16 
SEBASTIAN CABOT. 
fore, he might launch forth into the most hyperbolical account 
of the miracles which he had (not) seen, and of the extraordinary 
instances of the consummate skill and courage, which he had on 
many occasions displayed; for it was not very probable, from the 
restricted intercourse, which then existed between the different 
states of Europe, that, any one should suddenly appear in England, 
who could prove him to be an impostor, and who could show 
that so far from his having been the companion of Columbus, he 
had never crossed the Atlantic in any of the voyages, which he 
so minutely and so ostentatiously described. There is little 
doubt, that Cabot was stimulated by the example of Columbus, 
and falling into the society of some Bristol merchants, whose 
imagination he inflamed with the most glowing images of the 
transatlantic riches, the project was laid before the Privy Coun¬ 
cil, and letters patent, dated the 5th March, were granted by 
king Henry VII. to Sebastian Cabot, and his three sons, Louis, 
Sebastian, and Sancius, the conditions of which ran, that they 
were to conquer and to settle lands unknown.The geogra¬ 
phical position of America was then scarcely known, and its 
uttermost northern latitude, a problem as yet unattempted to be 
solved; the maritime enterprises of the English and the French, 
had been hitherto chiefly confined to those latitudes, which in¬ 
cluded the Spanish discoveries, and where it was to be more ra¬ 
tionally expected that an accession of territory could be obtained, 
and those settlements established, which might ultimately 
be taken under the protection of the respective governments, 
and thereby become the channels of an extensive and lucrative 
commerce. 
The daring conduct, however of these adventurers, excited the 
animosity of the court of Spain, who made a formal complaint 
to the different governments of Europe, of which the adventurers 
in these expeditions were the natural subjects; but the general 
answer received was, that the men against whom they com¬ 
plained, acted entirely on their own authority and responsibility, 
and not as the subjects of any prince, and that the king of Spain 
was at liberty to proceed against them according to his pleasure. 
We shall shortly see the spirited answer, which Elizabeth gave to 
