wed close in the track of the Cabots.
As soon as the Atlantic passage to Newfoundland had been robbed of the
terrors of the unknown, it was not regarded as difficult. With strong
east winds a ship of the sixteenth century could make the run from
Bristol or St Malo to the Grand Banks in less than twenty days. Once a
ship was on the Banks, the fish were found in an abundance utterly
unknown in European waters, and the ships usually returned home with
great cargoes. During the early years of the sixteenth century English,
French, and Portuguese fishermen went from Europe to the Banks in great
numbers. They landed at various points in Newfoundland and Cape Breton,
and became well acquainted with the outline of the coast. It was no
surprise to Jacques Cartier, for instance, on his first voyage, to find
a French fishing vessel lying off the north shore of the Gulf of St
Lawrence. But these fishing crews thought nothing of exploration. The
harvest of the sea was their sole care, and beyond landing to cure fish
and to obtain wood and water they did nothing to claim or conquer the
land.

There were, however, efforts from time to time to follow up the
discoveries of the Cabots. The merchants of Bristol do not seem to have
been disappointed with the result of the Cabot enterprises, for as
early as in 1501 they sent out a new expedition across the Atlantic.
The sanction of the king was again invoked, and Henry VII granted
letters patent to three men of Bristol--Richard Warde, Thomas
Ashehurst, and John Thomas--to explore the western seas. These names
have a homely English sound; but associated with them were three
Portuguese--John Gonzales, and two men called Fernandez, all of the
Azores, and probably of the class of master-pilots to which the Cabots
and Columbus belonged. We know nothing of the results of the
expedition, but it returned in safety in the same year, and the
parsimonious king was moved to pay out five pounds from his treasury
'to the men of Bristol that found the isle.'

Francis Fernandez and John Gonzales remained in the English service and
became subjects of King Henry. Again, in the summer of 1502, they were
sent out on another voyage from Bristol. In September they brought
their ships safely back, and, in proof of the strangeness of the new
lands they carried home 'three men brought out of an Iland forre beyond
Irelond, the which were clothed in Beestes Skynnes and ate raw fflesh
and were rude in their demeanur