In
Witness Whereof, &C. Done By The King At Westminster On The 6th Of
January 1548, In The Second Year Of His Reign.
[Footnote 18:
Hakluyt, id. ib. Supposing Sebastian to have been sixteen
years of age in 1495, when he appears to have come to England with his
father, he must have attained to seventy years of age at the period of
this grant - E.]
[Footnote 19: At the rate of six for one, as established by the
Historian of America for comparing sums of money between these two
periods, this pension was equal to L.1000 in our time. - E.]
SECTION IX.
Voyage of Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot about the year 1516, to
Brazil, St Domingo, and Porto Rico.
That learned and painefull writer Richard Eden, in a certain epistle of
his to the Duke of Northumberland, before a work which he translated out
of Munster in 1553, called A Treatise of New India, maketh mention of
a voyage of discoverie undertaken out of England by Sir Thomas Pert and
Sebastian Cabota, about the eighth year of Henry VIII. of famous
memorie, imputing the overthrow thereof unto the cowardice and want of
stomack of the said Sir Thomas Pert, in manner following:
If manly courage, saith he, (like unto that which hath bene seene and
proved in your Grace, as well in forreine realmes, as also in this our
country) had not bene wanting in others in these our dayes, at such time
as our souereigne lord of famous memorie king Henry VIII. about the same
yeere of his raigne, furnished and sent out certaine shippes under the
governance of Sebastian Cabot yet living, and one Sir Thomas Pert, who
was vice-admiral of England and dweleth in Poplar at Blackwall, whose
faint heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect. If, I say,
such manly courage, whereof we have spoken, had not at that time beene
wanting, it might happily have come to passe, that that rich treasurie
called Perularia, (which is nowe in Spaine in the citie of Seville, and
so named, for that in it is kept the infinite riches brought thither
from the newfoundland kingdom of Peru) might long since have beene in
the tower of London, to the kings great honour and the wealth of this
realme.
Hereunto that also is to bee referred which the worshipfull Mr Robert
Thorne wrote to the saide king Henry VIII. in the yeere 1527, by Doctor
Leigh his ambassador sent into Spaine to the Emperour Charles V. whose
worries bee these:
Now rest to be discovered the north parts, the which it seemeth unto me
is onely your highnes charge and dutie; because the situation of this
your realme is thereunto neerest and aptest of all other: and also, for
that already you have taken it in hand. And in mine opinion it will not
seeme well to leave so great and profitable an enterprise, seeing it may
so easily and with so little cost, labour, and danger be followed and
obteined. Though hitherto your grace have made thereof a proofe, and
found not the commoditie thereby as you trusted, at this time it shal be
none impediment: for there may be now provided remedies for things then
lacked, and the inconveniences and lets remooved, that then were cause
your graces desire tooke no full effect: which is the courses to be
changed, and to follow the aforesayd new courses. And concerning the
mariners, ships, and provision, an order may be devised and taken meete
and convenient, much better than hitherto: by reason whereof, and by
Gods grace, no doubt your purpose shall take effect.
And where as in the aforesayd wordes Mr Robert Thorne sayth, that he
would have the old courses to bee changed, and the new courses [to the
north] to be followed: It may plainely be gathered that the former
voyage, whereof twise or thrise he maketh mention, wherein it is like
that Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot were set foorth by the king,
was made towards Brazil and the south parts. Moreover it seemeth that
Gonzalvo de Oviedo, a famous Spanish writer, alludeth unto the sayde
voyage in the beginning of the 13. chapter of the 19. booke of his
generall and natural historie of the West Indies, agreeing very well
with the time about which Richard Eden writeth that the foresayd voyage
was begun. The authors wordes are these, as I finde them translated into
Italian by that excellent and famous man Baptista Ramusio[21].
[Footnote 21: At this place Hakluyt gives the Italian of Ramusio; we are
satisfied on the present occasion with his translation. - E.]
In the year 1517, an English rover under the colour of travelling to
discover, came with a great shippe unto the parts of Brazill on the
coast of the firme land, and from thence he crossed over unto this
island of Hispaniola, and arrived near unto the mouth of the haven of
this citie of San Domingo, and sent his shipboate full of men on shoare,
and demaunded leave to enter into this haven, saying that hee came with
marchandise to traffique. But at that very instant the governour of the
castle, Francis de Tapia, caused a tire of ordinance to be shot from the
castle at the shippe, for she bare in directly with the haven. When the
Englishmen sawe this, they withdrew themselves out, and those that were
in the shipboate got themselves with all speede on shipboard. And in
trueth the warden of the castle committed an oversight: for if the
shippe had entered into the haven, the men thereof could not have come
on lande without leave both of the citie and of the castle. Therefore
the people of the shippe seeing how they were received, sayled toward
the Island of St John de Puerto Rico, and entering into the port of St
Germaine, the Englishmen parled with those of the towne, requiring
victuals and things needful to furnish their ship, and complained of the
inhabitants of the city of St Domingo, saying that they came not to doe
any harme, but to trade and traffique for their money and merchandise.
In this place they had certain victuals, and for recompence they gave
and paid them with certain vessels of wrought tinne and other things.
And afterwards they departed toward Europe, where it is thought they
arrived not, for we never heard any more news of them.
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