190 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The duty of Cabot, as chief pilot of Spain and one of the chief 

 officials of the Casa de Contratacion, was to see that all maj^s under his 

 control conformed to that standard. 



Again, Spain did take steps to assert her claims on the northeast 

 coast, though every attempt was abortive, for her strength was drawn 

 away to the south. Navarrete tells us that King Ferdinand sent for Juan 

 Dornelos in 1500,^^ to plan an expedition to follow Cabot. In 1501 Alonzo 

 de Hojeda was ordered to go on an expedition to the place -^ where the 

 English had made discoveries. Again, in 1511/^ Juan de Agramonte was 

 commissioned to take royal ships to seek out the secrets of the new land- 

 His instructions demonstrate the respective claims of the two nations to 

 be as represented above. He was ordered to take with him Spanish 

 sailors, but to procure pilots from Bretagne, showing that the place 

 sought was where the Bretons by that time were accustomed to resort. 

 He was ordered to make a settlement there, but to avoid infringing on 

 the tei'ritory of Portugal. That shows it was near the line of demarca- 

 tion, and the line of demarcation on the Spanish official charts cut the 

 coast of Newfoundland just east of Cape Breton. No record remains of 

 the results, but the Spanish claims are manifested by their instructions. 

 Just about that time Cabot arrived in Spain, in the suite of Lord Wil- 

 loughby, and Ferdinand secured his services at once because of his 

 knowledge of Baccalaos — about which England cared nothing. 



It would be tedious, and it is scarcely necessary, to prove that Spain 

 was jealous of any third nation interfering in America. It is in all the 

 books, but I will cite one of the most learned and most accurate of our 

 own members. In the Transactions of 1890, the appendix C to a paper 

 by Abbé Verreau shows the measures taken by Charles Y. to prevent the 

 settlement of Roberval in Canada ; and, in the Transactions of 1891, the 

 continuation opens with these words : " The Spanish ambassador at the 

 " court of Portugal, probably in obedience to the instructions of his 

 " master, besought King John to join the emperor in a united expedition 

 " against Cartier and his three vessels, to massacre the whole party, and 

 " deter the French for a long time, if not forever, of thinking of colonies 

 " beyond the Atlantic." We learn, moreovex*, from Mr. Harrisse^* that, 

 as late as 1541, Ares de Sea was sent to America to find out what Jacques 

 Cartier was doing. It seems to me patent on the page of history that 

 this jealousy existed. It was the Monroe doctrine of that day, but not so 

 vague, and it had a written foundation in the papal bull, which, beyond 

 doubt, was j)ublic law among Catholic nations at that time. 



This was the reason, then, that none of the Spanish maps would 

 admit the discoveries made by the English, and which, in truth, the Eng- 

 lish undervalued and neglected ; and this would justify Cabot, as a 

 Spanish official, in suppressing on official maj)s any private information 

 traversing the public policy of his sovereign. Similar suppressions have 



