2'"i S. No 105., Jan. 2. '58,] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARYS. 1858, 



TO OUE BEABEKS. 



A Hafpy New Year to you, Gentle Eeaders, 

 ONE AND all! Maj' the four wishes of that King of 

 Spain, who doubtless received his designation of El 

 Sabio, or the Wise, from the wisdom and moderation 

 embodied in those aspirations, be yours ! May You, during 

 the coming year, never want Old Wood to burn, or Old 

 Wine to drink ! We will supply You, if not with Old 

 Books to read, with pleasant and profitable accounts of 

 them ; and as for Old Friends to love, may We not hope 

 in this, the ninth year of our intimacy, to be reckoned 

 among the number ? At all events. We Avill do our best 

 to deserve it. 



With these hopes and these promises, therefore. We in- 

 vite You to fall to on the Choice Banquet of Dainty De- 

 vices which We have prepared for You. 



^aiti. 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



Bristol must be deprived of a distinguished 

 name, hitherto numbered amongst the natives 

 and "worthies" of that city, — Sebastian Cabot. 

 From the days of Grafton and Stow to the pre- 

 sent time Cabot has been regarded as an English- 

 man " borne at Bristowe." 



Sayer, in his History of Bristol (1823), refers 

 to a MS. Calendar in confirmation of this state- 

 ment :—" This yeare (1499 al. 1497) Sebastian 

 Cabot, borne in Bristoll, profered his service to 

 King Henry for discovering New Countries" 

 (vol. ii. p. 208.). He also gives us a portrait from 

 an original picture in the possession of Mr. Charles 

 Harford. 



In the volume o? Miscellanies recently printed 

 by the Philobiblon Society will be found some 

 interesting notices concerning John Cabot and 

 his son Sebastian, communicated by Mr. Cheney, 

 which had been transcribed and translated from 

 Original MSS. in the Marcian Library at Venice 

 by Mr. Rawdon Brown. From the limited im- 

 j)ression, these Miscellanies must be seen and read 

 l»y few persons : I shall therefore not apologise 

 for the length of this communication. John Cabot 

 had three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius ; but 

 the fame of the father has been obscured by that 

 of Sebastian, who, as Mr. Cheney obserVW, was 

 not unwilling tg claim his father's laurels. In his 

 reports he studiously avoided assigning to his 

 parent the honour due to him. Some account of 

 the father's discoveries Is given In a letter dated 

 Aug. 23, 1497, written by a Venetian merchant 

 from London to his brothers in Venice : he com- 

 mences by saying, "this Venetian of ours, who 

 went with a ship from Bristol in quest of New 



Islands, Is returned, and says that 700 leagues 

 hence he discovered terra firma, which is the ter- 

 ritory of the Grand Cham. 



" The King has promised that in the spring he 

 shall have 10 ships, armed according to his own 

 fancy. He has also given him money, wherewith 

 to amuse himself till then, and he Is now at Bristol 

 with his wife, who Is a Venetian woman, and with 

 his sons ; his name Is Zuan Cabot, and they call 

 him the Great Admiral. Vast honour is paid him, 

 and he dresses In silk ; and these English run after 

 him like mad people, so that he can enlist as many 

 of them as he pleases, and a number of our own 

 rogues besides." 



Mr. Cheney goes on to state " that Sebastian 

 himself has been the subject of some uncertainty, 

 and a little injustice. Venice and Bristol both 

 have contested the honour of giving him birth, 

 and other navigators have disputed his claim to 

 the discovery of the variation of the needle." 



The question as to his birth-place Is set at rest 

 by Sebastian's explicit declaration In a private 

 Interview (in Dec. 1522) with Cardinal Caspar 

 Contarini, the Venetian ambassador at the court 

 •f Charles V.,* when he thus expressed him- 

 self:— 



" My Lord Ambassador ! to tell you the whole truth, 

 I was born at Venice, but was bred in England, and then 

 entered the service of their Catholic Majesties of Spain; 

 and King Ferdinand made me Captain, with a salary of 

 50,000 maravedis. Subsequently his present Majesty 

 gave me the grade of Pilot Major, with an additional 

 salary of 50,000 maravedis, and 25,000 mai-avedis besides, 

 as 'Adjutant of the Coast,' forming a total of 125,000 

 maravedis, equal to about 300 ducats. 



" Now it so happened that when in England some 

 three years ago, unless I err, Cardinal Wolsey offered me 

 high terms if I would sail with an Armada of his, on a 

 voyage of discovery : the vessels were almost ready, and 

 thej' had got together 30,000 ducats for their outfit. I 

 answered him, that being in the service of the King of 

 Spain, I could not go without his leave ; but that if free 

 permission were conceded to me from hence, I would serve 

 him. 



" At that period, in the course of conversation one day 

 with a certain friar, a Venetian, named Sebastian Collona, 

 with whom I was on a very friendly footing, he said to 

 me, • Master Sebastian, you take such great pains to 

 benefit foreigners, and forget j'our native land ; would it 

 not be possible for Venice likewise to derive some ad- 

 vantage from you ? ' At this my heart smote me, and I 

 told him I would think about it ; and so on returning to 



* Piero Contarini, the Venetian ambassador in the 

 reign of James I., whose diary and despatches in 1617-18 

 have been also translated by Mr. Rawdon Brown, was 

 probably the nephew of the Cardinal, as the latter may 

 not have been married before he took holy orders. And 

 in Venice we are told that, among the great families, it 

 was usual that the head of the family should remain 

 single. 



We owe much to Mr. Brown for the valuable con- 

 tributions which he has made to English history; and 

 of these we trust we may possess further materials. An 

 interesting article on the Diary before mentioned is 

 given in the last number of the Quarterly Review. 



