JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



kept quiet about the ice, lest it should cool the hopes raised 

 by his narrative, it is not likely that his crew would have 

 done so, if they had met with it. But although other state- 

 ments of the crew are reported, we do not hear a single word 

 about ice, nor even of icebergs, which are common enough 

 on the Newfoundland Banks at that time of the year, and would 

 be an entirely new experience, even to Bristol sailors who were 

 accustomed to the voyage to Iceland. From this we must sup- 

 pose that, in the course of his beating to the west, Cabot was 

 set so far to the south of the Newfoundland Banks that he did 

 not encounter icebergs, and that he first made land somewhere 

 farther west.^ 



According to the Bristol chronicle already quoted (Toby, 

 1565), and according to a legend on the map of 1544, which is 

 ascribed to the collaboration of Sebastian Cabot, it was on 

 St. John's Day (July 3, N.S.) that the first land was discovered. 

 In spite of Harrisse's objections ^ it does not appear to me 

 unlikely that this may be correct. If he sailed on May 2 (11, 

 N.S.), he was fifty-three days at sea. Supposing that he landed 

 at Cape Breton, the distance in a straight line on the course 

 indicated is about 2200 nautical miles. Consequently he 

 would have made an average of forty-two miles a day in the 

 desired direction. This is doubtless not very fast sailing, 

 but agrees with just what we should expect, since he 

 often had to beat, and " wandered a good deal," in the words 

 of Soncino. 



For determining the question, what part of North America 

 it was that Cabot discovered, it appears to me there is no 

 trustworthy document but La Cosa's map of the world 



1 It must also be remembered that on the Newfoundland Banks and off the 

 coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia fogs are extremely prevalent (in 

 places, over 50 per cent, of the days) at the time of year here in question, so 

 that their first sight of land might be accidental. 



^Harrisse [1896, pp. 63 f.] does not seem to have remarked that Cabot 

 must necessarily have been longer on the westward voyage, when he had the 

 prevailing winds against him, than on the homeward voyage, when the wind 

 conditions were favorable. 



