A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 6 | Page 6

on fish, and catch them by diving into the water;

and being thus satisfied with abundance of fish, are not noisome to man.
He says likewise that he saw large quantities of copper among the
inhabitants of these regions. Cabot is my dear and familiar friend,
whom I delight to have sometimes in my house. Being called out of
England by the Catholic king of Castille, on the death of Henry VII. of
England, he was made one of the assistants of our council respecting
the affairs of the new found Indies, and waits in daily expectation of
being furnished with ships in which to discover these hidden secrets of
nature.
[Footnote 9: Hakluyt, III. 29. quoting P. Martyr, Dec. III. Ch. vi.]
[Footnote 10: The Straits of Gibraltar are in lat. 36° N. which would
bring the discovery of the eastern coast of North America by Cabot, all
the way from 67-1/2° N. beyond Hudsons Bay, to Albemarle Sound on
the coast of North Carolina--E.]
[Footnote 11: The middle of the island of Cuba is in long. 80° W. from
Greenwich, which would have carried Cabot into the interior of
Hudsons Bay, to which there is no appearance of his having penetrated,
in the slight notices remaining of his exploratory voyage.--E.]
[Footnote 12: We have before seen that he named the country which he
discovered, the island of St John, and that he gave the name in this part
of the text, baccalaos, to the fish most abundant in those seas, which
we name cod.--E.]
[Footnote 13: It is probable this applies to the tide of flood setting into
the Gulf of St Lawrence or Hudsons Bay or both; which led Cabot to
expect a passage through the land to the west--E.]
SECTION V.
_Testimony of Francisco Lopez de Gomara, concerning the discoveries
of Sebastian Cabota_[14].
Sebastian Cabota, who came out of England into Spain, brought most
certain information of the country and people of Baccalaos. Having a
great desire to traffic for spices, like the Portuguese, he fitted out two
ships with 300 men, at the cost of Henry VII. of England, and took the
way towards Iceland from beyond the Cape of Labradore, until he
reached the lat. of 58° N. and better. Even in the month of July, the
weather was so cold and the ice in such quantities, that he durst not
proceed any farther. The days were so long as to have hardly any night,
and what little there was, was very clear. Being unable to proceed

farther on account of the cold, he turned south; and, having refreshed at
Baccalaos, he sailed southwards along the coast to the 38° of
latitude[15], from whence he returned into England.
[Footnote 14: Hakluyt, III. 30. quoting Gomara, Gen. Hist. of the W.
Indies, Book II. Ch. iv.]
[Footnote 15: By this account the progress of Cabot to the south along
the eastern coast of North America, reached no farther than coast of
Maryland.--E.]
SECTION VI.
_Note respecting the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot; from the latter
part of Fabians Chronicle_[16].
IN the 13th year of Henry VII. by means of John Cabot, Venetian, who
was very expert in cosmography and the construction of sea-charts, that
king caused to man and victual a ship at Bristol, to search for an island
which Cabot said he well knew to be rich and replenished with valuable
commodities. In which ship, manned and victualled at the kings
expence, divers merchants of London adventured small stocks of goods
under the charge of the said Venetian. Along with that ship there went
three or four small vessels from Bristol, laden with slight and coarse
goods, such as coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles. These
vessels departed from Bristol in the beginning of May; but no tidings of
them had been received at the time of writing this portion of the
chronicle of Fabian.
[Footnote 16: Hakluyt, III. 30. quoting from a MS. in possession of Mr
John Stow, whom he characterizes as a diligent collector of antiquities.]
In the 14th year of the king however, three men were brought from the
New-found-Island, who were clothed in the skins of beasts, did eat raw
flesh, and spoke a language which no man could understand, their
demeanour being more like brute beasts than men. They were kept by
the king for some considerable time; and I saw two of them about two
years afterward in the palace of Westminster, habited like Englishmen,
and not to be distinguished from natives of England, till I was told who
they were; but as for their speech, I did not hear either of them utter a
word.
SECTION VII.
_Brief notice of the discovery of Newfoundland, by Mr Robert
Thorne._[17]

As some diseases are hereditary, so have I inherited an