[thachbr] the IJABOTIAN DISCOVERY 289 



hands." He quotes from this manuscript in private hands as follows : 

 "In the year 1497, the 24th of June, on St. John's day, was Newfound- 

 land found by Bristol men, in a ship called the Matthew." The phrase- 

 ology di tiers from the quotation as made by the Bristol bookseller, and 

 the land discovered is denominated Newfoundland. This William Barrett 

 was the employer, friend, and confident of Chatterton, and it was to him 

 that Chatterton consigned his manuscript. 



Although the grant was made as early as March 5, in the year 1490, 

 the expedition did not sail until the beginning of summer in the following 

 year. Even in these days of despatch and experience, months and years 

 are consumed in equipping and preparing an adventurous journey. 

 Therefore, we arc not surprised that more than a year passed before the 

 ship from Bristol spread its sails toward the beckoning west. 



The next chronological stone in the structure of our story, is a docu- 

 ment preserved among the manuscripts in the British Museum, and which 

 contains the account ol' the king's privy purse. Under date of August 

 10, in the 12th year of Henry VII., which is the year of our Lord 1497, 

 is this item : 



To hym wlio founde the new isle, L. 10. 



This has always been interpreted as a voluntary award to Jo (in 

 Cabot by King Henry, for having discovered this new territor}-. It was 

 voluntary, because no award was denominated in the bond. The dis- 

 covery must have created a wild excitement in P^ngiand, and the entrj' 

 indicates that even the king was excited, and gave to the discoverer, from 

 his privy purse, the munificent sum often pounds. This Henry prac- 

 tised such frugalities in his own expenses, that his coffers groaned with 

 the burden of their deposits. Hume tells us that reckoning silver at 

 thirty-seven shillings and six-pence a pound, the hoardings of the king, 

 consisting of one million eight hundred thousand jiounds, were not less in 

 value in the time of Hume than three millions of pounds. But this king, 

 though he heaped up great treasures, was no mean prince. Francis 

 Bacon called him the Solomon of England. 



We learn from this entry in the king's privy purse that the expeili- 

 tion had returned b}' the 10th day of August in the same year of its de- 

 parture. It must have returned to the port of Bristol several days prior 

 to the 10th of August, perhaps a week before, and John Cabot hurried 

 across to London to report to the king. What report did he bear to 

 Henry ? 



Venice in the 15th century had its commercial agents in every 

 ca])ital in Europe. Its great commercial houses emploj^ed representatives 

 and correspondents abroad. Commerce and diplomacy had brought to 

 London quite a Venetian colony. One of its regular agents, a certain 

 Lorenzo Pasqualigo wrote a letter home to his brothei-s, Alvise and Frun- 



See. II., 1897. 16. 



