CABRAL
127
CABRAL
tury at Genoa; date of death unknown. In 1461 he
went to Venice and, after living there fifteen years,
the prescribed residence for obtaining citizenship,
was naturalized, 28 March. 1470. For this reason he
is generally called a Venetian. On his commercial
journeys, which took him to the shores of Arabia, lie
heard of the countries ricli in spices which lay to t lie
far East. This may have led him to conceive t ho plan
of a great voyage of discovery. About 1490 lie went
to England with his three sons, Ludovico, Sebastiano,
and Sancto, and settled there as an experienced sea-
man. He may have inspired the expedition that
sailed from Bristol in 1491 to find the fabulous Isles
of the West. When the success of Christopher
Columbus became known, Cabot acquainted himself
most carefully with the theories and opinions of his
countryman, and finally ottered to do for England
what Columbus had done for Spain. By letters
Batent of 5 March. 1496, King Henry VII granted abot and his three sons the right to seek islands and countries of the heathen towards the west, east, and north, with five ships under the English flag. Cabot began his preparations for the voyage at once and sailed from Bristol early in May, 1497, on the ship Matthew, with eighteen men, among whom may have been his son Sebastian. After sailing for fifty- days, mainly in a westerly direction, they reached the American mainland, 24 June, 1497, that is, before Columbus. According to the chart of Sebastian Cabot (1.544), the land was in the vicinity of Cape Breton Island. Some investigators, however, assert that this entry of the younger Cabot is a falsification to support the English claim to possession, and they place the spot where the landing was made in Labra- dor. On 26 June Cabot began his return voyage; towards the end of July or the first week of August he reached England, where he received a warm wel- come. Letters patent of 3 February, 1498, empow- ered him to undertake a second expedition. This was made up of five ships and three hundred men, and set sail some time before 25 July, 149S. They firs! went north, apparently as far as 67° X. lat.; drifting ice forced them to turn, and they sailed along the east coast of America past Newfoundland, which Cabot named Bacallaos, as far as the latitude of Cape flat- tens, as is learned from the chart of Juan de la Cosa (1500). No further information has been pre- served of Cabot, even as to his return from this expedition. Nevertheless, existing data, although scanty, suffice to assure John Cabot a place among the greatest discoverers.
Sebastian, son of John Cabot, b. probably in Venice c. 1474: d. 1557, or soon after. As already stated, he may have taken part in the first expedition of his father. In 1512 he was in the employ of Henry VIII of England as cartographer; in the same year he accompanied Willoughby to Spain, where he received the rank of Captain from King Ferdinand V. After Ferdinand's death he returned to England, where. in 1517, he tried in vain to win the favour of Vice-Admiral Perte for a new expedition. In 1522, although once more in the employ of Spain and hold- ing the rank of pilot-major, he secretly offered his services to Venice, undertaking to find the north-west passage to China. Finally he received the rank of captain general from Spain, and was entrusted. 4 March, 1525, with the command of a fleet which was to find Tarshish, ( tphir, and the far eastern country of Cathay, and also to discover the way to the Moluccas. The expedition consisted of three ships with 15(1 men, and set sail from Cadiz, 5 April, 1526, bu! only went as far as the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Cabot here went ashore anil left behind his companions, Francisco de Rojas. Martin Mendez, and Miguel de Rodas, with whom In- bad quarrelled; he explored the Parana River as far as its junction with the Paraguay, and built two forts. In August, 1530, he returned to
Sebastian (.'abot
Spain, where he was at once indicted for his conduct
towards his fellow-commanders and his lack of suc-
cess, and was condemned, 1 February, 1 532 . t o a ban-
ishment of 1 wo years to Oran in Africa. Alter a year
he was pardoned and went to Seville; he remained
pilot-major of Spain until 1547, when, without losing
either the title or
the pension, he
left Spain and re-
turned to Eng-
land, where he
receive.! a salary
with the title of
great pilot. Inthe
year 1553 Char-
les v made unsuc-
cessful attempts
to win him back.
In the meantime
Cabot had re-
opened
tions with Venice, but he reached no agreement with that city. After this he aided bot h with information and advice the ex- pedition of Wil- loughby and Chancellor, was made life-governor of the "Company of Merchant Adventurers", and equipped (1557' th of Borough. After
this, nothing more is heard of him; he probably died soon afterwards.
The account of his journeys written by himself has been lost. All thai remains of his personal work is a map of tin- world drawn in 1544: one copy of this was found in Bavaria, and is still preserved in the National Library at Paris. This map is especially important for the light it throws on the first journey of his father. The character of Sebastian Cabot does not leave a favourable impression; restless and unscrupu- lous, he busied himself with the most varied projects, and was ready to enter into relations with any country from which he might hope to gain the realization of his schemes. The country most indebted to him is England, where he roused enthusiasm for great under- takings; with his father he laid the foundation of the English supremacy at sea. The- accounts of the journeys of John and Sebastian
Cabot were collected by Richard Hakluvt in his work The Principal Navigations, Voyages " etc.. and have been recently published in an extra series of the Hakluvt Society (Glasgow, L904), VII, 141-158. In the same series appears "Ordinances, Instructions, and Advertisements of and for the Direction of the intended Voyage for Cathay, compiled, made and de- livered by... Sebastian Cabota" (Glasgow, 1903), II. 195-205. Cabot's picture, rpparently by Holbein, appears on page '.' 10 of this latter volume.
WiNsiiic, Cab,,i Bibliography (London, 1900), gives a list of the extensive bibliography on the subject in .",,9 otic--; Piddle, Jfi moii o) Si ba : .<": I abot I Loh'l'in, IVll ; It' X , , / o , /., , •' ' • < '"/ (Paris. 1X69); Nxchollb, hife. ■ < 'abot
(London, L889); Huaussi. ./.</;< ,t S,l„, ■;>, „ t,,i„.r il' an , 1882); I .■■ if, the D 1892);
Mabkham, ed. and tr., Tht Journal o] i olumbut
owl I)t>cum> nt>; !\<lotina I" tin VoyOQei "I John Cabot and Caspar <-.,<t, Real (London, L893 , No SO ..f the puUe ationsof the Hakluvt Society; Bi izlky. ./■//.„ ami s.hn.h.n, (abut ' ■■ Ion, 1898 I i Columb mdof J.i abot.ed.
Bourn* (New York, 1906). (>rro jj^
Cabral, FRANCISCO, Portuguese missionary in Japan, b. in the castle of Govillou, Diocese of Guarda, Portugal. 1529; d. at Goa, 1609. In 1554 be en- tered the Society of Jesus, and after his studies went to Japan, when- he laboured strenuously to propagate the Christian religion. There he enjoyed the friend-
