The notable part which England took in searching for a navigable passage to Cathay, by exploring the sea toward the west, was incited by the success attending the explorations of Columbus in the New World. For it is said that when the news reached England that the Genoese seaman had discovered the coasts of India there was great talk in the court of King Henry VII., and that men declared with much admiration that it was more divine than human to sail toward the west to go to the East where spices grow[231]. The bold projector, who obtained for England the distinguished honor of being the second European power to enter the western hemisphere with her ships, was Giovanni Caboto (John Caboto), a Venetian[232], who had lived a number of years in London. With confessed confidence he explained to King Henry and his learned counsellors the grounds of his belief that the eastern coast of Asia could be reached by sailing in a direct westward course from England, and how this course would be a shorter way than the one taken by Columbus. He proposed to undertake the voyage at his own expense should the king grant him the necessary license. These overtures of Caboto appear to have been made about the beginning of the year 1496. Ruy Gonzales de Puebla, the Spanish ambassador, residing in England, having learned what Caboto had proposed to King Henry, at once communicated the information to their majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Their royal highnesses, in a letter to their representative at the English court, dated at Tortosa, the twenty-eighth of March, 1496, thus refer to what he had written them: “You say that a person like Colon has come there to place before the king of England another undertaking similar to that of the Indies, without prejudice to Spain or Portugal. If in this way he helps him, he will be as free to go to the Indies as we were. We believe that this undertaking is thrown in the way of the king of England by the king of France in order to withdraw him from his other affairs. See that the king of England be not deceived in this or in a similar matter. The French will endeavor as best they can to lead him into such enterprises, inasmuch as they are very uncertain, and are not easily prosecuted. Likewise see that those ...[233] he is not able to undertake this thing without prejudice to us and the king of Portugal.”[234] On the fifth of March, 1496, King Henry VII. complied with Caboto’s request as set forth in the following petition: “To the kyng our souvereigne lord “Please it your highnes of your moste noble and haboundant grace to graunt unto John Cabotto, citezen of Venes, Lewes, Sebestyan and Sancto his sonneys your gracious lettres patentes under your grete seale in due forme to be made according to the tenour hereafter ensuyng. And they shall during their lyves pray to god for the prosperous continuance of your moste noble and royale astate long to enduer.”[235]