COLLECTIOlSrS MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. SECOTsTD SERIES. DOCUMENTARY HISTOJIY OF THE STATE OF MAINE. EDITED BY WILLIAM WILLIS. VOL. I. CONTAINING A HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF MAINE. BY J. G. KOHL. WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS, By M. D'AVEZAC, of Paris. PUBLISHED BY THE MAINE HISTOKICAL SOCIETY, AIDED BY APPROPRIATIONS FROM THE STATE. PORTLAND: 18G9. ^- V^' 1944 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by the Maine Historical Society, in the District Court of the United States for the District of Maine. B. THURSTON AND CO., I'UINTKUS, PORTLAND. EDITOR'S PREFACE In offering this first volume of a new series of its publica- tions, the Maine Historical Society believes it will confer a high gratification, not only upon historical students in our own State, but on all who take an interest in the early annals of our coun- try residing within the limits of the charter granted by James I. in 1606, to the Council of Plymouth. The Society, having long had the impression that the archives of the chief commercial nations of Europe contained rich mate- rials relating to the discovery of these shores, and of the early attempts to colonize them, were anxious to explore those store- 1^ houses of hidden treasures. For this purpose they appealed ^vv. to the State, and, in 1863, obtained a pecuniary grant to enable -^ them to make a preliminary investigation. Sufticieut encour- Q^ agement was given by this appropriation, to induce the govern- ment to enlarge its bounty; and, in 1867, the Governor and Council were authorized to contract Avith the Society for the .^ publication, annually, of a volume " containing the earliest doc- uments, charters, and other State paj^ers illustrating the history ^ of Maine." *f Stimulated by this liberal benefaction, the Society availed iq itself of the opportunity of a visit to Europe by the Rev. - Leonard Woods, d. d., ll. d., late President of Bowdoin College, 2s to obtain his aid in the necessary examinations. This accom- plished scholar, being accredited by the highest recommendation in the country, and aided by his learning and personal address, •"^ had access to various public and private collections of rare and ^ valuable documents, and an introduction to scholars of similar 11 PREFACE. taste, availed liimself of those advantages to promote the objects of his inquiry. ,He explored the archives of the British^ State-paper offices, \inder the guidance of jMr. W. Noel Sainsbury, the familiar spirit of those obscure regions, through whom he obtained tran- scripts of valuable documents relating to our early history. He also visited the British Museum, and especially the map depart- ment, rich M'ith early and authentic maps, and conducted by its head, the learned R. H. Major, f. s. a., etc., whose historical and geographical works have placed him among the first — primus inter 2ycires — in those pursuits, gained access to that unrivalled collection. He also conferred with M. D'Avezac, the leanied archa3ologist at Paris, from whom he obtained interesting infor- mation pertinent to his object, and has since received from him a valuable communication which is placed in our A2:)pendix. lie then proceeded to Germany, where, in Bremen, he made the acquaintance of Dr. J. G. Kohl, whose reputation as a traveler, author, and cartographer, was eminent in this country, as well as in Euroi)e. In him he found a congenial spirit, and a ready and hearty sympathy in the objects of his pursuit. It was not long, therefore, before he came to terms with Dr. Kohl, to give to our Society and State the benefit of his great learning and practical experience, in the accomplishment of our purposes. Dr. Kohl was born in Bremen in 1808, and educated to the law at Gottingen, Heidelberg, and Munich. Several years after this, he was occupied as a private tutor in Courland and travel- ing in Russia. On his return, in 1838, he settled in Dresden, from which place he made excursions in all directions, visiting every important district of Europe, and published the observa- tions and experience derived from his various expeditions, in a series of volumes. In 1854, he came to America, where he traveled four years, during which time he prepared for the gov- ernment of the United States, a series of valuable maps relating to America. Since his return, he has been engaged upon a minute geographical survey and history of this continent. His PREFACE. m life has been filled with useful literary labor, and a j^ortion of its fruit has been given to the world in nearly twenty distinct publications. Among these are "Travels in Canada," 1855; "Travels in the United States," 1857 ; "Kitahi Gama, or Tales from Lake Superior," 18G0. Another interesting and impor- tant work, published by him in 1861, after a severe course of study and jsreparation, is entitled " History of, and commentary on, the two oldest charts of the new world, made in Spain on the command of the emperor Charles V." To secure the services of a man so distinguished, and so peculiarly qualified for the task by long experience in similar studies, was at once honorable to Dr. Woods, and most accepta- ble and valuable to our Society and community. The result of his labors, so promptly and amply furnished, are j^resented to the public in the volume before us. And I may venture to say, that the amount of authentic information here brought together on the discovery and eax-ly voyages to America, so fully and clearly illustrated by facsimile copies of the earliest maps known to exist, has never been collected in so brief and limited a space. The maps, twenty-three in number, the latest of which is Mercator's of 1569, with the learned explications of them, reduced and lithographed in Bremen under the superintend- ence of Dr. Kohl, throw fresh light, not only upon the voyages and discoveries with which they are connected, but upon the condition of science and art in those departments of knowledge during that period. The value of the work is greatly enhanced by these illustrations. The maps, of course, give an imperfect and inaccurate view of our coast, from the desultory and cursory manner in which the visits were made to it ; but they furnish a general outline of the north-eastern shores; in most of them are represented the promi- nent points of Cape Cod, Penobscot Bay, the numerous islands along the coast of Maine, Cape Sable, and Cape Ilace, points which could not fail to arrest the attention of even a common observer. The ancient Normnhecja^ embracing sometimes the iv PREFACE. Avholo of New England, has a conspicuous place on nearly all the early maps, and retained its name far into the next centuiy, but over a narrower region. Perhaps we ought not to be surj)rised at the imperfection of these maps, or of the narratives of those' early discoveries, when we consider the ignorance which still prevails in Europe on the geography of America. A French author recently did Port- land the honor to make it the capital of New England, and conspicuous points in the south and west of our country are often so transposed in the writings of some of their literary men, that we know not where to find them. It is a familiar fact, that before the Revolution, the name of Boston was often used for the whole of New England. But it is singular that the extraordinary discoveries and transactions of the sixteenth century, so much at variance with the routine occurrences of European societies, should not have been transmitted by con- temporaneous writers with more fullness and accuracy than we have received them. Even Eden and Hakluyt, who may be called partisans in American discovery, fail to give us accu- rate representations of those wonderful and peculiar enterprises, which Ave should suppose must have made a deep impression upon the public mind. Humboldt says, "the extraordinary ap- pearances of nature, and the intercourse Avith men of diiferent races must have exercised an influence on the j)rogress of knoAvl- edge in Europe. The germ of a great number of physical truths is found in the Avorks of the sixteenth century." But other events nearer home, and of more absorbing inter- est, cast a shadow over those remote, desultory, and excep- tional transactions. Lord Bacon, in his " Reign of Henry VII," affords but tAVO duodecimo pages to the Cabots, Avhose enter- prises Ave are accustomed to regard as among the most impor- tant of that reign, and Avere indeed so, in their influence upon the future course of history ; and in those few Avords, he entirely ignores John Cabot and liis first voyage. We place this passage in the Appendix. And Speed, in his " History of Great Brit- PREFACE. V aine," published in London in 1611, takes no notice of those events except in these words, " and though some other actions, as Sebastian Cabot's discovery," he thought best " to postpone," that he might " couch all that concerns Perkin Warbeck here together;" so that we have no more of the Cabots, or. of any- other foreign undertakings to our coasts, in either of those works. The editor of Bacon's Henry VII, therefore, in liis preface justly says, "The original records of the time had not been studied by any man with a genius for writing history, nor gath- ered into a book by any laborious collector. The published histories were full of inaccuracies and omissions, which it is impossible to correct or supply, without laborious research in public archives and private collections " In the present work, it gives us pleasure to feel, that Dr. Kohl has given, in a most compact and interesting form, the results of a careful and laborious research into the scattered original sources of information, relating to the eventful, but obscure j^eriod of which it treats, illuminating it by a compre- hensive, profound, and impressive resume of its record. We cannot but symjiathize with him in his repeated lamentations over the loss of reports and charts of voyages, the neglect of the adventurers to indicate the course and progress of their discoveries, and of cosmograjjhers to delineate them. These neglects and omissions will be particularly noticed in his analy- sis — dissection we may rather call it — of the maps introduced. The most elaborate and acute of these discussions is upon the celebrated map of 1544, unjustly, as he thinks, ascribed to Se- bastian Cabot, and on the Cabot voyages, of which there have always existed contradictory opinions. Dr. Kohl may, 2)erhaps, be thought by some to have traveled beyond the primary object of the work, by introducing the movements of the Spanish and French in Florida. But he thought it not only useful, but necessary to the unity and fulness of the task he had undertaken, to bring these voyages within his VI PREFACE. comprcliGnsivc review of tlic development of the northern and eastern section of the country in which Ave are more especially interested, and to which Thevet's account of Norumbega is an important appendage. In a private letter on the subject, he naively says, " You will jierhaps at first sight be astonished to find in my work, not only a re2)0rt on Cartier's voyages and explorations in Canada, but also one on the French settlements and discoveries in Florida. But by looking nearer into the sub- ject, I hope you will find that these matters also, are so inti- mately connected with the liistory of every part of the east coast of the United States, with that of Maine and New Eng- land, that it was impossible for me to leave them out. More- over, the gcogrctphical and hydrographical part of these voy- ages, in several modern works, has not been much cleared up. I hope you will find, that taking this into consideration, I have come to some new results." The volume now presented to the public derives additional value from the very interesting communication of M. D'Avezac of Paris, to Dr. Woods, and translated by him, which, with his explanatory letter, will be found in the Appendix. It is most gratifying to be able to place side by side the arguments of such distinguished champions in the field of historical inquiry. M. D'Avezac and Dr. Kohl both reason fi-oni opposite views of the same admitted transactions ; but Dr. Kohl is more full and minute in his examination of the still doubtful and disputed problem of the Cabot voyages and map. Both, wise and dili- gent seekers after truth, discuss the obscure and indistinct indi- cations of tlie imperfectly revealed events of the time, in a spirit of impartiality and ability, wdaich is exhaustive of the subject. It is a generous and honorable contest, which cannot fail to interest and instruct the historical student curious in such investigations. It was the original intention of the Society to limit its inqui- ries and researches iu foreign archives to the voyages and dis- coveries Avhich related particularly to our territory, and to the PREFACE. VU first eiforts to colonize and bring it forward into tlio line of set- tlement and civilization. But as the subject was investigated, it grew in importance, until we were carried back for an initial point, to the penumbra of our history, in the earliest known authentic records of American discovery. And we could not but think that a carefully prepared summary of the voyages of the Northmen to the Gulf of Maine, and the later voyages along its coast in the sixteenth century, would be an appropriate and interesting introduction to the history of its actual and perma- nent colonization. Our Society had been encouraged to undertake the task, whose results are partially contained in the present volume, by the successful example of other historical societies. Those of Georgia, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, and others, aided by' their respective governments, had" pursued their investiga- tions into the musty archives of the State and colonial depart- ments of Great Britain, and had brought forth from them treas- ures of great value, long hidden, and unrevealed even to their possessors. Perhaps it is not too much to say that it was owing to the discovery of valuable documents revealed by the eager curiosity and persevering search of our American scholars, that a change was effected in the policy of the British government, by which these treasures, long neglected and carefully secluded from observation and use by. their jealous guardians, were at length thrown open, and the government itself, becoming aware of their importance, undertook to arrange, classify, and calen- dar them, and furnish jn-inted abstracts to the i^ublic. These valuable collections are thus made available to the cause of his- tory, and have largely contributed to rectify errors and to fur- nish new facts for the illustration of the early and obscure periods of our history. In the course of the researches undertaken for our Historical Society, Dr. Woods obtained i^ossession of an wipublished man- uscript of Richard Hakluyt, the ardent patron and recorder of American discovery ; in which, as early as 1584, he urged upon viil PREFACE. Queen Elizabeth with great earnestness and force, the prosecu- tion of colonization upon our coasts. This interesting and valu- able document, containing in the original draft sixty-two and a half large folio pages, will form part of a second volume of our Documentary History, to be published in the course of the present year. It is Avith no unworthy i^ride that the Maine Historical Soci- ety now presents to the public this, their first documentary vol- ume, richly freighted with rare and authentic materials, as a valuable contribution to American history. I cannot close these introductory remarks without tendei'ing my grateful acknowledgments to the Rev. Edward Ballard, d. d., Secretary of the Maine Historical Society, for his very valuable aid in jireparing this volume for the press. His wide historical researches, and critical judgment, have, supplemented my maliy deficiencies. The Index., carefully prepared and arranged by him, gives additional value to the volume, and will be cordially welcomed by historical students. WILLIAM WILLIS. A HISTORY OF THE DISCOVEM OF THE EAST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA, PAKTICULARLT THE COAST OF MAINE; FROM THE ISrORTHMlEN' I INT 990, TO THE CH-A-RTER OF G- I L B E R T IN" 15-78. BY J. G. KOHL, OP BREMEN, QEEMANT. ILLUSTRATED BT COPIES OF THE EARLIEST MAPS AND CHARTS. L'ensemble des faits, auquel nous donnons le nom d'histoire n'est qu' une portion — portion encore mutil^e et rompue— des annales du genre humain. Walckenaer. CONTENTS. PAGE Inteoduction, .17 CHAPTER I. Physical Features op the Gulf and Coast of Maine. 1. Introductory Remarks, 31 2. General Configui'ation of the Continent of North America, . 32 3. The four Great Gulfs of the East Coast of North America, . . 33 4. Name of the Gulf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, . . 35 5. Size and General Configuration of the Gulf of Maine, ... 36 6. Soundings, 38 7. The Fishing Banks and Shoals, 39 8. Currents, 41 9. Tides, 43 10. Climate, Temjierature, Winds, Fogs, 44 11. Deviation of the Magnetic Needle, 47 12. Capes, Headlands, Peninsulas, Indentations, 47 1. Cape Cod, 49 2. Cape Ann, 50 3. Cape Elizabeth, 50 4. Cape Sable, 51 13. Islands, 52 14. Harbors, Baj's, and Inlets, 53 15. Rivers ^ ... 54 CHAPTER II. DiSCOVEKIES OF THE NORTHMEN IN NORTH-EASTERN AMER- ICA DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 1. Introductory Remarks, 57 2. Discovery of Iceland and Greenland, 60 3. First Discovery of New England by Biarne, 62 1 10 CONTENTS. •1. Voyages of Leif, Erik's Son, and First Settlement in " Vinland " (New England), ^^^ 5. Voyages and Discoveries of Thorwald, Erik's Son, in " Vinland," . 66 6. Unsnccessfnl Attempt of Tliorstein, Erik's Son, to reach " Vin- land " again, '^^ 7. Voyage of Thorfinn Kartsefne to " Vinland," and a New Settle- ment efiected there by him, 70 8. Expeditions from Greenland and Iceland to " Vinland," subse- qnent to those of Thorfinn Karlsefne, 82 9. New England considered by the Northmen to he a part of Eu- rope, 85 10. Eeminiscences and Traces of the Northmen among the Indians of New England 88 11. Voyages of the Venetians, Zeui, in tlie northern parts of the At- lantic Ocean at the end of the Fourteenth Century, ... 92 The Sea-chart of the Zeni, 97 APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER 11. Chalets for the Northmen. 1. Map, No. 2, of the North- Atlantic Ocean, drawn by the Icelander Signrdus Stephanius, in 1570, 107 2. Maji, No. ;5, of the North-Atlantic Ocean, drawn by the Icelander Gudbrandus Torlacius, in 1(506, 109 CHAPTER III. English Trading Expeditions from Bristol, and other English Ports, toward the North-west, principally to Iceland, during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centu- ries.— John OF KoLNO.— Columbus, Ill CHAPTER IV. Expeditions of John and Sebastian Cabot to North- eastern America, in the years 1497, 1498. 1. Voyage of John and Sebastian Cabot in the year 1497, . . . 121 2. Voyage of Sebastian Cabot in 1498, 135 APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER IV. Charts for the Voycujes of the Cabots. 1. Map, No. 4, of the Ocean and Islands between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, from the Globe of Martin Behaim, in 1492, , 147 CONTENTS. 11 2. Map, No. .5, of the East Coast of North America, by Juau de la Cosa, in 1500, 151 3. Chart, No. 0, of the New Worlil, by Joliann Paiysch, 1.508, . . 156 4. Map, No. 7, of North America, from the Globe of Johann Schoncr, 1520, 158 CHAPTER V. Expeditions of Gaspae and Miguel de Cortereal, to the north-eastekn coast of america, ik the years 1500- 1503. 1. Introductory Kemarks, 164 2. First Voyage of Gaspar Cortereal, in 1.500, I'iG .3. Gaspar Cortereal's Second Voyage, in 1501, Ifii) 4. Searching Voyage of Miguel Cortereal, in 1502, 171 APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER V. Charts for the Cortereal Voyages. 1. Portuguese Chart, No. 8, of the Coasts of Newfoundland, Labra- dor, and Greenland, about 1504, 174 2. Chart, No. 9, of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Greenland, by Pedro Reinel, made about 1505, 177 3. Portuguese Cliart, No. 10, of Florida, Nova Scotia, Newfound- land, Labrador, and Greenland, made about 1520, . . . 179 CHAPTER VI. Official and other Voyages, and several Prcjects of Discovery from England, Spain, Portugal, and France, SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXPEDITIONS OF THE CABOTS AND COR- . TEREALS. 1. Two Patents of Henry VII. of England, to Navigators, in 1501, 1502. — English Voyages to Newfoundland in the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, 183 2. Portuguese Fishermen on the Newfoundland Banks, . . . 187 3. Voyages to Newfoundland proposed by reteusions. The east coast was now explored more minutely, and illustrated by better reports and better charts ; particularly the coast of Maine, on which the rival claims of England and France came more immediately into conflict; aiad, what is more important, permanent colonies were now for the first time established. It thus appears that, between the second voyage of Hawkins in 156.5, and the first voyage of Gilbert and Raleigh under the letters-patent of 1578, there is a natural division in the history of American discov- ery, into an early and a later period. The termination of the early period will naturally form the concluding point of the historical nar- rative contained in this volume. 3. Its contents, their arrangement, and distribution into chapters. As discoverers and colonizers of North America, the Northmen stand forth in the middle ages foremost and alone, without allies or rivals. Hence I have brought together all that is known of their successive expeditions, and have treated of them in Chapter II, adding to them only the little I have to say regarding the brothers Vadino, Genoese, and the brothers Zeni, Venetians, who appear to have sailed at nearly the same time, and in nearly the same direction, with the Northmen . The old Scandinavian spirit at last died away. The expeditions of the Northmen to America gradually ceased, and their colonies in America were destroyed. Nevertheless, their knowledge of the west was never quite forgotten by them, being perpetuated by their tradi- tions. The connection of their colonies in Iceland with Europe, and particularly with England, was never entirely broken off. The Eng- lish and Hanse towns, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen- turies, maintained a lively commercial intercourse with Iceland on the old north-western route from Europe to America. This probably was not without an influence on the subsequent undertakings of Columbus and the Cabots. Columbus visited Iceland in the year 1477, and in 1497 the Cabots sailed from Bristol, the port which was the chief em- porium of the intercourse between England and Iceland, for the dis- covery of North America. These trading expeditions from England to Iceland in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, following next in 20 INTRODUCTIO^r. order after the expeditions of the Noi-thmen, and forming a connecting link between them and later enterprises, are treated of in Chapter III. Inspired by the example of Columbus, whose discoveries are not here rehited, but assumed to be known, the Venetians, John and Se- bastian Cabot, made their famous voyages of 1497 and 1498, in which N'orth America, if not first discovered, was first re-discovered since the time of the Nortlimen, and in which almost its entire east coast was first surveyed. To these important voyages of the Cabots, Chapter IV. of our volume is devoted. In imitation of the example of Columbus and of the Cabots, the adventurous Portuguese sent out, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, several exploring expeditions to the north-west under the command of the brothers Cortereal. These expeditions, though they do not appear to liave touched the coast of Maine, are still particularly interesting to us, as having tlu'own much light on the neighboring re- gions in the north of Maine. They, moreover, conducted Portuguese fishermen to tlie Banks of Newfoundland ; and these fishermen be- came, at the same time, active explorers of the north-east of America, and furnished tlie materials for several highly interesting charts of those regions. The expeditions of the Cortereals form the subject of our Chapter V. Tempted by the advantages offered in the regions recently discov- ered, the Bretons, Xormans, and Basques of the west coast of France, and also several English and Portuguese adventurers, followed thither the steps of the Cabots and the Cortereals. The French, with tlie Por- tuguese, for nearly the entire sixteenth century, took the lead in the fisheries on the Grand Banks, and in the exi^loration and delineation of the adjacent coasts. The interest thus created in these regions gave occasion, in France, for several exploring expeditions to the north-east of America ; and also, in other countries, to diverse schemes and projects for such expeditions as were never performed. In Chap- ter VI. I have treated of all these expeditions, which followed after the Cortereals, whether simply designed or actually accomplished. The explorations of our east coast, undertaken by the English, Por- tuguese, and French, whicli have been already described, began at Newfoundland in the north, and proceeded thence to the south. The Spanish explorations, on the contrary, usually began in the West In- dies, and proceeded thence along the coast of Florida toward the north, and reached sometimes the coasts of New England. Chapter VII. treats of these Spanish operations, from the time of Columbus to about tlie time of Ayllon and Cortes, 1524. In the years 1.524 and 1525, two expeditions were sent out with tho INTRODUCTION. 21 particular object of exploring the east coast of the present United States: the first from France, commanded by VeiTazano, an Italian, and the second from Spain, commanded by Gomez, a Spaniard. These exjieditlons, tliough proceeding; from different counti-ies, were similar in their plans and objects. They were both made at nearly the same time. The one was probably a consequence of the other. Botli touched the coast of New England, and particularly of Maine. Through the entire first half of the sixteenth century, there were no other expedi- tions which contributed so much to the knowledge of these coasts. The expedition of Verrazano produced our best description, and that of Gomez our best chart, of the coast of New England. Each of them was also quite isolated. Neither Gomez in Spain, nor Verrazano in France, had an immediate successor. One English expedition, how- ever, that of the year 1527, was somewhat connected with them, as to its date, its purposes, and its results. In view of these considera- tions, I have separated these two eminently important expeditions from the rest, and treated them together in CnAPTER VIII, to which, however, I have added the contemporary English voyage of 1527. After Verrazano, the French paused for about ten years, and then renewed their efforts for the exploration of some section of the east coast neglected by him. From 1534 to 1543, at the suggestion of Car- tier, one of their most eminent navigators, and under the commission of Francis I, tliej'^ undertook a series of expeditions to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, by which, at last, the entire geography of this region was disclosed. These expeditions gave rise to some admirable reports and maps, which are especially interesting to us from the intimate relations existing between the regions described and the State of Maine. The history of this series of expeditions is given in Chapter IX. I have added to it, however, a short report of an unsuccesful English expedi- tion, made to the same regions at the same time. Nearly all the Eng- lish expeditions of the sixteenth century are so disconnected that they cannot be easily grouped together. Sometimes there are feeble imita- tions of the enterprises of other nations, or at the best, results of them; and I have therefore thought it proper to disi)Ose of them, as in this case, under the head of some greater undertaking of some other nation, to which they seem to be most nearly related witli respect to time, and perhaps also to plan. In Chapter X. I have given an account of the continuation of the Spanish expeditions, including that of Ayllon to Chicora, in 1526; that of De Soto to the Mississippi, and that of Maldonado and Ai-ias along the east coast of North America, in the years 1538-1543. After the extensive explorations of Verrazano and Cartier, the 22 INTRODUCTION. French gave the name of New France to a large section of North America, and sometimes even to the whole American continent ; and they continued to navigate thither, especially to the Banks of New- Ibundland and the neighboring coasts. Until near the close of the century they took the lead of other nations in the affairs of North America. At the time of their religious wars, soon after the middle of the sixteenth century, the Huguenots, who had friends in some of the western ports, desired to find upon the east coast of North America a suitable place, where they might establish a new home for the adherents of their religion, condemned and jjersecuted as heretical in France. They commenced, therefore, in the year 15G2, a series of exi^loring and planting expeditions, under the command of their captains liibault and Laudonuiere, to the coasts of " French Florida," the name given by them to the region included in our present States of Georgia and South Carolina. On these expeditions some new and shorter oceanic routes were discovered, which afterwards became common, and were used in sailing to the coasts of New England. By these French expeditions to Florida, the Spaniards were also attracted to the same regions, and under their great navigator, Don Pedro Menendez, explored a great part of the east coast. The English also followed the French, under the command of Sir John Hawkins, and, conducted by French pilots, sailed from thence along the entire east coast of North America. Still another expedition, connected in a similar manner with these expe- efore adopted, have distributed this recapitulation under the heads of the different nations participating in the enterprises and discoveries herein desciibed. INTRODUCTION. 23 4. General remarks. 1.) In the history of the discovery of the east coast of North America, which I have given in these chapters, I have always had special refei- ence to the discovery of Maine, as the particnlar object of this volume. I have accordingly described the discovery of the other, and especially the more remote sections of the coast, less fully, and in more general tei-ms ; and at the end of the chapters, in which these other sections have been treated, have stated the influence which their discovery may have had on the discovery of Maine; while I have at the same time given prominence to all those voyages and explorations which were intended directly for the coast of Maine, or in which it was incidentally observed and surveyed, taking care to give in full the original passages, in which this coast and the coasts adjacent to it are described. This, pai-ticular coast, and also the entire east coast of the United States, are, as the reader will observe, often spoken of by me throughout the work, as our coasts. In using this expression, adopted sometimes for the sake of brevity, and sometimes for the sake of variety, I have not intended to convey the impression of my being a citizen of the State of Maine, or of any other State of the Union, but have rather allowed myself, almost unconsciously, to identify myself with my subject. 2.) The further we advance into our subject, and the more active the nations as well as individuals appear on the stage, the greater becomes the difficulty of grouping the whole mass of partially connected and dis- connected enterprises in a strictly chronological order. Sometimes a series of voyages having the same object, and following the same route, and growing out one from the other, was prosecuted in one and the same country for a long course of years ; while during the same period of time, expeditions and explorations were undertaken from other countries. In observing, therefore, a strict chronological order, and relating these enterpiises year by year, as several Spanish authors, for instance Herrera and Barcia have done, I should have been forced to transport myself and the reader continually from one counti'y to another, and there would have been no end of the breaking and the mending of the thread of the story. It appeared, therefore, to be evi- dently better, that, putting aside chronology, we should follow out the enterprises of one nation to a proper stopping-place, and then go back and resume the consideration of the contemporaneous enterijrises of another nation. But on the other hand, the division of the subject according to na- tions, which has been adopted by Forster, and other historians, has also its great inconveniences, if strictly and exclusively followed. The mari- time enterprises of any particular nation, the English for example, 24 INTRODUCTION. were, as a general thing, undertaken not so much from causes origi- nating at home, as operating from abroad, and could not be justly described, without keeping in view the parallel enterprises of friendly or hostile nations, of the allied or rival powers. From these considerations I have followed in my work a middle course, arranging its materials, partly according to the order of time, partly according to that of nationality. If I have met a -group of connected enterprises, undertaken in one country, or under the influ- ence of a single individual, I have traced it from beginning to end ; and then arranged it chronologically with other groups, formed in a similar manner. 3.) With respect to the sources from which I have taken the data for my historical report, I have to make the following remarks. It has been my endeavor to obtain the best and earliest editions of the woi'ks on which I have relied as my authorities. But it has not always been possible for me to obtain the " best editions ; " nor always, indeed, any editions of some works which I have wished to consult. In these cases, I have contented myself with secondary sources. I may say, however, that I have seen and consulted most of the great authorities in this department of learning, preserved in Oie libraries of Germany, Paris, the British Museum, Oxford, New York, Boston, and Cambridge; all of which, in the course of my travels, I have formerly visited for the purpose of collecting materials for a general history of the discovery of America. It was my first intention to give an account of the standard works on the topics discussed at the beginning of each chapter; but this might have rendered the volume too bulky. Instead of this I have taken care to refer the reader, in foot-notes, to the works consulted, and the editions used. I trust, therefore, he will be satisfied of the soUdity of my literary foundation. II. On tue Maps. Geographical maps and charts have been composed from time imme- morial. The ancient Greeks and Romans, and after them the Arabs, composed maps. Even the Northmen of the middle ages did the same, so far as they were able. In the era of modern discovery, it became customary for explorers to draw, during each expedition, a chart, mark- ing the configuration, and the latitude and longitude of the new coun- try seen by them. These original charts of the discoverers themselves, made from actual survey, drawn on board their ships, or composed soon after they had reached home, with the assistance of their journals and notes, would be, if we possessed them, invaluable historical documents. INTRODUCTION 25 But the instances are rare in which they have been preserved. They came at first into the hands of hydrographers and map-makers, who copied and reduced them, and embodied their contents in the general maps of the worhl, or so-called " Portolanos," — sailing-charts, — which they composed for the instruction of the public, or the uses of naviga- tion. After having been employed in this manner, they were consigned to oblivion. A similar fate soon overtook the copies and compilations made from them. For a time, indeed, those great and splendid pictures of the new world, which were composed from the original charts of the great discoverers, had great celebrity, and were held in high estimation ; but only for a time. We liear of new maps, which were liung up by kings in their palaces; and of others, which were discussed in the academies, and sent from city to city for the inspection of the learned. They were studied, copied, engraved, and painted over and over again; but only so long as they were new. When another new map appeared, which occurred often and after short intervals, the old map disap- peared from the palace and the academy, and was laid aside and for- gotten. The maps which through age liad become erroneous, were consid- ered good for nothing, and even held in contempt; though their errors often had some good reason, and at least showed the ideas of their authors, and of the times in which they were composed. They some- times contained excellent intimations of the better views which after- wards prevailed. For these and other reasons it may be justly said, that there is no class of hi.storical documents on which the " tooth of time " has been more busy, more cruel and destructive, than on old maps, — those com- piled, as well as those made from actual survey, the manuscript, as well as the engraved and printed. We could point out some maps engraved and printed only a few hundred years ago, and then existing in hundreds or thousands of copies, of which now scarcely a copy is left, which is valued by amateurs at its weight in gold. Nevertheless it has happened, that by chance and good fortune, a considerable number of old maps and charts has been preserved to our times, either in the public archives, or in the old State libraries of the nations of Europe. But even these maps and charts, which had been spared by all-destroying time, were scarcely noticed by the historians and geographers of the last century ; sharing the neglect with which, during that period, Gothic buildings and other mediaeval monuments were regarded. Indeed, during this interval, the old maps and charts were never invested with the dignity of historical documents. Even 26 INTRODUCTION. those most learned and intelligent French geographers, D'Anville and Delille, who were still living in the time of our grandfathers, felt no interest in old maps, and did nothing to I'ecover or preserve them; though they would have found in them some information not to be obtained elsewhere, and might have used them to illustrate and adorn their geographical works. Historians, geographers, explorers, and travelers have sometimes laid down on their maps and charts certain facts, of which they have omit- ted to speak in their reports and books, finding it easier to speak to the eye than to the ear; or rather to convey the information they wished to impart, by using the brief and compact delineations of the map, instead of the diffuse and cumbersome phraseology of the book. It is not seldom the case, that an old map will contain the only infor- mation we possess concerning some expedition or discovery. To give a single instance : our books and manuscripts give us very imperfect information about those highly interesting expeditions which Cortes ordered to be made in the Gulf of California, and along the western shores of the Californian peninsula. A chart of these regions, which was made by a contemporary of Cortes, and which, near the end of the last century, was discovered and published in Mexico, furnishes a most satifactory supplement to our knowledge on this subject. Moreover, the map-makers of former times were not content with merely giving the outline and name of a particular region, but they often affixed to it some inscription, legend, or notice, in which they informed the reader what kind of people lived there, what animals and plants were raised there, and, occasionally, by whom and when it was discovered. Now and then remarks like these are seen on those old maps : " In the year 1500 the Spaniard Bastidas sailed as far as this point;" or, " Here Solis was killed;" or, "In the present year Garay has gone out to this country, but is not come back as yet." We often see jotted down on the old maps, all kinds of observations, con- jectures, and hypotheses, from which we can learn the ideas and no- tions which were current at the time when they were comi^osed. These old maps were often highly embellished with pictures of the mountains, the forests, the animals, the cities of the newly-discovered countries, of their aboriginal inhabitants, and of the discoverer and his companions in their antique armor and costume, and the flags and crosses erected by them ; to say nothing of the monsters in the sur- rounding waters, and the ships sailing among them to and fro ; in great contrast with the dry and purely scientific character of our modern maps. INTRODUCTION. 27 This will suffice * at present, to show the great importance of the old maps and charts in the history of discovery. In more modern times this importance has come to be more generally acknowledged. Near the beginning of this century, a praiseworthy anticiuarian enthusiasm was awakened ; and under this impulse historians and geographers began to search after old maps in the archives and libraries of the dif- ferent States of Europe ; and when they were found, to have them care- fully copied, collected, and ijublished; thus repairing, as far as possible, the mischief resulting from the carelessness of former times, and restor- ing these lost documents to the common treasury of knowledge. To recite all that has been done in this way since the beginning of the nineteenth century by learned individuals and by scientific bodies, would be aside from my present purpose. Suffice it to say, that no work on the history of American discovery would now be regarded as complete, unless illustrated by copies of the old maps and charts, appropriate to the country of which it treats. In accordance with these views, and with the wishes expressed by the Maine Historical Society, I have in this work paid particular atten- tion to the subject of maps. From all which offered themselves for illustrating the discovery of the east coast of North America, and particularly of the coast of Maine, I have selected, in preference, those which come nearest to the first charts ; those, too, made from actual survey, by the explorers themselves ; and next to these, such as were made by distinguished contemporary cosmographers, and which are specially valuable, as exhibiting the leading geographical notions and ideas then prevailing. The arrangement of the maps is attended with some difficulties. If there were a separate original chart for each distinct discovery, there could be no question, but that it should be placed in connection with the history of that discovery. But generally, even the eai-lier maps are only later compilations, and exhibit the results of several explorations made in different periods and distant places. However, even in such instances, there is commonly, on each map, some one discovery which constitutes its most prominent feature, and gives it a special interest. I have, therefore, arranged the maps according to their prominent and characteristic features, and annexed them to the chapters to which they are related by their principal or most important contents. In doing this, I have not omitted to notice those contents of the maps which are *I take the liberty to refer the reader to a lecture on the subject of the old maps, delivered by me in the Sraithsouian Institute in Washington, and published in tho Annual Report of the Board of Regents of that Institution for the year 1856, pp. 93-147, where the subject is treated more fully. 28 INTRODUCTION. of secondary and subordinate interest; and to connect tliem also, by references, with the chapters to which they are related by their subjects, to which they allbrd some illustration, and from which they receive in turn some explanation. " And as the chapters and the maps are both numbered, tlie connection between them can be easily indicated. I might have embodied the maps in the chapters they were designed to illustrate; but I have thought it preferable to place them in an " Appendage " at the end of these chai^ters, and to give the history and exijlain the contents of each map in a separate section of this Append- age. If, on this method, repetitions could not be wholly avoided, they are certainly reduced to the smallest possible number. In our exami- nation of the maps it will often appear, that they not only confirm the facts related in our history, but often furnish additional information. In accepting the proposals made to me by the Maine Historical Society, I understood, as they did, that fac-similes of the original maps were to be furnished. But in the strict sense of the term, a fac-simile is, in my opinion, an impossibility ; and furthei-more, if it could be had, it would avail nothing for our purpose. Whether fac-similes should be furnished, must always be a question of degree. To give a perfect fac- simile, one must make a copy of the old maps of the size, with the handwriting, with the gold and silver embellishments, with the yellow, red, and blue coloring; nay, with the very material, the rich vellum, of the originals, — a ijroceeding beyond the means ordinarily possessed either by individuals or societies. In giving fac-similes of the old maps, it cannot certainly be under- stood, that the enormous size of some of them should be retained. I have, therefore, reduced them to more convenient dimensions. The reduced copy is not, however, necessarily a less exact copy of the origi- nal, than an enlarged copy would be. Nor would a fac-simile necessarily require, that the rich coloring of the old maps should be followed in the copy. However much this might add to the beauty of the map, it would add nothing to its his- torical value. From all these various and costly colors, I have there- fore retained only two ; blue for the water, and black for the outlines of the firm land, and for the names. Nor have I undertaken to reproduce exactly the quaint and often illegible handwriting, in which the names and inscriijtions are written on the old maps ; diftering in fashion in different periods, difi'erent na- tions, and in diflerent maps of the same period and nation. To have done this, would have been to throw a great deal of heavy work upon the reader. I have, therefore, taken this labor upon myself, and have written all the names and inscriptions in a uniform style, and in our INTRODUCTION. 29 current letters. And if it sliould appear to the reader, that on this plan he finds, in the case of doubtful names, nothing but my own pri- vate opinion ; it might be a question, whether he would fare better, in being left to decipher them for himself. Besides, my rendering of the old names, in many cases, is the same as had been given before by learned geograi)hers, and is commended to the reader by their high authority. To guard against all error in this matter, I have stated in my account of each map how far, and in what sense, it may be considered a fac- simile copy of the original. At all events, the reader will understand, that in reducing the size of the old maps, and in modernizing their handwriting, I have not made my task any easier. The method I have adopted, and wiiich I think is an invention of my own, is no labor-saving contrivance. It would have been a far easier task for me, to place the original in the hands of a competent artist, and simply to have required of him an exact and faithful copy. I will add nothing to these introductory remarks, but the expression of my hearty wish, that the manner in which I have performed the diffi- cult work assigned to me, and have solved the many intricate problems connected with it, may prove to be satisfactory to the members of the Historical Society of Maine, and to the patriotic citizens of that State, and that they will be kindly disposed to excuse its manifold imperfec- tions. Bremen (Germany), 29 August, 18G8. DISCOYEEY or THE COAST OF MAINE. CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE GULF AND COAST OF MAINE. 1. IkTKODUCTORY IiE^rARKS. The first navigators and explorers of our coasts and waters reconnoitered, and the old map-makers depicted them, only in a very rouoh and general manner. In introducino; a report on their history by a hydrographic description, it is not my intention to go into all the details of the subject. To describe minutely every little harbor or island on the coast, to enter deeply into its geology and geography, in our case would be perfectly superfluous ; because all these smaller objects, during the period of time which we have to examine, never came into consideration. They were not observed by the first explorers, who from time to time, often after long intervals, appeared on our shores, sweeping along tliem in good or bad weather ; and were never represented on their charts, or mentioned in their reports. They became impor- tant only at a later date, when our regions Avere oftener visited, and when the nature and value of every spot and corner for commercial purposes or settlement, were better estimated. For such a later period, a more detailed examina- tion no doubt would become necessary. 32 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Here it will be sufficient and proper, to give only a general description of the coast, and to point out those very prom- inent physical features, which from the beginning of the dis- covery of America by Europeans came into notice, by which the old mariners and cosmographers themselves were struck, and which can serve us for the better understanding of their doings, writings, and charts. 2. General Configuration" of the Continent of JSToeth America. The continent of North America, of which the territory of the present State of Maine is but a very small part, may be said to form an irregular quadrilateral region of dry land, a kind of rhomboid of colossal proportions facing on all sides, with only one small exception, the salt-water. This great quadrangle is broad in the north, and somewhat contracted toward the south. The southern coast-line, along the shores of the American Mediterranean Sea, and more particularly of the Gulf of Mexico, is, therefore, not very extended. In a rough meas- sure, and as far as the great mass of the continent goes, it is about 1500 miles long. And the continent, by a long and gigantic bridge of countries, is united there to its sister conti- nent, South America. By this bridge, or isthmus, the coast- line is broken, the surrounding waters interrupted, and the form of the quadrangle made still more irregular. The northern or arctic coast-line runs from Behring Strait in the west, to Labrador and the north coast of Newfound- land in the east, whei'e it ends at Cape Race. It has an enormous exten.t of more than four thousand miles, and faces the arctic waters, which, for the greater jiart of the year are frozen over or filled with icebergs and not navigable. Though upon the whole it runs from west-north-west to east THE COAST OF MAINE. 33 south-?ast, still it is made very irregular by great peninsulas, large islands, bays, and gulfs, deviating from the general trending of the coast-line. The largest and most important of these bays of the arctic coast is Hudson's Bay. And by far the largest island in its neighborhood is Greenland, from which the continent is separated by the broad and gigantic channel of Davis' Strait and Baffin's Bay. The west coast extends from Behring Strait to Mexico and to the above-mentioned Central American bridge, or isthmus. It has, likewise, an extended length of about four thousand miles, a general trending from north north-west to south south-east, facing the Pacific Ocean. It has many peninsulas and gulfs, which project beyond the general coast- line. The largest of them are the peninsulas of California, the gulf of the same name in the south, and the peninsula of Alaska and Behrino;'s Sea in the north. The east coast of North America extends from Cape Florida in the south, to Cape Race in the north, with a general length of about two thousand miles. It is, on the whole, pretty straight-lined, and has a general trending from south-west to north-east, facing the Atlantic Ocean. It, therefore, more exactly should be called the south-east coast of North America. But for brevity, we may be allowed to adopt the name east coast. 3. The four Great Gflfs of the East Coast of North America. On the east coast of North America, of which the terri- tory of the State of Maine forms a prominent part, are five projecting points, or peninsulas, which stand out more to the east of the general coast-line. 1. In the south, the southern part of the peninsula of Florida. 34 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 2. The broad peninsula of North Carohna, ending in Cape Hatteras. 3. The peninsula of New England, running out with Cape Cod. 4. The gi-eat hammer-like peninsula of Nova Scotia, offering a long coast to the ocean. 5. The south-western peninsula of Newfoundland, pro- jecting to the east with Cape Race. These peninsulas and capes form and hold between them four large gulfs or bays, namely, the following : 1. Between Cape Florida and Cape Hatteras is a broad and not very deep gulf, which has its most interior part on the coast of the State of Georgia, and which we, therefore, might call the Gulf of Georma. 2. To the north of it, between Cape Hatteras and the peninsula of New England, is included a similar not very deep gidf, which, from the principal State and port on its shores, might, perhaps, be called the Gulf of New York. 3. Between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia is formed a some- what smaller, but more marked gulf, on which we shall have to treat here somewhat more particularly. 4. By Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Canada is con- fined a gulf, which has only two narrow outlets to the south and north of Newfoundland, is nearly everywhere sur- rounded by land, and might, therefore, be called a Mediter- ranean Basin. It has a somewhat square form, and, there- fore, in ancient times, was called " Golfo quadrado" (the square-shaped gulf). After the discovery of the River St. Lawrence emptying into it, it obtained the name, Gulf of St. Lawrence. The discovery and history of all these gulfs is more or less connected with the history of the gulf and coast of Maine, which stands in the midst of them. I shall, therefore, have THE COAST OF MAINE. 35 to allude to them often, and it was necessary to point them out in a general way, and to state under what names I intended to mention them. I now will try to delineate somewhat more particularly the principal features of the Gulf of Maine,, as far as they are of interest to us. 4. Name of the Gulf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, The gulf between Cape Cod and Nova Scotia, though it forms a very marked and peculiar piece of water, has, up to this day, no generall}^ adopted name. Usually, in our geo- graphical works and maps, it is left without any name what- ever. The first Spanish describers of this coast sometimes used for it, as will appear hereafter, the name, "Arcipelago de Tramontana" (the Northern Archipelago), or, from the first Spanish explorer, " Arcipelago de Gomez" (the Archipelago of Gomez), The old French fishermen, who visited it sometimes, from the great banks, probably gave to it the name "The Gulf" or " Sea, of Norumbega," which latter was their name for the country stretched out along our gulf; At a later time, when the English colony of Massachu- setts was established, the name "Bay of Massachusetts" was introduced, and sometimes applied to the entire gulf, though this name at present is usually given to only a small section of it. Because the gulf is formed by the peninsula of New England, and because the principal States and harbors of New England stretch along its coasts, the name of " Gulf of New England" would be a very proper appellation. The name, "Gulf of Maine," was proposed and used 36 " IVIAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. in the year 1832 by the Edinburgh Encyclopedia,* and in more modern times by officers of the United States Coast Survey. This name is particularly appropriate, because the State of Maine stretches along the inner parts of the gulf, and occupies by far the greater section of its coasts, and especially those which are most characteristic of these waters. Moreover, Maine-built vessels and Maine sailors are the most numerous coasters of the gulf. And last, but not least, the name is shorter and more euphonious than all the others, and probably, therefore, will soon come into general use. For these reasons I am inclined to adopt in my work the name of "Gulf of Maine," thougli, for the sake of vai'iety, I may also, in some cases, use the name of " Gulf of New England." 5. Size axd General Configukation op the Gulf of Maine. The Gulf of Maine has a much more marked form and figure than the two other great gulfs of the United States mentioned above. Its principal body begins in the north at Cape Sable, with the rectangular or square-shaped southern end of Nova Scotia. From Cape Sable the coast-line runs for some distance to the north-west, and a continuation of this line strikes the coast of Maine at Quoddy Head, at the distance of somewhat more than one hundred miles from Cape Sable. From Quoddy Head, the general line of the coast runs for about 160 miles as far as Cape Elizabeth, to the west south- west. But there it begins to trend more decidedly to the south-west and south, and, in the vicinity of Boston, it turns round to the south-east and east toward Cape Cod and the * See the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Philadelphia edition, 1832, by Thos. Parker. Vol. XVUI, p. 263. Article, " United States." THE COAST^OF MAINE. 37 Nantucket Shoals, forming in this manner a kind of semi- circular line of about 150 miles in length. Cape Sable and the peninsula of Cape Cod may be called the outposts or entrance-capes of the gulf. They are about 230 miles distant from each other. And this may be con- sidered the base-line, or the breadth of the gulf. From this base-line to the inner parts of the gulf at the coast of Maine is about a distance of 120 miles, which may be called the depth of the gulf. Summing up this, the Gulf of Maine may be described as a square-shaped or somewhat semicircular basin, of a depth, from south-east to north-west, of 120 miles ; and of a width or breadth, from north-east to south-west, of about 230 miles. Everywhere in old reports and charts of the east coast of America, where we meet in our latitudes a semicircular bay of about the said size and figure, we may presume that the Gulf of Maine has been meant. From this regular form adopted for it, the Gulf of Maine shows, however, one very remarkable deviation or exception. The "square" or "semicircle" is not closed in the north- east corner. There, on the contrary, the basin opens and runs out between the north-eastern coast of Nova Scotia and the south-eastern coast of New Brunswick, into a broad and long appendage or bay, which again, at its eastern end, sepa- rates into two narrow branches, running out toward the north and east. This somewhat hidden bay appears to have been very- little known to the early Spanish and French official explorers of our coast. It is not clearly indicated in the reports of Verrazano (1524), nor in those of Gomez (1525). But we find on the first old Spanish maps, in the latitude where it ought to be, names like these: "Rio hondo" or fondo (a deep river), or "Bahia honda" or fonda (a deep 38 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. bay) ; or " Golfo " (a gulf) ; once, also, " La Bahia de la Ensenada" (the bay of the deep inlet). I presume that these were Spanish names for that bay. There is no doubt that the early Portuguese and French fishermen of the Great Bank also visited and knew this bay, so rich in fish. We see it depicted on their charts, but without a name. After- ward, from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the French gave to it the name "La Bayo Fran^oise " (the French Bay). But this name has disappeared, probably because it was not acceptable to the English settlers. The present name of the gulf is "Bay of Fundy," which, how- ever, on maps of the seventeenth, and early part of the eight- eenth century especially, is written " Bay of Funda." I believe, therefore, that this modern name grew out from, and is a revival of, the old Spanish name, " Bahia fonda." If we unite the Bay of Fundy with its two interior branches, and the Gulf of Maine, taking them as a whole, we may say, that the entire piece of water in its configura- tion is very much like the figure of a colossal turnip with a broad head, a small body, and two thin roots. 6. Soundings. The soundings of the Gulf of Maine, and the nature of its submarine bottom, have not for us a very ui'gent interest. We will enter into their examination only so for as is necessary to prove, that there existed in this gulf no great obstacles to navigation ; that it was rather inviting for the old mariners ; and that they easily, and without great danger, might sail from one end of the gulf to the other in all directions. The entire central parts of the gulf between the penin- sulas of Nova Scotia and New England present a large sheet of navigable water of a mean depth of about one THE COAST OF MAINE. 39 hundred fathoms. This depth comes very near to the shores of the continent. The fifty-fothom line runs nearly every- where along the coast at a distance of only about sixteen miles, and sometimes comes much nearer. In this respect, the Gulf of Maine, in comparison with the two other great gulfs of the United States, is quite peculiar. At the south of Cape Cod, in the " Gulf of New York," the fifty-fathom line remains at a distance of more than sixty miles from the coast. From the fifty-fathom line the soundings in the Gulf of Maine decrease very gradually toward the rocky coasts to twenty and ten fathoms. This latter depth enters into many bays and inlets, and runs sometimes deep into the interior of the country. We may say, therefore, that the cliffs, islands, and rocky shores of Maine are everywhere surrounded by navigable and convenient soundings of a middling depth. 7. The Fishing Banks and Shoals. From the bottom of the ocean, surrounding the coast of Maine and the neighborino; countries, rise several laro;e and small more or less elevated plateaus, the surface of which lies not very deep under the level of the sea, and which are called banks. The most extended of these plateaus or banks begins oppo- site Newfoundland, to the east of it. It stretches out in its greatest length north and south from about 50° to 42° north latitude, with an average breadth of about 150 miles, and has been called, from time immemorial, " The Great Bank," or "The Grand Bank of Newfoundland." From the middle parts of this great bank a long chain of smaller banks runs out to the west and south-west a long way. This chain begins on the south of Newfoundland Avitli the St. Peter's Bank, having the smaller Whale Bank and Green 40 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Bank to the soutli of it. To the south of Cape Breton Island, stands the Middle Bank and the Banquereau. To the south of Nova Scotia stands Sable Island Bank, with the remarka- ble island of the same name, and further to the south-west, Rosewaj and Le Have Bank, formerly also called Brown's Bank. The western end of this chain of banks approaches the Gulf of Maine in the George's Bank, and still nearer in the Nantucket Shoals at the east of the peninsula of Cape Cod ; and enters this Gulf in Jeffrey's Bank and Jeffrey's Ledge along the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine. All these banks, having pretty deep water above them, arc generally no obstacle to navigation. Only a few very shoal places on the Great Bank are an exception ; and also that sandy low Sable Island, famous for its dangers and ship- wrecks. St. George's Bank has also some bad shoals, and the Nantucket Shoals form a Avhole nest of rips dangerous to navigation. Also on " Cashe's Ledo;e," in the midst of the Gulf of Maine, a few dancrerous soundino;s have been dis- covered. All the said banks, more particularly the "Great Bank," are the breeding-places of innumerable little animals, which servo as food for several sorts of fish. Herring, salmon, haddock, and other valuable fish resort to them in great numbers. But above all, the most important of them, the cod, called by the French " La Morue," by the Italians " Merluzzo," by the Germans " Kabeljau," by the Spaniards and Portuguese " Bacallaos." This most historical of all the fishes of the sea has its prin- cipal habitat through the whole northern half of the Atlantic Ocean, from the coasts of Europe between 50° and 60° north latitude to the coasts of America from 58° down to 42° north latitude. On the coasts of Europe in Norway, Germany, THE COAST OF MAINE. 41 France, Great Britain, the Slictlands, etc., it was hunted after by the fishermen of these countries from time imme- morial ; and also for a very long time in the vicinity of Ice- land, where, principally in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and also before and after, it was the standard article of commerce. At the end of the fifteenth century the western end of the cod-fish region on the above-mentioned banks of North America was discovered, which, in richness of fish, surpassed all the rest, and which soon attracted there the French, the Basques, the Portuguese, and also the Eng- lish fishermen, merchants, and navigators in great numbers ; so that the cod-fish gave occasion for the better exploration and settlement of these regions. The chain of cod-fishing banks, which, as I have said, ended in the Gulf of Maine, led the European repeatedly to the coasts of Maine, to Cape Cod, and to the Bay of Fundy ; which latter bay, in this direction, was about the last refuge and hiding-place of the every-where hunted cod-fish. 8. CUREENTS. On the details of the currents in the Gulf of Maine we have as yet very little exact knowledge. The general move- ment and tendency of the waters in this basin, I believe, may be described thus : The cold arctic current comes down in a south-western direction along the south-east coast of Nova Scotia as far as Cape Sable. From this cape it continues its initial direction, setting across the broad entrance line of the Gulf of Maine, and drawino; with it the waters of the south-west coast of Nova Scotia from Bryer's Island to Cape Sable, which there, consequently, will run in a south-eastern direction, uniting themselves Avith the arctic current. This arctic current pursues its south-western course toward 42 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Cape Cod and tlie great submarine })lateaus or banks to tlie east of this cape. By these banks and capes the current is probably divided, and partly turned off. The principal body moves onward Avitli its initial direction along the south coast of New England. But one branch of it turns to the north- west and north alonf^ the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine ; so that in this manner a somewhat circular movement of the waters takes place in the basin of the Gulf of Maine. I will only add the remark, that the soundings, being deepest in the midst of the gulf, appear to support and prove this view. The north-westerly and northerly current along the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, has been proved by actual experiment of the officers of the United States Coast Survey, who have made regarding it the fol- lowing observation : " Our experiments have revealed the existence of a coast-current sweeping along the westerly part of Cape Cod Bay, and there taking a course northward. At first it is feeble, but it gathers considerable strength further to the north." * The existence of such a current may have influenced the reports and charts of early navigators not acquainted with it, and not bringing it into account. Sailing from the north along our coast, and being retarded l)y the current, such a navigator would be inclined to think his latitude to be more southerly than it really was, and consequently would put on his map Cape Cod, for instance, under a more southern lati- tude than it has. The Gulf-stream from Florida runs at some distance ahmg the coast of the United States from south-west to north-east. Many navigators sailed along with it without knowing it. Arriving with the Gulf-stream in sight of t^ape Cod and * See this in the Coast Survey Report of the year 1860, \). 43. THE COAST OF MAINE. 43 tlie Nantucket Shoals, they would also be inclined to give to this cape a more southerly latitude than it has. We, therefore, in examining the old charts, should always have in mind the direction of these coast-currents and their proLable influence on the operations and on the charts of the old navigators. 9. Tides. The rise and fall of the tides in the Gulf of Maine and along its shores are known to be very great. They are the highest on the entire east coast of the United States, and those in the Bay of Fundy, perhaps the highest on the globe. The spring tides on the shores of the Gulf of Maine some- times have a rise and fall of more than twenty feet, and in the interior parts of the Bay of Fundy even, it is said, of more than fifty feet. Throughout the whole Gulf of Maine they may be said to have a mean rise and fall of ten feet. These high tides begin at once north of Cape Cod penin- sula, and end at once at the south of it ; so that, for instance, the harbor of Plymouth, at the north of Cape Cod, has a mean rise and fall of more than ten feet, whilst the harbor of Hyannis at the south of it, and only a few miles distant from Plymouth, has but a mean rise and fall of about three feet ; and from there, these low tides are found along the entire coast development of the United States, as far down as Cape Florida, generally decreasing in this direction, and only exceptionally at some places (for instance. New York) increasing again, though they nowhere arrive to the height of the tides of the Gulf of Maine. So that this gulf, also, in this respect is marked among all the waters of the United States, and makes quite an exceptional and peculiar feature. * See upon this the Tide-table in Coast Survey Eeport of tlie year 1863, p. 86. 44 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. These high tides make the inlets and rivers of Maine navigable for large vessels as high as their lowest falls, where they are arrested. They carried the vessels of early navi- gators as high np into the interior as these falls. They also, in modern times, probably, have facilitated the business of ship-building, one of the principal trades of the population of Maine. 10. Climate, Temperature, Winds, Fogs. The Gulf of Maine may be said to lie between the lati- tudes of 42° and 45° north. The territory of the State of Maine extends about two degrees further north. It is the most northern among the States of the east coast of the Union. The nature of its climate inclines more to the countries north of it (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, etc.) than to the States south of Cape Cod. This cape, also, in that respect marks a very striking division. The neighboring countries to the south of it (Rhode Island, etc.) have a much milder climate than those to the north. Even the waters at the north of Cape Cod, throughout the entire Gulf of Maine, are, particularly in summer-time, remarkably colder than those in the south, though in latitude they differ only by a few minutes. The arctic current branches off into the Gulf of Maine and circulates in it, whilst the warm Gulf-stream is directed to the more southerly coast of New England, and warms its waters. All the shores of the Gulf of Maine, and particularly those of the State of Maine, like Canada, have a climate of extremes. The temperature is said to range between 100° above and 30° below zero of Fahrenheit, and even more. The frosts of winter are nearly uninterrupted, and the lakes and rivers may be passed on ice from the beginning of December to the beginning of April. The harbors on the coast of THE COAST OF MAINE. 45 Maine, especially that of Portland, are usually open through- out the year. The Canadian line of British Steamers make Portland their winter port. The entire line of sea-coast, however, has a somewhat more moderate chmate and tem- perature, being cooler in summer and warmer in winter than the interior parts. The country, therefore, was little sought after for settle- ment by the nations of southern Europe. The Spaniards always considered it to be a too northern and little inhabi- table country, even when they had settlements on the coast of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. And the French and English at first, likewise, turned their eyes to the more promising South. The French very early tried settlements in Florida, and the English in North Carolina and Virginia. With respect to her northern sister countries (Nova Scotia, Canada, Labrador^ etc.), Maine is a more southern country. The French, after having in vain tried some plantations in Canada in the beginning of the seventeenth century, resorted to Maine as being milder, and, for some time, thought to give it the preference to Canada. And, in times of old, the Northmen came down from Iceland and Greenland to New England, to make it their favorite country, calling it "the good country." South-westerly winds, coming from the Atlantic and from the Gulf-stream, warm the waters and shores of the Gulf of Maine, whilst north-westerly winds, coming from Canada and the coldest region of North America, lower the temperature. North-westerly gales come down sometimes Avith great ftiry from the mountains and woods in the interior, being the most dreaded winds in the Gulf of Maine. We hear of the influence of north-western gales even in the time of the Northmen. The Gulf and coast of Maine, like other countries to the 46 MAINE HISTOKICAL SOCIETY. north-east, have always been famous for their fogs. They are often so thick and dense, that sometimes the coast and its inlets are hidden by them for several weeks. Particularly the opening to the Bay of Fundy from time to time is closed by a bank of fog lying before it like a wall. The cause of these fogs, probably, is to be found in the warm and cold currents of water and air mixing and meeting each other in these regions. The fogs take place with south- erly winds, coming from the warm Gulf-stream, oftener than Avith any other wind. They being warm and moist, and falling upon the cold waters of the Gulf of Maine, are con- densed and show their watery contents. Northerly winds, coming from the dry country, and being more of the same temperature with the cold water of the gulf, will clear away these fogs. But they do this only as far as the cool water of the Gulf of Maine and of the arctic current extends. As soon as they enter the warmer column of air above the Gulf- stream water, they, of course, produce these fogs by cooling and condensing the air. In examining the history of the early navigators we must, also, have in mind the accidents and errors occasioned by the fogs. It is possible that such a large and broad water as the Bay of Fundy, for a long time was not depicted on the official maps of the European kings, because their official explorer, at the time of his arrival, could not recognize it from such a bank of fog being stretched out like a range of mountains before its entrance. In the same manner in mod- ern times Sir James Ross, in Lancaster Sound, believed he saw mountains, where there were but fogs, and depicted this sound as land-locked, whilst it had the widest open water in the world. THE COAST OF MAINE. 47 11. Deviation of the Magnetic Needle. The deviation of the magnetic needle in our days amounts, in the Gulf of Maine, to a variation of from thirteen tc fourteen degrees west. The variation, of course, has been different at different times, and through the course of centu- ries. As the old navigators of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were little acquainted with this deviation, and coidd not bring it into account, their tracks and courses, and also their coast-lines, were not truly laid down on their charts. In examining their old charts we should have this always in mind, though perhaps it would, from other reasons, not be worth our while to try to fix the amount of magnetic varia- tion for every period of time, and to make out how it may have influenced and injured the observation of every old explorer and the correctness of his chart. 12. Capes, Headlands, Peninsulas, Indentations. The continental region bordering the coast of the Gulf of Maine presents, throughout, an elevated hilly and rocky country, built up by volcanic action, and presenting granite, syenite, and several other eruptive or metamorphic rocks, alternating with silurian strata, fossiliferous limestone, and argillaceous schists. The rivers coming out from the interior, the waves and tides of the ocean, ice and snow, and other eroding agencies, have worked upon the- softer substances, and have scooped out along the coast an innumerable quantity of friths, head- lands, narrow peninsulas, high, sharp-projecting points, necks, islands, reaches, bays, and coves, with which the coast is lined and serrated. These numberless indentations are quite a peculiar and characteristic feature of the coast of Maine. No other sec- 48 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. tion of tlie entire east coast of tlie United States has a similar character and configuration. Only beyond the limits of the Union, along the shores of the more northern British pos- sessions, do we find coast-lines which offer the same singular aspect ; and it is remarkable enough, that they are nearly all in the same position with respect to the ocean as that portion of the coast which we have in view. The south-eastern coasts of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, and Newfoundland are all serrated, indentated, torn to pieces, and ragged like the coast of Maine ; and they all, like this, fti(ie the broad ocean and ' are open to its action : whilst the northern and western shores of these same coun- tries, which are turned to the interior of the Bay of Fundy and of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are much more rounded or straightened, without a great number of deep friths and head- lands. It would appear from this, that the waves and tides of the ocean have been among the principal agencies by which those indentations were scooped out. We find, however, very similarly indentated coasts through- out all the cold regions of the north, as well on the eastern as on the western side of America ; and again in Greenland, Iceland, and also in northern Europe, in Scotland, Scandi- navia, etc. Then, again, we find them in the cold regions of the South, in the Strait of Magellan, in Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, etc. It is, therefore, very probable, that ice and snow and the action of the glaciers had something to do with their formation. It is impossible, and also unnecessary, to mention and describe here all the innumerable capes, spits, and necks of our coast. I will enumerate only those which, during the period of its early history, appear to have come into considera- tion and to have got a noted name. THE COAST OF MAINE. 49 1. Cape Cod. The peninsula of New England, at the south of our gulf, with a pointed angle, runs far out to the east, and projects much beyond the general line of the east coast. It ends with a narrow, low, sandy, more or less hilly piece of country, called Barnstable, or Cape Cod, peninsula. This peninsvda turns with a still narrower spit of land like a hook to the north, and ends with a crooked headland, at present called Cape Cod. The whole may be considered as forming the entrance- cape of the Tjrulf of Maine. By several islands to the south of it, particularly by Nantucket Island, and then by several dangerous banks and shoals, called the Nantucket Shoals, stretching out still further toward the east and into the ocean, the whole locality is made more prominent; and from the beginning of navigation it must have been a very striking and remarkable object for all the mariners sailing along the coast. On the entire east coast of the United States only one cape (Cape Hatteras) exists, which may be compared to Cape Cod Avith respect to conspicuousness and importance in the history of navigation. Cape Cod could scarcely escape observation by any navi- gator coming along our shores from the north. Those coming from the south sometimes may have been turned off from the coast by the Gulf-stream without getting in sight of the cape. Cape Cod, therefore, usually has been descried from the north. The Northmen, the Spaniard Gomez, the French under De Monts, the English under Gosnold, were all, sailing from north to south, arrested by this cape. The Northmen compared the crooked figure of the cape to the prow of a vessel, and called it " Cape Shipsnose " (Kialarnes). The Spaniards were frightened by the dan- gerous shoals at the south-east of it, and named it " Cabo de Arecifes" (Cape of the Riffs). The French and Dutch 4 50 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. were struck by the appearance of its sandy white bluffs, which shine fiir out into the sea, and named it sometimes tlie White Cape, or the White Hook (Cape Blanc, Witte Hoeck). An English captain at last, from the fish which he cauglit there, gave to it its present name, " Caj)e Cod." In the course of our investigations, we shall have occasion often to refer to this cape, which occupies so prominent a figure in the navigation of the coast, and which, when we meet with it on the old charts, gives us useful hints concern- ing them, and enables us, sometimes, to trace tlie routes of the navigators. 2. Cape Ann. From Cape Cod along the shores of our gulf to the north, we find no other more prominent point than Cape Ann, the extreme point of the rocky peninsula of Essex county. It is high and conspicuous, and was probably often seen by early navigators. I believe that I have found some traces of it in the reports of the old Northmen on our coast, and I suppose that it was the same cape, which, at a later date, the Spaniards called " Cabo de Sta Maria" (St. Mary's Cape). 3. Cape Elizabeth. Cape Elizabeth, in its configuration, elevation, and appearance somewhat similar to Cape Ann, is, in several respects, one of the most remarkable points on our coast. First, it stands out several miles beyond the general line of the coast to the sea, and is very conspicuous. Then it makes a change in the direction of the coast-line, which, as far as this cape, runs more northerly, and then, with an obtuse angle, it turns more to the east. At the same time, it marks a change in the condition and nature of the coast. To the south of Cape Elizabeth, among the rocky THE COAST OF MAINE. Bl necks and spits, arc sometimes to be fomid low sandy Leaches. But beyond Cape Elizabeth, to the north-east, these sandy beaches totally disappear, and everything is converted into innumerable cliffs, necks, tongues, and islands. From this it appears possible, that it was this cape which the Spaniards called " Cabo de muchas islas" (cape of the many islands), and wliich they so often depicted on their charts somewhat to the west of Penobscot Bay.* It is, however, also possible, that the neighboring cape, " Bald-head," surrounded on both sides by numerous islands, was meant by that old Spanish name. The rest of the many capes and spits on the coast of Maine are so much alike, that none of them can be called strikingly prominent. None of them have been so often men- tioned and so clearly designated by the old navigators, as to enable us to recognize and identify them. I omit, therefore, a particular description of them. 4. Cape Sable. The southern part of Nova Scotia forms a broad square-shaped peninsula. It runs out under a more or less right angle, the extreme point of which is called, from very old times, " Cape Sable." It forms the north-eastern entrance-cape of the Gulf of Maine, being distant from its south-eastern entrance-cape (Cape Cod) about 230 miles. The cape must have been noticed at a very early time by navigators sailing along the coast. On very old maps, made in the first half of the sixteenth century, we find sometimes depicted in these latitudes of our coast a square-shaped piece of country corresponding with that south-eastern end of Nova Scotia, and we therefore conclude that Cape Sable was, in such cases, meant. Soon after the middle of the sixteenth *The numerous islands in Casco Bay, lying north-east of Cape Eliza- beth, give peculiar appropriateness to the Spanish name. — Ed. 52 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. century we have a Portucruese map, on which Cape Sable is immistakably indicated under its present name, which probably was given to it by the old Portuguese or French fishermen from the Great Banks. 13. Islands. The islands along the coast of Maine are innumerable. All the bays and inlets arc full of them. In one bay (that of Casco) have been counted as many as there are days in the year. The islands are of all sizes, some quite large, others small and diminutive. Many being elevated, rocky, covered with tx'ees and meadows, serve much to diversify and embellish the aspect of the coast. They run in a nearly uninterrupted chain along the entire coast from Cape Eliza- beth in the west, to Quoddy Head in the east. Some of them, having pretty high mountains, serve as landmarks to navigators. For instance, the hills of Mount Desert, which are elevated to more than fifteen hundred feet, can be seen at sea from a great distance. Some of the small islands stand somewhat out from the coast, loiiely and lost in the midst of the ocean. The water between them is generally deep and favorable for navigation. There are not many hidden rocks and treacherous heads half covered by water. These rocky islands and islets form a most characteristic feature of the coast of Maine. And every early visitor appears to have been struck by them. They are mentioned in the first description of the coast by the French captain Verrazano, in the year 1524. They are also depicted in the first descriptive chart of Maine which we possess, that of the Spaniard Ribe'ro, made after the journals of the navigator Gomez. No other section of the entire coast of the United States is found, which, in respect to islands, headlands, indenta- THE COAST OF MAINE. 63 tions, and particularly to the number of rocky islets, can be compared to the coast of Maine. On the south of Cape Cod, all the coasts of the Unitetl States, as far down as Florida, are low, sandy, uniform, and have, instead of islands, sandy long-stretched beaches, which, though they may be separated by water, are not easily recognized as islands. If, therefore, we see on an old chart of the United States a chain of coast-islets depicted in about our latitude, we have a right to presume that the coast of Maine was intended. Without those islands, the historian would often have great difficulty in determining the locality. 14. Harrors, Bavs, and Inlets. The coast of Maine all along is full of excellent harbors, safe ports of refuge, and beautiful bays. The harbor of Portland, in the south-western part of the State, is one of the best of the entire Atlantic coast. From thence toward the north-east there exists, in fact, every mile or two, a roadstead or open inlet for a ship to run into ; whilst at the south of Cape Cod, along the greater part of the east coast of the United States, continuous sandy shores, like a rarely broken bulwark, stand against the shelter-seeking vessel ; deep harbors being an exception. Probably, therefore, the old Northmen from Iceland and Greenland, when they came down to the south to cut wood and barter furs for their northern countries, did not dislike these coasts. And like- wise the fishermen of the Great Banks, long before the settlement of the country, may have often resorted to them for shelter and refuge. The most striking and widest open bays on the coast are Penobscot and Passamaquoddy ; and they, in early times, may have been explored, entered, and used before the rest. We find them indicated on some very early maps, when no 54 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Other bay whatever is indicated on them. That veiy re- markable Casco Bay, witli the liarbor of PortLand, may also sometimes be recoo-nized on old charts. 15. Rivers. The territory of the State of Maine, forms a rough and hilly plane inclined toward the ocean from north to south. Its principal rivers, therefore, — the St. Croix, the Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Saco, — follow more or less this direction. None of them are very long, and being obstructed by many rapids and falls, even down to the neighborhood of the sea, are also not very far navigable. They, consequently, have not occasioned or facilitated discoveries into the interior, as the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the Mississippi, etc., have done. The greatest exception to this is the Penobscot, by far the most important river of the State. It drains the entire central part of Maine. All its heads and tributaries are included in the territory of the State, and this territory may be considered as liavino; attached itself from all sides to this river system. The State of Maine might be called the Penobscot country, this river being its main artery. The Penobscot, at its mouth, forms the largest and most beautiful of all the numerous bays or inlets of the coast, and is very deep and navigable for the largest vessels about sixty miles from the ocean upward to the city of Bangor, where tides and vessels are stopped by rocks and falls. The widely 0[)en mouth attracted the attention of all the exploring navigators sailing along the coast, and it was visited by the Spaniards on their first exploring expedition to our regions. We see it depicted on the Spanish maps as the longest river of the whole region, and they gave to it names like the following: "Rio Grande" (the great river), or THE COAST OF MAINE. 55 "Rio hermoso" (the beautiful river). And the principal of the early Spanish explorer of these regions, Gomez, left his name to this river, which, perhaps, he considered to be one of his most important discoveries. It was sometimes called "Rio de Gomez" (the river of Gomez). It was afterwards often visited by French navigators and fishermen from the Great Bank, and they appear to have built there, before the year 1555, a fort or settlement, which must have been the first European settlement ever made on the coast of Maine.* The Indians of Maine, also, thought highly of this river. Their principal chief, according to tlie well-known Captain John Smith, an early English describer of the coast of Maine, resided on its shores ; and even now, when every- where else in Maine the Indians have disappeared, the few remnants of them, the little Penobscot tribe, cling to the borders of this their old beloved principal canoe-trail. The Kennebec, in size and importance, is the second river of Maine. Its chief artery runs down from north to south like that of the Penobscot, and has a very similar develop- ment and course. It is navigable for sea-going vessels about fifty miles upward. But its mouth is hidden among many inlets and necks of land very similar to each other, and not as easily recognized as the widely open mouth of the Penob- scot. The Kennebec, in its lower section (called "Saga- dahoc"), was not found, therefore, till a later time, and came not much into notice during the sixteenth century. The same may be said of the Saco, and the Piscataquis, a wide and deep river, which at present forms the boundary between the States of Maine and New Hampshire. The St. Croix River, in the greater part of its course, separates the State of Maine from the province of New * See upon this chapter XI, paragraph 1, of this volume. 56 ]VIAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Brunswick. It ends with a v idely open mouth, the Passa- maquoddy Bay, ah'eady mentioned. As nearly all these rivers, particularly the Penobscot and the St. Croix at their broad mouths, look so grand and prom- ising, they were thought, by early discoverers, to have been much larger than they really are, and as they had their heads in the vicinity of the river St. Lawrence, they sometimes were taken as branches or outlets of this river, and have been depicted as such on old maps. Nay, some old discov- erers and geographers had the idea that they were oceanic passages or channels from the Atlantic to the western sea, which they suspected to be very near to the west of Maine, as we shall have occasion to show more particularly here- after. This short review of the physical features of the coast of Maine contains, I believe, all that is wanted for the under- standing of the earliest history of its discovery. In a volume on the history of subsequent times, the subject should be taken up again more in detail. CHAPTER II. THE DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN IN NORTH-EASTERN AMERICA DURING THE MIDDLE AGE* 1. IXTRODUCTOKT REMARKS. The irreat continents of our o-lobe run out toward the South Pole in two pointed peninsulas, separated from each other by broad deserts of water ; whilst on toward the North Pole the dry land becomes broader, and the ocean is cut up into several more or less contracted straits, gulfs, and arms of the ocean. The human race, spreading itself over the habitable surface of the globe, had, therefore, much more flicility in discov- ering and taking possession of one piece of country after anntlior in the north, than in the south. Between the north- east of Asia and the north-west of America remains but a narrow channel, "Behring Strait;" and here some have sup- posed the first discovery of the American continent by an Asiatic race must have taken place, and that America here received, by an immigration from the East, her first inhabitants. Between the north-east of America and the north-west of Europe the waters are much broader. But here several * Nearly all of what I state and relate in this chapter is taken — sometimes literally — from the excellent work, " Antiquitates Araericanae, Hafnise, (Copenhagen), 1837," written and collected by C. C. Eafn, except some general remarks, and the observations on the old history of the coast of Maine, which are my own. 58 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. peninsulas and islands are found, forming a chain of stations for the communication of the old and new world. From the West Indies, the line of the American east coast runs in a north-eastern direction ; and from the high north, the coast of arctic America and Labrador come down in a south-eastern course, forming a great peninsula, of which Newfoundland is the most eastern point, stretching far out toward Europe. Not very far from this north-eastern American peninsula, the southern part of the great island of Greenland presents itself; and, further on, Iceland, the Faroe, and the Shetland group, all sepai\ated from each other by sections of the ocean, which, under fovorable circumstances, even by small craft, may easily be passed in a few days' sailing. Scandinavia and Great Britain, also, stretch from the body of Europe, like colossal arms projecting into the ocean toward the north-west, approaching the above-mentioned parts of America and the islands between. The territory of the State of Maine, the particular object of our researches, forms a part of that largo north-eastern peninsula of America. It stands exactly where the Amer- ican east coast very decidedly takes a turn toward Europe ; and it may, therefore, have been affected, in a high degree, by all the migrations, voyages, discoveries, and conquests which, from the remotest times to our century of telegraphs and cables, have been the connecting links of commerce, navigation, and intercourse between the East and the West. Perhaps long before any annals were written, some people may have passed over from Europe along the stations of this great high road to America, and from America to Europe. The similarity in manners and race existing among the abo- rigines of the north of Europe (the Laplanders, Samoyedes, etc.) and those of the north of America (the Esquimaux) is MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 59 not, perhaps, alone a consequence of climate and natural circumstances experienced by both races. The mounds and fortifications discovered in America, and the old instruments used by the nations, which, before our Indians of the present day, had taken possession of the country, are so similar to the objects of this kind found in Northern Europe, that this similarity can scarcely be otherwise explained than by a direct intercourse between the races. The Roman historians reported, at least in one case, of some strange people having come over from the West in a boat, and having appeared on some coast of Northern Europe. From what nation and country these strangers came, nobody knew ; perhaps they were fishermen driven by storm from the Shetlands or Faroe, or from distant " Thule," perhaps even Esquimaux from Greenland or Labrador. Several cases of the arrival of boats with strange people fi'om the west, in Scotland and other parts of Northern Europe have been mentioned.* During the innumerable centuries of the existence of the human race, such events may have happened many times. In the same manner, vessels from Europe may have been driven by storms to the west ;f and so population may have become dispersed from island to island, and from one continent to the other. The inliabitants of the western and northern parts of the British islands appear to be the first Europeans who have — at least by tradition — sustained a claim to the discovery of American countries in the West. It is said that Madoc, a prince of Wales, in the year 1170, had found islands in the * See upon this, Humboldt, Kritische tintersuchungen, vol. 1, pp. 470- 476. Berlin, 1852. t An example of a European (French) fisher-boat, said to have been driven in early times (in the year 1501) from Europe to Canada, is quoted bj Humboldt, 1. c. p. 472. 60 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. far western parts of the ocean.* And then we have an old tradition cf Irishmen liavino; o-one to the west and found there a beautiful country in which they settled, lived for a long time, and left their progeny. But this myth is put into a more southern rejiion of America, — Florida and South Carolina ; the examination of its probability belongs to the mythological history of those States. f The fact, also, that we find the Irish before any European nation in Iceland, is more interesting for our subject. Irish Christians are the first Europeans which well-ascertained history shows us, were immigrants and inhabitants of this large island ; and if we consider, as some do, Iceland as being American ground, we ought to say that the Irish were the first well-proved discoverers of some part of America. At what time the Irish arrived in Iceland has not been ascer- tained. When the NorthuKMi arrived there in the year 860, they found some of these Irish there, designated in the Scan- dinavian Chronicles by the name of " Papas." 2. Discovery of Iceland a^d Greenland. The Northmen, in the eighth and ninth centuries, had commenced a strong emigration from their own country ; they took possession of the Shetlands, the Faroe, and the islands of the northern part of Great Britain ; and had become the most powerful sea-faring nation on the ocean border of the north-west of Europe. They made conquests and gathered plunder in every direction. But, for us, the most interesting branch of their activity was that which conducted them to the north-east of America. *See upon this, William Owen, The C.imbrian Biograpliy, p. 233. London, 1803. t See on this, Hafn, Antiquitates Americans, p. 449. Hafniaj (Copen- hagen), 1837. MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Gl In tliis direction they found countries which were either uninhahited, or inhabited by barbarous tribes. The North- men here could not destroy so much as in civiHzed Europe, which they ravaged and plundered. But they created new settlements, and introduced European spirit and enterprise, Naddod, a Scandinavian, called the Sea-king, in the year 860, and Gardar, a Dane, soon after, are said to have been the first Northmen who, driven by storms, came in sight of Iceland, and reconnoitered it. The good news which they brought home from it induced others to follow their track, and the Northman, Ingolf, in the year 874, was the first Avho settled there. He and his men found there the Christian Irishmen, the " Papas" or " Papar," whom they dispos- sessed and drove out, until none were left before the over- whelming invasion of these new-comers. The settlements of the Scandinavians in Iceland, and their expeditions to that country in the following years, increased in number ; and, hi the year 877, another north-east storm drove one of those Icelandic settlers, called Gunnbjorn, still further to the north-west, to Greenland, another unknown country, which he appears to have seen only at a distance. It was a long time before any other adventurer followed in his track. The Northmen had enough to do with their settlements in Iceland, and the "country of Gunnbjorn" (Greenland), existed for nearly a century only in tradi- tion, A rock between Iceland and Greenland has ever since retained his name, being called "Gunnbjorn's Skjar" (Gunnbjorn's rock). At last, in the spring of the year 986, Eric the Red sailed from Iceland Avith the intention of seeking for Gunn- bjorn's country. Having found it, he established a settle- ment, " Brattalid," in a bay which, after him, was called " Eric's Fiord," He found the country pleasant, full of 62 MAINE HISTOKICAL SOCIETY. meadows, and of a milder climate than the more northern Iceland. He gave to it the name " Greenland," saying that this would be an inviting name, which miglit attract other people from Iceland to join his colony. Another adventurer, named Heriulf, soon followed him, and established himself near a southern promontory of Greenland, which after him was called " Heriulfsniis," situated not far from our present " Cape Farewell." 8. First Discovery of New En-glais^d. The above-mentioned Heriulf had a son, Biarne, who, at the time his father went over from Iceland to Greenland, had been absent on a trading voyage in Norway. Returning to Iceland in 990, and finding that his father, with Eric the Red, had gone to the west, he resolved to follow lam and to spend the next winter with him in Greenland. They boldly set sail to the soutli-west, but having encoun- tered northerly storms, after many days' sail they lost their course, and when the weather cleared, they descried land, not, however, like that described to them as " Greenland." They saw that it was a much more southern land, and cov- ered with forests. It not beino; the intention of Biarne to explore new countries, but only to find the residence of his father in Greenland, he improved a south-west wind, and turned to the north-east, and put himself on the track for Greenland. After several days' sailing, during which he dis- covered and sailed by other well-wooded lands lying on his left, some high and mountainous, and bordered by icebergs^ he reached Heriulfsniis, the residence of his father, in Green- land. His return passage occupied nine days, and he speaks of three distinct tracts of land, along which he coasted, one of which he supposed to have been a large island. That Biarne, on this voyage, must have seen some part of MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 63 the American east coast, is clear from liis liaving been driven that way from Iceland by northerly gales. We cannot deter- mine with any certainty Avhat part of our coast he sighted, and what was the southern extent of his cruise. But, taking into consideration all circumstances and statements of the report, it appears probable that it was part of the coast of New England, and perhaps Cape Cod, which stands far out to the east. One day and night's sailing with a favorable wind, was, in Iceland and Norway, reckoned to be about the distance of thirty German miles. Two days and " nights," therefore, would be sixty German miles, and this Is about the distance from Cape Cod In New England to Cape Sable in Nova Scotia.* The second country seen by Blarne would, then, probably have been Nova Scotia. The distance from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland Is about three days' sail ; and from New- foundland to the southern part of Greenland, a Northman navigator, with fresh breezes, might easily sail In four days, and thus Newfoundland was probably the third country dis- covered by Blarne. The results of the expedition of Blarne may be stated to have been these : He was the first European who saw, although from a distance and very cursorily, some parts of the coasts of New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfound- land. He also probably crossed the Gulf of Maine, without stopping, however, to explore its waters, or giving them names. 4. Voyages of Leif, Erik's Son, and First Settlement IN New England. Blarne, of course, spoke to his father and to the Green- land colonists of all that had happened to him, and of the ♦The German mile a little exceeds four English miles. — Ed. 64 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY. large tracts of country he by chance had seen. Afterwards (probably in the year 994) when he returned to Norway, and spoke there also of his adventures, he was blamed by many for not having examined the new found countries more accurately. In Greenland, too, whither he soon returned, there was also much talk about undertaking a voyage of discovery to the south-west. Leif, the son of Erik the Red, the first set- tler in Greenland, having bought Biarne's ship in the year 1000, equipped her with a crew of thirty-five men, among whom was Biai'ne himself, they went out on Biarne's track toward the south-west. They came first to that land which Biarne had seen last, which, as I have said, was probably our Newfoundland. Here they cast anchor and went on shore, for their voyage was not the search of a son after his father, but a decided exploring expedition. They found the country as Biarne had described it, full of ice-mountains, desolate, and its shores covered with large flat stones. Leif, therefore, called it "Helluland" (the stony land). After a brief delay they pursued their voyage, and found Biarne's second land, as he had described it, covered with woods, with a low coast and sjiores of white sand. Leif named it "Markland'' (the woodland), our present Nova Scotia. Continuing their course, in two days they again made land. Tliey found here a promontory projecting in a north- easterly direction from the main ; this pretty well corre- sponds 10 our present Cape Cod. It was the second time that a European vessel had sailed across the broad entrance of the Gulf of Maine, although at a great distance from the coast. Leif, rounding this ca})e to the west, sailed some distance westward, entered a bay or harbor, and went on shore. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN NEW ENGLAND. 65 Finding the country very pleasant, they, concluding to spend tlie winter there, constructed some houses, and formed a settlement, whicli was called "Leifsbudir" (Leif's block- house, or dwelling). It is, with a great degree of probability, supposed that this took place on the south coast of the present State of Rhode Island, somewhere in Narraganset Bay, perhaps not far from our present Newport. Leif and his men from this point made several exploring expeditions to the intei'ior, to gain a better knowledge of the country. On one of those occasions a discovery was made, which appeared to them so extraordinary, that the name of this countrv was derived from it. Leif had amongst his followers a good-natured German, with the name of Tyrker, who had long resided with Leif's father in Iceland and Greenland, and of whom he had been very fond from his childhood. This German, on one of their exploring expe- ditions, lost his way and was missing. Leif, with some of his men, went out in search of him. But they had not gone far, when they saw him stepping out from a wood, holding some- thino; in his hands, and comino; toward them. Leif received him with great joy, but observed that his German was some- what irritated and unsettled in mind.* Upon being ques- tioned, Tyrker, in a kind of enthusiastic way, began to say something in the German language, which the Northmen did not understand.! ^^ 1^^^ l^® ^^i*^^ ^o them in true Norse, that he had not been a long way off, but still he had discovered something quite new. " I found vines and grapes ! *' he cried out ; showiiig- them what he held in his hands. " But is that true, my friend ? " asked Leif, who, j^robably, as an Icelander and Greenlander never had seen fresh grapes. And then Tyrker said, that he well might know that they *" Hau war ikke ret ved sin samling." Icelandic Report. t " Han dreieda ainene til forskellise sides og vraengrede munden." 66 VOYAGES OF THORWALD TO NEW ENGLAND. were real grapes, having been born and educated in a coun- try in wliich there were plenty of vines. Tlie Northmen collected many grapes, filling with them their long-boat. This discovery was so extraordinary, that Leif gave to his new southern country the name of " Vinland " (the country of vines). This name was adopted by all his countrymen, and they afterward extended it to the whole coast stretching out to the north as far as what they called "Markland" (Nova Scotia). During the winter Leif and his men observed that the cli- mate of their Vinland was quite mild. They made also the observation, that the length of the days and nights in Vinland was mu'ch more equal than in Greenland throughout the year. On the shortest day in Vinland the sun was above the horizon from 7^ a. m. to 42 p. m. This astronomical obser- vation confirms the generally adopted view, that their settle- ment was made in the latitude of the southern part of New England. For the rest, they were occupied in felling trees and filling their vessel with wood, a product which, in Green- land and Iceland, was very welcome ; and in the spring they returned to Greenland. 5. Voyages axd Discoveries or Thorwald, Erik's Sox, IX New Exgland. Leif's " Vinland voyage " became, among the colonists of Greenland, a subject of as much conversation and excitement, as in later times the discovery of Columbus at the courts of Spain and England. Leif's brother, Thorwald, was of opinion, that the new country had not been explored sufficiently. He, therefore, borrowed Leif's ship, and, aided by his brother's advice and direction, and by some of his men, commenced another voyage to this country in the year 1002. VOYAGES OF THORWALD TO NEW ENGLAND. 07 He prol)al)ly sailed on the track of Bianie and Leif, along Newfoundland and Xova Scotia, and arrived in Vinland at "Leifsbudir" (in Narraganset Bay), wliere lie and his men spent the winter, employing themselves in fishing and cut- ting wood. In the spring of 1003, Thorwald sent a party in the ship's long-boat, on a voyage of discovery, the results of which were not very great, and have for vis not much inter- est, because the expedition went, probably, pretty far to the south, and did not return until the fall of the year. Thorwald himself, however, undertook, in the following year, lOOdt, another voyage, which has a higher interest for us, because it was directed to the north, and to the vicinity of Maine. Thorwald, accoi'ding to his report, sailed from Leifsbudir (in Narraganset Bay), in his large ship, at first eastward and then to the north, "• around the country." In doing this the keel of his ship was damaged in a storm, and he landed on a promontory, where he remained some time in repairing his vessel. After this, " he sailed round this spit of land, from the east to the west, into the nearest frith of the coast."' The descr^ption of this sail agrees very well with the configu- ration of Cape Cod and vicinity, which had been seen, but not named, on the former voyages of Biarne and Leif. Thorwald, this time, noticed the headland more minutely, and gave to it the name "Kialarnes" (Ship-nose). The outlines of Cape Cod make a figure which is much like the prow of a vessel, particularly of a Northman vessel. They had ships wutli a very high and pointed nose, like the head and neck of a dragon, and were therefore called " drao-ons." This circumstance may have influenced Thorwald to give this name to the cape, though it is said that the first occasion for the name was derived from, his repairing his vessel there. At all events, the name " Kialarnes," so ofteu mentioned in G8 VOYAGES OF THOEWALD TO NEW ENGLAND. the Scandinavian reports, kept its ground, because it was found so appropriate. The Scandinavian reports sometimes mention this cape under tlie simple name " Naeset," the nose^ probably because it was the principal and most pro- jecting headland of tlieir "Vinland." This remarkable headland, on account of the snowy whiteness of its sands, always attracts the attention of the passer-by.* As a promi- nent and important landmark it shows to the navigator his way on the dark ocean ; and so, in our researches through the dark ways of history, it will serve us as a guide when we find its uniipie figure put down on a chart by some explorer. Cape Cod may be called the very handle by which to grasp the hydrographical features of New England. Thorwald sailed from his "Ship-nose" toward the main land, where he came to anchor not far from a hilly promon- tory overgrown with wood, and was so much pleased with the place that he exclaimed, " Here it is beautiful, and here I should like to fix my abode." He met there nine men of the aborigines ; " eight of them they killed, but the ninth escaped in his canoe." Some time after, there arrived a countless number of " Skrellino-s" — as the Scandinavians called the aborigines, as well of Greenland as of Vinland, — and a battle ensued. It was the first battle and blood- shed between Europeans and the indigenous Americans, of which we have any account. The "Skrellings" continued shooting at Thorwald aiul his men some time, and then quickly retired. After the victory, Thorwald asked his men, whether one of them had been wounded. Upon their deny- ing this, he said, " I am ! I have an arrow under my arm, and this will be my death-blow. I now advise you to pre- pare for your departure as soon as possible. But me you must take to that promontory where I thought to have made * See upon this, Rafii, Antiiiuitates Aniericanae, pp. 420, 427. VOYAGES OF THOKWALD TO NEW ENGLAND. 69 my abode. I was a prophet. For I now shall dwell there forever. There you shall bury me, and plant there two crosses, one at my head and one at my feet, and call the place 'Krossana3s' (the promontory of the crosses), for all time coming." Thorwald, upon this, died, and his men did as he had ordered them. The place where they buried him and erected the crosses, must have been one of the headlands not far south of the coast of Maine. It is supposed that it was near the harbor of Boston, and that this first battle between Europeans and American aborigines Avas fought on the same ground where, in modern time, were fought the first battles of the American colonists with the British troops. The cape, " KrossanaBs," having a somewhat hidden position, is not often mentioned in the Scandinavian reports. Thorwald's men returned to their companions at the settle- ment of Leifsbudir (Narragauset Bay), and spent with them the following winter. But in the spring of 1005, having collected a cargo of Avood, furs, and grapes (probably in a dried state), they sailed again to Greenland, having im- portant and sad intelligence to communicate to Leif, Erik's son. The results of Thorwald's exploring expedition, for our object, may be summed up in a few words. Thorwald and his men staid on the coasts of New England nearly two entire years, principally occu])ied with explorations. They sailed along the south coast of New England toward, and perhaps beyond. New York. They recognized and described more minutely the important headland of Cape Cod, and gave to it the appropriate and often mentioned name, " Kialarnes" (Ship-nose). They intended to make an expedition along the coast of New England toward the north, visiting the 70 THORFIXX'S VOYAGE TO VINLAXD. shores of Maine, but did not come in this direction much further tlian the liarbor of Boston, where their commander, Thorwald, was killed. 6. Unsuccessful AxTEisrPT of Tiiousteix, Erik's Son, to KEACH " ViNLAND " AGAIN. Tliorstein, Erik's third son, now resolved to proceed to Vinland to obtain his. brother's body. He fitted out the same ship in which his brother had sailed, and selected twenty-five strong and able men for its crew. His wife, Gudrida, a woman of energy and prudence, accompanied him. But they encountered contrary winds, and were tossed about on the ocean during the whole summer, and knew not whither they were driven. At the close of the first week of winter, they landed at one of the w^estern settlements of Greenland, where a sickness broke out amongst them, of which Tliorstein and many others died. In the following spring, his widow, Gudrida, returned to Ericksfiord, on the southern coast of Greenland. 7. The Voyage of Tiiokfinn Kaelsefne to "Vinland," AND A New Settlement there effected by him. In the following summer of the year 1006, two ships arrived in Greenland from Iceland, — one commanded by Thorfinn and Snorre Thorbrandsen, the other by Biarne, Grimolf's son, and Thorhall. ThorHnn was a wealthy and powerful man, of illustrious lineage. He had the sirname Karlsefne (^.t'. one who is destined to be a great man). He fell in love with Gudrida, Thorstein's widow, and their marriage Avas celebrated during the winter. On this, as on former occasions, Vinland formed a favorite theme of conversation. Gvidrida probably spoke to her new husband about the project of her former husband, THORFINN'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. 71 Thorstein, of a voyage to tlic south. Thorfinn, urged hj his wife and by others, resolved to undertake such a voyage. In the summer of 1007, Thorfinn prepared three ships, — one commanded by himself, another by Biarne, Grimolf's son, and Thorhall ; the third by Thorwald, who had married Freydisa, a natural daughter of Erik the Red. They had in all one hundred and sixty men, and, it being their intention to establish a colony there, took with them all kinds of live- stock. They sailed from Greenland in the spring of 1008, on a southerly course to Helluland, and from thence two days further in a southerly direction to Markland. From "Markland" (Nova Scotia) they did not go out to the open sea through the broad part of the Gulf of Maine, as had been done on the former expeditions ; but they coasted along a great way " to the south-west, having the land always on their starboard," until they at length came to Kialarnes (Cape Cod).* Thorfinn and Gudrida, in following this track, probably wished to find the place where Thorwald had been buried, and his crosses erected, which they of course knew were to be found on the coast toward the north of Cape Cod. They, no doubt, had some of Thorwald's former companions on board. It appears from this, that we have here the first coasting voyage of European navigators along the shores of Maine. It was a numerous company of one hundred and sixty men in three vessels, who, in that year, had their eyes upon our coast in search of the cross of Thorwald, all of them strong, stout, and heroic fellows. Unhappily, their reports contain no further details of the coast. * Fra Markland seilede de laenge sonderpaa langs med Landet, og kom til at Naeset. Laudet laae paa skibets lioire side. il THORFINN'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. They came at last to Cape Cod, and were struck at this time by "long sandy beaches and downs," and named the strand " Furdustrandr," which may be translated " beaches of wonderful length," — our present "Nauset" and "Chatham Beach." In rounding the beaches toward the west, they saw several inlets, islands, and tongues of land, and met at several places strong currents. On one of the islands an immense number of eider-ducks was found, so that it was scarcely possible to walk there without treading on their eggs. They called this island " Straumey" (the island of currents), and to a frith they gave the name of " Straumfiordr" (the frith of the cur- rents). It is well known that the Gulf-stream in this region comes ver}^ near to the Nantucket Shoals, and causes amongst them and the neio-hborinL!; islands very irregular currents. They landed in the "frith of the currents," supposed to be our Buzzard's Bay, and made preparations for a winter resi- dence. But Thorhall the Hunter, a man whom Thorfinn had carried out with him, left there for the north on discovery, and then Thorfinn himself, with the great body of his men, sailed westward, and entered the same large and beautiful bay, on the borders of which Leif had built his " Leifsbudir." Not far from this spot, on the other side of the water, at a place which pleased him better, Thorfinn now erected his own larger esta])lishment, named " Thorfinn's budir." It stood near a small recess or bay, by the Scandinavians called " Hop" (corner). On the low grounds around this "Hop," they found fields of wheat orowino- wild, and on the rising- oTounds plenty of vines. There, in a beautiful country, they spent the following winter. No snow fell, and the cattle found their food in the o])eu fields, as it may be to-day, in the exceptionally mild climate of Rhode Island. Sometimes the aborigines (Skrel- THORFINN'S VOYAGP: TO VINLAND. 73 lino;s) would assemble around them in o^reat niunhcr. Tlior- Hnn and his men hartei'ed with them for tlicir M|iiin('l-skins and other furs. The SkrclHiins liked \-ery mucli llie red clnlji offered by the foreie-ners, and gave vahiahle fui's for a small piece of red cloth not broader than a finger's breadth, binding it round their heads likt; a crown. Tliorfinn, also, caused his women t(j bring out milk-soup, the taste of which the Skrel- lings greatly relished. They greedily purchased, ate it, and in this manner " carried away their bargains in their bellies," says the old Icelandic chronicler. In I'act, this w hoh; ti'alHc of the Northmen with their " Skrellings" was caiTied on in much the same manner in which the later Europeans used to barter with the poor Indians ; with this difi'ei-ence only, that in modern times they gave them brandy insteafl of milk. Tlioi'finn prohibited his men from selling their swords and spears to the Skrelliiigs, a jn-ohibition which was afterwards often repeated by European connnanders. One day, whilst traffic was going on in tin; likt; manner, a bull, which Tliorfinn had brought with him, iHished out from the woods and bellowed loudly. At this the Skrellings were extremely terrified, and quickly disap|>eared in the same manner in which, at a later date, the Peruvian Indians, at the court of Atabalipa, were frightened by tlu; neighing of ' Spanish horses. But it is not my intention to s|)ecify all that ha]j[)eued to Thorfiiui and his men in their s(juth(!rn abode, because the details of these events appear to belong to the antiipiities of the State of Rhode Island. I have oidy made an exception with respect to the matters just stated, as they are character- istic of American history in general, and as they serve to confirm the truthfulness of our Scandinavian reports, and foreshadow, as it were, in a clear mirror, many American customs and occurrences afterwards often repeated. 74- THORFINN'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. I will oiily add this, that Gudrida, the heroic wife of Thor- finn, gave hirth, on the shores of Narragajiset Bay, to a son, who received the name of " Snorre," and who may be con- sidered as the first American-born child of European parents. We will now turn our attention again to the north, and see what was done by Thorfinn for the exploration of the northern parts of Vinland. Thorfinn had sent to the north from Straumfiordr (Buz- zard's Bay) his man, Thorhall the Hunter. " This Thorhall was a strong and stout person, black, very taciturn, and was familiar with the desert places of Greenland and the whole north." Being fond of exploring unknown parts, he, with eight men, had left Thorfinn's party soon after their arrival at the south coast of New England, because he wished to explore the northern parts of Vinland. He sailed along " Furdustrandr " (Nauset) and " Kialarnes " (Cape Cod), and turned to the west into the interior parts of the Gulf of Maine. But there he was caught by a strong west wind, probably one of the wild north-west storms, which, coming down from the mountains of New Hampshire and Maine, sometimes happen in this bay, and still are much dreaded by the coasters. By this storm Thorhall was driven out into the broad ocean, and by other westerly gales was carried so far away, that at last he knew no better refuge than Ireland,* where he landed, and where, according to the account of some merchants, he and his men were made slaves. Thus Thorhall's attempt to explore the northern parts of Vinland (coast of Maine) in 1008, was as perfect a failure *I may add the remark, that, in a similar manner, at the end of the six- teenth century, tlie well-known French discoverei', La Roche, was caught by a western jjale on the shore of Nova Scotia, which drove him off the coast, and chased him back toward France. THORFINN'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. 75 as the voyage of Tliorwald to the same region some years before. Meanwhile Thorfinn's circumstances had changed. His estabhshment at "Hop" (Narraganset Bay) liad been attacked by numberless hostile Skrellings. Blood had been shed again, and the fights had not been victories for the Scandinavians. Thorfinn thought that, though the country offered many advantages, .still the life they would have to lead here might be one of constant alarm. He made prepa- rations, therefore, to return to Greenland. But before doing this, he wanted to see his man, Thorhall the Hunter, who had not returned from his excursion to the northern parts of Vinland. He, therefore, in one of his ships, left " Hop," sailed eastward, leaving the greater body of his companions at his station on the coasts of " Straumfiordr (Buzzard's Bay), and made a searching expedition to the north on the track and in quest of Thorhall. He sailed to the north along "Kialarnes " (Cape Cod), and then to the west, " having the country on his left side." " He found there endless forests so far as he could see, with scarcely any open place." He discovered, also, a river, in the mouth of which he, for some time, rode at anchor. Here, at this anchoring place, it happened that they one day saw a " Onefoot,"* who, being hidden behind some trees, killed with an arrow one of Thorfinn's men, and then ran off to the north. After this unhappy event, Thorfinn continued his voyage to the north. But finding no trace of his friend Thorhall, and thinking that they now had come to the country of the "Onefoots,"f he did not like to expose his men to further dangers, and returned to the south. " He and his men, however, agreed on this point, that all these * " En Eenfoding " (Uuipes "). t " Eenfodingeland " ( " terra Unipedum "). 76 THOEFINN'S VOYACxE TO VINLAND. tracts to the north were continuous witli those in the south at Hop, and that it was all one and the same country." The "endless forests" Avhicli Thorfinn saw in the north, the river-mouth where he anchored, and where he saw the "Onefoot," might have been somewhere in the inner parts of the Gulf of Maine, on the coasts of the present States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Maine. How far, on this excursion, he went to the north, we cannot say. But, as he believed that he had now come to the dangerous " country of the Onefoots," we may put down this as one of the names under which our coasts of New Hampshire and Maine may have been designated by the Northmen. The reports of the Northmen of their voyages are not near so full of fabulous and mythological phantasms and errors, marvellous and superhuman events and beings, as those of the Spaniards and other more southern nations. They are, on the contrary, remarkable for their straight-forward, unos- tentatious simplicity and matter of fact clearness. But there are a few exceptions. Sometimes they report, that the " Skrellings," in the midst of a battle or on their flight, sud- denly disappeared, "being swallowed by the earth," and similar incredible things. The "country of the Onefoots" may also be called one of these exceptions. The Northmen believed in the existence of such a nation and country, as the S])aniards believed in the existence of the Amazons. They believed they had discovered the country of the One- foots at several times,* and so Thorfinn thought he had found it here in the north of Vinland (New Hampshire and Maine). Thorfinn, not having found his man Thorhall, returned to his companions whom he had left on the coast of Straumfiordr (Buzzard's Bay). He there staid with them till the next * See Rafn, 1. c. p. 158. THOEFINN'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. 77 winter. It was his third winter in Vinland, bnt not a favor- able one to the continuation of the enterprise. Discontent and dissension broke out among the settlers, the causes of which I may leave here undiscussed. Thorfinn, therefore, in the following spring, 1011, with his wife, Gudrida, and his American son, Snorre, then three years of age, left the country together, and with a good southerly wind returned to Greenland. It is not quite clear, but it a])pears to me probable, that a party of his men remained behind and con- tinued the settlement in Vinland. The reports ai'e some- what contradictory on this point. Thorfinn, also, carried with him two boys, aborigines of jNIarkland, to whom the Northmen afterward taught the Norse language, and who then gave them some particulars about the interior of their country, and about the manners and kind of living of their countrymen. The old Northmen, in this respect, followed the practice, which, in later times, was adopted by many discoverers. Thorfinn never returned again to Vinland. He had brouglit from thence many valuable things collected in the country, and diu'ing his traffic with the aborigines, — furs and skins of different animals, specimens of rare wood of seve- ral sorts, and probably other products not specified in the reports. When he arrived with this cargo in Greenland (at the end of the 3-ear 1011), two brothers of the name of Helge and Finnboge had come out from Norway. They were probably attracted by the rich plunder of Thorfinn, and, persuaded by some of his companions, resolved to make a voyage to Vinland, which now began to be named "Vinland the good" (Vinland det goda). They associated for this purpose with that enterprising woman, Freydisa, who had been out with Thorfinn, and who knew and hked "the good Vinland." (» THORFINN'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. They made witli her a bargain, that they wovikl share with her equally in all the profits this voyage might yield. They sailed in the year 1012 to Vinland. The particulars of their voyage have no great interest for us, because it does not appear that they touched, in any way, the north- ern parts of Vinland. Freydisa and her companions got into trouble and disagreement, probably about the "profits of the undertaking." They came to arms, and the two brothers, Helge and Finnboge, were slain in a fight. Frey- disa and her companions soon after returned to Greenland, very probably with a good booty of furs, etc. They arrived in Greenland in the spring of 1013, where Thorfinn then lay, ready to sail with his cargo for Norway. (All commercial operations appear to have been very slow in old Greenland.) It is very probable, though it is not exactly stated, that Frey- disa sold a part of her stock to Thorfinn, to take to the Euro- pean market. At all events, " Thorfinn's ship was so richly laden, that it was generally admitted a more valnable cargo never before left Greenland." Thorfinn sailed to Norway, staid there the next winter, and sold his American products.* He appears to have made by them a good profit. Amongst others, a " Southern man," a German merchant of the city of Bremen, in Saxo- nia, who happened to be present in Norway, oftered to Thorfinn, for a piece of American Avood, half a mark of gold. Thorfiim was astonished at this high price being ofiered to him by that " Southerner," but gave his wood for it. "He did not know that it was 'Mosur' he had brought out from Vinland. ''| This "Mosur," or "Mausur" was a kind of Avood tlien considered to be so precious, that * Pwifn, 1. c. p. 73. t Itiifn, 1. c. p. 74. VIXLAND KNOWN TO EUIIOPEANS. 79 kings sometimes had goblets made of it, trimmed with silver and gold.* Thorfinn, probably with a full purse, sailed as before, accompanied by his wife Gudrida and his sou Snorre, in the spring of 1014, from Norway to Iceland, where he bought an estate, and where he now settled and resided for the remainder of his life, with Snorre, his son. After the death of Thorfinn, and after Snorre had been married, Gudrida, the widow-mother, made a pious pilgrimage to Rome, where, probably, as an extraordinary person, she was received with distinction, and where, of course, she spoke to the pope or his bishops about the beautiful new country in the far West, " Vinland the good," and about the Christian settlements made there by the Scandinavians. She after- wards returned to her son's estate in Iceland, where Snorre had built a church, and where, after all her adventures, she lived long as a religious recluse. From Thorfinn and his son, Snorre, a numerous and illus- trious race descended, among whom may be mentioned the learned bishop Thorlak Runolfson, born in the year 1085, of whom it has been made probable, that he was the person who originally compiled the accounts of the voyages of his great grandfiither. The results which these early exploring, searching, and trading voyages of Thorfinn and Gudrida have for our sub- ject, may, in short, be summed up thus : The coast of Maine, in the year 1008, was, for the first time, coasted along by European ships from north to south. Thorhall the Hunter, in the year 1008, made his exploring *The American "Mosur" is said to have come from a kind of maple tree, called in New England tbe " birdseye, or curled maple." See ui)on this, Eafn, 1. c. p. 4i2 seq. 80 VINLAND KNOWN TO EtTEOPEANS. expedition from Straiinifiordr (Blizzard's Bay) to the north- ern parts of VinUmd (coast of Maine), but was beaten back by a heavy iwrth-western gale. Thorfinn, in tlie year 1009, made a searching expedition in quest of his man Thorliall, to the northern parts of VinLand, but appears not to have gone far north, for fear of the Skrel- hngs, whom he thought to be monstrous " Onefoots." He gave tlieir name to the country, which probably included New Hampshire and part of Maine, and which he believed to be continuous with the south of Vinland. Thorfinn, during his stay of more than three years in Vin- land, had collected furs, skins, precious woods, and other American })roducts. He brought them over to Europe (Norway), and sold them at a good price. Thus were New England and its products made known in Europe. These discoveries were also undoubtedly made known by mariners from Germany, Ireland, and Scotland, and by other adventurers, on their return to their native countries. The Northmen themselves would not be slow in spreading the fame of their bold expeditions and the wonderful discov- eries they had made. Tliat in Denmark and the northern part of Germany, very soon after the expeditions of Thorfinn, the " Vinland" of the Northmen became known, is proved by the testimony of a famous contemporary historian of the North. The bishopric of Bremen, founded by Charles the Great, com- prised within its ecclesiastical jurisdiction and diocese, for a long time, the whole north of Europe, — Denmark, Scandi- navia, Iceland, and Greenland. The town where this bisho]) resided (Bremen), therefore, was sometimes called the Rome of the North ; and the earliest historian of this bishopric, Adam of Bremen, in his celebrated and important work, " Ecclesiastical history of the north of Europe,"' paid great VINLAND KNOWN TO EUROPEANS 81 attention to the political, military, and commercial events of the Northmen. He Avrote this work about fifty years after Thorfinn's return from Vinland, and, having himself traveled a good deal in Denmark, he added to it " a description of Denmark and of the regions beyond Denmark," and in chapter thirty-nine of this description, he says that Sueno, the King of Denmark, to whom he paid a visit, and with whom he had a conversation on the northern countries, men- tioned to him, among many other islands which had been discovered in the north-west, " one which they had called Vinland, because the vine would grow there without cultiva- tion, and because it produced the best sort of wine. That besides, plenty of fruits grow in this country without planting, is not mere opinion, but I have this news from very authen- tic and trustworthy relations of the Danes. Beyond this island, however, no habitable country is found ; on the con- trary, everything to the north is covered with ice and eternal night." Adam of Bremen's work was written soon after the middle of the eleventh century, issued in the year 1073, dispersed in several copies, and probably read by many learned persons. So we may say, that, even at this time, a discovery of America was proclaimed, and a short description of New England given to the reading public of Europe. Besides this Adam of Bremen, there was another contem- porary historian, Ordericus Vitalis, born in England, and. afterwards bishop of Rouen in Normandy, who appears to have known something of Vinland, and to have mentioned it in his ecclesiastical history, which was written about one hundred years after Thorfinn's exploring expeditions.* * See about this, Rafu, Antiquitates Americanse, p. 337. 6 82 EXPEDITIONS TO VINLAND AFTER THOEFINlSr. 8. Expeditions from Greenland and Iceland to Vinland SUBSEQUENT TO THOSE OF ThORFINN KaRLSEFNE. After Thorfinn Karlsefne's expeditions, the Northmen from Iceland and Greenland appear to have gone several times to the shores of America. Some of them were driven by storms to more southern parts of the continent. Others made ex- ploring expeditions toward the arctic regions, to the northern parts of Baffin's Bay. The history of these voyages, under- taken to regions very distant from our territory of jNIaine, has no immediate interest for us. But the Vinland expeditions did not cease, though we have only scanty information and a few scattered reports on all that happened in Vinland after Thorfinn Karlsefne. The first discovery of this beautiful country, praised so much for its mild climate and fertility, and usually by the Icelandic his- torians called the good country, must, at the beginning, have struck the Northmen with great surprise : their historians, consequently, reported amply and fully on this memorable event. The three sons of Erik the Red, Thorfinn and his heroic wife, Gudrida, being distinguished by birth and social position, and some of them the heads of a large progeny, their descendants took pride and pleasure in describing and recording the exploits and adventures of their ancestors. After Thorwald and Thorfinn, a voyage to Vinland may not have been considered as very remarkable. The way to it was found, and became, as it were, a beaten track, easy for everybody. The voyages to this country were no extra- ordinary exploring expeditions to a new region, but only commercial undertakings, probably to gather furs, Avood, and other commodities for Greenland. They, therefore, were not chronicled and amply described. But sometimes we find them occasionally mentioned. EXPEDITIONS TO VINLAND AFTER THOEFINX. 83 So in the year 1121, the voyage to Vinland of a bishop of Greenland, by the name of Erik, is mentioned in the Ice- landic annals. This priest is said to have sailed to Vinland for missionary purposes. The fact, that such a high ecclesi- astical functionary as a bishop should go to Vinland, appears to be good proof, that, since Thorfinn's time, Northman set- tlers had remained there, or, at least, that Northman traders, engaged in trafficking, fishing, and wood-cutting had tarried there, and that a constant intercourse with the colony had been maintained. The beauty of the country, so often praised by the Icelanders, and the profits which they had derived from some of their Vinland expeditions, must have been a ereat inducement to the colonists and traders to retain possession of the country, and not readily abandon it. Of the results of Bishop Erik's expedition we, unhappily, have no particular information. After this remarkable voyage of the bishop we hear nothing of Vinland for more than a hundred years, nor of countries to the south-west of Greenland. Then we have again a brief notice, that, in the year 1285, two Icelandic clergymen, Aldabrand and Thorwald Helgason, who are often mentioned in Northern history, visited, on the Avest of Iceland, " a new land," and that some years afterwards, the king of Denmark, Erik the Priest-hater, sent out a ship under the command of a certain Rolf, to pay a visit to this " New- land," which is supposed to have been our Newfoundland. Again, not quite a hundred years after this event, we find, in the ancient Icelandic Annals, the following very remarka- ble, though short report : " In the year 1347 a vessel, having a crew of seventeen men, sailed from Iceland to Markland." The dry and brief manner in which this is reported, seems to prove that this vessel of 1347 was not driven to " Mark- land" (Nova Scotia) by chance or by storms, but that the 84 EXPEDITIONS TO VINLAND AFTER THORFINN. expedition was intentional, undertaken probably for the pur- pose of getting timber and other supplies from that country. The whole affair is mentioned as a daily occurrence, and "Markland" as a perfectly well-known country. On the voyage homeward from Markland, the vessel was driven out of her course by storms, and arrived with loss of anchors on the west of Iceland. From such an account it would appear, that the intercourse between Iceland, Greenland, and Vin- ■ land had been kept up to as late a date as the middle of the fourteenth century. We have very scanty information on the trading and fishing expeditions of the English, Portuguese, and French to the coast of Newfoundland diu-ing the sixteenth century, and they are only occasionally alluded to, though there is no doubt that they yearly occurred. We are much better informed of the expeditions of the Cabots, Cortereals, and Verrazano, which preceded those fishing voyages, and showed them the way. A comparison of the case of these fishermen Avith that of the Northmen will serve to make the views and supposi- tions above developed still more probable. We cannot prove that in all this time the coast of Maine was seen again by the Northmen. But that this was the case, is not improbable from what has been said. The name of Markland (the country of the woods), in the northern geog- raphy, may have sometimes comprised the coast of Maine ; which, at a later time, was often included in the same geo- graphical denomination with Nova Scotia. From the middle of the fourteenth century down to the modern discovery of America, beginning with Columbus and Cabot, we hear no more of Scandinavian undertakings in this direction. The heroic age of the Northmen, and their power and spirit of enterprise, had long ago passed by. Iceland, the VINLAND THOUGHT A PART OF EUROPE. 85 starting-point and mother republic of the western colonies, had become a subordinate and neglected dependency of the kings of Norway and Denmark. The Greenland settlements and bishopric by degrees had been weakened, and at last had completely disappeared, in consequence, as is believed, of epidemics, and of attacks from the Esquimaux, who came over in great numbers from Labrador ; so that even their neighbors of Iceland lost sight of this country. In this manner the entire connecting chain between Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland was broken, and the Amer- ican portion remained to be discovered anew. 9. New England considered by the Northmen to be a PART OF Europe. The heroic exploits and great vmdertakings of the North- men in Iceland and Greenland, called into existence among them many enthusiastic and talented literary and scientific men, who strove to praise and to describe their exploits in writing. Iceland had, in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies, her poets, historians, and geographers. With them, who had discovered and conquered a great part of the globe, geography, in fact, must have been a favorite occupation ; as it had been, for similar reasons, with the Arabs. The Icelandic geographers described not only their own home, but gave also descriptions of the entire globe, so far as their knowledge had reached. They also depicted the globe on rough maps, and had their own systems and views on the arrangement and connection of the different great parts of the world. The feature of this Icelandic geography, which interests us here most, is their idea on the question, what position on the globe should be ascribed to their discoveries in Green- land, Markland, Helluland, and Vinland. They appear not 86 YINLAND THOUGHT A PART OF EUROPE. to have had the conviction, that they had arrived on another continent, in a "new workl" ; which, after the hater discovery of America by Cohimbus and others, became soon the con- viction of modern geographers. The Icelanders, on the contrary, thought that all these western countries made a ^jart of Europe, and they affirmed this very clearly in their geographical works. And this conception, strange as it may appear to us at first sight, was quite natural from the stand-point of the Northman geographers in Iceland. Their original home, Norway, stretched far out to the north. Beyond this, toward the north-east, they had seen other European countries, — the northern parts of Russia (Biarmia, Novaja Zemlia). Per- haps on their excursions they had even come in sight of the mountains of Spitzbergen. So they saw, in all directions toward the north-east and the north, countries which they thought to be continental with each other as well as with Europe. To the north-west they found Greenland, which they considered to be a continuation of this chain of north- ern European countries. On many old Scandinavian maps, therefore, we see Greenland depicted as a large penin- sula running out from some part of Russia, and encii'cling, with a large bend, the whole northern half of the Atlantic, and with its southern end (Cape Farewell) coming down to more southern latitudes. It is Avell known that Spitzbergen, at a later date, was considered to be a part of Greenland, and was even called " Greenland" or " Eastern Greenland." So by this gigantic " Greenland," a bridge was constructed from Europe to the other countries discovered in the western world. The conception, that these southern countries, Helluland, Markland, Vinland, with Greenland, Iceland, Norwegia, be- longed to the same tract or circle of North-European coun- VINLAND THOUGHT A PART OF EUROPE. 87 tries, was so much more natural, because all these countries, so far south as the coast of Maine, in their nature and con- figuration, have the greatest similarity. Indented, rocky- coasts, with the same geological features (granite rocks), long inlets, fiords, numerous coast islands, were to be found everywhere, as in Norway and Iceland. The products of these tracts, also, were not strikingly different from those in Northern Europe, — firs, oaks, and other European trees in the forests ; salmon and other fish in the rivers ; and on the coast different sorts of cod-fish and whales, as on the coast of Norway. Nay, had not the German, Tyrker, discovered vines and grapes like those in Germany? The Scandina- vians might, therefore, well think that they had found noth- ing very new, but. only the extension and continuation of their own Norwegian home. Columbus and his followers, when, at a later date, they arrived in the West Indies, within the tropics, became soon aware that they had something new before them. Having their imagination full of oriental notions, they saw in Amer- ica even more new things, differences, and peculiarities, than really existed. It would be easy to show and prove by many quotations from the books of modern travelers, that those who came from Great Britain, or other parts of Northern Europe, were not much surprised by the differing features of the north- eastern parts of the new world ; but, on the contrary, were impressed by their similarity to what they had left. We might, indeed, speak of a Scandinavian America, which would extend as far south as New England, and more par- ticularly the State of Maine. From all this we may easily explain the alleged fact, that the old Icelandic geographers knew nothing of a fourth part of the world ; that, like the Greek Ptolemy, they recog- 88 THE NORTHMEN AMONG THE INDIANS. nized only three continents, and ascribed all their discove- ries on the other side of the ocean to Europe. An Icelandic geographer, in giving a description of the globe, thus expresses himself: " From Biarmaland (North- ern Russia), the land goes out toward the north to unin- habited deserts (Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen), until Greenland commences. From Greenland toward the south lie Hellu- land (Newfoundland), Markland (Nova Scotia, Canada), and not far from this, Vinland, which, as some think, stretches out toward Africa. England and Scotland form one and the same island, and Ireland is a very large island. Iceland is also a large island on the north of Ireland. All these countries are in that part of the woi^ld which is called Europe.''''* The same, in similar words, has been said by other northern geographers.! It is Avell known that modern geographers, for a long time after they had acknowledged South America to be a separate continent, considered the north-eastern regions of America to be a part of Asia. So we may say that New England and the neighboring region were at first considered as a Euro- pean country, then as a section of Asia, till at last they came to be put upon their own American feet. In the appendage to this chapter I shall give a few Scan- dinavian maps, which will illustrate the views of the Ice- landic geographers on these regions. 10. Reminiscences of the Northmen among the Indians OF New England. One would think that the extraordinary appearance of white men, of a much superior race, in immensely large * See this piece of Icelaudic geography quoted in Eafn, Antiquitatea Anierican;e, p. 289. t See them quoted, aud extracts given from their works, in Eafn, 1. c p. 290 seq. THE NOETHMEN AMONG THE INDIANS. 89 ships, with iron tools and weapons, wouhl have made a great impression on the barbarous natives of Vinland. They saw their guests come and go very often during the course of several centuries. They had battles, traffic, and converse with them. They admired their large tame animals, saw them constructing colossal ships and houses. Perhaps they mixed also in marriage with those of them who made a longer stay, and produced a mixed race of European and American blood. All this must have been remembered a long time after the final disappearance of the strange settlers. The name of "Skrellings" was given by the Scandina- vians, particularly to that race of Americans whom we now call " Esquimaux," at present the inhabitants of the arctic regions ; and the name genex'ally is said to signify "the small people " (homunculi) ; which signification applies very well to the Esquimaux, who are of a small contracted figure, but not so well to the tall Indians of the Abenaki or Algonkin race, which modern discoverers found on the east coast of North America. Those who adopt the above interpretation of the name *' Skrellino-s" have thought, that, in the time of the North- men, our New England and vicinity had been inhabited by Esquimaux, and that after the time of the Northmen and before the time of Columbus and the Cabots they had been dispossessed, conquered, and driven to the north by the Algonkin or Abenaki Indians, coming from the west and south. If this had been the case, the historical traditions of the aborigines seen by the Northmen, and the impressions and impulses which they received from them, would have also disappeared. In contradiction to this theory, Rafn shows, in his often quoted work,* that the Avord " Skrelhng " does not exclu- * Eafn, 1. c. p. 45, note a. 90 THE NOETHMEN AMONG THE INDIANS. sively mean "people small of body" (homunculi), as is usually supposed, but that it should be differently interpre- ted. Some Scandinavian authors have said, that the name was given to the aborigines from their meagre and poorly fed bodies, some from their little strength and mean armature. Others have said that the name should be derived from the Norse " Skraekja" (to cry), and that it meant " noisy criers." Others, again, have believed that it meant "vagabonds" or " vagrants." All these interpretations agree in this, that " Skrelling" was a name of contempt. And such a name, by the proud iron-clad Northmen, may have been given to our tall, but poorly living Indians, as well as to the small-bodied Esquimaux. The name, therefore, may have been a general denomination for all the barbarous tribes of America with- out reference to race. If this is the case, we may suppose that the Algonkin Indians, Micmacs, Tarratines, Pequots, and others, occupied the country at the time of the visits of the Northmen. And, indeed, this appears to me to be probable. The Indians of New England, though in very ancient times they may have come from the west, had, so far as I know, no tradition whatever of their beino; new-comers in the countries where our modern discoverers found them, or of having recently conquered these countries. The idea that the East was their old home is, on the contrary, very deeply rooted. A conquest and a complete destruction of another old indigenous race (the Esquimaux) would not have been an easy affair for the Indians. The very first aborigines of our east coast, carried off at the end of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth centuries by the Cortereals and others, are described as a tall, well-built people. So that the Indians must have swept away the " Esquimaux " of New England, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Newfoundland, in that THE NORTHMEN AMONG THE INDIANS. 91 not veiy long space between the times of the Northmen and of the Cabots and Cortereals. These same Indians are not even now rooted out by the much more powerful conquest of the French and English since Cabot, a period of about four hundred years. We have in INlainc to-day a remnant of Indians in the midst of our civilization, which that has not swept away. I therefore believe, that the so-called Skrel- lings, which the Northmen found in New England, were not Esquimaux, but Indians of the Abenaki or Algonkin race, the same as found there in modern times. This view is supported by the observations made by Rafn on some geographical names, which we have found in use among the Indians of the southern part of New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island), and appear to be of Scandi- navian origin. He quotes the Indian name for a locality in Narraganset Bay, which they call " Haup," and suggests that it might be the Scandinavian place " Hop," so often mentioned in the history of the Vinland expeditions of the Northman, Thorfinn Karlsefne. He quotes, also, tlie Indian name "Nauset" for the peninsula of Cape Cod, and thinks that it might be the somewhat changed Scandinavian name, "Naeset" (the nose, — the principal cape of the country), given by the Northmen, by way of distinction, to Cape Cod.* Such names would scarcely have been preserved in the country, if the inhabitants, in the time of the Northmen, had been Esquimaux, and our Indians recent immigrants. Also, among the Wawenoc Indians of Maine, near Pema- quid, certain numerals have been handed down by tradition, bearing a resemblance to the Icelandic, which may have been derived by them in their barter with the nortliern strangers. » Eafn, 1. c. pp. 456, 457. 92 VOYAGES OF THE ZENT. 11. The Yoyages of the Venetians, Zeni, in the North- ern Parts of the Atlantic Ocean at the end of THE Fourteenth Century. It is ail extraordinary and nearly an inexplicable fact, that the Northmen, after having once found the countries included in the present United States so well fitted for colonization, did not continue their undertaking. They were planters, emigrants from their own country, and were seeking a new home. They populated under great difficulties the barren tracts of Iceland and Greenland, and founded there, in the neighborhood of the North Pole, flourishing colonies and states. They observed the attractive countries of New England, full of harbors and beautiful rivers, with a mild cli- mate, where the vine and corn grew spontaneously, and where planting would have been easy. They recognized, enjoyed, and praised in their writings all these advantages. Whilst the Spaniards, at a later time, on their maps of the United States, as I shall show hereafter, wrote the inscription, "Here nothing good is to be found;" the Northmen, on the contrary, called those same tracts " Vinland the Good^ Nay, more ; whilst those navigators, who came after the Northmen, the Spaniards, Portuguese, French, and English, made a discovery of America quite against their intention and wish, seeking only China and the East Indies, to which America was a barrier and obstacle ; the Northmen, on the contrary, explored America for its own sake. It was itself the object of their Vinland expeditions. They did not think it to be a new world. They considered it as a continuation of Europe, as a part of their own Scandinavian home. Yet notwithstanding all this, they abandoned that country, and relinquished the advantages of their discovery, to retire to their icy northern home. Their attempt had no lasting and important consequences for civilization. VOYAGES OF THE ZENI. 93 Nevertheless, this attempt was not perfectly isolated. It has had some influence on the progress of discovery and the history of geography. Though their undertaking did not become universally known, still the memory of it was kept up by some, who, from different sources, received a knowl- edge of it, and who followed in their track. The first of these were certain navigators and travelers from Venice. The Venetians and the Genoese, though planted within their harbors in hidden corners of the Medi- terranean during a great part of the middle ages, were the most active navigators and merchants of the time ; and their vessels, at an early date, went far out into the Atlantic Ocean. Already in the thirteenth century some Genoese, the brothers Vadino and Guido de Vivaldi in the year 1281, and, again, Theodosio Doria and Ugolino Vivaldi in the year 1292, are said to have sailed far to the west and south, and, as some believe, " with the intention to explore the Atlantic and to find like Columbus a way to the ori- ental regions," though the reports on the intentions and results of these Italian expeditions are very uncertain.* Great Britain was reached by the Venetians at a very early time. They had their entrepots in London in the thirteenth century. Nay, some authors pretend that the intercourse of the Venetians with the north of Europe is lost in the dark- ness of the most ancient times. f By northern historians the Italians are stated to have traded with their ships in the fifteenth century, before the time of Columbus and Cabot, in the southern parts of Ice- * See about this, Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 1, pp. 46, 393. Berlin, 1852. t See upon this, L. Estancelin, Recherches sur les voyages et d^- couvertes des Normands, pp. 114, 116. Paris, 1832. 94 VOYAGES OF THE ZENI. land, where German vessels from the Hanseatic towns, and English vessels from Bristol, then appeared.* If Italians are proved to have come to Iceland in the fifteenth century, they may have been there also in former times. Iceland, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was a powerful and aristocratic republic, and Greenland a flourishing colony. In both countries were several Roman Cath'olic bishops, who, being installed there by the pope, were in continuous intercourse with Italy. In Greenland, as late as the end of the fourteenth and the beginnino; of the fifteenth century, the so-called Peter-pence was collected, and sent from thence to Rome. The pope and his priests may be said, during all this time, to have had their eyes upon these quarters, so near to our region. Might there not also have come a pope's envoy in an Italian vessel to Greenland? At all events, we need not be astonished to hear, at the end of the fourteenth century, of Italian navigators (Venetians) sailing to these northern countries, which had such a manifold interest for Italy, exploring them, describing them, and trying even to put down their outlines on a chart. Nicolo Zeno, the descendant of an old well-known noble Venetian family, a wealthy and enterprising man, fitted out, at his own cost, a ship, soon after the famous battle of Chioggia, and navigated with her in the year 1380 toward England. He was driven by a storm further to the north, and arrived at a group of islands by him named " Friesland," which have been proved to be our present " Faroe." These islands had been in the possession of the Northmen, and peopled by them since the year 861. Here the Venetian * See upon tliis point, Eggert Olafsen, Reise durcli Island, vol.2, p. 231; and Finn Magnuseu, Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyudighed, vol. 2. Kopen- hagen und Leipzig, 1774. VOYAGES OF THE ZENI. 95 traveler, Zeno, was kindly received by the Norman governor, or lord, " Zichnmi," who ruled in this archipelago, having revolted against his chief, the king of Norway. The Vene- tian, with his vessel and able crew, assisted his friend in his war against the king, and was amply rewarded for it. He became Zichmni's prime minister and chief admiral, and, resolving to remain longer in this hospitable country, he sent to his brother, Antonio Zeno, in Venice, an invitation to join him in " Friesland." Antonio arrived in the year 1391, and had likewise a kind reception by the Lord of the Isles. The two brothers, having made this Zichmni inde- pendent and powerful, then thought of making expeditions, conquests, and explorations toward more distant countries. During their long stay of many years in " Friesland," they gained an extensive knowledge of all the islands and coun- tries in the northern Atlantic, which they visited themselves, or of which they heard reports from their Northman friends. Thus they gained knowledge of the Shetland Islands, of the shores of Iceland and of Greenland, and heard also of some countries to the south of Greenland, named " Estotiland " and " Drogeo," to which the men of Friesland had once made an expedition, and of which they had gathered exten- sive information. Nicolo Zeno died in the course of these occupations and undertakings, in the year 1395; and his brother, Antonio, who lived longer, described his own and his brother's ad- ventures and discoveries in a book, in which he depicted on a chart, all the surrounding countries and islands, of which he and his brother had gained some knowledge. This he sent to his third brother, Carlo Zeno, who had remained in Venice. After this, he also died in the north, in the year 1404. Carlo Zeno appears to have kept these writings as a memo- 96 VOYAGES OF THE ZENI. rial of liis brothers, and put them into the archives of his noble family, where the manuscript became damaged and partly decayed. After the invention of printing, and after the modern discovery of America, it fell into the hands of a descendant and member of the Zeno family, " Nicolo Zeno the younger," who, in the year 1558, published all that remained of the wonderful reports on the voyages and adven- tures of his ancestors ; and the book, now for the first time became known to the learned, and created a great sensation in the world. Some believed that it was altogether a fiction, invented by the Venetians to damage the fame of their Genoese rivals and the Spaniards, and to prove that America had been discovered and described by one of their own people long before Columbus. Others, on the contraiy, accepted the book as a true and faithful report of voyages and discoveries really made by the authors, and considered their chart as the best and most authentic source of information on the North Atlantic regions. The discussions on this point were carried on through several centuries, until, in modern times, after a critical and careful examination of the contents of the work of the said Venetians, the greater part of the learned liave acknowledged the reahty of their voyages and the faithfulness of their reports, although it is admitted that they contained many misconceptions, and were embellished with fanciful fables.* The most important part of the work of the Zeni is, * See uiion this, Raniusio, Navigationi i Viaggi, torn. 2, fol. 330; G. Tira- boschi, Storia della Litteratura Italiana, torn. 5, parte 1, p. 128 seq. Fi- renze, 1807; Foscarini, Delia Litteratura Veueziana, p. 431. Venezia, 1814; C. C. Zahotmanu, Dm Zenierues Reiser la Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyn- dighed, vol. 2, j). 9. Kjobenhavn, 1833; Humboldt, Kritische Untersuch- ungen, vol. 1, pp.47, 82, 361, 370,372 ff., 388; and, above all, T. Lelewel, Geographic du Moyen Age, torn. 3, p. 79 seq. SEA-CHART OF THE ZENI. 97 decidedly, the chart annexe:! to it ; because, without it, it is impossible to understand clearly the contents of their report. I will annex a copy of the map ; and, in examining it, will also treat of the contents of the report, so far as they may touch the subject of our research. The Sea-chaet of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, made ABOUT the Year 1400. The sea-chart of the bi'others Zeni, drawn at the end of the fourteenth century, and published in the year 1558, is, in many respects, a most extraordinary and important pro- duction. One great country, Greenland, was drawn on it with more accuracy than had been done on any known map before the year 1400, or even before 1558. The chart was copied by many distinguished geographers, adopted by them as true, and introduced into their general works. Its errors or misrepresentations were also continued ; and several coun- tries which existed only on the Zeni's chart, were introduced into geography, and sought after by explorers, until at last, after two hundred years, the errors were exposed. Several navig-ators and discoverers, amongst others Frobisher, had the map of the Zeni as a guide on board their vessels, and sailed by it.* Upon the whole, we can point out scarcely any map which has given so much light, and has, at the same time, caused so much confusion. The copy which we give is made after the first edition of it published in the year 1558, by Nicolo Zeno. I have copied the outlines and configurations of the countries exactly as they were given there, and also the degrees of latitude and longitude contained on it. For though this graduation was not on the original manuscript, but added by the editor, * See upon this, G. M. Asher, Henry Hudson, p. 107. London, 1806. 7 98 SEA-CHART OF THE ZENI. " Nicolo Zeno the voiino-er," and thoush it occasioned much misunderstanding and confusion, still it was adopted as true by subsequent geographers, was copied by them, and gained, in this manner, an historical importance. Without this gradua- tion, although not originally placed there, we could not under- stand the ideas and works of subsequent map-makers, who believed in its truth. The original is covered with numerous names ; soms of them evidently correct, existing Scandinavian names, which can easily be identified, or which contain, at least, a Scandi- navian element ; for instance, all those ending with "fiord." These names, which I have put down on my copy, have great interest for us ; for they prove that they were derived from the true source, and that the authors of the map, who could not find them on other maps existing in Europe at that time, must have taken them on the spot. There are, however, many other names on the original, which appear strange and fanciful, and cannot be identified with modern names ; they evidently never existed in north- ern countries in the form in which they are here set down. Originally they may have been real and true geographical names, but written on the first draught by Antonio Zeno in an unintelligible manner. The Italian copyists, pub- lishers, and printers of 1558, may have read them according to their own style and view. As the original manuscript of the map had been much damaged, the publishers may have restored some defaced names according to their fancv. These fanciful and strange names, therefore, are no proof whatever against the authenticity of the original map. But I have omitted them, because I cannot decipher and explain them, and because they would only embarrass the reader. For our purpose it is quite sufficient to have the intelligible names, or only some of them, to assure us, that the map is perfectly SEA-CHART OF THE ZENI. 99 worthy of our attention. The chart and all its contents have been examined and explained so thoroughly by several authors, particularly by Lelewel, that I have here but little to do but to make, from his results, a choice of those points which appear to me important for my subject.* The chart gives in the south-east, at first, the northern point of "Scocia" (Scotland), and then the peninsula of Jutland, which, for the time, 1400, is remarkably well drawn. The same may be said of the waters and gulfs between Jutland and the south coast of "Suecia" (Sweden), and "Norvegia" (Norway), the so-called " Skager Rak," and " Cattegat." Along the coast of Norway we meet several well-known points and places : " pergen " (the town of Bergen) ; "stat" (the famous Cape Statlant) ; "tronde" (the town of Drontheim) ; and far in the north-east, " Gwardus en- sula" (Vardochuus). The long Archipelago of the numer- ous Loffoden Islands is depicted, though not named. The configuration given to the middle and northern parts of the coast of Norway is not correct. But it is better drawn than on any other map before the year 1400, on which no other country of Europe was so much disfigured as Scan- dinavia. Nay, on many maps of the first half of the six- teenth century, Scandinavia is made to look like a terra incognita. The northern parts of Russia are not indicated ; and the author of the map, in putting here dotted or uncertain lines, with the inscription, "mare et terre incognite" (seas and countries unknown), gives us to understand, that he will not decide the question, whether the navigable sea ends here, and * See Lelewel's Essay on tlie " Tavola di Zeni " in his " Geographie du Mo yen Age," torn. 3, p. 79 seq. 100 SEA-CHAET OF THE ZENI. whether the northern parts of Evirope are connected by terra finni with arctic countries round the pole, or not. Going from "Norvegia" to the west, the next group of isknds is called " Estland " (our present Shetland), which, as on our map, is situated between the north of Scotland and the middle coast of Norway. The ancient Scandina- vian name for those islands was " Hialtland," and more commonly, " Hitland." Our map has this name (spelled "itland"). Several names, ending with the Scandinavian "fort," "incafort," " onlefort," " olofort," prove at least that we have before us Northman names, which, in ancient times, may have existed, or which were somewhat changed, under the orthography of the Italians. To the west of the Shetlands occurs the great island " Frisland," surrounded by several smaller ones. The name, " Frisland," conducts us to the group, which, at present, is named the " Faeroer " (Faroe), and which, in ancient times, were called " Faereyjar " or " Fareysland," or " Ferrisland," shortened to " Freesland," or " Frisland." Some of the names given by our author to "Frisland" correspond to names still found among the Faeroer (Faroe). So the fol- lowing in the south: "monaco" (the monk), the most southern point of the Faroe group, a rock, is still called the Monk (Munk);* and so " sorand," the southern section of " Frisland," is very probably " Suderoe," the most southern island of the Faroe group. " Sudero colfo " (Gulf of Sudero) is our present " Sudero sund," a channel separating the said southern island from the rest of the group, " colfo noi-dero" (the Gulf of Nordero). Nordero or Norderoe (the northern island) is still the name of one of the northern Faroe ; " streme" — " stromoc," is the * See Baggesen, Deu Danske Stat, p. 451. Kjobenliavn, 1840. SEA-CHART OF THE ZENI. 101 present name of the largest of the Faroe ; and " andoford," " Andafiord" (the bay of the ducks), a gulf in the northern part of the island of " Oesteroe," still bears that name. These names alone will be sufficient to prove, that the " Frisland" of the Zeni is our present Faroe group.* They put tills group nearly in its right position and relation to Scotland, north-west of it, and at the true distance from Ice- land. Tliat they made the Faroe so extremely large may be explained from the fact, that they resided upon them for more than twenty years, and that it was their central or starting point for all their expeditions. Lelewel, with good reason, thinks that on the original manuscript map of the Zeni of the year 1400, the Frisland or Faroe group was cut up into many smaller islands, and that the manuscript was injured, particularly at that part, the lines of the interior channels destroyed ; and that, in this manner, such a large piece of country as we find on our map, was delivered to the engraver and painter of 1558. f But nearly all the subse- quent geographers and map-makers after 1558 concluded that there still existed in the northern Atlantic, a large country, " Frisland," similar in size to Iceland or Greenland. The history of this geographical problem, and how it Avas solved, is very interesting ; but I omit it here, as not connected with our subject. " Islanda" (Iceland) is placed in its right position, midway between the central parts of Norway and Greenland, and the size given to it is nearly the true one; though the general out- lines or form are not quite so. Among the names which attest the acquaintance of the Zeni with this country are the following, namely : in *For more proofs and for the literature of this subject, see Lelewel, 1. c. p. 103, note 46. t See Lelewel, 1. c. p. 101. 102 SEA-CHAET OF THE ZENI. the South, " flogascer " (or foglaster), corresponding to "fuglasker" (the bird rocks), a name still found in the south of Iceland ; " Scalodin" (Skalholt), in the interior of the south part of Iceland, the famous ancient residence of one of its bishops; "Anaford" (Anafiord or Hanefiord), a bay on Avliich the place Hanas was standing; " Olensis," " Holum," or " Holar," the residence of the second bishop of Iceland, " episcopus Holensis ;" " Noder," something like " Norden." In their excursions from " Frisland" (the Fariie) the Zeni reached also Greenland, on the map called " Engrone- lant" and " Gronlandia." They appear to have visited it; and the Scandinavian seamen communicated to them their own knowledge of this country, which, at the time of the Zeni, was still a flourishing colony, full of small settlements. The draught, which the Zeni give on their map of Green- land, is the most remarkable part of their whole work. The size and form they give to Greenland ; its triangular shape ; its broad extension to the north, and the pointed and narrow peninsula in the south ; the high mountains in the interior, and the chain of small islands, peninsulas, headlands, and fiords all round the coast ; the latitude given to it, the middle parts north-west of Iceland, and the southern point in the latitude of Bergen, in Norway, — all these are strikingly true features of this large country. It is not prob- able that the Zeni saAV and explored all this themselves. Such a figure of Greenland as they give could only be the result of long research and intimate acquaintance with the country. They, no doubt, obtained their information from the Northmen. Nay, they must have received maps and charts from them. Even if we did not know that the old Northmen made charts of their colonies, we might be cer- tain from this picture of Greenland by the Zeni, that they SEA-CHAKT OF THE ZENI. 103 could not have drawn it without having before them some map prepared from long observation. Neither in the year 1400, the date of the original of our map, nor in 1558, the date of its being engraved and published, could such a truth- ful representation of Greenland be found in Europe, either in manuscript or print. The Zeni by their map enriched and corrected the knowledge of the globe with respect to an essen- tial point. Some admirers of their map have given it as their opinion, that they owed their original to the aborigines of Greenland, the Esquimaux, who are known to be skillful in drawing maps. I doubt, however, whether the Esquimaux were able to make such a good general and comprehensive picture of their far-extended home, as we see on our map. The knowledge of Esquimaux geographers, probably, did not go very far beyond the cape or fiord on which they were settled. Such a comprehensive picture could only proceed from, and be the result of distant and often-repeated naviga- tions, such as the Northmen were vised to make. Only on the distant north-east of Greenland, which is still undefined, the Zeni and their informants were uncertain ; as also on the north-east of Norway. According to their draught they appear to have doubted, whether Greenland was sepa- rated from the old world by water or united to it by land. The Greenland of the Zeni, after 1558, was many times copied by European geographers, and embodied into their general maps of the world, though they wrongly connected it with other countries in consequence of the incorrect graduation of our map, subsequently interpolated by a de- scendant of the Zeni, Nicolo Zeno the younger. If the old Zeni themselves could have explained their map, they might have told their descendants, that they would not have the southern point of their Greenland end in 66° north latitude, knowing very well that it came down much further to the south. 104 SEA-CHART OF THE ZENI. I omit here an examination of the particular Greenland names on the map of Zeno, as not being of nmch interest for our suhject, but refer the reader to the essay of Lelewel.* I come now to those smaller portions of country set down in the south-west corner of the Zeni's map, to which the names " Icaria," " Estotiland," and " Droceo " are given, and which, for us here, have the greatest interest. Antonio Zeno, in the report on his and his brother's voy- ages, relates, that, according to the assertions of their Fris- land friends, a fishing vessel from " Frisland," — the Faroe, being driven by a storm far out to the west, arrived at a country named " Estotiland," the inhabitants of which had commerce with " Engroenelandt" (Greenland). This coun- try, Estotiland, was very fertile, and had high mountains in the interior. The king of the country had in his possession some books written in Latin, which, however, he did not understand. The language which he and his subjects spoke had no similarity whatever to the Norse. The king of Estotiland, seeing that his guests sailed in much safety with the assistance of an instrument (the com- pass), persuaded them to make a maritime expedition to another country situated to the south of Estotiland, and called " Drogeo," or " Droceo." There they had the misfortune to fall into the hands of a most barbarous tribe. They were all killed except one, who was made a slave, and who, after a long time and after many adventures, at last found his Avay back to Greenland and to the Faroe. He related, that the country, " Drogeo," stretched far to the south, and was a very large country, like another world, and that it was all full of savage tribes, who covered themselves with skins and lived by hunting. Tiiey had no other weapons than bows and arrows, and lived among each other in an eternal warfare. * Lelewel, 1. c. p. 98. SEA-CHART OF THE ZENI. 105 But far off to the south-west were some more civihzcd nations, wliich knew the use of the precious metals, and built towns and temples ; it was, however, their custom to kill their prisoners and offer them to their gods. This appears to have been for the time, 1400, a pretty good description of the state of things in America as far down as Mexico. And if it does not seem })ossible that all this information could be brought together by that one Scan- dinavian slave, or traveler, among the Indians of " Drogeo," it may, perhaps, be taken as a resum^ of all the knowledge acquired by the Northmen on their expeditions to the west and south-west. This traveler may have heard these tales on his return to Greenland or Iceland, and may have brought this tradition to the Faroe, and to the ears of the Zeni. The name " Estotiland " appears to be of German origin, and has been explained as " East-outland," or the land lying far out toward the east. Because Newfoundland stretches out more toward the east than any other part of America on the south of Greenland, some have thought that "Estotiland" might be a Northman name for tliat island. Others have applied the name to our present Labrador. And othei's, again, seeing that Antonio Zeno puts on his map to the north-east of Estotiland, but south of Greenland, another pretty large island with the name of " Icaria," have thought that this " Icaria " (which Antonio Zeno asserts that he had visited with his friend Zichmni, after having received the favorable report of the country, " Drogeo"), might be Newfoundland, and that Estotiland on the south-west, our Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. "Drogeo," of wliich Zeno gives on his map only a small part, would then be our New England, According to this view we would have, as in the old Icelandic reports, three countries to the south of Green- land : 106 SEA-CHAET OF THE ZENT. 1. Icaria (Helluland, Newfoundland). 2. Estotiland (Markland, Nova Scotia). 3. Drogeo (Vinland, New England).* The subsequent geographers and map-makers (after 1558), Mercator, Ortelius, etc., did not interpret the Zeni's map as we have done. They adopted everything contained in this map, also the south-western countries, Icaria, Estotiland, and Drogeo ; hut they made them swim like additional separate islands in the midst of the ocean, putting to the west of them the countries, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Eng- land, which they represented in the manner and shape given to them by the navigators and explorers of the sixteenth cen- tury. It Avill probably be impossible to make the history and geography of Icai-ia, Estotiland, and Drogeo quite clear. But from their position to the south-west of Greenland it appears to be certain, that some sections of the north-east of America are indicated by them. And so, at all events, to our map of 1400 must be ascribed the particular distinction and merit, that it is the first and oldest map knoivn to us, on which so7ne sections of the continent of Aynerica have been laid down. * Lelewel on his map puts " Drogeo " exactly in the locality of the ter- ritory of the State of Maine. N!?1I The Norll) = AtivHlttic, by the Jcelviu^n- APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER II CHARTS OF THE NORTHMEN. 1. On the Map No. 2 of the Nokth Atlantic Ocean, dbawn BY THE Icelander, Sigurdus Stephanius, in 1570. The Scandinavian historian, Tlioi'modus Torfaeus, gives in liis work " Gronlandia Antiqna" (Ancient Greenland), Havnise, 170G, engi-avings of several old and very curious charts of the North Atlantic. As authors of these charts he mentions some learned Scandinavian draughtsmen from Iceland. All these draughts in Torfaeus have in common the following features : they place Iceland about the center of the picture, some- what in the same manner as old European maps placed the holy city, Jerusalem, in the midst of their pictures of the world. To the north of this their home, from which the Northmen, on their excursions in all directions, went to discover the circumjacent countries, they put Greenland ; to the east, Norway and Russia ; to the south. Great Britain and France ; and to the west, parts of America and also Greenland. Greenland, for the Icelanders so important a region, is depicted as an extremely large country. So also are the neighboring islands, the "Faroe," and "Hetland" (our Shetland). Great Britain and France, like countries seen from a distance, are of a rather small size. Between Greenland and Russia (" Biarmaland," the present "Perm"), the ocean contracts to a narrow channel, named on some of the maps " Dumbshaf " On the' gi'eater part of the maps, the ocean between southern Europe and America is also very narrow ; so that the whole North Atlantic appears to be au inland sea, with four narrow outlets; one in the south, one in the north (the Dumbshaf), one in the east, looking to the Baltic ; and one in the west, conducting to the arctic waters, our Davis' Strait, with the old Norman name " Ginnungagap." I give here two of the Icelandic maps contained in Torfaeus (Nos. 2 and .3). Our present map. No. 2, according to Torfaeus, — or more par- ticularly according to " Magister Theodorus Torlacius," whom Tor- 108 CHARTS OF THE NORTHMEN. faeus quotes in the notes to the map, and who was himself a historian of Iceland,— was made in the year 1570, by Sigurdus Stephanius, an Icelander. Torlacius calls him a " learned man, once the most worthy rector of the school in Skalhott, a well-known place in Iceland, who published also a description of Iceland." " He appears " says Torla- cius, "to have taken this his picture from the Icelandic antiquities" (" Delineationem hanc suam ex antiquitatibus Islandicis desumpsisse videtur"). Perhaps among those Icelandic antiquities were not only reiJorts, but also some draughts and charts ; though Rafn, in his "Anti- quitates Americanae," does not state that he found charts among the Icelandic manuscripts seen by him. Iceland has, on our map, too low a latitude. It is too near the southern point of Heriolfsnaes (Cape Farewell). The whole southern section of " Groenlandia" (Greenland) is extended too far to the east. To the south-west we meet " Helluland" (Newfoundland). Between the two countries is a gulf, the ancient " Ginnungagap" of the North- men (Davis' Strait). "Helluland" (Newfoundland) is represented as a i^eninsula, projecting eastward. To the south of " Helluland " comes a gulf, the entrance to the St. Lawrence, and then another peninsula similar to the former, called "Markland" (Nova Scotia). The little gulf to the south of "Mark- land " is the entrance to our Bay of Fundy. After this little inlet there opens to the south a large gulf, resem- bling, in size and form, the Gulf of Maine, sometimes called by the Northmen, " Vinlands-IIaf." The gulf ends in the south, with a pointed cul de sac, formed by a very conspicuous headland, which is called " Promonlorium Vinlandiae" (the Cape of Vinland). This cul de sac has a striking similarity to our Cape Cod Bay. And the cape which is called " Promontorium Vinlandiae," has about the form of a hook, or a ship's nose. I think it cannot be doubted, that we have here a picture of the old and famous Cape "Kialarnes" (Ship-nose) of the Northmen. That this cape should be called " the Promontory of Vinland," is very natural; because it really is the most conspicuous headland of all that tract of country, which, among the Northmen, was designated as " Vinland." All these countries, "Helluland," " Markland," and " Vinland " have the same relative position to Greenland; and follow in the same series in which they are given in the old reports on the discoveries of the Northmen. That they have a much higher latitude than is at present given to them, — for instance, Helluland, the latitude of southern Nor- way ; Vinland, the latitude of southern England, — ought not to astonish us ; because Stephanius, the author of the map, could not gain much mm, TbcNortll = AtlanltC by H)c JcdaiuVr 6inM)rcniC>u^^ TovUiciu^>i'n tl)onoarl606. CHARTS OF THE NORTHMEN. 109 light on the hititudes from the okl Icelandic reports. On some of the old Icelandic maps, "Terra Florida" has the latitude of northei-n France. Nor should the colossal dimensions, given on our map to the point " Promontorium Vinlandiae," deceive us. The Cape of Vinland, the Cape Kialarnes, is so often mentioned in the reports of the North- men, and takes such a prominent place in the history of their discove- ries, that, according to its great fame and name, it must have stood before the mind of an Icelandic draughtsman, as sometliing very- grand. That the Icelander, Stephanius, in constructing his map, used Euro- pean originals, is evident from his fabulous island of " Frisland," to the south of Iceland. That this island, in the place assigned to it, did not exist, must have been pretty well known in Iceland itself. It could only be found in Italian, German, or other European maps. Therefore Theodorus, in his notes, adds the remark: ."What island this is, I do not know, if, perhaps, it be not that country which a Venetian (Nicolo Zeno) discovered, and which the Germans call Fries- land." For his figure of Great Britain and Ireland, he may also have used foreign maps. But for the coast of America (" Helluland," ''Mark- land," "Promontorium Vinlandise "), he could not find upon the European maps of 1570 anything like what he has drawn. This part he must have taken from Icelandic originals. From all this I conclude, that we have here in the " Promontorium Vinlandiae" a good type of our Cape Cod after okl Northman originals, and in the gulf and coast between this and " Markland," an indication of the Gulf of Maine, with the coast of Massachusetts, New Hamp- shire, and Maine. 2. Ox THE Map No. 3 of the Nokth Atlantic Ocean, drawn BY GUDBRANDUS ToRLACIUS IN 1606. For the sake of comparison and to illustrate further the geography of the old Northmen of Iceland, we have added, in No. ;!, a copy of another map, contained in Torfaeus, and made about forty years later than the former. This map, according to the notes added to it by Theodorus Tor- ' lacius, was delineated by Gudbrandus Torlacius, " a most learned man, who was fifty-six years bishop in Iceland, and a reformer of the churches and schools of the country." Which of these originals this bishop used for the construction of his map, we do not learn. The narrow form given to the North Atlantic, 110 CHARTS OF THE NOBTHMEN. with Iceland in the center, as usual on Icelandic maps, presents a view of the whole field of the Northman discoveries. To the east coast of North America the bishop has not paid much attention. He calls it " Estotilandia," a name not invented in Iceland, but introduced into geography by the Zeui. The principal feature of the map is the very correct configuration of Greenland, which here is much better depicted than on the former map. It would have been an improvement of many European maps of the year 1606, if this Icelandic representation of Greenland had become known in Europe. The Icelanders spoiled their maps by intro- ducing " Frisland," " Estotiland," and other imaginary countries, which then retained a place in the geography of Europeans, who took no notice of these old Icelandic maps. Some modern geographers (for instance Malte Brun)* mention a manuscript map, made by Gudbrand Torlakson, as being preserved in the royal library of Kopenhagen. I have not had the good fortune to see this map, but it probably contains the same things, which we find depicted on our No. 3, " made by Gudbrandus Torlacius." * See Malte Brun, Geschichte der Erdkunde Herausgegeben von E. A. W. von Zim- mermann, vol. 2, p. 183. Leipzig, 1812. CHAPTER III. ENGLISH TRADING EXPEDITIONS FROM BRISTOL AND OTHER ENGLISH PORTS TOWARD THE NORTH-WEST, PRINCIPALLY TO ICELAND, DURING THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES. — JOHN, OF KOLNO. — CO- LUMBUS. Though Iceland, after the loss of her colonies in Green- land and America, and after she had hecome a dependent province of Denmark in 1380, was not so powerful as before, yet she remained, in the fourteenth century, an important province, and the country was pretty well peopled. There were always two bishops on the island, and a number of influential and wealthy families and chieftains, having many wants, which their northern country was unable to supply, and which could be supplied only from the south. She therefore remained during the fifteenth century the object of a lively commerce. The inhabitants received their south- ern necessaries partly from Norway through Bergen, Avhere the Hanseatic towns had their great emporium and factory for the whole North ; but principally, perhaps, from that neigh- boring southern country, from which Iceland had, in former times, received her fii'st Christian settlers, the " Papas," prior to the Northmen, and with whicli the connection and intercovirse had probably never ceased.* * See upon this, Finn Magnusen, " Om de Eugelskes Handel paa Island i detlSde Aarhundrede in Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyudif^hed," 2 Bind, p. 164. Kiobenhavu, 1833. 112 ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS PEIOR TO 1492. The navigation from the ports of Great Britain to Iceland appears to have been particularly flourisliing during the time above indicated. Several British ports were used in this trade. Hull, London, and Bristol are mentioned as such ; and Scotch and Irish vessels are said to have gone over at times, for fishing and commercial purposes. But the prin- cipal seat and centre of all these commercial expeditions to Iceland was Bristol, the same port from Avhich, afterwards, the Cabots set out for their famous north-western discoveries. The croods wliich the Eno-lish carried to Iceland were mani- fold : cloth, and other manufactures ; corn, wheat, and other breadstuff's ; wine, beer, and other liquors.* They received in exchange for these commodities fish, principally stockfish. Iceland and its waters were, together with the coast of Nor- Avay, the great fishing-ground for cod ; and we may call it, in this respect, the forerunner of the Newfoundland Banks, the great outpost for European fishermen in later times. f Some- times also learned men, or at least priests, appear to have gone out witli those Eno-lish fishermen and merchants to the north-west. At least, a certain Nicolas, of Linne, is men- tioned, as having made a voyage to the north-west from the English port of " Linne," now Kingslynn, in Norfolk, and as having arrived in Iceland with favorable winds in a fort- night. | How brisk this commerce in some years must have been, is clear from the fact mentioned by Norwegian authors, that in the month of April, 1419, a heavy snow-storm in a short * See tliem mentioned in Finn Magnusen, 1. c. p. 147. t Au old English poem of the fifteenth century, quoted by Hakluyt, begins with these words: " Of Iceland to write is little nede Save of Stockfish," etc. I See on this, C. C. Zartmaun, in Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, torn. 3, p. 48, 1836. ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS PRIOR TO 1402. 113 time destroyed not less than twenty-five English vessels, the cargoes and wrecks of which were scattered on the coasts of Iceland and circumjacent islands, whilst the crews were swallowed by the sea.* The English, thinking that so great disasters could not have happened without the assistance and ill-will of the Icelanders, went over to Iceland with an armed force to take revenge for the robberies of which they accvised them. English men-of-war, or " pirates*," as the Icelanders called them, during the course of the centiiry, went repeat- edly over to Iceland to seek satisfaction for some supposed insult. They made war in the island, settled and fortified themselves there, and seemed as if they had the intention of conquering the whole country. Now and then, also, they quarreled with the merchants and mariners from the Hanse- atic ports, in many respects their rivals in the commerce of Northern Europe ; who, likewise, as I have mentioned above, often sailed to Iceland ; and with whom the English, from time to time, had conflicts in those northern seas. It is not my intention to give a complete history of the commerce from England, and particularly from Bristol to Iceland ; but it is interesting and important to show the English posted on that great northern oceanic high-road, which had conducted the Europeans repeatedly to discovery in north-eastern America, and to see them in the Icelandic waters, on the threshold of America, occupied with fishing, and military, piratical, and commercial expeditions. Under these circumstances, it may not be unreasonable to suppose, that English vessels may have been driven by storms to Greenland, Labrador, Vinland, and so to the coast of Maine ; as the old Northmen and the Zeni were driven to " Fi'island." Though the vessels of the fifteenth century * See on this, Finn Magnusen, 1. c. 115. 114 ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS PRIOR. TO 1402. had the advantage of the compass, which the old Northmen had not, still if one storm alone, that of 1419, could disperse and destroy twenty-five English vessels, there may have been many chances for widely ranging oceanic adventures in those seas. We have, liowever, no reports of any such event, as in previous times is said to have happened to Prince Madoc, to Naddod, Biarne, and the subjects of king Zichmni. The only exception to this appears to be the report, that ])irates at that time had their lurking-places on the coast of Greenland. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, in the year 1476, the king of Denmark, Christian I, is said to have sent out, under the command of a certain John Scolnus, more cor- rectly called John of Kolno, a native of Poland, an ex- ploring expedition on the same old northern route toward the West. The first author who very briefly mentions this Polish adventure, is the Spanish historian Gomara, in the year 1553, without, however, stating from whom he had it. The Dutch cosmographer, Cornelius Wytfliet, more fully speaks of him in his well-known work, " Descriptionis Ptolemaica3 augmentum. Lovanii, 1597." On folio 102 of this work, after having related the voyage of the Zcni, he says, that, in the year 1476, the said John Scolnus, sailing beyond Norway, Frisland (Iceland?), and Greenland, entered the Arctic Strait (Boreale fretum ingressus, sub ipso arctico circulo) ; and came to Labrador and Estotiland. Neither does Wytfliet say, from what source he had this report. But after his time it was a current opinion among geographers and historians, that Kolno, in the year 1476, had discovered, under the direction and order of Christian I., the strait called Anian, — a north-western passage through Hudson's Strait. Many have repeated this report without finding any other authority for it than Gomara and Wytfliet. EXPEDITIONS OF COLUMBUS PRIOR TO 1492. 115 But the Danisli and Nor\ven;ian writers upon this subject consider that voyage as altogether apocryphal, and say, that their old northern historians and documents do not contain the slightest mention of such an expedition. Moreover, they think that if it was made at all, it could have been nothing more than an attempt to find out again the lost old Greenland, and not to make new discoveries in the distant west.* The learned Polish geographer, Lelewel, though inclined, from a patriotic motive, to make a great deal of the undertaking ascribed to his countrymen, has found no Polish authority whatever. We therefore dismiss this somewhat celebrated voyage with the simple statement, that it probably never took place, or that, at all events, it had nothing to do with Vinland and Maine, as, indeed, Lelewel explicitly alleges. It is curious, however, that in the very next year after that ascribed to the pretended voyage of this Pole, namely, in the year 1477, another great navigator, the greatest and most famed of all, Christopher Columbus himself, went out to explore and reconnoiter on the very same old northern route toward the west. And if, as Lelewel says, the voyage of Scolnus at once became known in Portugal and Spain, he might as well have added the supposition, that perhaps also Columbus heard of it, and that he might have been attracted to the north by the reports of this expedition of Clu'istian I. Columbus, having his mind full of speculations and ideas about the possibility of a circumnavigation of the globe, and about the short distance between Europe and the eastern end of Asia, made several trials and performed sevez-al voyages preparatory, so to say, to his grand undertaking. He went in a southern direction to Madeira, Porto-Santo, the Canary Islands, nay, to the coast of Guinea. He made himself * See for tbis the work, Grcinland's Historiske Miudesmaerker. Tredie Bind, p. G30. Kiobeuhavn, 18i5. 116 EXPEDITIONS OF COLUMBUS PRIOR TO 1492. acquainted with all the routes of the Portuguese, and also with the extreme ne 2}lus ultra of their discoveries in a west- ern direction, toward the Azores or Western Islands. Hum- boldt thinks it probable, that he himself made an excursion to this western out-post of Portuguese discovery.* Columbus tried also, in the year 147T, the northern route, sailing (probably with an English merchantman from Bristol) toward Iceland, and even some distance beyond it. What •induced him to undertake this voyage, he has not told us. But very probably it was the fame of the Ultima Thule, that attracted him. He had read, probably, about it in his old books, in which it was described as the most remote country discovered by the Romans. And he might have inquired, " Are there not still other countries beyond it, and, perhaps, some parts of Asia quite near to it?" The distinguished French geographer, Malte Brun, has supposed, that Colum- bus, while yet in Italy, had heard something of the early dis- coveries of the Northmen beyond Thule. f And this is not at all unlikely. In Rome, the center of the world, where they had always an eye upon all countries, both heathen and Christian, they certainly knew something of Greenland ; and in Venice, the voyages of the Zeni, though they were not printed as yet, may have been known to some persons. A Danish author thinks it also possible, that Columbus, who made research in all books, printed and manuscript, about his supposed countries in the west, had become acquainted with some copy of the work of the well-known old historian, Adam of Bremen, who clearly mentioned the discovery of Vinland.| By such hints Columbus may have been induced to make * Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 1, p. 231. Berlin, 1852. t See upon this, Malte Brun, Histoire de la Geographic, ed. 2, pp. 395, 499. $ See Finn Magnusen, 1. c. p. 1G5, note 1. EXPEDITIONS OF COLUMBUS PRIOR TO 1492. 117 his voyage to Iceland, " and a hundred leagues beyond it." This must have brouglit him nearly in sight of Greenland, and, at all events, for the first time, into American waters. We have, unhappily, only a very shox't notice * of this, to us, particularly interesting voyage, which evidently was a pioneering or exploring expedition in the direction toward the north-east parts of America. But so much seems certain, that he did not merely sail along Iceland (Thule), but stayed some time in the country, and conversed with the inhabitants. If so, this great inquirer must have asked questions enough about countries lying to the west ; and he may have heard much about Greenland, Markland, and Vinland. There must have been in the year 1477, in Iceland, many people who well recollected these countries. The last ship from Markland (Nova Scotia) and its vicinity, had returned to Ice- land, as I have stated, only about a hundred years before the visit of Columbus. It was only sixty-seven years before, that the last Icelandic ship had arrived from Greenland (1410). And even in the year 1445, an Icelander, Bjorn Thorleifson and his wife are said to have gone to Greenland, and to have stayed there a winter. Many persons in Iceland may have well recollected all this in the year 1477 ; and, moreover, the old writings about the expeditions of the Northmen toward the west, were then very well known and read by many persons in Iceland. Rafn and Finn Magnusen think it pos- sible, that Columbus, having landed in Hoalfjardareyri, at that time the principal port of Iceland, saw and spoke there with the learned Icelandic bishop, Magnus Eyolfson, of Skalholt, who is known to have been at that place in 1477. f * See this in Fernando Colombo, Vita dell' ammiraglioChristoplioro Co- lombo, etc., cap. 4. Venetia, 1571. • t See upon this, Rafn, Antiquitates Americanaj. Introduction, p. xxiv, note 1. A learned friend of mine, M. Sigurdaon, Royal Archivist in Kopen- 118 EXPEDITIONS OF COLUMBUS PRIOR TO 1402. At all events there were sources enough, both books and persons, from which Columbus might, in the year 1477, have learned something about countries lying not very far to the west and south-west from Iceland ; and we may well be allowed to think, that by this information he was confirmed in his belief, of an easy and comparatively short navigation to the east of Asia. Baron Humboldt, who also believed that the exploring expedition of Columbus to Iceland had been proved,* thinks, notwithstanding, that it had little to do with the plans of the great navigator. He says that " Colum- bus might have known of the expeditions of the Northmen to Vinland or Drogeo quite well. All this information might not have appeared to him to be connected with his inten- tions. He searched the route to India and to the country of the spices."! I think the great German savant is not quite right in this. If his suggestion be true, we might well ask, why Columbus should have given himself the trouble of making an excursion to Ultima Thule. I think Columbus wished to know, whether our globe was really as lai'ge, and the ocean as broad, as cosmographers at this time made it ; or if there w :re not some countries in the back-ground of the ocean very near, and accessible by an easy navigation ; and, on this subject, the reports of the Icelanders might well have given him some light. If he only knew, and was able to prove to others, that the globe was small, the ocean not very broad, and that countries not far distant had been reported hagen, who lias favoreil my researches in a most kind and generous man- ner in many ways, and liy the most acceptable services, has proved to me, in a letter, or essay on the visit of Columbus to Iceland, that in Kopeu- hagen, among the learned of Denmark, nothing new has become known on this point, and that all the questions connected with it, rest, as before on mere probability. * He adopts the opinion of Finn MagTiusen. See Humboldt, Kritiache Untersuchnngen, vol. 3, p. 155. t See Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchnngen, vol. 3, p. 370. EXPEDITIONS OF COLUMBUS PRIOR TO 14'J2. 119 or indicated from the Canaries, from tlic Azores, from Ireland and from Iceland, then he might make his choice among the different routes, and explore that region and latitude, to which he thought his land of the spices to be nearest. I think it, therefore, more correct to subscribe to the opinion of Finn Magnusen on this subject, who says : " If Columbus had been informed of the most important discove- ries of the Northmen, it is much easier to understand his firm belief in the possibility of the rediscovery of a western country, and his great zeal in carrying it out ; and we may conceive his subsequent discovery of America partly as a continuation and consequence of the transactions and achieve- ments of the old Scandinavians." This Danish historian adds this philosophical remark : " Long ago we have known, that the flite of mankind often han^s on the finest threads, the direction of which the historian scarcely can follow and exhibit ; but it is seldom that these threads, as in our case, can be observed after the lapse of three centuries."* The results of this chapter for our particular object may be summed up thus : 1. The lively commerce and navigation between England and Iceland during the course of the fifteenth century, make it appear possible, that some English vessel may have been driven to the coasts of New England. 2. The pretended expedition of the Polish navigator, John Scolnus, in the year 1476, if it Avas ever made, did not approach the coast of New England. 3. Columbus may perhaps have received in Iceland infor- mation respecting the Northman expeditions to the south-west, and more particularly respecting those to Vinland and Dro- * See Finn Magnusen, Om de Engelskes Handel paa Island, in Nor- disk Tidsskrift for Oldkyndighed, 2 Bind, p. 166. KiiJbenhavn, 1833. 120 EXPEDITIONS OF COLUMBUS PRIOR TO 1492. geo, under wliicli names the territory of the State of Maine was included ; and, accordingly, the fame of these countries may have contributed something to the furtherance of the greatest event of modern times, the discovery of America by Columbus. CHAPTER IV. EXPEDITIONS OF JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT TO NORTH- ■ EASTERN AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1497, 14i>8. 1. VoTAGE OF John and Sebastian Cabot in the Year 1497. Christopher Columbus may be said to have given directly, as well as indirectly, an impulse to western dis- covery in all the nations and to all the sovereigns of Western Europe. In Italy, in Portugal, and in Spain, he agitated personally for his scheme of an expedition to the west, and made it known in those countries. To France and England he had sent his brother Bartholomew, who, in the year 1488» laid before Henry VII., of England, his brother's plan; made for the king a map of the world, to show w"hich way his brother Christopher intended to sail ; * and in this manner, for the first time, drew his attention to the distant parts of the western ocean. Cautious Henry, however, did not at once profit by the occasion then offered. When Columbus, with the assistance of Ferdinand and Isabella, had succeeded in his enterprise, Henry no doubt felt regret, and might now have become eager to avail him- self of any opportunity to partake of the profits, which Spam expected to derive from western discoveries. " At Henry's court," as we are informed by good authority, *' there was great talke cf the undertaking of Columbus, * See oa this map Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 2, p. 2T5. Berlin, 1852. 122 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. which was affirmed to be a thing more divine than humane; and this fame and report increased in the hearts of some of the king's subjects a great flame of desire to attempt some- thing ahke notable." * The king's subjects, particularly the mariners and mer- chants of Bristol, had been long vised to sail, as I have before related, to the north-west of the Atlantic, toward Ice- land and its vicinity. It appears probable, as I have already remarked, that these Bristol men, on their expeditions to the north-west, yearly repeated, should have obtained informa- tion about other countries lying to the west and south-west of Iceland. We unhappily know nearly nothing of the old traditions of the merchants and seafaring men of Bristol. This much, however, is certain, that there Avere in this port persons interested in such voyages, mariners accustomed to perform them, and vessels fitted for the service. It was, therefore, quite natural, that expeditions to the north-west should have originated in that place, and have found persons there ready to promote and aid them. Bristol, like other ports in the north of Europe had, among its inhabitants, Italian families ; and they, particularly those from Venice, being the most enlightened and experienced merchants of the time, were the leading men of this, as of other commercial communities ; and, like the old Venetian Zeni, of whom I have spoken above, put themselves at the head of all new maritime undertakings. Among those Venetians at Bristol was a certain Giovanni Caboto (or Cabota), a merchant, who, with his three sons, we do not know exactly at what time, but probably before * See Ramusio, Delle Navisationi et Viaggi, torn. 1, fol. 374, Valen- tia, 1013, where Sebastian Cabot is introJuced as relating this in a conver- sation with a gentleman of note (Galeazzo Bottrigari), the Pope's envoy in Spain. THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1407. 123 1490, had migrated from Italy to England.* The said Caboto may have been among the first, "in whose hearts the fame and report of the successful undertaking of the Genoese Columbus increased a great flame of desire to undertake some- thing alike notable." The Venetians and Genoese, from time immemorial, had been rivals ; and a Genoese success would always create a Venetian jealousy ; as, in the same manner at a later time, a French undertaking was always followed or accompanied by a similar English enterprise. Among the three sons of John Cabot, the most prominent and talented was Sebastian, the second in age. From his early childhood this young man, like Columbus, had paid attention to the study of geography and navigation ; and had, at an early age, already acquired " some knowledrje of the sphere. He understood, by reason of the sphere, that if one should sail by way of the north-west, he Avould by a shorter track come to India, than that by which Columbus had sailed."! ^^^ short, Sebastian Cabot had a pretty good idea of the usefulness of what we, at present, call great circle- sailing. His father, John Cabot, had probably the same idea ; nay, in this respect he may have been the instructor of his son. Probably both father and son, each talented and well instructed, worked out together their plan for a north- west passage, and for a route from England in the most dh'ect line to " Kathay " and the oriental world. The section of the great circle, or the most direct line from * If it is true, as Eileii says, that Sebastian Cabot, according to his own statement, was born in Bristol, liis fatlier mustliave been settled there before the year 1477, the i)robable time of his son's birth. [But Contarini, the Venetian ambassador at the Court of Charles V., says, tliat Sebastian Cabot told him that he was born in Venice; which other circumstances confirm. — Ed.] t This he is reported to have stated himself in the conversation men- tioned in Ramusio, 1. c. 124 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. England to China and Japan, the countries for which the Cabots planned their expedition,* would pass to the north of Norway, along the northern shore of Siberia, and through Behring's Strait into the Pacific Ocean. And so it appears, that the Cabots, if they had "understood the sphere" quite right, ought to have planned an expedition for a north-east, instead of a north-west passage, as they actually did. But we must here bear in mind, that the Cabots, like all their contemporaries, believed Asia to stretch much further toward the east than it really does. Even if they did not agree with Columbus in the belief, that "Espaiiola" (St. Domingo) was Japan, which may be doubted ; still they must have hoped, that they might hit upon Kathay, at least not very far from the longitude of the islands discovered by Columbus, where Martin Behaim, on his globe, and probably also Bartholomew Columbus on his " map of the world, presented to King Henry," had laid them down, in about a central line of what we now call the Pacific Ocean. And to this, region "a great circle," or the shortest route, conducts from England a little to the west of the North Pole ; and a voyage to Ice- land, and further in that direction, would not fall far out of their way. It was not until a long time after, about the middle of the sixteenth century, when it had been generally recognized and acknowledged, that China and the east of Asia lay much further south-west, that Sebastian Cabot pro- posed and tried a north-eastern passage, very reasonably thinking, that Kathay might be much sooner reached by the Siberian route. If the Cabots, through their Icelandic connections, had heard any thing of countries lying to the south-west of Iceland, this may have attracted them still more to the north- *That, from the beginning of their expedition, they had Kathay ilSTorth- ern China) in view, is said by Sebastian Cabot himself in Ramusio, 1. c. THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. 125 west. For, either they must have believed that these coun- > tries, once known to the Nortlimen, were already a part of the Indies and Kathay ; or, at least, that being islands, they might serve as intermediate stations on the route to those countries, according to the views which had induced Toscanelli to point out to Columbus the islands of " Antilia," " St. Bran- dan," and others, and to recommend them to him as stations for reposing and refitting on his long voyage to the Indies. Before laying their scheme of a north-western voyage to Kathay before Henry VII., the Cabots appear to have induced their Bristol friends to make some preliminaiy voy- ages to the west, or some attempts to find out new countries in that direction. " The people of Bristol have for the last seven years," says Don Pedro de Ayala, a Spanish envoy in England, in a letter to his sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isa- bella, dated July 25, 1498, "sent out every year two, three, or four light ships (caravelas) in search of the islands of Brazil and the Seven Cities, according to the fancy of that Italian (John Cabot)."* The " seven years," literally taken, would carry us back beyond the time of the first voyage of Columbus in 1402. But the Spanish envoy probably did not intend to fix his date very accurately, and we may, therefore, suppose, that he only meant to say "a number of years ago." The islands of the Seven Cities and of Brazil Avere probably depicted on the map which Bartholomew Cokimbus presented to Henry in 1488, in the same manner that they had been before on the map of Toscanelli, and afterwards on the map of Behaim. They may, therefore, after 1488, have been a sub- ject of conversation in England ; and it is not improbable, * See this recently discovered lettei", deciphered and translated by G. A. Bergenroth, printed in his Calendar of Spanish State Papers, vol. 1, p. 177, and copied in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Oct. 21, 18G5, p. 25. Cambridge, 1866. 126 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. tliat John Cabot may have induced the Bristol men to make a search after tliem ; as the Portuguese, after having heard the views of Columbus, made an unsuccessful search in a west- ern direction. Some learned geographers have even thought, that the Cabots themselves made such a preliminary voyage to the new Avorld as early as in the year 1494 ; and that, on this voy- age, and not as is usually supposed on that of 1497, they first discovered the shores of the North American continent. They were induced to think so, principally, by a certain map of tlie world, which has been ascribed to Sebastian Cabot ; which has been recently found in Germany ; and which gives the above-mentioned year as the date of the great discovery. This map of the world, according to an inscription con- tained on it, was engraved in the year 1544. It is a compila- tion of all the discoveries made up to that year, and of the then current geography of the entire world. It contains very few hints on the original discoveries of the Cabots. I shall treat of this map and examine it, after having spoken of the subsequent discoveries in the first half of the sixteenth cen- tury. I will then state the reasons why I do not think very highly of this document, and bring forward all my doubts about this so-called discovery of the continent of America, in the year 1494.* I will only state now that I have not been able to convince myself of the reality of such a voyage, and that I omit it altogether. It was in the year 1495, that the Cabots laid their great scheme of a north-western expedition to Kathay before King Henry, who readily gave his assent to their plan, and, in their favor, issued a patent and commission dated March 5, 1496. This patent gave permission to John Cabot and his three * See Appendage 4 to Chapter IX. of this volume. THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1407. 127 sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, to sail with five ships, " under the royal banners and ensigns to all parts, countries, and seas of the east, of the west, and of the north, and to seek out and discover whatsoever isles, countries, regions, and provinces, in what part of the world soever they might be, which before this time had been unknown to Christians." The king gave them further license " to set up the royal banners and ensigns in the countries, places, or mainland newly found by them, and to conquer, occupy, and possess them, as his vassals and lieutenants."* This patent, of the contents of which we give here only what may be called the naval instructions with respect to the route and aim of the voyage, is drawn in the most vague and general terms. We find in it no allusion Avhatever to Kathay or a north-west passage. Of all the regions of the world to Avhich the voyage might be directed, the south only is excluded ; probably because it was considered as belonging already to Spain, and Portugal, and therefore closed by them to Enghsh discoverers. The north, west, and east are mentioned. That the north and west were particularly intended, we learn from the statements of Sebastian Cabot himself, that a voyage to Kathay by a northern route, was his and his father's, and probably also the king's intention. According to this patent, the patentees had to arm and fur- nish their vessels, to buy victuals, and to provide all other things necessary for the expedition at their own cost. Henry granted them nothing but his royal authority and protection, and a passport to foreign powers. This was probably the reason that they were not able to make use of the rqyal permission of March, 1496, until the * See this patent in Hakluyt's Divers Voyages, edited by the Hack- luyt Society, p. 19. London, 18(50. [It is in Latin, and is also copied by Hazard, " Historical Collections," vol. 1, p. 9.— Ed.] 128 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. year 1497. To raise the necessary funds, to fit out their ves- sels, to procure the goods which would be suitable for the market in Kathay, with which country they hoped to com- mence a profitable traffic, detained them for more than a year. At last they sailed from Bristol in the spring of 1497. And as all the best authorities on this voyage say that they were only a little more than three months absent, and make them return in the beginning of August, their departure must have taken place in the early part of May. It is said by some authorities, that at the outset they had four vessels, and that one of them was called the " Matthew," being the Admiral's ship,«having the commander on board. How many of these ships accompanied the expedition to the end^ is not clear ; at any rate, the " Matthew " was the vessel which first touched our American shores, and the only one, as far as is known, which returned in safety to Bristol. There can be no doubt that the commander of the expedi- tion was John Cabot, the father ; and tha*, consequently, to him is due the discovery of the continent of North America effected on this voyage. In the grant from the king above quoted, John Cabot is the principal patentee ; the sons are mentioned only collectively, and as subordinate companions of the father. Another patent was granted by the king in the year following the voyage of 1497, and is exclusively directed to John Cabot. It asserts quite clearly, " that he, by the commandment of the king, had found the new-discov- ered lands." Notwithstanding this direct evidence, a modern writer, Mr. Biddle (in a work very ingenious, but somewhat too subtle and acute, where he makes the son Sebastian his favorite' and hero), for certain reasons has tried to render it doubtful, whether John Cabot commanded this expedition, or even accompanied it. In this he has followed the authority of some early writers, and has given the command, with the THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. 129 whole success and honor of the undertaking, to the yoiing son, Sebastian.* Tliat John Cabot liad come to England " to follow the trade of merchandise," can be no decisive objec- tion against his ventiiring to conduct a naval expedition in person, and of course with the assistance of expert pilots and marinei's. We know very little of John Cabot's former life. He may have been a merchant, and yet an expert navi- gator. At all times, particularly in that of the Cabots, both occupations were followed by the same individuals. Before the sixteenth century, it was usual for merchants to accom- pany or conduct their own commercial expeditions. Amerigo Vespucci was a clerk in a mercantile house, and also a great traveler, and a cosmographer and astronomer. In Spain and Portugal, merchants, litentiates, gi'aduates of the Universi- ties, and doctors, became not only sailors and discoverers, but also military and naval commanders and conquerors. Sebastian Cabot, the son, whom this author has endeavored to substitute in the place of the father, was, at the beginning of the year 1497, when the expedition sailed, perhaps only nineteen, or at most, twenty years old, having been born, according to Humboldt, in the year 1477-1 At this period of his life he may have been an " enthusiastic geographer," but certainly he cannot have been an experienced and " accom- plished "^i navigator, fit for the command of a fleet. There is probably no case on record, of a young man of nineteen or twenty years having been put at once at the head of an im- portant expedition of discovery to unknown and far distant regions, particularly by a king like Henry VII, who was no enthusiast, and who is described as having been "of a wary, cautious, most circumspective, and quiete disposition." * See Biddle's Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, p. 42 seq. London, 1832. t See Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 2, p. 445. J So he is called at this period of his life by Biddle, 1. c. p. 51. 9 130 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. That in later times, several Spanish and other authors should sometimes have overlooked the father, John, and that all merit should have been given to the son, Sebastian, is easily accounted for. The fotlier disappeared — probably died — soon after his return from this expedition. But the son lived for more than sixty years afterwards, became a celebrated navigator and cosmographer, and altogether an important person, employed in the service of the kings of England and Spain. His fame in this manner eclipsed that of his father, and the results and merits of the whole expedi- tion were, by several old historians, attributed wholly to him, whilst the father, John, was forgotten, particularly in Spain, where he never had been present.* * [The following extract from tlie Sforza archives of Milan, under date of 1487, confirms Dr. Kohl's A'iew on this subject. "News received this morning from England by letters dated the 24th of August." . . . "Also Bome months ago, his Majesty sent out a Venetian, who is a very good mariner (John Cabot), and has good skill in discovering new islands, and he has returned safe, and has found two very large and fertile new islands; having, likewise, discovered the Seven Cities, four hundred leagues from England, on the western passage." The letter of Pas(iualigo, found in the archives of Venice, dated August 23,1497, also furnishes direct evidence of this fact; after sj^eaking of his return from the great discovery, he says: " The king has given him money wherewith to amuse himself till then" (the next spring), "and he is now at Bristol with bis wife, who is also Venetian, and with his sons; his name is Zuan Cabot, who is styled the Great Admiral," etc. This letter is dated London, 23d August, 1497, and is written in Italian. These documents would seem to put at rest the questions both of the command and the time of this fii'st expedition of discovery. Yet it is suprising, that Hakluyt who was almost a contemporary of Sebastian Cabot, having been born five or six years before Cabot's death, and who was familiar with the leading adventurers and discoverers of the day, and jirobably better acquainted with the various voyages which had been undertaken than any other man of his time, should have persisted to the last in asserting, that the first Cabot voyage was performed in 1496, and by Sebastian Cabot. In his recently discovered and unpublished treatise of 1584, in which he vehe- mently appeals to the English government to engage in colonization, he THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. 131 Of the other persons, pilots, masters of vessels, and other members of this expedition, we hear scarcely anything with certainty, though we might gather some names as probably belonging to persons who went Avith the Cabots. Among them there may have been many Bristol mariners, acquainted with the navigation of the Norihern Ocean, at least as far as the seas of Iceland. The Cabots would probably have tried to attract into their service also, some Portuguese and Spanish sailors, accustomed to the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. Relative to the course which the Cabots followed on this voyage we have no definite information. Sebastian Cabot appears to have written the events of this voyage, as well as of the other voyages performed during his long life ; but unhap- pily these precious writings are lost to us. How they disap- peared is uncertain.* With respect to all the particulars of the vo3^ages of the Cabots we are, therefore, left to proba- bilities and to a few scattered hints and notices. From the intention which the Cabots had to follow as near as possible the shortest line from England to Cathay, that is to say, a line which passed near the North Pole, we should think, that, in starting from England, they would have sailed in nearly a northern direction. If they knew nothing of more than once affirms, that the first discovery was made in 1496, and by Sebastian Cabot. He says, "A great part of the continent, as well as of the islands, was first discovered for the King of England, by Sebastian Gabote, an Englishman, born in Bristow, son of John Gabote, in 1496." Again he says, "Nay, more, Gabote discovered this large tract of firme land two j'Cars before Columbus ever saWany part of the continent. . . . Columbus first saw the firme lande August 1, 1498, but Gabote made hia great discovery in 1496." The very interesting and instructive Ms. of Hak- luyt, above referred to, which was brought to light early in 1868, through the exertions of the Rev. Dr. Woods, a member of the Maine Historical Society, then making researches in Europe, will be printed, for the first time, in a volume of this Society's Transactions, next succeeding the present, within a few months. — Ed.1 * See upon this point, Biddle's Memoir, p. 221. 132 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. Greenland and of the ereat ice-barrier along the " Mare congelatum," we should expect to find them on the old beaten track of the Bristol men to Iceland, or even on a direct line to the Pole. But, probably, the Bristol men, and also the Cabots Avho had conversed with them, were sufficiently acquainted with the dangers of the ice surrounding Iceland and the Pole. It is not less probable, that, from their long intercourse with the Northmen and Icelanders, they knew something of that great ice-locked east coast of Greenland, which, as a long barrier, lies stretched out to the north-west and south-west of Iceland ; and that it would be useless to try that way for a passage to Asia. The Icelanders may have acquainted them with their old " Gunningagap," that broad passage at the south and west of Greenland, which we call Davis' Strait. It is for these reasons, no doubt, that we do not find the Cabots exactly on ihe shortest northern route to Cathay, but much to the west of it, on the shores of New- foundland and Labrador ; for it was on the coast of one of these countries, certainly, that their first landfall was made. In former times it was usually supposed, that the Cabots made their landfall near some cape of the island of New- foundland. But nearly the whole of Newfoundland is in a much more southern latitude than Bristol. And if their landfall had been made there, they either could not have taken from Bristol a north-western route, as it was their intention to do, or they must have been driven from this route by northerly wind§ A^ery much to the south. This is one of the reasons which should induce us to expect a more northern point for the first landfall of the Cabots. In the examination of this question, Mr. Biddle* has come to the conclusion, that this landfall of the Cabots on the coast of the North American continent, or what they called- their * See Biddle's Memoir, p. 52 seq. THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. 133 " Prima vista" (the first country seen), must be found on the coast of Labrador in 56° or 58° north latitude. In tliis lati- tude he thinks the Cabots for the first time came in sight of the continent of North America, on the 24th of June, 1497. And after him. Baron Humboldt and several other dis- tinguished authors have adopted this latitude for Cabot's landfall. In an inscription contained on an old map of the world, engraved in the year 1549, the authorship of which is ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, the country surrounding this landfall is described as being very sterile, but full of wild animals, and particularly having an abundance of white bears.* These white bears of the country, as Sebastian Cabot himself once told his Spanish friend, Peter Martyr, used to catch with their paws the fish, which were their favorite food.f The white bears, consequently, were quite at home in the country which the Cabots saw on the 24th of June, 1497. This affrees much better with the coast of Labrador than with that of Newfoundland, to which the white bears very seldom, if ever, come down. Just as unfavorable a description of the country of their landfall is given in the above-quoted letter of the Venetian Pasqualigo, where it is said, that the Cabots did not meet any human being in the country which they discovered in 1497. This could certainly happen only on the coast of Labrador, thinly inhabited by Esquimaux, and not in any of the more southern countries. Moreover, the author of the above-quoted map of the world, supposed to have been Sebastian Cabot, says in an inscription, that he and his father found an island opposite the * See this inscription, amongst others, printed in Nathanis Chytraei Variorum Itinerum Delicise, p. 787. Herbornae, 1594. t See Peter Martyr, De orbe Novo, p. 533. Parisiis, 1587. 134 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT, 1497. country of their landfall, to which they gave the name St. John, in consideration of the name of the saint, on whose day it was discovered. We find on several old maps, for instance, on that of the famous Belgian geographer, Orte- lius, of the year 1570, depicted in this latitude an island called "St. John's" (or S. Juan). Ortelius says, that he had seen an engraved map of the world, made by Cabot, and he may iuive taken that island from this map. All these considerations incline us to believe, that Biddle and Humboldt and their followers were right in putting down the first landfall of the Cabots, and their "prima vista" on the coast of Labrador in the high latitude of about 56° or 58° N. Against this view has been brought forward, as a decisive testimony, that map of the world, engraved in the year 1544, ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, which was lately discovered in Germany, of which I have already stated, that it contained, instead of the year 1497, the year 1494, as the date of the first discovery. This map gives for the landfall, instead of the coast of Labrador, a much more southern country, namely, the coast of Cape Breton Island ; and, moreover, makes Cabot's " Island St. John " to be our present Prince Edward Island. I shall examine this point and the other contents of that map after I have spoken of the subsequent discoveries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I will only state here, that I am not satisfied with the correctness of the posi- tion given on this map to the "Prima Vista." With respect to my reasons for this view, I refer the reader to my essay on this map, which he will find in Appendage No. 4 to Chapter IX., of this volume. Whether the Cabots, from their landfall on the coast of Labrador in 1497, sailed still further north, and how far, we do not know. We are also uncertain on the question, how VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. 135 far from their landfall they went to the south. We hear only, that they sailed along the coast about three hundred leagues.* As they had intended to sail to the north-west, and had turned their backs on the south, we should be inclined to measure these "three hundred leagues," for the greater pai't at least, along the coast of Labrador north of their landfall. Some part of it, however, may be located to the south of their landfall, along the southern coast of Labrador and New- foundland, in sight of wlijch they may have come on their homeward route, after having been baffled by ice in the north. It appears to me probable, however, that the principal dis- covery of the island of Newfoundland by the Cabots was not made on this first voyage, but on the second expedition, in 1498, hereafter considered. Having come in sight of land in the far west, which they believed to be a part of Eastern Asia, having seen more water in the north, and having ascertained, at least for some distance, the trending of the coast, they were eager to bring this interesting news, as quickly as possible, home to Eng- land. The little vessel, the " Matthew," arrived in Bristol on some day in the early part of August, 1497.t 2. Voyage of Sebastian Cabot ix 1498. John Cabot, on his return in the month of August, 1497, was received in England with great joy, because he was said to have discovered " the island of the Seven Cities," and * This is said in the letter of L. Pasqualigo, 1. c. t This becomes pretty certain, at first, from an entry in the privy-purse accounts of Henry VII, which is dated " August 10, 1497," and in which the king says, "that he has given a reward of ten pounds to hym, that found the new Isle;" and, secondly, from the above-quoted letter of the Venetian Lorenzo Pasqualigo, who, under the date, " London, 23d August, 1497," announces to his brothers in Venice the return of John Cabot from hia voyage of discovery. 136 VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. " the country of the Great Chan " (the emperor of Chma), or, at least, a part of it ; and this was probably, also, the opinion of the Cabots themselves,* Henry himself was also filled with hope and confidence ; and issued, in favor of John Cabot, another patent or license, dated February 3, 1498, in which he gave him permission to take, at his pleasure, in the king's name, six English vessels, in any port of the realm of England, " and them convey and lead to the land and iles, of late found by the said John in our name and by our commandment ; paying for them and every of them, as and if we should, in our own cause pay, and none otherwise."! The son of John (^abot, Sebastian, is not mentioned in this patent, as he had been in that of 1496. Yet he alone profited by it. For the father is not again men- tioned in connection with the voyage ; for what reason, is not disclosed. It is supposed that he died soon after the grant was made. Sebastian was now, if Humboldt's supposition is true that he was born in 1477, a young man of about twenty or twenty- one years of age. And as he had become proficient in astronomy and mathematics, and had gained naval expe- rience in the voyage he had made in company with his father ; and as he knew better than any one else his father's views, and also the position of the newly discovered regions, he may now have well appeared to Henry, as a fit person for the command of another expedition to the north-west. Two ships, manned with three hundred mariners and vol- unteers, were ready for him early in the spring of 1498 ; and he sailed with them from Bristol, probably in the begin- ning of the month of May. * See this described in the above-quoted letter of Lorenzo Pasqualigo, 1. c. p. 20. t See the patent in Biddle's Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, p. 76. VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. 137 We have no certain information regarding his route. But he appears to have directed his course again to the country which he had seen the year before on the voyage with his father, our present Labrador.* He sailed along the coast of this country so far north, that, even in the month of July, he encountered much ice. Observing, at the same time, to his great displeasure, that the coast was trending to the east,f he resolved to give up a further advance to the north, and returned in a southern direction. The northern latitude which Cabot had now reached, has been put down variously in the different notices of this voyage. In Ramusio, the latitude 56° north is given. But this cannot be true, because it is said in the same passage of Ramusip which mentions this latitude, that Cabot, finding in the highest latitude reached by him the coast turning to the east, • in despair changed his course to the south ; and because we now know, that in the said latitude of 56° N., the coast of Labrador does not turn toward the east. The Spanish historian, Gomara, a contemporary of Cabot, and living with him in Spain, and who, consequently, may have known him personally, says that the ice encountered by Cabot in the month of July, and which hindered him from sailing further north, occurred in 58° north latitude. " Cabot himself," adds Gomara, " says that it was much more."$ As "Cabot himself" is a much better authority on the point in question, than the incredulous Gomara, we must * See the report which Sebastian Cabot himself communicated in a conversation with Peter Martyr, De Orbs novo, p. 232. Parisiis, 1587- See also Ramusio, Delle navigationi et viaggi, torn. 1, fol. 374. Vene- tiis, 1613. tThis turning of the coast to the east, is mentioned in Ramusio, vol. 1, fol. 374, as having been observed on Cabot's expedition in the year 1498. t See Gomara, Historia de las Indias, fol. 20, 1. c. Sarago.ssa, 1553. 138 VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. think that he reached a higher latitude than 58° N., even according to Gomara's own statement. The Portuguese Galvano, also one of the original and con- temporary authorities on Cabot's voyage of 1498, says, that having reached 60° north latitude, he and his men found the air very cold, and great islands of ice, and from thence putting about and finding the land to turn eastward, they trended along by it, to ' see if it passed on the other side. Then they sailed back again to the south.* From this report of Galvano it appears, that he believed that Cabot sailed much beyond 60° north latitude, and also along a tract of country toward the east. As Cabot in 1498, without doubt, sailed along the coast of Labrador and the western shores of Davis' Strait, and as we have there no other long turn-off coast to the east beyond 60° north latitude, but the great peninsula of Cumberland, it becomes very probable, from Galvano, that he reached the shores of this peninsula in 672° north latitude, and that, despairing of finding a passage, he there turned to the south. In adopting this opinion, which was also that of Humboldt,f we suppose that Cabot must have overlooked the compara- tively narrow entrance of Hudson's Strait, or that he found it obstructed by ice. In his encounter and struggle with the ice in this high lati- tude he probably lost a great part of his men ; J and his crew may have been opposed to a further advance toward the north, though the young commander himself appears to have * See this in Galvano, The Discoveries of the World, edited by the Hak- luyt Society, p. 88. London, 1601. t See Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 2, page 447. Berlin, 1852 } See upon this point D'Avezac in Bulletin de la Society de GeograpMe, Aoiit et Septembre, 1857, p. 276. VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. 139 been disposed to continue still furtliex* the search in that direction.* From this northern terminus Cabot retraced his course southerly along the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland. At Newfoundland, he probably came to anchor in some port, and refreshed his men, and refitted his vessels after their arctic hardships. The harbors of Newfoundland have always been stations of i-efuge and for the refitting of vessels coming from the north. Perhaps Cabot had seen, on the voyage with his father, the abundance of fish on these coasts, which was so great, that the ships were said to have been stopped by their numberless swarms. He probably Avas the first fisherman on the banks or shores of Newfoundland, which through him became famous in Europe. Sailing from Newfoundland south-west, he kept the coast in view as much as possible, on his right side, " always with the intent to find a passage and open water to India. "f The more he proceeded to the south, the more he deviated from his " shortest way" along the North Pole. But, having been bafiled in the north, he probably thought, that even a longer way to the Indies would be better than no way at all. It is not likely, that, having failed to find this passage in the high north, he would have returned at once, in despair, to England. According to his notions of the configuration of the shores and countries in the western recesses of the ocean, he was, no doubt, convinced, that saihng south he would very * See upon this Ramusio in his preface to the third volume of his great ,work (Edit. Venetia, 1556), fol. 4, where he appears to me to speak of this voyage made at the command of Henry VII, in 1498, though others have believed, that he speaks of some other voyage. t Ramusio, vol. 1, fol. 374, Venetia, IGIIJ, where Cabot himself is made to say, " me ne tornai a dietro a riconoscere anchora a la detta costa dalla parte verso 1' equinottiale, sempre con intentione di trovar passagio alls ludie." 140 VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. soon find water broadly opening toward China. Such open waters Avere depicted on all the globes and maps which Cabot would have consulted, on the maps of Toscanelli, Bartholo- mew Columbus, Behaim, and other geographers. Neither Cabot nor any one else, at that time, had the slightest expecta- tion of meeting, on a western route, an immense continent other than that of Asia. He expected, at every stage, to see the end of Newfoundland, and to find, not merely a narrow strait, but the vast Western Ocean itself. This, perhaps, was the reason, that, on this coasting voyage, he appears not to have taken notice of the comparatively narrow entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. If he observed something of it, he may not have thought it worth his while to explore it, expecting to find a more open passage further south. After having sailed along the south-east of Newfoundland, and passed the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he must have come in sight of the coast of Nova Scotia. At the south-eastern end of this peninsula he would see the coast abruptly falling off to the west and north-west ; and, of course, must have followed this trending of the shore-hne in the direction of his intended route. It is, therefore, very probable, that he entered with good hope the broad Gulf of Maine, and came to and sailed along its coast. The entire elevated coast of Maine is seen at a great dis- tance from the ocean. This view, no doubt, convinced him, that there could be no broad water in that direction. He therefore passed speedily on, losing no time in minute explora- tion. We must always keep in mind, that a detailed exami- nation could not have entered into the designs of Cabot. In his expectation of finding a broad ocean to the west, such as was portrayed on the maps of his time, he, of course, must have been disposed to neglect narrower inlets, and even such as were only moderately broad. As long as he saw the con- VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. 141 tinuous line of coast, he went onward further to the south- west, quite sure that the great ocean, presented on the maps as lying eastward of China, must soon make its appearance. It is, however, probable, that, in the southern parts of the Gulf of Maine, he approached the coast somewhat nearer, because they are there lower, and, from a distance, not so easily recognized as being land-locked. Thus he may have been caught in this cut de sac of Cape Cod Bay, entering it for the purpose of looking for a passage. But he was beaten back by the shores, turning round to the east, and was forced to circumnavigate the long hook of the cape. The hopes, with which he had been filled at the south-eastern extremity of Nova Scotia (Cape Sable), were now lowered again, and that disagreeable hook of Cape Cod, of so vmusnal a shape, must have impressed itself on his memory, and been delin- eated on his chart. In the Appendage to this chapter, where I shall give what has come down to us of Cabot's chart, and examine it, I shall have occasion to point out upon it certain coast-lines which appear to me to represent Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine, and, consequently, to support the view, that Cabot visited both these objects of the coast and reconnoi- tered them ; an opinion which I think I have made somewhat probable. After having rounded Cape Cod, he must have felt fresh hope. He saw a coast running to the west and open water before him in that direction. It is therefore nearly certain, that he entered somewhat that broad gulf, in the interior corner of which lies the harbor of New York. I say "some- what;" for it is not at all necessary to suppose, that Cabot made a thorough search of this gulf, to convince himself of its beincr land-locked. The soundings were sufficient to make this known to him. The soundino;s in that gulf and along the whole coast to the south of New York, are very low. At 142 VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. a distance of a hundred miles from the coast, they begin to decrease from sixty fathoms to twenty and ten, and still less. Cabot, of course, was constantly sounding ; the sounding-lead at that time being one of the principal instruments for detecting the approach to land. They would enter this gulf only so far as it was necessary for them to be convinced, that the coast was near. The question, therefore, which has been raised, whether Cabot saw any thing of New York harbor,* cannot be answered with any degree of certainty. From a statement contained in the work of Peter Martyr it appears, however, certain, that Cabot landed on some places of the coast along which he sailed. This author, relatino; a conversation which he had with his friend Cabot, on the subject of his voyage of 1498, says, that Cabot told him " he had found, on most of the places, copper or brass among the aborigines" (orichalcum in plerisque locis se vidisse apud incolas praedicat).f From another authority we learn, that he captured some of these aborigines and brought them to England, where they lived and were seen a few years after his return, by the English chronicler, Robert Fabyan.| It is not stated at what place he captured those Indians ; but it was not customary with the navigators of that time to take on board the Indians, until near the time pf their leaving the country. Cabot's Indians, therefore, were proba- bly captured on some shore south of New York harbor. At all events, from both the statements alluded to, it becomes highly probable, that this great discoverer put his feet on the shores of the present United States, which, in several respects, it is not uninteresting to know. ♦For instance, by Rev. Mr. Miller in bis discourse on tbe discovery of New York barbor in New York Historical Collections, vol. l,p. 23. t Peter Martyr, De orbe Novo, Dec. 3, cap. 6. I See tbe quotation from Fabyau's cbronicle in Hakluyt, vol. 3, p. 31. Ed. London, 1810. VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. 143 When beyond the vicinity of New York Cabot saw the coast taking a more southern turn, and holding on in this direction, his hopes for a large and distant run to the west, must have entirely vanished ; and his provisions also falling short, and apprehending that he was approaching the Spanish possessions, he now entered on his homeward voyage. The southern terminus of his voyage is pretty well ascer- tained. He himself informed his friend, Peter Martyr, that he went as far south as about the latitude of the Strait of Gibraltar,* that is to say, about 36° north latitude, which is near that of Cape Hatteras. Peter Martyr adds the following : " He sailed so far to the west, that he had the island of Cuba on his left hand, nearly in the same degree of longitude." This additional remark, some authors have interpreted as if he had intended to cor- rect himself, and to add, that Cabot had sailed along the entire coast of the United States down to Cape Florida ; where, at last, he had the island of Cuba quite near to his larboard side. But it is evident, that neither Peter Martyr nor Cabot intended by this statement to determine anything about his latitude. That Avas fixed at the latitude of the Strait of Gibraltar. Cuba was mentioned only to determine the longitude. The east coast of North America, in 36° north latitude, is in about the longitude of the eastern part of the island of Cuba : and a navijiator, who sails alono; that coast with the idea of penetrating to the west, may well say, that he had the island of Cuba on the left, — but, of course, at a great distance. At the time Cabot made the above statement to Peter Martyr, which was before the year 1515,f the island of Cuba * See Peter Martyr, 1. c. t Peter Martyr's record of his conversation "with Cabot was written in 1515; but the conversation itself must have taken place before, between 1512 and 1515. 144 VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. was the only place north of Hlspaniola (St. Domingo) and the other West Indian islands, of which the position was known with certainty. It was therefore natural for Cabot, to use this island in order to make his longitude intelligible. It was the more natural, because Cabot, in the latitude of the Strait of Gibraltar, must have thought himself much nearer to the island of Cuba than he really was. At the time of his voyage — and even much later — that island was laid down on the charts several deo-rees too far north. From this I consider it clear, that Cabot saw nothing of our coast to the south of Cape Hatteras. On the direction of his homeward track from the shores of the United States to England, the short original reports of his voyage state nothing. The nearest route to England was running on the same track on which he had come out, that is to say, back along the coasts of New York, New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. And, according to what we have stated above on his knowledge of the globe, and the shortest route by great circle-sailing, we should be inclined to think, that he returned by this route, and came again in sight of the Ncav England coast. It is however possible, that, like the greater part of the navigators of his time, he may have followed a more southern track by the Azores. On their return from their first voyage of 1497, the Cabots believed, that they had discovered portions of Asia, and so proclaimed it. But the more extensive discoveries of the second voyage corrected the views of Sebastian, and revealed to him nothing but a wild and barbarous coast stretching through thirty degrees of latitude, from 67i° to 36°. The discovery of this impassable barrier across his passage to Cathay, as he often complained, was a sore displeasure to him. Instead of the rich possessions of China, which he hoped to reach, he was arrested by a New found land, savage and VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IN 1498. 145 uncultivated. A spirited German author, Dr. G. M. Asher, in his life of Henry Hudson, published in London in 1860, observes : " The displeasure of Cabot involves the scientific discovery of a new world. He was the first to recognize, that a new and unknown continent was lying, as one vast barrier, between Western Europe and Eastern Asia." Still, a long time after Cabot, geographers represented on their maps Newfoundland, Labrador, and the neighboring territory, as parts of Northern Asia. But Cabot, on the first chart of his discoveries, which has been preserved to us by a Spanish cosmographer, represented the entire eastern coast of North America as a separate and independent conti- nent, entirely distinct from Asia. The scientific results of Cabot's voyage consequently were very great, though they could not be appreciated at once by all his contemporaries. The more practical, pecuniary, and commercial gains of the expedition were not so attractive as the merchants of Bristol and the covetous Henry had expected : it was probably for this reason, principally, that when Cabot made proposals in the following year, 1499, for another expedition to the same regions, he was supported neither by the king nor the mer- chants.* For several years the scheme for the discovery of a north-western route to Cathay, was not much favored in England. Nevertheless, the voyage of this gifted and enterprising youth along the entire coast of the present United States, nay, along the whole extent of that great continent, in which now the English race and language prevail and flourish, has * Nevertheless, some authors believe that he made in that year another voyage of discovery, which, however, is said to have been directed to the tropical regions. The scattered hints which we have on this expedition of 1499, have been collected in Biddle's Memoir, p. 91 seq. 10 146 VOYAGE OF SEBASTIAN CABOT IX 1498. always been considered as the true beginning, the foundation and corner-stone of all the English claims and possessions in the northern half of America. Enoflish flaus were the first which were planted along those shores, and English men were the first of modern Europeans, who with their own eyes sur- veyed the border of that great assemblage of countries, in which they were destined to become so prominent ; and were also the first to put their feet upon it. The history of each one of that chain of States, stretching along the western shores of the Atlantic, begins with Sebastian Cabot, and his expedition of 1498. And this is especially true of the State of Maine, and the other States of New England ; whose remarkable coasts were particularly observed by him, and clearly delineated on his chart, as I shall endeavor to show in my examination of Cosa's map. O; APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER IV. 1. Ox THE Map, No. 4, of thk Ocean axd Islands between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, from the Globe of Martin Behaim, 1492.* Martin Behaim, a well-known German astronomei- and cosmogra- pher, was born in Nureniburg in the year 1459, and in 1479 went from there to Lisbon, where several of liis countrymen were settled. Being a scholar of the celebrated German astronomer and mathematician, Regiomontanus, he soon made himself known among the Portuguese for his cosmographical and mathematical knowledge, and was made, by John II, of Portugal, a member of a commission for improving ma- rine instruments. In the year 148o, he constructed upon the principle of his master, Regiomontanus, a new astrolabium, which was adopted by this commission and introduced into the Portuguese navy. The Por- tuguese navigators were enabled, by this instrument, to find their lati- tude with much more accuracy than before. Behaim himself, in company with the Portuguese discoverers, made extensive voyages along the coast of Africa and to the Azores, where he married a Portuguese lady of Flemish extraction. In all these and other respects his life was similar to that of Columbus, with whom he became personally acquainted in Lisbon. He shared the views of Co- lumbus on the feasibility of a passage from Portugal to India on a western route, and on the short distance between "Western Europe and Eastern Asia. He did not, however, make this voyage ; but in the glo- rious year 1492, the German cosmographer, being on a visit to his friends in Nuremburg, constructed the celebrated globe, on which he cleai-ly proved, that it was possible to do, what the more enterprising Italian meanwhile did. * See upon this globe and upon Behaim, the work: F. W. Ghillany, Geschichte dea Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim. Nurnberg, 1853. 148 MAP OF BEHAIM, 1492. This globe, oii which the entire world and all its then known parts and islands were depicted, is hij^hly interesting^ to us, because we see represented upon it the views and ideas of Behaim, which were also more or less tho£,e of Toscanelli, Columbus, Cabot, and all their intelli- gent and well-informed contemporaries. In map No. 4, 1 have given from that globe only the portion which most interests us here; namely, the western coasts of Europe and Northern Africa, the eastern coast of Asia, and the ocean and islands between them. With i-espect to the configuration of these coasts and islands, and the distances between them, our copy is a reduced fac- simile, from the copy of the globe in the above-quoted work of Ghilla- ny, though not in the handwriting, names, and inscriptions. The original has many names in Asia and Africa, which I have left out as not connected with our subject. I have retained nearly all those of the islands as important; but have omitted the long German inscriptions or legends added to them, of which I shall speak, however, as occasion may require. In the north-east of our representation appears "Island" (Iceland), under the arctic circle. To the south of it, in the same meridian, " Ir- lant" (Ireland) and " Hispania " (Spain). In Africa I have preserved only the names "Atlas Montes " (Mount Atlas), " Cabo verde " (Cape Verde), and " Sera lion" (Sierra Leone). From the coasts of Africa and Spain to the west, stretch out several chains and groups of islands, as the Canaries, the Cape Verde, and the Azores, which had long been known to European navigators, and the greater number of which have the names inscribed, by which they are known to-day. The Azores stand out far to the west, — the last of them, " Insula de flores," nearly midway between Europe and Asia. At the south-west of the Azores, we find the two fixmous and often mentioned islands, which, after the fourteenth century, were sujiposed to exist in the most western parts of the ocean, one called " Antilia," and the other " Saint Brandan." * Of the first island Behaim says: " In the year 73i, after the conquest of Spain by the Mahometans, this island, Antilia, was discovered and settled by an arclibishop from Oporto in Portugal, who fled to it in ships with six other bishops and other Christian men and women. They built there seven towns, from which circumstance it has also been called ' septemcitade ' (the island of the seven cities). In the year 1414, a Spanish vessel catne very near to it." * The French geograplior, II. D'AvPzac, has written an excellent article " on the fabulous islands of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle ages." See his " Nouvelles An- nales des Voyages, torn. 1, 2. 1845. MAP OF BEHAIM, 1492. 149 Regarding the second island, Beliaim adds the followin in the study of the then minister of Marine, Juan de Fonseca. It was after- wards, like most of the old maps, neglected and forgotten. In the year 1832, the great German scholar, Humboldt, being occu- pied with his researches on the history and geography of America, during the time of the cholera in Paris, found, in the excellent library of his friend. Baron Walckenaer, a large map of the world, which the learned owner thought to be an old Portuguese production. Hum- boldt, however, discovered on it the inscription, " Juan de la Cosa la fixo en el Puerto de Sta Maria en afio de 1.500" (Juan de la Cosa made it in the port of Saint Mary in the year 1500). There was no doubt, that the very first map, on which a great part of the western continent was depicted, had now been brought to light.t The whole map, as well as parts of it, have been repeal edly copied and published. Lelewel gave a reduced copy in his Atlas, No. 41. Sagra, in his work on Cuba, and Humboldt, in his " Examen Critique," gave sections of it. He communicated also a reduced cojjy to Dr. Ghil- lany, who embodied it in his work on Martin Behaim. The map was *See on this map, 1. J. Lelewel, Geographic du moyen age, torn. 2, p. 109 scq. Bruxelles, 1852. 2. A. Von Humboldt, in the work, " F. W. Ghillany, Geschichte des Seefahrers Martin Behaim," p. 1 seq. Nurnberg, 1853, and the work there quoted on Cuba by Sagra. t See Humboldt's introductory remarks to Ghillany's work on Behaim, p. 1 seq. 152 MAP OF COSA, 1500. again copied by tlie great French geographer, M. Jomard, who pub- lished a perfect fac-simile of it in his '• Monuments de Geographic." So the map lias now become well known, and is generally acknowl- edged to be one of the most interesting and important documents for the geographical liistory of America. Our reduced copy of that part of Cosa's map which represents the northern half of the new world, was principally made after Humboldt's copy. I have, however, added a few names which Humboldt omitted, and which I find in Jomard's fac-simile.'' The map has no indication of the degrees of latitude. It has, how- ever, the equator and the " circulo cancro" (the tropic of cancer 23j° N.), which enables us to recognize the latitudes of the several objects represented on the map. Cosa draws the entire east coast of North America, from the neigh- borhood of Cuba to the high northern regions, in about 70° N., with a continuous line, uninterrupted by water. He appears to have thought, that there was a large continental part of the workl, back of the West India Islands discovered by Columbus and his contemporaries. Before the year 1500, no Spanish navigator had been along that coast. The only exploring expeditions made to it, were those of the English under John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498; and Cosa must have had his information for this part of his map from English origi- nals. He indicates this himself by the broad inscription running along the coast: "Mar descubierto por Ingleses" (Sea discovered by the Enghsh). The true general trending of the east coast of North America, from Florida to Newfoundland, is from south-east to north-west. Cosa, on his map, makes it nenrhj in the same direction; but he extends it more east and west, which is a consequence of the projection of his map being a plane chart, having tlie degrees of longitude uniform through- out. Cosa's coast-line in the higher latitudes, opposite "Frislanda" (Ice- land), has some similarity with the coast-line on the recently discovered map (see map No. 20), said to have been made by Sebastian Cabot in the year 1.j44. This is a remarkable circumstance. For it would seem to prove, that Sebastian Cabot had seen those arctic regions in 1498, and not at a later date, in 1517, as Mr. Biddle and some others have sup- posed. The easternmost point and peninsula of Newfoundland is easily recognized on Cosa's map, and agrees with the true configura- tion of this coast-line. He has also given a pretty long list of names upon the southern coast of the island. These circumstances convince me, that Cosa made his chart of our MAP OF COSA, laOO. 153 east coast, not in a fanciful and rou<;li manner from general reports of sailors or the companions of the Cabots, as they may have been current in the harbors of Spain, after Cabot's voj^age ; but that in drawing his line, he must have had before him some copy of the chart, made by the Cabots themselves.* There is no difficulty in supposing, that a copy of the chart of Cabot may have been seen by Cosa in 1500. Some of the companions of the Cabots may have been Spaniards, and have returned before 1500, to the ports of their native country, carrying with them, not only reports, but also charts of the voyage. The Spanish Envoy then at the Eng- lish court, Don Pedro de Ayala, in a letter to his king, dated July 25, 1498, also tells us, that he saw the chart, made by Juan Cabot on his first voyage, and that he intended to send a copy of it to his Spanish Majesty.t This Spanish envoy may also have been careful to send to Spain afterwards, a copy of the chart of the second Cabotian expedition, on which the southern section of our east coast was discovered ; and this copy may have been used by Cosa for his map. This i^roves that the headlands, bays, peninsulas, and other objects represented on the map, are not made at random, but are sketches of such projections of the coast as the Cabots supposed themselves to have seen, and attempted to delineate, and are therefore worthy of a critical examination. The best starting-point is given at the eastern cape of the coast, called "Cavo de Ynglaterra" (Cape of England), in about 50° N. Though this is not exactly the latitude of Cape Kace, which stands in about 4()^° N., still there can be scarcely a doubt, that this cape is meant. The latitudes on our map, including those of the West India Islands, are much too high. The configuration given to " the Cape of England " and its vicinity, has a strikhig resemblance to the configuration of Cape Race and the entire south-eastern section, or triangle, of Newfoundland ; and I may add, that on all subsequent maps, this region has always been repre- sented in great harmony with nature. Newfoundland, and more espe- cially Cape Race, which was usually the first point of America seen by the early European navigators, and the part best known to them, and •See Lelewel, 1. c, torn. 2, p. 110, who says with respect to this map: "Oue sees from Cosa's map, that lie was not a iiiyre copyist, but a compositor, and a distinguished com.ioiitjr anil draftsiiiau, who w irked with great exactness." t See this letter printed in the " Calendar of thL' Spanish Archives," edited by Ber- genroth, vol. 1, p. 177; and also in Proceedings of the American Antic^uuriau Society, at the annua: meeilnj held in Worcester, Oct. 21, 1865, p. 25. 154 MAP OF COSA, 1500. "wliose liglit-house is still the first object sighted by our steamers as they approach the coast, is also, as it were, the regulating light for the examination of all old maps of the east coast. From this map it appears probable, that the Cabots, on their discove- ries, gave to this remarkable point the name of '" the Cape of England ; " and they probably did this from the circumstance, that it is the nearest point of America toward England. For a similar reason, we may suppose, that on subsequent maps of the Portuguese, probably drawn by the Cortereals, it is named " the Cape of Portugal," as being the nearest point to that country. From " Cavo de Ynglaterra" (Cape Race), the map represents the coast-line as running for a long way east and west, which I consider to be the south coast of Newfoundland, which runs in the same direc- tion.* Here the map is embellished with several English flags, and has names, which Cosa probably found on his English copy, and which he translated into Spanish, as "Cavo de lisarte" (Cape Lizard), "Cavo de S. Johann" (Cape St. John), etc. Some of these names are found on subsequent maps ; but, as they relate to Newfoundland, do not require particular examination here. The list of names ends in the west with a flag-staff, and near to it "CavodeS. Jorge" (S.George's Cape), and "Cavo descubierto" (the discovered cape). To the west of " Cavo descubierto" comes a broad gulf, though, instead of such a gulf, we should exjiect to find the far projecting peninsula of Nova Scotia. For several hundred miles to the west, the coast-line of Cosa's map oft'ers no resemblance whatever to the coast-line of our present maps. But soon after the inscription, " Mar descubierto por Yngleses," and to the west of it, Cosa draws a bay, which looks very much like the Gulf of Maine. It has about the same size and semicircular shape, and is surrounded in the south by a projecting promontory, offering the form of a horn, by which, I think, Cape Cod is intended, for the follow- ing reasons : * Baron Humboldt (in Ghillany's work on Behaim, p. 2) thinks, to my great aston- ishment, tliat here, the northern coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is meant, and that " the Cape of England," consequently, is not Cape Kace, but some headland near the Strait of Belle Isle. The small island, called on our map (after Jomard's copy) "S. Gregor," to which Humboldt gives the name "Islaverde," he thinks is NeAvfound- land. This view is too much in opposition to all that I have stated above. And, moreover, I have never found one of the names given on our map, on any of the old maps of the northern coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; while several of them, for instance that of " St. John," occur again on many maps of the south coast of New- foundland. MAP OF COSA, 1500. 155 Cape Cod is the most prominent and characteristic point on the entire east coast, from Nova Scotia to Florida. Between Cape Eace and Florida it has nearly a central position. It has the longitude of St. Domingo ("La Espatiola"), and the latitude of about 42° N. It has a horn-like shape, and makes the figure of a ship's nose, and was therefore called, by the Northmen, "Klalarnes" (Cape Ship-nose). This description applies as well to the nameless cape, which we are here considering; and in which, I think, I have discovered the first indication, ever given on a modern map, of the Gulf of Maine, of Cai)e Cod, and the peninsula of New England. Cajic Cod could hardly have escaped the observation of Sebastian Cabot, during his sail along our coast in 1498. His only predecessors here were the Northmen in former centuries, who, like Cabot, sailing along the. coast into the Gulf of Maine from the north-east, by New- foundland and Nova Scotia, to their Yinland, were also arrested by this conspicuous cape. That the distance from Cape IJace to the supposed Cape Cod, on our map, appears much longer than the distance from this to Cuba, is easily explained by two circumstances : 1. Cabot, in 1498, did not come very much to the south of Cape Cod. If he was not stopped by this cape altogether, and turned away by Nantucket Shoals and the Gulf-stream, he did not, at all events, pass beyond the latitude of 36° or 38° N. There, he thought himself to be very near the Spanish possessions. The distance which he actually traversed may have appeared to him greater than the rest of the coast, from a constant expectation of finding an end to it. The remainder of the continental coast on the north and w^est of Cuba not having been actually surveyed by Cabot, its representation on the map may have been put down by Cabot or Cosa on conjecture. 2. From the fact, that the chart of Cosa is a plane chart, with an old- fashioned projection, according to which the coasts in northern lati- tudes are drawn out much more from west to east, it becomes evident, that on our map the more northern half of the east coast, from Cape Cod to Cape Race, must appear much larger and longer than the south- ern half, from Cape Cod to the West India Islands. The island seen on our map oft" the horn-like cape, may be Nantucket Island, though this lies a little more to the south of Cape Cod. 156 CHART OF EUYSCH, 1508. 3. Chart, No. 6, of the New AVorld, bv Joiiann Ruysch, 1508. The map, of which we here give that portion relating to the present work, was composed by a distinguished German traveler and geogra- pher " Joliann Ruysch."* It was published in the edition of Ptolemy's geography, printed at Rome in 1508. The text and explanatory notes, added to this map in that work, were composed by Marco Beneven- tura, an Italian monk. It is the first engraved map on which any parts of the new world, particularly of North America, were depicted. The supposed latitudes and longitudes from Ferro are accurately expressed. The map represents parts of Asia, North America, the West India Islands, and South America; all scattered around the ocean in large and small insular or peninsular tracts of country. In accordance with the views prevailing soon after the discovery by Columbus, several parts of North Americi (of which the magnitude was as yet generally unknown, although it had been exhibited by Cabot and Cosa) are hero represented as sections of Eastern Asia. South America, whose broad extent was first recognized, is here treated by itself, as a large independent continent. It is called " Terra. SanctiB Crucis, sive mundus novus" (the country of the Holy Cross ;t or, the New World). I omit here what the author, Ruysch, observes on this new world (South America). He gives its northern coast as far as the Isthmus of Panama, and from there he has open water. Of the west coast of this same " country of the Holy Cross," he confesses, in his inscription, that he knows nothing: "Hue usque nautye Hispani venerunt," etc. (so far came the Spanish navigators). On the north of South America, some of the West India Islands are laid down, and, more particularly, "■ Spagnola" (S. Domingo). It is well known that Columbus, when he discovered this large and beautiful island, thought it to be the far-famed Zipangu (Japan), mentioned and highly praised by the Venetian, Marco Polo. On this point, the author of our map has a long Latin inscriji- tion on the coast of China, beginning with : " Dicit Marcus Paulus ;" namely, Marco Polo states, that " here should be placed the island of 'Zipangu' (Japan); but that he (Ruysch) omitted it, because he * He is calk'd by a contemporary, " Geographorura peritissimus ac in pingendo orbi diligentissimus" (the most expert geographer and very skillful in depicting the globe). Kunstmann, Die Kntdeckung America's, p. 137, says, that he accompanied gome exploring expeditions undertaken from England to th.- North. t A name given by Cabral, 14;i9, to the coast of Brazil. CHART OF RUYSCH, 1508. 157 tliouglit the island of Spaiiola (S. Domingo), discovered by the Span- iards, was the old 'Zipangu.'" The island of Cuba, west of Spafiola, is the part of our map the most misrepresented. It is not described as an island, but as a peninsula projecting from a larger country, apparently North America. It is well known that Columbus, in 1494, sailed along the southern coast of Cuba; but before reaching its western end, became discouraged and retraced his course, affirming that Cuba w\as not an island, but a part of a larger country. And, though others were of a difterent opinion, and though Juan de la Cosa, in 1500, had already depicted Cuba as an island, yet our author, Euysch, adhered to the view of Columbus ; and represents Cuba, like Florida, as a part of a large northern country ; which, however, he thinks to be near to China. The west of this coun- try, he says, was unknown to the Spaniards, as was the west of South America. He states this in an inscrii^tion, beginning with " IIuc usque naves," etc. (so far the vessels). On the west of Cuba a large gulf is depicted, extending to the north of Asia, and named " Plisacus Sinus ; " of which I do not know what to think. In the high north, we find Greenlandt (Greenland), and at the south- ern end of it. Cape Farewell, under its true latitude, 00° X. The con- figuration of Greenland, as a long, broad, triangular peninsula, is also well represented. Greenland and Cape Farewell are, as I have already noticed, on all the former maps among the best-defined localities. The old northern descriptions and maps of this country had been, since the middle ages, in the hands of many geographers ; and though it was sometimes attached to Europe, and sometimes, as on our map, to Asia, we consider it as the first, and best known, and best drawn sec- tion of America. Near Greenland, on the north-east, we find on the original of our map the following most remarkable inscription : " Here the compass of the ships does not hold, and the ships which contain iron cannot return." * This, as Humboldt observes,! is a proof that the old navigators (Cabot, Cortereal), before the year 1.508, had made some observations on the action of the magnetic needle in these parts, and had some notion of the vicinity of the magnetic pole; the position of which has been better defined in modern times. " Island" (Iceland) appears in its true position, at the east of Green- land. At the south-west of Greenland, the configuration and outlines *0n our copy I have not rppeated this inscription. t See Humboldt in Ghill.any, Gescliichte des Martin Behaim, p. 4. l.)» THE GLOBE OF SCHONER, 1520. of Newfoundland are easily recognized. Newfoundlaudj on all of the old maps is, after Greenland, the best-defined part of North America. Copies of the charts of Cabot, or the Cortereals, or of the Frenchman, Jean Denys do Ilonfleur, who is said to have made, in 1506, an excel- lent map of Newfoundland, may have been brought to Eome, and been used by the author of our map. Newfoundland is called " Terra nova." We find on its eastern coast the names of places often repeated ; as " Cabo Glaciato," the little island of Bacallaos, called on our map, " Bacealauras, and Cape Race, to which is affixed the name of " C. de Portogesi" (Cape of the Por- tuguese). Between the shores of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, is a great gulf, called " Sinus Gruenlanticus " (the Gulf of Greenland), evi- dently an indication of the entrance of Davis' Strait. The south coast of Terra nova, which, like Cape Race, has its true latitude about 4(3° N., runs for some distance east and west. Then comes a pretty broad and long inlet, probably the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and at the west of this, 3, square-shaped headland, or l>eninsula, by which Cape Breton and Nova Scotia may have been intended. All these, Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, are attached on the map to Asia, as sections and projections of the old world. 4. Ox A Map, No. 7, of North America from the Globe of JOHANN SCHONER, irj20. Johann Sohoner* was one of the learned German mathematicians and astronomers of the school of the famous Regiomontanus, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, assembled in Nuremburg, and there exercised by their writings, maps, and globes a great influence on American discovery and geography. Schoner was professor of mathematics in the gymnasium at Nurem- burg, and wrote several geographical and astronomical works, often quoted by Humboldt in his " Critical Researches." In the year 1520, upon the invitation and at the exi^ense of a wealthy friend, Johann Seyler, he constructed a large globe, on which he carefully laid down the configuration of the several parts of the world, according to his con- ceptions. This globe is still preserved in the city of Nuremburg. It was for the first time copied, printed, and published in a planisphere by Dr. F. W. Ghillany, State librarian of Nuremburg, in 1853, in his ex- * Sometimes erroneously written " Schoener." THE GLOBE OF SCHONEE, 1520. 159 cellent work on Martin Behaim. It was accompanied by introductory remarks by Humboldt ; who has also incidentally treated of this globe in several places of his great work, " Critical Researches."' After this the globe of Schoner was repeatedly copied in other works ; for in- stance, in Lelcwel's History of the Geography of the Middle Ages, and thus became better known. I give here, after Ghillany's fac-simile, a reduced copy of the sec- tion of this globe, relating to North America. I have, however, left out several names and inscriptions contained in the original; and only re- tained those which have appeared to me as having an interest for the subject of our work. There are in Germany several other globes, which depict the world nearly in the same manner as this. One is preserved in the city of Frankfort on the Main, with the same date, 1520, which has been repro- duced in a fac-simile copy by M. Jomard, in his " Monuments de la Goographie." Another is preserved in the collection of the grand duke of Weimar. All these globes give to North and South America the same configuration and position, as they have on the map of Schoner. Baron Humboldt thinks, that they all have a common origin, and that they are, with respect to America, copies of an older chart, " hidden perhaps in the Archives of Italy or Spain."* I cannot exhibit here the whole contents of this interesting map; but I will examine the principal points which relate to our main sub- ject. In comparing this draft with Behaim's map (see map No. 4), I may call attention to the manner, in which some of the discoverers and cos- mographers of the age of Columbus endeavored to combine the new discoveries in this hitherto unknown world, with the notions which had previously prevailed of the space intervening between Europe and Africa on one side, and the eastern ends of Asia on the other. They had filled this great interval with innumerable islands, of which some had long been known, as the Canaries, Azores, and Cape Verde ; others had been mentioned by Marco Polo and his successors, as Zi- pangu (Japan) ; and others were more or less imaginary or mythical, as " Antilia" and " St. Brandan." After the first discovery of Amesrica by Columbus, they conceived of all the new countries as belonging to some of those groups, lying in the waters of Asia ; and so they gave to these sections of America, seen by Columbus, Cabral, Cortei'eal, and others, as diminutive a figure as possible, to make them appear as islands. Therefore, in their historical and geographical reports and treatises on America, they gave to them the names of " the new isl- * See Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 1, p. 307. 1<">0 THE GLOBE OF SCIIONER, 1520. ands," " the new-discovered islands," and the like. And on their maps they crowded these " new islands" into the groups of the old ones, which they did not like to leave oft" their charts. Some, however, took a diff"erent view, and represented these regions as peninsulas and headlands of Asia, as was shown on the map of Ruysch (No. 0). As further light broke in, some cosmographers changed their opinions, as did Schoner, who having represented Nortli America on the globe of 1520, as a large and independent island, makes it, in a later work, a peninsula of Asia, as did Kuysch. On tlie globe we are now examining, Schoner breaks up America into as many islands as possible. At first he puts down the Antilles, cir- cumnavigated as they had already been, by Columbus and his succes- sors. Then he represents South America as a very large island, to which he applies several names : as " Terra nova" (the new country) and "America vel Brasilia sive Papagalli terra" (America or Brazil or the Parrots' country). The name " America" was applied by Schoner, as by nearly all his contemporaries, only to South America, the great theatre of the voyages and explorations of Amerigo Vespucci. North America was not comprised under the name until a later date. " Terra nova," or South America, is separated from the northern island by a broad strait; the one for which Columbus, in his later voy- ages, made search. And notwithstanding the successors of Columbus had, prior to 1.520, proved the Caribbean Sea to be shut in on the west, and the southern and northern countries to be connected by an isth- mus ; still Schoner and his Nuremburg contemporaries either did not know of the results of those explorations, or did not believe in them, and i)referred to cherish the opinion, that there was still some passage here which had been overlooked. We have maps of a later date than 1520, on which ships are represented sailing through this Isthmus of Panama from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean. The idea of Columbus, still retained on the map of Ruysch (No. 6)' that Zipangu was nothing but the island " Espaf ola," was given up by Schoner. He has restored Japan to its proper place on the east of China, and has given to " Espafola" a separate existence and a more eastern position. Still he does not venture to make the distance be- tween Japan and the newly discovered islands very great. He makes the " Eastern Ocean "* (the Paciflc) very narrow, and puts Japan, as it was done for a long time after him, very near to North America. He depicts North America as an island, not very broad, its greatest length extending from south to north. In its southern part he has the * So called In respect to Asia. THE GLOBE OF SCHONER, 1520. IGl name " Paria," whioli is here widely misplaced. To the northern part, he has f:jiven the name " Terra de Cuba" (the country of Cuba), which is apparently intended to bo the s^eneral name of the whole region. It is well known that Columbus, hearing for the first time the name of " Cuba," believed that a very large country was meant by it, and that the land which he called " Isabella " (our present Cuba) was continental with it. He did not believe in the existence of the Bahama channel ; and when, some time after (1508), this channel and the insularity of "Isabella" were clearly proved, some cosmographers, and Schoner among them, transferred the name of Cuba to the great country in the north. Schoner, or his Spanish original, must have known something of the expeditions of Ponce de Leon to Florida in 1.513, and of the first explor- ing voyages to the Gulf of Mexico; for. he plainly depicts both the gulf and peninsula of Florida. To Espanola he gives nearly the true latitude. But he, as well as Cosa (No. .5), places " Isabella," our Cuba, several degrees too far north. The southern end of Florida is not far enough south, though the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico has its true latitude about 30° N. The entire west coast of" Terra de Cuba" (North America) is drawn with uncertain lines as unknown, and is expressly so designated in the inscription upon it, — " Ultra nondum illustratum " (beyond this not yet explored). Our east coast, on the contrary, is depicted as high up as about 50° N., as already known and explored. Several capes, harbors, and gulfs are depicted on it, to which names aie given. Beyond 50° N., the country is said not to be known, " Ulterius incognitum." The names written upon our east coast appear to be of Spanish ori- gin, though they are sometimes Italianized, or otherwise corrupted. The voyages, which were made between the time of Columbus and 1520 along our east coast, and upon which we are more or less in- formed, are those of Cabot, in 1498 ; of Ponce de Leon, not higher north than about 30° N., in 1513; of Antonio de Alaminos, sailing with the Gulf-stream along the coast of Florida, in 1519 ; and of Ayllon, as high as about 34° N., in 1520. In none of these expeditions, and the writings and charts belonging to them, do we find any of the names mentioned on our globe, or on the map of Cosa, or the other maps of America known to us before the year 1520. Nor do any of these names occur on subsequent maps of America, for instance, that of Ribero of 1529. They are all new and original. We can account for the use of these names only by supposing that they were the invention of the map-makers, or were given by some explorer whose chart is now unknown. That Schoner, the very learned professor of astronomy, who prepared his 11 162 THE GLOBE OF SCHONER, 1520. globe for a wealthy and learned friend, and not for the market, invented such fantastic names, is quite out of the question. He, no doubt, as Humboldt suggests, copied from some original which he believed to be authentic and correct. The author of this Spanish original, whom we do not know, may have invented the names. And though some of them look like corruptions, still the greater part do not look like inven- tions. On the contrary, they appear to be such as a navigator might well have distributed on an unknown coast discovered by him. Such, for instance, are the following : " Capo del gato " (the cape of the cat), " Cabo sancto " (the holy cape), "las cabras" (the goats), " Costa alta " (the high coast), etc. In one name a certain "Diego" is mentioned. "Rio de Don Diego" (the river of Don Diego). These do not seem fanciful. I do not believe that the Spanish, Italian, and German map-makers of the time of Co- lumbus and soon after him, were in the habit of inventing new names. They gave them as they found them. A little later, when elegant maps were much sought after and became fashionable, and when great num- bers were fabricated in Italy and elsewhere, unknown countries may Bometimes have been embellished with merely fanciful names. It is probable that they were the work of some Spanish navigator, perhaps a private adventurer, whose name has not reached us : for, as Gomara says, " Of many discoverers and explorers of the Western Indies we have no memorial, particularly of those who sailed to the northern parts."* The names run up as high as 50° N., which must probably be reckoned a few degrees lower ; and where the names " Cosen d'mar," "Cabo delli contis," " C. bona ventura" occur, the neighborhood of New England would seem to be indicated. Newfoundland, and probably also a part of Labrador appear upon our map as a large island, floating forsaken in the midst of the great northei-n ocean, under the name of "Terra Corterealis " (Cortereal's land), and separated from the rest of America by a very broad strait — an exaggeration of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is represented in the same manner on many early maps. Schoner's globe thus truly indicates two great series of North Amer- ican voyages and discoveries; of which, one was directed to the north- west, and, commencing with the Cabots, Cortereals, and their predeces- sors at Newfoundland and Labrador, by degrees came down to Canada and Nova Scotia; while the other series, commencing with Colum- bus, Ponce de Leon, Alaminos, Ayllon, and their successors in the * Gomara, liistoria de las Indias, fol. 20. Madrid, 1553. THE GLOBE OF SCHONER, 1520. 1G3 south, advanced from the West India Islands by dej^ees toward the north, to Virginia and New England. Between these extreme I^oints, there remained a more or less unknown region, which, on our globe, has been indicated by ojien water. In depicting the east coast of Asia and the many islands there, including Japan and " Java major," our author follows Martin Behaim's globe which existed then as now, in Nuremburg. In fact, Schoner's globe may be considered as a new edition of Behaim, with the addition of the newly discovered islands. (See map No. 4.) CHAPTER V. EXPEDITIONS OF GASPAR AND MIGUEL DE CORTEEEAL TO THE NORTH-EASTERN COAST OF AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1500-1503. 1. Introductory Remarks. Soon after the exploring expeditions of tlie Cabots, the flag of another nation of Western Europe appeared in our waters. The Portuguese, in the year 1500, entered the field of western discovery, and exercised an important influ- ence on American history and geography, which continued a long time, and is still visible in several names given by them to certain localities on our coast, which have generally been adopted by subsequent voyagers and geographers. The young king of Portugal, Emanuel, called the Great, or the Fortunate, after the death of his cousin, John I, had come to the throne in 1495. He was a talented, enterpris- ing, and highly educated sovereign, in whose reign com- merce, science, and the arts flourished in Portugal. Under him Portugal became the most powerful nation on the ocean, and the commercial center of Europe. In 1497, he had sent out Vasco de Gama to circumnavi- gate Africa, and to reach the East Indies on that route. And, in the beginning of 1500, he had sent Pedro Alvarez Cabral on a similar expedition ; who, on his way, touched the eastern parts of South America, discovered the coast of Brazil, and gained there for Portugal an extensive empire. The Portuguese, having declined the proposal of Columbus in 1484, for a westei-n voyage, were grievously disappointed VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS. 165 when the news arrived, that in 1493, saiHng under tlie auspices of Spain, he had reached Japan, as he supposed he liad, when he arrived at HispanioUi. Cut off from the east in that direction by the Spaniards ; and aroused by the fear that some sliorter way still might be found, by which he might be invaded in the new dominion, conquered for him in the east by Vasco de Gama in 1497 ; and, at the same time, inspired by the hope that he might himself succeed in his wish to find that shorter route, in the direction in which, as he well knew, it had been sought by the Cabots without success, — the new king Emanuel resolved, near the close of 1499, to send an expedition to the north-west. He therefore ordered two ships to be fitted out, and appointed Gaspar Cortereal, one of his able and accomplished officers, to the command. Cortereal's confidence of success was so great, that he offered to pay a part of the expenses ; in consideration of which, the king offered him certain rights and privileges, and to make him governor of the countries he should discover. The Cortereals were of a noble Portuguese family, of con- siderable influence. The father of Gaspar, John Vaz Cor- tereal, had, in 1464, been made hereditary governor of Terceira, as successor of the Flemish governor, Jacob of Bruges. Thus stationed in the midst of the ocean, on the largest of " the Western Islands," the family of the Cortereals became familiar Avith sea- voyages and oceanic enterprises. Some historians have even asserted, that the father, Vaz Cortereal, had himself made an expedition to the far west, and discovered, before Columbus, an island or country called Terra de Baccalhaos (the land of cod-fish). But for this claim there is no reliable evidence.* The Spanish historian Herrera, calls him " the discoverer of Terceira," which is * See Biddle'3 Memoir, p. 28G seq. 166 VOYAGES OF THE COETEREALS. not strictly true. Vaz Cortereal may have done much for the better exploration and settlement of the Azores, but they had been discovered before his time. Yet he may have been a great navigator, and his sons may have inherited from him, not only the government of Terceira, but also his taste for maritime enterprise. 2. First Voyage of Gaspar Cortereal in the Year 1500. Gaspar Cortereal sailed from Lisbon in 1500 ; probably in the spring of that year. We have no authentic information in regard to the preliminary circumstances of this voyage, the causes which led to it, nor indeed of its plan, or of the royal instructions prescribed for it. But although the scat- tered reports concerning the expedition are silent as to its object, we cannot doubt that it was similar to that of the Cabots, — a discovery of the long-coveted passage to Cathay. Nothino; else could have induced the Portuguese to go to the arctic regions. Nor have we any official report or journal of the voyage, or any chart prepared by the commander, although some charts remain, which are probably copies of one or more made by Cortereal. He sailed from Lisbon on a western course to the Azores, where his elder brother, Vasqueanes, Avas governor, as suc- cessor to his father, and where he could easily make his final arrangements and complete his outfit for the voyage.* By what chart he was guided we have no information ; but it is presumed, that he must have had or seen a sketch of Cabot's map, as it had reached Spain in 1499 ; and by this, he must have been attracted to the headland of " Cabo de Ynglatierra" (Cape Race) stretching far to the east. On one side of this conspicuous promontory, he could see the ;_. *Giilvano, in " Discoveries of the World." Hakluyt, first ed., p. 97, says, " that he touched at Terceira." VOYACxES OF THE CORTEUEALS 1G7 coast, running first westerly, then southerly ; and, on the other side, it was represented as running north toward un- known regions. Having such a map, or, at all events, having some similar information about the latitudes and longitudes of the countries seen by the Cabots, and their configuration, Cortereal would naturally steer for that prominent cape; and, avoiding the continuous and hopeless coast to the south, make directly for the coast to the north of " Cabo de Ynglatierra," which lay in his track and which he hoped might conduct to open water in the north : in tliis manner, he would arrive somewhere on the east coast of Newfoundland. That his land-fall was not to the south of Cape Race and the St. Lawrence, on the coasts of Nova Scotia or New Eng- gland, as Mr. Biddle has supposed,* is still more probable from the general direction of the Avinds and currents in the ocean he was crossing on his north-western course from the Azores. He passed through the broad eastern prolongation of the Gulf-stream, and through that part of the temper- ate zone in which westerly winds prevail. These westerly winds and currents would have the tendency to set him to * [The subject of the land-fall of this voyage, and its general featui-es, have received a very ample and critical discussion in the able and rare work of Richard Biddle, " A Memoir of Sebastian Cabot," published anonymously in London and Philadelphia in 1831-32. This " Review of Maritime Discovery" did not receive the attention from the public it deserved. It came unheralded npon the world, at a time when general attention had not been turned to these inquiries. Mr. Biddle was born in Philadelphia in 179(5, a brother of Nicholas Biddle, the famed President of the United States Bank in its contest with General Jackson. Mr. Biddle was eminent as an author and a jurist. His memoir of Cabot Avas the result of careful and laborious examination of original documents and the accounts of the early voyages, and freed from obscurity a subject which had been overshadowed by misapprehension and numerous errors. The work is now very rare, and has justly taken its place among the most valued authorities on the matters of which it treats. Mr. Biddle died in 1847.— Ed.] 168 VOYAGES OF THE COETEEEALS the east, and cany liim away from the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England, even if he may, at first, have taken a more westerly course, which I think is improbable. The exact latitude of Cortereal's land-fall is nowhere given. Some authors think, that it was at Conception Bay, and that he gave to it this name. Conception Bay is not far north of Cape Race, and from what has been said, may very probably have been the place which he first touched. From his land-fall he sailed toward the north ; how far, we do not know ; and then discovered a country, which he is said to have indicated under the name of "Terra verde" (Greenland) ; probably the same country which has borne that name ever since the time of the Northmen.* He came to a river, called by him " Rio nevado " (the snow river), which has been put on later maps, by different authors, as near the latitude of Hudson's Strait. Here he is represented to have been stopped by ice, and returned directly to Lisbon, after having revisited a harbor on the east coast of Newfoundland, to repair his ships and refresh his trew after their northern hardships. He arrived at Lisbon in the autumn of 1500,f the precise date we do not know ; nor do we hear that on this first voyage he brought home Indians, or any products of the countries which he saw. He must, however, have judged the prospect favorable and prom- ising ; for he at once made arrangements for a second voyage to the same reo;ions. *This is made more probable from an inspection of the charts relating to Cortereal's voyage, Nos. 8, 9, 10 in the Appendage. 1 1 follow here, AA'ith respect to Cortereal's first voyage, in most points, the results of the research of Kunstmann, who has examined tlie Portuguese archives, and brought to light several new facts. See Kunstmann, Die Entdeckung America's, p. 57. Munchen, 1859. VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS. 1G9 3. Gaspar Cortereal's Second Voyage ix the Year 1501, On the 15th of May, 1501, Gaspar Cortereal left Lisbon again with two* ships, and sailed "in a west-nortli-west direction.'"! In this direction, "at a distance of abont two thousand Italian miles " from Lisbon, he discovered land ; and this, his second land-fall, must also have been on some part of the east coast of Newfoundland, north of Cape Race, to which a Avest-north-west course, at a distance of two thousand Italian miles, would conduct him. It could not, therefore, have been on the coasts of New England ; for, being in the same latitude as Portugal, they could not be reached by a west-north-west course ; and they are nearly three thousand miles, instead of two thousand, distant from Lisbon. From this point Cortereal sailed along the coast, probably in a north-west direction, six or seven hundred Italian miles, without coming to the end of it. Nor was he able to reach again the northern country which he had seen the year before, and which he had called "Terra verde;" because the sea was more filled Avith ice than the year before. He, therefore, again turned to the south. On his return, he seized fifty-seven of the aborigines, men and boys, fifty of whom he took on board his own vessel, and seven he put in his consort. These aborigines, captured according to the custom of the explorers of that day, are described, by an eye-witness who •Kunstmann (1. c. p. 58) speaks of three vessels. I can find only two. ■ So also, Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 331 seq. f'Tra maestro e pouenti," says Pietro Pasqualigo, the Venitian envoy at the court of Portugal, who received his information from Cortereal's companions, and wrote to his family in Venice what he heard about the undertaking. See this letter, printed in Biddle's Memoir, p. 237 seq. 170 VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS. saw them In Lisbon, as tall, Avell built, and admirably fit for labor.* We infer from this statement, that they were not Esquimaux from the coast of Labrador, but Indians of the Micmac tribe, inhabitants of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The name of Labrador, though afterwards confined to a more northerly region iidiabited by the Esquimaux, here includes a territory lying south of it. One of the two ships of this expedition arrived at Lisbon, October 8, 1501 ; the other, with Cortereal himself and fifty of the captured natives, never returned. What became of this gallant adventurer, and his large crew, is wholly iTuknown ; no trace of them anywhere remains. The commander and sailoi's of the second vessel reported, that they had seen, in the country which they had visited, abundant forests, well adapted for ship-building, large rivers, and the sea-coast well stocked with fish of various kinds, especially the cod-fish. Tliey brought home "a piece of a gilded sword, of Italian Avorkmanship," and two silver ear-rings, Avhich they had found in the possession of the aborigines. There can be scarcely a doubt, that these interesting objects had been left there by the Cabots, who, some years before, had visited the same reoion. [Note. — We are indelited to Dr. Kolil for tliis new light from the Portu- guese archives relative to the Cortereal voyages. Neither Mr. Biddle, Mr. Bancroft, nor subsequent vrriters on our country, nor even Humboldt, who have treated of the early voyages, have made the distinction here noted in the voyages of Caspar Cortereal. They have spoken but of one voyage, * The letter of the Venitian Pasqualigo. [Pasqualigo says, "They are of like color, stature, and aspect, and bear the greatest resemblance to the • Gypsies." And again he says, "His serene IMajesty contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on account of the timber of which he has occasion, but of the inhabitants who are admirably calcu- lated for labor, and are the best slaves I have ever seen." — Ed.] VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS. 171 and derived their evidence from the letter of Pasqualigo, the Venitian ambassador at Lisbon. This letter, which appeared first in a collection of voyages published at Vicenza, in Italy, in 1507, entitled "Paesi nova- mente retrovati et Novo Moudo," etc. (the country newly discovered and called the New World), is dated October 19, 1501, and says, " On the 8th of the present month, one of the two caravels, which his most serene majesty despatched last year, on a voyage of discovery to the north, under com- mand of Gaspar Corterat, arrived, and reports the finding of a country distant hence, west and north-west, two thousand miles, heretofore quite unknown." He then speaks of his bringing fifty-seven native inhabitantg of the country. This letter is written certainly more than a year after the sailing of the first expedition, which, in all probability, must have returned within the year, and did not bring the natives, as reported by Pasqualigo. We therefore infer that the voyage above reported from the Portuguese records, must have been prior to the one mentioneti by the ambassador, which had arrived but eleven days before the date of his letter. It is con- trary to all experience, for those early A'oyages, to occupy the length of time required by Pasqualigo's statement. Neither of Cabot's voyages much exceeded three month.'*. The first voyage of the Cortereals wa3 commenced in 1500; the second, in May, 1501. — Ed.] 4. The Voyage of Miguel Cortereal to the North-west, IN THE Year 1502, ix search of his Brother. Miguel Cortereal, a younger l)rother of Gaspar, had taken a great interest in his brother's enterprise. He had con- tributed to the cost of his outfit, and had prepared a vessel of his own to accompany him on his second expedition, but had been prevented from so doing, by several circumstances.* After waiting in vain for the return of his brother, he ob- tained from the king a commission for a searching expedition, and, at the same time, an extension to himself of the privi- leges and donations granted to his brother. He sailed from Lisbon with two vessels, on the 10th of May, 1502, on a search for his brother ; but never returned, and was never heard from afterwards. Notwithstanding these disasters, the noble Emanuel, moved * See Knnstmann, 1. c. p. 58. 172 VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS. with sympathy for his gallant subjects, fitted out a new expe- dition in 1503, to ascertain the fate of the adventurers. The expedition consisted of two vessels, which, after an unsuc- cessful cruise, returned without tidinjrs or trace of the lost brothers and their crews.* Then the eldest of the three brothers, Vasqueanes Corte- real, who had become governor of Terceira, as successor to his father, offered to embark for a further search. But to this proposal, Emanuel refused to give his consent ; being un- willing to risk further the lives of his subjects. I believe it ha's been pretty clearly shown, that Gaspar Cortereal did not touch tlie coast of Maine on his expedition in 1500. And there is no evidence, that either he or his brother Miguel, in their subsequent voyages of 1501 and 1502, visited that coast, although it is by no means improbable : but in regard to the time, the place, and other circumstances of the unhappy fate of those enterprising adventurers, we are left without the slightest evidence or suggestion. We may conjecture, with some degree of probability, that their sad fate was a retribution, and not an unjust one, by the native inhabitants of the country, for the cruel abduction of a portion of their people. And that tlie act took place at least south of the Esquimaux country, perhaps in Maine, we may infer, from the description given of the captured natives. Such searching expeditions generally take a wide range, because of the uncertainty of the region in which the persons missing are lost. We shall see hereafter, that, at a later time, a Spanish expedition of this kind, in seeking one of their famous captains, lost in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, — Fernando De Soto, the discoverer of the Missis- * See, upon this expedition, Kunstmann, loc. cit. p. 58, and Peschel, Ge- schicLte des Zeitalters der Entdeckuugen, p. 334. Stuttgart, 1858. VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS. 173 sippi, — proceeded for this purpose as far north as New Eng- land and Newfoundland. It is therefore possible, that the two searching vessels of Emanuel looked also into the southern harbors of Nova Scotia, or New England, to find the adven- turous Cortereals, who had been lost. APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER V. 1. On a Portuguese Chart, No. 8, of the Coasts of New- foundland, Labrador, and Greenland, about the Year 1504. No. 8 is the copy of part of a Portuguese chart found in the collec- tion of old sea-charts in the archives of the Bavarian Army at Munich ; and is a most interesting and precious document for the illustration of the Cortereal voyages. The author of the map is not mentioned. That it was made in Por- tugal is evident from the circumstance, that nothing but Portuguese discoveries and names are inscribed upon it. Besides the northern section, which we give here, the original mai) contains also a part of Eastern Africa, the Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, and that part of the coast of Brazil, along which Cabral sailed in the year 1500. The map contains nothing of the West Indies, and has not the slightest trace of the Spanish discoveries in the new world. Between Brazil and the northern parts of America is a broad open space occupied by water. Both of these sections of America, which the Portuguese dis- covered, lie in the ocean as large islands, well defined in the east, but with uncertain boundaries toward the west. The year in which the map was made is not indicated. But from internal evidence it is nearly certain, that it was drawn very soon after the expeditions and discoveries of Cabral in 1500, and of the Cortereals, which came to an end in 1503. The map was probably made for Emanuel, to combine on one sheet all the discoveries made by his captains on the western side of the ocean. We may, therefore, fix its date in the year 1504 or 1505.* In the east, the section of the map which we present, shows some of the countries of the old world, as a part of Ireland and " Islant " (Iceland). The latter has its latitude between about 63° and 67° N., • Nearly of the same opinion is Peschel, who ascribes its date to " the year 1502 or 1503." See his work, Geschlchte des Zsitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 331. 5 p S» ■*; •«: -te^"^ ^ ■* o ^ --^ ^.^^..tp '^'hn c?..^ r " '^■Z Co "5 t- 3 ^ X t 3 z R ~ CJ S '?^k^ •ii' r>, Q^'. S •j: i-^C's S- \^ ^ fc" C/5 S z H PORTUGUESE CHART OF 1504. 175 which is nearly correct, and proves that the author of the map was well informed on the subject. Among the names contained in Iceland I mention only " hollensis," which is also found on the map of the Zeni ; and which indicates the famous old Icelandic residence of the "Episcopus Holensis" (Bishop Holar). To the west of Iceland appears a large country, which evidently is the southern part of Greenland; and though this name is not given, it has exactly the configuration of that country. It is placed at about the same distance from Iceland as our Greenland, and it ends like that in the south, about 00° N.* We are at a loss to say where and from what source the Portuguese map-maker, in the year 1504, could have found an original for so good a representation of Greenland, if not from charts brought home by Gasjjar Cortereal, after his first exjiedi- tion in 1.500. I think our chart renders it probable that Cortereal, on this voyage, saw and explored Greenland.! The names " C. de S. Paulo," and some others, on the east coast of Greenland, I cannot ex- plain. They may be names placed by Cortereal on his chart. They also appear on other Portuguese maps. To the west of Greenland we meet another large tract of country called " Terra de cortte Eeal" (the country of Cortereal) ; this is Corte- real's principal discovery, and the one granted to him by Emanuel as his province. The configuration of the coasts, and the names written upon them prove, that parts of Newfoundland and of our present Lab- rador are the regions intended. The " Cabo de Concepicion" (Cape of Conception), on the southern point of the country, is near Cape Race, and was pi'obably the land-fall of Cortereal. We still have " Conception Bay," in which I think Corte- real had his first anchorage. The name, " Baya de S. Cyria," long kept its ground on many old maps, and has been often repeated. Our map proves, that it was given by Cortereal. It appears to be the present Trinity Bay. " Cabo de San Antonio " is our Cape Bona Vista ; and " Rio de Rosa " would seem to have been a river emptying into this bay. The "Ilha de frey Luis" (the island of brother Louis) was proba- bly named in honor of brother Louis, who may have been a priest on board the fleet. It is one of the large islands not far from the present " Cape Freels," which is an English corruption and contraction of the Portuguese " Ilha de frey Luis," and from which no doubt it derived ♦Peschel (I.e. p. 331) also thinks that His Greenland, "and that it is represented on our map with nearly modern accuracy." t Peschel (1. c. p. 330) is also of this opinion. 176 PORTUGUESE CHART OF 1504. its name ; so that the memory of this good brother still lives in our " Cape Freels." To the north of Cape Fi-eels, between it and the modern Cape Bauld, the east coast of Newfoundland forms a large, deep gulf, which is indi- cated on this map, by a bay entering deeply into the country.* In comparing Cortereal's chart with our present map of Newfoundland, we must come to the conclusion that Cortereal entered and explored nearly every bay and gulf of the east coast of Newfoundland ; for he lias noted them all on his chart, although he has given them too high a latitude. The entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle is not indicated on our map. In 55° N. we find the name " Baxos do medo " ( ?) Soon after the coast turns to the north-west, and runs in this direction a long way. At the point " Baxos do medo " we are in the neighborhood of the northern end of Newfoundland and of the south-eastern capes of Labrador. It is nearly impossible to indicate the trending of the north-eastern coast of Labrador more exactly, than it has been done on this chart. Un- happily the chart ends in 62° N., at about the entrance of Hudson's Strait. Thus far to the north-west it is probable that Cortereal went in 1500; and there was stopped by the ice. Like the coast of Labrador and Greenland, the southern part or entrance of Davis' Strait is much better given on our chart, than on any other before this time, or on any other map for a long time after Cortereal. In about the latitude of the arctic circle, a dotted line is made on this map, which cuts through the northern parts of Iceland, Greenland, and Davis' Strait. All the water north of this line has, on the original, a dark blue color, which we could not reproduce on our copy. The map-maker intended, perhaps, to express by this line the arctic circle, and the southern boundaiy of the " Mare congelatum," where Corte- real's progress ended. To the south of " Cabo de Concepicion'' (near Cape Race), the coast of Newfoundland turns to the west, and runs east and west a long dis- tance. The coast of Newfoundland has really this direction, and Cor- tereal may have looked westward of Cape Race, though he does not appear to have followed this route for any considerable distance. There are no names placed along this coast. Cortereal may have copied this part of his chart from Cabot's, of which he probably had a sketch on * How Kuntsmann (Die Entdeckung America's, p. 128) could think that this is the mouth of tlie great river St. Lawrence, and the outlet of Lake Ontario, is inconceiva- ble to me. Tlie entire explanation which this estimable scholar gives of Cortereal'a chart, is evidently erroneous. REINEL'S CHART, 1505. 177 Doard, such as Cosa, in 1500, had made. On Cosa's (Cabot's) chart, the south coast of Newfoundland and its continuation follow exactly the same line, and have about the same configuration. Cortereal probably thought this region hopeless for his purpose of finding a shorter north- western route to Eastern Asia. It does not appear by this chart that Cortereal, in 1.500, saw the en- trance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or discovered that Newfoundland was an island. " He thought it to be one great mainland." This, or something like this, is expressly said in the first and most authentic report we have on Cortereal's exi^editions ; * and it is so represented on our chart. The length of the southern coast of this continent from east to west is about three times the length of the east coast of Newfoundland ; from which we conclude, that the western end of the coast-line, given on our chart, reaches the coast of Maine. At Cape Race, the maker of this map began to sketch a coast-line, which he has left unfinished, running into tlie water. Wliat he meant by it I cannot tell. He has drawn with great accuracy aH the Azores, the principal starting-point of the Cortereals. If subsequent map-makers had known and copied this original map of Cortereal, particularly that part which relates to Labrador, Davis' Strait, and Greenland, they would have avoided much misrepresenta- tion, and rendered a useful service to science. 2. On a Chart, No. 9, of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Greenland, by Pedro Reinel, made in about 1.505. Number 9 is a copy of that section of North America which appears on a chart of the Atlantic Ocean preserved in the Royal Library at Mu- nich. A fac-simile of this chart was published by the Royal Academy of Bavaria in the "Atlas zur Entdeckungengeschichte America's (Atlas for the history of discovery of America. Munich, 1859). On another part of this map an inscrijition is written in great let- ters, which runs thus: "Pedro Reinel a fez" (Pedro Reinel made it). According to the Spanish historian Herrera,t Reinel was a Portuguese pilot of great fame (Piloto Portuguez de mucha fama) ; who, like many Portuguese, entered the Siiauish service some time after 1522. The lan- guage of the map is Portuguese. It presents only Portuguese discov- eries ; and shows the arms and flags of Portugal, but not of Spain. From these circumstances it is probable, that the map was made by * See the letter of the Venitian ambassador, Pasqualigo. t Herrera, Hist. gen. de las ludias, Dec. Ill, cap. 13. 12 178 REINEL'S CHART, 1505. Reinel in Portugal before he entered the service of Spain, and proba- bly soon after the voyage of the Cortereals and Cabral. We may, therefore, assign it to the year 1505.* There is one indication of latitude along a perpendicular line, run- ning across the entire sheet of the chart; and another indication along an oblique or transverse line, which is shorter, and runs only along the shores of Northern America. Along the perpendicular line, Cavo Raso (Cape Race) has the latitude of 50i° N. Along the oblique line it has the latitude of 47° N". This latter line is nearer the truth ; and perhaps was added to the map by a later hand. The south-eastern part of Newfoundland is here easily recognized, as is the case on all the old charts. The cape which was called on former maps the Cape of England, or the Cape of the Portuguese, is here for the first time named, " Cavo Raso" (the fiat cape), a name which is of Portuguese origin, and which may have been introduced by the Corte- reals, or by the first Portuguese fishermen on the banks of Newfound- land. The name contains a good description of the natural features of that cape, wliich is represented by Blunt " as a table-land moderately high." t The English, who did not understand the meaning of the Por- tuguese word, afterwards changed it to " Cape Race," which has no meaning in this connection. Our chart shows, in the high north, a nameless country which ends toward the south, in about 60° N. There can be no doubt, that Green- land is meant. Cape Farewell, the southern end of Greenland, has the latitude of 60° N., and is one of those points which, like Cape Race, generally has ueai'ly its true position on all the old charts. To the west of this nameless country, Greenland, is a broad gulf, and a strait running from it in a north-western direction in about 60° N., clearly indicating the entrance of Davis' and Hudson's Straits. To the south of Hudson's Strait, follow the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland from " Isla da Fortuna" (our present Resolution Isl- and (?) to " Cavo Raso." The entrance to the strait of Belle Isle is per- haps indicated by the great bay near " C. de Boa Ventura," but not as an open strait. The entire coast is covered with many Portuguese names, which probably date from the voyage of the Cortereals. I cannot enter here upon a detailed examination of these names, but only observe that many of them reappear on subsequent charts, and some of them have been retained even down to our time ; for instance, that of " Y. dos Bocalhas " (Island of the Cod-fish). We still have an * Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Eutdeckungen, p. 332, puts it in the year 1504. t See Blunt, American Coast Tilot, p. 13. New York, 1857. X O : 75 O />>,fJJ uioiihunK sns/j(/j.'!/ utnii'vj/rivii' ijii,>\ n/>.>f'o>iuv uii> wiitj/jcf),) voii.i^ii uiihii) p wr?//\^^ -uviiim ojiij/i/niii' nixviii /xj »^ up sii/j/n si^jn\'^^ J.' s-jj//,}.i/i/'s:>/j// )i/nf wn.i,>/'j.i ^/u>':W/ oiiiuiJ \ < s'lfiii.tpyh'n/Joi/ si/x'lh^ .//.loj .im/Jf)()' u/rjjji uiiii.i^ * _A ^ ■^^ PORTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF N. AMERICA. 179 " Island of Baccalhao " on the coast of Newfoundland. Some of these _ old Portuguese names have been changed by subsequent English map- makers and mariners. I have already mentioned the name, " Isla de frey Luis " (the island of brother Louis) changed to Cape Frcels. An- other instance is " Cavo da Espera" (Cape of Hope) changed to Cape Speer. In this modern form, we find these ancient names still on our present maps of Newfoundland. To the west of C. Raso we have on our chart the south coast of New- foundland and the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clearly indi- cated; and further to the west, the rectangular or square form of a nameless peninsula in about 45° N., which is, no doubt, the square- shaped end of the peninsula of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. As upon Newfoundland and Labrador, so also on this peninsvda, a flag-staff, with the Portuguese arms, is planted, which shows that Nova Scotia and its neighborhood were once claimed by that nation. I have found no map on which the flag-staff of Portugal has been erected so near the State of Maine. The island of " Sancta Cruz," south of Cape Race, may be interwied for the dangerous Sable island, and has its true position. We are in- formed by early writers, that Sable Island was known to the Portu- guese.* 3. On a Portuguese Chart, No. 10, of Florida, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, made about 1520. Though Sebastian Cabot, in 1498, had surveyed nearly the entire east coast of North America, and pronounced it continental ; and though Juan de la Cosa, in 1500, following the reports and charts of Cabot, had so depicted it on his map ; yet it was a long time before this represen- tation was adopted by the map-makers and geographers of the differ- ent European nations. Cabot published no report of his voyages ; and the maps of Cosa were hung up in the office of the Spanish ministers of marine, but were not generally known or acknowledged. We have, therefore, many charts and maps in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, on which the lands discovered by the English and Portuguese in the higher latitudes of the new world, and by the Spaniards in the vicinity of the West India islands, are represented as separate coun- * Compare on this chart, also, " J. A. Schmeller, Ueber einige altere handschrift liche Seekarten," in the " Abhandlungen der I. CI. d. Ak. der Wissenschaften, IV. liand. Abth. 1, page 247 seq. And KuD.stmann, Die Entdeckung America's, p. 125 seq. Munchen, 1859. 180 POKTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF N. AMERICA. tries. On these maps North America is broken up into large islands, separated from each other by broad gulfs or straits, and the coasts of New England entirely disappear. Map No. 10 is a part of one of these representations. The original was discovered in the I'oyal collections of the king of Bavaria at Mu- nich, and a fac-simile of it has been given by the Royal Academy in the work before cited : " Atlas zur Entdeckungsgeschichte America's " (An Atlas of the histoi-y of discovery in America). From this we have taken our copy. The map is evidently of Portuguese origin. The names of places, and some of the inscrii^tions, are in the Portuguese language. The longer inscriptions are in Latin. The author of it is unknown, as is also the precise time of its composition.* From the circumstance, however, that Yucatan, which was discov- ered in the year 1517, is indicated on the map, and nothing of the dis- covery and conquest by Cortes in 1519, everything on the map west of Yucatan being designated as unknown ; we infer that the map was made between 1518 and 1520. The whole of North America is given in three or four large islands. First, we have Yucatan and its vicinity. The Gulf of Mexico is open toward the west. Then comes "TeraBimini" (the country of Bimi- ni), our present Florida and the vicinity. The east coast of Florida and the neighboring southern States, runs first toward the north and then to the north-east, and ends on the shores of our present States of Geor- gia and Carolina, though the latitudes for these regions are too high. Spanish ships under Ponce de Leon, in 1513 ; Alaminos, in 1519 ; and Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, in 1520, had sailed along these coasts. The coast-line appears to end in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras, and this territory is called " Tera Bimini," a name which was introduced by the expedition of Ponce de Leon in search of the mythical country and fabulous fountain of Bimini, in 1513.t After this is a great gulf or open space, represented as water. Fur- ther east, in about the longitude of Brazil, the discoveries of the Cor- tereals are depicted in nearly the same manner as on the map of Reinel (No. 9). The coast of Nova Scotia, on our map, is a little further prolonged to the west. The part where New England should be, ap- pears as water. * See Kunstmanu, Die Entdeckung America's, p. 129 seq. Munich, 1859. t [Tliis country is represented by some to have been an island belonging to the Ba- hama group, but lying far out in the ocean. The fountain was supposed to possess the power of restoring youth. It was an object of eager search by early adventurers. -Kd.] POETUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF N. AMERICA. 181 Newfoundland and Labrador are named " Bacalnaos," under wliich name Nova Scotia is also included. Greenland, as usual, is called Lab- rador. The Portugfuese inscription, added to Nova Scotia and the island of Cape Breton, describes it as " a country discovered by Bretons." The inscription written upon Labrador literally translated is this : " The Portuguese saw this country, but did not enter it." The long Latin inscription, which seems to be intended for all these regions, may be thus translated : " This country was first discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white bears. There are to be found in it plenty of animals, birds, and fish. In the following year he was shipwrecked and did not return ; the same happened to his brother Michael in the next year." Iceland (Islanda) has its true position and latitude on the east of Greenland. A pei-pendicular line, on which the degrees of latitude are indicated, runs through the whole map. It is the famous " line of de- marcation," by which, at the treaty of Tordesilas (June 7, 1494), the world was divided between Spain and Portugal. The line sets off to Portugal, 1. The greater section of Brazil, which we have not repro- duced on our map. 2. Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, which we have retained in our copy. The Portuguese flag covers all these regions. The Spanish flag is planted " in Tera Bimini." The latitude and longitude, given on our map to the Portuguese dis- coveries, are much more correct, than those given to the Spanish do- minions ; which fact proves, that the Portuguese map-maker had not very good authority for his Spanish insertions. The group of the Azores, however, is placed too near the northern part of the continent. That they always are laid down in connection with Greenland and New- foundland, is explained from the circumstance, that those islands were the starting-points of the Cortereals for their excursions to the north. Several of the Cortereals being governors of the Azores, they consid- ered the northern part of America, " Bacallaos " and the vicinity, as a part of their hereditary government. In the central parts of America near St. Domingo, our map has a Latin inscription, of which a literal translation is as follows : " The country of the Antipodes, of the king of Castile, discovered by Chris- topher Columbus, the Genoese." This name, " The country of the An- tipodes," appears to be the name adopted by our map-maker for all the surrounding islands and countries, or for the whole of America. 182 PORTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF K AMERICA. The results of the examination of these maps, for the early history of Maine, may be summed up thus : 1. No coast of New England whatever is here indicated. A void space appears where it ought to be. 2. New England, like the rest of America, is comprised under the name of" The country of the Antipodes." 3. The flags and frontiers of the Portuguese dominions come very near to Maine. CHAPTER VI. ENGLISH, SPANISH, AND FRENCH VOYAGES, DESIGNED OU ACCOMPLISHED, SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXPEDITIONS OF THE CABOTS AND THE COETEREALS. 1. Two Patexts of Henry VII, of England, to Naviga- tors IN 1501 AND 1502. — English Voyages to New- foundland IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH Century. Whether Sebastian Cabot made a voyage to the new world in 1499 is uncertain ; and we have no authentic infor- mation as to his employment after his return in 1498, for several years. No early writer speaks of him until the year 1512, when, according to Herrera, he accepted from Ferdi- nand an invitation to Spain. His fame, as the projector of great circle-sailing, as the earnest advocate of a north-western passage to India, and as the discoverer of a new region, was widely spread. • The knowledge of his discovery and adventures must early have reached Spain and Portugal, and inspired the sover- eigns of those countries with desire to eno;ao;e in further explorations in the north-west. The expedition of Dornelos in Spain, and of the Cortereals in Portugal, may have been the direct results of the voyages of 1497 and 1498. We seek in vain for the cause why Cabot himself did not continue the work so successfully commenced by him, and why he left its accomplishment to others. Had he despaired, 184 EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES. after all his arctic trials, of finding an open route to the Molluccas? Or was he discouraged by not finding, on his long exploring voyage from Labrador to Florida, a single attractive section of the coast, worthy of further exami- nation ? * However this may have been, there is nothing to show that Sebastian Cabot entered on a new enterprise for a long time ; whilst others, stimulated by the fixme of his discoveries, fol- lowed his track. As in Portugal and Spain, so also in England, we recog- nize some traces of the " quickening impulse of his, in some respects, successful enterprise." In 1501, and again in 1502, Henry VII. issued patents for discoveries in foreign lands. The first of these, dated March 19, 1501, is alluded to by Lord Bacon in his history of Henry VILf But more recently, Mr. Biddle has discovered the original document in the Rolls Chapel, in London ; and has, for the first time, pub- lished it in his memoir of Cabot. | Its contents are similar to those of the first patent given to John Cabot in 149G, which seems itself to have been copied from the commis- sions given by the Spanish kings to their adventurers. The second patent bears date December 9, 1502, and is granted to a portion of the same patentees ; namely, Thomas Ashehurst, John and Francis Fernandus, and John Gunsolus, Portuguese, named in the first patent, together with Hugh Elliott ; and conveys similar, but even more extensive privi- leges. These patents gave a roving commission to the parties to * [See on this, Ramusio, " . . . di ritornarmene in Ingliilterra : dove giunto trovai grandissimi tumulti di popoli sollevati, e della gueri^a in Scotia: ne piu era in consideratione alcuna il navigare a queste parti, per ilche me ne venni in Spagna al Re Catliolico," vol. 1, fol. 374. 1563. — Ed.] t See Bacon's History of King Henry VII, p. 189. London, 1029. J See this work, p, 312. London, 1832. EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES. 185" explore, at their own expense, all islands and regions " in the eastern, western, southern, and northern seas heretofore unknown to Christians." What was done under these broad commissions, is no- where reported, so far as we know. It is supposed that one voyage was made, but no particulars of it exist. That explorations in NcAvfoundland and its neighborhood were intended, and that a connection existed between the English expedition and the Portuguese undertaking of the Cortereals, appears probable from the circumstance, that among the principal patentees were the three above-named "Portuguese Squyres from the Isles of Surry s " (Azores), where one of the Cortereals was then governor, and where, the year before, 1500, Gaspar de Cortereal had touched on his expedition to the north-west. Mr. Biddle thinks that one voyage at least, in the year 1501, was made. He infers this, first, from the improbability of the three Portuguese "Squyres" remaining idle in Eng- land for nearly two years ; secondly, from the probability that the patentees, by an experimental voyage, may have turned to account the first patent, and therefore called for a second ; and thirdly, from the fact, that the English chronicler. Stow, states in his Annals, that three Indians, "taken in the New- found Islandes" were presented, in 1502, to Henry VII.* Another circumstance, not mentioned by Mr. Biddle, ap- pears to me to sustain his supposition. Hakluyt, in his great work,! gives "a brief extract concerning the discovery of * See Biddle, Memoir, p. 228 seq. He also quotes (p. 226, Am er. edit.) from entries in the account of the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII, this entry: "7 January, 1502, To men of Bristol that found Th' Isle, £5; 30 September, 1502, To the Merchants of Bristol that have been in the News founde Launde, £20." [Other items from the Privy Purse account are afterwards quoted by our Author. — Ed.] t Hakluyt, Voyages, etc, vol. 3, p. 10. 1600. 186 EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES. Newfoundland, taken out of the book of Mr. Robert Thorne to Doctor Leigh," in which Thorne mentions " that his father had been one of the discoverers of Newfoundland, in company with another merchant of Bristol, named Hugh Elliot." Elliot was one of the patentees named in the grant of Decem- ber, 1502.* He and his associates would scarcely have been called by Thorne '"''discoverers of Newfoundland," if they had not made a voyage thither. From certain entries in the account of the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII, it appears, that after the voyages of the Cabots, an intercourse was kept up for several years between England and the newly discovered regions. These entries are too remarkable not to be mentioned here. On Nov. 17, 1503, the king paid one pound to " a man that brought hawkes from the Newfound island;" on April 8, 1504, two pounds to a priest, " who was going to that island ; " and on Aug. 25, 1505, a small sum to a man who brought " wylde cats and popyngays of the Newfound island to Richmond." The king had before made similar small presents to persons who had been out w^ith the Cabots, namely : " On Aug. 10, 1497, 10 pounds to him that found the new isle." Some have supposed that John Cabot was rewarded in this manner ; others, with more probability, that this small royal present was given only to the man on board the Matthew, who first discovered land. " On March 24, 1498, To Lanslot Thirkill, of London, upon a prest for his ship going toward the New Islande, 20 pounds ; on April 1, 1498, to Thomas Bradley and Launcelot Thirkill, going to the New Isle, 30 pounds. "f These memoranda, which have been brought to light by Mr. Biddle,| seem pretty clearly to prove the continuation * See Biddle, 1. o. p. 225. t See Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, vol. 1, p. 8. i See Biddle, Memoir, p. 234. PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS. 187 of voyages between England and Newfoundland in the begin- ning of the sixteenth century. It is a very curious circumstance, that the country in which the Cabots started their idea for a navigation to the north-west, and in which they at first proclaimed their dis- covery of the rich fishing-banks near their New-found-Isles, did not at once profit by it so much as their neighbors, the French and the Portuguese, as we shall hereafter relate. During the first half of the sixteenth century we hear little of English fishing and commercial expeditions to the great banks ; although they had a branch of commerce and fishery with Iceland. Perhaps, having the fish-market of this north- ern country at their disposal, for some time they did not seek new fishing-grounds. " It was not until the year 1548, that the English government passed the first act for the encour- agement of the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, after which they became active competitors in this profitable occu- pation."* 2. Portuguese Fishekmen on the Newfoundland Banks. Gaspar Cortereal undertook his enterprise with the lofty intention of finding the rich countries of the east. " But," says the Spanish historian, Gomara, " he found no passage." King; Emanuel, havincp heard of the high trees o-rowing; in the northern countries, and having seen the aborigines who appeared so well qualified for labor, thought he had found a new slave-coast like that which he owned in Africa ; and dreamed of the tall masts which he would cut, and the men- of-war which he would build, from the forests of the country of the Cortereals. But if he had made an experiment with his ♦Memorial volume of the Popham Celebration, Aug. 29, 1862, p. 38. Portland, 1863. 188 PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS. American Indians, he would soon have known, that, as labor- ers, they were not to be compared with the negroes from Africa. And as to the masts for his men-of-war, he would also have found, that he could procure them at a much cheaper rate from the Baltic, or some other European country in the neighborhood of Portugal, than from the distant land of the Cortereals, where no harbors, no anchoring stations, and no roads existed, and no saw-mills had been erected. The great expectations raised by the Cortereals had no immediate results. But another discovery of Cortereal, as well as of Cabot, had revealed to the Portuguese the wealth to be derived from the fish, particularly cod-fish, which abounded on that coast. The fishermen of Portugal and of the Western Islands, when this news was spread among them» made preparations for profiting by it, and soon extended their fishing excursions to the other side of the ocean. According to the statement of a Portuguese author, very soon after the discoveries by the Cortereals, a Portuguese Fishing Company was formed in the harbors of Vianna, Aveiro, and Terceira, for the purpose of colonizing New- foundland and making establishments upon it.* Nay, already, in 1506, three vears after the return of the last searching ex- pedition for the Cortereals, Emanuel gave order, " that the fishermen of Portugal, at their return from Newfoundland, should pay a tenth part of their profits at his custom-houses." f It is certain, therefore, that the Portuguese fishermen must, previous to that time, have been engaged in a profitable busi- ness. And this is confirmed by the circumstance, that they originated the name of " tierra de Bacalhas" (the Stock-fish- country), and gave currency to it; though the word, like the * See Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen,p. 334. Stutt- gart, 1858. t See Kunstmauu, Die Entdeckung America's, pp. 69 and 95. PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS. 189 cod-fishery itself, appears to he of Germanic origin.* The name may have been given by the Portuguese fishermen at first, to what the king of Portugal and his official map-makers called " terra de Cortereal " (Cortereal's land) ; that is to say, to our present Newfoundland ; and then have been extended, with the progi'ess of their discoveries, to the adjacent coun- tries. The nations, who followed tliem in the fishing busi- ness, imitated their example, and adopted the name " country of the Bacalhas" (or, in the Spanish form, Baccallaos), though sometimes interchangincr it with names of their own invention, as the " Newfoundland," " Terre neuve," etc. Enterprises in such a new branch of activity, must, of course, have been attended with great difficulties ; some pre- liminary explorations must have been necessary to find the best places for fishing, the most convenient harbors for refuge, the easiest coasts for watering, for repairs, and for drying the fish. The Portuguese Fishing Company probably made these experiments ; and their first fishing voyages were undoubt- *The cod-fish was caught on the coasts of Europe from time immemo- rial, by the Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, and English, in the northern waters of the continent, and toward Iceland. These Germanic nations had long called it by the name of " Cabliauwe," or " Kabbeljouwe," and with some transposition of the letters, "Backljau." The name, in several forms, had been used long before the discoveries of the Cabots and Corte- reals, in many Flemish and German books and documents. The root of the word appears to be the Germanic " bolch," meaning fish. The Portu- guese, who had no cod-fish on their coasts in Europe, but who had prob- ably known it before the Cortereals, by way of the Netherlands, adopted the Germanic name iii the above-mentioned form " Bacalhao " (pronounced like the German Backljau); and then becoming the fii'st and most active fishermen on the coasts of Newfoundland, communicated this form of the word to the rest of the world. That the name should have been introduced by the Cabots, is, for many reasons, most improbable ; and that they should have heard and received the name from the Indians, is certainly not true ; though both these facts are asserted by Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, Dec. Ill, cap. 6. 190 PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS. edly, at the same time, real exploring expeditions, continuing the work commenced by the Cortei'eals. It is, therefore, matter of regret, that no journals of the voyages of these first Portuguese fishermen have come down to us, and that we know so very little of the beginning and progress of their fisheries. Were we better informed on those points we should probably find, now and then, exploring Portuguese merchants and fishermen on shores somewhat dis- tant from Newfoundland, and perhaps also on the coasts of Nova Scotia and of the Gulf of Maine ; and we might be able to show how some of the Portuguese geographical names, so widely scattered on all the old maps of the countries about the " Golfo Quadrado " (the Gulf of St. Lawrence), origi- nated. Many of them probably were not given by the official expeditions of the Cortereals, but came gradually into use among the fishermen, and were afterwards adopted on the maps and in the books of geographers. A Scandinavian author informs us,, that sometimes in stormy seasons, during the sixteenth century, Portuguese fishermen were blown off from the Newfoundland Banks, and driven by westerly gales to the unfriendly shores of Greenland.* If such events happened Avith westerly stoi-ms on the coast of Greenland, they also may have happened with easterly gales on the coast of New England, although no report exists of such cases. The coast of the Gulf of Maine lies at about the same distance south-west of Newfoundland, as the coast of Greenland does to the north-east. The Por- tuguese fishermen may thus have often appeared on our coast, and become acquainted with it. They continued their expeditions to Newfoundland and its neighborhood for a long time. They were often seen there by later English and other visitors during the course of the * See Kunstraann, 1. c. pp. 70 and 95. PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS. 191 sixteenth century ; for instance, according to Ilerrera, in 1519;* again by the Enghsh in 1527 ;t and again by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1588. This Enghsh navigator, or liis historian, praises " the Portugal fishermen " he met there, for their kindness "above those of other nations," and for the liberal assistance which they rendered him. " They pre- sented him with wines, marmelades, most fine ruske and bisket, sweat oyles, and sundry dilicacies." $ He states also, that the Portuguese had made a very interesting settlement for shipwrecked seamen vipon " Sable Island," that danger- ous spot in the vicinity of Nova Scotia, famous for shipwrecks and disasters. "Some Portugals," he says, "above thirty year past," consequently about the middle of the sixteenth century, "put into the same island both neat and swine to breed, which were since exceedingly multiplied." Gilbert and his men thought it extremely convenient "to have such a store of cattle in an island, lying so near unto the maine which they intended to plant upon."§ * See Herrera, Dec. TI, lib. 5, cap. 3. t See Purchas, Pilgrims, torn. 3, p. 809. t See Hakluyt, "The Principal Navigations," etc., p. 687. London, 1589 [The Portuguese engaged in thi.s fishery as early as 1501, according to good, authoi-ities, and perhaps under the charter of Henry VII. In 1.578, they had fifty ships employed in that trade, and England as many more, and France 150. In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert found in the harbor of St. John, when he took jjossession of the island, twenty Portuguese and Spanish vessels, and sixteen of other nations. So important had the fishe- ries become to English commerce, that, in 1626, 150 ships were sent out from Devonshire alone. How singularly has the prophetic voice of the New England explorer, Capt. John Smith, been fulfilled, when, in his account of the country, he says, "Therefore honorable and worthy coun- trymen, let not the meannesse of the word Jishe distaste you ; for it will afford as good gold as the mines of Guiana or Potassie, with lesse hazard and chai-ge, and more certainty and facility." — Ed.] § See Hakluyt, 1. c. p. 691. Frencli authors say, that this useful estab- lishment on Sable Island was made by French fishermen, and not by Por- tuguese. 192 SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND. From all these reports it is clear, that the Portuguese, throughout the whole course of the century with the history of which we are occupied, were active on the banks and shores of Newfoundland, and found refuge in storms in its harbors, and even in those as far north as Greenland, and probably also as far south as Maine. They hod thus made themselves prominent and useful in the progress of the explo- ration and discovery of this part of ovir coast. This may be considered as a continuation and consequence of the work commenced by King Emanuel, and the energetic though unfortunate brothers Cortereal, who are justly celebrated in the geographical history of the north-east of America. The discoveries of the Portuguese fishermen have been delineated by some of their countrymen on charts and maps ; some of which, coming to our time, have given us a clearer knowledge of their acts. I shall reproduce, in subsequent pages, some of these charts, and examine their contents. 3. Voyages to Newfoundland, proposed by Juan Dor'ne- Los, Juan de Agramonte, and Sebastian Cabot, in 1500, 1511, AND 1515. When Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain heard, in 1496, of the proposed voyage of Cabot, they ordered their ambassador in England, De Puebla, to notify and warn the king, that he could not engage in such an enterprise, without prejudice to the rights of Spain and Portugal. And when, in 1498, Cabot's discovery had been actually made, and possession of the country taken in the name of the king of England, the Spanish ambassador then in England, Don Pedro de Ayala, wrote to his sovereigns, that he had protested against such acts on the ground, that Newfoundland was already in pos- session of their Spanish majesties. We may well suppose that the Spanish sovereigns would SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND. 193 not content themselves with a mere protestation against what the}' considered inroads upon their territorial rights. And indeed the Spanish archives furnish evidence, that in the beginning of the sixteenth century, Spain not only kept her eyes on the northern regions, but had planned, if not exe- cuted, voyages toward them. In the year 1500, when the king of Portugal was fitting out Cortereal for his voyage of discovery, the king of Spain summoned to his court Juan Dornelos, a Spanish navigator, to plan an exploring expedition. Navarrete, the Spanish historian, thinks that this voyage of Dornelos was projected for the purpose of reconnoitering the seas and countries discovered by the Cabots. It is uncertain whether the project was carried into effect.* In the same year, the Spanish navigator, Hojeda, was instructed to follow the track of the English discoverers in the north ; but whether he did this, or what were the results, we have no information.! Joanna, of Castile, called the Insane, daughter of Ferdi- nand of Aragon, gave a commission and letters patent, in 1511, to Juan de Agramonte, for an exploring expedition to the north-west ; but whether it was undertaken and with what results, no memorials remain to show. The instructions given, and the preliminary proceedings are too interesting in this connection to be omitted. In these letters it is recited, that Agramonte had formerly made a proposition for a simi- lar enterprise to her father, King Ferdinand, and received from him a commission for a voyage of discovery. The in- teresting points of this commission are as follows : Agramonte was to go out with two ships, " to discover a *See Navarrete, Colleccion de los viages y descubrimientos, etc., torn. 3, pp. 41 and 77, Madrid, 1829; and Biddle, Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, p. 236. t See upon this, Teschel, Geschichte des Zeitalteis der Entdeckungen, p. 316, note 2. Stuttgart, 1858. 13 194 SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND. certain new land within the limits appertaining to the queen of Castile, and to know the secret of this country " (" a des- cobrir cierta tierra nueva en los limitos que a nos pertenecen, para ir a saber el secreto de la tierra nueva"). He was to take on board his vessels only such mariners and seamen as were subjects of the queen, with the excep- tion of two pilots, whom he might take from the mariners of Brittany in France, or any other nation well acquainted in those parts. He had liberty of going to Brittany to engage these pilots ; and might then bring from thence to Spain wine, meat, meal, and other provisions for his expedition, without paying any duty to tlie queen. He was allowed to start for Newfoundland at any time convenient to himself, and might go to that part of it which pleased him best; but should take care not to invade any portion belonging to the king of Portugal, and should keep within the limits pointed out by the agreement between the kings of the two countries. Agramonte was ordered to attempt a settlement (pobla- cion) in the new country in the name of the queen of Castile ; and if he succeeded, he shovdd be made hereditary chief justice of the colony for himself and his heirs, and should designate all the other officers of the new country. If he brought good tidings from the new country, and if he found there signs of gold and other useful things, he should be declared a perpetual officer of the queen, and should have a good salary during his life. On his return to Spain, he was required to have all the gold and precious things which God's pleasure might allow him to bring from Newfoundland, accurately registered and numbered, and put on pa{)er before a royal notary of the Spanish harbor in which he should happen to arrive.* * See Navarrete, 1. c. p. 122 seq. SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND. 195 We may add to these interesting details of the agreement between Agramonte and Ferdinand, confii*med by Queen Joanna in October, 1511, the fbUowing remarks : We do not learn in what year Agramonte made his first proposition to Ferdinand, and obtained his first commission. It was probably some years before 1511 ; and this proves that Spain, after the time of Dornelos, had not lost sight of New- foundland. It is apparent from the details in regard to ofiices and other subjects in the commission, that the principal object of the voyage was to make a Spanish settlement in Newfoundlantl. This royal Spanish commission to Agra- monte reminds us of another well known royal English commission, given at a later date, in 1583, to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who was also sent out to make a plantation in New- foundland. Newfoundland (la tierra nueva) was, at that time, under- stood in Spain to include not only the present island of New- foundland, but other countries which had been seen, or might still be found to the north, Avest, and south of it. The royal commission gave warning to Agramonte to avoid carefully those parts of which the king of Portugal had taken pos- session, and to go only to those sections of "Tierra nueva," which fell within the limits of Spain. The Cortereals, havino; discovered for the kino; of Portugal the east coast of Newfoundland and the northern regions, those sections of country, according to the Spanish charts made at the time, were considered as under the dominion of the king of Por- tugal. If Agramonte was not to touch those parts, his expedition must have been destined to some more southern and western section of " Tierra nueva," which might then be seen delineated on the charts of Cosa (1500) and Reinel (1510) ; and it is, therefore, not improbable, that the expedi- 196 SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND. tlon was really destined, either for the coasts of New England, or for some country nearer to them, than Newfoundland : for instance, to the "tierra de los Bretones" (the country of the Bretons). To this country, the pilots from Brittany, whom Agramonte was to take with him, probably would have conducted him first of all. We may, therefore, with a certain degree of probability, regard this enterprise of Agramonte as an expedition destined to our regions, and an attempt to make a Spanish settlement somewhere along the coast of the Gulf of Maine, often included under the nam6 of "tierra de los Bretones." When I come to treat of the navigators of Brittany and Normandy, I will show that, in former times, they were in the habit of enlisting as pilots in Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to distant countries. It is curious to learn from our document, that, in 1511, they had become so expert in long voyages, at least in the direction of the north-east of North America, that the government of Spain deemed it best to recommend the employment of these pilots from Brittany. This circumstance proves, that as early as 1511, the Britons were best acquainted with the coasts comprised under the names of "Tierra nueva" and "Tierra de los Bretones," From all these formal proceedings and preparations, it would be natural to conclude that Agramonte had really undertaken this grand voyage. " But unhappily," says Navarrete, "we are left uninformed respecting the results of this expedition. No Spanish historian speaks of them."* It may be, that, like so many other gallant adventurers to the new world, he perished in his enterprise, and never returned to Spain. * Navarrete, 1. c. p. 43. SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND. 197 But notwithstanding these numerous failures, Spain did not relinquish the idea of northern exploration. Sebastian* Cabot had been in the service of Spain since 1512, and we may suppose that he would favor undertakings to explore still farther the field of his first discovery. And we learn from the first chronicler of the Spanish discoveries, Peter Martyr, that in the years following Agramonte, Spain continued to direct her attention to the north-western regions. Peter Martyr says, in a letter written in 1515, " Cabot is daily expecting that ships will be furnished to him, with which he at last may discover that hidden secret of nature " (the existence of a north-west passage) ; and he adds, " I think that he will start for his exploration in the month of March of the next year, 1516."* But Ferdinand, the great patron of discovery and of Cabot, died on the 23d of January, 1516. This event seems to have put an end to this contemplated expedition of Cabot. That the Bretons and Normans, in their fishing expedi- tions, visited countries distant from their fishing-grounds, and made discoveries there, appears by what Herrera occasionally relates. This Spanish historian, in his Annals of the Spanish Navigations, under the date of 1526, makes the following remarks : " Nicolaus Don, a native of Brittany, wrote this year to the emperor, that in going with thirty mariners to the fish- eries of Bacallaos he had met with stormy weather, and been driven to a country which belonged to the emperor's domin- ions ; and that he had found the people of that country of good manners and fashion, and that they wore collars and other ornaments of gold." From this and other signs, which he had observed, he judged, that it was a rich country, and he proposed to the emperor to enter the Spanish service, and * See the Latin extract of Peter Martyr, given in Biddle's Memoir, p. 101. 198 SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND.' go to tliat coLmtiyfor traffic; giving to liis majesty the fourth part of the profit of his first voyage, and then being allowed to trade there, as the emperor's vassal. The emperor acknowledged the Frenchman's letter and thanked him for his good-will, " knowing very well, that if he should deny him the license, he, nevertheless, would make the trafficking voyage without license." He, therefore, an- swered said Don, that he approved his proposal ; that he might come with his companions ; and that he should have the despatches wdiich he wished.* The country to which Don was driven, and which he thought belonged to the king of Spain, could not have been on the coast of Newfoundland or north of it ; because the Bretons must have known that these regions, since the time of the Cortereals, were considered as belonging to the domin- ions of Portugal. Neither could it have been directly west of Newfoundland, or around the Gulf of Canada, or in Nova Scotia (the so-called country of the Bretons) ; for here a Frenchman would have knowm himself to be in the domin- ions of his own country. We should, therefore, look for this country somewhere south-west of Nova Scotia, toward Norumbega and Flor- ida, the latter of which was decidedly under the Spanish rule. As a vessel from the great banks would not, probably, be driven very far to the south-west, we may justly conclude that the country which Don had found, was the coast of Maine, or some part of New England ; and that the golden ornaments of which he spoke, existed only in his imagina- tion. At all events, this affiiir, incidentally mentioned by Her- rera, proves that the Bretons, and other fishermen of the *See Herrera, Historia General, etc., Dec. Ill, lib. 10, cap. 9. Madrid, 1601. FRENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEREAL. 199 banks, were sometimes driven to distant countries ; and that they trafficked with the aborigines. I say " sometimes," but we might say, " very often." For one such case, which came to the knowledge of Herrera, we may well suppose there were many which escaped the knowledge of himself and other historians. 4. French Voyages to the North-east of America, AFTER Cabot and Cortereal. Soon after the exploring expeditions of the Cabots and Cortereals, there appeared in our waters the ships and mari- ners of another nation, which, next to England, has been the most prominent actor in the discovery and colonization of the northern portion of America, and particularly of the State of Maine. The inhabitants of the little harbors of Normandy and Brittany, the great peninsulas of France, stretching out, like Great Britain, toward the west, and washed by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, have been fishermen and mariners from a remote time. The people of Brittany were a colony from Great Britain ; and the French Normans had in their veins the blood of the Scandinavian Northmen, whose heroic spirit and love of the sea they inherited. No wonder, then, that they should follow the footsteps of their forefathers to the north-east of America. All that the French Normans ac- complished there may be considered, in a certain degree, as a continuation of the enterprises of the old Northmen in these regions, And, to a certain degree also, this general remark may be applied to all that was afterwards accomplished for the discovery and settlement of North America by the Eng- lish ; who were in part descendants of the old Northmen. The entire activity of the nations of Northern Europe from the old Northmen down to the present settlers of English 200 FRENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEREAL. blood in New England, is, in this respect, one and the same series of connected undei'takings. The names of the ports of Dieppe, Honfleur, St. Male, Brest, La Rochelle, etc., were mentioned in the maritime history of France long before Columbus. From the very be- ginning of the modern age of discovery, many expeditions had been undertaken from several of these ports to the Canary Islands, and to southern points of Africa ; in which direction the French, under the command of their captains, Bethen- court of Rochelle, Cousin of Dieppe, and Gonneville of Hon- fleur, became the rivals, and in some cases the leaders of the Portuguese and Spaniards.* These inhabitants of the western coast of France were also among the first who profited by the discoveries of the Cabots and Cortereals, and who followed in the wake of the Portu- guese fishermen toward the north-west cod-fish country. The harbors of Brittany and Normandy were about mid- way between Bristol and Lisbon, and from both sides the news of the English and Portuguese expeditions, and the fame of "Bacallaos" and " Labrador," must soon have reached them. But they had no enterprising king at the head of their affairs, like Emanuel of Portugal, or even Henry VII, of England. Indeed, they had scarcely any king at all ; for the kings of the interior of France had only just then begun to extend their dominion toward the coasts of the At- lantic. The fishermen and merchants of Brittany and Normandy were obliged, therefore, to act for themselves. Their ports were almost independent communities in which everything was left to private enterprise. Great official expeditions, favored by a powerful government and royal favor, became * See the work, L. Estancelin, Recherches sur les voyages et d(5couTer- tes des navigateurs Normands, p. 160. Paris, 1832. FEENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEBEAL. 201 possible in France only at a later date, when Francis I. had brought the wliolc kino;dom under one government. o o o But instead of an enterprising king, those ports had their associations of fishermen and merchants, and other commercial institutions. In some of them, as in Dieppe in Normandy, hydrography and cosmography had been cultivated at an early date.* Dieppe also possessed, in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, such intelligent and enterprising ship- owners and merchants as the celebrated Angos, father and son, who became widely known in the history of navigation and discovery.! The first voyages of the Bretons of St. Malo, and the Nor- mans of Dieppe to Newfoundland, are said to have occur- red as early as 1504 ; only one year after the last Portu- guese searching expedition for the Cortereals. The first French fishing voyages were, without doubt, real exploring expeditions. And as everything was then new to them, it is much to be regretted that no reports of their discoveries have been preserved. They probably visited places of which the Portuguese had not taken possession ; and we therefore find them at the south of Newfoundland, and especially at the island of Cape Breton, to which they gave the name, still retained, — the oldest French name on the American north- east coast. Two years later, in 1506, Jean Denys of Honfleur, a very expert and able navigator, is mentioned " in very good old memoirs," — so they are called by Charlevoix, the historian of Canada,^ — as having explored, in company with his pilot * See M. L. Vitet, Histoire des anciennes villes de France, torn. 2, p. 51. Paris, 1833. t [So powerful were these illustrious merchants, that when some of their ships were captured by the Portuguese, they, single handed, blockaded the mouth of the Tagus, made large reprisals, and compelled the king of Por- tugal to make reparation for their losses. — Ed.] i Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vol. 1, p. 4. Paris, 1744- 202 FRENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEREAL. Camart, a native of Rouen, the " Golfo Quadrado " (Gulf of St. Lawrence).* He is also said to have made a chart of the gulf, and of the mouth of the great river of Canada. This is not altogether improbable ; for the mariners of Hon- fleur and Dieppe were early accustomed to make charts and maps. " The very oldest charts, preserved in the Depot de la Marine at Paris, were traced by them ; " f though in this great mass of interesting documents and maps, the map of Jean Ddnys has not yet been discovered. On the charts of the first years of the sixteenth century we find no other trace of these French discoveries ; unless it may be that occasionally the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is laid down, and also, quite regularly, a fair representation of Cape Breton, which may be ascribed to the French. A man with the Portuguese or Spanish name, " Velasco," is said by French authors to have made a voyage to the St. Lawrence with some Frenchmen, at the same time that D^nys was in those regions. J This is not unlikely ; for the chronicles of the French seaports assert, that from time imme- morial, Spanish merchants were settled in these ports ; and that it was the custom of the adventurers of St. jNIalo and Dieppe, in long voyages, to have on board an expert Spanish or Portuguese pilot, or at least "factor" and "interpre- ter." § Velasco might have been such a pilot in the service of a Frenchman. Besides, we should be inclined to believe in reports of early French voyages to the St. Lawrence, even if they were not strictly proved by official and authentic docu- * The same Frencli captain, Jean D^nys, is also mentioned in the history of Brazil, as having made, in the year 1504, a voyage of discovery to that part of South America. t See Vitet, Histoire de Dieppe, p. 51. Paris, 1853. I Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, p. 4. Paris, 1744. § See Vitet, 1, c- p. 63. FRENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEREAL. 203 ments ; because this basin must have attracted not only fish- ermen, but navigators, who were looking for a passage through to tlio Pacific Ocean. It M'ould be inexplicable if this basin had really been as much neglected by the fishermen, as it appears to have been by the map-makers in nearly all the charts before Cartier, 1534. For this latter neglect we may, however, account by the loss of the original charts and au- thentic documents, which we have so much reason to lament. The Italian historian, Ramusio, to whom we owe nearly all the few notices we have of the early undertakings of the Normans and Bretons, mentions still another navigator of Dieppe, whom he calls " Thomaso Aubert." According to him, this Aubert went out as commander of a ship, " La Pensde," belonging to Jean Ango, the merchant and ship- owner of Dieppe above-mentioned ; who was the father of the still more famous Ango, Viscount of Dieppe. AVhat parts of the north-east Aubert visited and explored, Ramusio does not state. But his voyage was remarkable for bringing to France the first aborigines from the country after- wards called Canada.* Some of these Canadian Indians were portrayed in Dieppe, and appear amongst other figures, in an old piece of masonry or bas-relief, still preserved in the church of St. James in Dieppe. f Ten years after Aubert, in 1518, or perhaps a few years later, a similar voyage to the same regions was undertaken by the " Sieur Baron de L^ry," an enterprising man, " who had directed his mind and couracre to high things," and who desired to establish a French settlement on the other side of the ocean. He embarked many men and cattle on board of one or two vessels, and commenced his voyage. But having * See Ramusio, 1. c. torn. 3, fol. 423, F. t See a description and copy of this bas-relief in Vitet, Histoire do Dieppe, p. 112 seq. 204 FEENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEREAL. encountered storms and unfavorable weather, he was diverted from his enterprise, and put into Sable Island, where he landed the cattle, and returned to France.* We have no records by which to determine what names the French gave to the countries discovered or visited by them. That given by the patriotic Portuguese, "the country of Cortereal," would not be acceptable to them ; and it is prob- able, that they adopted the less exclusive English name, introduced by Cabot, " The neio isle,^^ or, " The new found land" which they translated " La terre neuve." Perhaps, also, the name, " Bacallaos," derived from the most impor- tant product of the region, came into use among them, and was translated by them, "Xa terre des molues ;" and because the Bretons from Brittany were, at first, the most prominent in this branch of trade, and were the principal explorers and visitors of the southern section of Cortereal's countiy, the name, '■''Terre des Bretons" (the land of the Bretons) came into general use among the French, as well as among other nations. On maps of the early part of the sixteenth century, we see this name extended over a large tract of country, including Nova Scotia and a large portion of New England. According to the great French captain whom Ramusio quotes, and who wrote his discourse on the early French navigators in 1537, it appears that at this time, of all these names, the most common among the French was "La Terre Neuve." He says, that " La Terre Neuve " extends north- ward to 60° N., and southward to 40° N. ; and adds, that many also called it, and particularly the southern section dis- covered by Verrazano, " La Terre Francaise " (the French country). Tiiis latter may have been an official name, whilst "La Terre Neuve" was probably the popular name among the fishermen and in the sea-ports. This French * See D'Avezac, iu Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, torn. 3, p. 83. 1864. FRENCH VOYAGES AFTER CORTEREAL. 205 captain also mentions thus early the Indian name " No- rumbega ; " to which he gives about .the same extent of country as to " La Terre Francaise," consequently including under this term the State of Maine."* The enterprise of the fishermen and merchants of Dieppe, Honfleur, St. Malo, Nantes, La Rochelle, etc., commencing about 1504, was the introduction of a long series of undertak- ings of great political and social importance. The Bretons and Normans of France went over from the banks to the con- tinent, from fishing to planting. They carried the race, the language, the religion, the customs, and also the traditions and songs of Western France to North-eastern America, where, for a long time, they outstripped the English, the Portu- guese, and the Spaniards, and became for many years more influential than all their rivals. As we shall show hereafter, they exerted a very important influence on the discovery and settlement ^of the State of Maine ; which, as adjoining to the French settlements, was for a long time the battle-ground for the conflicting claims of the English and French. I may point again to the remarkable circumstance already alluded to, that the French Normans may be said to have followed on the same track, or oceanic high-road, on which their ancestors, the Scandinavian Northmen, had entered ; and that they advanced their settlements, like them, from Helluland in the north, along the coast of Markland, until they had reached Vinland. *Ramusio, torn. 3, fol. 423. Compare, also, the translation of this dis- course in Estancelin, Recherches des voyages des Normands, pp. 219, 223, 224. Paris, 1832. 206 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 5. An English Voyage to the North-west, satd to have beex undertaken under the command of sebas- TIAN Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert, in 1517. Richard Eden, the first Enghsh collector of travels and voyages, published in 1553 a translation of the " Universal Cosmographie," w^ritten in Latin bj the German, Sebastian Minister. In the dedication of this translation, address :d to the Duke of Northumberland, once Lord High Admiral under Henry VHI, Eden incidentally observes, that " King Henry VHI, in the eighth year of his reign, furnished and set forth certain shippes under the governaunce of Sebastian Cabot, and one Sir Thomas Pert ; but that the faint hart of this latter mentioned person was the cause, that that voyage toke none effect." This incidental remark of Eden is all the original evidence we have on this so-called expedition of Cabot in 1517, by which great discoveries are said to have been made under Henry VIII. No original author of the time of Henry VIII. has alluded to this enterprise. Stow, in his Chronicle of England, though he mentions the first expedition of the Cabots in 1497, and other English maritime undertakings, has nothing about an enterprise in 1517. Neither does Lord Herbert, in his elaborate life and reign of Henry VIII, mention such an expedition. Nor does the well-informed Portuguese au- thor, Antonio Galvano, who wrote his history of the dis- coveries of the world in 1555, and who accurately enumerates all the Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French expedi- tions up to that year, make any mention whatever of a voyage of Cabot in 1517. Nevertheless, Hakluyt, Purchas, nay, nearly all the sub- ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1817. 207 sequent authors down to the modern biographer of Cabot, Mr. Biddle, give credence to the statement of Eden, and have constructed upon his short and incidental remark a grand maritime undertaking, which they allege to have been exe- cuted by Cabot, though they greatly differ with respect to the region supposed to be visited. Hakluyt connects the statement of Eden with an English voyage to the south, — the West India Islands and toward Brazil,* — mentioned by Herrera and Oviedo. Herrera, under the date of 1519, relates that an English vessel appeared suddenly off Porto Rico, where her com- mander communicated with the Spaniards, and spoke to them about the route and object of his voyage. f Oviedo, on the contrary, places this event off Porto Rico, in the year 1527. J Ramusio has given a translation of Oviedo, in which he erroneously puts the date of that event in 1517 instead of 1527, as it is given in all the original Spanish editions of Oviedo. Hakluyt did not know of the statement of Herrera, and consulted only the translation of Ramusio, in which the date is erroneously given. Finding there 1517 mentioned as the year in which " the English ship Avas said to have appeared off Porto Rico," and findins at the same time the above report of Eden about an expedition furnished by Henry VIII, Hakluyt thought that both expeditions were the same ; and so he adopts and enters in his great work, "A voyage of Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot, about the eighth year of King Henry VIII, to Brazil, St. Domingo, and San Juan de Porto Rico." * See Hakluyt, vol. 3, p. 591. Ed. London, 1800. t See Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 5, cap. 3. t Oviedo, Hist. General, lib. 19, cap. 13. 208 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. That this construction was founded on erroneous premises has been clearly shown by Mr. Biddle in chapter 14th of his Memoir, entitled, " Hakluyt's error with regard to the voyage of 1517."* He proves there that Herrera, in his date of 1519, and Ramusio, in the date of 1517, were mistaken ; and that the date of Oviedo of 1527 is the true one, and should be adopted ; and that, consequently, the appearance of an English vessel off Porto Rico in 1527 can have no connec- tion with an English expedition said to have sailed in 1517. Mr. Biddle proves further, that the report of the Spanish authors on the said English vessel, must be connected with a subsequent English expedition made in the year 1527, of which he speaks afterwards. In destroying the theory of such an expedition of Cabot to Porto Rico and Brazil in 1517, adopted by many au- thors after Hakluyt, Mr. Biddle builds up his own theory of the voyage of 1517 mentioned by Eden, which has been adopted by many distinguished authors after him, as Hum- boldt, Tytler, and Asher. He thinks it certain, that an expe- dition in the year 1517 was made from England, and also that it was commanded by Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabot. But he is convinced that it went to the north-west ; and he adopts the opinion, that it was in this expedition that Sebas- tian Cabot reached the latitude of 671° N., and explored Hudson's Bay, and not in the expedition of 1498. To render this theory plausible, he constructs, in a most ingenious and inventive manner, a chain of hypotheses, which appear to me to have but slender support. And first, it seems to me that Eden does not distinctly state that an expedition actually sailed from England. He says, that Henry VIH. "furnished and set forth certain shippes;" and then adds, "that this voyage took none effect,^^ * See Biddle, Memoir, p. 110. ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 209 from tlio falnt-liearteclness of one of the oriixlnators of the voyage, Sir Thomas Pert. Mr. Biddle, thinking that the expedition sailed, gives to the words, " the voyage took none effect," the interpretation, tliat the object and aim of the voyage were not readied, because Sir Thomas Pert, in the decisive moment, showed a want of courage to go further with Cabot. But it appears to mc, that the words " the voyage took none effect," might also signify, that the whole expedition failed from the beginning, and that it did not sail at all. Sir Thomas Pert may have shown " a faint heart " in the outset. Being a Vice-admiral, he was perhaps a wealthy man, and may at the beginning have favored the enterprise with his influence and money ; but despaired at the eleventh hour of its success, and refused it his assistance. But if we suppose that the expedition actually sailed, and that it reached the coast of America, the next question is, whether it is likely that Sebastian Cabot was one of the commanders. The dedication of Eden to the translation of Sebastian Munster's Avork appears so to state. But we will for the moment put this statement aside, and proceed to show the difficulties which we have to encounter, in order to brincr Sebastian Cabot to Eno-land at the rio-ht time in the beginning of 1517. That Cabot, in the year 1515, was still in Spain, and that he was in a very comfortable position there, we learn from Herrera and Peter Martyr. The first tells us, that Ferdi- nand gave him, in the said year, the title and salary of captain and cosmographer.* And the second relates, that he (Peter Martyr) had been sitting with Cabot as a member in the Council of the Indies, that Cabot was his good friend, and that he saw him often at his house. And further he says, that * " Mando asentar salario — cle Capitan y Cosmografo a Sebastian Gaboto." Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 1, cap. 12. 14 210 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. Cabot intended to try for Spain, what we now call a north- west passage ; that Spanish vessels were fitting out for him : and that he probably would sail in the month of March, 1516, in the service of the king of Spain.* Mr. Biddle admits this, and calls the position of Cabot in Spain a "dignified and important station."! ^^ cannot, therefore, conceive why, occupying this distinguished position, he should have suddenly left Spain. No Spanish author tells us, that Cabot at this time, or shortly after, had left Spain. Peter Martyr, who so often speaks of him, gives no sup- port to this supposed voyage of Cabot. Nor does Herrera ; although in his great work he follows him in all his changes and enterprises, even furnishing the details of the correspondence which the king of Spain had with England, and especially with Lord Willoughby, in 1512, to induce Cabot to enter his service ; and relating all the advantaires and emoluments heaped upon him successively by the kings of Spain ; as, for example, in 1512, his invitation from England, his title of cap- tain, great salary, and residence at Seville ; in 1515, his title and salary of captain and cosmographer, and membership in the Council of the Indies, — favors conferred by Ferdinand ; in 1516, the fitting out of ships for him ; in 1518, title, salary, and station of pilot major (chief of the hydrographic bu- reau), — granted by Charles V. As no Spanish author speaks of his leaving Spain in the year 1516 or 1517, so neither does any English author inform us of his arriving in England, and entering the service of Henry VIII. Mr. Biddle thinks that Cabot quietly remained in Spain until after the death of Ferdinand, which occurred on the 23d of January, 1516 ; and suggests that on the death of the * Peter Martyr, De rebus Oceamcis, Dec. Ill, lib. 6. t Biddle, 1. c. p. 100. ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 211 king, Cabot, being a foreigner and comparatively a stranger, may have been viewed with dishkc and jealousy by the Span- iards, and subjected to harsh treatment, which Ferdinand did not permit during his life. After the death of Ferdinand and before Charles, the new king, arrived, there was an interregnum, and much mis- government in Spain. It was certainly not a flourishing time for the " Spanish natives." On the contrary it is well known, that the native Spaniards were much oppressed during this period by the Belgians, and other foreign favorites of the new king, who resorted in great numbers to the king- dom. The native interest was not in the ascendant after Ferdinand's death. We hear at this time only the complaints of the native Spaniards, and of some of them leaving their country in disgust for the West Indies.* . But even if, during that interregnum, some foreigners may have left, Cabot would certainly have been one of the last. He has been described by every biographer, and also by his contemporaries, as a man of^ gentle and modest manners. He must have had many friends even among native Spaniards, and was useful to them by his knowledge and experience, and had no doubt a great and influential party in the Council of the Indies. None could expel him from this Council except for misdemeanor, of which Cabot was never accused, even by the bishop Fonseca; upon whom foreign authors have heaped reproaches without reason, and whom Mr. Biddle calls an " intriguer of infamous notoriety ; " f thus leading us to infer that he may have been the cause of Cabot's re- turn to England. Cabot's friend, Peter Martyr, was also a foreigner ; but we never find him complaining of " Spanish jealousy of foreign- * See Robertson's Charles V, for the year 1516. t Biddle, 1. c. p. 102. 212. ENGLISH VOYAGE OP 1517. ers." On the contrary, at the very time when Cabot is sup- posed to have left Spain, in the autumn of 1516, Peter Martyr wrote a very submissive and respectful letter to Cliarles, in which he dedicated to him his first three decades.* He was, though a foreigner and of Italian extraction like Cabot, all the time quietly taking his seat in the Council of the Indies. Cabot, with whom Peter Martyr sympathized in so many respects, shared probably his sentiments toward the new prince ; and probably, like Peter Martyr, so far from looking forward with despair to the expected and often announced arrival of Charles in Spain, was full of hope for promotion from this young and enterprising sovereign. That he rightly cherished such hopes, was proved soon after the arrival of Charles in 1518, by the promotion of Cabot. It appears therefore very improbable, that he should have left the country just at the time when so many in Spain were looking to this rising sun. He might well expect that he should find employment under the new king; and in this he was not disappointed. Mr. Biddle suggests, that the particular occasion for Cabot's "feeling slighted" and leaving Spain, was the preferment of the cosmograplier, Andres de St. Martin, to the place of pilot major. Cliarles, in a letter dated Brussels the 18th of November, 1516, had commanded the bishop Fonseca, to " inquire into the capacity and fitness of the said Andres de St. Martin for the place of pilot major, which the said person had claimed." Mr. Biddle says that Cabot, feeling himself slighted by this proceeding, returned to England. It would have been a hasty action on his part, to leave his dignified station because his sovereign took the liberty to * See tills dedicatory letter iu Peter Martyr's " De rebus Oceauicis," at . the beginning. ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 213 *■'• inquire'''' Avhether a certain other person was fit for the place of pilot major. It would appear less so, if we were sure that Cabot at that time had applied for the station, and also that it was really conferred on Andres de St. Martin, who was himself a foreigner, from France. But both these points are veiy uncertain. Herrera says, that Andres de St. INIartin, a few years after this, went out with Magellan as one of his pilots.* It is very improbable that a man, who held the office of pilot major in Spain, would leave that place and go out in a position so inferior. From the circumstance that Cabot really obtained the office of pilot major in 1518, it is probable, that the application of St. Martin in 1516 was rejected ; and that from the beginning, the place was kept open for Cabot. f Is it therefore probable, that Cabot should have " felt slighted" and left the country, Avhen he had the best hopes of obtaining the desired position ? But if he actually left Spain — and Mr. Biddle agrees in this opinion — he could not have departed until the king's letter, dated Brussels, the 18th Nov., 1516, which is sup- posed to have annoyed him so much, had become known in Spain. We must allow some weeks for the reception of the letter after its date ; and several more for the contents to have reached (^abot, before he relinquished his office. To those who know the tedious and protracted forms which delay the settlement of official accounts in Spain, this time will not seem unreasonable for closing his affiiirs and transferring him- self to England. We cannot, therefore, suppose that he could have arrived in England before the end of the year 1516. * Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 4, cap. 9. t Humboldt, Kritische Untersucliungen, vol. 3, pp. 120, 121, where he enumerates all the pilot majors of Si)aiu until Cabot leaves the place open from 151G-1518. 214 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. We can find no satisfactory reason why Cabot should have left a comfortable and dignified position in Spain, from which nobody intended to remove him, and in which he had a hopeful prospect of favor from the youthful sovereign, to go to England at that time. For we are expressly informed, that in 1512, " no account was made of him" in that country; and that the authorities had permitted him without regret, to enter the service of the king of Spain, considering it "a thing of little moment" to retain him.* After his voyages of 1497 and 1498, Cabot had " received little encouragement from Heniy VII ; and Henry VIII. dismissed him in 1512 to Spain, as being of "no account." We cannot therefore believe, in the absence of all authentic information, that this king had changed his mind, and had invited him, in 1516, to return to England. Cabot himself, in his famous conversation with a distinguished gentleman, intimates no such thing. He only says, that finding, after his first voyages under Henry VII, no furtlier patronage in England, he went over to Spain ; and then, without mention- ing any other invitation from England, or any voyage in 1517, he relates his further employments, and particularly his expe- dition to the River La Plata in 1526. f But notwithstanding this, Mr. Biddle makes Cabot return to England, where, as I have showed, it was impossible for him to arrive before the end of 1516. The expedition, of which he is said to have shared the com- mand, is stated by Eden to have been " set forth " by Henry VIII, in the eighth year of his i-eign ; Avhich, reckoning from the time of its beginning, on the 22d of April, 1509, would be from the 22d of April, 1516, to the 22d of April, 1517.$ * See the authorities for this in Biddle, 1. c. p. 100. t See llamusio, vol. 1, fol. 374. Venetia, 1613. X Lord Herbert, 1. c. p. 2. ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 115 The expedition must, therefore, have been " set fortli," at the latest, in the month of March, or beginning of April, 1517 ; and this leaves to Cabot only about tliree months for persuading Henry VIII. to a new undertaking, and for all the preparations necessary for such an expedition. This rapidity of action rendered indispensable by this brief term, and particularly the fact, that there was then no great choice of ships in Englfmd ready furnished for service, are strong circumstances against this voyage. Mr. Biddle,* speaking elsewhere of a subsequent expedition, and wislii)ig to prove that a letter written by Mr. Thorne to Henry VIII, at the beginning of 1527, could have had no influence in promoting an expedition, which left the Thames on the 20th of May of that year, says it is " absurd to suppose, that four or five months would have been a suffi- cient space of time for forwarding such a letter to the king ; for considering and adopting the suggestions of this letter ; for resolving on the course of the intended expedition ; for selecting tlie commanders and the vessels suitable for such an enterpi-ise ; and for completing all the other arrangements so as to admit of this early departure." And yet, in this case, he thinks four months and a half quite sufficient for a letter, written by the Emperor Charles V. in Brussels on the 18th of November, 1516, to be carried to Spain, and forwarded to the proper authorities there ; for Cabot to take it into con- sideration, and to go through all the preliminaries for leaving his important office ; for settling his accounts ; for his return- ing to England without invitation, and making all prepara- tions necessary for a long and expensive expedition to a remote, savage, and little known country, so as to admit of his departure in the month of March, or in the beginning of April. * Memoir, p. 200. 216 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. Eden, the only autliority for this voyage, does not say to wliat region it was destined, nor at what part of the new workl, if any, it arrived. Neither Spanish nor Portuguese autliors mention the arrival of these ships on coasts known to them. Mr. Biddle thinks that the j must have gone out to the savage regions of the north-west. He strives to make this probable by refei'ring, amongst other things, to tlie well- known letter, written in 1527 by Master Robert Thorne, addressed to Henry VIII, to urge him to renew the search for a north-west passage. This letter alludes, in the most general terms, to the discovery of Newfoundland made " of late by his Grace's servants," and says, that " the king has taken in hand " the northern discovery, and has made proof of it, without finding the commodity thereby, which he had expected.* Mr. Biddle thinks, that these expressions cannot allude to any other voyage than that which, according to Eden, was " set forth under Cabot and Pert;" and that, consequently, this voyage must have gone to and reached the north-western countries. I admit that all this is possible, if this voyage took place at all. But Thorne might have used these expressions in the same manner if no such voyage had been under- taken, having in mind no other than the expeditions to New- foundland under Henry VII, though seemingly attributing them to the time of Henry VIII. The " king," Henry VIII, might be said to have taken northern discovery in hand, when the "king," Henry VII, commenced it. The Englishmen who discovered Newfoundland under Henry VII, were still living under Henry VIII, and were his servants and sub- jects ; and so without adopting a north-western voyage of 1517, it is quite true, that England and her king had not *See this letter in Hakluyt, " Divei-s Voyages." Edition of Hakluyt Society, p. 27 seq. ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 217 found, in tlio expeditions before made to the north-west, all the advantages expected. The evidences which Mr. Biddle adduces to prove that an expedition was undertaken and executed to the north-west in 1517, appear to me extremely Aveak. But they are much weaker in proving that Cabot was concerned in any such voyage. Mr. Biddle also asserts, — and this without having any au- thority or even the slightest probability for it, — that it was on this voyage of 1517, and not on the voyages of 1497 or 1498, that Cabot reached the latitude of 67i° N. ; and he further says, that it was on this voyage of 1517 that Cabot entered into Hudson's Bay, "and gave English names to sundry places therein." The only thing which induces him to think so is the date, " the 11th of June," which Ramusio gives, as does also Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in a quotation from a map of Cabot,* as the time when Cabot reached the said latitude, and which does not agree, he says : 1. with the date of the 24th of June, on Avhich he is said, by the best authorities, to have reached the continent of America in 1497 ; nor 2. with the date of "the month of July," which, by Peter Martyr,! and Gomai'a | is said to have been the time of his great struggle with the ice in 67^° N. Mr. Biddle therefore argues, that since the date, 11th of June, does not agree either with the date of the voyage of 1497, or with that of 1498, there must have been another voyage made by Cabot, to which that date may belong ; and that must have been the voyage of 1517. To this reasoning we may answer as follows : All the au- ♦ See Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. 3, p. IG. London, 1(500. t See Peter Martyr, De orbe novo, p. 232. Parisiis, 1587. t See Gomara, Historia de las Indias, fol. 20. Saragossa, 1553. 218 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. thorities referred to, Peter Martyr, Goinara, and Ramusio, differ only with respect to the month, and not the year or the voyage, in which the ice and the high latitude were reached. They all ascribe these events to Cabot's voyage made by command of Henry VII. in 1498, and have not the slightest allusion to a voyage made by command of Henry VIII. in 1517. And even their difference with respect to the month is perhaps only apparent. The words of Cabot's map, according to Gilbert, run thus : Cabot affirmed "that he sayled very fare westward, with a quarter north, on the north side of Terra de Labrador, the eleventh of June, until he came to the Septentrional latitude of 67^°," etc. From this it appears, that the date of the 11th of June may as well be given to his sail along the coast of Labrador, as to his arrival there. He does not say that he came on the lltli of June to 67i° N. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, according to my interpretation, may as well be quoted as giving the time of Cabot's arrival in this high latitude to the month of July. In regard to Ramusio, he quotes, probably from memory, a letter which Cabot had written him many years before (" gia molti anni sono"). Writing from memory about an old letter, received many years before, he might easily err with respect to the exact date. Moreover, Peter Martyr, who often conversed with Cabot and had him at his house, may well be credited for his date of the month of July. And Gomara, who was a con- temporary of Cabot, and lived and wrote in the same country in which Cabot himself lived for a long time, is not an un- worthy witness for the month of July. The map of Cosa, made from Cabot's first charts, so far as the north-east coast of America is concerned, may be cited, ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 219 if not for the date of July, at least for the voyage of 1498. Tliis map, made in 1500, shows this east coast as high as 67i° N., and even beyond it. And last, but not least, the 11th of June appears, for still other reasons, to be a very questionable, if not an impossible date, for a voyage in the high latitude claimed for it. Mr. Biddle says, that it was on occasion of this voyage of 1517, that Cabot arrived through Hudson's Strait at Hud- son's Bay, discovered open water, and sailed into it, giving English " names to sundry places therein." He relates fur- ther, on the authority of Ramusio, that Cabot was there "sanguine of success," and hopeful of going directly to Catayo, " if he had not been overruled by the timidity of his associates," and particularly by the faint heart, nay, " malig- nity" of the master of the other ship, — according to Mr. Biddle, Sir Thomas Pert, — who would go no further.* If Cabot had been in 67i° N., near the entrance of Hud- son's Bay, he would have been under the arctic circle, in the midst of the so-called " Frozen Strait," or " Fox Channel," near Southampton Island. Now I believe that it is without precedent in the whole history of maritime discovery, for a navigator to sail unobstructed, cheered by the greatest hope of success, and everywhere surrounded by open water, on the 11th of June, old style, in 672° N., in Fox Channel, north of Hudson's Strait. In these regions, — the coldest and most obstructed of all the arctic regions, — the 11th of June, even according to the old style, is only the end of winter ; and at that time navigation there is impossible. I will remind the reader of the state of things encoun- tered in these regions by some of the old navigators, at dates not far from those assigned to this voyage of Cabot : Hudson, in 1610, passed the entrance of Hudson's Strait * Biddle, 1. c. p. 117-119. 220 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. after the beginning of July, and arrived at the entrance of Hudson's Bay in the beginning of August. Bjdot, in 1G15, could not reach those regions into which Mr. Biddle puts Cabot on the 11th of June, before" the 12th of July, O. S., and then he was still two degrees south of 61i° N. Hawkbridge, In 1616, reached the same regions in the be- ginning of August. On the 10th of that month, O. S., he was at Seahorse Point at not quite 05° N., and could not go higher than this latitude. James, In 1631, Avas not free of ice before the 3d of July ; and then began to approach the opening of Hudson's Bay. Parry, in the year 1823, was beset by ice In the northern part of Fox Channel during the entire month of July, N. S.; and then In the midst of a broad and thick field of ice was floated down the entire length of Fox Channel. By comparing still other dates, if necessary, I could render it certain, that a visit to those localities " on the 11th of June " must be rejected as impossible, whatever Avrltten or printed authorities may affirm ; and that, consequently, the Avhole structure built upon that date by Mr. Biddle, must fall to the ground. I am convinced, that modern as well as ancient navigators would think It a strange thing, that poor Sir Thomas Pert should be reproached with "timidity," a "faint heart," nay, with a particular "malignity," because, on the 11th of June, he did not like to sail beyond 67i° N., In Fox Channel, which, at that time, is a perfectly unbroken wilder- ness of Ice. Mr. Biddle, and the authorities quoted by him, and the authors wlio follow him, tell us that Cabot, after returning from his discovery of Hudson's Strait to England, found there no support for a renewed effort. The enterprise was consid- ered "afiiilure." The horrible "sweating-sickness" which ENGLISH VOYAGE OP 1517. 221 raged in England from July to December, 1517, and " the attention which the king paid to the affairs of the conti- nent, left no time to think of the prosecution of a precarious enterprise."* They further say, that Cabot, " languishing in inactivity," went over again to Spain, cheered by the new and more auspicious aspect of affairs ; and that he was received there with open arms and made pilot major.f I think that these sugiiestions contain more than one im- probability and contradiction. That a discovery of Hudson's Strait and Hudson's Bay, if it had been made in 1517, should have been considered in England as " a failure," is so contrary to all probability, that it scarcely needs a reply. It is quite certain, that if the dis- covery had really been made, it would have been trumpeted through the country ; or at least have been communicated to the king's ear, as a most precious secret. Everybody would have said that the thing had been done, that the short route to Cathay had really been found, tliat only one effort more was wantino; to arrive on the "backside of the northern countries." Henry VIH. would certainly have found time to give attention to such a discovery, which, if true, might have made him a most powerful sovereign. And the " sweat- ing-sickness " which ended in December, 1517, about the time when Cabot must have returned, would cei'tainly not have hindered him from fitting out another expedition in the spring of 1518. To suppose that the expedition of 1517, with the dis- coveries ascribed to it, should have been considered as "a failure," is in plain contradiction to what is said in Ramusio of Cabot's own views, when he reached the above latitude ; of his cheerfulness and hope ; his being " sanguine of success ; " *Biddle, 1. c. p. 120. t Ibid. 222 ENGLISH VOYAGE OP 1517. and Ills conviction that he " both could and would have gone to Cathay," if it had not been for the revolt of his crew, or, as Hakluyt and Biddle tliink, for the " faint-heartedness of Sir Thomas Pert." From these views of Cabot it might rea- sonably be inferred, that Henry VIII, a shrewd man, would have sent back the "sanguine" adventurer as soon as pos- sible to the same regions, to finish the business ; and would have kept at home his former "faint-hearted" companion, the often-mentioned Sir Thomas Pert. If Hudson's Strait and Bay had been seen free and open by Cnbot in 1517, Robert Thorne, in his letter to Henry VIII. in 1527, to encourao;e him in a north-western enter- prise, would certainly not have made use of such general and faint expressions regarding a " discovery of the Newfound- land," as we have cpioted above. He would, no doubt, have mentioned the names given by Cabot in Hudson's Strait ; his chart of the Strait ; and Avould have adopted a much more demonstrative and decisive tone. As to this supposed invitation from the Emperor Charles to Cabot, and this alleged correspondence about his recall to Spain in 1517, we have not the slightest indication of it in the old authors ; though they speak in detail about such a correspondence, in which Ferdinand invites him to Spain, in 1512 ; while such negotiations would have been far more necessary now, when Cabot is supposed to have seen opened before him so great a thing as "the way to Cathay." What we know for certain is, that Cabot, after having been nominated pilot major in 1518, was occupied in Spain with the quiet duties of his station ; that is to say, examining pilots, signing their patents and instructions, revising and arrancrino; charts, and attending to the transactions regardino- the boundary between Spain and Portugal. We find no evi- dence whatever that he was anxious to return to that region. ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 223 where lie is said to have " seen the way to Cathay openly spread out before him ; " or that the Emperor Charles invited or ordered him to make a new attempt in that direction ; as he certainly would have done, if, in 1517, Cabot had made the discovery ascribed to him by Mr. Biddle. When Cabot's personal friend, Gomez, is sent out in 1525, Cabot gives no advice that he should be sent to Hudson's Strait. And when he himself goes out again in 1526, we see him sail to the south of America, and not to Hudson's Strait in the north ; which, if he had seen it in 1517, he must have be- lieved to be at least as o-ood a route as Magellan's Strait. The events and proceedings here referred to are so con- trary to Avhat we should expect from Cabot, after his supposed discoveries in 1517, that it is quite evident that these discove- ries could not have been made. The results of these observations may be summed up in the following points : There is no satisfactory proof that Cabot really left Spain in the year 1516 or 1517. It seems to be inconceivable, that a dignified councillor of the Indies, having left his seat in Seville without any palpable reason, and having either actually shown to England, the rival of Spain, or at least attempted to show, the short route to Cathay, for which everybody was then searching, should have been rejected in England, and received back into Spain with open arms, with honor and reward. It appears to be much more probable from all we know, to suppose that Cabot, after 1512, remained quietly in Spain, and continued his fortunate career, from one high station to another, in the offices of that country. Against this opinion we have the single statement of Eden, incidentally made in the dedication of his boo'c, Avhere lie speaks of an English voyage " set forth " in the year 1517, 224 ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. *' under the governance of Sebastian Cabot." If Eden, a most worthy author, really -wrote thus, he certainly must have believed, that Cabot had been engaged in this expedition. No attempt that we know of has been made, by diplomatic or bibliographical researches, to render it doubtful, whether Eden indeed wrote what he is said to have written. It is proved by good evidence and admitted by all parties, that if any expedition was made in 1517, it cannot have been, as Hakluyt supposes, the expedition which the Span- iards saw off Porto Rico. It is just as much out of the question to suppose, that, if an expedition was made, it could, on the 11th of June, have reached the waters in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay in 672° N., according to the representations of Mr. Biddle. It would appear more probable, that, if an expedition sailed for the western regions in 1517, it must have reached some more southern part of the east coast. All the great expedi- tions for the west, made contemporaneously or subsequently, were directed to the coasts of the United States ; namely, the Spanish expeditions of Ayllon, in 1520-1526 ; the French expedition of Verrazano, 1524 ; of Gomez, 1525 ; and the English of 1527 ; of all which we shall treat in subsequent pages. I do not pretend to have found the true explanation of the expedition, supposed to have been made in the year 1517. But the difficulties and questions suggested above with regard to the explanation of Mr. Biddle and others, are, I think, worthy of consideration ; and so long as they are not solved, we must put down this undertaking as at least doubtful. [Note.— The very al)le arguments of Mr. Biddle and Dr. Kohl on oppo- site sides of the question, still leave us in doubt whether Cabot undertook a voyage to the North Anaerican coast in 1517, or not. It appears to us ENGLISH VOYAGE OF 1517. 225 that the weight of argument inclines to the side of Dr. Kolil. It is strange that such contradictory statements shoukl exist of important transactions occurring within fifty years from the time of the writers who reported them. The same obscurity hangs over the domestic concerns of the prin- cipal nations, as over their foreign voyages; which indicates great careless- ness or indifference in the preservation of facts. We find a document of the time of l<:dward VI, in tlie State Paper Office at London, whicli shows, that even during Cahot's life, in 1.551, he was in danger of losing certain rights by the loss of evidence. It says: "Touching Sebastian Cabot's matter, concerning which the Venitian ambassador has also written, he has recommended the same to the Soignory, and in their presence deliv- ered to one of their Secretaries, Baptista Ramusio, wliom Cabot put in trust, such evidences as came to liis hands. The Seignory were well pleased that one of their subjects, by service and virtue, sliould deserve the council's good-will and favor; and although this matter is over fifty years old, and by the death of men, decaying of houses, and perishing of writings, as well as his own absence, it were hard to come to any assured knowledge thereof; they have commanded Tlarausio toensearch with dili- gence any way and knowledge possible, that may stand to the said Sebas- tian's profit, and obtaining of right." The various reports we have of stirring events which occurred in the brilliant contemporaneous reigns of Francis I, Charles V, and Henry VIII, cease to make us wonder that Sir Walter Raleigh should burn his MS. history, seeing the contradictions whicli occurred vinder his own observa- tion ; or that Sir Robert Walpole should have instructed his sons to " read anything but history, for that is sure to be false." — Ed.] 15 APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER VI. CHARTS OF IHE FIRST FRENCH DISCOVERIES IN "TERRE NEUVE." 1. On Map, No. 11, op New Feance, composed by the Italian COSMOGKAPHER, JACOMO DI GASTALDI, IN 1550. TnE celebrated collector' of early voyages, Giovanni Battista Ea- musio, lias given in the third volume of his great work, besides a general map of the entire continent of North America (p. 455), some maps of particular parts of it; for example, of Brazil (p. 427) and of New Fi-ance (p. 424). Of the latter we give a copy in our map. No. 11. On the history of these maps the following remarks are made by Ramusio, in the discourse prefixed to his third volume, addressed to liis excellent and learned friend, Hieroniuio Fracastoro.* Fracastoro, he says, had urged him in a letter to compose four or ■five tables (tavoli), depicting " in imitation of Ptolemy," all the coun- tries and coasts of the new world, so far as they had become known, and in the manner in which the Spanish pilots and captains had traced them on their charts. He adds, that Fracastoro had sent to him at the same time all the necessary materials, which he had received from the illustrious imperial historiographer, Gonzalo Oviedo; and that, be- ing willing to comply with so reasonable a request, he had directed Master Jacomo di Gastaldi, an excellent cosmographer,t to make first a reduced map of the Avhole of the new world, and then to divide it into four parts. Gastaldi did this with the utmost care and diligence; so that now all industrious readers may see and learn how for, by the help of his Excellency Fracastoro, these things had become known to the world. " Because they know in Spain and also in France," Ramu- sio goes on to say to his friend, " the great pleasure and interest which you take in this new part of the world, of which you your- * See this discourse in Ramusio, vol. 3, p. 2, seq. Venetia, 1C56. t Jaeomo di Gastaldi (also called Jacopo Gastaldo) was a native of Vilhifranca in Piedmont. He had made maps and observations for an edition of the work of Ptole- my published in the year 1548 by Andrea Mattioli in Venice. Fold-out Placeholder This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at future date. Fold-out Placeholder This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted future date. 1 CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES, 22T self repeatedly, with your own hands, have made designs; so all the literary men of those countries send every day to you some new discovery made there, and broufrht to them by pilots or captains com- ing from those parts. Amongst these, particularly, is the above-men- tioned illustrious Gonzalo Oviedo from the Island of Spagniola, who- every year presents you with some new-made chart. Tlic same is also- done by some excellent Frenchmen, who have sent you from Paris re- ports of New France, together with several draughts, which will be put in this volume in their place." Ramusio then says, that he had introduced these maps, such as they were, not because he thought them to be perfect and complete, but because he wished to satisfy the desire of Italian students, entertain- ing the hope that, in some time to come, they would be improved. He concludes his discourse with these words : " The benevolent readers may take the little which I have the great pleasure to present to them, and may be sure, that if something better had come to my hands, I should have felt a much greater pleasure in giving it to them. And this is all that I have to say about my newly constructed geographical maps." The discourse of Ramusio is dated, " Venice, 20th June, 1553," at the time when he probably had collected all the materials €or his third volume. As this would take him some time, we ma" ■^^-*- +i"" -'-'^- •'f ,, ... «,, -.- ^~^^^>i xoiM, though they were not the composition oi til p«*> '^-- " -^ puijusneci uy Kamusio until 1556, the date of the first edition of his third volume. The general map of America, here given by Ramusio, is a very accu- rate production, the result of the study of Spanish original maps and reports of the time. It is one of the best, most complete, and correctly printed of the maps published near the middle of the sixteenth centu- ry. It has even the latest discoveries, made in 1542 by the expedition of Cabrillo to California, as liigh up as about 40° N". I have, however, not given a copy of this map, because it does not contain much that is connected with our subject. The map of New France, of which I give here a reduced fac-simile, concerns us more nearly. It represents Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, a part of the St. Lawrence, and in the west a fragment of the coast of Maine. It has no indications of longitude and latitude, and no scale of miles. Ramusio gives this map, and also his other four special maps, as illustrative of a short description of the countries and coasts discovered by the French, to wliich he gives the title : " Dis- course of a great French sea-captain of Dieppe, on the navigations made to the West Indies, called New France, from the 40° to the 47'* 228 CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES. N." Ho does not mention the name of his " great French sea-captain ; " but it is for sevei-al reasons certain, that the famous Jean Parmentier of Dieppe, who in 1529 made a long voyage to Sumatra and other coun- tries, is meant ; and it is pretty certain, that the discourse was written by Pierre Crignon, Parmentier's comi^anion and eulogist.* We infer from the contents of the discourse, that it must have been written in 1539, though not printed until 1556. The author, Crignon, enumerates all the old French sea-captains known to have gone out on discoveries to New France before Cartier; namely, Jean Denys, Thomas Aubert, and Giovanni de Verrazano. He says, that tliirty-five years ago the Bretons and Normans commenced their navigation to those parts ; tliat about thirty-three years ago, Jean Denys made his voyage ; and that fifteen years ago, Verrazano was on that coast. The Bretons and Normans commenced their voyages to New France, as is generally thought, in 1504; Jean Denys sailed in 1506; Verrazano in 1524. Thus all these statements concur in fixing 1539 as tlie year in which the discourse was composed. A short time before, in 1534 and 1535, Jean Cartier had made two of his remarkable expeditions to New France. But no mention whatever is made of these voyages by our author. This extraordinary omission of these most important French discoveries in a discourse, in which all til- in^^^ r^. ^:,„^g^^j,g mentioned, is hard to account for. Was the discourse perhaps wribi.^_ . t . . j. j- .^ ^^ ^- ^ '■ ^ ■''"^♦^ant part of the world, which the news from France had not reached ? Or dul tne au uixv^^ . ^ his discourse before Cartier's voyage in 1534, and soon after Parmen- tier's expedition of 1529 ? and did he, in a later year, 1539, when ho wrote his discourse, alter the above-mentioned dates, forgetting then to inckide Cartier's discoveries ? However this may have been, the appended map of New France agrees very well with the contents of the discourse. It gives the re- gions there described, and in the manner in which they are described, and yet has no trace whatever of Cartier's discoveries. It appears de- cidedly to have been constructed upon materials and after originals which existed before the time of Cartier. Perhaps the chart of Ver- razano was in part used in its construction. But Verrazano saw all the coasts here depicted, only on a very rapid sail. He could not, for instance, have on his chart any trace of a great river in the interior of ■ Canada. It seems evident, that the author of our map must have used some delineations still older than those of Verrazano; perhaps a copy * Soe for tliis K. IT. Major's lutroduction to his work, " Early Voyages to Terra Australis," p. vi. CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 229 of the map of the French captain, Jean Denys, said to have been made in the year 1506; in the same manner as ho evidently used okl Portu- guese maps for the country of Labrador and the higher latitudes. The map, upon the whole, appears to give us that chartographical picture of New France, which, having been collected from several early sources, was current in France before Cartier; from which circumstance the map has great interest for our subject. It may serve as a substitute for the lost maps of Denys, and some other old French navigators. The map is all the more interesting, because the eminent cosmogra- pher Fracastoro, so often mentioned in the history of the discovery of America, had so much to do with it, and partly procured the materials for its construction. And, indeed, since Fracastoro emjiloyed himself in his old age in the country-seat near Verona, to which he had re- treated, in composing maps, and " used to lay down upon globes the new discoveries " as they came to his knowledge, and then liberally communicated all that he had collected to his protege Ramusio ; we may conclude that all the maps contained in Eamusio are, to a certain extent, the protluctions of Fracastoro;* though they were completed and prepared for publication by Gastaldi. I willnow endeavor to give an analysis of this map. In the north, the map shows a coast running for a long way east and west with the name " Terra de Labrador," and with the Portuguese arms. It is the same country which we have seen, on our former maps, with the same configuration ; and is, probably, our present Green- land. On the south of this country, separated from it by a broad strait (Davis' Strait), there lies a large group of great and small islands. The northernmost of these, named " Isola de demoni " (the island of demons), is separated from the rest by a long narrow strait, on which, at the eastern entrance, is written " golfo di castelli" (the gulf of the castles), — the old name usually given to the Strait of Belle Isle, which separates Newfoundland from our present Labrador. From this it is evident, that the large "island of demons" is intended to repre- sent a portion of our present Labrador; and the group of smaller isl- ands at the south, our Newfoundland. The name "Terra nuova" is given to one of the larger of these islands. The " island of demons " is unmistakably designated by the small devils flying about it. This * Fracastoro lived only a few weeks after the date of the above-mentioned dis- course, addressed to him by Ramusio on the 2l)th of June, 1553. He died on the 8tli of August, 155.3, at the age of seventy-one years. See Tiraboschi, Storia de la Literatura Italiana, tom. 7, pp. 1450, 1451. 230 CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES. name is very often found on old maps, applied to a small island at the entrance of Davis' Strait. Along the east coast of" Terra nuova," we find some names attached to it by the Portuguese navigators after the time of the Cortereals : " Monte de trigo," * " Bonne viste," " Baccalaos," " C. de speranzo," and far south-west, the famous " C. de ras " (Cape Race). The distance from Cape Race to the eastern entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle (Golfo de Castelli) is about six degrees of latitude, or about four hundred English miles in a direct line. This measure may supply the want in this map of a scale of miles and degrees. West of Newfoundland we find on our map the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; not broad and spacious enough at its mouth, but with a northern chan- nel far too long and large. This northern channel, running down from Davis' and Hudson's Straits, is however very remarkable. It is an in- dication of our Ungava Bay, into which a Portuguese explorer had probably looked, without discovering that it was closed at the south. Far to the west lies a large country, called " Parte incognite." From this region a large river i-uns in an eastern direction, IVhich luidoubt- edly represents the first notions which Bretons and Normans had gained respecting the great river of Canada. The river has two mouths, with a great island between them, perhaps the island of Anticosti. Sevei-al other rivers run into it. The whole of this river-system looks as if it had been drawn by an Indian on the sand for Denys, perhaps, or Aubert, or some other Frenchman, by whom it had been transferred to paper. From Newfoundland, the southern coast of the continent runs east nnd west. A small part of it in the east, with the name of Cape Bre- ton attached to its southern headland, is cut oft" from the rest by an arm of the sea, — our island of Cape Breton and Gut of Canso. The country extending west is called " Terra de Nurumbega," which, by the shore line, is about five hundred miles long, and ends in a rectan- gular cape, — doubtless Nova Scotia and Cape Sable. Nova Scotia is represented as having three large ports on its south coast ; one at the west, filled with many small islands, called " Port du Refuge" (the harbor of retreat); another named "Port Royal;" and the easternmost, " Flora." It is difficult to identify these names with modern harbors. The deepest and largest bays on this south coast are : the harbor of Halifax, Margaret's Bay, and Malone Bay ; and pos- * This name and its position at no great distance south of the " Golfo di Castelli " render it certain, that Kunstmann is wrong in cliarging the author of this map with a mistake in placing where he does the name " Golfo di Castelli." See Kunstmann, Die Entdeckung America's, p. 95. Compare our map of Homem, Ko. 21. CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 231 sibly these were meant, having been often visited by the fishermen and coasters of Brittany and Normandy. They may, perhaps, have been surveyed by Verrazano, and drawn on his charts. Here the name, " La Nuova Francia," is written in very large letters, indicating probably that this name is meant for the entire country. The name, " Terra de Nurumbega," is written in smaller letters, and appears to be attached only to the peninsula of Nova Scotia. Crignon, however, the author of the discourse whicli this map is intended to illustrate, gives to this name a far greater extent. He says : " Going beyond the cape of the Bretons, there is a country contiguous to this cape, the coast of which trends to the west a quarter south-west to the country of Florida, and runs along for a good five hundred leagues ; which coast was discov- ered fifteen years ago by Master Giovanni da Verrazano in the name of the king of France and of Madame la Regente ; and this country is called by many " La Francese," and even by the Portuguese them- selves ; and its end is toward Florida under 78° W., and 38° N. The inhabitants of this country are a very jjleasant, tractable, and peace- ful people. The country is abounding with all sorts of fruit. There grow oi-anges, almonds, wild grapes, and many other fruits of odorife- rous trees. The country is named by the inhabitants, '' Nurumbega ; " and between it and Brazil is a great gulf, in which are the islands of the West Indies, discovered by the Spaniards." * From this it would ap- pear that, at the time of the discourse, the entire east coast of the Uni- ted States, as far as Florida, was designated by the name of Nurumbe- ga. Afterwards, this name was restricted to New England ; and, at a later date, it was applied only to Maine, and still later to the region of tlie Penobscot. In the west of Nova Scotia there is a large and broad bay, probably the enti-ance to the Bay of Fundy. Further west we come to the coast of Maine, at once recognized by its characteristic feature, — a long chain of small islands; and then to another bay filled with islands. which I take to be our present Passamaquoddy Bay. It is here called " Angoulesme" (Angouleme), a name often used by the French discov- erers. Into this bay a river runs from the north (the St. Croix), which the author of this map supposes to be a branch of the great river of the north. So much for the coast-line. The interior of these countries is filled with objects and pictures partly imaginary and partly real ; with scenes of Indian life, and birds and other animals moving about among the trees. The great group of islands (Terra nuova) has but few trees, thus answering to the old * See this description of Nurumbega in Ramusio, vol. 3, fol. 423 F. 232 CHARTS OF THE FEENCH DISCOVERIES. Scandinavian denomination of" Helluland " (land of the flat stones). On the contrary, the country of Nova Scotia (Terra de Nurumbega) and Maine is described as full of large trees and thick forests, thus an- swering to the '• Markland " (the land of the woods) of the old Scandi- navians. Among the animals on the continent we see, now and then, a large bear or a running rabbit ; and on the islands of ISTewfoundland various sorts of land- and water-fowl. These scenes from the life of the Micmacs of Nova Scotia, and of the Abnakis of Maine, are as pleasant, peaceful, and agreeable, as the Indians themselves are represented in the discourse of the great French captain.* Some of them are seen sitting by the shore, embra- cing each other, and admiring natm-e. Some appear to be sleeping; others conversing about their affairs under the roofs of their huts. Some are hunting the bear, or bearing a good-sized deer. Little chil- dren amuse themselves with shooting at birds. Some have hung up their fish between two trees, just as the traveler sometimes sees done at the present day in the west of Canada. Cheerful groups are walking leisurely or dancing on the turf. No scenes of violence or destruction anywhere appear ; no signs of cannibalism, depicted so dreadfully on many old maps of South America. In the foreground near Cape Kace a cross appears, surmounted by a crown, denoting possession taken by some one of the Christian powers of Europe. In short, everything is represented in accordance with the descrip- tions and views of the great French captain Parmentier, of the amiable Italian cosmographer Fracastoro, and also of the contemporary French, who are well known to have been friendly to the Indians of Canada, and disposed to keep on good terms with them. In the front of all these coasts and countries, winding like a snake, there runs a long and narrow sand-bank; denoting, as I think, the fishing-grounds of these regions, and the extent of the right to use them claimed by the French fishermen. In the centre of this bank, and south of Cape Breton and the Gut of Canso, there appears a square figure called " Isola delta rena " — better, della arena — (the sandy island). It is at the same distance from the coast, and in the same position as the present " Sable Island," long ago known to, and dreaded by, the Portuguese and French fishermen. The French (or Portuguese) had left here some swine for the assistance of their wrecked mariners, and these swine had so rapidly increased, that they swarmed through the whole island. * " Gli habitatori di qucsta terra sono gente trattabili, amichevoli epiacevoli." CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 233 The sea on this map, according to the description of Cabot, is full of sea-dogs, seals, sijouting wliales, cod, and otlier fish. Indians in their canoes, French and Portuguese in their kxrge ships and boats, are busy in catching them. In the south-eastern corner of the map a vessel ap- pears with the French lilies upon the sails, and the motto, " vado alia terra nuova" (I go to the new country). A similar French vessel is sail- ing, in the south-west section of tlie map, along the coast of Elaine. In the high north toward Labrador, there is another ship with the Portu- guese arms on her sails. The results of the examination of this highly interesting map, from the time prccctling Cartier, may be summed up thus : The coast of Maine was known to the great French captain Parmen- tier, and his reporter' Crignon; to Ramusio, Fracastoro, and their Ital- ian contemporaries ; and to the French, before Cartier. It was inclu- ded by them under the name of ''Terra de Nurumbega;" and was designated on their maps by the numerous islands, which constitute its distinguishing feature. Their fishing-grounds were claimed to be co-extensive with this coast, and they knew at least one of its harbors, spacious and filled with islands, Passamaquoddy Bay, to wliich they gave the name of " Angoulesme." They were also acquaint- ed with the entrance of the Bay of Fundy. The French ships camo often in sight of this coast. Beyond it toward the south-west, their fishermen did not often go, and knew but little. 2. Ox Map, No. 12, of "Tekra Nueva" by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1.561. Girolamo Ruscelli was a learned Italian, a " Philologus," from Viterbo, who lived partly in Rome, partly in Venice, the two great Italian centers for the study of cosmography. He was a contemporary of Jacomo di Gastaldi, and is, by some, called " Gastaldi's successor." He composed several linguistic and literary works, and published his well-known translation of Ptolemy, in 1561, at Venice, where the works of Gastaldi and Ramusio had for the most part been issued. Ruscelli died in that city in the year 1569. Ruscelli added to his Italian Ptolemy a work with the title " Espo- sitioni e introduttioni universali sopra tutta la geografia di Tolomeo" (Universal exjiositious and introductions to the entire Geography of Ptolemy), which contains remarks on mathematical geography, and the art of drawing maps and charts; also a series of mxps, delineating all the countries of the world. I give here Xo. XXXIl. of these maps, to which the author has given the title : " Tierra Nueva." He comprises 234 CHARTS OF THE FRENCH DISCOVERIES. under this name the following countries : " Tierra del Labrador,'" ■"Tierra del Bacalaos," and "Tierra de Nurumberg," and nearly the whole east coast of the United States, as far down as " La Florida," in about 40° ISr. He quotes no authorities for his map ; but it is evident that he used the same sources, as Gastaldi had used for his map of 1550, which, as I have shown, were very ancient, taken probably from the first sketches and charts brought home from " Terre Neuve " by the French adven- turers and fishermen. Perhaps also Ruscelli simply copied the work of his countryman and friend Gastaldi, leaving out now and then a name, or changing it, and adding here and there another. I furnish this map particularly to show, that the system of Gastaldi, as contained in Ramuaio, did not remain isolated, but found a contemporaneous response, and was copied by others. For the greater part of the con- tents of this map, I may refer to what I have said on the map of 'Gastalda, No. 11. Labi'ador, Newfoundland, the great river of Canada, and the several harbors of Nova Scotia, are all drawn and named by Ruscelli in the same manner as by Gastaldi. The harbor of " Angouleme " (Passamarproddy Bay) has also the same form. At the south-west of it, Ruscelli places another pretty broad inlet, probably Penobscot Bay. The coast runs down with a bend to a prominent pointed cape, called " C. de S. Maria" (probably Cape Cod). I have before observed (p. 50), that the name " C. de S. Maria" had been given by the Spaniards to another cape on our coast, proba- bly Cape Ann ; but l)y the later map-makers the same name is some- times applied to Cape Cod. But I find on this map an entirely new name — " Larcadia" — which I liave not observed on any prior map. It is a name of Indian origin ; and was probably applied by French fishermen to the coast south-west of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is well known that this name, which in the beginning had no definite limits, was afterwards restricted by the French to Nova Scotia and its vicinity; including also a part of the present State of Maine. The name is variously written, " L'Arcadie," " L'Accadic," " la Cadie," and otherwise. On the map under discussion the name stands on the coast of Maine exactly in the midst between Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Bays. " The word is said to be derived from the Indian ' A(pioddiauki,' or ' Acjuoddie,' meaning the fish caUed a 'pollock.'"* * According to Mr. Parkman, Pioneers of France in tlie New World, p, 220. {According to another authority, Porter C. Bliss, a thorough student of the Indian CHARTS OF THE FKENCH DISCOVERIES. 235 The aboriginal name given on tliis map to Nova Scotia and the neigh- borhood has this peculiarity, that instead of being written, as accord- ing to its Indian etymology it should be, " Norumbef/a " or " Norumbec," it is written " Nurumberr/ ; " showing that the Italian, as well as the German geographers, were reminded, by this Abnaki word, of the famous German town of " Nuremberg." In a similar maiHier the Indian name " Pernambuco " in South America has been sometimes Germanized to "Fernamburg" (Ferdinand's town). dialects, Acadie is a pure Micmac word, meaning "place." In Nova Scotia and Maine, it is used by the Indians in composition witli other words, as in Pestum-acadie, and in Etchemin, Pascal um-acadie, now Passamaquoddy, meaning the " place of the pollock." Gesner, in his "Ilcsources of Nova Scotia," pp.2, 31, gives the same mean- ing, illustrated in the words, Anglishou-akade, a place where Englishmen reside ; Sagaben-acade, ground-nut-place, now Shubenacadie. The origin of acadie is ahki, land or place, with da, a particle of admiration, added; translated by Rale, voila! there! implying abundance. — Ed. J , CHAPTER VII. FIRST SPANISH EXPEDITIONS ALONG THE EAST COAST OF FLORIDA FROM COLUMBUS TO AYLLON, 1402 to 1520. 1. Introductory Remarks. The earliest discoveries of the North American continent by Europeans were made on the great north-eastern penin- suUi, Newfoundland, the most eastern projection of which is the point nearest to Europe ; and was reached on the old highway, by the intermediate stations, Faroe, Iceland, and Greenland. Then followed the discovery of the West India islands, toward which the navigation was comparatively easy by help of the trade-winds and the equatorial current. From both these northern and southern regions the more central parts of the coast were reached, and by degrees more thoroughly explored. The State of Maine, being a part of the north-eastern peninsula, was usually reached from that quarter ; and its early discovery is more intimately connected with that of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Canada, and other northern divisions, than with that of the West India islands and Flor- ida. Accordingly, the voyages of the Northmen, the Cabots, the Cortereals, and others, are much more connected with the discovery of Maine, than those of Ponce de Leon, Ayllon, De Soto, and their successors at the south, who scarcely reached our coast. SPANISH EXPEDITIONS IN FLORIDA, 1492—1520. 237 Some of these southern expeditions in their progress, at last came very near to our northern coasts ; and, as I shall show, were at least intended for them. Bringing up the chain of discovery to as high a latitude as about 40° N., they serve to settle the question, how the coast of Maine was interlinked with the entire coast-line, and what position it occupied there. They also gave names on the south of Maine to certain bays, capes, and rivers, which are found on the Spanish charts. "VVe should not be able to understand these charts, and to show on them what belono-ed to us and what not, without taking some notice of the southern voyages and their results. A review of them, therefore, will be necessary, and a short review will suffice, to point out the most important steps in the progress of this branch of the history of discovery, which relates to the south-eastern coasts of North America. 2. Columbus a^'d the East Coast of the Uxited States. Columbus, setting out on his first voyage in September, 1492, from the island of Gomara, followed at first a strictly "^'— - «, oLont 28° N., near and along the northern limits of the northern trade wmds. If he had kept on this track to the end, he would have reached the east coast of the United States in 28^° N., about the latitude of Cape Canaveral in Florida. But during the latter half of his voyage, at the end of September, when about midway in the Atlantic Ocean, he began to change his course a little to the south, and so touched the new world in about the latitude of the southern end of our east coast. The Indians of the small Lucayan islands, with whom he first came in contact, had from ancient times a more intimate intercourse with their southern neighbors, — the inhabitants of the larger Antilles, — than with those at the north, — the inhabitants of Florida and the east coast of the United States. 238 SPANISH EXPEDITIONS IN FLORIDA, 1492—1520. They were connected with the soiitli by a chain of islands and low banks, whose channels were navigable for canoes ; and were drawn in that direction by old traditions, that their paradise lay in those magnificent countries, the high moun- tains of which they could see from some parts of the Lucayan Archipelago. On the other hand, they were separated from the east coast of North America by a deep strait and the swift current of the Gulf-stream, which w^ould be likely to sweep away their canoes, and be to them an object of dread. Besides, the flat and less attractive country of Florida was nowhere in sight from their native islands. When therefore Columbus made inquiries of the poor islanders after larger and more beautiful countries, and took some of them on board as pilots, they conducted him to the south ; and in this manner turned him off from our east coast ; so that during the rest of his life, he continued to be occupied with the exploration of the southern regions, and gave little attention to the northern. On his first homeward voyage in January, 1493, he ap- proached the great section of the ocean, w^hir-l* 1^- ■ ' o -'-■' ons;h prvoc*- ^f Mo.,fcU ^•^*.xv.ii-maker, of the first half of the sixteenth century, of whom I shall speak more fvilly hereafter. His maps and manner of composing them, are so similar to those of his contemporary Agnese, that one would think they had copied each other. Most probably the Italian copied the Portuguese. I annex here Homem's sketch merely for the purpose of showing, that, at the time of Verrazano's and Cartier's first voyages, North America was depicted even by the Portuguese as a very narrow coun- *See Ramusio in his Introductory Discourse, vol. 3, fol. 4. Vcnetia, 1556 . fin II ' i >> J.?^= |_|^| S-:?^ «0 J I— < 5/3 ^ c en CM, Q: :P: < Mi CHART OF RIBERO, 153J). 299 try, with an isthmus in the region of New England. I found the map from which this is copied in tlie Britisli Museum, under tlie name of Diego Ilomcm, hut without a date. It must, liowever, be assigned to about the year 1540. For its explanation, I refer to my remarks on the sketches preceding it on the same plate. II. CHARTS TO GOMEZ. 1. On Chart, No. 1G, of the East Coast of North #^merica, FROM A Map of the World, jjy Diego Ribero, in 1529. Diego Ribero was a very able map-maker and cosmographer of Spain, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He is often men- tioned by the early Spanish historians, Comara, Oviedo, and Herrera, as "Maestro de hacer cartas" (a master in map-making), and as "Cosmograph de Su Majestad" (cosmographer of His Majesty). He is said to have made many charts, having for his partner in this business the Portuguese Pedro Reinel, of whom we have given a chart in No. 9. In 1524, at the celebrated junta of Badajoz, which was called upon to decide the difficult question about the division of the world between Spain and Portugal, Ribero was employed as " Consultor" (Counselor) "to furnish the members of that junta with the necessary charts, globes, and instruments." lie also made the charts for the second great expedition to the Straits of Magellan and the South Sea, under the command of Loaysa in 1525, who is said " to have had Ribero's charts on board." Ribero's charts were not made from actual survey ; for as far as we know, he never was a voyager and explorer, like Juan de la Cosa, who, for the most part, made his drawings on the spot. Ribero's maps and charts were all compilations, made by study and research. In 152G the emperor Charles V, hearing that the then existing sea- charts were very uncertain and contradictory, appointed a commission of cosmographers and pilots, under the presidency of Don Hernando Colon, the son of the great Christopher; and ordered them to review and correct the Spanish charts ; to bring them into harmony and uni- formity, and to make such additions as were required by recent dis- coveries. This c ommission prepared a map of the world, drawn on parchment, which is preserved in the collections of the Grand Duke of Weimar in Germany; on which is an inscription stating that it was drawn by " a cosmographer of his Majesty," probably Hernando Colon himself, in the year 1527. Ribero, as one of the commissioners, was probably employed on thii map of 1627. However this may be, in the year 1529 he composed a 800 CHART OF RIBEEO, 1529, similar map of the world, which, in exactness and beauty, sitrpassed that of 1527; and which contained, in addition, the Spanish discove- ries made after that date. This document, drawn on parchment, after having passed through several hands, is also preserved in the collec- tions of the Grand Duke of Weimar. The emperor, Charles V, prob- ably carried it himself from Spain to Germany, on his journey through Italy to Augsburg in 1530. In Bologna, where, at the end of 1529, he had an interview with the Pope, he probably showed him the map,* and presented him with the copy, which is still preserved in Rome.t And then, perhai^s, the Venetians also procured the copy which they printed and published in 1584, at Venice.}: As a work of great accuracy, and as an official map, " composed at the command of the emperor Charles V.," it has always attracted the attention of the learned, and has been copied and used by many per- sons. In subsequent times, when the discovery and exploration of America had made further progress, it was, like other old maps belong- ing to the beginning of the age of discovery, laid aside and forgotten. In modern times, when the history of American geography began to be treated in a more critical manner, it was again brought to light. A German geographei-, Sprengel, at the end of the eighteenth century wrote an essay on it; and that jjart of it which represents America was copied and engraved by Giisselfeldt, a German. This remarkable document attracted the earnest attention of the Baron Humboldt ; and he and the illustrious owner of the map, the Grand Duke Charles Au- gustus Saxe Weimar, are said to have been often observed sitting in that part of the grand ducal library, which is called " the tower," with this picture of the world before them, discussing the contents of the old parchment, and admiring its beautiful workmanship. In 1860, a fac-simile of this map of Ribero of 1529, and also of that of the year 1527, were published, with critical notes, by the author of the present work. Our map, No. 16 is a reduced but exact copy of the east coast of North America, as given in this last-mentioned fac-simile. It is unne- cessary to give here the contents of the map of 1527, because it has throughout the same configuration of the east coast, and the same names with Ribero's map, though less perfect and less complete. A few exceptions to this remark I shall hereafter have occasion to mention. ♦I have made this probable in a work published by me under the title : " Die beiden Aeltesten General-Karten von Amtrica," etc., p. 43-44, Weimar, 1860. t See M. R. Thomassy, Les Papes geographes, etc., in Nouvelles annales des voyages, III, p. 272 seq. 1853. Xl have a copy of this Venetian draft in my possession. It gives only the general features of our map. CHART OF RIBERO, 1529. 301 Our map comprises the entire development of the North American east coast, from Florida in the south, to Greenland and Icoland in the north, and the greater western half of the North Atlantic Ocean. In the ocean, there may be observed, scattered through its vast spaces, a few of the old fabulous islands, " Brasil," " Maidas," "Ya Verde,"— the last remnants of the geographical myths of the middle ages, as they are about to disappear. " Iceland " has its true position in about 70° N. In the western part of the ocean we find " La Bermuda," discovered about 1526, in its true position. This is the first time that we see the Bermudas depicted on a map. Between these islands, in the midst of the ocean, on the usual home-track of the Spanish vessels, a ship is seen under full sail, with the inscription, " Vengo de las Indias" (I come from the Indies). Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland, on our map, have the same configuration as had been given to them on many former maps. They were probably taken from the Portuguese maps, drawn originally from the actual surveys of the Cabots and Cortereals ; for instance, from the map of Pedro Reinel (map No. 9) ; who, as has been before remarked, was a partner of Ribero, and perhaps his teacher. Greenland has here the same name given to it as on Portuguese maps, namely, " Tierra del Labrador," and has over it the inscription, "This country the English discovered; but there is nothing useful in it." Newfoundland and Labrador are joined by one continuous coast- line, and there is no indication of the Strait of Belle Isle, or of the insu- larity of Newfoundland. The south-eastern part of Newfoundland is, however, very well drawn, particularly its great south-eastern penin- sula, now called " Placentia and St. Mary." These bays and harbors, so well delineated, must all have been explored by observing seamen, before this map was drawn in 1529. " C. Rasso" (Race) has its true latitude of about 47° N. The name given to Newfoundland and Labrador is, "Tierra de los bacallaos;" and to this there is added the inscription, " which the Cortereals dis- covered, and they were lost here. Until now, nothing very useful has been found in it, except the cod-fishery, which, however, is of little esteem." This language of some Spanish cosmographer would certainly not have been admitted by the Portuguese, Normans, or Bretons, of that period. The disparaging terms of this inscription appear, however, to lend some support to the view of Navarrete, above quoted, that the Newfoundland fisheries were not much frequented by the Spanish Basques before the voyage of Gomez in 1525. 302 CHART OF EIBERO, 1529. The inlet between " Tierra del Labrador" and " Tierra de los bacal- laos," the present Hudson's and Davis' Straits, is closed on our map, and represented as a gulf. The Gulf of St. Lawrence, south of New- foundland, is likewise closed. Both of these inlets, on the map of Her- nando Colon, 1527, are represented as being open. Some writers have suggested, that Ribero represents these waters as closed, not from ignorance, but by design, and for political reasons. The king of Spain, so these writers argue, wished to turn the attention of the English and French from the north-east coast of America, and throw obstacles in the way of their finding here a passage to the Pacific and China; and therefore ordered him to represent the coast as everywhere a continu- ous and unbroken continent.* Against this suggestion, however, there is this fact, if nothing else, that charts, like that of the royal cosmogra- pher Ribero, were made only for the vise of the king of Spain, and his officei'S ; and that to show such charts to foreigners, was regarded as high treason in Spain, unless this was done by the act of the emperor himself, as in his presenting them to the pope. At the west of the opening of the Gulf of St. Lawrence appears the square-shaped end of Cape Breton and the peninsula of Nova Scotia, called here as usual, " Tierra de los Bretones." The distance of the eastern point of this country from Cape Race, is here made about a hundred and twenty Spanish leagues, which is somewhat greater than the true distance. From that point for about three hundred leagues, the coast runs east and west; and then with a great bend, turns to the south. On this large section of the coast, we find the inscription, " The country of Stephen Gomez, which he discovered at the command of His Majesty in the year 1525. There are here many trees and fruits similar to those in Spain ; and many walrusses, and salmon and fish of all sorts. Gold they have not found." The name of the country " Tierra de Estevan Gomez " is written in large letters in the first line. * [The writers referred to have probably derived tlieir opinion from such statements as that of Sir Humphrey Gilbert in his " Discourse to prove a passage by tlie north- west to Cathaia," where, in chap. 10 (Hakluyi's Voyages, etc., vol. 3, p. 23, ed. of 1600, London), he says: " It is lilvely that the king of Spaine, and the king of Portugal!, would not have sit out [quietly] all this while, but that they are sure to possesse to themselves all that trade they now use, and feare to deale in this discovery, least the Queen's Majesty having so good opportunitie, and finding the commcditie which thereby might ensue to the commonwealth, would cut them off, and enjoy the whole IratTique herselfe, and thereby the Spaniards and I'ortiigals, with their great charges, should beate the bush, and other men catch the birds : which thing theij forfseeinff , have covimanded that iio pilot of theirs, upon paino of death, should seeke to discover to the Js'ortkwest, or plat out, in any Sea card, any ihorow passage that way by the North^^ teest."—Kv.] CHART OF RIBERO, 1529. 303 Up to the year 1525, according to Ilerrera's statement, " no Spanish vessels hail sailed along this section of our coast." From the West India Islands in tlie south, the Spaniards, under the command of Ponce de Leon in 1512, and Ayllon in 1520, liad explored the coast north- ward to about 33° or 34° N. But in 152G, Ayllou had sailed as far north as about 38°, a little beyond Chesapeake Bay (Baia de St. Maria). From thence northward, the coast was unknown to the Spaniards, except by what they had heard about it from Sebastian Cabot, whose explorations had been delineated in Spain by Cosa, in 1500; and ex- cepting also, what they learned afterwards from the discoveries of Gomez in 1525. From these circumstances we may infer, that Ribero drew this section of oiir coast entirely from the explorations and reports of Gomez ; and we have in the names and coast-lines which he gives, a very good representation of this famous region, particularly interesting to us, on which the Spanish historians unhappily are so very deficient. I will endeavor to decipher and identify the names and objects given on our map, proceeding as Gomez himself did, from north-east to south-west. At the distance of about twenty-five leagues from the south-cast point of " tierra de los Bretones," we find an inlet on our map on which is written the name, "Rio de la buelta" (the river of return). It is possible that the " Gut of Canso " is meant here ; that Gomez looked into it, and not finding the outlet, returned from it. About twenty-five leagues onward to the west, we find a bay with some small islands before it, with the name, " sarf-ales " (brambles). There are on the coast of Nova Scotia many islets with brambles and shrubs. The distance above given would bring us to the Bay of Hali- fax, which possibly is indicated here. About twenty leagues further to the west comes another inlet with the name, " R. de montaiias" (the River of Mountains). The distance brings us to the bays and harbors of Metway and Bristol. Mr. Blunt, in his Coast Pilot says, that near Metway harbor, some inland hum- mocks may be seen ; and he observes, that to the west of Halifax the highlands of Apostogon and La Have are in sight on the coast.* Per- haps Gomez saw these highlands near his " R. de montanas." About thirty leagues further west, a somewhat larger opening occurs, with the name of " Golfo." It is possible, that the broad entrance of the Bay of Fundy is meant here. Gomez ijrobably saw something of this entrance ; but fog or other unfavorable circumstances may have prevented him from observing it more accurately. • See Blunt, American Coast Pilot, 18th edition, p. 178. New York, 1857. 304 CHART OF RIBEEO, 1529. Passing from Cape Sable, tlie western cape of Nova Scotia, and hav- ing caught only a glimpse of the Bay of Fundy, in the midst of fogs and storms, Gomez descried a coast on which he perceived a long se- ries of reefs, breakers, headlands, and small islands. He describes the coast west of the " Golfo " by the words " medauos" (sand-hills) and "arecifes " (reefs). He puts down also small islands along the coast- line. Here we are evidently on the much indented and broken coast of Maine, which abounds in islands far more than Nova Scotia, or any other section of the American east coast. About sixty leagues to the west of" Golfo" (Bay of Fundy), there is depicted a long, deep, triangular inlet, full of islands, running directly south and north, and ending at the north in a river. It is the most prominent object on the whole coast. The latitude given to its mouth is 44° N., and the longitude about that of the island of Bermuda. This description agrees nearly in every point with the broad triangu- lar Penobscot Bay, the largest inlet and river on the coast of New Eng- land. Gomez probably entered this inlet, and explored it more accu- rately than any other part of the coast ; and in his report to the king may probably have lavished his praises on its harbors, its islands, and beautiful scenery. Since the year 1.529, it is delineated on subsequent maps in the same manner as Eibero has here depicted it, after the sur- veys of Gomez. On these maps it is sometimes called " Rio Grande " (Great River) or " Rio de las Gamas" (Deer River), or, at a later date, " the great river of Norumbega." West of this river appears the name, " C. de muchas yslas " (the cape of many islands). It would be difficult to say, to which particular point or cape of the many headlands " surrounded by islands " west of Pe- nobscot Bay, we should ascribe this name. Judging strictly from the latitude, we might suppose it to be Cape Elizabeth ; but looking at other circumstances, should incline to the opinion, that some headland in the neighborhood of Owl's Head is intended.* About thirty leagues west of Penobscot Bay occurs the name " mon- tanas" (mountains); and these mountains must have been regarded by Gomez and subsequent map-makers and navigators as very con- spicuous objects ; for henceforth they never disappear from their maps of this region. They are sometimes found marked even on maps which have no other names inscribed. They are jjlainly intended to describe the " White Mountains " of New Hampshire. These may be seen near the mouth of the Kennebec, and along the coast of Casco Bay, and * [See for this, "Die Beiden Aeltesten Gencral-Karten von Amerika," von J. G. Kohl, p. 64. Weimar, 1850.— Ed.] CHART OF RIBERO, 1529. 305 were doubtless sighted by Gomez, on his exploration of this region, and marked on his chart. The numerous islands by which the bending coasts in this vicinity are skirted, would seem to be those of Casco Bay. Next appears the name, " Arcipelago de Estevan Gomez " (the Archi- pelago of Stephen Gomez), written very prominently and at full length. I think it was not meant to designate any one of the smaller bays or inlets of this region, but the entire Gulf of Maine; and that perhaps it may be considered as the first name, by which this gulf was designated on the old charts.* At all events, it will become quite clear in the se- quel from other authorities, that the name " Arcipelago of Estevan Go- mez " has always been given either to the entire Gulf of Maine, or to some section of the waters north of Cape Cod. The coast from this point bends round to the south-west and south, much in accordance with the trending of the coast-line of New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts, ending at the south, like that, in a peninsula projecting eastwardly, and called " Cabo de Arenas " (the Sandy Cape), and forming a bay exactly resembling the Gulf of Maine. This cape has about the longitude of St. Domingo. It has the con- figuration of a horn, and is hooked or pointed like Cape Cod. Like that, it also has banks and shoals at the east; and like that forms a kind of cul de sac on the west, between the hook and the main-land. In respect to its longitude, its configuration, its sandy soil, its shoals on the east, its little bay on the west, it agrees with Cape Cod, and was intended, we can scarcely doubt, to represent this prominent feature of the New England coast; although the latitude of" Cabo de Arenas," the northern point of which is in 40° N., is two degrees lower than the northern point of Cape Cod, which lies in 42° N. As far down as " Cabo de Arenas," the coast is lined, as before, with a chain of small islands, which thus forms the distinguishing feature of the whole east coast of New England. South of Cape Cod, no such coast islets appear within the limits of the United States. It is scarcely credible that a navigator, sailing like Gomez along our coast from Newfoundland, in a direction from north-east to south-west, and following the coast-line, as he did, in search of an open passage, could have overlooked so prominent a headland as Cape Cod. Neither the Northmen nor Sebastian Cabot, on their voyages, failed to observe and represent it. Nor at a later period, did it escape the observation of the French under De Monts. Sailing in the same direction, they * I shall make this more probable in reviewing the maps of Chaves, and the descrip- tion of this coast by Oviedo, in the following section. 20 306 CHART OF RIBEEO, 1529. were caught and arrested by this remarkable cape, and entered it ou their charts by the name of " Cape Blanc " and " Malebarre." The other capes in the neighborhood of 40° jST., which have been sup- posed by some authors to be intended by " Cabo de Arenas," — for in- stance, Sandy Hook near New York, and Cape Henlopen near Phila- delphia, — are located too far to the west to answer to a cape placed in the longitude of St. Domingo, and are hardly prominent enough to an- swer to the bold projection of this cape, as delineated on the map of Ribero. There is still another ground for concluding, that the " Cabo de Are- nas " of Ribero and Gomez is neither Sandy Hook nor Cape Henlopen, but Cape Cod. We know for certain, that the " Baia de Sta. Maria " is the old name for Chesapeake Bay. Now this " Baia" is placed by Rib- ero five degrees south of his " Cabo de Arenas ;" and live degrees is the true distance between Chesapeake Bay and Cape Cod, and much more than the distance between that bay and Cape Henlopen or Sandy Hook. There are, however, some serious objections to the view, that "Cabo de Arenas" is Cape Cod. I shall show hereafter, that the names found on this map between " Cabo de Arenas " and " Arcipelago de Estevan Go- mez," namely, " S. Juan Baptista," " R. de buena madre," " Montagna verde," " b. de S. Antonio," " b. de S. Christoval," are applied by sub- sequent authors on their- maps to localities situated south-west of Cape Cod ; particularly the name St. Antonio, which is given by them to Hudson River. Hence if we insist, that " Cabo de Arenas " is Cape Cod, we must admit that Ribero was greatly mistaken in putting names along the Gulf of Maine which belong to the neighborhood of New York, and in leaving out of his map the Bay of New York altogether. But great as these difficulties may be, there would perhaps be still greater on the supposition, that Sandy Hook, Cape Henlopen, or some other southern cape, was meant by the " Cabo de Arenas." On this supposition we should find on our maj) no indication whatever of Cape Cod, that most prominent object on the coast, with the banks and shoals in its offing, so difficult to the navigator; and should be driven to the inadmissible supposition, that it had been entirely un- noticed both by Gomez and Ribero. My own opinion is, that the coast was correctly delineated by Ribero, but that he put some names in the wrong places. Before i^roceeding to vindicate this oi)inion, I shall adduce for evidence, in subsequent pages, some new documents regard- ing the voyage of Gomez and our coast of New England. In concluding the present section, I will say a few words on the remaining portion of this map. CHART OF CHAVES, 153G. 307 The southern division of the coast, from " Cabo de Arenas " to Flor- ida, is called on our map "Tierra de Ayllon" (the country of Ayllon), the name of the well-known commander of two expeditions, by which, in 1520 and ir)2(i, our east coast was discovered' as far north as Bahia de Sta. JNIaria (Chesai)eake Bay). The names on the east coast in the neigliborhood and south of this bay, are all derived from Ayllon's expeditions. I will only add, that the " line of demarcation," as determined by the pope and the treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, is .indicated on our map in the same manner as it had been on former maps, by a line drawn at a distance of oTO leagues (five degrees of longitude) west of the island of San Antonio, the westernmost of the Cape de Verde group ; and that in this partition, it allots to Spain " Tierra de Estevan Gomez," includ- ing New England and Nova Scotia, and to Portugal " Tierra de los Ba- callaos "' and " Tierra del Labrador," including the eastern part of New- foundland, and all east of it.* 2. Ox CUART OF THE EAST COAST OP NOUTir AMERICA, BY AlONZO DE Chaves ix 1530, axd Oviedo's Desceiptiox of the Coast m 1.537. Oviedo relates,! that in the year 153(5 the emperor Charles V. is- sued an order to this effect : " that the charts for navigators and the ' padrones ' (muster-charts) should be examined and corrected by some learned and experienced persons," whom he selected for the purpose. In pursuance of this order, a map was constructed and issued by Alon- so de Chaves, representing the new Spanish discoveries, and the entire geographical knowledge of the time; in the same manner as a learned commission under the imperial order had prepared and issued, in 1527 and 1529, the maps of Diego Colon and Diego Ribero. Unhappily neither the original, nor even a good copy of this remark- able and important map of Chaves, has come to our knowledge. But Oviedo had it before him when he wrote his most interesting descrip- tion of the east coast of North America, contained in chai)ters IX-XI, book XXI. of his " History of the Indias ;"j: which is the fullest and best Spanish report on our coast of the snxteenth century. We may there- * [See J. G. Kohl's work before cited, " Die bcidon altesten General-Karten," etc., pp. 11-14.— Ed.] t Oviedo, llistoria General de las Indias, parte segunda, torn. 1, p. 150. Madrid, 1852. $ Oviedo, llistoria General do las Indias, parte segunda, torn. 1, pp. 143-15-'. Mad- rid, 1852. 308 CHART OF CHAVES, 1536. fore consider this report of Oviedo as a description of the contents of Chaves' map, and as the result of the experience and views of the Span- ish geographers in the year 1536. Oviedo calls this chart a modern w^ork ; and says, " that it was recently made in the late year 1530 " (carta moderna, que nuevamente se corregio el ano que jjassb de mill e quini- entos y treynta y seys anos). It is thus evident, that he wrote the de- scription, and the chapter of his great work in which it occurs, in 1537. Oviedo begins his description of our east coast at the south v^itli Cape Florida, which he calls " Punta de la Florida," putting it in 25° 40' N. This latitude agrees very nearly with the ti'ue position of that cape. The great cape on the east coast of Florida, which Ponce de Leon discovered in 1513, and which he called " Cabo de Corrientes " (Cape of the currents), is called by Oviedo "Cabo de Canaveral" (Cape of the reeds). We do not know by whom, or at what time, that celebrated name was introduced. Oviedo puts it a little too lew in 28° N. From Cape Caiiaveral to " Cabo de Sta. Cruz," a name introduced by Ponce de Leon, there is, according to Oviedo, a distance of forty-five leagues. Between both capes, he says, the coast runs to the north ; but from Cabo de Sta. Ci-uz it begins to change its direction toward the north-east. Accordingly we must look for this " Cabo de S. Cruz " somewhere north of St. John's Kiver, — if it is not this coast-section itself, projecting somewhat near this river. From " Cabo de Sta. Cruz," where the direction of the coast changes, to " Cabo de Sta. Elena," the distance is, according to Oviedo, sixty leagues; and he puts this cape in 33° N. On this coast-section he designates the following places : 1. A river, called " Mar Baxa," twenty leagues north-east of Cabo de Sta. Cruz. It may be the Altamaha. 2. A river, called "Rio Seco" (dry river), ten leagues from "Mar Baxa," or thirty leagues from C. de Sta. Cruz. Perhaps the " Savannah " is meant. 3. A cape called "Cabo Gruesso" (the big cape), ten leagues north- east of Rio Seco. This Cabo Gruesso is found on many Spanish maps, but we will not venture to say what cape may be meant by it. From Cape St. Helena to " Cabo Trafalgar " the distance is, according to Oviedo, one hundred and twenty leagues ; and this cape lies in 35° 30' N. This Cabo Trafalgar is found on nearly all the old Spanish charts, and must have been a very ijrominent headland. Some authors have supposed that Cape Lookout, others that Cape Fear was designated by it; and several old maps may be adduced in suppoi't of these different views. But following Oviedo's latitude we should conclude, that. Cape Ilatteras was intended, which stands only some minutes CHART OF CHAVES, 1530. 309 lower. Tliis becomes nearly certain, from the fact that Oviedo, after " Cape Trafalgar," puts down no other cape for a distance of forty leagues. In the intermediate space between Cape Sta. Helena and " Cabo de Trafalgar," Oviedo mentions the following points : 1. " Rio de Sta. Elena," which is mentioned in connection with the cape, and, a little further on, "Eio Jordan,"' our Port Royal, and St. Helena Sound. 2. " Cabo de St. Roman " is put down thirty leagues from the Cape Sta. Helena in 32° 30' N., which agrees quite well with Cape St. Romain. It is only twenty minutes too high. The distance of thirty leagues is rather too great, if Castilian leagues (17^ to a degree) are meant, which is probable. Nearly all the distances of Oviedo are too great, suppos- ing that he gives rectilinear distances. But he may have followed in his measurement the indentations of the coast, as a mariner sailing along the shore would be likely to do. 3. Near Cabo St. Roman the "Rio de las Canoas" (Canoe River), empties into the sea. This river appears very often on Spanish maps near Cape St. Romain, and probably the " Pedee " or "Santee" is intended by it, because no other river is laid down near this cape. 4. Not far from Cabo de Trafalgar on the south-west, two rivers or inlets are mentioned: "Rio del Principe" and "Rio de Trafalgar." It is possible that some outlets of Pamlico Sound are alluded to by these names. " All this country," remarks Oviedo, after having mentioned Cabo Trafalgar, "was discovered by Ayllon;" from which we are confirmed in the opinion already expressed, that these names (Cape Trafalgar in- cluded) originated with Ayllon in 1520 and 1536. From Cabo Trafalgar (Hatteras) to "Cabo de San Johan," Oviedo makes it forty leagues, and between them midway places the " Bahia de Santa Maria." This distance from Cape Hatteras to " Cabo St. Jo- han," would take us to some point of the eastern coast of Delaware. The entrance to the " Bahia de Santa Maria " is placed by Oviedo in 36° 40' N., which thus represents Chesapeake Bay, the mouth of which lies in 37° N. This becomes more evident from the subsequent Span- ish historians, Barcia for instance, who puts " St. Mary's Bay " in 37° N., and north of Cape Trafalgar. This excludes the opinion which might be drawn from Ribero's map, that Pamlico or Albemarle Sound might have been meant by it. The discovery of this bay was made by Ayllon in 1526, and in 1529 Ribero puts it on his map for the first time ; but somewhat lower than the true latitude of Chesapeake Bay. 310 CHART or CHAVES, 153G. Oviedo represents ''Eio del Espiritu Santo*' ( II oly Ghost river) as discharging into the western, and the "RioSalado" (salt river) into the eastern part of the bay. The "Holy Ghost Eiver" is probably James River. These rivers are also found on the map of Ribero, and are init down on nearly all the Spanish charts of the sixteenth century. " Cabo de St. Johan " is put by Oviedo only one-third of a degree north of Chesapeake Bay. But at the same time he makes the distance between both points nearly twenty leagues. It is impossible to tell what island or headland on the peninsula of Delaware may have been meant by it. The next point is " Cabo de las Arenas " (cape of the sands). Oviedo says, that it lies in ;JS° 20' N., and thirty leagues from " Cabo St,- Johan ; " that is, fifty leagues from Chesapeake or St. Mary's Bay. This points rather clearly to Cape Ilenlopen, though the distance, fifty leagues, carries us a little north, and the latitude " 08° 20' " a little south of it. Oviedo does not describe his " Cabo de las Arenas" as a very prominent point, though all the old Spanish charts, and those made after them, place a cape bearing this name in about 40° N., and represent it as a very prominent object. They give to it nearly the sliape of our Cape Cod. It is so drawn for the first time on the map of Ribero, 1520, and was, doubtless, discovered by Gomez, though not so named by him, as I have before suggested, and shall prove hereafter. After "Cabo de las Arenas," Oviedo mentions " Cabo de Santjago " (St. James Cape), thirty leagues north of it, and in 30° 30' N. ; then a " Bahia de San Christobal" (St. Christopher's Bay). It appears to me impossible to say, which of our bays and capes north of Cape Ilenlopen correspond to these names. Oviedo now proceeds to say: " The Rio de San Antonio is in 41° N. This river stands on the coast in a line directly from north to aonih. And whilst the coast runs north to the mouth of this river, it then begins to trend to the north-east, quarter east, for more than forty leagues." It is impossible to give a more accurate descrii^tion of Hudson River, which therefore I believe to be the S. Antonio of Oviedo. As Oviedo never mentions Verrazano, nor any of the names given by him, but often cites Gomez as his authority, I infer that the name " Rio de San Anto- nio " must have been derived from the account of Gomez. And this view is confirmed by Gomara, who gives to a chapter of his " Ilistoria de las Indias," in which he reports the expedition of Gomez, the title, " Rio de San Antonio," as if this river had been one of the most im- portant discoveries of Gomez.* •See this chapter in (jlomara, Ilistoria de las Indias, fol. xx. Saragossa, 1553. CHAET OF CHAVES, 1536. 311 " From the Rio de S. Antonio the coast runs for about forty leagues north-east, quarter cast, to a certain point, which has on the west a river (que tiene de la parte del Ponente un rio), named 'Buena Madre ' ( tlie Good Mother) ; and on the other side, east of tlie point (delante de la punta) is the bay, whicli tliey call "St. Johan Baptista." This description agrees very nearly with the configuration of Long Island and the neighboring coast. Long Island is not much less than forty Spanish leagues long, and Oviedo's distances, as we have seen already, are always ample. Its southern coast trends exactly north-east, quarter east. The " certain point" at tlie end of this dis- tance may be our " Montauk Point;" the river " Buena Madre," west of this point, the entrance to Long Island Sound, and the " Bahia de San Johan Baptista," east of this point, our Narraganset Bay. The latitude of 41° 30' N. which Oviedo gives to that point, is nearly the true latitude of Montauk Point. " From the point of the bay of St. Johan" (Montauk), Oviedo proceeds to say, " the coast trends still north-east, a quarter east, for fifty leagues, as far as the " Cabo de Arecifes " (cape of the reefs), which cape stands in about 43° N. This ' Cape of the Reefs ' is the principal or um^we point of the Northern Archipelago (la ttfia punta del Ai-chipel- ago septentrional) ; from this cape over to the ' Cabo de Sta. Maria,' are twenty leagues. Between these two capes is an inlet or bay, full of islands, wliich they call, in modern times, ' Archipelago.' " From Montauk Point to Cape Cod is, after the manner of Oviedo's broad measurement, about fifty Spanish leagues ; and, so far as this point, the general outline of the coast may be said to trend north-east, quarter east. It seems to me, therefore, very probable, that this " Cabo de Arecifes " of Oviedo is our Cape Cod, which may well be called a '•unique point" on the coast, and which would be well named the " Reef Cape," as being surrounded by banks, and shoals, or reefs. Oviedo's latitude, 43° K, is only about half a degree two high. His " Cabo de Sta. Maria," which lies " twenty leagues from the ' Reef Cape,' " and also in 43° N., would then be our Cape Ann. It may justly be said, tliat across from Cape Cod to Cape Ann, tlie distance is " twenty leagues." The bay or inlet between those two capes, which is " full of islands," and " which they call, in modern times, the Archipel- ago," may be a section of the Gulf of Maine. Oviedo himself some- times names this Archipelago "Archipelago de la Tramontana," or " Archipelago Septentrional " * (the Northern Ai-chipelago). From the manner in which he mentions it again on page 150, where he calls it " a great gulf," he cannot mean by it any of our small bays ; for •Oviedo, 1. c. pp. 143, 146. 312 CHART OF CHAVES, 1536. instance, "Saco" or " Casco Bay." He evidently intends to designate by this term, a large body of our waters, like the bay of Massachu- setts, or nearly the whole of the Gulf of Maine ; and hence, as has been already observed, it was probably to these waters that the Spanish name " Archipelago Tramontana," or " Septentrional," was applied. Oviedo gives vis to understand, that he or Chaves had this information and these names principally from the survey and report of Gomez, who, as he says, discovered all these coasts lying between 41° and 40° 30' IST.* But his remarkable expression, " they call it in modem times," seems to imply, that Gomez was not his only Spanish authority for his knowledge of these coasts, but that something regarding them may have been known among the Spaniards from other navigators occasionally visiting them. Beyond the "Cape St. Mary" (Cape Ann) towards the east (a la parte oriental), comes " Cabo de muchas islas " (Cape of many islands) , thirty-five leagues distant; and twenty leagues from that is "Rio de las Gamas" (Deer River). '• The mouth of this river and its headlands lie in 43° 30' ]Sr., and thence the coast begins to trend more to the north-east." Though it is difficult to designate exactly the point to which the name " Cabo de muchas islas " is given by Oviedo, yet it appears not improbable, that Cape Elizabeth is intended, which is about the same distance (twenty leagues), as given by him from the broad opening of the Penobscot, and stands at the entrance of a bay filled with "many islands."t The latitude 43° 30' which Oviedo gives to " Deer River," differs only by half a degree from that of the entrance of the Penobscot, — the prin- cipal inlet or river on the coast of Maine. The " Rio de las Gamas " (Deer River) makes, on all the old Spanish maps of this region, a most prominent figure. It does not fall usually much short of the me- ridian of the Bermudas, which is about the true longitude of the Pe- nobscot. " Near the Rio de las Gamas," Oviedo says, " is the coast which they *I liave stated before, that Oviedo, in another place in his " Sominario " (see Ramusio, vol. 3. fol. 52, Venetia, 1556). says, that Gomez discovered a great tract of country as far down as about 40° and 41° N. t [If we follow the aufhoiity, not of Ribero only, but of all the maps copied in this work, in all of which (with the single exception of the pretended mapof Cabot of 1544), the " Cabo de muchas islas," wherever it is introduced, is placed at the very entrance of Penobscot 15ay, we must make it, as has been before intimated, one of the headlands in the neighborhood of Owl's Head. But the distances here given between Cape Ann and the Penobscot, place " Cabo de muchas islas " at an intermediate point, and con- firm the conjecture of Dr. Kohl, that Cape Elizabeth was intended by Oviedo.— Ed.] CIIAET OF CHAVES, 1536. 313 call Medanos (the hillocks), and further on, is the Rio dc Montanas (the mountain river), which is fifty leagues from the Rio de las Gamas, and in 44° 15' N." After this, Oviedo mentions a "Rio de Castanar" (chestnut river); and "La Bahia de la Ensenada" (the bay of the inlet). "From this bay," says Oviedo, "the coast runs north, a quarter east (al Norte quarta del este), to that channel (Gut of Canso?), which separates the island of St. John (Cape Breton) from the main-land, for a hundred and twenty leagues east-south-east of Nova Scotia ; and here is situated Cabo Breton in 47° 30' N." The island of St. John, he says, is about a hundred and forty-five leagues in circumference, which is rather a large measurement for Cape Breton. Leaving Cape Breton, Oviedo gives a very short description of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, without assigning to it any name, and only ob- serving, that the particulars of these waters and coasts are not yet well known; and that the charts and the . cosmographers differ very much in their descriptions of them. " It is a wild and very cold country," he says, " and few are those who sail to it." * Thus neither Oviedo, nor his authority Chaves, appear to have been acquainted in 153G and 1537, with the French surveys of the St. Lawrence,, in 1534 and 1535, by Cartier. But he clearly and minutely describes the south coast of Newfoundland .t " At a point not far from Cape Breton," Oviedo says, in conclusion, " the chart of Chaves, of the year 153(3, comes to an end." For the remainder of the North American continent, he follows, in his descrip- tion, the old chart of Ribero of 1529. And he does this so accurately, that we can recognize and identify every point and name given by Ribero on the coast.t From which we may conclude, that the descrip- tion of our east coast, which he has drawn from Chaves, is not less accurate. We may sum up the examination of Oviedo, and his description of Chaves' map of 1536, as follows : Both the description and the map are much more correct, and more in accordance with the features of our coast, as represented on modern maps, than the map of Ribero of 1529. In regard to " Cabo de Arenas," they greatly differ : Ribero gives it a prominent position, in latitude 40° N., while Oviedo places it in lati- * Oviedo, 1. c. p. 148. t Oviedo, 1. c. p. 149. t Oviedo, 1. c. pp. 149, 150. ol4 CHART OF CHAVES, 1536. tude 39° 30', and gives it very little iirominence. By wliich it would appear, that this name was given by Gomez, whose authority both au- thors followed, to Cape Henlopen, or some headland in its vicinity. Oviedo and Chaves call Cape Cod "Cabo de Arecifes" (the reef- cape), which was probably the name originally given to it by Gomez, who cannot be supposed to have overlooked this extraordinary pro- jection. The following names, "Cabo de St. Jago," "Rio de S. Antonio," " Eio de Buena Madre," " Bahia de Juan Baptista," are placed by Oviedo and Chaves south-west of their Reef-cape. Their river " San Antonio," from Oviedo's description, and from what Gomara says, ap- pears to be the name given by Gomez to Hudson River. The other names are given to places on the southern coast of New England : — Montauk Point, Narraganset Bay, etc. On the north of his Reef-Cape, Oviedo describes a deep large bay, or Archipelago (Gulf of Maine); making Reef-cape (Cape Cod) a very ])rominent headland, an " unique point," as Oviedo has it, on the coast. Ribero, on his map of 1529, has given to the above-named places the same latitude as Oviedo has done ; but, unlike Oviedo, puts them north of " Cabo de Arenas," along the shores of the semicircular gvilf, so similar to our Gulf of Maine. He has also a very prominent headland, " a unique point ; " but to this headland, looking so much like Cape Cod, he gives the name, not of " Reef-cape," like Oviedo, but of " Cabo de Arenas." From this it appears probable, that Ribero had before him a copy of Gomez's chart, which was either imperfect, or which he did not inter- pret correctly. He found in the chart of Gomez a good representation of the indented coast of Maine, bordered by innumerable islands ; and also of a prominent headland, veiy much like Cape Cod. But for some reason, he took this headland to be the "Cabo de los Arenas " of Gomez ; overlooking, or not having before him, the name " Reef-cape," the name by which this headland had really been designated by Gomez; and, having committed this error, he followed it out by placing north of this headland the names above mentioned, which had been placed by Gomez north of his Cabo de Arenas. These errors of Ribei-o were cor- rected by Chaves and Oviedo, who appear to have had the charts and descriptions of Gomez in a better and more complete copy. From all that has been said, it must aiipear to be a matter of deep regret, that the chart of Chaves has not come down to us. Nor does it appear to have been known to the geographers of the sixteenth cen- tury, who continued to represent our east coast according to the old map of Ribero, more or less inaccurately copied. The chart of Chaves ^ T^ ^ "^ Fold-out Placeholder This fold-out is being digitized, and will be inserted at future date. ^^ "" J^ r ^ I— < i^ ^ 1^ 1^ ^ o O Fold-out Placeholder This fold-out is being digitized, and will be insertec future date. j SKETCHES OP VAEIOUS CHARTS. 315 Avas probably liiddcu away in some inaccessible arcliives; while copies of tlie map of Ribero were dispersed throughout the world ; the em- peror himself, by whose order they were composed, having aided in making them known. And although it would appear, that some subsequent geographers must have had some incidental knowledge of Chaves and Oviedo, from their giving now and then some name on their maps not found in liibero ; it was not, however, until 1852, when Oviedo's work was pub- lished by the Academy of Madrid, that his true and full description of the coast became generally known. 3. Map, No. 17, Sketches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, G, 7 of the East Coast of THE United States, by different Authoks of the Six- teenth Century. Under this head I will present a series of sketches of our east coast, to show how the materials furnished by Eibcro, Chaves, and Oviedo were used by subsequent map-makers. By this it will apijear, that in the northern portion of the coast of the pi-esent United States, a gulf is represented on all the majis of the time, similar to the Gulf of Maine, and south of it, a cape resembling Cape Cod. And first I will review the seven sketches copied on our sheet, and name the works from which they have been taken. I regret that, for want of space, I am unable to add the degrees of latitude given on the originals ; but in describing them I will mention, from the originals be- fore me, such as may appear necessary. No. 1 is taken from an interesting Spanish manuscript map in the possession of Mr. Henry Huth of Loudon, kindly allowed by this gen- tleman to be lithographed for me. I do not know the author of the map , nor the time of its composition. But as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the isl- and of Auticosti, and the western side of Newfoundland, are quite cor- rectly drawn, it cannot have been made before the time of Cartier, who discovered these coasts in 1534. The mouth of the St. Lawrence is repre- sented, not as a river, but as a strait, with an indistinct ending, just as Cartier, in 1534, supposed it to be. The map was therefore made, prob- ably, in 1.534, or at least from materials furnished by Cartier in that year. Our copy gives the map only from " C. Hondo" (Cape Sable) near the Bay of Fundy, toward the west. The name of Gomez occurs twice on the map; first given to a cape or small inlet, next to the great inlet full of islands, which Ribero has depicted in the same manner, and which Chaves, Oviedo, and many 316 SKETCHES OF VARIOUS CHARTS. others have called " Rio Gamas," the Penobscot Bay. It is called on this map " Rio de Gomez," which may, therefore, be considered as one of the names given by the Spaniards to this principal river of Maine. Gomez appears to have explored this bay somewhat minutely, and may have given it the name of Deer River ; but others may have preferred to name it after him, as being one of his principal discoveries. A cape west of the Penobscot Bay, on Ribero and Chaves, is called " Cabo de muchas islas," — one of the headlands near Owl's-head, or, following Oviedo, our Cape Elizabetli. South-west and south of this cape is delineated a gulf, filled with small islands, like the Gulf of Maine. This gulf at the south, in about 49° N., is terminated on our map by a prominent and pointed cape without a name, resembling Cape Cod. The rest of the coast as far down as Florida is also without names. "No. 2 is taken from an interesting manuscript chart, likewise obtain- ed from the collection of Mr. Huth. I do not know the author ; but as the river St. Lawrence, and all the discoveries made by Cartier, 15.30 to 1.542, are accurately represented, it must have been drawn later than No. 1, probably soon after 1542. Our sketch gives the coast only from " Rio Fundo" (Bay of Fundy) westward. The configuration of the coast, which for us is the princi- pal point, is accurately delineated on the coJ)y as in the original, al- though I have not retained all the names. " Rio de Gamas " is drawn in the same manner and position as on the former chart, and as on that of Ribero, and here as there unques- tionably represents the Penobscot. From this a gulf filled with isl- ands trends to the south-west, which in about 40° N. is ended by a large and prominent peninsula, the northern cape or point of which is called " C. de las Arenas." No. .3 is also obtained from a manuscript map of Mr. Huth. A copy precisely like it exists in Germany in the archives of the Duke of Coburg-Gotha. There it has the inscription : " Baptista Agnese fecit^ Venetiis, 1.543, die 18 febr." (Baptista Agnese made it, Venice, 1543, on the ISth February). The map, like Nos. 1 and 2, is evidently made from the map of Ribero, and not from that of Chaves and Oviedo. Though it is a very rough sketch, still it preserves the great semicircular gulf in " the country which Estevan Gomez discovered." The gulf is termin- ated at the south, as on the former maps, by a prominent cape, here called " Cabo de Santa Maria ; " a name which Oviedo places north of Cape Cod, intending, I suppose, to designate Cape Ann. The names SKETCHES OF VARIOUS CHARTS. 317 " b. de S. Antonio" (Hudson River), "Kio de bucna madre," etc., are put, as by Ilibero, nortli of the " prominent cape." No. 4 is from a printed map made by " Nicollo del Dolfinato, cos- mographer of his most Christian Majesty," and is annexed to tlie work " Navigation! del mondo nuovo " (Navigations of the new world), pub- lished in Venice in the year 1560. It is a very rough sketch, but has clearly marked upon it a deep semi- circular gulf south of " Tierra de los Bretones" (Nova Scotia). Tlie names " S. Antonio " and " S. Christofolo " show, that the same gulf is meant, which Rlbero has placed in this part of the coast. It is cut off in the south by the same prominent cape, extending far eastward, and called " C. de S. Maria." No. 5 is a sketch in exact imitation of the features of the east coast of North America, as drawn in the atlas of Gerard Mei-cator, published by J. Hondius in 1619. Though the atlas bears this late date, the map itself originated at a much earlier period. It is well known that Hon- dius, a map-maker and map-seller, procured all the old plates of Mer- cator, who died in the year 1595, and reprinted them repeatedly with- out impi'oving them. The map may be ascribed to about the year 1590. It designates the land discovered by Gomez as " Norumbega," and has along its coasts all the old Spanish names first given by Gomez, and found on the map of Ribero, and in the same order in which Ribero has written them. The semicircular gulf formed by the coast of " Norumbega" is drawn much deeper than usual; and trending to the south as far down as about 39° N., there ends in a very prominent and broad peninsula, the northern point of which is called " C. de las Arenas." To Norum- bega (Northern Virginia, New England) are given none but Spanish names, while south of" C. de las Arenas "in Southern Virginia, some English names appear, introduced by the expeditions made under Sir "Walter Raleigh in 15S4 and following years. No. 6 is a sketch taken from the " Novus Atlas," published by Wil- liam and John Blaeu, 2d vol. Amsterdam, 1042. Though published at so late a date, the plate must have been engraved much earlier. It con- tains on the coast of Nova Scotia only the Bay of Fundy, and along the coast of Maine as far down as " Rio de Quenbequin" (Kennebec) a few indications of the discoveries made by the French under De Monts, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. South of the Kennebec, the old Spanish names of Ribero are retained. Along the region of the coast 318 SKETCHES OF VARIOUS CHARTS. of Maine, the name " Norumbega " is written ; and liere we see again a large gulf with a prominent cape in the south, called " C. de las Are- nas," in about 39° 30' X. No. 7 is a copy of a delineation of our east coast, taken from a map of America, contained in the " Atlas minor Gerardi Mevcatoris," pub- lished by Hondius in the year 1G07. It gives to the coast about the same delineation as sketch No. 5, only in a manner somewhat more rude. Each of these sketches will serve as an example of many others. The same things were copied and pubHshed over and over again, during the whole course of the sixteenth century. I might have given a great many more copies ; but they would only repeat the same or similar delineations and names. The results of an examination of these sketches, and a comparison of them with each other, and with the maps of Ribero and Chaves, and with the description of Oviedo, may be given as follows : All the maps exhibit, in the northern region, a semicircular gulf, va- rying in its depth, which in its latitude and its configuration resembles the Gulf of Maine. They all have a very prominent headland south of this gulf, and in the latitude of about 40° N. ; where indeed no prominent headland ex- ists, but where, on the contrary, we lind the deei^ Gulf of New York receding far to the west; while a little more to the north, such a prominent headland, Cape Cod, is actually found. To this prominent headland nearly all the sketches, agreeing with Ribero, give the name of " Cabo de Arenas ; ■' while this name, accord- ing to Oviedo, originally belonged to a cape not at all prominent on the inner part of the Gulf of New York. All these charts have consequently perpetuated the error of Ribero, in placing this " Cabo de Arenas,'' meaning by it Cape Cod, not in 42° N. where it actually is, but in 40° or even 39° N. Some of them have given it the name " Cabo de S. Maria," though this name is given by Chaves and Oviedo to a more northern cape, probably meaning by it Cape Ann. As the east coast of the United States, during the sixteenth centu- ry, was visited by many other navigators after Gomez, some additional knowledge, or confirmation of what was previously known, may have reached our map-makers from these sources. These navigators no doubt cari-ied home some report about a certain prominent headland existing in the neighborhood of 40° N., or somewhat further in that di- SKETCHES OF VARIOUS CHARTS. 319 rection. Jf one of them could have failed to 'observe this conspicuous point, as they might easily have overlooked that in the Gulf of New York. By these reports the map-makers were confirmed in holding and transmitting the traditionary error, of identifying the Cabo de Arenas with this piomincnt cape. Most of these navigators, like Verrazano in 1.524, and Hawkins in 156.5, sailed along the coast from south to north with the Gulf-stream. And having been borne by the Gulf-stream further north than by their reckoning they would take themselves to be ; in short, having uncon- sciously arrived at 42° N. when they thought themselves to be only at 40°, and having observed a great headland lying in the latitude to which they had arrived, they might naturally have taken it to be a headland belonging to the latitude in which they supposed themselves to be, and have given it the name " Cabo de Arenas," which had been ap- propriated by Chaves to the more southern headland, instead of the proper name, which had been given to it by Gomez, of Cabo de Arecifes. This is exactly what api^ears to have been done by Ribero, who, as has been before suggested, drew Cape Cod quite correctly, but gave to it a wrong name ; and then quite consistently with that error, placed north of it, along the coast of the Gulf of Maine, some names, particularly the Rio de San Antonio, which had before been correctly placed along the Gulf of New York, north of Cape Heulopen or Sandy Hook, the " Cabo de Arenas," of Chaves. CHAPTER IX. FREN'CH EXPEDITION'S TO CANADA, IN 153i-1543; AND HORE'S VOYAGE, 1536. 1. First Voyage of Jacques Cartier to the Gulp and River op St. Lawrence, in 1534. Some sections of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, the exploration of which was so intimately connected with that of our State, had been visited and become known long before the year 1534. The Portuguese and French fishermen, from the year 1504, no doubt repeatedly entered the gulf and perhaps gave it the first name it received of " Golfo Quadrado " * (the square gulf), or "the great bay." Denys in 1506, and Aubert in 1508, — early French commanders of fishing expe- ditions, — are said to have even made maps of this gulf. The great Spanish, French, and English official explorers, — Gomez in 1524, Verrazano in 1525, and Rut in 1527, — no doubt observed the entrance of the gulf, but probably did not enter it, by reason of information from the fishermen, that it was an interior basin of water, surrounded by land. The reports and charts of the regions north of Maine and west of Newfoundland, which the French and Portuguese are said to liave committed to })aper, are nearly all lost. Coming from private persons, and scattered through many *This name is nientioiied in Goniara, Historia de las Indias, vol. 20. Saragossa, 1553. FEENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. 821 little seaports and towns, they would not be generally known to geographers and cosmographers. We possess, however, one old chart, which preserves and represents the information concerning those regions gathered during the first quarter of the sixteenth century; namely, the chart of Gastaldi, of which I liavo given a copy in No. 11 ; but even this chart, though based probably on very early explorations, was not published before the middle of the century. Another chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, made before Cartier, I will give in the Ap- pendage to this chapter. No. 18 a. Probably the fishermen and their employers did not fiivor the diffusion of knowledge respecting their " Terre neuve." They, no doubt, like the governments of that time, had their secrets, and did not like to have others intermeddle with them. They wished to traffic with the Indians for furs, and to dry their cod-fish at the accustomed stations, according to old usage. They would have made, if they could, a mare clamiim of thfe " Square Gulf," — this prolific habitat of the walrus, the seal, and fish of various sorts. They would gladly have excluded even such of their own countrymen as did not belong to their fishing corporations, from sharing their knowledge and using their charts of these regions ;.just as the kings of Spain and Portugal forbade the communica- tion of their charts to foreigners. We observe this reserva- tion of the French fishing interest in every exploring expe- dition not their own, and the hostility of this interest toward nearly every great undertaking ordered by the kings of France. All the subsequent great French explorers, Cartier, De Monts, Champlain, and others, had to contend with this fishing interest, which threw all possible obstacles and troubles in their way. We may, therefore, ascribe to this cause, in part, the deficiency of old reports and charts of this region. 21 322 FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. The first official exploring expeditions, wliicli changed this state of things, and which were particularly directed to the waters of the St. Lawrence and tlie north of Maine, Avere those of Cartier, Roberval, and their companions under the French flag. During the course of their operations, continued for about ten years, tliej settled nearly all the principal geo- graphical questions connected with this gulf, and the lower part of the liiver St. Lawrence; determined the shape of the coasts, the course and bendings of the river ; gave names to the important bays, harbors, capes, and remarkable points ; and constructed very accurate charts of them, which were soon afterwards copied in France and other countries. The River St. Lawrence, including its gulf, lying west, north, and east of Maine, has been and still is to her inhabi- tants an object of considerable commercial importance. It was always a great highroad for the Indian tribes of ]\Iaine. At a later time, it served as the basis for many French ex- ploring, commercial, military, and missionary expeditions to and through the territory of Maine, and is to-day an impor- tant outlet for the northern frontier of this State. The first effectual explorations of this river by the French must, there- fore, be regarded as strictly pertinent to the history of the discovery of our State. But since it will be impossible for me to examine and discuss all the points and questions con- nected with the operations of the French in this region, I shall here confine myself to such only as may appear most applicable to our position. Jacques Cartier was a native of St. Malo, a principal port of Brittany. He was born there in 1494, two years after the first voyage of Columbus to the new world. Like many of his townsmen, he was familiar with the ocean from his child - hood, and accompanied, perhaps conducted, fishing exped tions to the Great Baidv. On these occasions he may have FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. 323 seen or heard something of the inviting regions lying west, and in the rear of these fishing-grounds,* and may have con- ceived tlie j)lan of exploring them more thoroughly in the interest of France. With this view, in 1533, he addressed a letter to Philippe de Chabot, seigneur de Brion, admiral of France, proposing a voyage in the name and at the cost of the king, to continue the discoveries commenced in 1524 by Jean Verrazano. Francis I. was then — soon after the treaty of Cambray, which gave him Burgundy and peace with Spain — in a situa- tion favorable to such an expedition. He agreed to the prop- osition of his admiral and his captain of St. Malo. Two vessels were fitted out with all necessaries for an exploring voyage, armed and manned with a hundred and twenty per- sons, and put under the command of Cartier, and left the port of St. Malo on the 20th of April, 1534.t Like Cortereal and many others, he directed his course to the east coast of Newfoundland ; and having most favorable weather, after a sail of three weeks he arrived there on the 10th of May, near Cape Buonavista, one of the most eastern headlands of Newfoundland, and usually the " Prima vista " of European discoverers sailing to these regions, and not far from the land-fall of Cortereal in 1500. *In the first royal commission given to him is the following: "Nous vous avons commis ii la navigation des terres par vous ja commencees a decouvrir." t We liave a report of this voyage, written probably by Cartier himself, or by one of his companions, and preserved to us in an Italian translation by Ramusio, in his 3d vol., fol. 435 seq. Venice, 1550. This was, for a long time, the only authority for Cartier's voyage. Of late, the French think they have discovered in their archives the original report, written by Cartier himself in French ; and they have published it under the title " Relation originale du voyage de Jacques Cartier au Canada en 1534, etc." Paris, 1867. But it does not add much to the knowledge drawn from Ramusio. 324 FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. From this cape, Cartier, like Cortcreal, directed his course to the north, and was much obstructed by great masses of ice. Why he did not go at once to the south-west, to the broad entrance of the St. Lawrence, where he would have escaped the ice, we do not learn. From some allusion in his last report we infer, — what yet appears extraordinary, — that at this time he was still unacquainted with the southern broad entrance to the gulf. On the 27th of May, he arrived at the gulf of the Castles (Golfe des chateaux), the present Strait of Belle Isle. He found this so full of ice, that he was not able to continue his voyage until the 9th of June. Taking an observation of lati- tude, he found his harbor near the mouth of the strait to be in 51° N., which is nearly correct. Enterino- the Strait of Belle Isle, he ranged alono- the south coast of Labrador, occasionally planting names there in remembrance of some places of Brittany, or in commemora- tion of the events of his voyage ; as for instance : " Isle de St. Catherine," at the entrance of the strait, so named from one of his vessels; "Brest," from the well-known port in Brittany, which name the French also carried to the coast of Brazil ; " Saint Servan," from a British saint ; " Riviere Cartier," from the commander's name. All these names are found on old maps, but are now forgotten. Not far from the "Port of Brest," he met a French ship of Rochelle, occupied in fishing ; a proof of what has been stated above, that the French fishermen were accustomed to enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence before the time of Cartier. He found also some aborigines employed in fishing, who were "well built, of good figure, and tall in stature." They told him that they did not live in that region, but in a warmer country, and that they came now and then to these northern shores to catch fish and obtain food. This northern coast FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. 325 appeared to Cartier so disagreeable, unproductive, and barren, that he tliought " it ought to be the country wliich God had given to Cain," and resolved to leave it, and cross to the other side of the Strait of Belle Isle, which had here become very broad. After a sail of twenty leagues from Brest, not far from the present Checatica Bay, he touched a cape which, from its appearance, he named " Cap Double," the present " Point Rich," on the west side of Newfoundland. From this point ho sailed alono- the coast of the great island, in a south- south-west direction, having sometimes fine weather, and sometimes contrary winds and fogs ; so that often he could see nothing of the coast. On the 24th of June he arrived at a very prominent cape, which, in honor of the Saint of the day, he named " Cape de St. Jean " (St. John's Cape), the present " Cape Anguille," the most southern point of the west coast of Newfoundland. This is the first time that we have any account of a navigator having been on the west coast of Newfoundland. This part of the coast had been neglected by former discoverers, and left unrepresented on their maps. From Cape Anguille, leaving Cape Breton and the great entrance of the gulf on the south, he sailed westward and discovered three small rocky islets, which were covered with large flocks of birds " as innumerable as the flowers on a meadow," and therefore were named " Isles aux margaulx." They are still well known to all mariners entering the gulf, under the name of ^' Bird Rocks." West of these Bird Rocks there was another island, about two leagvies long, and one league broad ; 'which, according to this description, must have been the present "Byron Island; " and tlien another, which was large, full of beautiful trees, woods, pleasant meadows covered with spring flowers, and 326 FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. having large fertile tracts of land, interspersed with great swamps. Along its shores were many sea-monsters with two large tnsks in the mouth, like elephants ; and the forests were thronged with bears and wolves. This island was four leagues from the continent, and was named in honor of the admiral of France, who had favored this expedition, " Isle de Brion." According to this description, " Brion's Island " must be our large " Prince Edward Island," though the name " Isle de Brion," on some old maps, is given to a small islet, which we now call " Byron Island." Regarding this Brion's Island, Cartier makes the following remark: "According to what I understand," he says, "I must think that there is some passage between the island of Brion and Newfoundland ; and if this passage should be found navigable, it would shorten the voyage a great deal." From this remark it would appear, that in 1534 Cartier was not acquainted with the broad passage by which the Gulf of St. Lawrence is now commonly entered. Cartier sailed along the north coast of Isle de Brion, giving now and then a name to some cape or island ; for instance, "Cap d'Orleans" and "Isle Alezay," names which are still found on old maps, and which appear to have been placed near the "North Point" of Prince Edward Island. Thence he went over to the continent, entering a bay, which, from the great number of canoes filled with Indians which he saw there, he named " la baye des Barques ; " and another triangular gulf, in 47° N., which he named " the Gulf of Santo Lunario" (the present Miramichi Bay). " He hoped here to find a passage like the strait of the Chateaux " (Belle Isle), and therefore named one of the capes of the bay, " the Cape of Hope." All the country round was covered with thick forests and green meadows. In the same hope " of finding a passage," Cartier entered FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. 327 another deep inlet on the north. Pie sailed into it for more tlian twenty-five leagues, found it to be a beautiful bay and country, but discovered no opening in the west. As it was now early in the month of July, he suffered much from heat ; thought the region to be hotter than Spain ; and there- fore called it "La Baye des Chaleurs " (the bay of heat), a name which has remained to the present time. Having convinced himself that this inlet was land-locked, he left it, sailing along the coast of the great peninsula, which afterwards was called "la Gaspesie," to the north-east and north, and arrived at another opening, where he searched in vain to find a passage, and which afterwards was called "Gaspd Bay." Here he was detained for some time by bad weather and contrary winds, and was at leisure to deal with the Indians of the place, who assembled in great numbers around his vessels. Here, also, quite near to the mouth of the great river of Canada, he formally, in the name of his king, took possession of the country, erecting on a prominent headland a large cross, with the inscription " Vive le Roy de France," which, in presence of the assembled aborigines, he consecrated and venerated, making the ceremony as solemn and imposing as possible. On the 25tli of July, "having a great wind," he left Gasp^ Bay, taking two Indians with him, and sailed toward the north-east, He was now in the midst of that broad chan- nel between the island of Anticosti and the peninsula of Gaspesie, whicli shows open water at the west and east, and which forms the principal entrance of the great river St, Lawrence. One would think, at the present time, that Carticr would readily have discovered this wide channel, and would have sailed at once to the west, where lay before him the open passage, for which he had searched in vain every little bay on the coast of New Brunswick. But to our aston- 328 FRENCH EXPEDITIONS TO CANADA. ishment lie failed to do this ; and, sighting the island of Anti- costi, directed his course northerly to it, and sailed along its coast in an easterl}^ direction. Why he did so does not ap- pear from his journal, nor is any reason given for his course ; though it is easy to conjecture, that the open west was cov- ered with fogs, or that he was driven eastward by stress of weather. He soon reached the eastern end of the island, which, from the Saint of tlie day, he called " Cap de St. Alovise," now "East Point;" observing at the same time that it stood in 49° 30' N. He rounded it, and proceeded along the north coast of Anticosti, " sailing in a north-western direction." He extended his voyage to 50° N., and came in sight of the south coast of Labrador, where he perceived that the channel between the two coasts became more narrow. He went over to the northern side, and again to the southern, to see whether it was a channel or a gnlf. Though he had con- trary winds, great waves, currents, and a high tide against him, and though he was in the narrowest place of the strait, among dangerous rocks (probably the so-called Mingan Islands), still he succeeded in advancing so far westward, that he could see the country (Anticosti) turn and fall off to the south-west. Here he must have observed, Avhat he was so eager to find, open water to the west. But now his nien and his means were exhausted. He saw the beginning of a great, pro- tracted, and perhaps difficult undertaking, the introduction to a series of discoveries. The season was already far advanced ior these northern regions ; for it was in the month of August. So he assembled a council of all his officers, masters, and pilots, and it was concluded to return to France, to obtain a new outfit for another attempt. Cartier called the narrow strait which terminated this voyage, "le detroit de St. Pierre" (St. Peter's channel). He had sounded it in many places, and found it to be very CARTIER'S SECOND VOYAGE, 1535. 329 dee]), sixty, a liiindred, and even a hundred and fifty fathoms ; and tlierefore, perliaps, he supposed it to be, not a river's mouth, but a sea-channel, a passage from the Atlantic to the Avestern sea of Verrazano. Nowhere in his journal does he say that he expected to find, or that he had as yet heard, of a great river. He always declares his desire to find a passage to the west. On his homeward voyage he sailed at first along the south- ern coast of Labrador, toward the Strait of Belle Isle, which he had entered in May. On the Labrador coast, he touched at a place which he named " Cap Tiennot" (or Tidno), a very prominent headland, afterwards often mentioned, and now called Cape Montjoli. And, after a quick and prosperous passage over the ocean, he arrived at St. Malo on the 5th of September of the same year. 2. Secoxd Voyage or Jacques Caktier to the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence, in 1535. The report of Cartier, made soon after his return, to the admiral and the king, of the fine-looking coasts, and a strait promising to lead to new regions in the west, was very favor- ably received. And on the 30th of October, 1534, the ad- miral gave him, in the name of the king, a new commission, by wliicli were placed under his command three well-equip- ped vessels, victualled for fifteen months for a new voyage to the north-west, " to complete the discovery beyond the New- foundlands, already commenced" (la navigation ja commencee a descouvrir oultre les Terres Neufves). Having everything in readiness, and having received the benediction of the bishop of St. Malo, Cartier left this port on the 19th of May, 1535, Avith his three ships.* He took ♦The re]iort of this second voyage of Cartier is preserved in an Italian translation by Ramusio, iu his third volume, folio 441, Veuetia, 155G. The 330 CARTIEirS SECOND VOYAGE, 1535. with liim many expert pilots and sailors of St. Malo, and several enterprising gentlemen and noblemen of Brittany, all luider his command. In crossing the ocean this time he had much bad Aveather, and arrived late, July 7th, on the east coast of Newfoundland. He entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as on his first voy- age, through the Strait of Belle Isle, and coasting along the southern part of Labrador, he arrived early in August, at that strait, which he had before called " St. Peter's chan- nel " (the present Canadian channel), not far east of the termination of his former voyage. On the lOtli of Au- gust, the day of Saint Lawrence, he entered a little port on the northern shore, to which he gave the name " Bay of St. Lawrence." This name has disappeared from that place, which is now called " St. John's river," and was after- wards applied, we cannot say how or when, to the whole great river of Canada, at the mouth of which this little bay was situated. This extension of the name " St. Lawrence," must soon have been introduced and become general ; for the Spanish historian, Gomara, in his work published in 1553, apjdies the name " San Loren^-o " to the entire river and gulf. At the Bay of St. Lawrence, Cartier, seeing unknown waters before him, examined the two Indians whom he had taken at Gaspti Bay on his first voyage, and cai-ried to France. They told him, that the water to the west was only the moutli of a large river, which, by degrees, grew more and French original of this rei)orti had pi-cvionsly been printed in France in 1545. But .so little attention had been paid to this interesting publica- tion, that the whole edition was soon dispersed and lost, and there remains but one co]iy, which is preserved in the British Museum. In 18G4, the li- brarian Tross, in Paris, published a new edition of the French origiual of this report, under the direction of, and with an introduction by, the distin- guished French geographer, M. D'Avezac. I CAETIER'S SECOND VOYAGE, 1535. 331 more narrow, and was called "the river of Hochelaga;"^ that at a place called " Canada," it was very narrow, with water quite pure ; and that at a greater distance, only small boats could pass on it, Cartier appears not to have cared so much for a fresh-water river, as for a salt-water channel, and he therefore went first over to the southern coast, called by the Indians " Honguedo," afterwards named " la Gasp