Elizabethan Sea Dogs | Page 5

in 1498 during his
second voyage. Sly Sebastian lived on and almost saw Elizabeth ascend
the throne in 1558. He had made many voyages and served many
masters in the meantime. In 1512 he entered the service of King
Ferdinand of Spain as a 'Captain of the Sea' with a handsome salary
attached. Six years later the Emperor Charles V made him 'Chief Pilot

and Examiner of Pilots.' Another six years and he is sitting as a nautical
assessor to find out the longitude of the Moluccas in order that the Pope
may know whether they fall within the Portuguese or Spanish
hemisphere of exploitation. Presently he goes on a four years' journey
to South America, is hindered by a mutiny, explores the River Plate (La
Plata), and returns in 1530, about the time of the voyage to Brazil of
'Master William Haukins,' of which we shall hear later on.
In 1544 Sebastian made an excellent and celebrated map of the world
which gives a wonderfully good idea of the coasts of North America
from Labrador to Florida. This map, long given up for lost, and only
discovered three centuries after it had been finished, is now in the
National Library in Paris.[1]
[1: An excellent facsimile reproduction of it, together with a copy of
the marginal text, is in the collections of the American Geographical
Society of New York.]
Sebastian had passed his threescore years and ten before this famous
map appeared. But he was as active as ever twelve years later again. He
had left Spain for England in 1548, to the rage of Charles V, who
claimed him as a deserter, which he probably was. But the English
boy-king, Edward VI, gave him a pension, which was renewed by
Queen Mary; and his last ten years were spent in England, where he
died in the odor of sanctity as Governor of the Muscovy Company and
citizen of London. Whatever his faults, he was a hearty-good-fellow
with his boon companions; and the following 'personal mention' about
his octogenarian revels at Gravesend is well worth quoting exactly as
the admiring diarist wrote it down on the 27th of April, 1556, when the
pinnace Serchthrift was on the point of sailing to Muscovy and the
Directors were giving it a great send-off.
After Master Cabota and divers gentlemen and gentlewomen had
viewed our pinnace, and tasted of such cheer as we could make them
aboard, they went on shore, giving to our mariners right liberal rewards;
and the good old Gentleman, Master Cabota, gave to the poor most
liberal alms, wishing them to pray for the good fortune and prosperous
success of the Serchthrift, our pinnace. And then, at the sign of the

Christopher, he and his friends banqueted, and made me and them that
were in the company great cheer; and for very joy that he had to see the
towardness of our intended discovery he entered into the dance himself,
amongst the rest of the young and lusty company--which being ended,
he and his friends departed, most gently commending us to the
governance of Almighty God.
CHAPTER II
HENRY VIII, KING OF THE ENGLISH SEA
The leading pioneers in the Age of Discovery were sons of Italy, Spain,
and Portugal.[2] Cabot, as we have seen, was an Italian, though he
sailed for the English Crown and had an English crew. Columbus, too,
was an Italian, though in the service of the Spanish Crown. It was the
Portuguese Vasco da Gama who in the very year of John Cabot's
second voyage (1498) found the great sea route to India by way of the
Cape of Good Hope. Two years later the Cortereals, also Portuguese,
began exploring the coasts of America as far northwest as Labrador.
Twenty years later again the Portuguese Magellan, sailing for the King
of Spain, discovered the strait still known by his name, passed through
it into the Pacific, and reached the Philippines. There he was killed. But
one of his ships went on to make the first circumnavigation of the globe,
a feat which redounded to the glory of both Spain and Portugal.
Meanwhile, in 1513, the Spaniard Balboa had crossed the Isthmus of
Panama and waded into the Pacific, sword in hand, to claim it for his
king. Then came the Spanish explorers--Ponce de Leon, De Soto,
Coronado, and many more--and later on the conquerors and founders of
New Spain--Cortes, Pizarro, and their successors.
[2: Basque fishermen and whalers apparently forestalled Jacques
Cartier's discovery of the St. Lawrence in 1535; perhaps they knew the
mainland of America before John Cabot in 1497. But they left no
written records; and neither founded an oversea dominion nor gave
rights of discovery to their own or any other race.]
During all this time neither France nor England made any