JOHN CABOT'S VOYAGES 



of two ships with three hundred men/ was, according to Peter 

 Martyr, fitted out at Sebastian's own cost, but, according to 

 Ramusio, it was sent out by the King. They sailed so far to the 

 north (according to Gomara, even in the direction of Iceland) 

 that in the month of July they found enormous masses of ice 

 floating on the sea; daylight was almost continuous, and 

 the land was in places free of ice which had melted away. 

 According to the various accounts Cabot is said to have reached 

 55°, 56°, 58°, or 6o°.2 



According to Galvano they first " sighted land in 45° N, lat. and then sailed 

 straight to the north until they came to 60° N. lat., where the day is eighteen 

 hours long- [sic], and the night is very clear and light. There they found the 

 air cold and great islands of ice [icebergs?] but no bottom with soundings of 

 seventy, eighty, or one hundred fathoms,^ but they found much ice which 

 terrified them." 



When, according to Peter Martyr, their hopes of making 

 their way to the west in these northern latitudes were thus 

 annihilated by the ice, they sailed back to the south and 

 south-west along the North American coast, as far as the 

 latitude of Gibraltar, 36° (according to Peter Martyr), or to 

 38° (according to Gomara and Galvano), while according to 

 Ramusio's anonymous informant they sailed as far as Florida.^ 

 From thence the expedition returned to England. 



With regard to the date of this voyage, we are told in 

 the continuation of Peter Martyr's " Decades," (Dec. vii) written 

 in 1524 (published 1530), that " Bacchalaos [i.e., Newfound- 

 land, or the northern east coast of America] was discovered 



1 These two ships and the three hundred men occur in Peter Martyr and 

 Contarini, as well as in Gomara and Galvano; while Ramusio only has two 

 ships and says nothing about the crews. 



2 In Peter Martyr's original account no latitude is given. 



3 The meaning must be that these islands of ice were aground, but that 

 nevertheless a line of one hundred fathoms did not reach the bottom. The 

 ice must consequently have been over one hundred fathoms thick, which, of 

 course, was a remarkable discovery at that time. 



* This was the name at that time (1550) for the whole south-eastern part 

 of the present United States. 



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