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The Smugglers' City |
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Pedro de Ayala,
the Spanish envoy in London, to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain,
25 July, 1498
Source: Luis A. Robles Macías, ‘Revised transcription of Pedro de Ayala’s 1498 report about English voyages of exploration’, pp. 11-13. This is a translated and slightly abridged version of the article by the same author entitled ‘Transcripción revisada del informe de Pedro de Ayala de 1498 sobre las expediciones inglesas de descubrimiento’, Revista de Indias, 74, no. 262 (2014). Note that the translation below replaces an earlier and less accurate from H.B. Biggar (ed.), The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534 (Ottawa, 1911), pp. 28-9, which was posted on this page from 2006-2015. The new translation is reproduced with the author’s permission. I believe Your Highnesses
have already heard how the king of England1 has equipped a fleet
to explore certain islands or mainland which he has been assured certain
persons who set out last year from Bristol in search of the same have
discovered. I have seen the chart2 made by the discoverer, who is
another Genoese like Colon3, who has been in Seville and in Lisbon
seeking to obtain persons to aid him in this discovery. For the last seven
years the people of Bristol have equipped two, three, four caravels to go in
search of the island of the brazil and the seven cities. According to the
fancy of this Genoese4, the king made up his mind to send
[vessels], because last year5 [he] brought him sure proof6
they had found land. The fleet he prepared, which consisted of five vessels,
was provisioned for a year. News has come [that] one of these, in which sailed
another Friar Buil7 has made land in Ireland in a great storm with
the ship badly damaged. The Genoese kept on his way. Having seen the course
they are steering and the length of the voyage, I find that what they have
discovered or are in search of is possessed by Your Highnesses because it is
at the end [of] what8 fell
to Your Highnesses by the convention with Portugal9. It is hoped
they will be back by September; I let Your Highnesses know about it. The king
has spoken to me several times on the subject. He hopes to obtain very great
profit10. I believe the distance is not four hundred leagues. I11
told him that I believed they were those [islands?] found by Your Highnesses,
and although I gave him some reason12, he would not have it. Since
I believe Your Highnesses will already have notice of all this and also of
the chart or mappa mundi13 which this man has made, I do not send
it now, although it is here, and to my eye14 exceedingly false, in
order to make believe that they [the new lands] are not part of the said
islands [of Your Highnesses].
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