f his father: This practise, saieth he, of the Kinge of Portingale (which
was secretly to deprive him of the honour of his enterprise), beinge come
to the knowledge of the Admyrall, and havinge lately buried his wife, he
conceaved so greate hatred againste the citie of Lysbone and the nation,
that he determyned to goe into Castile with a younge sonne that he had by
his wife, called Diego Colon, which after his fathers deathe succeded in
his state. But fearinge, yf the Kinges of Castile also shoulde not
consente unto his enterprise, he shoulde be constrayned to begynne againe
to make some newe offer of the same to some other Prince, and so longe
tyme shoulde be spente therein, he sente into England a brother of his
which he had with him, named Bartholmewe Columbus. Nowe Bartholmewe
Columbus beinge departed for England, his fortune was to fall into the
handes of pyrates, which robbed him, and his other companions that were in
his shippe, of all that they had. By which occasion and meanes of his
povertie and sicknes, which cruelly afflicted him in a strange contrie, he
deferred for a longe space his embassage, till, havinge gotten upp a
little money by makinge of seacardes, he began to practize with Kinge
Henry the Seaventhe, the father of Kinge Henry the viij'th which nowe
reigneth; to whome he presented a general carde, wherein these verses were
written, which I will rather here put downe for their antiquitie then for
their elegancie:

Terrarum quicunque cupis foeliciter oras
Noscere, cuncta decens docte pictura docebit
Quam Strabo affirmat, Ptolomaeus, Plinius atque
Isidorus: non vna tamen sententia cuique
Pingitur hic etiam nuper sulcata carinis
Hispanis Zona illa, prius incognita genti,
Torrida, quae tandem nunc est notissma multis.

And somewhat more beneath he saied:

_Pro authore sive pictore_

Janna cui patriae est nomen, cui Bartholomaeus
Columbus, de terra rubra, opus edidit istud
Londonijs, Anno Domini 1480 atque insuper anno
Octauo, decimaque die cum tertia mensis
Februarij. Laudes Christo cantentur abundae.(82)

But to returne to the Kinge of England; I say that after he had sene the
generall carde, and that which the Admyrall Columbus offred unto him, he
accepted his offer with a cherefull countenaunce, and sente to call him
into England. These thinges beinge so, wee nede not to be our owne judges,
but are able to prove, as you see, by a forren testimonie of singuler
greate aucthoritie, that Christop