Note 78 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

In the year 1584 Richard Hakluyt, at the request of Sir Walter Raleigh, wrote a Discourse on Westerne Planting,—to which I have already made a brief reference,—supposed to embody the opinions of the statesmen of England at that period on the colonization of North America. It is a remarkable paper, intended for the eye of the Queen. After giving all the reasons why England should enter upon this work speedily, he presents, in chapter xviii. “the Queen of England’s title to all the West Indies, or at least to as much as is from Florida to the circle Arctic,” as being “more lawful and right than the Spaniards’, or any other Christian princes’;” and the claim is based mainly on the discovery by Sebastian Cabot, in the year 1496, as related in the first volume of Ramusio, which is cited. Hakluyt is anxious to make it appear that Cabot discovered North America before Columbus discovered the firm land of the Indies; yea, more than a year before, and he recurs more than once to this date as showing the fact. Indeed, he once goes so far as to cite the date on Clement Adams’s map, 1494, as carrying the claim yet farther back. [The history of this manuscript, published as vol. ii. of the Documentary History of Maine, is traced in an Editorial note to Dr. De Costa’s chapter.—Ed.]