[thachbk] the CABOTIAN DISCOVERY 283 



as to previous authentic transatlantic voyages. They are three in number, 

 two by Christoj^her Columbus, made respectively in 1492 and 1493, and 

 one by Americus Ves^jucius made in 1497. The tirst voyage of Columbus 

 resulted in the discovery of the new world. The landfall is practically 

 settled as having occurred on Watling Island, one of the Bahama group. 

 After examining three others of this group and the large island of Cuba,. 

 Columbus established on the north side of the island of Santo Domingo,, 

 the first European settlement. The second \oyage of Columbus opened 

 to the world the lesser Antilles, the island of Guadalupe, Marigalante^ 

 Santa Cruz, Porto Rico, a large part of the island of Cuba, and returned 

 the expedition to La Xavidad, the settlement on Santo Domingo, only to 

 find it a mass of ruins and not one soul living of the forty Europeans left 

 there the previous year. Thus far only islands had been found, and no 

 European foot had trodden on continental land. On the 10th day of May, 

 in the year 1497, an expedition, of which Americus Vespucius was a 

 member, sailed from Cadiz. In about ten days, or on May 20, it arrived 

 at the Canaries, where it halted eight days. Departing about May 28, 

 it reached continental land in thirty-seven days, which would land the 

 expedition on July 4. In the record of the voyage given by Vespucius, 

 he declares that the landfall was in 16 degrees north latitude and 75 

 degrees west of the Canaries, or at some point in the Gulf of Honduras. 

 The Canaries were the fortunate isles of the time of Ptolemy, who began 

 to count the degrees of longitude eastward from their meridian. Yes- 

 pucius then made his way around the Gulf of Mexico, coasting always- 

 around the point of Florida, and so north as far as Cape Hatteras. It 

 was the 15th of October, 1498, when the fleet of Vespucius returned to 

 Spain. In his third voj^age, begun in 1501, Vespucius reached about 52 

 degrees of south latitude, and I have on another occasion endeavoured to 

 point out that while Columbus certainly is entitled to the honour the world 

 willingly pays him as the first discoverer, negatively, at least, there is no 

 g]-eat impropriety in having called the new world after Americus, since 

 he explored and laid open some ninety degrees of its coast, or the fourth 

 part of the earth's circle. It is evident that there is before us a serious 

 dispute as to the priority of continental discovery. If Cabot found con- 

 tinental land on June 24, 1497, he preceded Vespucius by just ten days, 

 and to England and not to S|)ain belongs the honour of this discovery. 



The evidence upon which we must rely, in studying the Cabotian 

 voyages, is neither satisfying nor conclusive. .John Cabot has spoken no 

 word, directly, to us as he passed. He has left no written memorandum 

 of his voyage. Columbus kept an account of his voyage, in which he 

 gave some information. Vespucius recorded a few important events as 

 they occurred. But no paper or diurnal has come to us from John 

 Cabot. The explorer, to-day, who goes to the " Farthest North " breathes- 

 over again in his journal his entire voyage. He gives to us the daily 



