[s. E. DAWSON] THE VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS 20S 



''prima tierra vista, et c'est en cet endroit que nous devons la laisser. 

 " La transposer plus au nord et à l'ouest, serait arbitraire, car rien ne 

 " prouve que Cabot, comme la plupart des cosmographes et des marins du 

 '' XVle siècle, ait noté, ou même jamais connu la longue aiguille, qui 

 " partant du port Dauphin, s'élève en ligne droite, jusqu'au cap North. 



" C'est donc au cap Percé, et nulle part ailleurs, que selon la carte de 

 " 1544, Jean et Sébastian Cabot ont atterri ; c'est là que, les premiers entre 

 " les navigateurs de XVe siècle, ils auraient foulé le sol du continent 

 " Américain et planté les bannières de Saint-Georges et de Saint-Marc, le 

 " samedi, 24 Juin 1497, à cinq heures du matin." "^ 



Cape Breton, and not Cape Percy, is the very easternmost point, and 

 Scatari island is the first point made from sea, for it stretches farther east. 

 Still, there is little to choose between them ; the capes are only sixteen 

 miles apart, and no one can suppose that after a lapse of 400 years any 

 spot could be located as a landfall within a few miles. I take my stand 

 beside Mr. Hari-isse of 1882, but it is too much, after converting me, for 

 him to ask me now to go to Labrador. I might have to go to Cape 

 Farewell next, or even to Spitzbergen, for the shortest lineby'great circle 

 sailing to Japan from Bristol, is by Spitzbergen. 



17.— The Voyage of 1497. 



I shall not protract this paper by futile speculations about John 

 Cabot's doings upon this eventful voyage. I do not possess those powers 

 of intuitive perception which enable some writers on the subject to follow 

 the little " Matthew " on her lonely course. I do not know the extent of 

 John Cabot's general information, nor what difficulties he had in engag- 

 ing his crew or in raising money for his outfit ; nor do I know in any 

 special way the nature and scope of his meditations. When I am in- 

 formed that "he knew the position of (rreenland," "^ I do not dispute it, 

 but I think it is a very bad reason for asserting he went there in May, 1497, 

 when he set out for Cathay. When I am told that he "kept a daily log, 

 " and plotted out his courses and distances on a map made especially for the 

 " purpose," "^ I answer that all sailors have kept and still keep logs, and 

 keep records in them of their courses ; but whether he worked up his 

 map every day or reduced his records into the form of a map when he 

 returned, 1 do not know an}' more than I know where he could have got 

 a map " especially made " of the unknown ocean he set forth upon. Col- 

 umbus had Toscanelli's, for which see ante, p. 152. Cabot might have had 

 one like it. Mr. Harrisse is, no doubt, correct in saying that Cabot was 

 sailing in the region of "the brave west winds," for, in fact, his course 

 lay through what Lieut. Maury called the zone of northwest wind8,"^and 

 westerly winds do prevail ; but I would prefer saying that he sailed in 

 the region of variable winds, because I remember that in the late fall of 



