<JVJI1 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



success of this voyage, we huve most precise informtition from very com- 

 petent authorities. The tirst is Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a Venetian merchant 

 living in Bristol. For centuries his countrymen had been the greatest 

 navigators of Europe, and his native city the chief centre of nautical 

 learning. We may be well assured that the expedition of Cabot had for 

 him a special interest. As a shrewd merchant, he was thoroughly con- 

 versant with the business enterprises of the day, and keenly alive to all 

 opportunities of extending his trading opei'ations. It requires no etfort 

 of the imagination to realize the excitement created in mercantile circles 

 especially, on the return of Cabot from an expedition, the object of which 

 had been to open up new sources for commerce, and to establish a trade 

 between England and the country of the Grand Kham. The business 

 habits of Pasqualigo would lead him to seek accurate information regard- 

 ing the results of the voyage, and as a countryman of John Cabot he 

 would have special facilities of acquiring it. His letter, from which we 

 shall quote, is dated at London, 23rd August, 1497, and is addressed to 

 his brothers in Venice. It would seem from the letter that he had pre- 

 viously informed them of Cabot's departure, for he says, '' That Venetian 

 of ours who went with a ship from Bristol to find new islands has re- 

 turned, and says that at a distance of seven hundred leagues he found 

 land, the country of the Grand Kham, and that he coasted along it for 

 three hundred leagues, and that having landed he saw no one. But he 

 has brought back certain snares that had been set to catch game, and a 

 needle for making nets, and he found trees cut down, whence he con- 

 cludes that the place is inhabited. * * * The discoverer of these 

 things set up a large cross on the land he found, together with the 

 English flag, and one of St. Mark, as he is himself a Venetian, and thus 

 our banner has been carried afar.'" ^ 



The next authority is equally unexceptional, viz., Eaimondo da Son- 

 cino, ambassador of the Duke of Milan to England. He was an educated 

 man, a keen observer, and in a position that required he should trans- 

 mit a full and reliable account of an event of such importance as was 

 this new discovery. Duty, as well as self-interest, would spur him 

 on to this. On August 24th, 1497, he wrote a hurried note informing 

 his master of Cabot's return, and that he had found "two new islands 

 very large and fruitful, and also had found the Seven Cities distant from 

 England four hundred leagues." ^ It is to be observed he does not assert, 

 as some have imagined, that the two islands were distant only four hun- 

 dred leagues. The text forbids that reading, for after having stated 

 that Cabot had found two islands, etc., which may be any distance away, 

 he adds " and he has also found the Seven Cities distant four hundred 

 leagues from England." ^ This distinction should be borne in mind,. 



1 Appendix A. 



2 Appendix B. 



* See original Italian appendix B, " Et etiam ha trovato le sette citta," etc. 



