1

Revised transcription of Pedro de Ayala’s

1498 report about English voyages of

exploration

by

Luis A. Robles MacíasIndependent researcher

ABSTRACT: The report sent by Pedro de Ayala to the Catholic Monarchs

from London in 1498 is one of the fundamental sources about the earliest

English exploration voyages to North America. This study presents the history of

the deciphering, interpretation and translation of the report and, realizing that

none of the transcriptions published so far is fully accurate, proposes a new one

based on the literal deciphering of the document, along with a translation into

English. In addition, detailed discussion is provided of several particularly

difficult fragments of the text which, due to misinterpretations in earlier

editions, have led to probably incorrect conclusions about the biography of

John Cabot, the itinerary of his 1497 voyage and the name of the missionary

who went with him in the 1498 expedition.

KEYWORDS: Pedro de Ayala; 1498; John Cabot; Bristol; cipher; Gustav A.

Bergenroth; Henry P. Biggar.

This document is a translated and slightly abridged version of thearticle by the same author entitled «Transcripción revisada del

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informe de Pedro de Ayala de 1498 sobre las expediciones inglesas dedescubrimiento», published in the journal Revista de Indias 74, n.o 262(2014).

This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

3

1. THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT

On July 25, 1498 the Spanish diplomat Pedro de Ayala

sent from London a letter to his sovereigns, Ferdinand and

Isabella, king and queen of Castile and Aragon. Ayala was a

clergyman at the private service of the monarchs, who had

sent him to Scotland with the mission of obtaining a peace

agreement between that kingdom and England. Ayala had set

out from the Castilian port of Laredo on August 22, 1496.

After his stay in Scotland he moved to London. Most of

Ayala’s letter is devoted to reporting his diplomatic

mission but in the fragment of the letter studied here

Ayala informs about an entirely different topic: several

voyages of discovery carried out from Bristol to the West,

in particular the expeditions led by “a Genoese” that must

be John Cabot (figure 1). The letter is preserved at the

Archivo General de Simancas, in Spain.1

Most of Ayala’s letter is encrypted. It starts with

the salutation «Muy Altos y muy poderosos Rey y Reyna

nuestros Señores» (= “Very High and very powerful King and

Queen our Lords”) on page 857r of the document. The

fragment about the English expeditions is found in page

1 The document’s call number has changed over time. As of this writingit is PTR,LEG,52,DOC.166 and the document is entitled “Carta de Pedrode Ayala a Miguel Pérez de Almazan, Secretario de los Reyes Católicos,sobre asuntos de Inglaterra, Flandes, Francia y Escocia”. Olderdesignations were Tratados con Inglaterra, leg. 2º, fol. 196 orTratados con Inglaterra, leg. 56, nº.166. Digital images of all thepages of the document can be downloaded from the PARES portal of theSpanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports athttp://pares.mcu.es.

4

861r. It starts with “Bien creo...” and ends with “ami ver

bien [encrypted]”, over a total of 21 lines.

The letter ends on page 862r with a customary closing

sentence, the date «Londres a xxv de julio» (= London on

July 25th) and, below, in a very different hand script,

another conventional sentence followed by Ayala’s signature

(figure 2). The difference in scripts makes me think that

only this last sentence was written by Ayala himself

whereas some scribe at his service must have carried out

the tedious work of writing the encrypted text.

5

FIGURE 1: PAGE OF AYALA’S LETTER THAT CONTAINS THE FRAGMENT ABOUT THE

ENGLISH DISCOVERIES

Source: Archivo General de Simancas, PTR, leg.52, doc.166, fol. 861r.

6

FIGURE 2: LAST PAGE OF AYALA’S LETTER, WITH THIS SIGNATURE.

Source: Archivo General de Simancas, PTR, leg.52, doc.166, fol. 862r.

7

When the letter reached the Spanish court, royal

secretary Miguel Pérez de Almazán deciphered it in order to

read it aloud to the monarchs. For that, he wrote some

notes directly on Ayala’s letter as well as short summaries

on separate sheets of paper that are nowadays preserved

together with the letter. Figure 3 shows Almazán’s summary

of the fragment about the English discoveries, which

occupies 7 lines of page 866v of the document and is much

shorter than Ayala’s original text.

Curiously, the document at the Archivo de Simancas

also includes a much more recent manuscript: a copy of a

transcription of the Cabot fragment made by Henry Percival

Biggar in the early 20th century, which will be discussed

in detail in the next section.

2. HISTORY OF THE TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION OF THE DOCUMENT

Ayala’s letter was first fully deciphered and

transcribed in 1860 by Gustav Adolf Bergenroth; not a small

feat because the head of the Archive of Simancas at the

time refused to grant him access to the cypher books of

Ayala’s time. Bergenroth quickly published an English

translation of the fragment about the expeditions from

Bristol 2 and of the entire letter in 1862.3 Bergenroth

died in Madrid in 1869 and his Spanish transcription of

Ayala’s letter, which he had left in custody at the Public

2 Letter dated “December 1860” in Simancas and published in AthenaeumReproduced in Cartwright, 1870: 77-78.3 Bergenroth, 1862: 168-179.

8

Record Office, was eventually published in the early

1880’s.4 These publications were further reproduced and

translated into French 5 and Italian.6

4 Desimoni, 1881, document XIV A ; Harrisse, 1882, document XIII.Desimoni obtained the transcription from Harrisse. Bergenroth’stranscription must have circulated earlier on by privatecorrespondence, given that d’Avezac quoted a sentence from it in 1869(Avezac 1869: 10).5 Beaudoin, 1888: 608-661.6 Reumont, 1880: 414-421.

9

FIGURE 3: PAGE OF ALMAZÁN’S NOTES WHERE AYALA’S NEWS ABOUT THE

ENGLISH DISCOVERIES ARE SUMMARIZED

Source: Archivo General de Simancas, PTR, leg.52, doc.166, fol. 866v.

10

So, by the beginning of the 20th century, all

published transcriptions and translations of Ayala’s letter

stemmed from the same source: Bergenroth’s pioneering

deciphering. Unfortunately, the Spanish transcription

contained several mistakes that obscured its meaning and

the English translation omitted certain phrases of the

text. In addition, Harrisse had made a blunder by

publishing, right next to Ayala’s fragment, another

document in Spanish with very similar content that he

attributed to Ruy González de Puebla, the other Spanish

diplomat in London in 1498.7 In fact this text was

Bergenroth’s transcription of the summary prepared by

Almazán of the fragment of Ayala’s letter on the Bristol

expeditions.

This little satisfactory situation led two separate

researchers to revisit the original of Ayala’s report about

the English discovery travels. First, the Chilean José

Toribio Medina Zavala published in 1908 a transcription

sent to him by Pedro Torres Lanzas, head of the Archivo

General de Indias, which corrected several of Bergenroth’s

errors and introduced a few significant novelties.8

Simultaneously, the Canadian Henry Percival Biggar went to

the Archivo General de Simancas in person and prepared

another transcription of the original document, this time7 Harrisse, 1882, document XII. Harrisse said his source was a copy sent by a “M. Kingston” from the Public Record Office. The fact that he did not have direct access to Bergenroth’s papers may explain the large amount of transcription mistakes contained in Harisse’s published version.8 Medina Zavala, 1908: 415-417.

11

enjoying access to the cypher books. He published it in

1911 along with an English translation.9 In addition,

Biggar discovered Harrisse’s confusion regarding Almazán’s

summary of Ayala’s letter. 10

While Medina’s work had relatively little echo,

Biggar’s edition of Ayala’s fragment quickly became the new

norm among English-speaking scholars and has remained the

reference until today.

The rest of Ayala’s letter has been reproduced very

seldom, and mostly in English translations. The first

complete edition in Spanish was published in 1972 by Luis

Suárez Fernández, who focused exclusively on its diplomatic

content and followed Biggar for the fragment about Cabot

without adding any new comment.11 In 1994 was published the

second almost complete transcription of Ayala’s letter, in

the Colección Documental del Descubrimiento.12 Most unfortunately,

this version did not include the fragment on Cabot and the

English discoveries. In its place the editors surprisingly

inserted Almazán’s short summary. As a result, such a

comprehensive, monumental and respected work as the

“CoDoDes” is missing one of the most famous texts about the

discovery of North America. This article aims to fill this

9 Biggar, 1911: documents XIV (Spanish) and XIV A (English).10 Biggar, 1906: 842-849, cited in Wrong, Langton, 1908: 22.11 Suárez Fernández, 1972: 267-268. Suárez’s minor changes to thetranscription consisted in modernizing the orthography, making a fewtypographic changes and correcting three apparent scribal mistakesmade by Ayala: ‘bucan’, “lo le dixe” and ‘napamundi’. However he didkeep the strange phrase “aun le dia la una razon”, which happens to bethe only significant error in Biggar’s transcription, who in turn hadcopied it from Harrisse.12 Pérez de Tudela y Bueso, 1994, tomo II: 1077-1092.

12

gap by providing an accurate transcription, by discussing

several phrases with complex interpretation, and by

producing an English translation as close as possible to

the original meaning.

The transcriptions and translations by Bergenroth,

Harrisse, Medina and Biggar can be found in facsimile in

annex 2 (figures 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively).

3. NEW TRANSCRIPTIONS

3.1. Ayala’s encrypted text

The following transcription conventions have been

applied:

bold typeface indicates text that is encrypted in the

manuscript

italic bold typeface indicates words or phrases encrypted

with special codes instead of letter by letter

“/” indicates new line in the manuscript

“;” represents a punctuation sign used in the

manuscript, similar to a slash

strikethrough (example) indicates characters that

were stricken through but are still legible

(...)

Bien creo V.Al. an oydo como el rey de Inglaterra ha fecho

armada para descubrir ciertas / insulas o tierra firme que le

han certificado hallaron ciertos que de / bristol armaron el

año passado para lo mismo; yo he visto la carta que ha /

13

fecho el inuentador que es otro ginoues como colon que ha

estado / en seuilla y en lisbona procurando hauer quien le

ayudasse a esta inuen / cion los de bristol ha siete annos

que cada anno an armado / dos tres quatro carauelas para ir a

buscar la isla del brasil y las / siete ciudades con la

fantasia deste ginoues el rey determi / no de enbiar porque

el anno passado le trunxo certinidad hauian hallado / tierra

del armada que hizo que fueron cinco naos fueron auitualladas

/ por un anno ha venido nueua la una en que yua un otro fray

buil / aporto a irlanda con gran tormenta roto el nauio el

ginoues ti / ro su camino yo vista la derrota que lleuan y la

cantidad del cami / no hallo que es lo que han hallado o

bucan lo que V.Al. poseen porque es al / cabo que a V.Al. cupo

por la conuenencia con portugal; sperase seran venidos pa /

ra el setienbre hago lo saber a V.Al. el rey me a fablado

algunas vezes sobrello / spera auer muy gran interesse; creo

no ay quatrocientas leguas lo le / dixe creya eran las

halladas por V.Al. y aun le di alguna razon no lo quer / ria

porque creo V.Al. ya tendran auiso de todo esto y ansimismo al

carta o na / pamundi que este ha fecho yo no la le enbio aora

que aqui le ay y ami ver / bien falso por dar a entender no

son de las islas dichas.

(...)

In order to make the deciphered text easier to read, an

adapted version follows in which the following

modifications have been introduced:

Letters ‘u’ with consonant value have been replaced by

‘v’.

Modern punctuation has been added.

14

“V.Al.” has been developed to “Vuestras Altezas”.

Bien creo Vuestras Altezas an oydo como el rey de

Inglaterra ha fecho armada para descubrir ciertas insulas o

tierra firme que le han certificado hallaron ciertos que de

bristol armaron el año passado para lo mismo. Yo he visto la

carta que ha fecho el inventador, que es otro ginoves como

colon, que ha estado en sevilla y en lisbona procurando haver

quien le ayudasse a esta invencion. Los de bristol ha siete

annos que cada anno an armado dos, tres, quatro caravelas para

ir a buscar la isla del brasil y las siete ciudades. Con la

fantasia deste ginoves, el rey determino de enbiar porque el

anno passado le truxo certinidad havian hallado tierra. Del

armada que hizo, que fueron cinco naos, fueron avitualladas por

un anno. Ha venido nueva: la una, en que yva un otro fray buil,

aporto a irlanda con gran tormenta, roto el navio. El ginoves

tiro su camino. Yo, vista la derrota que llevan y la cantidad

del camino, hallo que es lo que han hallado o bu[s]can lo que

Vuestras Altezas poseen, porque es al cabo que a Vuestras

Altezas cupo por la convenencia con portugal. Sperase seran

venidos para el setienbre; hago lo saber a Vuestras Altezas. El rey

me a fablado algunas vezes sobrello. Spera aver muy gran

interesse. Creo no ay quatrocientas leguas. Lo le dixe creya

eran las halladas por Vuestras Altezas y, aun le di alguna razon,

no lo querria. Porque creo Vuestras Altezas ya tendran aviso de

todo esto y ansimismo al carta o napamundi que este ha fecho, yo

no le enbio aora, que aqui le ay y, a mi ver, bien falso por

dar a entender no son de las islas dichas.

15

3.2. Almazán’s notes

FIGURE 4: FRAGMENT OF ALMAZÁN’S NOTES THAT SUMS UP THE NEWS ABOUT

ENGLISH EXPEDITIONS

Source: Archivo General de Simancas, PTR, leg.52, doc. 166, fol. 866v

(fragment).

For the transcription of the fragment of the summary

prepared by Almazán, the following conventions have been

applied:

Abbreviations have been developed, with added letters

indicated in italics.

“/” means new line in the manuscript.

The manuscript’s orthography, punctuation and use of

upper case have been respected. The sign “;”

represents a punctuation sign similar to a slash used

by Almazán.

… el Rey de Inglaterra embio cinco naos armadas con otro

ginoues como colon / a buscar la ysla del brasil y las VIJ

ciudades fueron prouey / das por hun año; dizen que seran

16

venydos paral el setienbre. Vista / la derrota que lleuan hallo

que lo que buscan es lo que Vuestras Altezas / posseen; el Rey me

ha fablado algunas vezes sobrello / espera hauer muy gran

interesse; creo que no hay daquialla / CCCC leguas.

To the left of Almazán’s text there is a marginalia in

modern hand script, probably from the 19th century, signed

by a Garcia13 that says:

?Sera Ame- / rico Vespucio? / ó Sebastián / Caboto? / Ni

el uno / ni el otro eran / Genoveses. / Yo opino / que

sería Caboto= / [signature]

4. TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH

The following translations of the two documents

(Ayala’s original and Almazán’s notes) are mostly based on

the ones published by Biggar in 1911. The main changes I

have introduced are explained in footnotes and in the

discussion thereafter.

4.1. Translation of Ayala’s text

I believe Your Highnesses have already heard how the

king of England14 has equipped a fleet to explore certain13 I am not completely sure regarding the reading of this surname. Ifit truly is “García”, then the author of the marginalia may have beenManuel García, who was the head of the Archive of Simancas whenBergenroth visited it in the 1860’s.14 Henry VII, king of England and lord of Ireland from 1485 to hisdeath in 1509.

17

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 chart15 made by

the discoverer, who is another Genoese like Colon16, 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

Genoese17, the king made up his mind to send [vessels],

because last year18 [he] brought him sure proof19 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 Buil20

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

15 In the original “carta”, translated by Biggar as ‘map’.16 The explorer known in English as Christopher Columbus was called Cristobal Colon in Spain. This fragment of Ayala’s latter is often quoted as a proof of Columbus’s Genoese origin. However, John Cabot was not Genoese.17 Most published transcriptions place a dot after the word ‘ginoves’(Genoese) instead of after “ciudades” (cities). See discussion belowabout the consequences of each option18 1497, given that the letter is dated July 25, 1498.19 The original says “le truxo certinidad”, which Biggar translated as“sure proof was brought him”. See discussion below.20 Bernardo Boyl or Boil was an Aragonese friar who took part inColumbus’s second voyage to the Indies after having been named by thePope apostolic vicar for those lands. But Ayala probably does not meanthat Boil actually took part in Cabot’s expedition. See discussionbelow.

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at the end [of] what21 fell to Your Highnesses by the

convention with Portugal22. 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 profit23. I believe the

distance is not four hundred leagues. I24 told him that I

believed they were those [islands?] found by Your

Highnesses, and although I gave him some reason25, he

would not have it. Since I believe Your Highnesses will

already have notice of all this and also of the chart or

mappa mundi26 which this man has made, I do not send it

now, although it is here, and to my eye27 exceedingly

false, in order to make believe that they [the new lands]

are not part of the said islands [of Your Highnesses].

21 Biggar wrote “at the cape which” while in the original it says “alcabo que”. See discussion below about the possible meanings of thisphrase.22 Most likely the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494 between theking of Portugal and the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon, whichestablished the border between their respective territories along ameridian located 370 leagues to the West of Cape Verde islands.23 The original says “spera auer muy gran interesse.” Biggar departedsignificantly from it by writing “the affair may turn out to beprofitable”.24 The original says “lo”, probably a mistake for “yo”.25 Biggar transcribed the original here as “aun le dia la una razon”and translated “although I gave him the main reason”. This was one ofthe very few transcription mistakes Biggar made, for the originalactually reads “aun le di alguna razon”. The same mistake was found inHarrisse’s transcription.26 The original says ‘napamundi’, possibly a mistake for “mapamundi”,but the form with initial ’n’ can be found in some contemporaryIberian documents. See discussion below.27 The original says “ami ver”, which Biggar translated as “so far as Ican see”.

19

4.2. Translation of Almazán’s notes

Note: modern punctuation has been added.

…the King of England sent five armed vessels with another

Genoese like Colon in search of the island of the brazil

and the VII cities. They were provisioned for a year; they

say that they will be back by September. Having seen the

course they are steering I find that what they are in

search of is possessed by Your Highnesses. The king has

spoken to me several times on the subject, he hopes to

obtain very great profit. I believe the distance is not

CCCC leagues.

The side comment reads:Will it be Americo Vespucio or Sebastián Caboto? None of

them was Genoese. I think it must have been Caboto.

[signature]

5. DISCUSSION OF THE TEXT’S MAIN DIFFICULTIES

5.1. “Con la fantasia deste ginoves” (according to the

fancy of this Genoese)

... los de bristol ha siete annos que cada anno an armado

/ dos tres quatro carauelas para ir a buscar la isla del

brasil y las / siete ciudades con la fantasia deste

ginoues el rey determi / no de enbiar porque el anno

passado le trunxo certinidad hauian hallado / tierra...

20

Harrisse, based on those of Bergenroth’s papers that

he could have access to, transcribed this fragment as

follows: “Los de Bristol, ha siete años que cada año an

armado dos, tres, cuatro caravelas para ir a buscar la isla

del Brasil y las siete ciudades con la fantasia deste

Ginoves. El rey determino de enbiar porque el año passado

le truxo certenidad que havian hallado tierra”. Biggar’s

transcription three decades later was very similar: “Los de

Bristol... las Siete Ciudades con la fantasia deste

Ginoves. El rei determino de enbiar, porque el año passado

le truxo certinidad havian hallado tierra”.

If the text is interpreted like that, it leads to the

conclusion that Cabot had inspired the voyages of discovery

launched from Bristol since 1491, which is at odds with

what is known of Cabot’s activities in the first half of

the 1490’s, and has therefore generated confusion among

generations of historians.28

There is however an alternative explanation that is

consistent with the rest of the known historical facts. As

can be seen in figure 5, Ayala’s letter does not include

any punctuation sign at this point of the text. Bergenroth

arbitrarily chose to place a dot after the word “ginoves”

28 For example, the entry on John Cabot in the Dictionary of CanadianBiography (link), authored by R. E. Skelton, states that: “The argumentthat Cabot had conducted or inspired earlier voyages from Bristol,perhaps going back to 1491, rests on three documents. In his letter ofJuly 1498 Pedro de Ayala recorded that ‘for the last seven years’ themen of Bristol had sent ships to seek the island of Brazil and theSeven Cities ‘according to the fancy [or reckoning] of this Genoese’(‘con la fantasia desto Genoves’); if John Cabot were in Valencia in 1490–93,Ayala’s phrase must be taken to indicate merely Cabot’s laterinterpretation of the objectives of the Bristol voyages, and not hisdirect association in or with them.”

21

and almost every later author has imitated him. Only one,

José Toribio Medina in his 1908 work, proposed a different

rendering. Medina’s transcription (based on a deciphering

carried out by Pedro Torres Lanzas) was the following: “Los

de Bristol ha siete años, que cada año han armado dos,

tres, cuatro carabelas para ir á buscar la isla del Brasil

y las siete ciudades. Con la fantasía deste ginovés el Rey

determinó de enviar, porque el año pasado le truxo

certinidad habían hallado tierra.”

The difference is subtle but impactful. By placing the

dot after the word ‘ciudades’, Medina broke the link

between Cabot and the earliest Bristol voyages, which in

turn lent support to his thesis that Cabot only arrived in

England in 1495, against Harrisse’s opinion that it had

been in 1490.29

FIGURE 5: FRAGMENT OF AYALA’S LETTER REPORTING THE ENGLISH

EXPEDITIONS

29 Medina, 1908: 10-11 (note 9)

22

Source: Archivo General de Simancas, PTR, leg. 52, doc.166, fol. 861r

(fragment).

Medina’s rendering eliminates the alleged

contradiction between Ayala’s letter and other documents

that show that in 1494 Cabot was in Seville (Spain),

involved in engineering activities.30 In addition, it is

more grammatically consistent because it completes the

sentence “porque el año pasado le truxo certinidad habían

hallado tierra”. In effect in “le truxo” (= “[he/she/it]

brought him”) there are two implicit persons: one is “him”,

which obviously means the King; the other one is the

subject of the verb, which is omitted as is usual in

Spanish whenever the person is either obvious or unknown.

For Bergenroth and Biggar it was not clear who had

“brought” certainty to Henry VII, so in their translations

into English they opted for impersonal forms. Bergenroth

translated it to “they brought”, which is inaccurate

because the verb ‘truxo’ is singular, not plural; whereas

Biggar chose the passive voice “was brought him”. Medina’s

version allows to identify an obvious candidate for the

subject of ‘truxo’: “este ginoves” (= “this Genoese”) i.e.

Cabot himself. If Ayala didn’t find it necessary to specify

who the subject was, it must have been because he had just

mentioned it. Therefore “este ginoves” was part of the

sentence that includes “truxo” and there should be no dot

between “este ginoves” and “el rey”.

30 Gil, 1989: 77-81.

23

In my transcription and translation I have followed

Medina’s criterion, which if correct leads to two

conclusions: 1) Ayala’s letter should no longer be taken as

a proof of an alleged arrival of Cabot in England ca. 1490;

and 2) the document confirms that it was Cabot himself who

returned to England in 1497 and announced he had found

land, which explains why Henry VII decided to give his

support to the expedition of 1498.

5.2. “Un otro fray Buil” (another Friar Buil)

...ha venido nueua la una en que yua un otro fray buil /

aporto a irlanda con gran tormenta roto el nauio...

TABLE 1: TRANSCRIPTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS OF THE SENTENCE THAT INCLUDES

"UN OTRO FRAY BUIL".

Spanish EnglishBergenroth /Harrisse

Ha venido nueva, la unaen que iva un otro Fai(sic pro Fray?) Builaporto en Irlanda...

It is said that one ofthem, in which oneFriar Buil went, hasreturned to Ireland...

Biggar Ha venido nueva, la una enque iva un otro Frai Builaporto a Irlanda...

News has come that oneof these, in whichsailed another FriarBuil, has made land inIreland...

Medina ha venido nueva la unaen que iba un otro frayBuil, aportó aIrlanda...

-

24

Ayala’s mention of a “fray Buil” has generated some

confusion among historians too because of a subtle

translation mistake made by Bergenroth. He rendered “un

otro Fray Buil”, which in 15th century Spanish meant

“another Friar Buil”, into “one Friar Buil” and therefore

led his readers to believe that in Cabot’s expedition there

traveled someone with such a name. Fray Bernardo Boyl was a

well-known Aragonese clergyman who had been named by pope

Alexander VI general vicary of the Indies and had been in

Hispaniola in 1493-1494. There is absolutely no proof that

he ever went to England or was involved with Cabot’s

expeditions in any manner.

The solution to the problem is easy and was clearly

exposed by István Szászdi León-Borja in 1995.31 The reason

why Ayala mentioned the name of fray Buil must have simply

been that he was well known to the Monarchs but he did not

mean at all that it was precisely fray Buil who was

traveling with Cabot (in that case he would have written

“iva Frai Buil”), but some other cleric, perhaps invested

with the same church dignities. Ayala did not provide the

name of that cleric but recent research points to the

Augustine friar Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis.32

31 Szászdi, León-Borja, 1995: 1594.”Si prestamos atención al textoAyala nunca afirma que Colón o el genovés Colón se ha echado a la marcon gente de Bristol, se trata de una comparación ‘otro ginoves comoColón’ e igualmente hay que interpretar ese ‘otro fray Buil’ de lamisma manera. Pedro de Ayala quería expresar que aquel ‘otro’ eratanto hombre de religión como la [sic] que estaba investido con lasmismas características, léase poderes, de Buil,“32 Jones, 2008: 232.

25

5.3. “Al cabo” of the Treaty of Tordesillas

...hallo que es lo que han hallado o bucan lo que V.Al.

poseen porque es al / cabo que a V.Al. cupo por la

conuenencia con portugal...

This is one of the fragments that has created the most

difficulties to editors and scholars of Ayala’s letter; not

because of its transcription, which is unambiguous, but

because of the interpretation of the phrase about the

“convenencia con Portugal”, i.e. the Treaty of Tordesillas

agreed between the king of Portugal and the monarchs of

Castile and Aragon on June 7, 1494.

Bergenroth omitted the entire phrase about the Treaty

in his translation. He can be partially excused because

royal secretary Almazán had omitted it too in his

summary.33 Harrisse did not make any comment about its

meaning.

33 “Vista / la derrota que lleuan hallo que lo que buscan es lo que V. Al. / posseen;” My translation: “Having seen the course they are steering I find that what they are in search of is possessed by Your Highnesses.”

26

TABLA 2: TRANSCRIPTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS OF THE FRAGMENT ABOUT THE

TREATY WITH PORTUGAL.

Spanish EnglishBergenroth /Harrisse

hallo que es lo que hanhallado o buscan lo queVuestras Altezasposeen, porque es alcabo que a VuestrasAltezas capo por laconvencion conPortugal.

and I think that whatthey have found, orwhat they are in searchof, is what yourHighnessess alreadypossess.

Biggar hallo que es lo que hanhallado o bucan (sic) lo queVuestras Altezas poseen,porque es al cabo que aVuestras Altezas cupo por laconvenencia con Portugal.

I find that what theyhave discovered or arein search of ispossessed by YourHighnesses because itis at the cape whichfell to Your Highnessesby the convention withPortugal.

Medina hallo que es lo que hanhallado ó buscan lo queVuestra Alteza posee,por que es al cabo queá Vuestra Alteza cupopor la conveniencia conPortugal;

-

Biggar, in his 1911 work, corrected the transcription

errors present in Bergenroth / Harrisse and in his English

translation introduced an original interpretation of the

phrase “al cabo que a V.Al. cupo”, which he took to refer

to some geographical accident (“at the cape”) that would

have supposedly come under the possession of the Catholic

Monarchs in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Since Biggar’s

translation has been the most widespread until today, many

historians have wondered what cape Cabot may have reached.

27

For example, James A. Williamson speculated that it may

have been some location in Cuba.34

However, that “cape” allegedly mentioned by Ayala does

not fit well with the content of the Treaty of

Tordesillas,35 which Ayala must have known well since he

was one of the diplomats sent by Ferdinand and Isabella to

negotiate with John II of Portugal towards the end of

1493.36 Furthermore, if the phrase “al cabo” really

referred to a geographic cape, its immediate meaning in

Spanish would be a sense of direction (e.g. “we went to the

cape”) rather than of location, which would have probably

been expressed by writing “en el cabo”.

These inconsistencies make me think that “al cabo que”

has an entirely different meaning. Elsewhere in Ayala’s

letter, the cypher symbol that is normally transcribed as

‘que’ sometimes stands for more complex expressions that

include articles and prepositions, for example “la forma

[en la] que” and “la causa [de] que” (see figure 6).

34 Williamson, 1962: 89.35 The text of the Treaty of Tordesillas mentions “el cabo de Bujador”or “de Bojador”, the “cabo del Estrecho” (= cape of the Strait) andthe “Yslas del Cabo Verde” (= Cape Verde islands) but none of theseAfrican capes would make sense in the context of Cabot’s voyages.36 Instrucción de los Reyes Católicos a los embajadores Pedro de Ayala y García López deCarvajal acerca de lo que han de decir al Rey de Portugal, Barcelona, 3 November1493, Biblioteca Nacional de España, ms. 2420, ff. 196r - 198r.

28

FIGURE 6: A) CIPHER SIGN FOR THE WORD 'QUE'; B) PHRASE “LA FORMA

[EN LA] QUE”, IN PAGE 1 OF THE LETTER; C) PHRASE “LA CAUSA [DE]

QUE”, IN PAGE 9 OF THE LETTER

I suspect that in the fragment about Cabot, what Ayala

meant was “al cabo [de lo] que”. In English this can be

translated as “at the end [of] what” or “in the edge [of]

what”, as shown by the comparison of two almost

contemporary translations of the Bible into Spanish and

English: the Biblia de Casiodoro de Reina37 and the King

James Bible38 shown in Table 3.

37 La Biblia que es, los sacros libros del Vieio y Nuevo Testamento / Trasladada en

español, Basilea, Thomas Guarin, 1569.38 The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament and the New. Newly Translated out of

the Originall Tongues, & with the Former Translations diligently Compared and Revised by his

Majesties Special Comandement, Appointed to be read in Churches, London, Robert

Barker, 1611.

29

TABLE 3: COMPARISON OF BIBLE VERSES INCLUDING “AL CABO” BETWEEN THREE

EDITIONS: 16TH CENTURY SPANISH, 20TH CENTURY SPANISH AND 17TH CENTURY

ENGLISH.

Verses Reina 1569 Biblia de Jerusalén(20th century)

King James 1611

Joshua15, 8 (final)

Y sube estetermino por lacúbre del monteque estádelante delvalle de Ennonhazia elOccidente, elqual esta àlcabo del vallede los Gigantesàl Norte.

subía el límitepor el oeste ala cima delmonte que hayfrente al vallede Hinnom, alextremo nortedel valle delos Refaim

and the borderwent vp to thetop of themountaine, thatlieth beforethe valley ofHinnom,Westward, whichis at the endof the valleyof the giants,Northward.

Book of Numbers 33, 6

Y partiendo deSocothassentaron enEtham, que esàl cabo deldesierto

Partieron deSukkot yacamparon enEtam, que estáen el extremodel desierto.

And theydeparted fromSuccoth, andpitched inEtham, which isin the edge ofthe wildernesse

Summing up, I conclude that Ayala meant “al cabo [de

lo] que a Vuestras Altezas cupo...”, i.e. “at the end [of]

what fell to Your Highnesses”, implying that the lands

found by Cabot would be within the eastern extremity of the

Spanish hemisphere defined in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

30

5.4. Cabot’s “napamundi”

...porque creo V.Al. ya tendran auiso de todo esto y

ansimismo al carta o na / pamundi que este ha fecho yo no

la le enbio aora que aqui le ay y ami ver / bien falso...

Ayala informs, at the beginning of the fragment

analyzed in this article, that he has seen a map made by

Cabot (“yo he visto la carta que ha / fecho el inuentador”)

and later calls this map a “carta o napamundi”. The latter

word is probably a typo for ‘mapamundi’, given that

elsewhere in the same letter Ayala used the word

‘Mapamundi’ with initial ‘m’ to refer to maps of Great

Britain.39 That said, the form of the word with initial ‘n’

would not be unheard of because it appears in that way in

other 15th or 16th century Iberian documents:

in the letter sent from Brazil on May 1st, 1500 by

bachiller Joham to king Manuel I of Portugal:

“...mande vosa alteza traer un napamundy que tyene

Pero Vaaz Bisagudo (...) Es napamundy antiguo...”

in a deposition at the Columbian Lawsuits: “...porque

este testigo dio vn napamundi e vna espera quel

almirante tenia e otra cartas de marear a vn Juan

Vizcayno para las trasladar”.40

39 “amos estos Reynos son vna isla y segun he visto por scrituras y Mapamundi y tengo por experiencia de vista son yguales”. My translation: “these two Kingdoms are one island and equal in size, based on what I have seen in texts and maps and on my first-hand experience”40 Pedro de Sazedo’s answer to the 10th question of the Admiral’sinquiry. Muro Orejón, 1984: 35

31

in a mid 15th-century copy of a Spanish translation of

an Arabic geography book: “... e figuramos las propias

figuras del roque e de la samarda en el napamundy.”;

“E algunos omnes figuran en el napamundi en este logar

oriental de la meytad meridional la mar negra...”.41

Two other contemporary documents mention cartographic

works made by John Cabot after his voyage. A letter written

by the Milanese ambassador Raimondo di Soncino end of 1497

states that Cabot had made a chart as well as a globe:

“Esso messer Zoanne ha la descriptione del mundo in una

carta et anche in una sphera solida che lui a fatto”.42 The

other document is the letter sent by English merchant John

Day to the “Almirante Mayor de Castilla” in reply to an

apparent request of information about the recent English

discoveries. Day narrates Cabot’s voyages without citing

him by name, and says that “I send you the copy of the land

which has been found. I do not send the map because I am

not satisfied with it, for my many occupations forced me to

make it in a hurry at the time of my departure; but from

the said copy your Lordship will learn what you wish to

know, for in it are named the capes of the mainland and the

islands, and thus you will see where land was first

sighted...”.43

41 Transcribed in Jiménez de la Espada, 1877: 291 and 292 respectively.42 Letter from Raimondo di Soncino to the Duke of Milan dated inLondon, 18 December 1497. Transcribed in Biggar, 1911: 17-19.43 Carta de John Day al Almirante Mayor, sin fecha, probablemente de finales de 1497 ocomienzos de 1498. Archivo General de Simancas, Estado de Castilla, leg.2, fol. 6. Original text: “la copia de la tierra que es fallada leenbio y si la carta no le enbio es por que con mis ocupaciones no esta

32

Ayala clearly states in his letter that he did not

want to send to Spain a copy of Cabot’s map because he

deemed it “exceedingly false”. This did not prevent several

scholars from assuming that Ayala must have sent it later,

so as to justify the stretch of coast shown in Juan de la

Cosa’s map of 1500 as having been “discovered by the

English”.44 John Day did not send a complete copy either,

but did send a sketch, a simplified copy that at least

showed the coastline and the place names given by Cabot.

This must have been the drawing that La Cosa used as

source, and not any copy sent by Ayala.45

Nowadays no map, globe or any other cartographic work

made by John Cabot is extant. Pedro Ruiz de Villegas, a

Spanish cosmographer who in 1524 took part in the Junta of

Badajoz, a Portuguese-Spanish cartographic meeting, stated

having seen a “flat Map, in round shape, made in London”

whose author he did not cite.46 Given the scarce

a mi voluntad como querria porque le hize depriesa a mi partida ; peropor la dicha copya comprendera V. Sª lo que quiere saber que en lamisma copia estan nombrados los cabos de la tierra firme y las islas ypor alli asimismo vera donde fue la primera vista...” First publishedby Vigneras, 1956, who initially identified the Almirante Mayor withFadrique Enríquez, Admiral of Castile. Later on, the same authorpublished a revised transcription and English translation (Vigneras,1961) and changed his mind about the identity of the admiral, which hethen deemed to be Christopher Columbus.44 Davies, 1956: 27. 45 This opinion was put forward by Vigneras, 1961: 8-9, and I fullyagree with it. Davies can be excused for having believed Ayala was Dela Cosa’s source because he wrote his article right before thediscovery of John Day’s letter by Vigneras. However, Davies’s idea hasbeen repeated by later authors too, like Elkhadem.46 Ruiz de Villegas’s manuscript is lost but his account was copied byAndrés García de Céspedes, Regimiento de Navegación, Madrid, Juan de laCuesta, 1606, parte 2ª: 148r - 149r. Original text: “Mapa en plano, enfigura redonda, hecha en Londres”. Complete Spanish transcription and

33

testimonies of cartographic activity in late 15th and early

16th century England,47 it would be tempting to speculate

that this round map made in London may have been the work

of John Cabot, and that his son Sebastian took it with him

to the Junta of Badajoz, which he attended along with Ruiz

de Villegas. However, the map seen by Villegas could also

have been the work of Sebastian Cabot himself, or of some

unknown cartographer based in London, so it cannot be

concluded yet that John Cabot’s “napamundi” eventually made

it to Spain in the following decades.

English translation are available in the Historia y Mapas blog.47 Barber, 2007: 1589.

34

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Avezac, Marie Armand Pascal d’, Les navigations terre-neuviennes de Jean &Sébastien Cabot: lettre au révérend Léonard Woods, docteur ès lettres et docteuren théologie, ancien président du Bowdoin-Collège, à Brunswick, Maine, Etats-Unis de l’Amérique septentrionale, lue en communication à la séance trimestrielledes cinq académies de l’Institut de France le 6 octobre 1869, Paris,Imprimerie de E. Donnaud, 1869.https://archive.org/stream/lesnavigationst00avezgoog#page/n7/mode/2up (Accessed September 25, 2014).

Barber, Peter. “Mapmaking in England, ca. 1470–1650”, DavidWoodward (ed.), Cartography in the European Renaissance, 3, Chicago,University Of Chicago Press, 2007:1589-1569.

Beaudoin, J.-D. “Jean Cabot”, Henri Raymond Casgrain (ed.),Collection de documents inédits sur le Canada et l’Amérique, 1. Quebec, L.-J. Demers, 1888: 608-661.https://archive.org/stream/collectiondedoc00fragoog#page/n9/mode/2up

Bergenroth, Gustav Adolf, (ed.), Calendar of letters, despatches, and statepapers, relating to the negotiations between England and Spain, preserved in thearchives at Simancas and elsewhere, Vol. 1. London, Longman, Green,Longman, & Roberts, 1862.http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/N13941195.pdf

Biggar, Henry Percival, “A Cabot source which does not exist”,Revue hispanique, XV (New York - Paris, 1906): 842-849.https://archive.org/stream/cihm_87123#page/n7/mode/2up

Biggar, Henry Percival, The precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534,Ottawa, Government Printing Bureau, 1911. Publications ofthe Canadian Archives 5.http://www.archive.org/stream/precursorsofjacq00bigguoft#page/n5/mode/2up (Accessed September 25, 2014).

Brown, P. H., Early travellers in Scotland, Edinburgh, David Douglas,1891.https://archive.org/stream/earlytravellersi00browuoft#page/n5/mode/2up

Cartwright, William Cornwallis, Gustave Bergenroth: a memorial sketch,Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas, 1870.http://archive.org/details/gustavebergenrot00cartiala(Accessed September 25, 2014).

Davies, Arthur. “The “English” coasts on the map of Juan de laCosa”, Imago Mundi 13/1 (The Hague, 1956): 26-29.

35

Desimoni, Cornelio, Intorno a Giovanni Caboto, genovese: Scopritore delLabrador e di altre regioni dell alta America settentrionale, Genova, Istitutode’ sordo-muti, 1881.https://archive.org/stream/cihm_16960#page/n11/mode/2up

Elkhadem, Hossam, “Juan de La COSA, Parte correspondiente a laAmerica de la Carta General de Juan de La Cosa, Piloto en elsegundo Viage de Cristobal Colon en 1493 y en la expedicionde Alonzo de Hojeda en 1499”, Bibliothèque Royale AlbertIer, s. f. http://www.kbr.be/america/fr/fr39.htm (AccessedSeptember 25, 2014).

Gil, Juan, Mitos y utopias del descubrimiento: I. Colón y su tiempo, Madrid,Alianza Universidad, 1989.

Harrisse, Henry, Jean et Sébastien Cabot, leur origine et leurs voyages: étuded’histoire critique, Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1882. Recueil de voyageset de documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographiedepuis le XIIIe jusqu’à la fin du XVIe siècle 1.https://archive.org/stream/jeanetsbastienc00harrgoog#page/n7/mode/2up

Jiménez de la Espada, Marcos (ed.), Libro del conosçimiento de todos losreynos y tierras y señoríos que son por el mundo y de las señales y armas que hancada tierra y señorío por sy y de los reyes y señores que los porueen, escrito porun franciscano español á mediados del siglo XIV, Madrid, T. Fortanet,1877. http://books.google.com/books?id=0lMEEgk1U-kC&pg=PA1

Jones, Evan T. “Alwyn Ruddock: ‘John Cabot and the Discovery ofAmerica’”. Historical Research 81/212 (London, May 2008): 224–254.

Medina Zavala, José Toribio, El veneciano Sebastián Caboto al servicio deEspaña y especialmente de su proyectado viaje á las Molucas por el Estrecho deMagallanes y al reconocimiento de la costa del continente hasta la gobernaciónde Pedrarias Dávila, Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Chile,1908.https://archive.org/stream/elvenecianosebas01medirich#page/n9/mode/2up

Muro Orejón, Antonio (ed.), Pleitos colombinos: Probanzas del Almirante delas Indias (1512-1515), Sevilla, CSIC, 1984. Pleitos colombinos, 3.

Pérez de Tudela y Bueso, Juan, (ed.), Colección documental delDescubrimiento (1470-1506), 3 vols., Madrid, Fundación MapfreAmérica, 1994.

Reumont, Alfredo, “I due Caboto: cenni storico-critici”, ArchivoStorico Italiano... Quarta serie, VI (Firenze, 1880): 414–421.

36

Suárez Fernández, Luis, Politica internacional de Isabel la Católica: estudio ydocumentos, vol. 5, Valladolid, Instituto “Isabel la Católica”de Historia Eclesiastica, 1972.

Szászdi León-Borja, István, “Después de la Inter Caetera,ruptura y cambio en la política indiana de Alejandro VI”,Memoria del X Congreso del Instituto Internacional de Historia del DerechoIndiano, México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,1995: 1577–1629.

Tarducci, F., John and Sebastian Cabot, Traducido por H. F. Brownson.H. F. Brownson, 1893.https://archive.org/stream/cihm_24464#page/n5/mode/2up

Vigneras, L. A., “New light on the 1497 Cabot voyage toAmerica”, Hispanic American Historical Review (Durham, 1956): 503-506.

Vigneras, Louis-André. “État présent des études sur Jean Cabot”,Actas del Congresso Internacional de História dosDescubrimentos, Vol. 3, Lisboa, Neogravura Lda., 1961.

Weare, G. E., Cabot’s Discovery of North America, London, John MacQueen,1897.http://archive.org/stream/cabotsdisc00wearrich#page/n9/mode/2up (Accessed September 25, 2014).

Williamson, James Alexander, The Cabot voyages and Bristol discovery underHenry VII: with the cartography of the voyages, vol. 2, Cambridge,Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press,1962.

Wrong, George M. y Langton, H. H. (eds.), Review of historicalpublications relating to Canada, vol. XII, Toronto, Morang & Co.,1908.https://archive.org/stream/reviewhistorica00wallgoog#page/n8/mode/2up

37

ANNEX 1: KEY OF THE CIPHER USED BY PEDRO DE AYALA

In the cipher code used by Pedro de Ayala, every

letter of the Spanish alphabet of the time is represented

by one or more symbols. Besides, several common words have

their own symbols, e.g. “que”, “yo”, “el”, etc. These words

are nevertheless sometimes encrypted letter by letter too.

Cipher symbols Meaning

a

b c

d

e

f

g

h

i, j (I have transcribed ‘i’ or‘j’ depending on whether theyrepresent a vowel or consonantsound, respectively)

lm

n

o

38

Cipher symbols Meaningp

q

r

s (Almazán sometimes transcribedit ‘ss’)t

u,v (I have transcribed thissymbol as ‘v’ at the beginning of aword and as ‘u’ in the middle ofthe word, irrespective of whetherit represents a vowel or consonantsound)xyz

el (= ‘the’ for singularmasculine nouns)

no (= ‘not’)

que (= ‘that’, ‘what’,‘which’)

V.Al. = Vuestras Altezas (YourHighnesses); Ayala sometimes usesV.M. o V.Mades = Vuestras Majestades(Your Majesties)rey de Inglaterra (= Kingof England)yo (= ‘I’)

39

_____________

40

ANNEX 2: TRANSCRIPTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS IN FACSIMILE

Bergenroth 1862

FIGURE 7: TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH BY G. A. BERGENROTH (1862).

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE COURTESY OF GOOGLE

41

42

Harrisse 1882

FIGURE 8: TRANSCRIPTION BY H. HARRISSE (1882) BASED ON THE ONE BY

G. A. BERGENROTH. PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE COURTESY OF GOOGLE

43

44

Medina Zavala 1908

FIGURE 9: TRANSCRIPTION BY P. TORRES LANZAS PUBLISHED BY J.T. MEDINA

ZAVALA (1908). PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE COURTESY OF GOOGLE

45

Biggar 1911

FIGURE 10: TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH BY H.P.BIGGAR

(1911). PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE COURTESY OF ARCHIVE.ORG

46