The Passage To India By
The Cape Of Good Hope, Had Been Granted Exclusively By The Pope To The
Portuguese; And Henry VIII.
Then a good catholic, wished to evade this
exclusive privilege by endeavouring to discover a new route.
It was well
observed by one of the kings of France, in reference to the Pope having
granted all the East to the Portuguese, and all the West to the Spaniards,
"I wish my brothers of Spain and Portugal would shew me the testament of
our father Adam, by which they claim such ample inheritance." The
supposition that Cabot had perished on his voyage from Porto Rico to
England was unfounded. He was alive there in 1549, in which year Edward VI.
granted a yearly pension for life to him and his assigns, of L.166, 13s.
4d. to be paid quarterly, in consideration of the good and acceptable
service done and to be done by him[17].
We have been induced to insert this long digression in this place, because
no journals remain of the voyages to which they relate. The other early
voyages of the English to the New World, were all for the purpose of
discovering a N.W. passage by sea to India, or for colonizing the
provinces of North America, and will fail to be particularly noticed in
other divisions of our work.
[1] Novus Orbis, p. 111.
[2] Vol. I. 262, and Vol. V. 479.
[3] Nov. Orb. 87.
[4] Mod. Geogr. III. 8.
[5] Harris, Col. of Voy. and Trav. II. 167.
[6] Harris, Coll. of Voy. and Trav. II. 62.
[7] Id. II. 87.
[8] Harris, II. 33.
[9] Harris, II. 38.
[10] Hakluyt, III. 25.
[11] Hakluyt, III. 27.
[12] Hakl. III. 28.
[13] Id. III. 29.
[14] Id. ib.
[15] Id. ib.
[16] Hakl. III. 591.
[17] Hakl. III. 31.
DEDICATION.
To the most illustrious Renee, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Duke
of Lorain and Bar, Americas Vespucius in all humble reverence and due
gratitude, wisheth health and prosperity.
Most illustrious sovereign, your majesty may perhaps be surprised at my
presumption in writing this prolix epistle, knowing, as I do, that your
majesty is continually engaged in conducting the arduous affairs of
government. I may deserve blame for presuming to dedicate to your majesty
this work, in which you will take little interest, both because of its
barbarous style, and that it was composed expressly for Ferdinand king of
Spain. But my experience of your royal virtues has given me a confident
hope that the nature of my subject, which has never yet been treated of by
ancient or modern writers, may excuse me to your majesty. The bearer,
Benvenuto, a servant of your majesty, and my valued friend, whom I met
with at Lisbon, earnestly entreated me to write this history, that your
majesty might be informed of all those things which I had seen during the
four voyages to different parts of the world, which I had undertaken for
the discovery of unknown countries.
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