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 deg. of
latitude[15], from whence he returned into England.
[Footnote 14: Hakluyt, III. 30. quoting Gomara, Gen. Hist. of the W.
Indies, Book II. Ch. iv.]
[Footnote 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.]
SECTION VI.
Note respecting the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot; from the latter
part of Fabians Chronicle[16].
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.
[Footnote 16: Hakluyt, III. 30. quoting from a MS. in possession of Mr
John Stow, whom he characterizes as a diligent collector of
antiquities.]
In the 14th year of the king however, three men were brought from the
New-found-Island, who were clothed in the skins of beasts, did eat raw
flesh, and spoke a language which no man could understand, their
demeanour being more like brute beasts than men. They were kept by the
king for some considerable time; and I saw two of them about two years
afterward in the palace of Westminster, habited like Englishmen, and not
to be distinguished from natives of England, till I was told who they
were; but as for their speech, I did not hear either of them utter a
word.
SECTION VII.
Brief notice of the discovery of Newfoundland, by Mr Robert
Thorne.[17]
As some diseases are hereditary, so have I inherited an inclination of
discovery from my father, who, with another merchant of Bristol named
Hugh Eliot, were the discoveries of the Newfoundlands. And, if the
mariners had followed the directions of their pilot, there can be no
doubt that the lands of the West Indies, whence all the gold cometh, had
now been ours; as it appears by the chart that all is one coast.
