and dated Aug. 23, 1497.]
THIS Venetian of ours, who went with a ship from Bristol in quest of new islands, is returned, and says that seven hundred leagues hence he discovered “terra firma,”63 which is the territory of the Grand Cham.64 He coasted for three hundred leagues, and landed. He saw no human being whatsoever; but he has brought hither to the king certain snares which had been set to catch game, and a needle for making nets; he also found some felled trees: wherefore he supposed there were inhabitants, and returned to his ship in alarm.
He was three months on the voyage, it is quite certain; and, coming back, he saw two islands to starboard, but would not land, time being precious, as he was short of provisions. The king is much pleased with this intelligence. He says that the tides are slack, and do not flow as they do here.
The king has promised, that, in the spring, he shall have ten ships armed according to his own fancy; and, at his request, he has conceded to him all the prisoners, except such as are confined for high treason, to man them with. He has also given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then; and he is now at Bristol with his wife, who is a Venetian woman, and with his sons. His name is Zuan65 Cabot; and they call him the great admiral. Vast honor is paid him, and he dresses in silk; and these English run after him like mad 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 his new-found land a large cross, with one flag of England, and another of St. Mark, by reason of his being a Venetian; so that our banner has floated very far afield.
II.—Sebastian Cabot’s Voyage.
[The following notes, preserved in “Hakluyt’s Voyages,” give the earliest authentic information about Sebastian Cabot.]
A note of Sebastian Cabot’s Voyage of Discovery, taken out of an old Chronicle written by Robert Fabian, sometime Alderman of London, which is in the custody of John Stowe, Citizen, a diligent searcher and preserver of Antiquities.
This year66 the King67—by means of a Venetian which made himself very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world and islands of the same, as by a card and other demonstrations reasonable he showed—caused to man and victual a ship at Bristol, to search for an island which he said he knew well was rich and replenished with rich commodities. Which ship thus manned and victualled at the King’s cost, divers merchants of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her as chief patron, the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship sailed also out of Bristol three or four small ships fraught with slight and gross merchandises, as coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles, and so departed from Bristol in the beginning of May: of whom in this Mayor’s time returned no tidings.
Of three savage men which he brought home, and presented unto the King in the seventeenth year of his reign.
This year also were brought unto the King three men taken in the new found island, that before I spake of in William Purchas’ time, being Mayor. These were clothed in beast’s skins, and ate raw flesh, and spake such speech that no man could understand them, and in their demeanor like to brute beasts, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which upon two years past after, I saw two apparelled after the manner of Englishmen, in Westminster Palace, which at that time I could not discern from Englishmen, till I was learned what they were. But as for speech, I heard none of them utter one word.
John Baptista Ramusius, in his Preface to the third volume of the Navigations, writeth thus of Sebastian Gabot:68—
In the latter part of this volume are put certain relations of John De Verarzana,69 a Florentine, and of a great captain, a Frenchman, and the two voyages of Jaques Cartier, a Briton,70 who sailed into the land set in fifty degrees of latitude to the north, which is called New France: and the which lands hitherto it is not thoroughly known whether they do join with the firm land of Florida and Nova Hispania, or whether they be separated and divided all by the Sea as Islands: and whether by that way one may go by sea into the country of Cathaio:71 as many years past it was written unto me by Sebastian Gabot, our countryman Venetian, a man of great experience, and very rare in the art of Navigation and the knowledge of Cosmography: who sailed along and beyond this land of New France, at the charges of King Henry the seventh, King of England. And he told me that having sailed a long time West and by North beyond these islands unto the latitude of sixty-seven degrees and a half under the North Pole, and at the 11 day of June, finding still the open sea without any manner of impediment, he thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaio, which is in the East and would have done it, if the mutiny of the shipmaster and mariners had not rebelled, and made him to return homewards from that place. But it seemeth that God doth yet reserve this great enterprise for some great Prince to discover this voyage of Cathaio by this way: which for the bringing of the spiceries from India into Europe were the most easy and shortest of all other ways hitherto found out. And, surely, this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most importance of all other, that can be imagined, to make his name great, and fame immortal, to all ages to come, far more than can be done by any of all these great troubles and wars, which daily are used in Europe among the miserable Christian people.
This much concerning Sebastian Gabot’s discovery may suffice for a present cast: but shortly, God willing, shall come out in print, all his own maps and discourses, drawn and written by himself, which are in the custody of the worshipful master William Worthington, one of her Majesty’s Pensioners, who—because so worthy monuments should not be buried in perpetual oblivion—is very willing to suffer them to be overseen and published in as good order as may be, to the encouragement and benefit of our countrymen.72
III.—Verrazzano’s Letter to the King.
[This letter is said to have been written at Dieppe, July 8, 1524, being addressed to King Francis I. of France.
This narrative, if authentic, is the earliest original account of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Its authenticity has been doubted; and Mr. Bancroft, in the new edition of his History, does not refer to it at all. But, as the question is still unsettled, the letter is included here.]
VERRAZZANO.
VERRAZZANO.
I wrote not to your Majesty (most Christian king), since the time we suffered the tempest in the north parts, of the success of the four ships which your Majesty sent forth to discover new lands by the ocean, thinking your Majesty had been already duly informed thereof. Now by these presents I will give your Majesty to understand how, by the violence of the winds, we were forced with the two ships, the “Norman” and the “Dolphin,” in such evil case as they were, to land in Brittany. Where after we had repaired them in all points as was needful, and armed them very well, we took our course along by the coast of Spain. Afterwards, with the “Dolphin” alone, we determined to make discovery of new countries, to prosecute the navigation we had already begun; which I purpose at this present to recount unto your Majesty, to make manifest the whole proceeding of the matter. The 17th of January, the year 1524, by the grace of God we departed from the dishabited rock,73 by the Isle of Madeira, appertaining to the King of Portugal, with fifty men, with victuals, weapon, and other ship munition very well provided
