mediately after this, he retired to a house of his own, in the neighbourhood of London, where he employed himself for nearly six uninterrupted years in arranging and digesting his immense collections. The labour which he thus imposed upon himself gradually overpowered his constitution, until, at last, nature gave way in the struggle, and reason, as well as health, forsook the emaciated student. He died on the 18th of April, 1552.

Leland's papers were first consigned to the custody of Sir John Cheke, who would probably have made some important use of them had he not been prevented by the troubles which followed the death of Edward VI. On his retirement to the continent, Sir John placed four folio volumes of Leland's collections in the hands of Mr Purefoy, from whom they descended to Barton, the author of a history of Leicestershire, who left them, along with eight other volumes of Leland's MSS., forming what is called his 'Itinerary,' to the Bodleian library. The only other portion of Leland's MSS. is in the Cottonian collection. Of all these, Holinshed, Drayton, Camden, Dugdale, Stowe, Lambard, Wood, and others, have availed themselves in their historical remarks. Hearne has ably edited the 'Itinerary' and 'Collectanea.' His' Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis' was published in 1709, in two volumes octavo.

Sir John Cheke.

BORN A. D. 1514.-DIED A. D. 1557.

THIS eminent scholar and promoter of literature, was born at Cambridge, in 1514, and educated there in St John's college. He very early obtained a fellowship, and was also chosen orator to the university. At the age of twenty-six, he had acquired such a reputation for learning, that he was made professor of Greek. In this capacity he endeavoured to introduce many improvements, especially in the mode of pronouncing that language. But Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and chancellor of the university, forbade all innovation. Cheke replied to the chancellor, and cited Erasmus and other celebrated scholars in defence of his improvements. But the authority of the bishop was infallible, and yet the innovations and improvements of Cheke prevailed. At the age of thirty, he was sent for by Henry VIII. to come to court to assist in the education of the prince Edward and to give lessons to Elizabeth. He obeyed, and entered with zeal and pleasure upon his new occupation. He was greatly honoured and handsomely rewarded by the king, being made a canon of Christ's church, Oxford. An inference has been founded upon this fact, that Cheke was in orders. But although he held this canonry, and also the rectory of Leverington in Norfolk, it does not necessarily follow that he ever took orders. There are instances of such and even higher ecclesiastical offices being held by laymen. The laws of the church were often dispensed with in the case of court-favourites. On the accession of Edward VI. Cheke was made provost of king's college, Cambridge, and received also several valuable manors and an annuity. There can be no doubt that the young king was under great obligation to Cheke for the sound and

pious education he had received, and that this sense of obligation on his part contributed to maintain Cheke in his post of tutor, notwithstanding some shocks which his influence suffered through his connection with the duke of Somerset. He was knighted in 1551, and received from the king a handsome estate. About the same time he distinguished himself in a disputation at court with some eminent catholics, and is said to have displayed great ability also in another disputation at Cambridge. Promotion to influence and honour now almost daily awaited him. He was made clerk of the council, then secretary of state and privy councillor. But the death of the youthful king totally reversed his fortunes, and cast a fatal cloud over the prospects of the protestant religion.

Cheke was induced to enter into the fatal project of transferring the crown to Jane Grey. He even accepted the office of secretary to her council. On the defeat of that hasty and ill-concerted project, he was committed as a traitor to the Tower, but was pardoned without being brought to trial. After suffering the confiscation of his estates, he obtained leave to travel for a limited time. On the continent he engaged in directing the studies of some English gentlemen, first at Basil, then at Padua. The time of his leave of absence having expired, and deeming it unsafe to venture back into England, he took up his abode at Strasburg. But his non-appearance at court at the appointed time led to the confiscation of the property that remained to him in England, and, in consequence, he was obliged to undertake the labours of tuition for a maintenance. He either engaged as Greek professor at Strasburg, or set up a public lecture in that language. Having continued there a short time, his persecutors resolved to make a prisoner of him. He was accordingly drawn by an invitation from Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, in 1556, to pay a visit to Brussels, where his wife and some other friends then were. It appears that these noblemen had been his former friends, but having become converts to popery and to the measures of Queen Mary, were now ready to betray their friend to serve the same cause. Cheke is said also to have been induced to undertake this journey by his confidence in astrology, to which he was greatly addicted, and by which he had divined that his journey would be a safe and prosperous one. However, he found to his cost, that his astrology was as treacherous as his friends. Between Antwerp and Brussels, he was seized by order of Philip II., bound and hoodwinked, and then conveyed on board a ship and so brought at once to the Tower of London. Here he was visited by various priests, whose object was to induce him to abandon his principles. The argument which these persecutors employed was too powerful for his resolution. They placed before him his martyrdom or recantation, and from day to day plied him with their threats. At length his fears prevailed,-he submitted, signed his recantation, and, before the court, signified his humiliation. His lands were restored, but his peace of mind was gone. Besides the remorse of conscience which now preyed upon him, he was constrained to be present and hear the examination and witness the condemnation of the protestants. This altogether was more than he could bear, and after pining away for some time, he gradually sunk under the stroke of death at the age of forty-three. He died September 1557, and was buried in St Alban's, Woodstock.

He translated the

II. and VI. Homilies of Chrysostom; wrote also The Hurt of Sedition how grievous it is to a Commonwealth,' 1549. 'Two Latin epistles on the death of Bucer,' 1551, 4to. A Latin poem on the death of Sir Anthony Denny. De Pronuntiatione Græcæ potissimum linguæ Disputationes,' Basil, 1555. 'De Superstitione ad Regem Henricum;' Epigrammata varia, cum Græce tum Latine conscripta.' A Latin version of Cranmer on the Lord's Supper, and of the English Communion-book. He wrote many works besides, which remain in manuscript, and also commenced a new version of the Bible; the gospel of Matthew remains as a specimen at Bennett college, Cambridge.

Sebastian Cabot.*

BORN A. D. 1475.-DIED A. D. 1557.

An elaborate memoir of this eminent navigator, published in 1831,' has enabled us to do more justice to his memory than his earlier biographers have done. We state this at the outset of our sketch; for a more elaborate and acute piece of biography than the work to which we refer has not appeared for many years, and we should feel that we were depriving the author of his honest and well-earned fame, if, on the strength of his singularly laborious and well-conducted researches, we proceeded at once to correct the blunders and expose the ignorance of preceding writers, without intimating the source of our superior information.

Sebastian Cabot was born at Bristol about the year 1475. When he was four years old, he was taken by his father, Sir John Cabot, or John Gavotta, to Venice, the city of his ancestors, where he resided for some time. This circumstance, united to that of his parentage, has given some colour to the Italian account, which claims him for a countryman, and affirms that he was born at Venice, and which seems to have been implicitly received, not merely by Hakluyt, Purchas, and Churchill, but by Hume, Forster, Charlevoix, and Barrow. The authority on this point is indisputable, although it has been strangely overlooked for nearly three centuries. In Richard Eden's 'Decades of the New World,'—a rare and curious black letter volume, published in 1555,—the following marginal note occurs on page 255: "Sebastian Cabot tould me that he was born in Brystowe, and that at iiii. years ould he was carried with his father into Venice, and so returned agayne into England with his father, after certayne years, whereby he was thought to have been born in Venice."

Sebastian manifested a decided inclination to the life of a sailor, was early instructed in all the branches of navigation, and was allowed to make several short trips to sea, in order to acquire a competent knowledge of the practical part of his profession. Europe was at this period 'ringing from side to side' with the discoveries of the Portuguese in the east, and the still more brilliant and important ones of Columbus, in the western hemisphere. And the young Cabot warmly partook of the general en

* To avoid introducing another series of memoirs, we have arranged our articles of scientific and literary biography under the same head. Lond. Svo.

thusiasm. Speaking of the effect produced in England by the news of the discoveries of Columbus, he says, "all men, with great admiration, affirm it to be a thing more divine than human;" and, afterwards, he adds, "by this fame and report, there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing." Happily the flame was cherished. It was in 1493 that Columbus returned from his first expedition; and, on the 5th of March, 1496, a patent was granted by Henry VII. to John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancius, authorising them, their heirs, or deputies, to "sail to all parts, countries, and seas of the east, and of the west, and of the north, under our banners and ensigns, with five ships, of what burden or quantity soever they may be; to seek out, discover, and find, whatsoever isles, countries, regions, or provinces, of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they be, and in what part of the world soever they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians." 2 The monarch, in granting the patent, however, stipulated for one-fifth part of the profits which might arise from any enterprise undertaken upon it. The mention of the father's name in this patent, has led many to suppose that he also was a distinguished navigator; but of this, notwithstanding what Hakluyt says, there is no conclusive evidence. It has never been affirmed that all the sons engaged in the voyage, and yet the presumption is just as strong with regard to each of them as to the father. All that we

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know of the latter is, that he came to England, 'to follow the trade of merchandise.' Might not the wary king be looking to the funds of the wealthy Venetian as the best security for his portion, and for the faithful execution of the terms of the patent? The expedition sailed from Bristol in the Spring of 1497, with the view of exploring a northern passage to India. Cabot first directed his course to Iceland, and thence launched out into the unknown seas of the west. On the 24th of June, 1497, he came in sight of land, to his great surprise, “not thinking to find any other land than that of Cathay." This land was the continent of North America: for, although some modern authorities assert that Cabot went no farther north than the latitude of 56°, it appears from Ramusio's preface to the third volume of his Collection of Voyages,' that he actually penetrated as far north as 67°. He even sailed a considerable distance into Hudson's Bay; but the crew wanted the enthusiasm of their captain, and, getting tired of the difficulties and toils which they here encountered, compelled him reluctantly to return to England.

Nothing damped by the experience of the past, we find our young navigator no sooner landed upon his native shores, than making application for another patent to enable him to set out again on a fresh voyage of discovery. His request was granted, and a new patent issued on the 3d of February, 1498. The discovery of this important document by his recent biographer, after a tedious search in the Roll's chapel, has effectually cleared up a point of great consequence in the memoir of Sebastian, and the annals of English navigation. It gives authority to John Kabotto, "that he, by him, his deputie, or deputies sufficient, may take at his pleasure vi. English shippes in any porte or portes, or other places within this our realme of

2

Rymer's Fœdera. 3 Vol. iii. 9. 'Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. xviii. 353.

England, or obeisance, so that, and if the said shippes be of the bourdeyn of cc. tonnes or under, with their apparail requisite and necessarie for the safe conduct of the said shippes, and them convey and lede to the Londe and Isles of late found by the same John in our name, and by oure commaundemente." Here is distinct testimony to the important fact, that Sebastian Cabot was the first discoverer, or—if the Northmen did actually reach America in the 11th century-the first civilized discoverer of the continent of America. For it is matter of history, that Columbus did not effect that discovery on which his fame rests, till his third voyage, upon which he set sail on the 30th of May, 1498; but Sebastian, as we have seen, discovered Labrador in the month of June of the preceding year. Of the results of this second expedition little is known; nor do we hear any thing of Sebastian for a period of fourteen or fifteen years after his second return to England.

In 1512, he entered into the service of Spain; but, on the death of King Ferdinand, he returned to England. In 1517, he sailed on an expedition of discovery, but was forced to put back by a mutiny of his crew. In 1518, we find him again in the employment of the court of Spain, as pilot-major; and, in 1526, he took the command of an expedition to the Molucca islands, on behalf of a company formed at Seville. In this charge he visited Brazil, and afterwards explored the river La Plata as far as a small island nearly opposite where Buenos Ayres now stands, whence he proceeded to the Parana, which he explored to its junction with the Paraguay. There is reason to believe that Cabot, during his residence in South America, formed a plan for the conquest of Peru, and communicated his views to the court of Spain.

In 1548, Cabot returned to England. What the precise motives were which induced him to resign his honourable and lucrative post in the Spanish marine, are not precisely known; but there is sufficient evidence of the high estimation in which the English sailor was held abroad, in the formal and urgent demand made by the Spanish ambassador, that "Sebastian Cabot, grand pilot of the emperor's Indies, then in England, might be sent over to Spain, as a very necessary man for the emperor, whose servant he was, and had a pension of him." The demand was not complied with; but a pension of 250 marks, (£166 13s. 6d.) with the office of grand pilot of England, were conferred upon him by Edward VI. It was by the advice of Cabot that Sir Hugh Willoughby's expedition to the north of Europe was undertaken. The scheme completely succeeded, and opened up a lucrative trade to the English merchants with Russia. His death took place about the year 1557. His faithful friend, Richard Eden, attended him in his last moments, and has left on record some particulars of the scene, which exhibit the master-passion of Cabot's mind holding its sway to the last. Eden laments that, "even in the article of death, he had not shaken off all worldlie vaine glorie," for he talked flightily about a divine revelation to him of a new and infallible method of finding the longitude, which he was not permitted to disclose to any mortal. "When we remember," says the biographer whose labours have vindicated for Cabot his title to the highest rank in the annals of maritime discovery, -"when we remember the earnest religious feelings exhibited in the instructions of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and which formed so decided a feature of Cabot's character, it is impossible to conceive a stronger