IN NORTHERN MISTS 



ten years "to explore all Islands, Countries, Regions, and 

 Provinces whatever, in the Eastern, Western, Southern, and 

 Northern Seas, heretofore unknown to Christians," and all 

 former privileges of this kind, granted to " any foreigner or 

 foreigners " were expressly canceled. This last provision must 

 refer to the letters patent granted to Cabot in 1496 and 1498. 



That this new expedition from Bristol really took place, 

 and returned before January, 1502, seems to result from the 

 accounts of Henry VII.'s privy purse, where on January 7, 

 1502, there is an entry: "To men of BristoU that found 

 Thisle, £5." In 1502 there was possibly a new expedition, 

 as in the same accounts there is an entry of September (24), 

 1502: "To the merchants of Bristoll that have bene in the 

 Newfounde Lande, £20." ^ According to a document of 

 December 6, 1503, Henry VII. further granted on September 

 26, 1502, to the two Portuguese, ffranceys ffernandus (Fran- 

 cisco Fernandez) and John Guidisalvus (Gonzales?) a yearly 

 pension of ten pounds each, for the service they had done to 

 the King's " singler pleasur as capitaignes unto the new 

 founde lande." 



patent of December 1502 [cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 40 f.; Bjornbo, 1910, p. 174]. 

 Possibly he may have accompanied Cortereal in 1500, or himself made a voy- 

 age in that year (see next chapter), before he came to Bristol; of that we 

 know nothing, but in that case the name referred to some such Portuguese 

 voyage, on which we know that Greenland was sighted in 1500, though the 

 voyagers were unable to reach the coast (see next chapter). It may then be 

 supposed that the English expedition from Bristol in 1501, in which Joao Fer- 

 nandez took part, did reach the coast of Greenland, and therefore on later maps 

 the discovery was attributed to the English, who not only saw the coast, but 

 also landed on it. The Spanish cosmographer, Alonso de Santa Cruz, (born 

 1506) says: "It was called the land of Labrador because it was mentioned and 

 indicated by a 'labrador' from the Azores to the King of England, when he 

 sent on a voyage of discovery Antonio [sic] Gabot, the English pilot and father 

 of Sebastian Gabot, who is now Pilot Major (piloto mayor) to Your Maj- 

 esty " [cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 80]. As this was written so long after, and in. 

 Spain, it is not surprising that Cabot's voyage of 1497 has been confused with 

 the voyage of 1501, especially as it was not to the interest of Sebastian, who 

 was still in Spain at that time, to correct this. The statement agrees, more- 

 over, with the legend on the Portuguese map at Wolfenbiittel. 

 1 Cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 147. 



