a mass of material not available to the first vindicator of England's maritime prowess.

But neither the whole nor yet the half has been told, nor ever can be told, for there were undoubtedly numerous voyages made by the English to the New World of which there is no record whatever. Voyages unchronicled because unostentatious, not undertaken in quest of gold or for the acquisition of territory, but simply enterprised in search of the humble, unheroic codfish. The part played by the codfish in England's history is by no means inconsiderable. It was the quest of the codfish that first took England's mariners from the home waters, and it was from the ranks of the codfishers that the sailors were largely recruited for England's ever victorious fleet from the days of Elizabeth to Victoria.

The demand for dry salt codfish was so great that very early in the fifteenth century English fishermen had to go far afield for it. We learn from that quaint poem, "Ye English Policie to Kepe the Sea," and from many State documents, that fifty years and more before the date of Cabot's voyages fishermen, from both the east and west coast of England, had been in the habit of making their way, "by nedle and by ston," to Iceland, for "stocke fysche."

It seems somewhat curious that such should have been the case when the home waters were teeming with fish. But only one fish, the codfish, could be prepared so that it would remain fit for food for an indefinite period, and that useful fish was to be obtained more abundantly in Iceland than elsewhere. Besides, the cold, dry climate of Iceland was particularly well adapted for transforming the cod into the "stick" or "stock" fish of commerce. One is accustomed to speak of "the roast beef of Old England," and we picture our ancestors growing lusty and strong on a generous meat diet, but an examination of the account books of noble houses proves that in early times dry codfish and salt

herrings appeared much oftener on the bill of fare than did the juicy roast.

When John Cabot returned from his first voyage in 1497, his partners, the Bristol men, said, "they can bring so many fish that this kingdom will have no more business with Iceland," and they immediately began to prove the truth of their assertion. Cabot sailed again for the New World in 1498 with a larger fleet, to be followed in 1501, 1503, 1504, and 1505 by other expeditions, undertaken by members of his first crews, undoubtedly all for the purpose of taking codfish.

While it is somewhat a matter of controversy, there is good evidence for the belief that Sebastian Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert made an extended exploration of the American seaboard in 1508, with the assistance and under the ægis of the Crown of England.

In 1521, Henry VIII and Wolsey determined to send out a powerful fleet to the new-found realms, pertaining to the Crown of England by virtue of Cabot's discovery. Sebastian Cabot, who, in the meanwhile, had taken service with Spain, was sent for to command the expedition. When he arrived he found the vessels almost ready, and 30,000 ducats appropriated for their outfit. But disputes arose with the Great Livery Companies, who were sharing in the adventure. They objected to Sebastian Cabot being put in command, "as we here say was never in that lande hymself, all if he maks reporte of manie thyngs he hath heard his Father and other men speak in tymes past "-a jealous aspersion of Sebastian Cabot's knowledge and character, which his whole history seems to contradict. Wolsey had been chaplain to the Earl of Dorset, and lived at Bristol in the early years of the century, and therefore must have known all particulars of the Cabot voyages; that he chose Sebastian Cabot to command the expedition is sufficient evidence to offset the objection of the Drapers' Company. While their meaning is not quite clear, it appears that the Drapers' Company preferred to employ

English mariners instead of aliens. They said that the King and his counsellors "were duely and substauncially informed in such manr. as perfite knowledge might be had by credible reporte of maisters and mariners naturally borne within this Realm of England, having experienced and exercised in and about the foresaid Island, as well in knowledge of the land, the due courses of the sea thiderward and homeward, as in knowledge of the havens dayngers and sholds there uppon that coste." As it stands, this statement implies that there were many English seamen well acquainted with the voyage; but the context seems to contradict it, “that then it were the lesse jepardy to aventer thider, than it is nowe, all though it may be furder hens than fewe English maryners can tell."

There is no record of the sailing of this expedition. Cabot tells us that he wrote to Spain and suggested that he should be recalled, and presumably the adventure was therefore abandoned.

It does not appear that Henry VIII, good Catholic as he then was, paid any heed to Pope Alexander VI's division of the New World between Spain and Portugal, in spite of the terrible threat annexed to that celebrated Bull, "If any shall presume to infringe, he ought to know that he shall thereby incur the indignation of Almighty God, and his holy apostles Peter and Paul." Henry undoubtedly considered that the countries discovered by Cabot, and upon which the flag of England had been planted, properly belonged to him, and he made several efforts to substantiate his claim. We learn that in 1525 he endeavoured to secure the services of Centurini to conduct an exploratory expedition. Lord Edmund Howard, about the same time, petitioned Wolsey to employ him upon a similar enterprise.

In 1527, he sent out John Rut, a naval officer, in the Mary Guildford, a King's ship. Rut's letter to Henry VIII, written from the harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland, "in bad English and worse writing," is the first

written news from the New World in the English language. In it he describes his voyage, "to his uttermost of his power," and refers to instructions given him at his departure, to seek other islands. It would thus appear that this was not a fishing voyage, but had some other purpose, perhaps exploratory, perhaps political.

There were several other English vessels upon the coast the same year, one of which conveyed Rut's letter to England, but Hakluyt was unable to obtain any particulars regarding them, to his great annoyance and ours.

The only other English voyage to the new-found lands of which there is any account for over a generation, is that of Master Hore, in 1536. Hore also sailed in a King's ship under the King's favour and patronage. Hakluyt rode fifty miles to obtain the story from one of the survivors, and it was well worth the journey, for it is one of the quaintest in his repertoire.

There then comes a long hiatus in the history of English voyages to the American Continent. Nowhere can there be found any record of any expedition, public or private, for many years. The Reformation and the breach with Rome absorbed men's minds, and no attempt was made to maintain England's title to any portion of the New World.

But the demand for codfish still continued.

M. Henri Harrisse, in his John Cabot, 1896, says— "Surely the English who had discovered the NorthEast Coast and who, with the Norman, Breton, and Portuguese fishermen, continued to frequent the fishing banks and even to make discoveries in that region, had nothing to learn from the Spaniards!" But in a more recent publication, Découverte et Évolution de Terre Neuve, M. Harrisse abandons this idea, and declares that Newfoundland remained une quantité négligeable for England until the Treaty of Utrecht. This theory is, I think, capable of most thorough disproof.

But it is to Judge D. W. Prowse that the honour belongs of having demonstrated in his excellent History of Newfoundland, 1896, that, although the Crown of England had not by any executive act maintained its title, the hardy fishermen of the West Country had by no means surrendered what they had discovered, and doubtless continued steadily to pursue their calling in the prolific waters of Newfoundland. The evidence in support of this theory is rather relative than direct, but it is none the less convincing.

In 1522, many complaints were made by English merchants that their ships were "spoyled of their goods" by the French; whereupon the King sent Christopher Coo with five ships of war to cruise in the mouth of the Channel and protect the returning fleet, presumably from Newfoundland. Christopher Coo not only protected the English fishermen, but made reprisals upon the French fleet, taking, among other ships, a Breton vessel loaded with fish from Newfoundland.

Between the years 1528-1533, it is recorded that the Iceland fleet had been reduced in numbers from 149 to 85. It seems probable that many of these vessels had been diverted to the trans-Atlantic fishery. The growth of England's marine was immense during the reign of Henry VIII. He took the greatest personal interest in his ships in their models and sailing qualities. He brought shipwrights out of Italy expert in the building of galleys; but instead of allowing them to build according to their own models, he set them to work on a design which he had invented himself. It was presumably the vessel built from his own design, that he sent ten ladies from his court to inspect. These odd naval critics sent him a joint letter of approval in the following quaint terms: "The newe greate shippe is so goodlie to behold that in all our liefs we have not seene (excepting your royal person and my lord the Prince your sonne) a more pleasant sight." In 1545, Henry, with one hundred vessels thoroughly efficient and up to date, was able to oppose successfully the French fleet.