These natives must have been brought back from the expedition of 1501 or from that of 1502 (if the latter returned before August 21 ?). They were most likely Eskimo, since Indians with their darker skin could scarcely have looked like Englishmen. It might even be supposed that they came from Greenland, and were descendants of the Norsemen there, in which case their resemblance to Englishmen is most naturally explained.
[Illustration: North-western portion of Robert Thorne's map, of 1527 (copy of a Spanish map of the world)]
On December 9 (18), 1502, Henry VII. again granted letters patent to Thomas Ashehurst, Joam Gonzales, Francisco Fernandes and Hugh Elliott for a voyage of discovery to parts not hitherto found by English subjects. That this projected expedition took place in 1503 is possibly shown by an entry in the accounts of the King's privy purse: "1503, Nov. 17. To one that brought hawkes from the Newfounded Island. 1.L." [cf. Harrisse, 1882, p. 270].
It seems that it must be the same voyage to the north-west that is mentioned by Robert Thorne of Bristol in his letter of 1527 to Henry VIII.'s Ambassador in Spain. Thorne was then living in Seville, and was interested in Indian enterprises. He tries to induce Henry VIII. to send an expedition to the Indies by way of the Polar Sea, and sends with his project a rough copy he has had made of a Spanish mappamundi. He says that he has inherited the "inclination or desire of this discoverie" from his
"father, which with another marchant of Bristow named Hugh Eliot, were the discoverers of the New found lands, of the which there is no doubt, (as nowe plainely appeareth) if the mariners would then have bene ruled, and followed their Pilots minde, the lands of the West Indies (from whence all the gold commeth) had bene ours. For all is one coast, as by the Carde appeareth, and is aforesayd."
On the map the northern east coast of America extends uninterruptedly to the north (see the reproduction), and upon it is written: "the new land called laboratorum," and along the coast there is: "the land that was first discovered by the English." It might appear as though it was really the present Labrador that was then discovered; but this is hardly the case; what we see on the map is probably Greenland,[328] which is here moved over to America as on other Spanish maps, and the east coast of which is given a northerly direction as on Ruysch's map of 1508.