“The first taken out of the mappe of Sebastian Cabota cut by Clement1 Adames;
“the second used by Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes legate, and reported by him;
“the third out of the preface of Baptista Ramusius [Giovanni Battista Ramusio] before his third volume of Navigations;
“the 4. out of the thirde decade of Peter Martyr2 ab Angleria;
“the 5. out of the general history of Lopez de Gomara
“and the 6. out of Fabians Chronicle.”
The first “testimonie” is from a map which Hakluyt saw in the queen’s privy3 gallery at Westminster, and of which copies were also to be seen in several country houses of “ancient merchants.” It was attributed to 78Sebastian Cabot, but whether it was actually his has been a much discussed question by historical writers. Clement Adams was not an engraver4 but a learned schoolmaster. His “cut” was apparently5 an inscription6 from data furnished by Cabot. It was in Latin and is supposed to have been made in the year 1549. This is the extract as Hakluyt gives it:
“In the yere of our Lord 1497 John Cabot a Venetian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set out from Bristoll) discovered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24 of June, about five of the clocke early in the morning. This land he called Prima vista8, 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. John upon this occasion, as I thinke, because it was discovered upon the day of John the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island use to weare beasts skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as we have our finest garments. In their warres they use bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts9, woodden clubs, and slings10. The soile is barren in some places, & yeeldeth litle fruit, but it is full of white beares and stagges farre greater then ours. It yeeldeth plenty of fish, and those very great, as seales, and those which commonly we call salmons11: there are soles also above a yard in length: but especially there is great abundance of that kinde of fish which the Savages12 call baccalaos. In the same Island also there breed hauks, but they are so blacke that they are very 79like to ravens13, as also their partridges, and egles [eagles] which are in like sort blacke.”
Here is seen the first mixture of the two expeditions and the observations of their masters.
The second “testimonie” is comprised in a report of a talk among a group of Italian savans at the villa14 of Hieronymo Fracastor, a maker15 of globes, at Caphi, near Verona. The principal speaker, “a most profound philosopher and mathematician,” but not named, discoursed16 about Sebastian Cabot and related an interview had with Cabot some years before at Seville, in which he described his adventures in detail. The identification of the speaker as “Galeacius Butrigarius, the Pope’s legate” in Spain, was copied by Hakluyt, it is said, from Richard Eden. But this has been shown to have been an error, the fact being ascertained18 that Butrigarius died some years before the gathering19 at Fracastor’s villa. Hakluyt reproduces the animated20 tale from Ramusio’s second book of voyages, the caption21 being his own:
"A discourse17 of Sebastain Cabot touching22 his discovery of part of the West India out of England in the time of King Henry the seventh, used to Galeacius Butrigarius the Popes Legate in Spaine, and reported by the sayd Legate in this sort.
"Doe you not understand sayd he (speaking to certaine Gentlemen of Venice) how to passe to India toward the Northwest, as did of late a citizen of Venice, so valiant23 a man, and so well practised in all things pertaining24 80to navigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he is preferred above all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither25 without his licence, and is therefore called Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. And when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Sivil, and desirous to have some knowledge of the navigations of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make Cardes [charts] for the Sea with his owne hand, and that by this report, seeking his acquaintance, hee found him a very gentle person, who entertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a large Mappe of the world, with certaine particular Navigations, as well of the Portugals [Portuguese] as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further unto him to this effect.
"‘When my father departed from Venice many yeres since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie and of the Sphere. And when my father died in that time when newes was brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genuese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7. 81who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration26 affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane27, to saile by the West into the East where spices growe, by a way that was never knowen before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I should saile by way of the Northwest, I should by a shorter tract7 come into India, I thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two Carvels to bee furnished with all things appertayning to the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496 [sic] in the beginning of Sommer.
“‘I began therefore to saile toward the Northwest, not thinking to finde any other land then that of Cathay, & from thence to turne toward India, but after certaine dayes I found that the land ranne towards the North, which was to mee a great displeasure. Neverthelesse, sayling along by the coast to see if I could finde any gulfe that turned, I found the lande still continent to the 56. degree under our Pole. And seeing that there the coast turned toward the East, despairing to finde the passage, I turned backe againe, and sailed downe by the coast of that land toward the Equinoctiall (ever with intent to finde the saide passage to India) and came to that part of this firme lande which is nowe called Florida, where my victuals28 failing, I departed from thence and returned into England, where I found great tumult29 among the people and 82preparation for warre in Scotland: by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage.’”
Here again the two voyages are confused; and besides, the date, 1496, is wrong, and John Cabot is ignored. This would reflect upon the veracity30 and generosity31 of Sebastian Cabot, were it not more than likely that the reporter bungled32, or that the accuracy of the statement suffered through repetition. It is also to be taken into account that the interview was had half a century after the events, and when Sebastian Cabot was an old man.
The remainder of the interview touches briefly33 upon Sebastian Cabot’s exploits of later years for Spain, and again, for England, and closes cheerily: “... And waxing olde, I give my selfe to rest from such travels, because there are nowe many yong and lustie Pilots and Mariners34 of good experience, by whose forwardnesse I doe rejoyce in the fruit of my labours, and rest with the charge of this office, as you see.”
The third testimony35, from Ramusio’s preface to his third volume, which was published in 1563, contrasts the Cabot voyages with those subsequently made for the king of France, which established “New France” in North America:
“In the latter part of this volume are put certaine relations of John de Vararzana [Verrazzano], Florentine, and of a great captaine a Frenchman, and the two voyages of Jaques Cartier a Briton [of Brittany], who sailed unto the land situate in 50 degrees of latitude36 to the North, which is called New France, which 83landes hitherto are not throughly knowen, whether they doo joyne with the firme land of Florida and Nova Hispania, or whether they bee separated and divided all by the Sea as Ilands: and whether that by that way we may goe by Sea unto the countrey of Cathaia. As many yeeres past it was written unto mee by Sebastian Cabota our Countrey man, a Venetian, a man of great experience, and very rare in the art of Navigation, and the knowledge of Cosmographie, who sailed along and beyond this lande of New France, at the charges of King Henry the seventh king of England: and he advertised mee that having sailed a long time West by North, beyond those Ilands unto the Latitude of 67 degrees and an halfe under the North pole, and at the 11 day of June finding still the open Sea without any maner of impediment, he thought verily by that way to have passed on still the way to Cathaia, which is in the East, and would have done it, if the mutinie of the shipmaster and Mariners had not hindered him and made him to returne homeward from that place. But it seemeth that God doeth yet still reserve this great enterprise for some great prince to discover this voyage of Cathaia by this way, which for the bringing of the Spiceries from India into Europe, were the most easie and shortest of all other wayes hitherto found out. And surely this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most importance of all other that can be imagined to make his name great, and fame immortall, to all ages to come, farre more then can be done by any of all these great troubles and warres which dayly 84are used in Europe among the miserable37 Christian38 people.”
The fourth testimony is the most important of the six, being an account by Peter Martyr drawn39 directly from Sebastian Cabot’s statements to him. The Third Decade of Martyr’s history of the New World, from which Hakluyt takes it, was first printed in Seville, in 1516. At the time of Martyr’s writing Sebastian Cabot was in Spain, in the Spanish king’s service, and, as the text shows, an intimate friend of Martyr’s. This being the first printed account of the Cabot voyages, American historians based their relations of them upon it till its several inaccuracies were disclosed by other data. Hakluyt presents it in full as below.
"These North Seas have bene searched by one Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian borne, whom being yet but in maner an infant, his parents caried with them into England, having occasion to resort thither for trade of marchandise, as is the maner of the Venetians to leave no part of the world unsearched to obtaine riches. Hee therefore furnished two ships in England at his owne charges, and first with 300 men directed his course so far towards the North pole, that even in the moneth of July he found monstrous40 heapes of ice swimming on the sea, and in maner continuall day light, yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, which had bene molten by the heat of the Sunne. Thus seeing such heapes of yce before him, hee was enforced to turne his sailes and follow the West, so coasting still to the shore, that he was thereby41 brought 85so farre into the South, by reason of the land bending so much Southward, that it was there almost equall in latitude, with the sea Fretum Herculeum [Straits of Hercules], having the Northpole elevate in maner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so farre towards the West, that hee had the Island of Cuba on his left hand, in maner in the same degree of longitude42. As hee traveiled by the coastes of this great land (which he named Baccalaos) he saith that hee found the like course of the waters toward the West, but the same to runne more softly and gently then the swift waters which the Spaniards found in their Navigations Southward. Wherefore it is not onely more like to be true, but ought also of necessitie to be concluded that betweene both the lands hitherto unknowen, there should be certaine great open places whereby the waters should thus continually passe from the East unto the West: which waters I suppose to be driven about the globe of the earth by the uncessant moving and impulsion of the heavens, and not to bee swallowed up and cast up againe by the breathing of Demagorg?n, as some have imagined, because they see the seas by increase and decrease to ebbe and flowe.
"Sebastian Cabot himselfe named those lands Baccalaos, because that in the Seas thereabout hee found so great multitudes of certaine bigge fishes much like unto Tunies (which the inhabitants call Baccalaos) that they sometimes stayed his shippe. He found also the people of those regions covered with beastes skinnes, yet not without the use of reason. He also saith there 86is great plentie of Beares in those regions which use to eate fish: for plunging43 themselves into ye water, where they perceive a multitude of these fishes to be, they fasten their clawes into their scales and so draw them to land and eate them, so (as he saith) the Beares being thus satisfied with fish, are not noisome44 to men. Hee declareth further, that in many places of these Regions he saw great plentie of Copper45 among the inhabitants.
“Cabot is my very friend, whom I use familiarly, and delight to have him sometimes keepe mee company in mine owne house. For being called out of England by the commandement of the Catholique King of Castile, after the death of King Henry the seventh of that name King of England, he was made one of our councill and Assistants, as touching the affaires of the new Indies, looking for ships dayly to be furnished for him to discover this hid secret of Nature.”
The fifth testimony, out of Gomara’s “General History,” is the following extract from a history of the West Indies published in 1552–1553. Francisco Lopez de Gomara was a priest, sometime chaplain of Hernando Cortes, and was one of the most distinguished46 historical writers of Spain in his time.
"The testimonie of Francis Lopez de Gomara, a Spaniard, in the fourth Chapter of the second Booke of his generall history of the West Indies concerning the first discoverie of a great part of the West Indies, to wit, from 58 to 38 degrees of latitude, by Sebastian Cabota out of England.
“He which brought most certaine newes of the 87countrey & people of Baccalaos, saith Gomara, was Sebastian Cabote a Venetian, which rigged up two ships at the cost of K. Henry the 7 of England, having great desire to traffique for the spices as the Portingales did. He carried with him 300 men, and tooke the way towards Island [Iceland] from beyond the Cape47 of Labrador, untill he found himselfe in 58 degrees and better. He made relation that in the moneth of July it was so cold, and the ice so great, that hee durst not passe any further: that the dayes were very long, in a maner without any night, and for that short night that they had, it was very cleare. Cabot feeling the cold, turned towards the West, refreshing48 himselfe at Bacalaos: and afterwards he sayled along the coast unto 38 degrees, and from thence he shaped his course to returne into England.”
The sixth is this brief passage from the Chronicle of Robert Fabian, “sometime alderman of London,” which Hakluyt received in manuscript from John Stow, the famous London antiquarian and annalist:
"A note of Sebastian Cabots first discoverie of part of the Indies taken out of the latter part of Robert Fabians Chronicle not hitherto printed, which is in the custodie of M. John Stow a diligent49 preserver of Antiquities50.
“In the 13 yeere of K. Henry the 7 (by meanes of one John Cabot a Venetian which made himselfe very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world and Ilands of the same, as by a Sea card and 88other demonstrations51 reasonable he shewed) the king caused to man and victuall a ship at Bristow [Bristol] to search for an Island which he said hee knew well was rich, and replenished52 with great commodities: Which shippe thus manned and victualed at the kings cost, divers53 Marchants of London ventured in her small stocks, being in her as chiefe patron the said Venetian. And in the company of the said ship, sailed also out of Bristow three or foure small ships fraught54 with sleght and grosse marchandises, as course cloth, caps, laces, points & other trifles. And so departed from Bristow in the beginning of May, of whom in this Maiors [mayor’s] time returned no tidings.”
The following mention, by “the foresaid Robert Fabian,” “of three Savages which Cabot brought home and presented unto the King in the foureteenth yere of his raigne,” is given as a sort of supplementary55 testimony (the authenticity56 of which is questioned by Richard Biddle, Sebastian Cabot’s biographer, who charges this kidnapping of natives upon a later navigator):
“This yeere also were brought unto the King three men taken in the Newfound Island that before I spake of, in William Purchas time being Maior: These were clothed in beasts skins, & did eate raw flesh, and spake such speach that no man could understand them, and in their demeanour like to brute57 beastes, whom the King kept a time after. Of the which upon two yeeres after, I saw two apparelled after the manner of Englishmen in Westminster pallace, which that time I 89could not discerne from Englishmen, til I was learned what they were, but as for speach I heard none of them utter one word.”
And the whole is preceded by that legend of the first discovery of the West Indies by Madoc the Welshman, in the year 1170, which is cast in apparently for what it may be worth.
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clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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engraver
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| n.雕刻师，雕工 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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slings
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| 抛( sling的第三人称单数 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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salmons
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| n.鲑鱼，大马哈鱼( salmon的名词复数 ) | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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animated
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caption
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| n.说明，字幕，标题；v.加上标题，加上说明 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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pertaining
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thither
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admiration
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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tumult
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veracity
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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bungled
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| v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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testimony
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latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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longitude
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| n.经线，经度 | |
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plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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noisome
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| adj.有害的，可厌的 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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antiquities
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| n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯 | |
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demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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replenished
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| 补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满 | |
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53
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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54
fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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55
supplementary
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| adj.补充的，附加的 | |
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authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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