IN NORTHERN MISTS 



Of course this chronicle was written long after the voyage 

 took place; but it is extremely probable that it was taken from 

 older sources; for it agrees in every way (both as to the 

 length of the voyage and the time of the return) with the 

 contemporary statements of the Italian ministers, with whose 

 letters the author of the chronicle cannot possibly have been 

 acquainted. I can, therefore, see no reason why this state- 

 ment should not be correct. But the most important autho- 

 rities are the letters referred to. 



If we compare all this we shall get a fairly complete idea 

 of the voyage of 1497. After sailing round the south of 

 Ireland, probably in the middle of May, according to our 

 calendar, Cabot would, at first, have held a somewhat northerly 

 course. If this is correct, he may have done so for several 

 reasons: unfavorable winds, which in May are prevalent 

 from the south-west; the idea that great-circle sailing would 

 prove the shortest way ; ^ fear of encroaching on the waters 

 of the Spaniards and Portuguese to the south; finally, perhaps, 

 an idea that the course to Asia was shorter in northern lati- 

 tudes (?). But we cannot tell what reasons decided him, or 

 whether he steered very far to the north at all; for it must 

 be remembered that in speaking to a foreign minister he may 

 have had good reason for making his course appear somewhat 

 northerly lest it might be said that the lands he had arrived 

 at were those discovered by the Spaniards. In any case, it 

 was not long before he made for the west as rapidly as possible 

 towards his goal, and we cannot, therefore, suppose that he 

 went very far north. And it is expressly stated in Soncino's 

 first letter that the lands lay to the west of England, and in 

 the letters of the Spanish ambassadors in the following year 

 we read that, after having seen the direction taken by Cabot, 

 they thought that the land he had found was that belonging 



1 It is by no means improbable that Cabot, who was an expert navigator, 

 knew that great-circle sailing gave the shorter course. For instance, he might 

 easily have seen this from a globe, and we are told that he himself made a 

 globe to illustrate his voyage (cf. p. 304). 

 306 



