JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



attracted much attention in England, and gave rise to great ex- 

 pectations. 



What Cabot accomplished by his voyage of 1497 was in the 

 first place to prove the existence of a great country beyond the 

 ocean to the west of Ireland, which country he himself assumed 

 to belong to Asia and to be part of China. Besides this he 



Portion of Michael Lok's map, London, 1582 



discovered great quantities of fish off the newly discovered 

 coast; a discovery which was soon to create a great fishery, 

 carried on by several nations, off Newfoundland, and one 

 which surpassed the Iceland fishery, hitherto the most im- 

 portant. But John Cabot evidently had little idea of the impor- 

 tance of this last discovery. He had, as Soncino says, " set his 

 mind on higher things," for he thought that by following the 

 coast of the mainland farther to the west he would be able to 

 reach the wealthy Cipango (Japan) and the Spice Islands in the 

 equatorial regions. 



Here we have, in brief, the plan of his next voyage. Cabot 



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