passionate and ambitious reckoning ought not to bee prejudiciall to
other mens chargeable and painefull enterprises and honourable travels
in discoverie.


SECTION X.

_Brief note of a voyage by Thomas Tison to the West Indies, before the
year 1526[22]._


It appears from a certain note or memorandum in the custody of me
Richard Hakluyt, taken out of an old ledger-book formerly belonging to
Mr Nicholas Thorne senior, a respectable merchant of Bristol, written to
his friend and factor Thomas Midnall and his servant William Ballard, at
that time residing at San Lucar in Andalusia; that before the year 1526,
one Thomas Tison an Englishman had found his way to the West Indies, and
resided there as a secret factor for some English merchants, who traded
thither in an underhand manner in those days. To this person Mr Nicholas
Thorne appears to have sent armour and other articles which are
specified in the memorandum or letter above mentioned--This Thomas
Tison, so far as I can conjecture, appears to have been a secret factor
for Mr Thorne and other English merchants, to transact for them in these
remote parts; whence it is probable that some of our merchants carried
on a kind of trade to the West Indies even in those ancient times;
neither do I see any reason why the Spaniards should debar us from it
now.

[Footnote 22: Hakluyt, III. 595.]