Section IL, 1894. [ SI ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



II. — The V<)//{(gcs of (he Ciihot-^ in li'JT mnl 1498 ; ivilJi uii (iffniijif In ifrfrniiiiic their 

 landfall mid to identifu their island of Sf. J<dni. 



By Samuel Edward Dawson, Lit.l). 



(Presented May 22, 1894.) 



1. — Introduction. 



Probal)ly no question in the history of thia continent has been the subject of so much 

 discussion as the Hves and voyages of the two Cabots. Their personal character, tlieir 

 nationality, the number of the voyages they made and the extent and direction of their 

 discoveries have been, and still are, keenly disputed over. The share, moreover, of each in 

 the credit due for the discoveries made is a very battleground for historians. Some learned 

 writers attribute everything to John Cabot, others would put him aside and award all the 

 credit to his second son, Sebastian. The dates even of the voyages are disputed ; and very 

 learned professors of history in Portugal do not hesitate to declare that the voyages are 

 apocryphal, the discoveries pretended, and the whole question a mystification. 



Nevertheless solely upon the discoveries of the Cabots have always rested the original 

 claims of the English race to a foothold upon this continent. In the published annals of 

 England, however, no contemporary records of them exist ; nor was there for sixty years in 

 English literature any recognition of their achievements. The English claims rest almost 

 solely upon second hand evidence from Spanish and Italian authoi's, upon contemporary 

 reports of Spanish and Italian envoys at the English court, upon records of the two letters 

 patent issued, and upon two or tliree entries lately discovered in the accounts of disburse- 

 ments from the privy purse of king Henry VII. These are our title-deeds to this continent. 

 The evidence is doubtless conclusive, but the whole subject of western discovery was 

 undervalued and neglected by England for so long a period that it is no wonder if Portuguese 

 savants deny the reality of those voyages, seeing that their nation has been supplanted by a 

 race which can show so little original evidence of its claims. 



It may appear presumptuous for a Canadian, far awa}' from the great libraries of the 

 world, to venture into paths trodden by so many able and learned historians ; but the 

 labours of Humboldt and Kunstmann, and Kohl, and Kretschmer, and Deane, and Harrisse, 

 and Biddle, and Winsor have brought into accessible shape all the data now extant for 

 forming a judgment, and Canadians can bring to the discussion the advantage of an intimate 

 local knowledge which these learned men could not possess. For that part of continental 

 America iirst trodden by Europeans is Canadian land, and to Canadians nothing concerning 

 John Cabot can be considered foreign. When Ferland or Bourinot, or Pope, or Patterson, 

 or Laverdiere, or Ganong write upon this subject they are writing of seas and coasts familiar 



