l899-'00 TRANSACTIONS 55 



from which cape he attempted to force a passage to the north, in 

 the course of which he seems to have discovered the great strait 

 now called Hudson Strait. Having failed to find the passage he 

 sought, though he went a full degree north of the Arctic^ Circle 

 and within 22^ degrees of the North Pole, he sailed southward 

 for full 900 miles along our magnificent eastern sea-front, 

 Gomara relates that Cabot had with him five vessels and 300 men. 

 the latter intended to form a colony. Thevet, a French cosmo- 

 grapher, says Cabot landed these emigrants where the cold was so 

 intense that nearly the whole company perished, although it Was 

 the month of July. If it be true that he put them ashore and 

 that they perished, then these men must be added to Eric's 350 

 already mentioned as lost in the attempt to discover and people 

 the northern regions of the Canadian Dominion. 



Sebastian returned to Bristol, having made the very first 

 voyage ever made with the specific object of finding a North 

 West passage. He thus stands out prominently not only as the 

 companion of his father in the voyage which led to the discovery 

 of south eastern Canada, but also as the first man who divined 

 that this continent was no outlyer of the Asian continent, as 

 Columbus supposed, but was a huge barrier between Western 

 Europe and Eastern Asia. He was also fore-runner of a long 

 and illustrious line of seamen who, during more than two 

 centuries sought for a short cut to Asia by a polar passage from 

 east to west. 



In the later years of his life after Edward VI in 1549 grant- 

 ed him a pension and created him King's Grand Pilot he con- 

 ceived another idea, viz. of seeking the way to Eastern Asia by a 

 North East Passage. The commercial association to which 

 Cabot's genius and influence gave rise called themselves "The 

 Company of Merchant Adventurers*." They received a charter 

 of incorporation in 1554-5. In 1556 they obtained an Act of 

 Parliament incorporating them as the ' ' Fellowship of English 

 Merchants for Discovery of New Trades," a title under which 

 they continue incorporated though they are better known as the 



*One of those trading- associations which sprung- from the necessities of 

 the limes when the sea was still an element outside of law and where to trade 

 in safety it was needful to organize associations each strong- enough to form a 

 sea power, for piracy was common and half licensed and mariners of different 

 nations warred with each other though their governments were at peace. — G. 

 Smith. 



