

The discovery of the two islands mentioned by Soncino is spoken of in two inscriptions placed on a large map of the world, preserved in the National library in Paris. The Spanish inscription reads: “This land was discovered by Ioan Caboto, a Venetian, and by Sebastian Caboto, his son, in the year of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, M.CCCC. xciiii [M.CCCC. xcvii?], on the twenty-fourth of June, in the morning, to which they gave the name, Prima tierra vista (First land seen), and to a large island, which is by the said land, they gave the name of Sant Joan (Saint John), because it was discovered the same day.”[241]

The map, on the margin of which this inscription appears, seems to be a copy of one made by Sebastiano Caboto, in 1544, if the following statement of another Spanish inscription placed on the chart be true: “Sebastian Caboto, captain and chief pilot of his sacred christian catholic majesty, the emperor, Charles V. of that name, and king, our sovereign, made this large planisphere, in the year of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, 1544, drawn with degrees of latitude and longitude, and with winds like a marine chart, copying in part the maps of Ptolemy, and in part those of the modern discoverers, Spaniards as well as Portuguese, and in part those made by his father and by him.”[242]

As will be seen on the map, the inscription _Prima tierra uista_ is placed opposite the tract of land on the forty-eighth parallel of north latitude, now known as Cape Breton Island. Evidently to obviate a misconception respecting the situation of the land first described, the words _prima uista_ (first seen) are inscribed on the peninsula to which the former inscription directs the eye. On this map also is seen a large island, lying northwest of the land of Prima Vista, bearing the name, Yᵃ de S. Juan (Island of St. John).

In a letter written in London, on the eighteenth of December, 1497, by Raimondo di Soncino to the duke of Milan, a very interesting account is given of Caboto’s explorations in the western hemisphere: “Perhaps, your excellency in the press of so much business will not be disturbed to learn that his majesty [King Henry VII.] has gained a part of Asia without a stroke of the sword. In this kingdom is a popular Venetian called Messer Joanne Caboto, a man of considerable ability, most skillful in navigation, who having seen the most serene kings, first him of Portugal, then him of Spain, that they had occupied unknown islands, thought to make a similar acquisition for his majesty [the king of England]. And having obtained the royal privileges which gave him the use of the land found by him, provided the right of possession was reserved to the crown, he departed in a little ship, from the port of Bristol, in the western part of this kingdom, with eighteen persons who placed their fortunes with him. Passing Ibernia [Ireland] more to the west and then ascending toward the north, he began to navigate the eastern part of the ocean. Leaving (for some days) the north to the right hand, and having wandered enough he came at last to firm land (_terra ferma_) where he planted the royal banner, took possession for his highness, made certain marks and returned.

“The said Messer Joanne, as he is a foreigner and poor, would not be believed, if his partners, who are all Englishmen and from Bristol, did not testify to the truth of what he tells. This Messer Joanne has the representation of the world on a map (_in una carta_), and also on a globe (_in una sphera solida_), which he has made, and he shows by them where he arrived, and going toward the East, has passed much of the country of Tanais.

“And they say that the land is fertile and temperate, and think that red-wood (_el brasilio_) grows there, and the silks, and they affirm that there the sea is full of fish that can be taken not only with nets, but with fishing-baskets, a stone being placed in the basket to sink it in the water, and this, I have said, is told by the said Messer Joanne.

“And the said Englishmen, his partners, say that that they can bring so many fish that this kingdom will have no more business with Islanda (Iceland), and that from that country there will be a very great trade in the fish which they call stock-fish (_stochfissi_). But Messer Joanne has his thoughts directed to a greater undertaking, for he thinks of going, after this place is occupied, along the coast farther toward the East until he is opposite the island called Cipango, situate in the equinoctial region, where he believes all the spices of the world grow, and where there are also gems. And he says that he was once at Mecca, where from remote countries spices are carried by caravans, and that those carrying them being asked where those spices grew, said they did not know, but that they came with other merchandise from remote countries to their home by other caravans, and that the same information was repeated by those who brought the spices in turn to them. And he argues that if the oriental people tell to those of the south that these things are brought from places remote from them, and thus from hand to hand, presupposing the rotundity of the earth, it follows that the last carry to the northern, toward the west. And he tells this in a way that makes it quite plain to me and I believe it. And what is a greater thing, his majesty, who is learned and not prodigal, places confidence in what he says, and since his return, provides well for him, as this Messer Joanne tells me.

“And in the spring he says that his majesty will arm some ships and will give him all the criminals so that he may go to this country and plant a colony there. And in this way he hopes to make London a greater place for spices than Alexandria. And the principals of the business are citizens of Bristol, great mariners that now know where to go. They say that the voyage will not take more than fifteen days, if fortune favors them after leaving Ibernia. I have talked with a Burgundian, a companion of Messer Joanne, who affirms the same, and who is willing to go, since the admiral (_almirante_), as Messer Joanne is already styled, has given him an island, and has also given another to his barber, a Genoese, and they regard the two as counts, and my lord, the admiral, the chief. And I believe that some poor Italian friars will go on the voyage, who have the promise of being bishops. And I, being a friend of the admiral, if I wished to go, could have an archbishopric.”[243]

In order to secure the king’s permission to go on the proposed voyage, Giovanni Caboto again addressed a petition to King Henry VII., requesting his majesty to grant him letters-patent to fit out six ships, in any of the ports of England, and “theym convey and lede to the Londe [land] and Isles of late founde” by him. The request was granted, and the king, on the third day of February, 1498, in the thirteenth year of his reign,[244] licensed him to take six ships as he desired, and “all suche maisters,[245] maryners, pages, and subjects” as would willingly “goo and pass with hym in the same shippes to the seid Londe or Iles.”[246]

Having obtained his letters-patent, Giovanni Caboto, in a short time, had five ships manned and provisioned for one year. Early in the summer of 1498 he set sail to return to the field of his first explorations. Pedro de Ayala,[247] in a letter dated London, July 25, 1498, addressed to their Spanish majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, writes as follows concerning Caboto’s second voyage: “I think your highnesses have already heard that the king of England has equipped a fleet in order to discover certain islands and firm land (_tierra firme_), which they have told were discovered by certain persons of Bristol, who fitted out some ships during the past year for the same purpose. I have seen the map which the discoverer has made, who is another Genoese like Colon, and who has been in Seville and in Lisbon soliciting aid for this undertaking. The people of Bristol have, for the last seven years, sent every year two, three, or four caravels to search for the island of Brazil [Red-wood], and the Seven Cities, according to the fancy of this Genoese. The king determined to send the fleet, because in the past year they brought certain news of having found land. The fleet consists of five ships that carried provision for one year. The news has come that the vessel in which Friar Buil[248] went has returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being leaky. The Genoese has continued his voyage. I have seen the course he steered and the extent of it, and I think that what they have found or what they are in search of, is what your highnesses already possess, for it is the cape which was given to your highnesses by the convention with Portugal. It is expected that they will return toward September. I write this because the king of England has spoken to me on the subject, and he thinks that your highnesses will be greatly interested in it. I think the land is not farther distant than four hundred leagues. I told him that in my opinion the land was already in the possession of your highnesses, and though I gave my reasons he did not like them. I believe that your highnesses are already informed of this matter, and I do not now send the chart or map of the world which that man has made, for in my opinion it is false, since it makes it appear as if the land in question were not the said islands.”[249]

The history of Giovanni Caboto terminates with the information contained in Pedro de Ayala’s letter. Nothing definite is known respecting his death.

From the ambiguous and contradictory information furnished by contemporaneous writers concerning the voyages of Sebastiano Caboto, it appears that he sailed to the New Land, either in the years 1497 and 1498, with his father—or in 1499, in command of a fleet of vessels fitted out in the port of Bristol, England. For it is said that, in the fourteenth year of King Henry’s reign,[250] Sebastiano Caboto set sail on a voyage to an island where he knew he could obtain many things of value: “This year one Sebastian Gabato a genoas sonne borne in _Bristow_ professing himselfe to be experte in knowledge of the circute of the worlde and Ilandes of the same as by his Charts and other reasonable demonstrations he shewed, caused the king to man and victual a shippe at _Bristow_ to search for an Ilande whiche he knewe to be replenished with rich commodities: in the ship diverse merchauntes of _London_ adventured smal stockes, and in the company of this shippe, sayled out of _Bristow_ three or foure smal shippes fraught with slight and grosse wares as course cloth, caps, laces, points.”[251]

Peter Martyr, speaking of the voyage, says: “He fitted out two ships in England at his own expense, and with three hundred men steered toward the north, until, in July, he found vast icebergs floating in the sea and almost perpetual daylight, though on the land the snow and ice had melted. Therefore he was compelled to turn the sails, as he says, and to go toward the west, and yet he held to the south, the shore bending, that he almost reached the degree of the latitude of the strait of Hercules, and proceeded so far to the west that he may have had the island of Cuba on his left hand, being almost to its degree of longitude.[252] Steering along this coast, which he called Bacallaos, he found, as he says, the currents of the sea running toward the west, but gently, as those found by the Spaniards navigating in the southern waters. It is not only likely to be true, but it may be accepted as a fact, that between these regions [Bacallaos and the West Indies] there is a great space still unexplored that offers a way [to the East], where the water flows from east to west. These currents, I think, are made to flow round the earth by the impulsion of the heavens, and are not thrown up and swallowed again by Demorgorgon breathing.[253] Perhaps, they may be caused, as it is said, by influx and reflux.

“Cabotto himself called these regions Baccallaos (_Baccallaos Cabottus ipse terras illas appellavit_), because in the sea there he found great shoals of certain large fish resembling tunnies, which name was given them by the natives.[254] These fish were so numerous that sometimes they retarded the progress of his ships. He found the people of these regions covered only with skins, but the natives were not wholly destitute of reason. He also relates that in these regions there is a great number of bears which eat fish. They plunge into the water where they see a shoal of fish and fasten their claws between the scales of the fish, and in this way convey them to the shore, where they devour them. The hunger of the bears being appeased, they do not annoy men. He declares further that in many places he saw copper (_orichalcum_) among the natives.”[255]

Gomara, the Spanish historian, says: “But he who made this land more widely known was Sebastian Gaboto, a Venetian.[256] He equipped two ships in England (he having been taken there when he was little), (_do tratava desde pequeño_,) at the cost of King Henry VII., who desired the trade in spices the same as the king of Portugal. Others say at his own expense, and that he promised King Henry to go by the north to Cathay, and to bring spices there in less time than the Portuguese from the south. He also went to see if there was any land in the Indies on which a colony might be settled. He took three hundred men and steered a course by the way of Iceland, above the cape of Labrador, going as far as fifty-eight degrees, though he says much farther, stating that in the month of July it was so extremely cold and that there were so many icebergs floating in the sea, that he did not dare to go farther.... So Caboto, having inspected the cold and strange country, changed his course to the west, and returning again to the Baccalaos (_los Baccalaos_), he followed the coast as far as thirty-eight degrees, and then returned to England.”[257]

Galvano, the Portuguese historian, says that when Sebastiano Caboto returned from the north, he diminished “the altitude till he came to thirty-eight degrees, and from there returned to England. Others will have it that he went as far as the point of Florida, which is in twenty-five degrees.”[258]

In the discourse of Sir Humphrey Gilbert respecting “a new passage to Cataia,” it is said: “Furthermore, Sebastian Cabota by his personall experience, and trauell, hath set foorth, and described this passage, in his Charts, whiche are yet to be seene in the Queenes Maiesties priuie Gallerie, at Whitehall, who was sent to make this discoverie by King Henrie the seauenth, and entered the same fret: affirming, that he sailed very far westward, with a quater of the North, on the north side of Terra de Labrador[259] the eleuenth of June, vntil he came to the septentrional latitude of 67½ degrees and finding the seas still open said that he might, and would have gone to Cataia, if the mutinie of the Maister and Mariners had not ben.”[260]

It is further related that in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Henry VII.,[261] three Indians were brought to England from the islands discovered by Sebastiano Caboto: “Thys yeare, were brought vnto the Kyng three men taken in the new founde Ilands, by Sebastian Gabato, before named in Anno 1468, these men were clothed in Beastes skinnes, and eate raw Flesh, but spake such a language as no man could vnderstand them, of the which three men, two of them were seene in the Kings Court at Westminster two yeares after, clothed, like Englishmen, and could not bee discerned from Englishmen.”[262]

The field of the discoveries of Giovanni Caboto, represented on the map made by Juan de la Cosa, in 1500, and on the one of 1544, in the National library, in Paris, was apparently the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton Island[263] and of Nova Scotia. The part of the peninsula designated Prima Vista, (First Seen,) on the map of 1544, appears to be the same as that which on La Cosa’s chart is denominated Cavo de Inglaterra (Cape of England). The coast, from Cape Breton southwestward to the Bay of Fundy, the sea discovered for the English (_mar descubierta por inglese_),[264] is delineated by La Cosa with approximate accuracy.

The information given by Peter Martyr, Gomara, and Galvano respecting the voyage of Sebastiano Caboto, makes the fact evident that the latter sailed northwestwardly along the coast of Labrador almost to the sixtieth parallel, where he was so far to the west “that he had the island of Cuba on his left hand” and had nearly reached the longitude of the island. On his return, after running along the coast of Baccallaos, he sailed southward, but too far east of the mainland to see its coast, and reached the latitude of the thirty-eighth parallel; whence he steered for England. If Sebastiano Caboto had explored any part of the present coast of the United States he certainly would have imparted some information respecting its physical features, its inhabitants, its flora and fauna, to the inquisitive chroniclers of his age. The descriptions of the regions explored by him only apply to the more northern parts of the continent, represented on the map of 1544, to which territory was given the name La Tierra de los Bacallaos (Land of Codfish).[265] On the planisphere of 1544, the following statement is inscribed concerning the country discovered by Sebastiano Caboto. “The people wear clothes made of the skins of animals, use bows and arrows, lances, darts, knob-headed clubs, and slings in their wars. The country is very sterile. In it are many white bears, and deer as large as horses, and many other animals of the same class; also immense numbers of fish such as soles, salmon, very large lings, a yard in length, and many other kinds of fish, but the most numerous are those called bacallaos. In this country there are falcons as black as ravens, eagles, partridges, linnets, and many other birds of different kinds.”[266]

“This much concerning Sebastiano Gabotes discouerie may suffice for a present cast,” says Hakluyt, “but shortly, God willing, shall come out in print all his owne mappes and discourses, drawne and written by himselfe, which are in the custodie of the worshipfull master Williā Worthington, one of her Maiesties Pensioners who (because so worthie monumentes shoulde not be buried in perpetuall obliuion) is very willing to suffer them to be ouerseene and published in as good order as may bee, to the encouragement and benefite of our Countriemen.”[267] The English collector also remarks that “the map of Sebastiano Caboto cut by Clement Adams, concerning the discovery of the the West Indies, ... [is] to be seene in her Maiesties priuie gallerie at Westminster, and in many other anchient merchants houses.”[268]

Although three hundred years have passed since Hakluyt promised the early publication of Sebastiano Caboto’s maps and discourses, they are still covered with the pall of oblivion.[269]