[a. E. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS I47 



and group B of reports of conversations at second-hand and notices by 

 writers long after the event. Group A is concerned solely with the first 

 voyage which has just been commemorated. Together with his brothers 

 Lewis and Sancius, Sebastian is once mentioned in the letters-patent but 

 there is no indication of any of the family save John Cabot having been on 

 the voyage ; nor is there in any other document of i^roup A the least men- 

 tion of any of them. On the other hand, in gioup B there is not the 

 remotest trace of John Cabot ever having been concerned in a voyage to 

 the west. The conversations and incidents related refer solely to Sebas- 

 tian. John Cabot is absolutely non-existent in them, and the son is the 

 sole hero. Inasmuch as it has been demonbtrated that it was John who 

 made the first voyage, it is now the generally received opinion that 

 group B refers to the second voyage, and many think that Sebastian did 

 not sail in the first expedition. In my first paper I endeavoured to explain 

 this, as regards Sebastian, by showing that the circumstances related in 

 group B refer to the second voyage and that they are in the main true ; 

 saving the suppression of his father's share in the adventure and the 

 absence of mention of any voyage prior to the one he was speaking of. 

 In my paper of ] 894 I separated these documents and considered them 

 under distinct headings. That was one of the essential points in ray 

 argument and under a separate heading I contrasted them by the strongest 

 possible antitheses. I wrote : '•' The course of the first voyage was south 

 •' of Ireland ; then for a while north and afterwards west, with the pole 

 " star on the right hand. The course of the second, until land was seen, 

 " was north, into northern seas, towards the north pole, in the direction 

 " of Iceland, to the Cape of Labrador, at 58° north latitude." The re- 

 ferences showed that I was quoting these phrases from the documents in 

 each respective class. Bishop Howley charges me with confusion and in- 

 accuracy because, he adds, " we know the general trend of the second 

 " voyage was the same as the first." Now that is just what we do not 

 know ; because we have no means of knowing save from the records 

 which I was quoting in their very language and, while group A makes 

 no mention of ice and indicates a pleasant and temperate climate, group 

 B is characterized by repeated mention of ice in all the shapes it is met 

 with on the coast of Labrador to the present day. There is no confusion 

 in my sentence above quoted. It is one member of a strong antithetical 

 statement extending over a page and each, item is a quotation from its 

 respective group of documents. That this grouping is correct is manifest 

 also by the fiict that Peter Martyr and Gomara give Cabot's experience 

 with ice and his coasting voyage south to 38° as characteristic of one 

 and the same voyage and thus the possibility is excluded of that having 

 been the voyage which was accomplished in P3 day.s. 



It must be carefully noted that it was the voyage of 1497 and no 

 other which was the subject of commemoration. The bishop truly re- 



