THE ENGLISH IN MARYLAND, 1632-1691. _William T. Brantly_ 517 ILLUSTRATIONS: George, first Lord Baltimore, 518; Baltimore arms, 520; Map of Maryland (1635), 525; Endorsement of Toleration Act, 535; Baltimore coins, 543; Cecil, second Lord Baltimore, 546. AUTOGRAPHS: George, first Lord Baltimore, 518; Leonard Calvert, 524; Thomas Cornwallis, 524; John Lewger, 528; Thomas Greene, 533; Margaret Brent, 533; William Stone, 534; Josias Fendall, 540; Charles Calvert, 542. CRITICAL ESSAY 553 AUTOGRAPH: Thomas Yong, 558. INDEX 563 NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS. BY CHARLES DEANE, LL. D. _Vice-President, Massachusetts Historical Society._ “WE derive our rights in America,” says Edmund Burke, in his _Account of the European Settlements in America_, “from the discovery of Sebastian Cabot, who first made the Northern Continent in 1497. The fact is sufficiently certain to establish a right to our settlements in North America.” If this distinguished writer and statesman had substituted the name of John Cabot for that of Sebastian, he would have stated the truth. [Illustration: SIGN MANUAL OF HENRY VII.] John Cabot, as his name is known to English readers, or Zuan Caboto, as it is called in the Venetian dialect, the discoverer of North America, was born, probably, in Genoa or its neighborhood. His name first appears in the archives of Venice, where is a record, under the date of March 28, 1476, of his naturalization as a citizen of Venice, after the usual residence of fifteen years. He pursued successfully the study of cosmography and the practice of navigation, and at one time visited Arabia, where, at Mecca, he saw the caravans which came thither, and was told that the spices they brought were received from other hands, and that they came originally from the remotest countries of the east. Accepting the new views as to “the roundness of the earth,” as Columbus had done, he was quite disposed to put them to a practical test. With his wife, who was a Venetian woman, and his three sons, he removed to England, and took up his residence at the maritime city of Bristol. The time at which this removal took place is uncertain. In the year 1495 he laid his proposals before the king, Henry VII., who on the 5th of March, 1495/6, granted to him and his three sons, their heirs and assigns a patent for the discovery of unknown lands in the eastern, western, or northern seas, with the right to occupy such territories, and to have exclusive commerce with them, paying to the King one fifth part of all the profits, and to return to the port of Bristol. The enterprise was to be “at their own proper cost and charge.” In the early part of May in the following year, 1497, Cabot set sail from Bristol with one small vessel and eighteen persons,