I was twenty-eight years old when I came into your Highnesses’ service, and now I have not a hair upon me that is not gray: my body is infirm, and all that was left to me, as well as to my brothers, has been taken away and sold, even to the frock that I wore, to my great dishonor. I cannot but believe that this was done without your royal permission. The restitution of my honor, the reparation of my losses, and the punishment of those who have inflicted them, will redound to the honor of your royal character. A similar punishment also is due to those who have plundered me of my pearls, and who have brought a disparagement upon the privileges of my admiralty. Great and unexampled will be the glory and fame of your Highnesses, if you do this; and the memory of your Highnesses, as just and grateful sovereigns, will survive as a bright example to Spain in future ages. The honest devotedness I have always shown to your Majesties’ service, and the so unmerited outrage with which it has been repaid, will not allow my soul to keep silence, however much I may wish it. I implore your Highnesses to forgive my complaints. I am indeed in as ruined a condition as I have related. Hitherto I have wept over others: may Heaven now have mercy upon me, and may the earth weep for me!
BOOK III.
CABOT AND VERRAZZANO.
(A.D. 1497–1524.)
SHIP OF THE 15TH CENTURY.
The first of these extracts in regard to the Cabots may be found in one of the Hakluyt Society’s volumes, entitled “Henry Hudson the Navigator, edited by G. M. Asher,” London, 1860, p. lxix.
The extracts which follow are from another volume of the same series, entitled “Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages,” London, 1850, pp. 23–26.
Verrazzano’s narrative is taken from “Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages,” same edition, pp. 55–71. Another translation, by J. G. Cogswell, may be found, with the original Italian narrative, in the Collections of the New York Historical Society, second series, vol. 1.
CABOT AND VERRAZZANO.
I.—First News of John and Sebastian Cabot.
[From a letter written by Lorenzo Pasqualigo, from London, to his brothers in Venice, 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