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- mandment of Henry VII." The same authority,
quoting from Peter Martyr, further says, "He" (Cabot) "was thereby brought so far with the south, by reason of the land bending so much to the southward, that it was there almost equal in latitude with the sea Fretum Herculeum, having the North Pole elevated in manner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so far towards the west that he had the island of Cuba on his left hand in manner in the same degree of longitude."[1]
Second patent, 3 Feb., 1498. That one of the Cabots discovered the northern continent of America, at the period named, is well authenticated, and in Biddle's memoirs of him many other authorities are quoted in confirmation of this fact.[2] But if any doubt still remains,*
- ↑ Hakluyt, ibid.
- ↑ A very interesting memoir of Sebastian Cabot, recently published (1869) by Mr. J. F Nicholls, the City Librarian of Bristol, enables us to add some particulars of his life (and of that of his father) which have been only just discovered. Thus we learn from Mr. Rawdon Brown's 'Venetian Calendars' that John Cabot (the father) was made a citizen of Venice, A.D. 1476; and from the Spanish State Papers, vol. i. p. 177, under date July 25,1498, "that the people of Bristol sent out every year two or three light ships, caravelas, in search of the island of Brazil and the seven cities, according to the fancy of that Italian Cabot; and that they have done so for the last seven years," (i. e., before Columbus had landed on Guanahani). Mr. Nicholls further quotes from a hitherto unpublished tract by Hakluyt, only lately discovered (see Wood's Maine Hist. Soc., 1868), the following remarkable words. "A great part," says Hakluyt, "of the continent (of America) as well as of the islands was first discovered for the king of England by Sebastian Gabote, an Englishman, born in Bristowe, son of John Gabote, in 1496; naye, more, Gabote discovered this large tracte of prime lande two years before Columbus saw any part of the continent." Again, under the date of Aug. 24, 1497, Mr. Rawdon Brown quotes from the Venetian Archives this passage: "Also some months ago, his Majesty Henry VII. sent out a Venetian (so called, naturally, as having been made a Venetian citizen), who is a very good mariner, and has good skill in discovering new islands, and he has returned safe
