PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-JNO. R. THOMPSON, EDITOR AND Proprietor.

VOL. XIV.

RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1848.

EARLY VOYAGES TO AMERICA.*

in the general history of our country.

NO. 12.

labor appears to increase with the exigency which demands it, and instead of merely giving a volume of "Annals" carefully prepared, commencing with We learn from the modest and unassuming pre- the first settlement at Jamestown, he has pushed face to the work before us, that upon the revival of his researches to a period much earlier, and has the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society, presented to the world a work which, taken as the in December 1847, the report of the Executive first fruits of the Historical Society, our own State Committee, announced as a part of their plan, their may be justly proud of, and which we predict will intention "to publish, in chronological order, what-be eagerly sought after by all who take an interest ever matter relating to our history, it might deem worthy of publication": that "in preparing the mat- Before proceeding to examine the work before ter for the press a careful examination would be us, we will remark, that, in our humble judgment made not only of Smith, Beverley, Stith, Burk and Mr. Robinson has performed the true duty of a hisother books with which a Virginian is familiar, but torian in giving us a statement of facts so far as he of other works hitherto not accessible in this state" has been able to ascertain them from the most authat it would be "a leading object to prepare the thentic sources, rather than his deductions from matter with such fullness that in each volume, pub-those facts, however acute and profound such delished by the Society, may be found all that is of ductions might be. He has obviously had no theovalue in the period of our history embraced by it, while at the same time it would be attempted to make the volumes less repulsive to the general reader than collections of Historical Societies usually are." It was added "that the plan of preparing the matter in the order of time would conduce to this, and entitle the volumes to the name which would be given them of Annals of Virginia.'"

ry to support, and consequently we have no apprehension of his coloring any representation so as to advance it. He leaves his reader to draw his own conclusions instead of saving him that labor by furnishing those of the author: and while we know that many will insist that the pursuance of such a system reduces History to a mere chronicle, we confess that this constitutes no objection in our mind; and we believe that if all historians had contented themselves with honestly discharging this duty, while the world might have lost many bril

The important task of commencing the execution of this plan of the Committee was fortunately confided to their chairman, whose reputation for indomitable perseverance in the investigation of liant essays, History itself would have occupied, facts and for clear and discriminating judgment, are not confined to the limits of his own State, and furnished a guarantee for the fidelity and ability with which the duty, undertaken by him, would be performed. The Committee, as we learn, had not in the first instance expected Mr. Robinson to do more than to prepare a volume of such a character as was called for by their promise to the public, being well aware that the important and absorbing duty of revising the laws of the Commonwealth, with which he had in part been intrusted, was sufficient to occupy all the time which any other person than himself could afford to bestow upon intellectual labor. But Mr. Robinson is not like many other men in this particular, for his capacity for

as it would deserve, a much higher portion in the belief of mankind than it now does, or perhaps ever can do. What, we would ask, would be the consequences if the sacred Historian, instead of giving us the simple and sublime narrative of facts, which now commands the reverence and belief of so large a portion of civilized man, had merely furnished us with his deductions from those facts, colored and distorted to subserve his purposes, however pure and beneficent they may have been? It is better to be ignorant than to believe in error, and we would have the historian who is unable to find out the truth, honestly to say so, and not to conjecture his facts and then reason upon them to his conclusions. This, as we conceive, is not history, but speculation.

An Account of Discoveries in the West until 1519, and A comparison of Mr. Robinson's volume, with of the Voyages to and along the Atlantic Coast of North the history of the United States, by Dr. Graham, America from 1520 to 1573. Prepared for "The Virginia to which, as the author informs us, in his preface, Historical and Philosophical Society, by Conway Robin- he had devoted "more than eleven years of eager son, Chairman of its Executive Committee and published research, intense meditation, industrious composiby the Society." Richmond. Printed by Shepherd and tion and solicitous revisal," affords some striking illustrations of our idea.

Colin.

1848.

VOL. XIV-89

66

In the first chapter of his first book, (page 5, of an address to Henry VIII. of England, urging the edition of 1845) Dr. Grahame informs us that upon that monarch that, with a small number of "Cabot, disappointed in his main object of finding ships, new lands might be discovered, and that the a western passage to India, returned to England to way of discovery was to the North. This letter is relate the discoveries he had already accomplish-in the first volume of Hakluyt's Collection, page 212. ed-without attempting, either by settlement or "Historians often tell us that Henry VIII. made conquest, to gain a footing on the American Contino attempt to explore or settle North America. nent" that " he would willingly have resumed his exploratory enterprise in the service of England, but he found in his absence the king's ardor for territorial discovery had greatly abated"; and he then proceeds to allege many good and sufficient reasons why Henry (the Seventh) had abandoned all colonial projects, &c." Now here we have an instance of speculation absolutely unfounded on fact; for it had entirely escaped Dr. Grahame's research, (and this was undoubtedly great,) that "Letters patent had been granted by Henry VII., on the 19th of March, in the 16th year of his reign, (to wit, March 1500-1) to Richard Warde, Thomas Ashhurst, and John Thomas, of Bristol, and others, authorizing discoveries to all parts, regions and ends of the sea: East, West, South and North,"-that a subsequent patent, with very similar powers, had been granted on the 9th of December, in the 18th year of the same reign (1502) to three of the previous patentees, with the addition of Hugh Elliott, and that in fact there are entries in the account of the privy purse expenses of Henry VII., showing that there was for a while actually some intercourse with the newly discovered region. These entries are very curious, and we subjoin them:

"17 November 1503. To one that brought hawks from the New founded island £1.

This is a mistake. In the nineteenth year of his reign, Henry sent forth two ships on a voyage to the West, one called the Samson, of which a Mr. Grubbs was master, the other the Mary of Guilford, commanded by John Reet. They sailed in 1527; it was the 20th of May, according to Hakluyt, that they set forth out of the Thames, and the 10th of June, according to Purchas, that they sailed from Plymouth. On the way they were separated by a storm. A letter is extant from Reet to King Henry, written the 3rd of August, 1527, in which he states that the Mary, in fifty-two degrees, fell in with the main land, and within two leagues thereof met with a great island of ice, and went the 21st of July into Cape de Bas, a good harbor, where he stopped ten days, and then going South entered the 3rd of August into a good harbour called St. John, where he found eleven sail of Normans, and one Britain, and one Portugal bark, all fishing.

"A letter to the same effect was written from St. John on the 10th of August 1527, by Albert de Prato, who we may infer is the person alluded to by Hakluyt when he says, 'that a canon of Saint Paul, in London, which was a great mathematician and man endowed with wealth, did much advance the action, and went therein himself in person.' The letter of Albert de Prato, it is supposed, was

8 April 1504. To a preste (supposed to be a to Cardinal Wolsey." priest) that goeth to the new island £2.

“25 August 1505. To Clay's going to Richmond with wild cats and popinjays of the new found island, for his costs 13s. 4d.

Again, at page 371 of the work before us, we have an account (extracted from the third volume of Hakluyt's Collection) of a voyage performed by Mr. Hore and others from England to the Northwest in 1536, the 28th year of the reign of Henry VIII. "being assisted by the King's favor and good countenance," and which voyage Mr. Biddle says, in his Memoir of Cabot, p. 278, "evidently contemplated an adventurous range of research."

We could multiply these illustrations, but we have no desire to do so. They are sufficient for our purpose to show how very prone the most honest historians are to substitute their conjectures for truth.

We do not think there is any danger to be apprehended from the mere narrative of facts becoming dry and uninteresting, and thus repelling, instead of inviting readers. We should be reluctant to pay

Again, Dr. Grahame, (Vol. 1, page 7,) supposing that "until the reign of Elizabeth, no fixed ideas were entertained, nor any deliberate purpose evinced in England of occupying territory or establishing colonies in America," attributes this circumstance so poor a compliment to the virtue and intelligence to the absorbing agitation produced during the reign of Henry VIII. by the Reformation. His reasoning is quite conclusive if the fact were not otherwise.

"Robert Thorne," says Mr. Robinson, "besides writing to the English ambassador, at Spain, sent

of mankind. Who has not felt the superior charm and freshness that recommend a narrative which, although homely, is true? And who would not prefer it to fiction, however ornate? The nearer the writer of fiction approaches to the resemblance of truth, the more highly is he esteemed. What but

this imparts to the pages of De Foe, the wonderful made by Columbus when he first discovered that fascination that charms us alike in youth and in continent. age? He dips his pencil in the hues of truth, and so skilfully are they spread upon the canvass, so naturally do the effects which he describes appear to flow from the causes he enumerates, that the most learned have been deceived and regarded as historical facts, incidents which existed only in the imagination of the writer. If the adage that "truth is stranger than fiction" be as just as it is trite, even the lovers of the marvellous need not apprehend disappointment in pursuing her sacred path, and we think that the volume before us affords abundant evidence to justify the remark.

Now while all must be willing to accord to the former navigator every credit for his adventurous daring and his lofty enterprise, justice demands that he should have no more than his fair meed of applause, and not the least interesting portion of Mr. Robinson's work is that in which he demonstrates that those discoveries, by Columbus and Cabot, were in fact in the same year, and so nearly contemporaneous that it was impossible that either of the great navigators could have had the benefit of the experience of the others: Cabot's discovery being on the 24th of June 1498, and that of Columbus on the 2nd of August in the same year. The error which has so long prevailed upon this subject arises from a neglect on the part of historians to allow for the change made in the commencement of the year by the Act of the British Parliament passed in 1751.

In pursuance of Mr. Robinson's plan to give an account of the discoveries in this Western hemisphere until the invasion of Mexico in 1519, and the voyages to and along the Atlantic coast of North America down to 1573, the present work commences with an interesting glance at the "alleged discovery of America by the Northmen in the "An act of the English Parliament," says Mr. eleventh, by the Welch in the twelfth, and by Nich-Robinson, "passed in 1751, (after March) enacted olas and Antonio Zeno in the fourteenth century." that the year should thereafter begin on the 1st of The enquiry into the truth or falsehood of these January; and the following 1st of January, and the alleged discoveries, is perhaps more curious than succeeding days to the 25th of March, were conseuseful. As to the first, they may be regarded, in quently dated as 1752, which otherwise would have the language of the elegant biographer of Colum- been 1751. bus, cited by Mr. Robinson, as " very confident deductions drawn from very vague and questionable facts, and as having led, if true, to no more result than would the interchange of communication between the natives of Greenland and the Esquimaux. The knowledge of them appears not to have extended beyond their own nation, and to have been soon neglected and forgotten by themselves." The story of the voyage of the Welch Prince Madoc in 1170, rests on a mere tradition, and the alleged discovery by the Zeni appears to be little better than an impudent pretension founded in false-erally, or as it was usually understood in historical hood and sustained by fraud.

No American ever wearies with the oft told tale of the struggles of Columbus, the wonderful genius and energies which sustained him and the brilliant success which crowned his enterprise. Mr. Robinson, in preparing this portion of his work, has enriched its pages with copious extracts from the pen of Washington Irving, whose biography of the illustrious Genoese has, if possible, added to the fame of its author, and is, or ought to be familiar to every one who boasts the name of American.

It is very well known that the imperishable renown acquired by Columbus, aroused the jealousy of various nations, and that numerous attempts were made during his life and after his death to di iminish the merit of his bold achievement. To this spirit may be ascribed the pretensions of the Zeni adverted to above, and a still more formidable claim has long been set up in favor of Sebastian Cabot, to whom has been attributed the discovery of the Continent of America, a year before the voyage

"In respect to any matter happening (under the authority of England) before the 1st of January, 1752, there has often been confusion in describing the year of the event, where it happened between the 31st of December and the 25th of March. A day during the intervening two months and twentyfour days which one would mention as in 1497, and correctly so mention, if regard was had to the legal year in England, another would mention as in 1498 and with equal correctness, if regard was had to the year as it prevailed in Catholic countries gen

Chronology. This might be so to the 24th of March inclusive, while the very next day (the 25th of March) and every subsequent day to the 31st of December would have to be described by all as in 1498. Hence any matter happening within the two months and twenty-four days, has to be expressed with care to prevent misconception. This should be done by placing two figures at the end; thus March 5, 1495-6; the former figure (5 in this case) indicating the English legal year at that period, and the latter figure (6 in this case) indicating the year generally referred to in historical chronology and the same that is now used in our calendar.

22nd of August 1485, the grant in his eleventh | no sufficient ground for inferring that Cabot had year was between August 1495, and August 1496, put on the map, that he made the discovery the 24th and being in March, was of course in the March of June 1497. He may have put on it in one which was after August 1495, and before August place Prima Vista, and in another St. John; and 1496, that is to say, in March 1496, according to he may in some way have communicated the fact the calendar as then used in Spain and Portugal, that the discovery was on the 24th of June, at five and as now used in England and America. The A. M. But the statement that the discovery was in grant was therefore about three years after the re- 1497 is the mistake probably of some other person. turn of Columbus from America, instead of two as "Of the fact that the discovery was not in 1497, Dr. Robertson and Dr. Grahame have supposed. but in 1498, there is farther evidence. The time There being no error in stating the grant to Cabot of the departure from Bristol is in the Chronicle of to have been on the 5th of March 1495 (according Robert Fabian, (referred to in Hakluyt's voyages, to the legal year as it then was) it is not surprising as in the custody of John Stow,) stated to be in the that this grant should have been mentioned as two beginning of May, in the thirteenth year of King years after the return of Columbus in March 1493: Henry VII., which was May, 1498, and is in hot it is not the less a mistake. Stow's Annals, (referred to by Mr. Biddle, in his memoir of Cabot,*) stated to be in 1498, in the mayoralty of William Purchas, which mayoralty Mr. Biddle states to have extended from the 28th of October, 1497, to the 28th of October, 1498.

"The mistake is continued in respect to the year of the discovery of North America by Cabot. It is correctly stated that Cabot did not set out on his voyage for two years after the grant; but taking this to be so, the May that he embarked was not May 1497, but May 1498. This is established by the document called by Mr. Biddle in his Memoir of Cabot, (and by others who have adopted his idea) a second patent.

"In the Chronicle of Fabian, there is mention also in the time of William Purchas being mayor, of three men taken in the new found island. These,' he says, 'were clothed in beasts', skins and did eat raw flesh and spake such speech that "This document is a license granted by Henry no man could understand them, and in their deVII., on the 3rd day of February, in the thirteenth meanor like to brute beasts, whom the king kept a year of his reign, to John Cabot, to take, in any time after; of the which, upon two years after, I place in England, six English ships of the bur- saw two apparalled, after the manner of Englishthen of two hundred tons or under, with the neces-men, in Westminster palace which that time, I sary apparel, and receive into the said ships such could not discern from Englishmen till I was learnmariners and other subjects as of their own free ed what they were, but as for speech, I heard none will would go with him. The thirteenth year of them otter one word.'t The statement in Hakof the reign in which this license issued, commenced on the 22nd of August 1497, and ended on the 21st of August 1498. The license, therefore, issued on the 3rd day of February next after August 1497, and next before August 1498. This 3rd day of February was in 1497, merely by reason of the fact that the year then ended on the 24th of March: the May following was May 1498. Yet it having been seen that the license issued in February 1497, and that the ships sailed the May following, the error has constantly been committed of stating that they sailed in May 1497.

luyt is that the three savages were brought home by Cabot, and presented to the king in the fourteenth year of the reign, that is during the year ending the 21st day of August, 1499. Mr. Biddle supposes the presentation to the King to have been in the seventeenth year of the reign. But this is entirely consistent with the fact that they were not brought to England till in or after 1498.

"The conclusion that the first discovery of land by any of the Cabots was on the 24th of June, 1498, is sustained by Mr. Hume. His History of England was published in 1761, only nine years after the commencement of the year was changed and when for that reason the effect of the change

"Thus, at page six of the third volume of Hakluyt, it is stated that in the year 1497 John Cabot and his son Sebastian, (with an English fleet set was more likely to occur to him than to others out from Bristol,) discovered that land which no who have written at a later period. In his twenman before that time had attempted, on the 24th of ty-fifth chapter, after referring to the accident June, about five o'clock, early in the morning. The by which England was deprived of the servi account proceeds: This land he called Prima ces of Columbus, he says: Henry was not disVista, that is to say, first seen, because, as I sup-couraged by this disappointment. He fitted out pose, it was that part whereof they had the first Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian settler in Bristol, and sight from sea. That island which lieth out before sent him westward in 1498 in search of new coonthe land, he called the Island of St. John, upon this occasion, as I think, because it was discovered upon the day of John the Baptist.' Although the matter here stated is mentioned in Hakluyt, as taken out of the map of Sebastian Cabot, there is

tries. Cabot discovered the main land of America, towards the sixtieth degree of northern latitude : he sailed southward along the coast, and discover* Page 43.

Hakluyt, vol. 3rd, p. 9-10.

ed Newfoundland and other countries, but returned | a base very large and massive, and surmounted by to England without making any conquest or set- turrets; that the village was paved with hollow tlement." stones, the streets rising at the sides and descendWe have given the foregoing extract, althoughing in the middle, which was paved entirely with perhaps rather too long for our limits, as a speci- large stones; that the sides were occupied by the men of the research and close reasoning, as well houses of the inhabitants, constructed of stones as of the fairness of our author. from the foundation to half the height of the walls, Passing over many interesting chapters, the at- and covered with straw; and that judging by the tention of the reader will be arrested by the account buildings, these Indians were very ingenious. Other in chapter xxxiii of the discovery of Yucatan, by villages are described on the coast; one so large, Francisco Hernandez de Cordova, in 1517, and of that Seville would not have appeared more considthe voyage thither by Juan de Grijalva in 1518, in erable nor better. And mention is made of a very which were seen and described some of those re-beautiful tower on a point of land which they were markable edifices, the remains of which have been told was inhabited by women who lived without rendered familiar to us by the labors of Stephens men. They went to see the cacique Lazaro, who and others. We extract a portion of this chap- had given an honorable reception to Francisco terHernandez. The Indians seem, however, not to have desired their company; they told them to quit the country, and this not being done quick enough, there was a passage of arms, in which forty of the Spaniards were wounded and one killed. The Spaniards re-embarked and quitted the country of this cacique the 29th of March. The last day of May they discovered a very good port, to which they gave the name of Port Désiré. Here they made some cabins of boughs, and remained twelve days; after which they went to reconnoiter another country named Mulua, which having done they proceeded on their route the first day of July. They saw a large river, from which sweet water goes into the sea for six miles: they gave to it the name of the river Grijalva: the province was named Protontà. They saw a river having two mouths, out of which came sweet water; and they gave to it the name of St. Barnabas, because they arrived the day of the feast of this Saint. Near the mountains they anchored at a little isle, to which they gave the name of the Isle of Sacrafices. They saw some very high edifices built with lime, and a monument like a round tower, fifteen steps broad; at its summit was a block of marble, such as is found in Castile, surmounted by an ani

"Several years had elapsed in the manner mentioned in chapter twenty-fourth, when in 1517 intelligence was brought to the province where Aguilar was, of the arrival on the neighboring coast of great vessels of wonderful construction, filled with white and bearded men. It was in fact the squadron of Francisco Hernandez de Cordova. Yucatan was discovered this year by him, and by the pilot, Juan Alaminos, a native of Palos, who had accompanied Columbus in his fourth voyage. Cordova was for some time along the coast of Yucatan, and lost many men in his different rencontres with the natives. The heart of Jeronimo de Aguilar beat quick with hope when he heard of European ships at hand. He was distant from the coast, however, and was too closely watched by the Indians to have any chance of escape. After Cordova left this coast, he was driven by a storm upon the shore of Florida; thence he returned to Cuba, where he died ten days after his arrival.

head there was a hole wherein to put perfumes. The natives in different parts of Yucatan wore cotton cloth. They gave to the Spaniards vases of gold and mantles or coverings of cotton, so woven as to represent figures of birds and animals of different kinds. They are described as being very civilized, and as having laws and public edifices dedicated to the administration of justice. This account is stated to have been published in Italian at Venice in 1522."

"A new expedition was determined on. Diego Velasquez chose to command it Juan de Grijalva, a native of Cuellar, who had distinguished himself in several expeditions against the Indians of Cuba. On the first of March, 1518, his fleet set out from Cuba. He saw on the 4th, houses on a promon-mal like a lion, sculptured in marble, in whose tory, and gave to this land the name of Saint Croix. The next day he reconnoitered the coast of Yucatan and the isle of Cuzamil. In the account of this voyage it is mentioned that some Indians, among whom was the chief of their village, approaching the vessels, the Spaniards asked news of the Christians whom Francisco Hernandez had left in Yucatan, and was told in reply that one of them was dead and the other still alive; that they followed the coast to find the survivor, and on the 6th went on land, but at first saw no one; that they The novelty, if not interest, of the volume bemounted upon a tower there with a circumference fore us increases considerably in that portion of it of one hundred and eighty feet, planted the stand-where Mr. Robinson has collected the various acard upon one of the fronts, and took possession in counts of voyages to and along the Atlantic coast the name of the King; that afterwards they saw of North America from 1529 to 1573. In doing some Indians and went into their village; that this, he has availed himself of the valuable work amongst the houses were five well constructed, with published by H. Ternaux-Compans, at Paris, in