VOYAGES OP THE CABOTS IN 1497 AND 1498. 65 



Lescarbot gave it in his time us apegé. Kolil derives the word, by a parallel evolution, 

 from the Dutch word kabeljaaw, but, as pointed out by Dr. Bourinot, tlie word is Basque. 

 It may be called Iberian, for the Bascpie bxcaifaha became in Spanish haccalao and in Portu- 

 guese bacalhas,*^ and this last name is found on Pedro Reinel's map of 1505. It is not likely 

 that Cabot, in an English ship with an English crew, would have given the country an 

 Iberian name. The probaliility is that the Portuguese, who ilocked upon the coast after 

 the Corte Reals, first gave the name " codfish land " to the country ; and Cabot's claim to 

 the name is no more true than his claim to having fitted out the expedition at his own 

 expense. I have read somewhere in the books that Sebastian Caliot was a great sailor and 

 also a great liar, but I think Richard Eden's naive account of his last illness is the best 

 explanation of his very comprehensive claims. 



The letter from Cal)ot which Ramusio*" quotes had 1)een lust, and we have only 

 Ramusio's recollection of it. That tells us, in general terms, of a voyage to the far north, 

 when a latitude of 67 30' was attained. In the various accounts which have come down 

 to us as on Cabot's authority difierent latitudes are given, 56", 58'\ 60"^, and here 67- 30". 

 A very high latitude was no doubt attained ; but here, in the recollections of this letter, is 

 a surprising statement that Cabot was on the 11th of June at that latitude, and the sea was 

 then clear "^ and without any manner of impediment, and that he would have sailed straight 

 on to the east at Cathay, but a mutiny of the masters and sailors prevented him, and he had 

 to return. This is not only contradictory to his statements elsewhere, but it is well known 

 that the Labrador coast and Hudson's straits are not accessible, on account of ice, so early 

 in the summer. 



It is much to be regretted, for Cabot's own sake as well as for ours, that nothing from 

 his own hand has been preserved either in print or in manuscript ; because his reputation 

 has been entirely at the mercy of the memories of his friends, and, at this distance of time, 

 it is impossible to say whether he was phenomenally addicted to inaccuracy of expression 

 or his friends were phenomenally endowed with treacherous memories. The much quoted 

 conversation in Ramusio is a case in point. Ramusio has recorded, from memory only some 

 years after it occurred, a conversation at the house of his learned friend Frascator. A 

 stranger, whose name is not given, was present among the guests. He was evidently a man of 

 distinction and of learning. The conversation turned upon cosmography, the favourite topic 

 then of cultivated society, and all present were speculating upon the possibility of sailing to 

 Cathay by the north. They were wondering whether Greenland joined with jSTorway at 

 the north, or whether there was a strait there, and some one present told the story of the 

 Indians who, a long time before, had been storm-driven to the coast of (Tcrniany ; where- 

 upon the stranger turned and related the substance of a conversation he had held with 

 Cabot at Seville. lie told them that, having been at Seville some years i)reviously, he had 

 called on their own countryman, Cabot, to learn from his lips the truth of these matters. 

 It this guest's meimn-y was good, and Ramusio correctly reported him, Cabot not only suji- 

 pressod that which was true, l)ut suggested that which was false. He said that his father 

 died at the time when the news of Columbus's discovery reached England. That was 

 untrue, for the second letters patent were made out solely to his father in 1498. He told 

 him that be (Sebastian) first pro})osed the expedition to king Henry VII., another jilain 

 falsehood. He told him that the exi)edition was in 1496, an error of a yi'ar. He conveyed 

 the impression that the whole series of events happened after his father's death, and made 



Sec. II., 181)4. il. 



