Secondly, the acceptation of Columbus his offer of the West Indies by Kinge Henry the Seaventh, at the very firste, maketh moche for the title of the Kinges of England, althoughe they had no former interest; which I will here putt downe as I finde it in the eleventh chapiter of the historie of Ferdinandus Columbus of the relation of the life and doinges of his father: This practise, saieth he, of the Kinge of Portingale (which was secretly to deprive him of the honour of his enterprise), beinge come to the knowledge of the Admyrall, and havinge lately buried his wife, he conceaved so greate hatred againste the citie of Lysbone and the nation, that he determyned to goe into Castile with a younge sonne that he had by his wife, called Diego Colon, which after his fathers deathe succeded in his state. But fearinge, yf the Kinges of Castile also shoulde not consente unto his enterprise, he shoulde be constrayned to begynne againe to make some newe offer of the same to some other Prince, and so longe tyme shoulde be spente therein, he sente into England a brother of his which he had with him, named Bartholmewe Columbus. Nowe Bartholmewe Columbus beinge departed for England, his fortune was to fall into the handes of pyrates, which robbed him, and his other companions that were in his shippe, of all that they had. By which occasion and meanes of his povertie and sicknes, which cruelly afflicted him in a strange contrie, he deferred for a longe space his embassage, till, havinge gotten upp a little money by makinge of seacardes, he began to practize with Kinge Henry the Seaventhe, the father of Kinge Henry the viij’th which nowe reigneth; to whome he presented a general carde, wherein these verses were written, which I will rather here put downe for their antiquitie then for their elegancie: Terrarum quicunque cupis foeliciter oras Noscere, cuncta decens doctè pictura docebit Quam Strabo affirmat, Ptolomæus, Plinius atque Isidorus: non vna tamen sententia cuique Pingitur hîc etiam nuper sulcata carinis Hispanis Zona illa, priùs incognita genti, Torrida, quæ tandem nunc est notissma multis. And somewhat more beneath he saied: _Pro authore sive pictore_ Janna cui patriæ est nomen, cui Bartholomæus Columbus, de terra rubra, opus edidit istud Londonijs, Anno Domini 1480 atque insuper anno Octauo, decimáque die cùm tertia mensis Februarij. Laudes Christo cantentur abundæ.(82)