The Age of Exploration: letters and voices Pictures courtesy the Library of CongressPictures courtesy the Library of Congress Letter excerpts and eyewitness accounts courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society’s American JourneysLetter excerpts and eyewitness accounts courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society’s American Journeys

John Cabot “Sayled in this tracte so farre towarde the weste, that the Ilande of Cuba bee on my lefte hande, in manere in the same degree of longitude.” - John Cabot, in a letter to King Henry VII

“One thing I supplicate your majesty: that you will give orders, under a great penalty, that no bachelors of law should be allowed to come here [the New World]; for not only are they bad themselves, but they also make and contrive a thousand inequities.” - Vasco Nuñez de Balboa to Ferdinand V of Spain, 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa

I discovered, at my own cost and charge, the Island Florida… and now I return to that island, if it please God’s will, to settle it, being enabled to carry a number o f people… that the name of Christ may be praised there and Your Majesty served with the fruit that land produces. - Juan Ponce de Leon, in a letter to Charles V, 1521 Juan Ponce de Leon

“There should go there settlers up to the number of two thousand who may want to go so as to render the possession of the country safer and cause it to be more profitable…” - Christopher Columbus, in a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella,1493 Christopher Columbus

Henry Hudson The discoverie of the North-west Passage, begunne the seventeenth of Aprill, 1610, ended with his end, being treacherously exposed by some of the Companie. - Robert Juet, 1609

Jacques Cartier “So we sayled with a good and prosperous wind, until the 20 of the said moneth, at which time the weather turned into stormes and tempests, the which with contrary winds, and darkenesse, endured so long that our ships being without any rest, suffered as much as any ships that ever went on seas…” - A report on Cartier’s voyage prepared for the King of France