and two men called Fernandez, all of the Azores, and
probably of the class of master-pilots to which the Cabots
and Columbus belonged. We know nothing of the results of
the expedition, but it returned in safety in the same
year, and the parsimonious king was moved to pay out five
pounds from his treasury 'to the men of Bristol that
found the isle.'

Francis Fernandez and John Gonzales remained in the
English service and became subjects of King Henry. Again,
in the summer of 1502, they were sent out on another
voyage from Bristol. In September they brought their
ships safely back, and, in proof of the strangeness of
the new lands they carried home 'three men brought out
of an Iland forre beyond Irelond, the which were clothed
in Beestes Skynnes and ate raw fflesh and were rude in
their demeanure as Beestes.' From this description (written
in an old atlas of the time), it looks as if the Fernandez
expedition had turned north from the Great Banks and
visited the coast where the Eskimos were found, either
in Labrador or Greenland. This time Henry VII gave
Fernandez and Gonzales a pension of ten pounds each, and
made them 'captains' of the New Found Land. A sum of
twenty pounds was given to the merchants of Bristol who
had accompanied them. We must remember that at this time
the New Found Land was the general name used for all the
northern coast of America.

There is evidence that a further expedition went out from
Bristol in 1503, and still another in 1504. Fernandez