A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 6 | Page 7

inclination of
discovery from my father, who, with another merchant of Bristol
named Hugh Eliot, were the discoveries of the Newfoundlands. And, if
the mariners had followed the directions of their pilot, there can be no
doubt that the lands of the West Indies, whence all the gold cometh,
had now been ours; as it appears by the chart that all is one coast.
[Footnote 17: Hakluyt, III. 31. quoting a book by Mr Robert Thorne,
addressed to Doctor Leigh.]
SECTION VIII. _Grant by Edward VI. of a Pension, and the Office of
Grand Pilot of England to Sebastian Cabot_[18]
Edward the Sixth, by the Grace of God king of England, France, and
Ireland, to all believers in Christ to whom these presents may come,
wisheth health. Know ye, that in consideration of the good and
acceptable service, done and to be done to us by our well-beloved
servant Sebastian Cabot, we of our special grace, certain knowledge
and goodwill, and by the councel and advice of our most illustrious
uncle Edward Duke, of Somerset, governor of our person, and protector
of our kingdoms, dominions, and subjects, and by advice of the rest of
our councillors, have given and granted, and by these presents give and
grant to the said Sebastian Cabot a certain annuity or yearly revenue of
_one hundred and sixty-six pounds, thirteen shilling and fourpence
sterling_[19], to have, enjoy, and yearly to receive during his natural
life from our treasury at the receipt of our exchequer at Westminster, by
the hands of our treasurers and chamberlains for the time being, by
equal portions at the festivals of the annunciation of the blessed virgin,
the nativity of St John the Baptist, of St Michael the Archangel, and the
nativity of our Lord. And farther, as aforesaid, we grant by these
presents so much as the said annuity would amount to from the feast of
St Michael the Archangel last past unto this present time, to be received
by said Sebastian from our foresaid treasurers and chamberlains in free
gift, without account or any thing else to be yielded, paid or made to us
our heirs or successors for the same. In witness whereof, &c. Done by
the King at Westminster on the 6th of January 1548, in the second year
of his reign.
[Footnote 18: Hakluyt, id. ib. Supposing Sebastian to have been sixteen
years of age in 1495, when he appears to have come to England with
his father, he must have attained to seventy years of age at the period of

this grant--E.]
[Footnote 19: At the rate of six for one, as established by the Historian
of America for comparing sums of money between these two periods,
this pension was equal to L.1000 in our time.--E.]
SECTION IX.
_Voyage of Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot about the year 1516,
to Brazil, St Domingo, and Porto Rico_.
That learned and painefull writer Richard Eden, in a certain epistle of
his to the Duke of Northumberland, before a work which he translated
out of Munster in 1553, called A Treatise of New India, maketh
mention of a voyage of discoverie undertaken out of England by Sir
Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabota, about the eighth year of Henry VIII.
of famous memorie, imputing the overthrow thereof unto the cowardice
and want of stomack of the said Sir Thomas Pert, in manner following:
If manly courage, saith he, (like unto that which hath bene seene and
proved in your Grace, as well in forreine realmes, as also in this our
country) had not bene wanting in others in these our dayes, at such time
as our souereigne lord of famous memorie king Henry VIII. about the
same yeere of his raigne, furnished and sent out certaine shippes under
the governance of Sebastian Cabot yet living, and one Sir Thomas Pert,
who was vice-admiral of England and dweleth in Poplar at Blackwall,
whose faint heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect. If, I
say, such manly courage, whereof we have spoken, had not at that time
beene wanting, it might happily have come to passe, that that rich
treasurie called Perularia, (which is nowe in Spaine in the citie of
Seville, and so named, for that in it is kept the infinite riches brought
thither from the newfoundland kingdom of Peru) might long since have
beene in the tower of London, to the kings great honour and the wealth
of this realme.
Hereunto that also is to bee referred which the worshipfull Mr Robert
Thorne wrote to the saide king Henry VIII. in the yeere 1527, by
Doctor Leigh his ambassador sent into Spaine to the Emperour Charles
V. whose worries bee these:
Now rest to be discovered the north parts, the which it seemeth unto me