1498 - John Day
Norse sailors are known to have settled Greenland and believed to have made at least the five expeditions to Vinland described in the Sagas, at the beginning of the eleventh century. We have much less solid information about what happened in the North Atlantic during the five centuries between the Viking era and Christopher Columbus. Although accounts of ongoing travel and trade in this region are not typically mentioned in mainstream histories, that doesn't mean they don't exist. For that matter, even if there were no accounts, that lack of surviving records would not be conclusive evidence that there was no such travel. There is the slightly later history of the Hanseatic League, which must have been built on some legacy of earlier activity. And it turns out, with a little more digging, there are some accounts of Norse, English, and European travel in the North Atlantic. Even Columbus himself, in a letter to his son Diego that has not survived, is reported in many subsequent histories to have written:
In the month of February, 1477, I sailed a hundred leagues beyond the island of Thyle [Thule, or Iceland] the southern part of which is distant from the equinoxial 73 degrees, and not 63, as some wish it to be; nor does it lie upon the line where Ptolemy's west begins, but much more toward the west. And to this island, which is as large as England, the English come for traffic, and especially those of Bristol. And at the time I was there the sea was not frozen, but in some places the tide rose 26 fathoms, and fell the same.
It is unclear to me what landmass Columbus might be describing, beyond Iceland. Greenland is an obvious candidate, and it would have been possible for the navigator to measure a latitude of 73 degrees for a landfall on Greenland, since it covers an area from 59 degrees to 83 degrees north.
Many English and Icelandic chronicles document visits of Englishmen to Iceland, and some mention Greenland. Other Europeans traveled in the North Atlantic as well: Venetian explorers Nicolò to Antonio Zeno seem to have sailed to Iceland, Greenland, and possibly to North America in the 1380s. Their descendant, Nicolò Zeno the Younger, published a map that showed Iceland, Greenland, the fabled island of Frisland, and in the southwest, two landmasses that may have been Labrador and Newfoundland, labeled Estotiland and Drogeo. It is also possible, however, that the descendant who published these claims was mistaken or was exaggerating; possibly to establish a Venetian claim to discovery of the Americas before the Genoese, Columbus.
There's also fairly substantial evidence of English activity in northern waters. In 1478, Robert Alcock of Hull was commissioned by King Edward IV to sail to Iceland "to reload with fish or other goods". John Day, a merchant of Bristol, sailed westward into the Atlantic in 1480 and 1481, in two ships loaded with salt, which was most likely for use in preserving cod or for trade with people drying cod. The Italians in London mentioned English trade missions like these in their letters. Although the Norse had been drying the fish for centuries, the Basques had added salt (which they had also used in preserving whale meat) to the process. English fishermen from Hull (in Yorkshire) had been sailing into the North Atlantic to catch Cod, which they called stockfish, and merchants from Bristol (in southwest England) traded in the fish. Day may have been planning to fish for cod or to trade salt for preserved fish. Some historians speculate that Day sailed across the Atlantic to find the fabled isle of Hy-Brasil and fish for cod, because the Hanseatic League may have closed the Iceland trade to Bristol in 1475, after the Anglo-Hanseatic War of 1469-74.
The 1498 letter from John Day to Christopher Columbus mentions a 14th-century book, Inventio Fortunata, which Columbus had asked him to send, of which Day seems to have owned a copy. This is believed to have been a lost medieval text written by a Franciscan friar working at Oxford, describing his travels in the North Atlantic region and speculating about the North Pole. The friar was said to have traveled on behalf of King Edward III and to have reported his findings in 1360. Most of the text seems to have consisted of exaggerated and fabulous accounts of magnetic islands, dwarves, and men with long feet. Although the original text has been lost, references to it appear in the John Day letter as well as in a book by cartographer Jacobus Cnoyen and a letter by Gerardus Mercator.
You can also listen to the passage:
Your Lordship's servant brought me your letter. I have seen its contents and I would be most desirous and most happy to serve you. I do not find the book Inventio Fortunata, and I thought that he was bringing it with my things, and I am very sorry not [to] find it because I wanted very much to serve you. I am sending the other book of Marco Polo and a copy of the land which has been found [by John Cabot]. I do not send the map because I am not satisfied with it, for my many occupations forced me to make it in a hurry at the time of my departure; but from the said copy your Lordship will learn what you wish to know, for in it are named the capes of the mainland and the islands, and thus you will see where land was first sighted, since most of the land was discovered after turning back. Thus your Lordship will know that the cape nearest to Ireland is 1800 miles west of Dursey Head which is in Ireland, and the southernmost part of the Island of the Seven Cities is west of Bordeaux River, and your Lordship will know that he landed at only one spot of the mainland, near the place where land was first sighted, and they disembarked there with a crucifix and raised banners with the arms of the Holy Father and those of the King of England, my master; and they found tall trees of the kind masts are made, and other smaller trees, and the country is very rich in grass. In that particular spot, as I told your Lordship, they found a trail that went inland, they saw a site where a fire had been made, they saw manure of animals which they thought to be farm animals, and they saw a stick half a yard long pierced at both ends, carved and painted with brazil, and by such signs they believe the land to be inhabited. Since he was with just a few people, he did not dare advance inland beyond the shooting distance of a crossbow, and after taking in fresh water he returned to his ship.
All along the coast they found many fish like those which in Iceland are dried in the open and sold in England and other countries, and these fish are called in English 'stockfish'; and thus following the shore they saw two forms running on land one after the other, but they could not tell if they were human beings or animals; and it seemed to them that there were fields where they thought might also be villages, and they saw a forest whose foliage looked beautiful. They left England toward the end of May, and must have been on the way 35 days before sighting land; the wind was east-north-east and the sea calm going and coming back, except for one day when he ran into a storm two or three days before finding land; and going so far out, his compass needle failed to point north and marked two rhumbs below. They spent about one month discovering the coast and from the above mentioned cape of the mainland which is nearest to Ireland, they returned to the coast of Europe in fifteen days. They had the wind behind them, and he reached Brittany because the sailors confused him, saying that he was heading too far north. From there he came to Bristol, and he went to see the King to report to him all the above mentioned; and the King granted him an annual pension of twenty pounds sterling to sustain himself until the time comes when more will be known of this business, since with God's help it is hoped to push through plans for exploring the said land more thoroughly next year with ten or twelve vessels-because in his voyage he had only one ship of fifty tons and twenty men and food for seven or eight months-and they want to carry out this new project. It is considered certain that the cape of the said land was found and discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found 'Brasil' as your Lordship well knows. It was called the Island of Brasil, and it is assumed and believed to be the mainland that the men from Bristol found.
Since your Lordship wants information relating to the first voyage, here is what happened: he went with one ship, his crew confused him, he was short of supplies and ran into bad weather, and he decided to turn back.
Magnificent Lord, as to other things pertaining to the case, I would like to serve your Lordship if I were not prevented in doing so by occupations of great importance relating to shipments and deeds for England which must be attended to at once and which keep me from serving you: but rest assured, Magnificent Lord, of my desire and natural intention to serve you, and when I find myself in other circumstances and more at leisure, I will take pains to do so; and when I get news from England about the matters referred to above-for I am sure that everything has to come to my knowledge-I will inform your Lordship of all that would not be prejudicial to the King my master. In payment for some services which I hope to render you, I beg your Lordship to kindly write me about such matters, because the favour you will thus do me will greatly stimulate my memory to serve you in all the things that may come to my knowledge. May God keep prospering your Lordship's magnificent state according to your merits. Whenever your Lordship should find it convenient, please remit the book or order it to be given to Master George.
I kiss your Lordship's hands,
Johan Day
Some questions to consider, when reading this source:
1. What do you make of Columbus's interest in an old book about the North Atlantic and in the activities of the Bristol sailors?
2. Why was it significant that Cabot seems to have seen signs of habitation, in Day's story?
3. Why are the "stockfish" they saw along the coast so noteworthy?
4. How important were Day's details of the travel times between Europe and America, do you think?
5. Why is it important whether or not the new land is the "Island of Brasil" that Bristol sailors had previously visited?
Source: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015022378411&seq=23. For more on medieval trade, see International Trade between Medieval England and Iceland and Voyage – commemorating Hull’s trade & seafaring heritage with Iceland. Histories of navigation by Richard Hakluyt would probably also contain interesting material.