PROCEEDINGS FOR 1897 CXXXIX 



With the intention of finding North America ; yet this is what they 

 think Sebastian shotild have said. 



He then içoes on to say that his father died at the time that news 

 was received that Columbus had discovered " the Coast of the Indies," 

 which event was much talked of at the Court of Henry VII., and was 

 looked ujDon as something more divine than human, to have found this 

 hitherto unknown way to the East, where the spices grow. We have in 

 this sentence and the one following it, apparent contradictions owing to 

 the synoptic character of the narrative. In an animated conversation 

 facts are not stated in a chronological order ; frequently, too, a listener 

 thinks the narrator is speaking in his own name, when in fact he may 

 be recounting the deeds of another. We know the Mantuan gentleman 

 was charmed with Sebastian Cabot, the wonderful story of Columbus's 

 discover}^ and the consequent excitement in naval circles enthralled him, 

 and it was quite natural that when relating this conversation in after 

 years, in the Villa Caphi, he should attribute to Sebastian Cabot all that 

 had been said about the voyages of 1497-98. In Eamusio's edition of 

 1606 we are told that Sebastian Cabot was first instructed by his father 

 as to the feasibility of a passage to the Indies, either by the northwest or 

 northeast. And we are further told that Sebastian, late in life, advo- 

 cated the I'oute by the northeast, as that by the northwest had been 

 tried in vain both by his father and himself,^ This information must 

 have been derived from Sebastian Cabot. 



Can we beheve, then, that in speaking to the Mantuan gentleman, 

 he claimed all the honour of the voyages he described ? Surely not, the 

 more especially since an easy and natural explanation of the apparent 

 contradiction can be given. 



But the strong point with Sebastian's critics is his assertion regard- 

 ing the time of his father's death. " Here," they say, " is a downright 

 imtruth by which John Cabot is consigned, by his son, to the grave 

 before 149*7, thus effectually denying him all part in the voyages of that 

 and the subsequent years." This is bad, — for the critics of Sebastian. 

 They should be sure of their interpretation before shouting " liar." 

 When did the news reach England that Columbus had discovered "the 

 Coast of the Indies " ? Some time in 1499. Sebastian Cabot naturally 

 spoke with accuracy on nautical subjects. Hence he was not referring 

 to the discovery of 1492 when islands only were found, but to the one of 

 1498, when, in truth, the coast, or mainland, was discovered. Sebastian, 

 therefore, tells us the year of his father's death. 



Without this testimony we should place it in the year of 1499, soon 

 after his return from the second voyage, 



Fatigue, exposure and disappointment, more than old age, brought 

 on the end. 



1 In the preface of the so-called Log Book of Sebastian Cabot. 



