IX. BOOK fail, under the banner of England, towards the eaft, north, or weft, in order to discover countries unoccupied by any Christian state; to take poffeffion of them in his name, and to carry on an exclufive trade with the inhabitants, under condition of paying a fifth part of the free profit on every voyage to the crown, This commiffion was granted on March 5th, 1495, in less than two years after the return of Columbus from America a. But Cabot (for that is the name he affumed in England, and by which he is best known) did not fet out on his voyage for two years. He, together with his fecond fon Sebastian, embarked at Bristol, on board a ship furnished by the king, and was accompanied by four small barks, fitted out by the merchants of that city. 1497. May. Cabot dif. Covers Jand, and fails along the coast of As in that age the moft eminent navigators, Newfound formed by the inftructions of Columbus, or animated by his example, were guided by ideas Virginia. derived from his fuperior knowledge and experience, Cabot had adopted the fyftem of that great man, concerning the probability of opening a new and fhorter paffage to the Eaft Indies, by holding a western courfe. The opinion which Columbus had formed with refpect to the islands which he had difcovered, was univerfally received. They were fuppofed to lie contiguous to the great continent of India, and to constitute a part of the vaft countries comprehended under that general name. Cabot accordingly deemed it probable, that, by fteering to the north-weft, he might reach India by a fhorter course than that which Columbus had taken, and hoped to fall in with the coast of Cathay, or China, of whose fertility and opulence the descriptions of Marco Polo had excited high ideas. After failing for some weeks due weft, and nearly on the parallel of the port from which he took his departure, he discovered a large island, which he called Prima Vista, and his failors Newfoundland; and in a few days he defcried a smaller isle, to which IX he gave the name of St. John. He landed on June 24. both thefe, made fome obfervations on their foil and productions, and brought off three of the natives, Continuing his courfe weftward, he foon reached the continent of North America, and failed along it from the fifty-fixth to the thirty-eighth degree of latitude, from the coaft of Labrador, to that of Virginia. As his chief object was to discover fome inlet that might open a paffage to the weft, it does not appear that he landed anywhere during this extensive run; and he returned to England, without BOOK without attempting either fettlement or conquest in any part of that continent. IX. Henry does not profit discovery; If it had been Henry's purpose to profecute by Cahot's the object of the commiffion given by him to Cabot, and to take poffeffion of the countries which he had discovered, the fuccefs of this voyage must have answered his most fanguine expectations. His fubjects were undoubtedly the first Europeans who had visited that part of the American continent, and were entitled to whatever right of property prior discovery is fuppofed to confer. Countries which stretched in an uninterrupted course through such a large portion of the temperate zone, opened a profpect of fettling to advantage under mild climates, and in a fertile foil. But by the time that Cabot returned to England, he found both the state of affairs and the king's inclination unfavourable to any scheme, the execution of which would have required tranquillity and leifure. Henry was involved in a war with Scotland, and his kingdom was not yet fully composed after the commotion excited by a formidable infurrection of his own fubjects in the west. An ambaffador from Ferdinand of Arragon was then in London; and as Henry C Monfon's Naval Tracts, in Churchill's Collect. iii. 211. fet IX. fet a high value upon the friendship of that BOOK monarch, for whose character he profeffed much admiration, perhaps from its fimilarity to his own, and was endeavouring to ftrengthen their union by negociating the marriage which afterwards took place between his eldest son and the princess Catharine, he was cautious of giving any offence to a prince, jealous to excefs of all his rights. From the pofition of the islands and continent which Cabot had discovered, it was evident that they lay within the limits of the ample donative which the bounty of Alexander VI. had conferred upon Ferdinand and Ifabella. No perfon, in that age, queftioned the validity of a papal grant; and Ferdinand was not of a temper to relinquish any claim to which he had a fhadow of title. Submiffion to the authority of the pope, and deference for an ally whom he courted, feem to have concurred with Henry's own fituation, in determining him to abandon a scheme, in which he had engaged with fome degree of ardour and expectation. No attempt towards discovery was made in England during the remainder of his reign; and Sebastian Cabot, finding no encou ragement for his active talents there, entered into the service of Spain. THIS • Some schemes of discovery seem to have been formed in England towards the beginning of the fixteenth century. But 142 BOOK IX. nor his immediate THIS is the moft probable account of the fudden ceffation of Henry's activity, after fuch fuccefs in his first effay as might have encoufucceffors. raged him to perfevere. The advantages of commerce, as well as its nature, were fo little understood in England about this period, that by an act of parliament in the year 1488, the taking of interest for the ufe of money was prohibited under fevere penalties *. And by another law, the profit arifing from dealing in bills of exchange was condemned as favouring of ufury. It is not furprifing then, that no great effort fhould be made to extend trade, by a nation whofe commercial ideas were ftill fo crude and illiberal. But it is more difficult to discover what prevented this scheme of Henry VII. from being refumed during the reigns of his fon and grandfon; and to give any reason why no But as there is no other memorial of them, than what remains in a patent granted by the king to the adventurers, it is probable that they were feeble or abortive projects. If any attempt had been made in confequence of this patent, it would not have efcaped the knowledge of a compiler fo induftrious and inquifitive as Hakluyt. In his patent, Henry restricts the adventurers from encroaching on the countries difcovered by the kings of Portugal, or any other prince in confederacy with England. Rymer's Federa, vol. xiii. P. 37. d3 Hen. VII. c. 5. e 3 Hen. VII. c. 6. attempt |