Continuation of the Voyage from Toro or Al Tor to Suez.

SECTION IX. Return Voyage from Suez to Massua.

SECTION X. Return of the Expedition from Massua to India.

SECTION XI. Description of the Sea of Kolzum, otherwise called the Arabian Gulf, or the Red Sea. Extracted from the Geography of Abulfeda.

POSTSCRIPT.--Transactions of the Portuguese in Abyssinia, under Don Christopher de Gama.

CHAPTER IV.

Continuation of the Portuguese transactions in India, after the return of Don Stefano de Gama from Suez in 1541, to the Reduction of Portugal under the Dominion of Spain in 1581.

SECTION I. Incidents during the Government of India by Don Stefano de Gama, subsequent to his Expedition to the Red Sea.

SECTION II. Exploits of Antonio de Faria y Sousa in Eastern India.

SECTION III. Transactions during the Government of Martin Alfonso de Sousa, from 1542 to 1543.

SECTION IV. Government of India by Don Juan de Castro, from 1545 to 1548.

SECTION V. Transactions of the Portuguese in India, from 1545 to 1564, under several Governors.

SECTION VI. Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, from 1564 to the year 1571.

SECTION VII. Portuguese Transactions in India from 1571 to 1576.

SECTION VIII. Transactions of the Portuguese in Monomotapa, from 1569 to the end of that separate government.

SECTION IX. Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, from 1576 to 1581; when the Crown of Portugal was usurped by Philip II. of Spain on the Death of the Cardinal King Henry.

SECTION X. Transactions of the Portuguese in India, from 1581 to 1597.

SECTION XI. Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, from 1597 to 1612.

SECTION XII. Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions, from 1512 to 1517.

A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

PART II.--Continued

BOOK II.--Continued.

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, AND OF SOME OF THE EARLY CONQUESTS IN THE NEW WORLD.

CHAPTER XI.

EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY TO AMERICA.

INTRODUCTION.

Although we have already, in the Introduction to the Second Chapter of this Book, Vol. III. p. 346. given some notices of the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot to America in the service of Henry VII. and VIII. it appears proper on the present occasion to insert a full report of every thing that is now known of these early navigations: As, although no immediate fruits were derived from these voyages, England by their means became second only to Spain in the discovery of America, and afterwards became second likewise in point of colonization in the New World. The establishments of the several English colonies will be resumed in a subsequent division of our arrangement.

It has been already mentioned that Columbus, on leaving Portugal to offer his services to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain for the discovery of the Indies by a western course through the Atlantic, sent his brother Bartholomew to make a similar offer to Henry VII. King of England, lest his proposals might not have been listened to by the court of Spain. Bartholomew, as has been formerly related, was taken by pirates; and on his arrival in England was forced to procure the means of living, and of enabling himself to appear before the king, by the construction and sale of sea-charts and maps, in which he had been instructed by his brother. Owing to this long delay, when he at length presented himself to King Henry, and had even procured the acceptance of his brothers proposals, so much time had been lost that Isabella queen of Castille had already entered into the views of his illustrious brother, who had sailed on his second voyage to the West Indies, while Bartholomew was on his journey through France to announce to him that Henry King of England had agreed to his proposals.

The fame of the astonishing discovery made by Columbus in 1591, soon spread throughout Europe; and only four years afterwards, or in 1595, a patent was granted by Henry VII. to John Cabot, or Giovani Cabota, a Venetian citizen, then resident in England, and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, and their heirs and deputies, to sail to all parts countries and seas of the east west and north, at their own cost and charges, with five ships; to seek out discover and find whatsoever islands, countries, regions, or provinces belonging to the heathen and infidels, were hitherto unknown to Christians, and to subdue, occupy, and possess all such towns, cities, castles, and islands as they might be able; setting up the royal banners and ensigns in the same, and to command over them as vassals and lieutenants of the crown of England, to which was reserved the rule, title, and jurisdiction of the same. In this grant Cabot and his sons, with their heirs and deputies, were bound to bring all the fruits, profits, gains, and commodities acquired in their voyages to the port of Bristol; and, having deducted from the proceeds all manner of necessary costs and charges by them expanded, to pay to the king in wares or money the fifth part of the free gain so made, in lieu of all customs of other dues; of importation on the same. By these letters patent; dated at Westminster on the 5th of March in the eleventh year of Henry VII. all the other subjects of England are prohibited from visiting or frequenting any of the continents, islands, villages, towns, castles, or places which might be discovered by John Cabot, his sons, heirs, or deputies, under forfeiture of their ships and goods[1].

[Footnote 1: Hakluyt, III. 26.]

No journal or relation remains of the voyages of Cabot and his sons in consequence of this grant, and we are reduced to a few scanty memorials concerning them; contained in the third volume of Hakluyt's Collection of the Early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries of the English Nation. We quote from the new edition, with additions, published at London in 1810.

Two years after the before-mentioned letters patent, or on the 18th of February 1497, a licence was granted by the same king of England, Henry VII. to John Cabot, to take six English ships in any haven or havens of England, being of 200 tons burden or under, with all necessary furniture; and to take also into the said ships all such masters, mariners, or other subjects of the king as might be willing to engage with him.

It would appear that the patent of 1495 had never been acted upon; but in consequence of this new licence, John Cabot and his son Sebastian proceeded from the port of Bristol and discovered an island somewhere on the coast of America to which they gave the name of Prima Vista, probably the island of Newfoundland. The short account of this voyage of discovery left to us by Hakluyt, is said to have been inserted in Latin on a map constructed by Sebastian Cabot, concerning his discovery in America, then called the West Indies; which map, engraved by Clement Adams, was to be seen in the time of Hakluyt in the private gallery of Queen Elizabeth at Westminster, and in the possession of many of the principal merchants in London. This memorandum, translated into English, is as follows[2].

[Footnote 2: Id. III. 27.]

SECTION I.

Discovery of Newfoundland by John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497, in the service of Henry VII. of England.

"In the year 1497, John Cabot a Venetian and his son Sebastian, discovered on the 24th of June, about five in the morning, that land to which no person had before ventured to sail, which they named Prima Vista[3], or, first-seen, because as I