IN NORTHERN MISTS 



from England by Cabot sixteen years ago." According to 

 this the voyage took place in 1508. In Contarini's report 

 of 1536 [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 36] it is said of Sebastian Cabot's 

 voyage that on his return he "found the King dead, and his 

 son cared little for such an enterprise." As Henry VII. died 

 on April 21, 1509, it would be during the autumn of that 

 year that Cabot returned; but then he must have sailed 

 before April, v^^hich is unlikely, at any rate if it is a question 

 of a voyage up into the ice to the north or north-west, such 

 as is described. That he should have sailed in the previous 

 year and not returned until after the King's death is still more 

 improbable. 



These accounts contain so many improbabilities, and to 

 some extent impossibilities, that it is on the whole extremely 

 doubtful whether Sebastian Cabot ever made such a voyage 

 to the north-west. That he did so is contradicted in the 

 first place by the already quoted protest against Sebastian of 

 the Wardens of the Drapers' Company, which was issued in 

 the name of the various Livery Companies of London, and 

 which is of great significance, as it was written so soon after 

 the events are supposed to have taken place that they must 

 have been in the memory of most people; and it must have 

 been easy for the King to inquire into the justification of the 

 protest (cf. above, p. 330). 



The map of 1544, which is attributed to the collaboration 

 of Sebastian Cabot, may also point to his having never sailed 

 along the northern part of the coast of America, since, according 

 to the custom of that time, the coast of Labrador is made 

 to run to the east and north-east. This agrees with the state- 

 ment of Ramusio's anonymous informant, that Sebastian had 

 to turn back because in 56° N. lat. he found the land turning 

 eastward (Galvano says the same). This is evidently derived 

 from the study of maps. As such a delineation of the coast 

 had not yet occurred on maps of Peter Martyr's time, it is natural 

 that this reason for turning back is also absent from his 

 account. 

 338 



