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In the chapters on East India, we hear nothing regarding the history of the discoveries of the Portuguese, but very much regarding wid- ows burning themselves with their deceased husbands. And then we have an archaeological treatise on the question, where in the world (ubi terrarum) the island "Taprobana," so much spoken of by the ancients, is to be found, and whether it is Ceylon, Sumatra, or Madagascar.
What has all this archaeology and mythology to do with a " marine chart" destined for mariners " to sail after?" Ought not a chief pilot, like Sebastian Cabot, to have given better sailing directions to the Span- ish seamen? No other chart, pretending to be a Portulano or Derro- tero of the sixteenth century, has come to my knowledge, in which fables like these have been related, to gratify the curiosity of the com- mon mind.
There is only one subject in all the nineteen inscriptions of the map, which appears worthy of Cabot, that is the variation of the mag- netic needle, that great discovery of Cabot, which is treated of and explained in the inscription No. XVII.
Sebastian Cabot is described by Peter Martyr, and others who con- versed with him, as an agreeable and modest man. But wherever he is mentioned in these inscriptions, it is with some pompous descrip- tion like this: "navigandi arte astronomiaque peritissimus" (in the art of navigation and in astronomy the most experienced man). Also in the inscription No. XVII, where it is stated that the map was made by Sebastian Cabot, he is called " astrorum peritia navigandique arte omnium doctissimus" (of all men the most learned in astronomy and in the art of navigation). These expressions would appear to go be- yond his customary modesty, if we are to believe that it is Cabot him- self who here speaks. It looks rather like the recommendation of a map-seller, who wishes to procure a large sale, under color of a great name; like the speculator, complained of by Humboldt, who had pub- lished, against his will, some maps under his name, to which he had contributed nothing else. Such also is the following complimentary expression connected with the above, which runs thus : "Therefore, you may use this hydrographical chart as the most faithful and the most learned mistress (fida doetissimaque magistra), in sailing to any part of the ocean, wherever you should have the mind to sail." I can- not, therefore, but concur in the opinion both of Mr. Bancroft and Mr. Charles Deane, " that Cabot himself evidently did not write these in- scriptions."
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CABOT'S ALLEGED VOYAGE OF 1494.
I think I have given in the foregoing analysis, a true description of this newly discovered document; yet some highly respected and dis- tinguished geographers, in former as well as in later times, have based upon it the theory of a voyage of Cabot, entirely at variance, both in regard to the time of its performance. and the point of the continent first seen, with the opinion usually adopted, and which in this essay I have assumed to be correct.
In the inscription No. VIII, which treats of Newfoundland, it is said : " This country was discovered by John Cabot, a Venetian, and Sebas- tian Cabot, his son, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ M.CCCC.XCHIII (1494), on the 24th of June, in the morning at five o'clock, which coun- try they called ' primum visam ;' and a large island adjacent to it they named the island of St. John, because they discovered it on the same day."
There can be no doubt, that the author or publisher of the map be- lieved that a voyage of discovery was really made by Cabot in 1494. This date cannot be a misprint, because it is given twice in the inscrip- tion, once in the Spanish language, and again in a Latin version. That this date had already occurred on former copies or editions of this, or a similar, engraved map, ascribed to Cabot, for instance on one in the year 1549, is evident from the quotation and copy of the inscriptions made by Kochhaf, as before mentioned, who read on the map at Ox- ford " the year 1494," and who noted this date in his book.
The locality of this " primum visam " or " prima terra vista," is given on our map of 1544, as I have before stated, at the northern point of Cape Breton.
The same locality appears to have been indicated on another map of Cabot, so called, existing in the sixteenth century in England. For a map composed by Michael Lok, in 1582 (our No. 13), has the name of "J. Cabot," and the "year 1497" annexed to Cape Breton, which he is supposed to have copied from a map of Cabot in England. These maps not having been preserved, we have no means of judging of their authenticity or value.
But in regard to the character and worth of the map of 1544, recently found, I have clearly expressed my opinion. that it is full of errors, in- accuracies, and misrepresentations, which being made so near to the oc- currences described, are wholly unpardonable. They did not exist on prior maps, and are convincing testimony that they could not have been the work of Sebastian Cabot. These faults must destroy the an- thority of this document for the establishment of any historical fact.
But as some eminent and esteemed geographers entertain a differ- ent opinion, I may be allowed to submit some remarks, not founded on
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CABOT'S ALLEGED VOYAGE OF 1494.
the document referred to, but derived from other sources, on the prob- ability of a voyage having been made by Cabot at the date 1494, and of Cape Breton having been his first land-fall.
1. Sebastian Cabot is stated to have said, that he and his father, with the people of Bristol, and the court of Henry VII, were greatly excited by the glorious news just received in England, of the great discovery by Columbus, who arrived in Lisbon, from his first successful voyage, in March, 1493. The "news of his success " would come somewhat later to England. If Cabot had discovered the continent of North America on June 24, 1494, he must have sailed early in the spring of that year. In that case there would scarcely have been a full year for arousing the cautious Henry and the Bristol men to action, and the Cabots to study the subject and make their arrangements for the voyage. This is a very short time, particularly if we take into consid- eration, that after having received their letters patent and commission, in the beginning of the year 1496, the Cabots were delayed a whole year before they were able to commence their voyage.
2. The Bristol men are said by the Spanish envoy, Don Pedro de Ayala, in a letter to Spain written in 1498, to have made, at the instiga- tion of the Cabots, exploring expeditions every year, for nearly seven years, to discover new countries in the west. If a great country had already been found there in 1494, it would have been quite unneces- sary for the Cabots to persuade the Bristol men to continue these ex- ploring expeditions after that time.
3. Sebastian Cabot is said, on good authority,* to have been born in the year 1477; consequently in the beginning of 1494, he would have been but about sixteen or seventeen years of age. What geographical knowledge or reliable opinions could a boy of this age have? How far could he assist his father on a dangerous naval expedition to the unknown west, and in command of a ship? Would it not have been presumptuous in him if, at such an age, he had accompanied his father in 1494, to say : The continent of North America was discovered by my father Giovanni and by me !- a boy sixteen years of age!
4. The first or preliminary exploring expeditions for discovery were generally short excursions ; and for good reasons, such as the uncertain nature of the projects, and consequently the difficulty of obtaining the requisite means of conducting them. They usually commenced such voyages with one or two light and small ships; and after having made a discovery, or even obtained a distant glimpse of some new country, they were eager to return and proclaim their success, and to obtain a
* Among others, by Humboldt.
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CABOT'S ALLEGED VOYAGE OF 1494.
reward, and a larger outfit for more thorough explorations. We ob- serve, therefore, that in the history of discovery, the first exploring expeditions continued but a very short time : whilst in the second un- dertaking, a large fleet and more ample supplies have enabled the ad- venturers to remain longer abroad, and to make more thorough sur- veys. But if we adopt the year 1494 for the first exploring voyage of the Cabots, we find that in the two subsequent years, 1495 and 1496, no voyage at all was performed; and that in 1497, what would then be their second voyage, was a very small undertaking with only one little vessel, the Matthew, from which they returned quickly after an absence of only three months. Such inactivity in the Cabots, the king, and the Bristol men, after the apparently great success of 1494, with the small outfit and quick return in 1497, would be per- fectly out of analogy with the usual course of things, and wholly un- accountable. If, on the contrary, rejecting the theory which supposes a voyage to have been made in 1494, we come to the conclusion, that the first successful exploring expedition was conducted in 1497, and that the great expedition of 1498, for which Sebastian Cabot was fur- nished with several ships and three hundred men, with which he ex- plored a tract of coast of more than one thousand leagues in length, and from which he returned after more than half a year's absence, was not his third, but his second undertaking, then everything is clear and in harmony with the usual and natural course of events.
5. A part of the above reasoning affects the locality, as well as the date, given on our map to the first discovery of North America. But there are other circumstances which appear to make this local- ity particularly doubtful. The northern point of Cape Breton, which on our map is made the "Prima tierra vista," lies in a position somewhat secluded and hidden. It is the southern cape of the com- paratively narrow entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It has east of it the long southern coast of Newfoundland, and several points and sec- tions of the coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. It would require considerable skill in a navigator coming from England, to make his first land at the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, without sighting New- foundland, Nova Scotia, or Cape Breton Island. This could not have happened in one case out of a hundred. And even if this had occurred to the Cabots, their " prima vista " would not probably have been the northern point of Cape Breton, but the small island of St. Paul near it, which is generally the first land made by sailors entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
6. The entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence has about the same lat- itude as the south of England. The beaten track for the Bristol navi-
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CABOT'S ALLEGED VOYAGE OF 1494.
gators was the route to Iceland. The Cabots are said from the beginning to have directed their attention to the north-west on that route. The supposition that on a voyage in 1494 to the north-west from Bristol they made their land-fall in 47º N. (the latitude of the northern headland of Cape Breton Island), would involve the supposition, that on the alleged voyage they had been driven from their intended course by severe storms into a more southern latitude. A land-fall and a "prima vista " on the shores of northern Newfoundland or Labrador, accord- ing to our supposition, is much more in harmony with the intentions of the Cabots, and the direction of their route.
7. If it is difficult to carry the Cabots into the southern entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1494, it is just as difficult to bring them out again. If, in this year, they entered the gulf. they must have seen open water before them at the west, north. and south-west, and have been tempted to sail that way, and to explore the entire gulf to find a pas- sage to their desired Cathay. But we find neither in their reports of their voyage, nor in the charts belonging to it, the least trace of a large opening or gulf. If to this it should be answered, that the voyage of 1404 was not an expedition for finding a north-west passage, but only a hazardous exploring expedition without a certain fixed aim, even in this case, the Cabots would not have forgotten, on a future voyage, the open water at their " terram primum visam" on the northern headland of Cape Breton. And Sebastian Cabot, on his voyage of 1498, which is an admitted search for a north-west and west passage, on descending from his high latitudes, and rounding Newfoundland, would, without doubt, have entered again this opening, seen in 1494, and would have more carefully explored it. But he did nothing of the kind. On the contrary he sailed along the entire east coast of North America, always looking out for open water to the west, without finding it.
If it should be suggested, that on this voyage he was hindered from further exploration by storms, fogs, or other obstacles, still he must have remembered this opening at other times in his long life. If he himself had no opportunity to visit it again, he would certainly have described it to Gomez in 1525, and directed him to explore it for a western passage, to find which was the principal object of his voyage. But in the re- ports of this voyage of Gomez, we have no trace whatever of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Gomez passed it without looking into it. In . fact, throughout the entire first quarter of the sixteenth centu- ry, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and more particularly the principal en- trance to it, which the Cabots are said to have found in 1494, was so little known. except perhaps by Portuguese and French fishermen, that even Cartier, in 1534, appears to have been ignorant of it. He en-
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CABOT'S ALLEGED VOYAGE OF 1494.
tered the Gulf of St. Lawrence through the Strait of Belle Isle, and, sailing out from it through the principal southern entrance in 1535, con- sidered this to be a new discovery.
Ortelius, as I liave before stated, when in 1570 he prepared his cele- brated map of America, had seen a map of the world made by Sebas- tian Cabot. On his map Ortelius laid down an island on the coast of Labrador called St. John, in about 57º N. He did not give that name to Prince Edward Island. Now if Ortelius had seen, on his map of Ca- bot, the names " St. John " and " Prima vista " affixed to the northern point of Cape Breton and to Prince Edward Island, as represented on our map No. 20, I think he would have taken notice of them, and intro- duced them on his map. But not having done this, we infer that lie did not find them on his map of Cabot, which, in other respects, also may have been different from ours.
Any argument to prove that Cape Breton was Cabot's " Prima vista," from the adjacent Prince Edward Island having been called St. John, may be dismissed at once. The name " St. Jolin" was also given to Prince Edward Island by the French, and Cabot may have taken it, not from his own survey, but from French maps, from which he also took the whole configuration of the gulf and river of St. Lawrence.
8. Cabot, the alleged author of this map, in the inscription No. V., speaking of his discovery of the first land on his first voyage, says "this country is sterile," and " has an abundance of white bears," and other wild animals, which he describes. This applies much better to the coast of Labrador, than to any part of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, or Prince Ed- ward Island. At the sight of these countries in the month of June, the Cabots would have been more struck by the abundance of their trees, and their fresh green aspect, than by their sterility. And con- cerning the "abundance of white bears," they are rarely seen south of the St. Lawrence.
9. The Venetian merc hant, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, who in Cabot's time was living in London, in a letter to Venice, dated August 23, 1497, speaking as an eye-witness of the return of Jolin Cabot from his voyage of this year, describes his reception as follows: " Vast honour is paid to lim ;" he is styled "the Great Admiral," " he dresses in silk;" and adds, "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."*
According to the opinion of those who contend for the voyage of
* Ser this letter reprinted in Proceedings of the annual meeting of the American Antiquarian Society, Oct. 21, 1865. Mr. Hale's report, p. 21. Cambridge, 1866.
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CABOT'S ALLEGED VOYAGE OF 1491.
1494, and the great discovery made at that time, the above description of John Cabot's reception must refer to a second voyage. Now if John Cabot made such a sensation among the English on his return from his second voyage, when he could have exhibited no other results than had been already obtained on his first voyage, what reception would they have given him on his return from his first voyage, when the decisive and great discovery was made, which revealed to his mind the eastern headlands of "the country of the Great Chan?" That event and the year 1494, would not have been forgotten by them, and would have been a marked one in their annals. But we hear of no such announcement or reception whatever in that year. No foreign ambassador, no English annalist has made any report of a sensation created by the return of a discoverer in 1404; while all our reports, and the notices of foreigners as well as Englishmen, about the Cabots, refer to the years 1407 and 1493, except those wretched charts of 1544 and 1549. The great sensation of 1497 can therefore refer to nothing else but to a first success.
10. Many of my objections to the date and locality of the first dis- covery of the continent of America, contained on this map of 1544, are founded on the conviction, that Cabot could have had very little to do with this document. But even if this position should prove false, if Sebastian Cabot really examined and approved the contents of the map, and furnished to the engraver the date and locality in question ; still it would not be safe to adopt them against all the opposing authori- ties. It has been suggested by Asher, that Cabot, in 1544 and 1549, was already an old man, and may have been of feeble memory; * and in speaking of events which had taken place in his early youth, half a cen- tury before, he may have made erroneous statements. Several of his statements, made during his life, were contradictory to each other. IIe stated, for instance, to the English Eden, that he had been born in Bristol, and at another time to the Venetian Contarini, that his birth-place was Venice. Every day's experience teaches us, that we all, with respect to the dates of events in our own lives, are very apt to make blunders. Humboldt quotes both Christopher and Bartholo- mew Columbus as having made erroneous statements with respect to dates of their own voyages.t
From these considerations I repeat, that the voyage of 1494, and tho locality of the "prima vista" in Cape Breton, appear to me to be
* Asher's Hudson, p. Ixvili.
t See Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 3, p. 145.
بنع باليودسيدة بصوت ع .
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DIEGO HOMEM'S CHART, 1558.
doubtful; though I will not pretend to speak decisively on the subject. The materials, documents, and authorities for judging on all the ques- tions connected with the voyages of the Cabots, are so scanty and meagre, and the whole matter is so difficult and intricate, that the time to speak positively about them has not yet come. Every year, in recent times, has contributed evidence to complete or correct some point of their history; and further researches in the archives of Europe will undoubtedly throw more light upon this obscure subject. *
5. ON CHART, NO. 21, OF THE NORTH-EAST OF NORTH AMERICA, BY DIEGO HOMEM, A PORTUGUESE, IN 1558.
Diego Homem was one of those distinguished Portuguese map- makers of the middle of the sixteenth century, of whom Dr. Asher says, " that they were privileged individuals, who received from the arriving explorers such new communications as might serve to correct the charts, and who made admirable use of their opportunities." "Such men," he adds, "as De la Cosa, Sebastian Cabot, Ribero, and Homem, are among the Spanish and Portuguese chart-makers." t
Homem composed several maps of the world, sea-atlases and "portu- lanos," which are still preserved in the collections of Germany, Eng- land, and France. In these works he depicted America at different periods, and in different ways. We know little of his birth, life, or death. Though a Portuguese by birth, he appears to have re- sided at Venice during a large part of his life, where several of his maps appear to have been composed and dated. The Venetians, envious of the Spaniards, Portuguese, and other nations of the west of Europe, watched with eagerness the progress of their discoveries. The Venetian ambassadors, on all sides, sent home reports of all new suc- cesses in this direction. Several of the first discoverers and sea-cap- tains, employed by other nations, were Italians, who frequently re- turned home after their expeditions. The Cabots had emigrated from Venice. Ramusio, one of the first and most eminent collectors of original reports of voyages and discoveries, lived in Venice, and there published his works. Several of the earliest maps of America were printed in Venice. Here, therefore, was a favored center of geographi- cal intelligence; and Homem was probably attracted by these circum- stances to that city.
* See the most just and modest expressions on this point made by MI. D'Avezac in " Bulletin de la société de Géographie," p. 233 seq. Decembre-Juillet, Année, 195 ;. t See Dr. A,her's Introduction to " Henry Hudson, the Navigator," edited by the Hakluyt Society, p. cl. London, 1800.
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DIEGO HOMEM'S CHART, 1558.
The representation of the north-eastern portions of America, given in No. 31, is contained in a large and beautiful atlas made, as an inscription on one of the sheets informs us, by Diego Homem in 1558 .* This interesting work has been preserved in the manuscript collections of the British Museum, under the signature, " Addenda, No. 5415 A." The atlas is often quoted by Dr. Major.t It is a beautiful production, and, in many respects, very interesting to the history of discovery.
The section which we give here has some features not to be found on other maps, and some indications of discoveries perfectly new at the time when the map was composed.
I will now describe the map and explain its contents, beginning at the north-east, and proceeding to the south-west.
In the north-east corner of our sketch, the south of Greenland is de- picted with the same accuracy in regard to its outlines, as in the first Portuguese charts, drawn soon after the voyages of Gaspar Cortereal; as appears, for instance, on our map No. S. It ends in the south, not far from 60º N., the true position of Cape Farewell. It is called " Terra agricule " (the country of the laborer, or Labrador). I have before ob- served, that this name is often given to Greenland on very old maps, and was afterwards transferred to the present Labrador.
In the highest northern quarters, above the name "Terra agricule," we find the name " Desertum busor," probably " busorum," the "desert of the Busi." In the northern regions of Europe and Asia, the old ge- ographers and map-makers of the middle ages had placed the deserts of fabulous nations, which afterwards were carefully transferred to the desert countries of the new world, where they were sought for, and sometimes thought to be found. A people called " Busi " is mentioned by the old historian, Adam of Bremen, in chapter 228 of his Eccle- siastical History ; where, speaking of the countries north of the Baltic, he enumerates all the nations said to exist there: " the Amazons, most beautiful women, who live without men;" "the Cynocephali, who have the head in the midst of their breast, bark like dogs, and are often seen as captives among the Russians;" "the Albani, who, on their birth, are grey-haired and white, like old men;" and many other monsters "often met with by navigators," among them the "Busi," who " being pale-yellow or somewhat greenish, are so called from their color."# Like other fabulous nations, these " Busi" were transplanted
* " Diegus Homem, cosmographus fecit hoc opus anno salutis, 1558."
t See p. Ixiil of his Introduction to "Early voyages to Terra Australis."
*See Adami Bremensis histor. Ecel., p. 139. Lugd. Batav., 1595. Du Fresne, in his "Glossarium medie et infime Latinitatis," translates "busus" or "busius," by the old Saxon "Gealu," "gelvus," "helvas," meaning yellowish,
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DIEGO HOMEM'S CHART, 1558.
to America. So far as color is concerned, the name may be properly applied to the Esquimaux of Greenland.
South-west of Greenland is indicated the entrance to Davis' and Hudson's Straits, in 60º N., to which the Portuguese had been con- ducted in the course of their discoveries. Having observed whales in that region (one is represented swimming about in the locality of Hudson's Bay), they naturally concluded that there must be a large body of water lying in the west.
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