VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS IN 1497 AND 1498. 10 3 



" coast on the gulf of St. Lawrence, beyond the site on which Quebec at present stands, tlien returning 

 " by the northern shore of the 'gulf still trending eastward they coasted to the hititude of 53° and 

 " then sailing by Newfoundland island, which they took to be and depict as an archipelago, they 

 ■' continued their course southward to the Chesapeake and so home. Tiie prima viata then was the 

 " most northerly point of Cape Breton, and the point struck gave tiiem a view at once of Nova Scotia 

 " and Prince Edward island.'' 



The translation of ex adverso is remarkable, " not lying in front of the land bat further on." The 

 Pisgah-like view of Prince Edward island and of Nova Scotia from Capo North is peculiar to this 

 writer as is likewise Cabot's sailing beyond Quebec. The map called Cabot's of 1544 shows Cartier's 

 discoveries on the St. Lawrence as far as Lake St. Peter. One can hardly believe such to be the case, but 

 Mr. NichoUs writes as if he supposed that map was a map of the voyage of 1497, and represented the 

 discoveries of that year. 



This book, in the words of D'Avezac, is an excellent example of parish patriotism, and 

 necessarily therefore Sebastian Cabot was born in Bristol, and John Cabot, who had not that jirivilege, 

 is, as D'Avezac says, "robbed of his glorj- to aggrandize that of his s )n." The disappearance of 

 Cabot's maps is more rhetorically slated than by Mr. Biddle and with more imagination of detail. 

 " This man ha(J the custody of Cabot's maps by virtue of his ofiSce. Such documents would bo 

 " secured by Philip at any price. He had put Worthington into the office " =H * * '• Well, the reader 

 " may draw his own conclusion. We accuse no one; but we have a deep suspicion that they may 

 " yet bo found among her (Spain's) archives." Maps of Cabot's might be found there and still Wor- 

 hington be guiltless ; for Cabot left Spain so privately that he is much more likely to have left all his 

 maps behind him ; but, in fact Philip could not want maps from him, for from the nature of his office 

 in Spain all the Spanish maps were made under his sanction. Worthington could not have stolen the 

 map in the Queen's gallery. Gilbert speaks in the plural and calls them " maps '' and many other maps 

 ascribed to him are spoken of (at the Earl of Belfoi-d's and in merchants' houses) as existing in the 

 timeof Queen Elizabeth. All these have also disappeared and yet were not sold to Philip. Having the 

 Spanish maps, made and issued under the authority of Cabot, as head of the department of cartography 

 for thirty years, Spain needed no more, so far as Cabot was concerned, to invalidate the claims of 

 England in America. 



It has been shown, mainly from the secret archives of Spain and Italy, that John Cabot was the 

 real discoverer, yet Mr. NichoUs says, "Certainly Sebastian gives us no hint of his father's presence 

 " in either voyage; but modest, gentle and unassuming as all his life proves him to have been, speaks 

 " of the discovery ever in the tirst person and in the singular number." As a good Bristolian Mr. 

 Nicbolls will have it Cabot was born is Bristol. Cabot no doubt said so— at times — in England ; and 

 others beside Mr. NichoUs think so ; but the researches in the secret archives at Venice prove that in 

 his intrigues with the Council of Ten he stated that he was born in Venice. So ho told Contarini and 

 so he wrote by his emissary, the Eagusan friar. The Council of Ten were in a position to know, for 

 in Eoman Catholic countries registers of baptism are, and were, carefully kept, and he would not have 

 tried to deceive in a matter so easily disproved. Mr. NichoUs laments this one falsehood of Cabot's 

 blameless life; but after all he thinks it was venial, for he had a very narrow escape from being born 

 in Venice. No doubt it is hard to go through so long a life without telling one falsehood ; David and 

 Jacob and even Abraham made at least one slip, but the difference between them and Cabot is that he 

 kept it up to the last. Even when residing in the land of "religious liberty " so late as 1551, while an 

 official of England and in receipt of a salary from the crown, he resumed secret negotiations with the 

 Council of Ten at Venice to enter their service and impart to them some secrets of navigation which 

 he professed to have. His heart was then in Venice and the Council style him " our most faithful 

 Gaboto." As the matter appears to Mr. NichoUs " he pined in Spain for his native Bristol. Home- 

 " sickness came over him, he gave up the emoluments of office to live and die where he might have 

 "religious libertj'. He left behind him the superstition and tyranny and cruelty of Spain for the light 



