JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



to with such great hopes. John Cabot now disappears com- 

 pletely and unaccountably from history, and his discovery, 

 which the year before had attracted so much attention, seems 

 to have been more or less forgotten in the succeeding years, 

 and is never referred to in the later letters of the Spanish 

 ambassadors in London. It may, therefore, seem reasonable 

 to suppose that the expedition disappeared without leaving a 

 trace. The probability of this is confirmed by the fact that 

 two years and a half later, in March, 1501, Henry VII. again 

 granted letters patent, for the discovery of lands, to three 

 merchants of Bristol and three Portuguese, without mentioning 

 Cabot; it is merely stated that all former privileges of a 

 similar kind were canceled. But according to some old account- 

 books from Bristol, found at Westminster Abbey, John Cabot's 

 royal pension of £20 a year was paid as late as the adminis- 

 trative year beginning September 29, 1498. This, as Harrisse 

 and others think, shows that Cabot returned from the voyage 

 and was still alive in that year. But this seems to be uncertain 

 evidence. The money need not have been paid to him per- 

 sonally; it may have been paid to his wife or his sons or other 

 representatives during his absence on the voyage, and we 

 cannot conclude anything certain from it. As the pension 

 is not entered in the following years, it seems rather to show 

 that Cabot was really lost, and the money was only paid 

 during the first year of his absence. 



It has been supposed that the following is another proof 

 of the participators in the voyage of 1498 having returned: 

 the accounts of Henry VII.'s privy purse for 1498 show that 

 on March 22 and April i the King advanced money (sums 

 of £20, £3, and 40S. 5d., in all about £650 in the money of 

 the present day) to Launcelot Thirkill (who seems to have had 

 a ship of his own), Thomas Bradley, and John Carter, who 

 were all going to "the new Isle." Probably these men may 

 have fitted out their own ships to accompany Cabot's expe- 

 dition; but we do not know whether they sailed. This is 

 probably the same Launcelot Thirkill, who, according to an 



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