in the illustrious year of 1498, which witnessed sebastian cabot’s westward discoveries along north america, and columbus’s sighting of south america, vasco da gama, pursuing his eastward navigations, crossed the indian ocean, dropped anchor off the city of calicut, on the malagar coast, and set up on shore a marble pillar as proof of his discovery of india by an ocean highway. thus portugal offset spain’s claim to the west indies by priority of discovery, with a claim through first discovery to the east indies, and stood ready to assert it, while england allowed her right, by the same token, in the north american continent to lapse.

spain and portugal continued in sharp rivalry during the half decade immediately following. in 1499 the coast of south america was touched at about surinam by the spaniard alonzo de ojeda and the florentine amerigo vespucci, sailing for spain. the same year the coast of brazil was discovered by a portuguese navigator, vincente yarez pinzon. he had been a companion of columbus. the next year possession of brazil was taken for the crown of portugal by pedro 91alvarez cabral, a portuguese commander, who was driven to its coast by adverse winds when making a voyage to india by vasco da gama’s course. three years later a settlement was begun there by amerigo vespucci, now in the service of portugal. in 1500 gaspar de cortereal, portuguese, attempted to follow the cabots’ track of discovery opened in the northwest. coming upon the coast of labrador he explored it for six hundred miles. he discovered nova scotia, the st. lawrence, and also hudson’s strait. then he returned to lisbon with his two caravals freighted with natives—men, women, and children—whom he had captured and brought home for slavery. the next year cortereal departed on a second voyage for further discovery and presumably more slaves, and was never more heard from. his brother, michael de cortereal, sailed in search of him, and also was lost. then two armed ships were sent out by the king of portugal to search for both brothers; but no trace of either could be found. it was finally assumed that both fell victims to the vengeance of the natives for the thefts of their people. upon the strength of gaspar de cortereal’s voyages portugal attempted to establish a claim to the discovery of newfoundland and the adjacent coast of north america. but in this she was not successful. spain, however, held firmly to all of her american possessions, indefinitely defined.

england remained passive till 1501, when a new movement was started in the cabots’ home city of bristol. three bristol merchants—richard ward, 92thomas ashehurst, and john thomas—and three portuguese mariners—john fernandus, francis fernandus, and john gundlur—came together for a venture in the track of the cabots. a patent was obtained from king henry, under date of march 19, 1501, which conferred upon them the same powers that had originally been given the cabots, and was in terms similar to the cabot patents. whether they sent out an expedition that year is not known. the next year, however, the personnel of the company had changed, with the dropping of ward and thomas and the substitution of hugh eliot in their place; and under this organization, probably in 1503, a voyage was made which resulted in discovery at newfoundland and along the labrador coast. the only record of this voyage is given by hakluyt in the following excerpt from the merchant robert thorne’s “booke” of 1527, addressed to the english ambassador at the court of spain:

"a briefe extract concerning the discoverie of newfound-land taken out of the booke of m. robert thorne, to doctor leigh &c.

“i reason that as some sickenesses are hereditarie, so this inclination or desire of this discovery i inherited from my father, which with another marchant of bristol named hugh eliot, were the discoverers of the newfound-lands; of the which there is no doubt (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the mariners would then have bene ruled, and followed their pilots minde, 93but the lands of the west indies, from whence all the golde commeth, had bene ours; for all is one coast as the card appeareth, and is aforesaid.”

the “card” here referred to was a rude map of the world on which, along the line of the coast of labrador, was written the inscription in latin, “this land was first discovered by the english.” a short time after this voyage the fisheries about newfoundland had become well known to frenchmen, and were being frequented by the hardy fishermen of brittany and normandy. hence the later name of the isle of cape breton.

no further patents for english navigations were issued for more than half a century. still english interest in maritime discovery and commercial advancement was not altogether stagnant during this period. early in henry the eighth’s reign quite a promising enterprise was set on foot by sebastian cabot, then back in england, and in high standing for his knowledge in cosmography. he had been in spain for seven years (having entered spain’s service three years after the death of henry the seventh, which occurred in 1509), acting part of that time as one of the council of the indies, and latterly completing plans for a new expedition for the search of the northwest passage under the spanish flag, which he had been compelled to abandon by ferdinand’s death, in 1516. returned to england he had found henry the eighth hospitable to his scheme and had induced him to fit out a small squadron for its pursuit. the supreme command, 94however, was given to another,—sir thomas pert, at that time vice-admiral of england,—and this proved disastrous to the enterprise; for, it is recorded, sir thomas’s “faint heart was the cause that the voyage took none effect.” all that the expedition accomplished was a visit to the coast of brazil, to san domingo, and to porto rico, whence it returned to england. hakluyt gives a narration which he supposes to relate to this voyage, written by the spanish historian gonzalo de oviedo, and reprinted by ramusio, from whom he translates it:

“in the yeere 1517 an english rover under the colour of travelling to discover, came with a great shippe unto the parts of brasill on the coast of the firme land, and from thence he crossed over unto this iland of hispaneola, and arrived neere unto the mouth of the haven of this citie of s. domingo, and sent his shipboate full of men on shoare and demaunded leave to enter into this haven, saying that hee came with marchandise to traffique. but at that very instant the governour of the castle, francis de tapia, caused a tire of ordinance to be shot from the castle at the ship, for she bare in directly with the haven. when the englishmen sawe this, they withdrew themselves out, and those that were in the shipboate got themselves with all speede on shipboord. and in trueth the warden of the castle committed an oversight: for if the shippe had entred into the haven the men thereof could not have come on lande without leave both of the citie and of the castle. therefore the people of the 95ship seeing how they were received sayled toward the iland of s. john, and entring into the port of s. germaine, the english men parled [parleyed] with those of the towne, requiring victuals and things needefull to furnish their ship, and complained of the inhabitants of the city of s. domingo saying that they came not to doe any harme but to trade and traffique for their money and merchandise. in this place they had certaine victuals and for recompense they gave and paid them with certaine vessell of wrought tinne and other things. and afterward they departed toward europe....”

king henry viii.

from a photograph, copyrighted by walker and boutall, of a painting.

hakluyt resents oviedo’s use of the term “rover” in this account and his assumption that the object of the expedition was other than discovery and traffic, remarking tartly that spanish and portuguese writers “account all other nations for pirates, rovers, and thieves who visit any heathen coast that they have once sailed by or looked on.”

with the failure of this enterprise cabot again left england and re?ntered the service of spain, taking the post of “pilot major.”