He went afterwards into Spain, where he was taken into the service of Ferdinand and Isabella, who furnished him with ships at their expence, in which he went to discover the coast of Brazil, where he found a prodigiously large river, now called the Rio de la Plata, or Silver River, up which he sailed above 120 leagues, finding every where a good country, inhabited by prodigious numbers of people, who flocked from every quarter to view the ships with wonder and admiration. Into this great river a prodigious number of other rivers discharged their waters. After this he made many other voyages; and waxing old, rested at home discharging the office of chief pilot, and leaving the prosecution of discovery to many young and active pilots of good experience.
In the latter part of this volume are contained certain relations of Giovani de Varanzana of Florence, of a certain celebrated French navigator, and of two voyages by Jacques Cartier a Breton, who sailed to the land in 50° north latitude, called New France; it not being yet known whether that land join with the continent of Florida and New Spain, or whether they are separated by the sea into distinct islands, so as to allow of a passage by sea to Cathay and India. This latter was the opinion of Sebastian Cabota, our countryman, a man of rare knowledge and experience in navigation, who wrote to me many years ago, that he had sailed along and beyond this land of New France in the employment of Henry VII. of England. He informed me that, having sailed a long way to the north-west, beyond these lands, to the lat. of 67-1/2° N. and finding the sea on the 11th of June entirely open and without impediment, he fully expected to have passed on that way to Cathay in the east; and would certainly have succeeded, but was constrained by a mutiny of the master and mariners to return homewards. But it would appear that the Almighty still reserves this great enterprise of discovering the route to Cathay by the north-west to some great prince, which were the easiest and shortest passage by which to bring the spiceries of India to Europe. Surely this enterprise would be me most glorious and most important that can possibly he imagined, and would immortalize him who succeeded in its accomplishment far beyond any of those warlike exploits by which the Christian nations of Europe are perpetually harassed.
These northern seas have been searched by Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian, who was carried when very young to England by his parents, who, after the manner of the Venetians, left no part of the world unsearched to obtain riches. Having fitted out two ships in England at his own expence, with three hundred men, he first directed his course so near the north pole, that on the 11th of July he found monstrous heaps of ice swimming in the sea, and a continual day, so that the land was free from ice, having been thawed by the perpetual influence of the sun. By reason of this ice he was compelled to turn southwards along the western land, till he came unto the latitude of the Straits of Gibraltar10. In the course of this north-west voyage he got so far to the west as to have the island of Cuba on his left hand, having reached to the same longitude11. While sailing along the coast of this great land, which he called Baccalaos12, he found a similar current of the sea towards the west13 as had been observed by the Spaniards in their more southerly navigations, but more softly and gently than had been experienced by the Spaniards. Hence it may be certainly concluded that in both places, though hitherto unknown, there must be certain great open spaces by which the waters thus continually pass from the east to the west; which waters I suppose to be continually driven round the globe by the constant motion and impulse of the heavens, and not to be alternately swallowed and cast up again by the breathing of Demogorgon, as some have imagined on purpose to explain the ebb and flow of the sea. Sebastian Cabot himself named these lands Baccalaos, because he found in the seas thereabout such multitudes of certain large fishes like tunnies, called baccalaos by the natives, that they sometimes stayed his ships. He found also the people of these regions clothed in the skins of beasts, yet not without the use of reason. He says also that there are great numbers of bears in those countries, which feed on fish, and catch them by diving into the water; and being thus satisfied with abundance of fish, are not noisome to man. He says likewise that he saw large quantities of copper among the inhabitants of these regions. Cabot is my dear and familiar friend, whom I delight to have sometimes in my house. Being called out of England by the Catholic king of Castille, on the death of Henry VII. of England, he was made one of the assistants of our council respecting the affairs of the new found Indies, and waits in daily expectation of being furnished with ships in which to discover these hidden secrets of nature.
Sebastian Cabota, who came out of England into Spain, brought most certain information of the country and people of Baccalaos. Having a great desire to traffic for spices, like the Portuguese, he fitted out two ships with 300 men, at the cost of Henry VII. of England, and took the way towards Iceland from beyond the Cape of Labradore, until he reached the lat. of 58° N. and better. Even in the month of July, the weather was so cold and the ice in such quantities, that he durst not proceed any farther. The days were so long as to have hardly any night, and what little there was, was very clear. Being unable to proceed farther on account of the cold, he turned south; and, having refreshed at Baccalaos, he sailed southwards along the coast to the 38° of latitude15, from whence he returned into England.
IN the 13th year of Henry VII. by means of John Cabot, Venetian, who was very expert in cosmography and the construction of sea-charts, that king caused to man and victual a ship at Bristol, to search for an island which Cabot said he well knew to be rich and replenished with valuable commodities. In which ship, manned and victualled at the kings expence, divers merchants of London adventured small stocks of goods under the charge of the said Venetian. Along with that ship there went three or four small vessels from Bristol, laden with slight and coarse goods, such as coarse cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles. These vessels departed from Bristol in the beginning of May; but no tidings of them had been received at the time of writing this portion of the chronicle of Fabian.
10
The Straits of Gibraltar are in lat. 36° N. which would bring the discovery of the eastern coast of North America by Cabot, all the way from 67-1/2° N. beyond Hudsons Bay, to Albemarle Sound on the coast of North Carolina-E.
11
The middle of the island of Cuba is in long. 80° W. from Greenwich, which would have carried Cabot into the interior of Hudsons Bay, to which there is no appearance of his having penetrated, in the slight notices remaining of his exploratory voyage. –E.
12
We have before seen that he named the country which he discovered, the island of St John, and that he gave the name in this part of the text,
13
It is probable this applies to the tide of flood setting into the Gulf of St Lawrence or Hudsons Bay or both; which led Cabot to expect a passage through the land to the west-E.
15
By this account the progress of Cabot to the south along the eastern coast of North America, reached no farther than coast of Maryland. –E.
16
Hakluyt, III. 30. quoting from a MS. in possession of Mr John Stow, whom he characterizes as a diligent collector of antiquities.