56 SAMUEL EDWAED DAWSON ON THE 



ice and long days of Arctic summer. On the first voyage Cabot saw no man ^' — on the 

 second he found people clothed with " beastes skynnes." ^- During the whole of the first 

 voyage John Cabot was the commander ^' — on the second voyage he sailed in command, -* 

 but who brought the expedition home and when it returned are not recorded. It is not 

 known how or when John Cabot died and, although the letters patent for the second 

 voyage were addressed to him alone, his son Sebastian during forty-five years took the 

 whole credit in every subsequent mention ot the discovery of America without anj^ allusion 

 to his father. This antithesis may throw light upon the suppression of his father's name in 

 all the statements attributed to or made hj Sebastian Cabot. He may always have had the 

 second voyage in his mind. His father may have died on the voyage. He was marvellously 

 reticent about his father. The only mention which occurs is on the map seen by Hakluyt 

 and on the map of 1544 supposed, somewhat rashly, to be a transcript of it. There the 

 discovery is attributed to John Cabot and to Sebastian his son and that has reference to the 

 first voyage.^ 



From these considerations it would appear that those who place the landfall at Labrador 

 are right ; but it is the landfall of the second voyage — the voyage Sebastian was always 

 talking about — not the landfall of John Cabot in 1497. For Sebastian manifested no 

 concern for any person's reputation but his own. He never once alluded to his two brothers 

 who were associated in the first patent and the preceding slight notice of his father is all 

 that can be traced to him, although contemporary records of unquestionable authority 

 indicate John Cabot as the moving spirit and do not mention the son. 



Since that period the point of interest has changed. AVile wo are chiefiy exercised 

 about the voyage of 1497, in Cabot's day that of 1498 was ot iiaramount impoi-tanee ; for it 

 alone had political significance. We approach the question as antiquarians ; l)ut then it was 

 a question in practical politics. The public and oificial voyage in the usage of that time 

 gave a prescriptive right to the lands discovered. So little had the first voyage of a furmal 

 possession for England alone that Cabot planted the banner of St. Mark -' beside tliat of St. 

 George and any public right arising from that ceremony might accrue to Venice as well as 

 to England. The existence of land across the ocean within easy distance having thus been 

 demonstrated the cautious and politic Henry was induced to give the fullest national 

 sanction to the second voyage. These new lands were supposed to be part of eastern Asia ; 

 and there everything was possible. Upon Toscanelli's map and Behaim's globe the region 

 of Cathay and the great cities of Quinsay and Cambaluc lay in the same latitudes as the 

 new-found-land ; therefore the mere touching at a point on the coast and immediate return 

 was of little importance compared with the range of the second voyage. Then again, to do 

 Sebastian Cabot justice, he seems, like Juan de la Cosa, very soon to have apprehended the 

 fact that those western lands were a barrier to Cathay, and that a passage would have to be 

 found through or around them. Columbus died without admitting that tact, but it isremark- 

 aljle that the coast line ot so many of the very earliest charts is continuous. Hence, in all 

 his re[iorted conversations, Sebastian Cabot dwelt u[ion a passage by the north, on a great 

 circle, to Cathay. We on the contrary care fin- none of these things. The northwest 

 passage to Cathay and the nationality of America have been settled in the lapse of time 

 beyond all cavil, and what we are concerned to solve is the historical problem : who first 

 discovered the mainland of America? For that reason John Cabot and his little vessel the 

 " Matthew of Bristol " " have to us a paramount interest. 



