Chap. m. of E N G L I S H in A M E R I C A; 
hafiian^ his Son ^ applied himfelf to the King, propofmg to 
difcover a North-weft Paftage, as he himfelf tells us j and 
for this Purpofe he had a Ship manned and vidlualled at 
the King’s Expence at BriJioX and three or /our other 
Ships were fitted out at the Expence of fome Merchants 
of that City, particularly Mr. f borne and Mr. liugh 
Elliot, But whereas Sebajiian Cabot himfelf fiiys, that he 
made this Voyage in, the Summer of 1496, he muft be 
miftaken, and he very v/ell might, fpeaking from his 
Memory only *, and to prove this I need only obferve, 
that this Date will not at all agree even with his own Ac- 
couht of the Voyage ; for he fays exprefiy it was under- 
taken after his Father’s Death ; who, as we have fhewn, 
was alive in the February following ; fo that it was the 
Summer of the Year 1497, in which he made this Voy- 
age ; and what he afterwards relates of his Return, 
proves this likewife. 
But we have a direbl and clear Authority as to this 
Fad;, which is, that of Robert Fabian,^ vdio fixes this 
Voyage of SebajUayi Cabof% to the Month oF May 1497* 
And on the i ith of June,, the fame Year, he failed as 
high as 67° 30' finding the Sea ftill open, and he 
thought that he might this way have pafled through into 
the South Seas, but his Crew mutinied, which forced him 
to return into the Latitude of 56° and from thence he 
ran down to 38° along the Coaft of the Continent of 
America, which, as he exprefly fays, was afterwards 
called Florida, where Provifions growing fliort, he re- 
turned into England, touching by the way at Newfound- 
land. On his return, he fays, he found the Nation in 
much Confufion, and great Preparations making for a 
War in Scotland, which agrees exactly with Grafton’s 
Chronicle, who places thefe Preparations under the Mayor- 
alty of William Purchafe, that is, to the Year before- 
mentioned ; and Robert Fabian fays farther, that in the 
14th Year of King Henry VII. there were three Men 
brought to the King, taken in the new-found Ifland, 
which he before mentioned, who were cloathed in Beaft- 
Skins, eat raw Flefli, fpoke a ftrange uncouth Tongue, 
and were very brutifh in their Behaviour ; but he far- 
ther adds, that he faw thefe People himfelf two Years af- 
terwards, and that they were then cloathed like Englijh- 
men, and he could not have known them to be other- 
wife, if he had not been informed that thefe were the Men 
brought over by Sebajiian Cabot. 
Thus, with the utmoft Exa< 5 lnefs I could ufe, I have 
let this Matter in its true Light, and have thereby fhewn, 
that he was not only the firft Perfon who attempted a 
North- weft Paflage ; and (hewed thereby,, that he un- 
derftood Columbus’ s Principles, but was likewife the firft 
Difcoverer of the Continent of America, which Columbus 
did not fee till a Year after, as well as the firft Difcoverer 
of Florida, which Country was not fo called till the 
Year 1512 ; when, as we have before (hewn, it was 
vifited by John Ponce de Leon, who took PoifelTion 
of it for the King of Spain, and ufually paflTes for the firft 
Difcoverer. It may not be amifs to obferve, that Sebaf- 
tian Cabot clearly affirms, that his Voyage was made to 
. difcover a North-weft Paffage ; which Notion of his 
gave Light, as is acknowledged even by Foreign Au- 
thors, to FerdinarA Magellan •, and induced him confi- 
dently to affirm, that fuch a Paffiage might be found by 
the South, v/hich he happily effefted twenty two Years 
after this Attempt made to the North by Sebaftian Cabot. 
I cannot fay that any great Ufe can be made of this 
kind of Knowledge, but there feems to be no Reafon why 
we fhould not pique ourfelves upon knowing thefe Mat- 
ters with as mudi Exaftnefs as Strangers •, who, by dip- 
ping into our Accounts, pretend to great Knowledge in 
thefe Matters, and very often impofe upon fuch as will 
not rake into their own old mufty Antiquities, but pay' 
an implicit Regard to the bold A(fertions of modern Au- 
thors •, by taking the contrary Method, and refolving to 
be fatisfied, even in Trifles, we come to judge accu- 
rately and truly, of the Deferts both of our own and 
of foreign Nations j fo as to yield the Preference 
to fome, and maintain our juft Rights againft others. 
As for Inftance, though we cannot difpute with the 
Ipt 
Spaniards xht adtual Difcovery of America ' \ yet, we may 
fairly deny, what the prefent Geographer of his Ca- 
tholic Majefty alferts, that we rejefted Columbus’s Pro- 
pofal j and v/e may likev/ife call him to a fevere Ac- 
count, for placing the Voyages of Sebaftian Cabot to 
twenty-fix Years later than hefliould have placed 
them, from the Accounts given by Ramufio, Gomara, 
Peter Martyr, and other Authors, whom he either had 
read, or ought to have read, before he took upon him to 
write on this Subjedl ; of which though he writes fen- 
fibly, yet this will not excufe his writing Untruthss 
Sebaftian Cabot is by many of our Writers pofi- 
tively affirmed to be an Englijfoman, born at Briftoh, 
but the Italmis as pofitively claim him for their Country- 
man, and fay he was born at Venice •, which, to fpeak 
impartially, I believe is the Truth ; for/ he fays himfelf, 
that v/hen his Father was invited over to England, he 
brought him with him, though he was then very young- 
His Voyage for the Difcovery of the North- weft Paf- 
fage, gained him fo great a Reputation, that he was in- 
vited into Spain, and employed by their Catholic Ma- 
jefties, Ferdinand and Ifabella, in a Voyage for the Dif- 
covery of the Coafts of Brazil, in which he had much 
better Succefs than Americas Vefpucius, who miffed the 
River of Plate, whereas Cabot found it, and failed up it 
three hundred and fixty Miles, which gained him fuch a 
Charabler at the Court of their Catholic Majefties, that, 
on his Return, he was declared Piloto Maggiore, or Grand 
Pilot of Spain •, and refided feveral Years at Seville with 
that Charabter, and had the Examination and Approba-^ 
tion of all the Pilots intrufted by that Government. 
4. Yet, after fome Years, he thought fit to return into 
England, and was employed by King Henry the Vlllth, 
in Conjunblion with Sir Fhomas Pert, who w'as Vice-Ad- 
miral of England ; and built a fine Houfe near Blackwall, 
called Poplar which Name ftill remains, though the 
Houfe is long ago decayed. This Voyage of his was in 
1516, on board a Ship of two hundred and fifty Tons^ 
with another of the like Size, in which he proceeded to 
the Coaft of Brazil, and afterwards vifited the Spanifh 
Elands of St. Domingo, and St. John de Porto Rico in 
the latter of which they traded, and paid for what they 
had by the Exchange of Veffels, made of Pewter, as we 
learn from Oviedo ; who, notwithftanding, afferts that 
this Veffel was a Privateer, whereas, in Fabl, fhe was a 
Frigate fitted out at King Henry the Vlllth’s Expence for 
Difcovery. 
It is a very great Misfortune that we have not a clearer 
and more diftinbi Account of this Expedition •, fince it 
jvery plainly appears from the Writers of thofe Times, 
that great Expebtations were raifed by it, and that the 
Mifcarriage occafioned a good deal of Noife and fome 
Refieblions ; but they did not fall upon Cabot, as appears 
from the following Note, taken from a Book, publifhed 
by Mr. Richard Eden, whofe ColleblionS led the way to 
thofe of Mr. Hackluit, and which Book was publifh- 
ed in 1553. “ If manly Courage, faith he, (like unto 
“ that which hath been feen in your Grace as well in fo- 
“ reign Realms, as alfo in this our Country,) had 
“ not been wanting in others, in thefe our Days, at fuch 
“ Time our Sovereign Lord of noble Memory, King 
“ Henry VIII, about the fame Year of his Reign, flir- 
“ nifhed, and fent out certain Ships, under the Govern- 
“ ance of Sebaftian Cabot, yet living, and one Sir Fho- 
“ mas Pert, whofe faint Heart was the Caufe that theVoy- 
“ age took none Effebt ; if, I fay, fuch manly Courage, 
whereof we have fpoken, had not at that Time been 
“ wanting, it might happily have come to pafs, that that 
“ rich Treafury called Perularia, which is now in Spain, 
“ in the City of Seville, and fo named, for that in it is 
“ kept the infinite Riches brought thither from the new- 
“ found Land of Peru, might long fince have been in the 
“ Tower of London, to the King’s great Honour and 
“ Wealth of this Realm.” I do not find that this wor- 
thy Gentleman left England after this but, on the con- 
trary, remained here, and promoted, to the utmoft of 
his Power, whatever Defigns were fet on foot for the 
Encouragement and Extention of our Commerce , fo that, 
as 
