[s. B. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 181 



" tant point, must undoubtedly have been seen and well located by Cabot. 

 " To this important headland Cortereal gave the name of Bonavista. It 

 *' was most probably his landfall." ^ 



At last, then, we have run this tradition to earth. It was a Portu- 

 guese tradition of a Portuguese landfall, and the English tradition was for 

 Cape St. John, and existed in the mind of a French captain ! But Bona- 

 vista must have a tradition, after all that has been said about it, and this 

 is it, 



"Cabot first made land at Cape St. John, yet he afterwards fixed on 

 " the point now called Bonavista as the signal point for voyagers from 

 *' Europe, and to take a departure from on going eastwards. I am sure 

 " John Cabot took special and particular bearings of this point. I believe 

 "■ it to be the point of which Soncino is speaking when he says Cabot 

 *' made certain signal marks." *' 



That is letting down Bonavista as easily as possible. There is a tra- 

 dition of landfall, but it is Portuguese, and the English tradition is not 

 of landfall but of land -departure. I would merely observe that no trace 

 has survived of any such special solicitude for Bonavista, and that theories 

 based upon a chain of such phrases as " doubtless," " not at all improb- 

 *' able," " may have," " we have reason to believe," " most undoubtedly," 

 " most probably," ''I am sure," and "I believe," cannot help us much in 

 this very difficult inquiry. 



Finally I come to La Cosa's map. It is generally admitted to be a 

 map of the south coast of Newfoundland. But Bonavista is not upon the 

 south coast of Newfoundland, but upon the east coast, and it is evident, 

 therefore, that Bonavista is excluded from the first voyage. The first 

 flag on the coast and the first name is at Cape Race. Bonavista is not near 

 Cape Race. It is two degrees and three minutes of latitude to the north, 

 equal to 123 geographical or 138J statute miles in a straight line. If, 

 then, Bonavista was the landfall, Cabot never gave it a name — never 

 claimed it — but sailed many more than 138 miles along the sinuosities of 

 the east coast, and did not name one headland, but waited until he turned 

 Cape Race, and then started up and studded the south coast with names, 

 and La Cosa commenced at the same point and marked it out on his map 

 with flags. This is seen at once by the very statement to be improbable 

 up to the boundary of impossibility. 



12. — Sebastian Cabot. 



Before passing on to the remaining points of this inquiry, it is neces- 

 sary to consider again, for a while, the character of Sebastian Cabot. My 

 own view is stated at length in my first paper. In effect it was that he 

 was boastful and vainglorious ; that he suppressed his father's agency 

 in the voyages of 149*7 and 1498, and that he was not so much a great sailor 



