S8 SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON ON THE 



northing. Nevertheless when he reached land the admiral had drojijied 240 miles to the 

 south of Gomara his point of departure. 



If the laws of the secular variation of the compass were known it would be easy to 

 calculate the variation at any given period ; but they are not known, and so we are driven 

 to argue empirically from the observations recorded, and these do not commence on our 

 coast until the time of Champlain. But that is two hundred and fifty years nearer to Cabot's 

 time and, as the secular magnetic swing is very slow, his ol)servations, of which a few are 

 recorded, are of great importance. These all confirm the opinion stated that the variation 

 was considerably less tlien than now. The variation at Sydnej^ Cape Breton, is at present 

 25° W., at Cape Race it is 30 W. and at Halifiix it stands at 25° ; the extreme westerly limit 

 has been reached this year. 



The officers of the Geodetic Survey think that Champlain's observations are from 1 to 

 3° out, and moreover it is hard to see how the progression of westerly variation could 

 increase in a southwest direction. It is contrary to the magnetic curves of the present time 

 that the variation should be 14° 50' at Cape Breton ; 16° 15' at La H^ve near Halifiix ; 

 17° 8' at Port Royal on the Annapolis Basin ; 17° 16' at Petit Passage ; 19° 12' at the 

 Kennebec and 18° 40' at Mallebarre in Massachusetts (ISTauset).-* Still there is a progres- 

 sion in these figures which does not look like careless observation and Champlain (see 

 appendix A) was by no means careless in anything he undertook. That, however, is a 

 question in magnetism which fortunately it is not necessary to discuss. Other observations 

 were made by Ilendrick Hudson about the same time which run more in accord with 

 present theories ; and, in the -'Arcano del Mare " published at Florence in 1646, a number 

 of observations are recorded which give unquestionable evidence of accuracy ; those taken 

 for Cape Breton, and St. .Tohns, ^Newfoundland, agree in assigning to these localities a 

 magnetic variation of 15 degrees west of north. The bearing of these considerations upon 

 the prcK^nt question is, shortly, tliis : If Columbus on a direct western course «dropped 240 

 miles from Gomara his point of departure to his landfall in the Antilles in 1492 with a 

 variation of one point west, it is altogether probable that John Cabot with a variation of a 

 point and a half would have dropped, in 1497, 360 miles to the south on his western course 

 across the Atlantic ; and, again, if John Cabot laid his course to the west by compass from 

 latitude 53° north tlie variation, so much greater than that observed by Columbus, would have 

 carried him clear of Cape Race and to the next probable landfall, Cape Breton. In any case, 

 Labrador as a landfidl, is excluded. 



V. The First Yoy.\ge, 1497. 



In the desj)atch of Pedro de Ayala dated July 25th, 1498, to the court of Si)ain he 

 asserts that John Cabot had previously been in Seville and in Lisbon trying to obtain 

 assistance for a voyage to the west, and, it would appear, that, fixiling there, he had gone to 

 Bristol. The people of Bristol, one may gather from the despatch, stimulated by him, had 

 been for seven years sending out vessels to look for the island of Brasil in the western 

 ocean but without success until 1497, when land was found. Of these previous efforts and 

 previous voyages no other traces have been found and the first we hear of John Cabot is in 

 the letters patent of March 5th, 1496, upon the petition of himself and his three sons, 

 Lewis, Sebastian and Sancio, empowering them, at their own expense, to fit out an expedition 

 to discover new lands and take jiossession thereof for the Knglish crown. Tlie jealousy of 



