The Story of Newfoundland | Page 8

costs and charges to seek out and discover whatsoever
isles ... of the heathen and infidels, which before the time have been

unknown to all Christians...."
No sooner was the patent granted than the vigilant Spanish ambassador
in London wrote to his master King Ferdinand, that a second Columbus
was about to achieve for the English sovereign what Columbus had
achieved for the Spanish, but "without prejudice to Spain or Portugal."
In reply to this communication Ferdinand directed his informer to warn
King Henry that the project was a snare laid by the King of France to
divest him from greater and more profitable enterprises, and that in any
case the rights of the signatory parties under the Treaty of Tordesillas
would thereby be invaded. However, the voyage contemplated in the
charter was begun in 1497, in defiance of the Spanish warning and
arrogant pretensions. It will be noticed that the charter extends its
privileges to the sons of John Cabot. It is better, with Mr Justice
Prowse, to see in this circumstance a proof of the prudence of the
adventurer, who prolonged the duration of his charter by the inclusion
of his infant sons, than to infer in the absence of evidence that any of
them was his companion. According to one often quoted authority,
Sebastian Cabot claimed in later life not merely to have taken part in
the expedition, but to have been its commander,[5] and placed it after
his father's death. Against this claim, if it was ever made, we must
notice that in the Royal licence for the second voyage the newly found
land is said to have been discovered by John Cabotto. It is impossible
to say with certainty how many ships took part in Cabot's voyage. An
old tradition, depending upon an unreliable manuscript,[6] says that
Cabot's own ship was called the Matthew, a vessel of about fifty tons
burden, and manned by sixteen Bristol seamen and one Burgundian. It
is probable that the voyage began early in May, and it is certain that
Cabot was back in England by August 10th, for on that date we find the
following entry in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII., revealing a
particularly stingy recognition of the discoverer's splendid service,
which, however, was soon afterwards recognized less unhandsomely:
"1497, Aug. 10th.--To hym that found the New Isle, £10."[7]
The only reliable contemporary authorities on the subject of John
Cabot's first voyage are the family letters of Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a

Venetian merchant resident in London, to his brother, and the official
correspondence of Raimondo di Raimondi, Archpriest of Soncino. The
latter's account is somewhat vague. He says, in his letters to Duke
Sforza of Milan, August 24th, and December 18th, 1497, that Cabot,
"passing Ibernia on the west, and then standing towards the north,
began to navigate the eastern ocean, leaving in a few days the north star
on the right hand, and having wandered a good deal he came at last to
firm land.... This Messor Zoanni Caboto," he proceeds, "has the
description of the world in a chart, and also in a solid globe which he
has made, and he shows where he landed." Raimondo adds that Cabot
discovered two islands, one of which he gave to his barber and the
other to a Burgundian friend, who called themselves Counts, whilst the
commander assumed the airs of a prince.[8]
We have from the Venetian, Pasqualigo, a letter, dated August 23rd,
1497, which was probably a fortnight or three weeks after the return of
Cabot. According to this authority, Cabot discovered land 700 leagues
away, the said land being the territory of the Great Khan (the "Gram
cham"). He coasted along this land for 300 leagues, and on the
homeward voyage sighted two islands, on which, after taking
possession of them, he hoisted the Venetian as well as the English flag.
"He calls himself the grand admiral, walks abroad in silk attire, and
Englishmen run after him like madmen."[9] It is easy to overrate the
reliability of such letters as those of Pasqualigo and Raimondo, and
Pasqualigo's statement that Cabot sailed from Bristol to this new land,
coasted for 300 leagues along it, and returned within a period of three
months, is impossible to accept. At the same time, the accounts given
by these writers occur, one in the frank intimacy of family
correspondence, the other in the official reports of a diplomatic
representative to his chief. They are both unquestionably disinterested,
and are very much more valuable than the later tittle-tattle of Peter
Martyr and Ramusio, which has plainly filtered through what Mr
Beazley would call Sebastianized channels.
[Illustration: NEWFOUNDLAND in Relation to WESTERN
EUROPE]

A keen controversy has raged as to the exact landfall of John Cabot in
his 1497 voyage, and it cannot be said