18 
DISCOVERY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 
to him a great displeasure. Nevertheless sayling along the coast 
to see if he could find any gulf that turned, he found the land 
still continued to the 56th degree under our pole. And seeing 
that there the coast turned to the east, despairing to find a passage, 
he turned back again, and sayled downe by the coast of that land 
towards the equinoctiall (werewith intent to find the said pas¬ 
sage to India,) and came to that part of this firm land which is 
now called Florida.” 
It may be gathered from the course which Cabot pursued that 
he entertained some remote suspicion as to where the communi¬ 
cation of the Atlantic with the Pacific was to be sought for, 
but technically considered, a north west passage by the Arctic 
Regions, as it is now spoken of, was far beyond the imagination 
of any of the chief navigators of those days; they were as igno¬ 
rant of the geographical position and extent of the country 
which is now denominated North America, as they were of the 
passage round Cape Horn, and consequently they were conti¬ 
nually seeking for the communication between the two oceans, 
in those latitudes from which they were certain to return with 
disappointment and discomfiture. 
Cabot pursued his course directly towards the north west, 
and the first land which he discovered, was that of Newfound¬ 
land, to which he gave the name of Prima Vista ; this took 
place in the year 1496, and from one particular circumstance, 
w r e are led to infer that he touched at the northern most part of 
that Island, which is only separated from Labrador, by the 
narrow straits of Belleisle, The circumstance alluded to is, 
that he brought home with him three Esquimaux, answering 
in every respect to the Esquimaux of the present day, and who 
had then one of their chief settlements on the eastern coast of 
Labrador, which may be calculated nearly about 2° from the 
northern most point of Newfoundland. These savages, he says, 
‘war. clothed in beastes skins, and did eat raw flesh, and spake 
such speech, that no man could understand them, and in their 
demeanour were like to brute beastes, whom the king kept a 
time aUer.” 
It is however evident that Cabot was grossly ignorant of the 
