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Nevertheless, Hakluyt, Purchas, nay, nearly all the sub-
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sequent authors down to the modern biographer of Cabot, Mr. Biddle, give credence to the statement of Eden, and have constructed upon his short and incidental remark a grand maritime undertaking, which they allege to have been exe- cuted by Cabot, though they greatly differ with respect to the region supposed to be visited.
Hakluyt connects the statement of Eden with an English voyage to the south,-the West India Islands and toward Brazil, *- mentioned by Herrera and Oviedo.
Herrera, under the date of 1519, relates that an English vessel appeared suddenly off Porto Rico, where her com- mander communicated with the Spaniards, and spoke to them about the route and object of his voyage.t
Oviedo, on the contrary, places this event off Porto Rico, in the year 1527 .;
Ramusio has given a translation of Oviedo, in which he erroneously puts the date of that event in 1517 instead of 1527, as it is given in all the original Spanish editions of Oviedo.
Hakluyt did not know of the statement of Herrera, and consulted only the translation of Ramusio, in which the date is erroneously given. Finding there 1517 mentioned as the year in which " the English ship was said to have appeared off Porto Rico," and finding at the same time the above report of Eden about an expedition furnished by Henry VIII, Hakluyt thought that both expeditions were the same ; and so he adopts and enters in his great work, "A voyage of Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot, about the eighth year of King Henry VIII, to Brazil, St. Domingo, and San Juan de Porto Rico."
* See Hakluyt, vol. 3, p. 301. Ed. London, 1800.
t See Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 5, cap. 3.
t Oviedo, Hist. General, lib. 19, cap. 13.
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That this construction was founded on erroneous premises has been clearly shown by Mr. Biddle in chapter 14th of his Memoir, entitled, " Hakluyt's error with regard to the voyage of 1517."* He proves there that Herrera, in his date of 1519, and Ramusio, in the date of 1517, were mistaken ; and that the date of Oviedo of 1527 is the true one, and should be adopted ; and that, consequently, the appearance of an English vessel off Porto Rico in 1527 can have no connec- tion with an English expedition said to have sailed in 1517.
Mr. Biddle proves further, that the report of the Spanish authors on the said English vessel, must be connected with a subsequent English expedition made in the year 1527, of which he speaks afterwards.
In destroying the theory of such an expedition of Cabot to Porto Rico and Brazil in 1517, adopted by many au- thors after Hakluyt, Mr. Biddle builds up his own theory of the voyage of 1517 mentioned by Eden, which has been adopted by many distinguished authors after him, as Hum- boldt, Tytler, and Asher. He thinks it certain, that an expe- dition in the year 1517 was made from England, and also that it was commanded by Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot. But he is convinced that it went to the north-west ; and he adopts the opinion, that it was in this expedition that Sebas- tian Cabot reached the latitude of 673º N., and explored Hudson's Bay, and not in the expedition of 1498. To render this theory plausible, he constructs, in a most ingenious and inventive manner, a chain of hypotheses, which appear to me to have but slender support.
And first, it seems to me that Eden does not distinctly state that an expedition actually sailed from England. He says, that Henry VIII. "furnished and set forth certain shippes ;" and then adds, "that this voyage took none effect,"
* See Biddle, Memoir, p. 110.
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from the faint-heartedness of one of the originators of the voyage, Sir Thomas Pert. Mr. Biddle, thinking that the expedition sailed, gives to the words, "the voyage took none effect," the interpretation, that the object and aim of the voyage were not reached, because Sir Thomas Pert, in the decisive moment, showed a want of courage to go further with Cabot. But it appears to me, that the words " the voyage took none effect," might also signify, that the whole expedition failed from the beginning, and that it did not sail at all. Sir Thomas Pert may have shown " a faint heart" in the outset. Being a Vice-admiral, he was perhaps a wealthy man, and may at the beginning have favored the enterprise with his influence and money ; but despaired at the eleventh hour of its success, and refused it his assistance.
But if we suppose that the expedition actually sailed, and that it reached the coast of America, the next question is, whether it is likely that Sebastian Cabot was one of the commanders. The dedication of Eden to the translation of Sebastian Munster's work appears so to state. But we will for the moment put this statement aside, and proceed to show the difficulties which we have to encounter, in order to bring Sebastian Cabot to England at the right time in the beginning of 1517.
That Cabot, in the year 1515, was still in Spain, and that he was in a very comfortable position there, we learn from Herrera and Peter Martyr. The first tells us, that Ferdi- nand gave him, in the said year, the title and salary of captain and cosmographer .* And the second relates, that he (Peter Martyr) had been sitting with Cabot as a member in the Council of the Indies, that Cabot was his good friend, and that he saw him often at his house. And further he says, that
* " Mando asentar salario-de Capitan y Cosmografo a Sebastian Gaboto." Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 1, cap. 12.
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Cabot intended to try for Spain, what we now call a north- west passage ; that Spanish vessels were fitting out for him ; and that he probably would sail in the month of March, 1516, in the service of the king of Spain .*
Mr. Biddle admits this, and calls the position of Cabot in Spain a " dignified and important station."} We cannot, therefore, conceive why, occupying this distinguished position, he should have suddenly left Spain. No Spanish author tells us, that Cabot at this time, or shortly after, had left Spain. Peter Martyr, who so often speaks of him, gives no sup- port to this supposed voyage of Cabot. Nor does Herrera ; although in his great work he follows him in all his changes and enterprises, even furnishing the details of the correspondence which the king of Spain had with England, and especially with Lord Willoughby, in 1512, to induce Cabot to enter his service ; and relating all the advantages and emoluments heaped upon him successively by the kings of Spain ; as, for example, in 1512, his invitation from England, his title of cap- tain, great salary, and residence at Seville ; in 1515, his title and salary of captain and cosmographer, and membership in the Council of the Indies,-favors conferred by Ferdinand ; in 1516, the fitting out of ships for him ; in 1518, title, salary, and station of pilot major (chief of the hydrographic bu- reau),-granted by Charles V.
As no Spanish author speaks of his leaving Spain in the year 1516 or 1517, so neither does any English author inform us of his arriving in England, and entering the service of Henry VIII.
Mr. Biddle thinks that Cabot quietly remained in Spain until after the death of Ferdinand, which occurred on the 23d of January, 1516 ; and suggests that on the death of the
* Peter Martyr, De rebus Oceanicis, Dec. III, lib. 6. t,Biddle, 1. c. p. 100.
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king, Cabot, being a foreigner and comparatively a stranger, may have been viewed with dislike and jealousy by the Span- iards, and subjected to harsh treatment, which Ferdinand did not permit during his life.
After the death of Ferdinand and before Charles, the new king, arrived, there was an interregnum, and much mis- government in Spain. It was certainly not a flourishing time for the "Spanish natives." On the contrary it is well known, that the native Spaniards were much oppressed during this period by the Belgians, and other foreign favorites of the new king, who resorted in great numbers to the king- dom. The native interest was not in the ascendant after Ferdinand's death. We hear at this time only the complaints of the native Spaniards, and of some of them leaving their country in disgust for the West Indies .*
But even if, during that interregnum, some foreigners may have left, Cabot would certainly have been one of the last. He has been described by every biographer, and also by his contemporaries, as a man of gentle and modest manners. He must have had many friends even among native Spaniards, and was useful to them by his knowledge and experience, and had no doubt a, great and influential party in the Council of the Indies. None could expel him from this Council except for misdemeanor, of which Cabot was never accused, even by the bishop Fonseca; upon whom foreign authors have heaped reproaches without reason, and whom Mr. Biddle calls an "intriguer of infamous notoriety ; "; thus leading us to infer that he may have been the cause of Cabot's re- turn to England.
Cabot's friend, Peter Martyr, was also a foreigner ; but we never find him complaining of "Spanish jealousy of foreign-
* See Robertson's Charles V, for the year 1516.
t Biddle, I. c. p. 102.
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ers." On the contrary, at the very time when Cabot is sup- posed to have left Spain, in the autumn of 1516, Peter Martyr wrote a very submissive and respectful letter to Charles, in which he dedicated to him his first three decades .* He was, though a foreigner and of Italian extraction like Cabot, all the time quietly taking his seat in the Council of the Indies.
Cabot, with whom Peter Martyr sympathized in so many respects, shared probably his sentiments toward the new prince ; and probably, like Peter Martyr, so far from looking forward with despair to the expected and often announced arrival of Charles in Spain, was full of hope for promotion from this young and enterprising sovereign. That he rightly cherished such hopes, was proved soon after the arrival of Charles in 1518, by the promotion of Cabot. It appears therefore very improbable, that he should have left the country just at the time when so many in Spain were looking to this rising sun. He might well expect that he should find employment under the new king; and in this he was not disappointed.
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Mr. Biddle suggests, that the particular occasion for Cabot's " feeling slighted" and leaving Spain, was the preferment of the cosmographer, Andres de St. Martin, to the place of pilot major. Charles, in a letter dated Brussels the 18th of November, 1516, had commanded the bishop Fonseca, to "inquire into the capacity and fitness of the said Andres de St. Martin for the place of pilot major, which the said person had claimed." Mr. Biddle says that Cabot, feeling himself slighted by this proceeding, returned to England.
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*
It would have been a hasty action on his part, to leave his dignified station because his sovereign took the liberty to
* See this dedicatory letter in Peter Martyr's "De rebus Oceanicis," at ; the beginning.
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"inquire" whether a certain other person was fit for the place of pilot major. It would appear less so, if we were sure that Cabot at that time had applied for the station, and also that it was really conferred on Andres de St. Martin, who was himself a foreigner, from France. But both these points are very uncertain. Herrera says, that Andres de St. Martin, a few years after this, went out with Magellan as one of his pilots .* It is very improbable that a man, who held the office of pilot major in Spain, would leave that place and go out in a position so inferior. From the circumstance that Cabot really obtained the office of pilot major in 1518, it is probable, that the application of St. Martin in 1516 was rejected ; and that from the beginning, the place was kept open for Cabot .;
Is it therefore probable, that Cabot should have " felt slighted" and left the country, when he had the best hopes of obtaining the desired position ?
But if he actually left Spain-and Mr. Biddle agrees in this opinion-he could not have departed until the king's letter, dated Brussels, the 18th Nov., 1516, which is. sup- posed to have annoyed him so much, had become known in Spain. We must allow some weeks for the reception of the letter after its date ; and several more for the contents to have reached Cabot, before he relinquished his office. To those who know the tedious and protracted forms which delay the settlement of official accounts in Spain, this time will not seem unreasonable for closing his affairs and transferring him- self to England. We cannot, therefore, suppose that he could have arrived in England before the end of the year 1516.
* Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 4, cap. 9.
t Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 3, pp. 120, 121, where he enumerates all the pilot majors of Spain until Cabot leaves the place open from 1516-1518.
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We can find no satisfactory reason why Cabot should have left a comfortable and dignified position in Spain, from which nobody intended to remove him, and in which he had a hopeful prospect of favor from the youthful sovereign, to go to England at that time. For we are expressly informed, that in 1512, "no account was made of him" in that country ; and that the authorities had permitted him without regret, to enter the service of the king of Spain, considering it "a thing of little moment" to retain him .*
After his voyages of 1497 and 1498, Cabot had "received little encouragement from Henry VII; and Henry VIII. dismissed him in 1512 to Spain, as being of " no account." We cannot therefore believe, in the absence of all authentic information, that this king had changed his mind, and had invited him, in 1516, to return to England. Cabot himself, in his famous conversation with a distinguished gentleman, ' intimates no such thing. He only says, that finding, after his first voyages under Henry VII, no further patronage in England, he went over to Spain ; and then, without mention- ing any other invitation from England, or any voyage in 1517, he relates his further employments, and particularly his expe- dition to the River La Plata in 1526 .;
But notwithstanding this, Mr. Biddle makes Cabot return to England, where, as I have showed, it was impossible for him to arrive before the end of 1516.
The expedition, of which he is said to have shared the com- mand, is stated by Eden to have been " set forth " by Henry VIII, in the eighth year of his reign ; which, reckoning from the time of its beginning, on the 22d of April, 1509, would be from the 22d of April, 1516, to the 22d of April, 1517 .;
* See the authorities for this in Biddle, l. c. p. 100.
t See Ramusio, vol. 1, fol. 374. Venetia, 1613.
# Lord Herbert, I. c. p. 2.
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The expedition must, therefore, have been "set forth," at the latest, in the month of March, or beginning of April, 1517 ; and this leaves to Cabot only about three months for persuading Henry VIII. to a new undertaking, and for all the preparations necessary for such an expedition. This rapidity of action rendered indispensable by this brief term, and particularly the fact, that there was then no great choice of ships in England ready furnished for service, are strong circumstances against this voyage.
Mr. Biddle, * speaking elsewhere of a subsequent expedition, and wishing to prove that a letter written by Mr. Thorne to Henry VIII, at the beginning of 1527, could have had no influence in promoting an expedition, which left the Thames on the 20th of May of that year, says it is " absurd to suppose, that four or five months would have been a suffi- cient space of time for forwarding such a letter to the king ; for considering and adopting the suggestions of this letter ; for resolving on the course of the intended expedition ; for selecting the commanders and the vessels suitable for such an enterprise ; and for completing all the other arrangements so as to admit of this early departure." And yet, in this case, he thinks four months and a half quite sufficient for a letter, written by the Emperor Charles V. in Brussels on the 18th of November, 1516, to be carried to Spain, and forwarded to the proper authorities there; for Cabot to take it into con- sideration, and to go through all the preliminaries for leaving his important office ; for settling his accounts ; for his return- ing to England without invitation, and making all prepara- tions necessary for a long and expensive expedition to a remote, savage, and little known country, so as to admit of his departure in the month of March, or in the beginning of April.
* Memoir, p. 200.
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Eden, the only authority for this voyage, does not say to what region it was destined, nor at what part of the new world, if any, it arrived. Neither Spanish nor Portuguese authors mention the arrival of these ships on coasts known to them. Mr. Biddle thinks that they must have gone out to the savage regions of the north-west. He strives to make this probable by referring, amongst other things, to the well- known letter, written in 1527 by Master Robert Thorne, addressed to Henry VIII, to urge him to renew the search for a north-west passage. This letter alludes, in the most general terms, to the discovery of Newfoundland made " of late by his Grace's servants," and says, that " the king has taken in hand" the northern discovery, and has made proof of it, without finding the commodity thereby, which he had expected .*
Mr. Biddle thinks, that these expressions cannot allude to any other voyage than that which, according to Eden, was " set forth under Cabot and Pert ;" and that, consequently, this voyage must have gone to and reached the north-western countries. I admit that all this is possible, if this voyage took place at all. But Thorne might have used these expressions in the same manner if no such voyage had been under- taken, having in mind no other than the expeditions to New- foundland under Henry VII, though seemingly attributing them to the time of Henry VIII. The "king," Henry VIII, might be said to have taken northern discovery in hand, when the " king," Henry VII, commenced it. The Englishimen who discovered Newfoundland under Henry VII, were still living under Henry VIII, and were his servants and sub- jects ; and so without adopting a north-western voyage of 1517, it is quite true, that England and her king had not
* See this letter in Hakluyt, "Divers Voyages." Edition of Hakluyt Society, p. 27 seq.
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found, in the expeditions before made to the north-west, all the advantages expected.
The evidences which Mr. Biddle adduces to prove that an expedition was undertaken and executed to the north-west in 1517, appear to me extremely weak. But they are much weaker in proving that Cabot was concerned in any such voyage.
Mr. Biddle also asserts,-and this without having any au- thority or even the slightest probability for it,-that it was on this voyage of 1517, and not on the voyages of 1497 or 1498, that Cabot reached the latitude of 673º N. ; and he further says, that it was on this voyage of 1517 that Cabot entered into Hudson's Bay, "and gave English names to sundry places therein."
The only thing which induces him to think so is the date, " the 11th of June," which Ramusio gives, as does also Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in a quotation from a map of Cabot,* as the time when Cabot reached the said latitude, and which does not agree, he says : 1. with the date of the 24th of June, on which he is said, by the best authorities, to have reached the continent of America in 1497; nor 2. with the date of " the month of July," which, by Peter Martyr, t and Gomara # is said to have been the time of his great struggle with the ice in 673º N. Mr. Biddle therefore argues, that since the date, 11th of June, does not agree either with the date of the voyage of 1497, or with that of 1498, there must have been another voyage made by Cabot, to which that date may belong ; and that must have been the voyage of 1517.
To this reasoning we may answer as follows : All the au-
* See Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. 16. London, 1600.
t See Peter Martyr, De orbe novo, p. 232. Parisiis, 1587.
# See Gomara, Historia de las Indias, fol. 20. Saragossa, 1553.
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thorities referred to, Peter Martyr, Gomara, and Ramusio, differ only with respect to the month, and not the year or the voyage, in which the ice and the high latitude were reached. They all ascribe these events to Cabot's voyage made by command of Henry VII. in 1498, and have not the slightest allusion to a voyage made by command of Henry VIII. in 1517.
And even their difference with respect to the month is perhaps only apparent.
The words of Cabot's map, according to Gilbert, run thus : Cabot affirmed " that he sayled very fare westward, with a quarter north, on the north side of Terra de Labrador, the eleventh of June, until he came to the Septentrional latitude of 673°," etc. From this it appears, that the date of the 11th of June may as well be given to his sail along the coast of Labrador, as to his arrival there. He does not say that he came on the 11th of June to 674º N.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, according to my interpretation, may as well be quoted as giving the time of Cabot's arrival in this high latitude to the month of July.
In regard to Ramusio, he quotes, probably from memory, a letter which Cabot had written him many years before (" gia molti anni sono"). Writing from memory about an old letter, received many years before, he might easily err with respect to the exact date.
Moreover, Peter Martyr, who often conversed with Cabot and had him at his house, may well be credited for his date of the month of July. And Gomara, who was a con- temporary of Cabot, and lived and wrote in the same country in which Cabot himself lived for a long time, is not an un- worthy witness for the month of July.
The map of Cosa, made from Cabot's first charts, so far as the north-east coast of America is concerned, may be cited,
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if not for the date of July, at least for the voyage of 1498. This map, made in 1500, shows this east coast as high as 673º N., and even beyond it.
And last, but not least, the 11th of June appears, for still other reasons, to be a very questionable, if not an impossible date, for a voyage in the high latitude claimed for it.
Mr. Biddle says, that it was on occasion of this voyage of 1517, that Cabot arrived through Hudson's Strait at IIud- son's Bay, discovered open water, and sailed into it, giving English " names to sundry places therein." He relates fur- ther, on the authority of Ramusio, that Cabot was there "sanguine of success," and hopeful of going directly to Catayo, "if he had not been overruled by the timidity of his associates," and particularly by the faint heart, nay, " malig- nity" of the master of the other ship,-according to Mr. Biddle, Sir Thomas Pert,-who would go no further .*
If Cabot had been in 67º N., near the entrance of Hud- son's Bay, he would have been under the arctic circle, in the midst of the so-called " Frozen Strait," or "Fox Channel," near Southampton Island. Now I believe that it is without precedent in the whole history of maritime discovery, for a navigator to sail unobstructed, cheered by the greatest hope. of success, and everywhere surrounded by open water, on the 11th of June, old style, in 672º N., in Fox Channel, north of Hudson's Strait. In these regions,-the coldest and most obstructed of all the arctic regions,-the 11th of June, even according to the old style, is only the end of winter ; and at that time navigation there is impossible.
I will remind the reader of the state of things encoun- tered in these regions by some of the old navigators, at dates not far from those assigned to this voyage of Cabot :
Hudson, in 1610, passed the entrance of Hudson's Strait
* Biddle, I. c. p. 117-119.
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after the beginning of July, and arrived at the entrance of Hudson's Bay in the beginning of August.
Bylot, in 1615, could not reach those regions into which Mr. Biddle puts Cabot on the 11th of June, before the 12th of July, O. S., and then he was still two degrees south of 672º N.
Hawkbridge, in 1616, reached the same regions in the be- ginning of August. On the 10th of that month, O. S., he was at Seahorse Point at not quite 65º N., and could not go higher than this latitude.
James, in 1631, was not free of ice before the 3d of July ; and then began to approach the opening of Hudson's Bay.
Parry, in the year 1823, was beset by ice in the northern part of Fox Channel during the entire month of July, N. S .; and then in the midst of a broad and thick field of ice was floated down the entire length of Fox Channel.
By comparing still other dates, if necessary, I could render it certain, that a visit to those localities " on the 11th of June " must be rejected as impossible, whatever written or printed authorities may affirm ; and that, consequently, the whole structure built upon that date by Mr. Biddle, must fall to the ground. I am convinced, that modern as well as ancient navigators would think it a strange thing, that poor Sir Thomas Pert should be reproached with "timidity," a " faint heart," nay, with a particular "malignity," because, on the 11th of June, he did not like to sail beyond 673º N., in Fox Channel, which, at that time, is a perfectly unbroken wilder- ness of ice.
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