288 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



fruits, profits and gaines, and commodities growing of such nauigation, 

 for euery their voyage, as often as they shall arrive at our port of Bristoll, 

 (at the which port they shall be bound and holden only to arriue.") For 

 centuries Bristol has been famous for its nautical enterprises. Its mer- 

 chants had traded for years before the joeriod of which we are speaking, 

 with Iceland, and Columbus himself is said to have gone in a Bristol 

 ship, in the year 14*77, to a point one hundred leagues beyond, i. e., to the 

 westward of the island of Thyle. It was a Bristol ship which brought 

 back to civilization Juan Fernandez, the Kobinson Crusoe of De Foe. 

 Here was built the famous "Arethusa" of song and story, the saucy 

 frigate which beat the four French sail in the English channel : 



The fight was off the Frenchman's land, 

 We drove them back upon their strand ; 

 For we fought until not a stick would stand 

 Of the gallant Arethusa. 



The " Great Western " was built here, and was the first steamship tO' 

 make the western transatlantic voyage. As Bristol was the first city in 

 England to send a ship to the shores of America, so she was the first 

 English city to establish steam communication with the western hemi- 

 sphere. There is said to be in the hands of a Bristol bookseller an ancient 

 manuscript which for several generations, at least, had been in the pos- 

 session of a neighbouring family. It purjDorts to give, in the form of a 

 chronicle, an account of happenings in Bristol. Under date of the year 

 1497, is said to be the following passage : 



" This year, on St. John the Baptist's day the land of America was 

 found by the merchants of Bristowe in a ship of Bristol called the 

 Matthew, the which said ship departed from the port of Bristowe the 2nd 

 of May, and came home again the 6th of August following.' 



It is plain that this entry was not contemporaneous, for America 

 was not baptised until 1507, and its name was not generallj^ accepted 

 until the middle of the 16th century. If the manuscript is genuine, and 

 if it was contemporaneous, or sufiiciently so as to come within the testi- 

 mony of eye-witnesses, it would be of the greatest imiDortance, for no 

 document or witness suggests the exact date of the discovery until the 

 year 1544. It is generally believed that this particular manuscript be- 

 longs to a famous group of BristoUan manuscripts, dating two hundred 

 years after the discovery of America, but pretending to great antiquity. 

 When we speak of rare and ancient Bristol manuscripts, our minds 

 immediately revert to the Htrangc career of Thomas Chatterton, who 

 produced the famous Eowley forgeries and deceived the very elect of 

 English antiquarians. Mr. William Barrett published : " The History 

 and Antiquities of the city of Bristol, compiled from original records 

 and authentic manuscripts in public offices or private hands." He 



