"Doe you not understand sayd he (speaking to certaine Gentlemen of Venice) how to passe to India toward the Northwest, as did of late a citizen of Venice, so valiant a man, and so well practised in all things pertaining to navigations, and the science of Cosmographie, that at this present he hath not his like in Spaine, insomuch that for his vertues he is preferred above all other pilots that saile to the West Indies, who may not passe thither without his licence, and is therefore called Piloto mayor, that is, the grand Pilot. And when we sayd that we knew him not, he proceeded, saying, that being certaine yeres in the city of Sivil, and desirous to have some knowledge of the navigations of the Spanyards, it was tolde him that there was in the city a valiant man, a Venetian borne named Sebastian Cabot, who had the charge of those things, being an expert man in that science, and one that coulde make Cardes [charts] for the Sea with his owne hand, and that by this report, seeking his acquaintance, hee found him a very gentle person, who entertained him friendly, and shewed him many things, and among other a large Mappe of the world, with certaine particular Navigations, as well of the Portugals [Portuguese] as of the Spaniards, and that he spake further unto him to this effect. "‘When my father departed from Venice many yeres since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of marchandises, hee tooke mee with him to the citie of London, while I was very yong, yet having neverthelesse some knowledge of letters of humanitie and of the Sphere. And when my father died in that time when newes was brought that Don Christopher Colonus Genuese had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the Court of king Henry the 7. who then raigned, insomuch that all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane, to saile by the West into the East where spices growe, by a way that was never knowen before, by this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the Sphere, that if I should saile by way of the Northwest, I should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my devise, who immediately commanded two Carvels to bee furnished with all things appertayning to the voyage, which was as farre as I remember in the yeere 1496 [_sic_] in the beginning of Sommer.