1494. JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOTA. 33 



Neither is it quite clear that, in the voyage under- 

 taken after the patent was signed, (whether in the 

 same year, or the following,) the father accompanied 

 Sebastian ; for, if there be any truth in the report 

 made to the Pope's legate in Spain, and printed 

 in the collection of Ramusio, it would appear 

 that Sebastian was alone on this voyage of dis- 

 covery ; as in this document Sebastian is thus 

 made to say : — " and when my father died, in that 

 time when news were brouo-ht that Don Christoval 

 Colon,^ the Genoese, had discovered the coasts of 

 India, of which there was great talke in all the 

 court of King Henry VII. who then reigned ; 

 insomuch that all men, with o-reat admiration, 

 affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane 

 to saile by the West into the East, where spices 

 growe, by a way that was never known before : 

 by his fame and report, there increaseth in my 

 heart a great flame of desire to attempt some 

 notable thing ; and understanding by reason of the 

 sphere that if I should saile by way of north-west 

 I should by a shorter tract come into India, I 

 thereupon caused the king to be advertised of my 

 devise, who immediately commanded two caravels 

 to bee furnished with all things appertayning to 

 the voyage, which was, as farre as I remember, in 

 the year 1496, in the beginning of summer ; I 



♦ This again is at variance with the patent of Henry, in 

 which John is mentioned by name. 



VOL. I. D 



