THE VOYAGERS 



invite a similar treatment. The fascination and the 

 power of gold ; the doom of the races of America, met 

 by them with a tragic simplicity ; the pathos of Christian 

 missions ; the romance of map-making ; or the tardy 

 growth, when all else had failed, of the idea of coloni- 

 sation ; these and many other things may be severally 

 disentangled from the complicated web of history, and 

 trusted as a clue. History, which takes for its hero that The drama of 

 many-sided creature, man, must reckon with all of these, ^^^^^^y- 

 and exhibit a stage where pirates, buccaneers, and slave- 

 traders rub shoulders with saints and seers, where martyrs 

 to science and religion are associated with politicians and 

 misers ; and where, to complete the disorder, most of the 

 actors play many parts. It is permissible, at least, to 

 simplify the problem by concentrating attention on the 

 fortunes of a single nation. The history of the English 

 Voyages is the most important chapter in the history of 

 the English nation, and the preface to the history of 

 the British Empire. 



During the half-century after the voyage of John 

 Cabot, a period more than covered by the long life of 

 his son, Sebastian Cabot, English exploration made but 

 little progress. There were sundry expeditions, fitted 

 out at Bristol, to the New-found-land, and some worthless 

 commodities, as well as three natives of the island, were 

 brought back and displayed to King Henry VII. The 

 first of these voyages was undertaken by Sebastian Cabot, The 

 after the death of his father, in 1498; he failed to ^fp^^ff 9f 

 penetrate the North, and coasted America southward to voyaging to 

 Florida. But this southern tendency, which might bring ^^^ ^^^*' 

 England into conflict with Spain, was not encouraged 

 by the King; and when Henry VIII succeeded to the 



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