12 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



and his 

 voyage of 

 1498, 



which 

 voyages 

 raise many 

 unsettled 

 questions. 



Thomas Bradley, and John Carter, in order to promote 

 a new expedition ' to the new isle ', and granted a new patent 

 to John Cabot to take English ships and mariners ' to the 

 land and isles of late found by the said John '} 



Then letter-writers once more picked up the interrupted 

 thread. On July 25, 1498, De Puebla and De Ayala, both 

 of the Spanish embassy in London, wrote to their master 

 that ' Henry VII had dispatched a fleet of five ships, victualled 

 for a year, in order to discover certain islands and continents, 

 which Bristol merchants declared that they had found last 

 year. The writers had seen the chart of the discoverer, who 

 was another Genoese like Columbus, and had been in Seville 

 and Lisbon seeking helpers. Inspired by the Genoese 

 adventurer, the men of Bristol had for the last seven years been 

 sending annual fleets in quest of the mythical Seven Cities 

 and Island of Brazil. Judging by his course, what had been 

 found belonged to the Spanish sphere within the meaning of the 

 Treaty of Tordesillas. The writers were informed that it was 

 only four hundred leagues away, but the chart which had 

 been shown them was probably falsified.^ The King of 

 England was intensely interested in the venture, and misliked 

 the writers' suggestion that these discoveries had been anti- 

 cipated by Spain. The latest news of the present expedition 

 was that one ship had encountered storms and had put back 

 to Ireland, but that the Genoese held on his course. They 

 expected to arrive in September'.^ 



The bundle of letters is ended, and the patent rolls and 

 account books are silent ; yet they have told us all we know 

 for certain of the voyages of 1497 and 1498, and all we 

 know or ever shall know of John Cabot, who now finally 

 vanishes from the scene. It is fairly clear that John Cabot 

 hit Newfoundland, which is the nearest point in America to 



1 Hakluyt Society Publications^ 1850, vol. vii, p. Ixxii. 



2 If 1,200 miles distant it would be within the Portuguese sphere. 

 Columbus kept two logs, one for purposes of deception. 



3 Reale Commissione Colombiana^ Pt. V, vol. ii, p. 218. 



