NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 219 



resided, made an application to the King (Henry VII.) 

 to be permitted to make a voyage of discovery across the 

 Atlantic Ocean. His request was readily complied with, 

 and letters patent furnished him, but enjoining strictly a 

 return to the port of Bristol. That enterprising navigator 

 accordingly set sail ; and he appears to have been the 

 original projector of the north-west passage, after the ex- 

 ample of Columbus, who, in a similar attempt at a southern 

 latitude, had made his grand discovery of America. 



Cabot, inferring from the accounts of Columbus, that a 

 probability might exist of the ocean being open to the 

 northward, directed his course to the north-westward in this 

 expectation ; and on the 24tli of June discovered New- 

 foundland, which he named Prima Vista or First-seen-land. 

 Still actuated by his original intention, he sailed further to 

 the northward, and discovered Cape Florida, where he 

 found people already established, answering exactly to 

 the description of the Uskee-mes. From this place he 

 returned to England, carrying with him three of the natives, 

 as a proof of success. Such an act, however, could not 

 tend to impress that simple and harmless people with 

 amicable feelings towards their visitors. 



In 1521, the fame of Cabot's expedition encouraged 

 some French merchants to send out a countryman of their 

 own, named Jaques Cartier, to discover a north-west 

 passage to the East Indies ; but it seems he penetrated no 



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