Bristol, the great western port of England, has a history which tells of the ancient glories of English seamanship. From this port sailed the first Englishman who landed in America, Sebastian Cabot, who was born in Bristol, and was the first to discover that which is now known as the United States. A Bristol chronicle states, "this year 1497, on St. John the Baptist's day, the land of America was found by the merchants of Bristowe, in a ship of Bristol, called _The Matthew_, the which said ship departed from the port of Bristowe the 2nd of May, and came home again 6th August following." It was a Bristol ship which brought home the real Robinson Crusoe (Juan Fernandez) from his island home. Very famous were the great merchants of Bristol, such as William Cannynge, who founded the noble Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, whom his king, Henry VI., delighted to honour, and styled "his beloved and honourable merchant." Vast was his fleet--his shipping, amounting to 2470 tons, was seized by the victorious Yorkist monarch--and vast were his commercial enterprises, whereby he made Bristol a large and flourishing port. But we must go back to earlier days. In Saxon times the port was famous, or infamous, for its slave-dealing, which the coming of the Conqueror scarcely suppressed. Here Harold's three sons made a vain attempt to rescue the kingdom from his iron grasp. A famous Norman castle destroyed in the Civil War was built here, where Stephen was kept a prisoner. Pleasanter visits were frequently paid by other monarchs. The city was besieged and taken by Henry Bolingbroke, and Shakespeare in _Richard II._ tells of the beheading of four supporters of the luckless king in the city market-place. Here, too, five martyrs were burnt, and in the first year of Elizabeth's reign a mass of roods and images shared the same fate. The imposition of the ship-money tax was so distasteful that the Royal cause was not very popular at Bristol. The citizens opened their gates to the troopers of Cromwell, who held it from 1642 to the following year. Prince Rupert stormed the place, and held it till it was wrested from him in 1645. The "Bloody Assize" of Judge Jefferies left its mark on this western port; six prisoners were executed, and hundreds sent across the sea to serve in the plantations. The darkest spot in the history of Bristol is the story of the Reform riots of 1831, sometimes called "the Bristol Revolution," when the dregs of the population pillaged and plundered, burnt the bishop's palace, and were guilty of much vandalism. Of the old churches we shall write subsequently. The old quaint houses are very attractive, especially the old Norman hall and Tudor windows of the house of Edward Colston, one of Bristol's merchant princes, Cannynge's house, with its fine Perpendicular roof, and the old Hospital of St. Peter. THE HISTORY OF THE SEE