presented to Henry for a western voyage, to undertake the discovery of lands and regions unknown. Fabyan and Ramusio assert, that Henry defrayed the cost of at least one ship; but their testimony, though followed by Forster, cannot stand against the express words of the charter, in which the Cabots are authorised indeed to carry out ships and men, but “suis et eorum propriis sumptibus et expensis." Their commission indeed is abundantly ample. They are empowered to discover all the parts, regions, and bays of the eastern, western, and northern seas. They may fix the royal banners of England in any city, castle, . town, island, or firm land, which may be by them discovered. John and his sons, their heirs and assignees, are to conquer, occupy, and rule the said cities, castles, towns, islands, and firm lands, as governors and lieutenants under the king; and no one is to approach or inhabit the said cities, castles, &c. without their permission. They are to enjoy the exclusive trade of these newly-discovered regions, being only bound to bring all their productions to the port of Bristol. These goods are to be exempted from all the ordinary duties of customs; but a fifth of the net profits arising from their sale is to be paid over to the king.

Under this warrant, Cabot set sail, and, on the 24th June, 1497, saw land, which he termed Prima Vista; but the English have since substituted their native term of Newfoundland. He afterwards sailed along a considerable extent of coast both to the north and south; when, finding a continuous range of coast, and no opening to the westward, he returned to England.

This was the first discovery of the American continent; for it was not till the following year, and in his third voyage, that Columbus saw the coast of South America, where the Orinoco pours its vast flood into the ocean. It is remarkable, and seems to indicate a very supine state of feeling upon these subjects, that, while the Spanish discoverers found such numerous historians, not a single narrative should exist of this memorable voyage. Hackluyt has with difficulty collected from various quarters a number of shreds, which do not harmonize very well together, and give only a very imperfect idea of the proceedings. The most authentic document is contained in a writing, made on a map drawn by Sebastian, and engraved by Clement Adams, which was kept at Whitehall, and of which there are said to have been copies in the houses of many of the old merchants. It is very short, and merely states the discovery of Newfoundland, and some of its qualities. The natives, it states, are clothed in the skins of wild beasts, which they value as much as we do our most precious garments. In war they use bows, arrows, darts, wooden clubs, and slings. The land is barren, and bears no fruit, whence it is filled with bears of a white colour, and stags of a magnitude unusual among us. It abounds in fishes, and those very large, as sea-wolves, (seals ?) and salmon; there are soles of a yard in length; but, above all, there is a great abundance of those fishes which we call baualaos, (cod).

This chart is stated, by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to be in his time still preserved in the queen's private

gallery at Whitehall; but I have understood that it was afterwards destroyed by fire.

The only other meagre testimony is that of Fabyan, who saw three natives brought over by the Cabots from Newfoundland. "These were clothed in beasts' skins, and did eat raw flesh, and spake such speech that no man could understand them." However, two years after, he saw them apparelled after the manner of Englishmen, in Westminster Palace, "which that time I could not discern from Englishmen, till I was learned what they were; but as for speech, I heard none of them utter one word."

Such are all the records which England has seen fit to preserve of this her earliest and one of her most illustrious naval exploits. John Cabot, it would appear, soon died, and Sebastian, the most intelligent of his sons, finding no sufficient honour or encouragement in England, repaired to Spain, where the ardour for discovery still continued. He was readily received into the service of the Catholic king, and sent to the coast of Brazil, where he made the important discovery of the Rio de la Plata. He became the most eminent person of his age for the sciences con'nected with his favourite pursuits; the construction of maps, geography, and navigation; and, after age had rendered him unfit for the active exertions of a seafaring life, he guided and directed others in this career, and obtained the honourable title of Piloto Mayor of Spain. Afterwards, on the accession of Edward VI. to the throne of England, when the nation caught at last the enthusiasm of maritime adventure, Cabot was invited back to England, and

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constituted, by a special deed, Grand Pilot of England, with an ample salary. In this capacity he formed the plan and drew up the instructions for the expedition sent under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Chancellor, to attempt the discovery of India by the north-east. Sebastian, with all his knowledge, and in the course of a long life, never committed to writing any narrative of the voyage to North Ame rica. The curious on the continent, however, drew from him in conversation, various particulars, which gave a general idea of the extent and tenor of his discovery. Butrigario, the pope's legate in Spain, told Ramusio that he had much intercourse with him, and found him a very polite and agreeable person; and Peter Martyr mentions in his history, that he had him often at his house, and was quite on an intimate footing with him. In the reports from these different quarters there are discrepances, and even errors, which mark imperfect memory on the part of the narrators; but the general outline of the voyage appears to have been as follows:-The Cabots, like Columbus, held it for their main object to reach Cathay, and the golden regions of India, which had still attached to them all the European ideas of wealth. Sebastian proceeded first to the north, in the hope, that, by turning on that side the boundary of the continent, he might find himself in the expanse of ocean which led to the eastern regions. He reached the latitude of sixty-seven degrees, or, by a more probable account, only of fifty-six degrees; but, finding the sea encumbered with floating ice, and the coast tending back to the eastward, he was either

himself discouraged, or, as others say, overpowered by a mutiny of the sailors. Perhaps there might be a combination of both causes. Retracing his steps, and reaching his former point, he thence proceeded to the southward, still keeping the same object in view. But though this, like the former coast, tended steadily to the westward, it preserved the same unbroken continuity, and gave as little hope as ever of the passage, to find which had been his primary object. Worn out with a voyage of such unusual length for that age, he returned to England. stated himself in this southern course to have reached the latitude of Gibraltar, and the longitude of Cuba, which would place him near the entrance of the Chesapeake.

He

It cannot fail to strike us as a remarkable circumstance, that, in all the foreign accounts of this voyage, Sebastian is represented as its mover and sole conductor. The legate even told Ramusio, that he understood the father to have been dead before it was undertaken; yet the charter of Henry, and the record on the map, place it beyond a doubt, that old John was at the head of the whole undertaking. This suggests a disagreeable doubt, whether Sebastian, when abroad, having his own story to tell, did not drop all mention of his worthy father, and even kill him before the time. The hypothesis to which Campbell is driven, of there being two voyages, in one of which were both father and son, and in the other the son only, does not seem very tenable. Nothing of the kind is hinted at in any of the original relations; and the date which Sebastian assigns to that of which he