296 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



of assurance, or, at least, we may be able to assert of some particular 

 claimaut that it is not entitled to that honour. Pasqualigo was an Italian, 

 and writing to his brother, who was also an Italian. When he reported 

 that land had been found at a distance of 700 leagues, he evidently had in 

 mind the Italian league, and this differed considerably from the English 

 league. The Italian league was equal to four Italian miles. An Italian 

 mile was equal to 4,842 feet, or less than a statute English mile b}' 438 

 feet. Thus we find that 700 Italian leagues would be equal to 2,568 

 English miles. Plotting a course of this length on a great globe and fol- 

 lowing due west a meridian, in which Bristol is situated, a vessel would 

 pass into the Straits of Belle-isle, and reach the east end of Anticosti 

 island. In other words .a course of 2,568 miles from Bristol would carrj- 

 a vessel far beyond the westerly end of Newfoundland. It is difficult to 

 see how Cabot could have reached Caj)e Breton without seeing New- 

 foundland, unless he had been coming from the south. If he had first 

 reached Newfoundland he would have discovered land at least 360 miles 

 short of his 700 leagues. If we alloAv John Cabot a northing, after he left 

 the west coast of Ireland, sufficient to have carried him to the 55th 

 ■ parallel, and then send him due west for 2.568 miles, he would strike the 

 coast of Labrador somewhere near Maggarvick bay, but he would have 

 been obliged to travel several hundred miles inland, or as far as Meshike- 

 man lake, to have completed his 700 leagues. This course, however, on 

 the 55th parallel, would have cleared the southern point of Clreenland. If 

 we carry Cabot as far north as the 60th parallel, and then bid him speed 

 westward, his course of 2,568 would have taken him into Hud.son 

 straits, on the south side of Eesolution island. But this course, if fol- 

 lowed on a straight line, would have carried him on to the southern point 

 of Greenland. Raimondo speaks of Cabot's having likewise seen, on his 

 westward journey, at a distance of 400 leagues, the Seven Cities. It is 

 possible that he had caught sight of land when at no great distance from 

 Greenland, and had thought it to be the Seven Cities of legendary fame. 

 If he had sailed not so far north as on a parallel with the southerly end 

 of Greenland, and had kept somewhat south of Cape FarcAvell. he still 

 might have been caught by the powerful currents which sweep around 

 that point, and so up a ways into Davis straits. Thence sailing west he 

 would have been carried into Hudson straits. In the second letter of 

 Eaimondo, he makes the Bristol sailors assert that " now they know the 

 way, the voyage is not more than fifteen days." This is a story of the 

 sailors, not of the careful and skilful navigator. A voyage of fifteen days 

 for vessels of that period, is inconsistent with any transatlantic distance. 

 There is a passage in this second letter which may strengthen this view 

 of the northern landfall. Eaimondo says : " But Master John has set his 

 mind on something greater ; for he expects to go farther on toward the 

 east (that is toward the Levant) from that place already occupied, con- 



