The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, vol. 12 | Page 8

bound and holden onely to arriue) all maner of necessary costs and charges by them made, being deducted, to pay vnto vs in wares or money the fift part of the capitall gaine so gotten. [Sidenote: Freedome from custome.] We giuing and granting vnto them and to their heires and deputies, that they shall be free from all paying of customes of all and singular such merchandize as they shall bring with them from those places so newly found. And moreouer, we haue giuen and granted to them, their heires and deputies, that all the firme lands, isles, villages, townes, castles and places whatsoeuer they be that they shall chance to finde, may not of any other of our subiects be frequented or visited without the licence of the foresayd Iohn and his sonnes, and their deputies, vnder paine of forfeiture aswell of their shippes as of all and singuler goods of all them that shall presume to saile to those places so found. Willing, and most straightly commanding all and singuler our subiects aswell on land as on sea, to giue good assistance to the aforesayd Iohn and his sonnes and deputies, and that as well in arming and furnishing their ships or vessels, as in prouision of food, and in buying of victuals for their money, and all other things by them to be prouided necessary for the sayd nauigation, they do giue them all their helpe and fauour. In witnesse whereof we haue caused to be made these our Letters patents. Witnesse our selfe at Westminister the fift day of March, in the eleuenth yeere of our reigne.[10]
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Billa signata anno 13 Henrici septimi.
[Sidenote: A record of the rolls touching the voyage of Iohn Cabot and Sebastian his sonne.] Rex tertio die Februarij, anno 13, licentiam dedit Ioanni Caboto, quod ipse capere possit sex naues Anglicanas, in aliquo portu, siue portibus regni Angli?, ita quod sint de portagio 200. doliorum, vel subtus, cum apparatu requisito, et quod recipere possint in dictas naues omnes tales magistros, marinarios, et subditos regis, qui cum eo exire voluerint, &c.
The same in English.
The king vpon the third day of February, in the 13 yeere of his reigne, gaue licence to Iohn Cabot to take sixe English ships in any hauen or hauens of the realme of England, being of the burden of 200 tunnes, or vnder, with all necessary furniture, and to take also into the said ships all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the king as willingly will go with him, &c.[11]
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An extract taken out of the map[12] of Sebastian Cabot, cut by Clement Adams, concerning his discouery of the West Indies, which is to be seene in her Maiesties priuie gallerie at Westminster, and in many other ancient merchants houses.
Anno Domini 1497 Ioannes Cabotus Venetus, et Sebastianus illius filius eam terram fecerunt peruiam, quam nullus priùs adire ausus fuit, die 24 Junij, circiter horam quintam bene manè. Hanc autem appellauit Terram primùm visam, credo quod ex mari in eam partem primùm oculos iniecerat. Nam qu? ex aduerso sita est insula eam appellauit insulam Diui Ioannis, hac opinor ratione, quòd aperta fuit eo die qui est sacer Diuo Ioanni Baptist?: Huius incol? pelles animalium, exuuiasque ferarum pro indumentis habent, easque tanti faciunt, quanti nos vestes preciosissimas. Cùm bellum gerunt, vtuntur arcu, sagittis, hastis, spiculis, clauis ligneis et fundis. Tellus sterilis est, neque vllos fructus affert, ex quo fit, vt vrsis albo colore, et ceruis inusitat? apud nos magnitudinis referta sit: piscibus abundat, ijsque sane magnis, quales sunt lupi marini, et quos salmones vulgus appellat; sole? autem reperiuntur tam long?, vt vln? mensuram excedant. Imprimis autem magna est copia eorum piscium, quos vulgari sermone vocant Bacallaos. Gignuntur in ea insula accipitres ita nigri, vt coruorum similitudinem mirum in modum exprimant, perdices autem et aquil? sunt nigri coloris.
The same in English.
In the yeere of our Lord 1497 Iohn Cabot a Venetian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discouered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of Iune,[13] about fiue of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista, that is to say, First seene, because as I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, he called the Island of S. Iohn vpon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of Iohn the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare beasts skinnes, and haue them in as great estimation as we haue our finest garments. In their warres they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, and slings. The soile is barren in some places, and yeeldeth litle fruit,