PROCEEDINGS FOR 1895 XXIII 
Henry VII. of England to find a northwest passage to Asia, and succeeded 
in landing and planting the English flag somewhere on the eastern coast 
of British North America, in all probability on the shores of the island 
of Cape Breton. 
The learned paper printed by Dr. 8. E. Dawson in the twelfth vol- 
ume of the Transactions on the Cabot voyages of 1497 and 1498, gives. 
additional force to the English claim of having first sailed along the coast. 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic sea-board of Nova Scotia. 
and of the United States as far even as Florida. 
So interesting an event in Canadian history seems worthy of com- 
memoration in a tangible shape, and it is therefore recommended that a 
committee be appointed by the Royal Society to consider the advisability 
of raising a granite shaft at some point in the province of Nova Scotia. 
The general meeting of 1897 could be held on the 24th of June in 
the city of Halifax for the express purpose. 
Little is known of the personal character of John Cabot, and, 
indeed, his fame has been much obscured by indiscreet eulogists of his 
son Sebastian, to whom has been given much of that reputation that his- 
tory now properly ascribes to his father. None of that glamour of 
romance that must always encircle his Italian countryman, Columbus; 
has been thrown about the equally intrepid navigator John Cabot, but it 
‘is sufficient for our purpose to know that his claim to have been the first 
to land on Canadian shores is now well established. 
Far less of the historic doubt that still surrounds the voyages of the 
Northmen, nine centuries ago, obscures the record of Cabot’s expeditions, 
and it seems now only an act of justice to a courageous sailor, to whom 
England and Canada owe so much, that he should not be forgotten, while 
the Scandinavian, Lief Erricsson, has a monument standing in his honour 
in the city of Boston. 
In the previous reference to this subject the council quoted the eulo- 
gistie words of the eminent English geographical scholar, Clement R. 
Markham, who, like many other eminent writers of these times, has fully 
recognized the high place of John Cabot among the greatest navigators 
of the age in which Columbus lived. 
His latest biographer, Francesco Tarducci, who successfully claims 
him as a Venetian by birth, says also with justice : 
‘““It seems to me that one of the very first places in the history of 
discoveries belongs to John Cabot. 
“Tn these last years the truth has finally cd and the docu- 
ments found, though few in numbers, yet sufficient for the purpose, have 
restored to him the light that was due him, and drawn his figure out of 
the shade and places it in full view. 
“ For, without any impulse or guidance from others, by the mere 
force of his will and strength of his enthusiasm, he raised himself far 
