Stow--we get a few glimpses of what was going on. Richard ]Eden gives us a little light; but even Hakluyt, with all his devoted energy. and perseverance, was able to preserve only portions of the early part of the glorious history of our maritime enter- prises. He cmdd not find a single scrap of the writings of John Cabot. Yet dmSng a lrmg life he "waded on still further and fm'ther in the sweet studie of the histroSe of cosmo'aphie," and strove "to incm2omte into one bodie the torn and scattered limnes of ore' ancien and later navigations by sea." To no writer does England owe so deep deb of gratitude s to Richard Hakluyt.

In the fifteenth century William Botoner, better known as 5Villiam of 5Vorcester--the accomplished secretary of that doughty old warrior, Sir John Fastolf, of Caisorgives us some insight into the activity and enteqrise of one of our great seaports. He tells us of William Canyng, the merchan prince of ristol, who, for many years, employed eight hundred seamen and one hun&'ed artificers, and possessed ten ships which, as mentioned in an earlier chapter, traded to the Mediterranean, to the altic, and even to Iceland, where one of his vessels of 160 tons was los. 5Ve hear also how obert Sturmy, 5Iayor of Bristol, sent a ship to the Mediterranean in 1457, which was "spoilt by the Gense," for which wrong the Genoese in London were arrested and imprisoued until they made good the loss.

A book of sailing directions for he coasts from Scotland to Gibraltar was written in the fifteenth centre'y, and has been plse:ed. At the time when the ortuese vessels, under the auspices of rince Henry, were slowly and cautiously creeping along the coast of Africa, dreading to be ou of sight of land, English sailors had no such fears, but habitually faced the storms of the North Atlantic and made voyages to Iceland. They may have gone farther. A map of the coasts from the ritish Isles nearly to Cape Verde in Africa, was drawn in London in 144, including the Azorcs and other islands in the Atlantic. It has rently been brought to the notice of geoLq'aphers by Sir. Yule Oldham. Its auth,r was Venetian galley cptain named Andre Biancho, who is also well known as an accomplished eosmo'apher. In the marin of his map the outline of a coast is added, with the in- scription--" An authentic island distan to the west 1500 miles" (" I. rola otinticha x longa a portcute 1500 mia "). As the map was

drawn in London, this new infmation was probably received them.