54 SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON ON THE 



notable exceptions, were made only by Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians, bear out Cham- 

 plain's remonstrances. It seems, moreover, on a cursory consideration of the ma|3s, probable 

 that a vessel on a westerly course passing south of Ireland should strike somewhere on the 

 coast of j^ewfoundland about Cape Bonavista, and Caliot being an Italian, that very place 

 suggests itself by its name as his probable landfall. The English, who for the most part 

 have had their greatness thrust upon them by circumstances, neglected Cabot's discoveries 

 for fifty years and during that time the French and Portuguese took possession of the whole 

 region and named all the coasts ; then when the troubled reign of Henry VIII. was over, the 

 English people began to wake up and in fact re-discovered Cabot and his voyages. A care- 

 ful study however of the subject will be likely to lead to the rejection of the Newfoundland 

 landfall — plausible as it may at first sight appear. 



In the year 1831 Richard Biddle, a lawyer of Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, published a 

 memoir of Sebastian Cabot which led the way to an almost universal change of opinion. 

 He advanced the theory that Labrador was the Cabot landfall in 1497. His book is one of 

 great research and, though confused in its arrangement, is written with much vigour and 

 ability. But Biddle lost the historian in the advocate. His book is a passionate brief for 

 Sebastian Cabot ; fen* he strangely conceives the son to have been wronged by the ascription 

 to John Cabot of any portion of the merit of the discovery of America. Not only would he 

 suppress the elder Cabot, but he covers the well-meaning Ilakluj't with opprobrium and 

 undermines his character by insinuations, much as a criminal lawyer might be supposed to 

 do to an adverse witness in a jury trial. Valuable as the work is there is a singular heat 

 prevading it, fatal to the true historic spirit. Hakluyt is the pioneer of the literature of 

 English discovery and adventure — at once the recorder and inspirer of noble effort. He is 

 more than a translator ; he spared no pains nor expense to obtain from the lips of seamen 

 their own versions of their voyages, and, if discrepancies are met with in a collection so 

 voluminous, it is not surprising and need not be ascribed to a set purpose ; for Hakluyt's 

 sole object in life seems to have been to record all he knew or could ascertain of the maritime 

 achievements of the age. 



Biddle's book marks an epoch in the controversy. In truth he seems to be the first 

 who gave minute study to the original authorities and broke away from the tradition of 

 Newfoundland. He fixed the landfall on the coast of Labrador and Humboldt and Kohl 

 added the weight of their great learning to his theory. Hai-risse, who in his John and 

 Sebastian Cabot had written in favour of Cape Breton has, in his latest book, " The Discovery 

 of America," gone back to Labrador as his faith in the celebrated map of 1544 gradually 

 waned and his esteem for the chai'acter of Sebastian Cabot faded away. Such changes of 

 view, not only in this but in other matters, render Mr. Harrisse's books somewhat confusing, 

 although the student of American history can never be sufficiently thankful for his untiring 

 research. 



The discovery in Germany by Von Martins in 1843 of an engraved mappemonde bear- 

 ing date of 1544 and purporting to be issued under the authority of Sebastian Cabot, soon 

 caused a general current of opinion in favour of a landfall in Cape Breton. The map is 

 uniipie and is now in the National Library at Paris. It bears no name of publisher nor 

 place of publication. Around it for forty years controversy has waxed warm. Kohl does 

 not accept the map as authentic. D'Avezac, ° on the contrary, gives it full credence. The 

 tide of o[)ini(>n has set of late in favour of it and in consequence in favour of the Cape Breton 



