as
returned safe, and has found two very large and fertile new islands;
having likewise discovered the Seven Cities,[425-1] 400 leagues from
England, on the western passage. This next spring his Majesty means to
send him with fifteen or twenty ships.

SECOND LETTER OF RAIMONDO DE SONCINO TO THE DUKE OF MILAN[425-2]

_Most Illustrious and Excellent My Lord_:--

Perhaps among your Excellency's many occupations, it may not displease
you to learn how his Majesty here has won a part of Asia without a stroke
of the sword. There is in this kingdom a Venetian fellow, Master John
Caboto by name, of fine mind, greatly skilled in navigation, who seeing
that those most serene kings, first he of Portugal, and then the one of
Spain, have occupied unknown islands, determined to make a like
acquisition for his Majesty aforesaid.[425-3] And having obtained royal
grants that he should have the usufruct of all that he should discover,
provided that the ownership of the same is reserved to the crown, with a
small ship and eighteen persons he committed himself to fortune; and
having set out from Bristol, a western port of this kingdom, and passed
the western limits of Ireland, and then standing to the northward he
began to sail toward the Oriental regions, leaving (after a few days) the
North Star on his right hand; and, having wandered about considerably,
at last he struck mainland, where, having planted the royal banner and
taken possession on behalf of this King, and taken certain tokens, he has
returned thence. The said Master John, as being foreign-born and poor,
would not be believed if his comrades, who are almost all Englishmen and
from Bristol, did not testify that what he says is true. This Master John
has the description of the world in a chart, and also in a solid globe
which he has made, and he shows where he landed, and that going toward
the east he passed considerably beyond the country of the Tanais.[426-1]
And they say that it is a very good and temperate country, and they think
that Brazil-wood[426-2] and silk grow there; and they affirm that that
sea is covered with fishes, which are caught not only with the net but
with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order that the baskets may
sink in the water. And this I heard the said Master John relate.

And the aforesaid Englishmen, his comrades, say that they will bring so
many fishes that this kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from
which country there comes