JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



Haklu)^ states (1582) in "Divers Voyages" [1850, p, 23] 

 after Robert Fabyan's Chronicle, that in the seventeenth 

 year of the reign of Henry VII. (i.e., August 22, 1501, to 

 August 21, 1502) :^ 



" were brought unto the king three men, taken in the new f ounde Hand, that 

 before I [i.e., Fabyan?] spake of in William Purchas time, being Maior.2' 

 These were clothed in beastes skinnes, and ate rawe fleshe, and spake such 

 speech that no man coulde understand them, and in their demeanour like to 

 bruite beastes, whom the king kept a time after. Of the which vpon two 

 yeeres past after I [i.e., Fabyan] saw two apparelled after the manner o£ 

 Englishmen, in Westminster pallace, which at that time I coulde not dis- 

 cerne from Englishemen, till I was learned what they were. But as for 

 speech, I heard none of them vtter one worde." 3 



These natives must have been brought back from the 

 expedition of 1501 or from that of 1502 (if the latter returned 



1 In the repetition of the same statement (from Fabyan) in Stow's Chron- 

 icle the eighteenth year is given as the date (i.e., August 22, 1502, to August 

 21, 1503); but it is doubtful which is correct; it appears to me that the text 

 itself must be more original in Hakluyt; but the date occurs in the heading 

 added by himself. 



2 The most natural explanation of this seems to me to be that Fabyan, 

 whom Hakluyt quotes, thought that these savages were taken on the same 

 island (i.e., North America) that John Cabot had discovered (in 1497); of 

 whose expedition in 1498 he had said that it had not returned during the mayor- 

 alty of William Purchas (see above, p. 326). That Hakluyt also interpreted 

 Fabyan's words thus seems to result from the fact that in his later repetition 

 of this, in "Principal Navigations," in 1589 and 1599-1600, he has altered the 

 heading, making it the fourteenth, instead of the seventeenth, year of Henry 

 VII. (i.e., August 22, 1498-August 21, 1499) when the three savages were 

 brought to him. Hakluyt must then have misunderstood it to mean that they 

 were taken on the voyage of 1498. 



3 In Hakluyt's heading to this statement we are told that it was Sebas- 

 tian Cabot who brought these savages; but his name is not mentioned in the 

 text itself, which appears to be more genuine than the heading, and there is no 

 ground for supposing that Sebastian took part in either of these expeditions 

 of 1 501 or 1502; in any case he was not the leader. In Stow's version [Win- 

 ship, 1900, p. 95] Sebastian Gabato is introduced into the text as he who had 

 taken the three men; but, as suggested above, Stow's text seems less original 

 than Hakluyt's. It is probable that both Stow and Hakluyt may have started 

 from the assumption that it was Sebastian Cabot who made the voyage, and, 

 therefore, that they thoughtlessly introduced his name [cf. Harrisse, 1896, 

 pp. 142 f.] ; on the other hand it appears to me doubtful that his name 

 should already have occurred in Fabyan in this connection. 



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