researches while there having ultimately proved of great value to the commerce of Spain.
Returns to Spain, 1531, and remains there till 1549, when he settles finally in Bristol.
Edward VI., A.D. 1547-1553,
On Cabot's return to Spain, in 1531, he resumed his
former position of pilot-major, and about eighteen
years afterwards, or fifty-three years after the date of
his first commission from Henry VII., he, then an old
man, returned to Bristol, the place of his birth in 1549.
Whatever may have been the motives of the king of
Spain for consenting to the departure of his pilot-major,
he soon became alarmed at the event. To
England the services of a man of Cabot's skill and
knowledge was then invaluable. The youth who
had then just ascended the English throne had
already given such evidence of capacity as to excite
the attention of Europe, and anticipations were
universally expressed of the memorable part he was
destined to perform. Edward VI. saw the advantages
to be derived from the services of Sebastian Cabot.
Naval affairs had from his boyhood seized his attention
as a sort of passion. Even when a child "he
knew all the harbours and ports both of his own
dominions and of France and Scotland, and how
much water they had, and what was the way of
coming into them: and, hence,"[1] Charles V., seeing
the mistake he had made in parting with Cabot,
endeavoured by various means, though without avail,
to induce him to return to Spain.[2]
But for some time after his arrival in England Cabot lived in comparative retirement, devoting himself to the consideration of questions of importance to navigators, and endeavouring to improve the
