VOYAGES OF THK CABOTS IN 1497 AND 1408. 59 



the Spanisli envoy was awakened before the lettei's were granted, and a rescript of the 

 Catholic stn'ereigus to Dr. de Puebhi dated March 28th, 1496, instrncts him to rciireseut to 

 the king of Eughind that such enterprises conhl not be undertaken without prejudice to the 

 rights of either Spain or PortngaL Doubtless de Puebla had anticipated his sovereigns' 

 command, for the wording of the letters patent limits the scope of the projected discoveries 

 to the north, the east and the west, without mentioning the south. A year passed before 

 the j^reparations could be made and, earl}- in May, 1497, Cabot sailed from Bristol, the poi't 

 prescribed in the patent. That port is in latitude 51° 30' !N"., and the objective point of 

 Cal)ot"s voyage was Cathay the capital city of which kingdom was Cambahu- in latitude 51° 

 î^., according to Toscanelli's map.-" Upon that map Columbus had plotted his course only 

 five years before, and he sailed first south to Gomara, in the Azores, in order to get upon the 

 parallel of Cipango his objective point, which he thought he had reached by following that 

 parallel on an undeviating western course. In like manner .Tidm Cabot sought Cathay. 

 He could not then have had a thought of a northwest passage for he knew, then, of no 

 barrier. For him, as for Columbus, the western ocean was open to the coast of Asia. 

 Columbus had attained Cipango, on a parallel of latitude ten degrees to the south of Spain. 

 Cabot sailing from a port eleven degrees to the norl:h of S[)ain would reach the mainland of 

 Asia at Cathay twenty degrees north of Cipango, for t^uinsay the southernmost city of that 

 great country was in latitude 45-' îf., and he would have, moreover, the advantage of sailing 

 oh a parallel where the degrees of longitude are mueli shorter. This could be done without 

 approaching b}' 20 degrees of latitude the regions claimed by Spain. John Cabot had there- 

 fore no object in going north. Why should he be supposed to have wished to go north when 

 his course was open across the western ocean ? The only northing he needed was what might 

 be sulRcient to keep his true west in sailing on a sphere. He had no occasion to make 

 more. The importance of keeping this objective point in mind cannot be too much insisted 

 n[>on. What Cipango was to Columbus, Quinsay and Cand^aluc •"' were to Cabot. There- 

 fore he sailed south of Ireland which he would not have done had any idea of a northern 

 voyage been in his mind. If Sebastian Cabot had not been so much wrapjied up in his own 

 vain glory we might have had a full record of the eventful voyage which revealed to Europe 

 the shores of our Canadian dominion first of all the lands on the continents of the western 

 hemisphere. Fortunately, however, there resided in London at that time a most intelligent 

 Italian, Raiinondo di Soncino, envoy of the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, one of those 

 despots of the Renaissance who almost atoned for their treachery and cruelty by their thirst 

 for knowledge and love of arts. Him Soncino kept informed of all matters going on at 

 London and specially concerning matters of cosmography to which the dnke was much 

 devoted. From his letters we are enabled to retrace the momentous voyage of the little 

 " Matthew of Bristol " across the western ocean — not the sunny region of steady trade-winds 

 by whose favouring influence Columbus was wafted to his destination, but the boisterous 

 reaches of the northern Atlantic — over that " still vexed sea"' which shares with one or 

 two others the reputation of being the most storm tossed region in the world of ocean. 

 Passing Ireland he first shaped his course north, then, turning westwards ^' and having the 

 pole star on his right hand, he wandered for a long time and at length he hit upon land. 

 The letter indicates that after he changed his course his wandering was continuously west- 

 wards, in the same general direction, as far as the regions of the Tanais. Xo certain 

 meaning can be found for the word Tanais ; but inasmuch as in those days the Tanais was 



