Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/220

Siuile, and desirous to haue some knowledge of the nauigations of the Spanyardes, it was tolde him that there was in the citie a valiant man, a Venecian borne, named Sebastian Cabote, who had the charge of those thinges, beyng an expert man in that science, and one that could make cardes for the sea with his owne hande: and that by this reporte, seekyng his acquayntaunce, hee founde him a very gentle person, who enterteyned him friendly, and shewed him many thinges, and among other a large Mappe of the worlde, with certayne perticular nauigations, as well of the Portugales as of the Spanyardes: and that hee spake further vnto him, in this effecte.

Commendation of Sebastian Cabote.

Sebastian Cabote tolde me that he was borne in Brystow, and that at iiii yeeres olde he was carryed with his father to Venice, and so returned agayne into England with his father after certayne yeeres: whereby he was thought to haue ben borne in Venice.

The fyrst vyage of Sebastian Cabote.

When my father departed from Venece, many yeeres since, to dwell in Englande, to folowe the trade of merchandyes, hee tooke me with him to the citie of London, whyle I was very young, yet hauing neuerthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie, and of the sphere. And when my father dyed, in that tyme when newes were brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genuese had discouered the coastes of India, wherof was great talke in all the court of Kyng Henry the Seuenth, who then reigned: insomuche that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more diuine then humane, to sayle by the West into the East, where spyces growe, by a way that was neuer knowen before. By which fame and report, there increased in my harte a great flame of desyre to attempt some notable thyng. And vnderstandyng by reason of the sphere, that if I should sayle by the way of the Northwest wynde, I should by a shorter tracte come to India, I therevppon caused the kyng to bee aduertised of my diuise: who immediately commaunded two carauels to be furnyshed with all thynges apperteyning to the vyage, which was, as farre as I remember, in the yeere 1496, in the begynnyng of sommer. Beginning, therefore, to sayle toward northwest, not thinking to fynde any other lande then that of Cathay, and from thence to turne toward India.