24 ' TRANSACTIONS ■ , iSgg-'oO 



The Venetians, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno (1384-94) — the 

 first of that glorious sextet (Columbus, Vespuccius and the Cabots 

 and the Zenos) of Italian navigators to put the world under deep 

 obligations to them for discoveries extending the knowledge of 

 the earth's surface — did a little exploring the account of which, 

 for a long time believed to be fabulous, is in recent years consider- 

 ed to be genuine. 



Antonio and Nicolo at different times visited Greenland. 

 Whether either of them visited the mainland of the continent or 

 any of our islands is in doubt. 



The two Cabots, John and Sebastian his son, hold the first 

 place in point of time* and in many respects the first in importance 

 from a Canadian standpoint. John Cabot in 1497 discovered the 

 South Eastern coast of the present Dominion of Canada, landing 

 on the coast of Cape Breton, so it seems to be settled by a writer 

 in the ' ' Encyclopaedia Britannicaf ' ' and an increasing number 

 of the ablest writers. Wherever he made his landfall, he did so, 

 it is contended by John Fisket, on the same day of the same year 

 that Americo Vespuccius first saw the South American continent 

 with which his name was first associated through a curious error 

 of a German cosmographer, to be subsequently extended to the 

 northern part of this western hemisphere, which ought, in agree- 

 ment with the eternal fitness of things, to memorize John Cabot, 

 who first took possession in the name of King Henry VII of 

 England. 



Sebastian Cabot who accompanied his father on this occasion, 

 made another voyage in 1498. He appears to have studied care- 

 fully^ the whole subject. His father's inquiries among the Ice- 

 landic sailors who frequented the Port of Bristol had led him, in 

 all probability, to conclude that the shortest way to land beyond 

 the Atlantic was by the old Norse track. Sebastian profiting by 

 his father's observations and being himself a man of genius con- 

 cluded to sail northward. He left Bristol in May, 1498 and head- 

 ed for Iceland. On arriving there he steered for Cape Farewell 



*The application of John Cabot for letters patent in favour of himself and 

 his three sons, Louis, Sebastian and Sanctus is the earliest document of the 

 archives of the Colonial Empire of Great Britain. — Goldwin Smith, "The 

 United King-dom, a political history." 



fC. f. J. Winsor's Narr. and Critical Hist. Am. Vol. Ill pages 2^,, 24. 

 JC. f. J. Fiske's Discovery of America Vol. 11 page 87. 



