The name of a family of explorers intimately connected with the history of
America.
John Cabot is supposed to have been born in
Genoa, although some historians have claimed
Venice as his birthplace.
There is evidence that for fifteen years prior to 1476 he resided in
Venice, and in that year formally became a citizen.
Subsequently he removed to
Bristol, England, and engaged in mercantile business.
With a view of finding a shorter route to
India,
he determined to attempt a northwest passage.
To further his undertaking he secured from Henry VII.
a patent for the discovery of any unknown lands lying in either the eastern, western, or northern seas.
Sebastian Cabot, the second son of
John Cabot, was
[
18]
born in
Bristol, England, in 1477.
As his name appears in the petition of his father to Henry VII.
for the patent above mentioned, it is believed that he accompanied his father in the voyage described below.
Sebastian died in
London in 1557.
The latest evidence shows that John and probably his son Sebastian sailed from Bristol, May, 1497, discovered in June what was supposed to be the Chinese coast, and returned in July.
In April, 1498, they
sailed again from
Bristol; on
this voyage John died and
Sebastian succeeded to the command.
The place of the landfall is uncertain; probably
Labrador and
Prince Edward Island were reached.
A common account is that he was stopped by the icepack in
Davis Strait.
Then he sailed southwest, and discovered the shores of
Labrador, or, possibly, the northern shore of
Newfoundland.
Turning northward, he traversed the coast of the continent almost to lat. 60°, when the ice again barred his way. Then he sailed southward, and discovered a large island, which he called New Found Land (
Newfoundland), and perceived the immense number of codfish in the waters surrounding it. Leaving that island, he coasted as far as the shores of
Maine, and, some writers think, as far south as the Carolinas.
On his return
Cabot revealed the secret of the codfish at New Found Land, and within five or six years thereafter fishermen from
England,
Brittany, and
Normandy were gathering treasures there.
As
Cabot did not bring back gold from
America, King Henry paid no more attention to him; and in 1512 he went to
Spain, by invitation of King Ferdinand, and enjoyed honors and emoluments until that monarch's death in 1516, when, annoyed by the jealousies of the
Spanish nobility, he returned to
England.
Henry VIII
[
19]
furnished
Cabot with a vessel, in 1517, to seek for a northwest passage to
India; but he unsuccessfully fought the ice-pack at
Hudson Bay and was foiled.
The successor of Ferdinand invited
Cabot to
Spain and made him chief pilot of the realm.
He was employed by Spanish merchants to command an expedition to the
Spice Islands by way of the then newly discovered Strait of
Magellan; but circumstances prevented his going farther than the southeast coast of
South America, where he discovered the rivers De
la Plata and
Paraguay.
His employers were disappointed, and, resigning his office into the hands of the
Spanish monarch, he returned to
England in his old age, and was pensioned by the
King.
After the death of Henry VIII.
the “boy
King,” Edward VI., made
Cabot grand pilot of
England; but Queen Mary neglected him, and allowed that eminent navigator and discoverer of the
North American continent to die in
London in comparative poverty and obscurity at the age of eighty years. His cheerful temperament was manifested by his dancing at an assembly of young seamen the year before his death.
