CXX XVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Cavo descubierto the Cape discovered, or, in nautical phraseology, the 

 Cape made. First is either understood, or was written where the 

 hole in the map now is. 



APPEXDIX D. 



Some recent writers have endeavoured to belittle the attainments of 

 Sebastian Cabot, to prove him a liar and guilty of ingratitude and a 

 want of generosity towards the memory of his father. In their disap- 

 pointment at not being able to learn enough about the life and death of 

 John Cabot, they inveigh against his son for not having written, we must 

 suppose, a history for their benefit. It is the old story : if arguments 

 are jacking, blame some one, any one except yourself. 



We need not waste time in enumerating the facts which establish, 

 beyond cavil, the eminent abilities of Sebastian Cabot. For nearly fifty 

 years Spain, England and Venice recognized him as the highest authority 

 on nautical matters, and were anxious to secure his services. The man 

 who to day will assert that the great men of those countries were 

 deceived during all that period by a cheap impostor, places himself out- 

 side the lists of serious controversy. 



The charge of untruthfulness regarding his father seems, at first 

 sight, to have some foundation, but a careful study of the case will 

 vindicate him. We must bear in mind we have no writings of Sebastian 

 Cabot ; not a sentence that can be proved to be as he spoke it. The con- 

 versation had with him by the Mantuan gentleman, narrated by Ramusio 

 (Vol. 1, 2nd Edition, Giunti, 155-1, pp. 414, 415), is, no doubt, substan- 

 tially correct, but it is not a consecutive and chronological narrative. It 

 is a synopsis of a synopsis ; the first made by the Mantuan gentleman, 

 the second by Eamusio. The latter tells us expressly that he is giving 

 only a summary of what he had heard. Now, whilst every assertion in a 

 sj'noptic narrative may be true, we are not to construe the facts in a 

 chronological sequence ; we must analyse the account and co-ordinate 

 the events. We have a familiar and striking example of the necessity of 

 this exegetic method in construing many of Gospel narratives. 



Let us examine the passages in Eamusio which are supposed to tell 

 against Sebastian Cabot. We are told by him that his father came to 

 England from Venice " to engage in business " (a far mercantia) many 

 years previously, bringing him (Sebastian), then a youth, yet not so 

 young but that he had studied both humanities and the use of the 

 globes. This is a very clear and straightforward account of the coming 

 to England of John Cabot and proves that Sebastian was born at Venice. 

 Yet, some pretend to find in it a slur cast on John Cabot by his son, 

 because he merely says his father came to England " to engage in busi- 

 ness" oi-, as they render it, *' to trade." Well, certainly, he did not come 



