Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/683

 he painted flags with the Red Cross of St. George to show the discoveries made by the English along the coasts of the New World, which extend from Cape Breton to a point which is probably Cape Hatteras. He calls these discoveries "Sea discovered by the English terminating to the north with the Cape of England." This grand achievement was the work of the expedition of 1498. The results, in the shape of a map, must have been obtained by the Spanish ambassador in London, forwarded to his government, and handed over to Juan de la Cosa as material for his great map. So it came to pass that the only record of the discoveries of the English Expedition of 1498 is preserved on the bullock's hide which now hangs in the navy office at Madrid.

This is a very striking example of the absence of materials for the history of English maritime adventure during its earlier development. The Cabot voyages are generally considered to mark an epoch; and to form the commencement of British maritime discovery. They did nothing of the kind. It has been seen that voyages of discovery preceded them; and they also followed them in quick succession. The importance of the Cabot voyages lies in their success, not in their forming a starting point. English maritime enterprise had been fully aroused half a century before letters patent were granted to Cabot, and its development steadily continued without any break. Three years after John Cabot disappeared from the scene, letters patent were granted for the discovery and settlement of what was called the "New Island" to Richard Ward, Thomas Ashehurst, and John Thomas of Bristol, in conjunction with three natives of the Azores. In 1502, letters patent, for a fourth time, were granted to Hugh Eliot and Thomas Ashehurst; and Dr. Thorne tells us that his father, with another merchant of Bristol named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of Newfoundland. Cabot, according to the legend on his son's map of 1544, had left it to the north, and discovered Cape Breton. The State Papers furnish incidental evidence that these and other voyages were actually made across the Atlantic. In 1503, we read of "one who brought hawks from Newfoundland," and in 1504, of "a Preste going to the New Islande." Another expedition returned in September, 1505.

Maritime discovery was a plant of slow but steady growth in England, established in a rich and fertile soil and destined to spread over the whole earth, to the benefit not only or chiefly of England,