INTERNATIONAL DISCOVERIES g 



been in Iceland, where Columbus also had been. His origin, 

 ideas, associations, and deeds resembled those of Columbus ; 

 but, unlike Columbus, he stole into America noiselessly, 

 unpraised, without the halo of romance, and more like a thief 

 in the night than a conqueror. His base of operation was 

 Bristol, where Europe — if England can be called a part of 

 Europe — is nearest to America, if Newfoundland can be 

 called a part of America. 



For a century or more Bristol had been sending annual wzV/z Bris- 

 fleets to Iceland to bring back dried cod or stockfish ; and ^ ^ ^^^' 

 the sailors doubtless learned the Icelandic stories of imaginary 

 islands in the west named Friesland,^ Big Ireland, Estotiland,'^ 

 and the like, and heard, perchance, news of the ' New Land *, 

 which Eric's kith and kin ' found '.^ Indeed, in a.d. 1480 two 

 Bristol ships are said to have searched for Big Ireland, so that 

 Bristol was as opportune spiritually, as it was geographically 

 for the new departure.* On March 5, 1496, Henry Yll under an 

 granted to John Cabot, his three sons, and their heirs, f^M^^ 

 a patent to sail east, west, and north under the English flag, 1496, 

 to conquer, annex, and govern under the English Crown 

 lands unknown to Christians, to exclude visitors thither, and 

 to import wares thence into Bristol, customs-free, paying one- 

 fifth of the net profits of each voyage to the English king.^ 

 De Puebla, the lynx-eyed Spanish ambassador in London, 

 instantly wrote to his master, that a second Columbus was 

 about to do for Henry VII, what Columbus had done for 

 him, but ' without prejudice to Spain or Portugal '. * If so,' 

 replied King Ferdinand, March 28, 'King Henry should be 

 free to do so. But De Puebla was to warn him that it was 

 a snare laid by the King of France to divert him from enter- 

 prises of greater pith and moment, that it would probably 



1 Friesland^ The Faroes : J. R. Forster, Geschichte der Entdeckungen 

 tind Schiffahrten ini Norden, 1784, p. 220. 



2 Hakluyt Society Publications, vol. 1. ^ Nye Land. 

 * Sic William of Worcester. 



^ Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, vol. vii, p. 141., 



