Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/438

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
398
VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES, 1399-1485.
[1485.

his Tile must have been Iceland or "Thule." His testimony to the activity of the Bristol traders is interesting. On July 15, 1480, Thomas Lloyd sailed from the port of Bristol, with "ships of 80 tons burden" belonging to John Say. His object was to discover the mysterious island of Brasylle or O'Brazil, which was reported to lie out in the Atlantic—to the west of Ireland. His voyage lasted nine months, but it was fruitless.[1] But all these early voyages want a vates sacer. The last indication of early travel with which our record fitly closes, comes from the other extreme of Europe, where Strozzi was in 1485 appointed English consul at Pisa for the Mediterranean, and where a treaty of reciprocity was concluded with Florence.[2]



Bitts
Bitts
  1. Harrisse, 'Discovery of North America', 659.
  2. A few events which rightly belong to the latter part of this period are, for the sake of convenience, dealt with in Chap. XVI.