286 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Next we find that John Cabot has associated with him as grantees his 

 three sons, Lewis, Sebastian and Santius, and we infer three circum- 

 stances : 



First, that Sebastian was his second son ; 

 Second, that he was arrived at his majority ; and, 

 Third, that he was a "Venetian citizen. 



The first conclusion is natural, from the order in which they are 

 named, Lewis probably being the eldest of the three, and Santius the 

 youngest. These two sons we never meet again. The second conclusion 

 is based upon the usual practice of not making minors j^arties to a con- 

 tract. This grant was a contract. If the king agreed to give Cabot and 

 his sons certain powers and authorities, they agreed on their part to give 

 the king certain prospective fruits, profits and gains. If these sons had 

 been minors, the grant would have been made to " John Cabot, his heirs 

 and deputies." Instead, they are recognized as equally capable of 

 receiving and imparting benefits as the father himself. If, then, all three 

 sons have arrived at their majority, Sebastian, the second son, must have 

 been at least twenty-two years of age. This brings us by a logical step 

 to our third conclusion, that Sebastian was a Venetian. If he was twenty- 

 two years of age in 1497, he was born as early as 1475 ; and if he was 

 born as early as 1475, his father, with his family, was living in "Venice, 

 his fifteen years of probationary residence not having been completed 

 until the following year, 1476. "When the republic adopted John Cabot, 

 it adopted his sons, and it is probable, from certain contemporaneous 

 references, that his wife was herself a Venetian woman. Peter Martyr, 

 whom we are soon to meet, and who knew Sebastian Cabot intimate!}', 

 declares that the latter told him he was born in Bristol, but taken by his 

 father, at an early age, to Venice, and later returned to England. To 

 ofiset this witness, the Venetian Ambassador (Contarini) who had an 

 important interview with Sebastian Cabot on the 30th of December, 1522, 

 the next day reported to his government that Sebastian had said to him, 

 " To tell everything to your lordship, 1 was born in Venice, but was 

 brought up (nutrito) in England." There is an official tone in this state- 

 ment which makes it quite credible. Moreover, in the year 1501, King 

 Henry, in a grant to another expedition, referred to the Cabots as 

 ■extranei or foreigners, making use of the plural form, and thus including 

 Sebastian as well as the father. Thus we see that while the expedition 

 was sailing under English authority, and while the discovery was to be 

 made under English auspices, the discoverer or discoverers were Venetian 

 citizens, and, therefore, we shall not wonder when we behold John Cabot 

 fixing in the earth of the new world, next to the banner of St. George 

 with the Dragon, the standard of St. Mark with the Lion. 



We find from this document that Cabot and his sons were to make 

 the voyage " upon their own proper costs and charges," and we may infer 



