IN NORTHERN MISTS 



often called, e.g., in letters from the contemporary Spanish 

 ambassadors in London, *' this Genoese," or " a Genoese like 

 Columbus," we must suppose that he was born in Genoa; 

 but from existing State documents of the republic of Venice 

 it appears that Joanni Caboto obtained his freedom in Venice 

 on March 28, 1476, after having lived there fifteen years, 

 which was the legal period necessary to enable a foreigner 

 to become a citizen of the republic.^ From the statements 

 of contemporaries we must conclude that John Cabot was 

 a capable seaman and navigator, with a good knowledge 

 of charts and cartography; he also constructed a globe to 

 illustrate his voyages. This is no more than was to be expected 

 of a Genoese, trained in the Venetian school, which at that 

 time was the foremost in seamanship. It may, therefore, 

 be regarded as probable that John Cabot was familiar with 

 the leading ideas of the geographical world of his time. Thus, 

 while still living at Venice, he may have heard of the idea of 

 reaching eastern Asia by sailing to the west, which was 

 put forward, notably by Toscaneili, as early as 1474, and in 

 this way it is possible that, independently of Columbus, he 

 may have thought of accomplishing this voyage to the fabulous 

 riches of the East by a shorter route than that which the 

 Portuguese sought to the south of Africa. In support of this 

 it may be mentioned that in 1497 he himself told the Minister 

 of Milan in London, Raimondo di Soncino, that 



"he had once been at Mecca, whither spices were brought by caravans from 

 distant lands, and that those who brought them, when asked where the said 



me that, like most other writers, he pays too much attention to later state- 

 ments, derived directly or indirectly from Sebastian Cabot, while he places 

 too little reliance on what, in my opinion, may be concluded with tolerable cer- 

 tainty from contemporary sources. Sebastian Cabot's statements on various 

 occasions, so far as we know them, prove to be mutually conflicting, and it 

 looks as if this wily man seldom expressed himself without some "arriere 

 pensee " or other, which was more to his own advantage than to that of the 

 truth. My views of John Cabot's voyage of 1497 on several points agree 

 more nearly with those of S. E. Dawson, and for later voyages with those of 

 G. Parker Winship. 



1 Cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. i f. 

 296 



