AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



J516. 



de Oviedo, who though it please him to call the captain 

 of this great English ship a rover, yet it appeareth by 

 the Englishmens owne words, that they came to discover, 

 and by their traffique for pewter vessell and other wares 

 at the towne of S. Germaine in the Hand of S. John 

 de puerto rico, it cannot bee denied but that they were 

 furnished with wares for honest traffique and exchange. 

 But whosoever is conversant in reading the Portugall 

 and Spanish writers of the East and West Indies, shall 

 commonly finde that they account all other nations for 

 pirats, rovers and theeves, which visite any heathen 

 coast that they have once sayled by or looked on. 

 Howbeit their passionate and ambitious reckoning ought 

 not to bee prejudiciall to other mens chargeable and 

 painefull enterprises and honourable travels in discoverie. 



[III. 500.] A briefe note concerning a voyage of one Thomas 

 Tison an English man, made before the yeere 

 1526. to the West Indies, & of his abode 

 there in maner of a secret factor for some 

 English marchants, which under hand had 

 trade thither in those dayes : taken out of an 

 olde ligier-booke of M. Nicolas Thorne the 

 elder, a worshipfull marchant of Bristol. 



T appeareth out of a certaine note or 



letter of remembrance, in the custodie 



of mee Richard Hakluyt, written 1526. 



by master Nicolas Thorne the elder, a 



principall marchant of Bristol, unto his 



friend and factour Thomas Midnall, and 



his servant William Ballard at that time 



remaining at S. Lucar in Andaluzia : that before the sayd 



yeere one Thomas Tison an Englishman had found the 



way to the West Indies, and v/as there resident: unto 



whom the aforesayd M. Nicolas Thorne sent armour 



and other commodities specified in the letter aforesayd. 



This Thomas Tison (so farre as I can conjecture) may 



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