JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



On the Portuguese map of Pedro Reinel, of the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century (that is, only a few years after 1497), 

 Cape Breton is marked without a name, but an island lies off 

 it, called " Sam Joha " (St. John) ; on Maggiolo's map of 

 1527 there is " C. de bertonz," with an island, " Ja de S. Joan," 

 in the same place; and on Michael Lok's map, in Hakluyt's 

 "Divers Voyages," 1582, we have " C. Breton" with the 

 island of " S. 

 Johan," lying ofB 

 it, and on Cape 

 Breton Island (or 

 Nova Scotia), 

 called " Norom- 

 bega," is written 

 "J. Cabot, 1497" 

 (see p. 323). 

 There seems 

 thus to have been 

 a definite tradi- 

 tion that it was 

 here that John 

 Cabot made the 

 land, and St. John 

 may then be the little Scatari Island which lies on the out- 

 side of Cape Breton Island [cf. Dawson, 1897, PP- 210 f.]. That 

 the "I. de S. Juan" on the map of 1544 lies on the inside of 

 " Prima tierra vista " and answers to the Magdalen Islands is 

 of minor importance; we do not even know whether Sebastian 

 Cabot can be made responsible for it, as it may be due to a con- 

 fusion on the part of the draughtsman. More importance must 

 be attached on this point to the agreement between the earlier 

 maps of 1500, 1527, and that of Reinel (compared with Lok's 

 map in Hakluyt), than to the map of 1544.^ 



1 Another possible explanation is that Cauo de Ynglaterra, Cabot's most 

 eastern point 01 the country, was Cape Race in Newfoundland, in spite of Se- 

 bastian Cabot's having placed it at Cape Breton. As has been said, it is very 



321 



Portion of Pedro Reinel's map, beginning of the 

 sixteenth century 



