IN NORTHERN MISTS 



on which the sailors would not " follow their pilot's mind." 

 It may, indeed, have occurred on several voyages that the 

 crews refused to proceed farther, and for that matter these 

 statements need not refer to the same voyage; but at the same 

 time it is by no means incredible that Sebastian Cabot may 

 have heard of such an expedition, and, when it was more 

 appropriate than the ice, used it as an explanation of his not 

 having discovered the north-west passage to China. We 

 know that Sebastian Cabot was in the service of Spain 

 (and appointed "pilot major") in 151 5, and that he was 

 occupied with plans of a voyage to the north-west for the King 

 of Spain; for Peter Martyr writes of him in that year that he 

 was impatiently looking forward to March, 1516, when he had 

 been promised a fleet with which to complete his discoveries 

 [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 71]. As Ferdinand of Aragon died on 

 January 23, 15 16, nothing came of this voyage, and as we 

 hear nothing of Sebastian Cabot before February 5, 15 18, 

 when he was appointed "pilot major" by Charles V., it is not 

 impossible that in the meantime he may have been in England, 

 and have taken part in an English expedition; but no record 

 of his having come to England is extant, and it would hardly 

 agree with the protest against him of the Drapers' Company 

 a few years later. 



There may yet be mentioned the attempts made by 

 Henry VIII. in 1521 to prepare an expedition to north-western 

 waters under the command of Sebastian Cabot, chiefly at 

 the expense of the merchants of London, which, however, 

 evoked a powerful protest against Sebastian on the part 

 of these merchants (see above, p. 330). It is true that, upon 

 pressure from the king, they afterwards declared themselves 

 willing to give a smaller sum, but the expedition never came 

 to anything. Sebastian Cabot was at that time, as he had 

 been since 151 2, in the service of Spain, and he remained 

 so until, in 1547, he again took up his abode in England and 

 entered the service of the English king. In December 1522 

 Sebastian Cabot informed the Venetian Minister in Spain, 

 342 



