Thus farre proceedeth Gonzalvo de Oviedo, who though it please him to call the captain of this great English ship a rover, yet it appeareth by the Englishmens owne words, that they came to discover, and by their traffique for pewter vessels and other wares at the town of St Germaine in the iland of San Juan de Puerto Rico, it cannot bee denied but they were furnished with wares for honest traffique and exchange.  But whosoever is conversant in reading the Portugal and Spanish writers of the East and West Indies, shall commonly finde that they account all other nations for pirats, rovers and theeves, which visite any heathen coast that they have once sayled by or looked on.  Howbeit their passionate and ambitious reckoning ought not to bee prejudiciall to other mens chargeable and painefull enterprises and honourable travels in discoverie.

SECTION X.

Brief note of a voyage by Thomas Tison to the West Indies, before the year 1526[22].

It appears from a certain note or memorandum in the custody of me Richard Hakluyt, taken out of an old ledger-book formerly belonging to Mr Nicholas Thorne senior, a respectable merchant of Bristol, written to his friend and factor Thomas Midnall and his servant William Ballard, at that time residing at San Lucar in Andalusia; that before the year 1526, one Thomas Tison an Englishman had found his way to the West Indies, and resided there as a secret factor for some English merchants, who traded thither in an underhand manner in those days.  To this person Mr Nicholas Thorne appears to have sent armour and other articles which are specified in the memorandum or letter above mentioned—­This Thomas Tison, so far as I can conjecture, appears to have been a secret factor for Mr Thorne and other English merchants, to transact for them in these remote parts; whence it is probable that some of our merchants carried on a kind of trade to the West Indies even in those ancient times; neither do I see any reason why the Spaniards should debar us from it now.

[Footnote 22:  Hakluyt, III. 595.]

CHAPTER XII

THE VOYAGES OF JACQUES CARTIER FROM ST MALOES TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND CANADA, IN THE YEARS 1534 AND 1535[23].

INTRODUCTION

These voyages are to be considered as among the early discoveries of the New World, and are therefore inserted in this place.  The only edition of them which we have been able to procure, is that which is inserted in the ancient and curious collection of voyages by Hakluyt, which appears to have been abridged from the original in French, published at Rouen in 8vo 1598[24]of this voyage, the author of the Bibliotheque des Voyages gives the following notice.  “So early as the year 1518, the baron De Levi had discovered a portion of Canada, and Jacques Cartier not only added to this first discovery, but visited