energy and hardy endurance which have since characterized the seamen of England on the ocean had been sapped by long and exhaustive wars, and yet when Henry VII., a shrewd and thrifty monarch, learned of the discoveries of Columbus, he was ready to enter into competition for any prizes the New World might disclose and he was not in the least disposed to allow Spain and Portugal to monopolize the as yet undiscovered and uninhabited portions of the earth. He accordingly very eagerly sought and secured the services of John Cabot, a Venetian merchant, residing at Bristol, and immediately began to equip several vessels for discovery which might be made anywhere north of the route taken by Columbus.*

Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius, were authorized by a patent obtained from the king and signed at Westminster, March 5, 1496, "to saile to all parts, countrys and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensigns, with five ships of what burden or quantitie soever

* Charlevoix (Travels, &c., in 1720) raises a point in connection with the early discoveries in America which is well worth noticing. He says: -"I cannot dispense with a passing remark. It is very glorious to Italy, that the three powers which now divide between them almost the whole of America, owe their first discoveries to Italians the Spanish to Columbus, a Genoese, the English to John Cabot and his sons, Venetians, and the French to Verrazzani, a citizen of Florence." Sebastian Cabot, as noted above, however, was a native of England. See also J. A. Doyle, English Colonies in America, Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas, vol. i., App. C., pp. 399-407.

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they may be, and as many mariners and men as they will have with them in the said ships, upon their own proper cost and charges, to seeke out, discover and find whatsoever isles, countreys, regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels, whatsoever they may be, and in what part of the world soever they may be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians."* The expedition sailed from Bristol early in May, 1497, Cabot being accompanied by his son, Sebastian, and on June 24, 1497, they discovered land, undoubtedly a part of the coast of Labrador, which they named Prima Vista. They also saw an island which, because of the day on which it was discovered, they called St. John's Island; it was "full of white bears and stagges, far greater than the English."+ Cabot, however, was disappointed in his expectation of finding a northwest passage to the land of Cathay or the Indies with its marvels and wonders as Marco Polo tells them, and he therefore returned to England. In 1498, Sebastian Cabot alone made a second voyage to America, but of this the particulars have only scantily been preserved || Hudson's Bay was undoubtedly en

*Hakluyt, Voyages and Discoveries, vol. iii., p. 6; The Voyages of the Cabots in Old South Leaflets, general series, no. xxxvii. The letters patent in Latin and English will be found in Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. i., Pp. 45-47.

See Hayward, Life of Sebastian Cabot, p. 8. Bancroft, vol. i., pp. 10-11 (last revision). Harrisse says that there is nothing to prove that Cabot's son commanded the voyage of 1497

*

tered on a third voyage which took place in 1517, and Cabot probably penetrated as far north as the sixtyseventh degree of latitude, but his crew, terrified by the vast expanse of ice, demanded that Cabot return, and in the month of July he therefore reluctantly turned his face toward toward England. Cabot died in the city of London at a good old age, after having gone through many and various adventures and achieved considerable eminence as a navigator. Although he gave a continent to England, neither the date of his death is known, nor does the humblest monument show where his remains lie.+

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and the belief that Sebastian went rests exclusively upon statements from his own lips made at a time, under circumstances, in a form, and with details which render them very suspicious. Nay, they have been positively denied at least twice in his lifetime in England as well as in Spain." Regarding the voyage of 1498, Harrisse says:- "There is no ground whatever for the assertion, frequently repeated, that John Cabot did not command this second expedition or that it was undertaken after his death by his son." See also Helen A. Smith, The Thirteen Colonies, in The Story of the Nation series, vol. i., pp. 5-14; Richard Biddle, Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, with a Review of the History of Maritime Discovery; Bancroft, vol. i., pp. 11-12 (last revision); Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, History of the City of New York, vol. i., p. 15, note.

* Fiske, Discovery of America, vol. ii., pp. 1-18. Harrisse, John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America, and Sebastian His Son: A Chapter of the Maritime History of England under the Tudors 1496-1557 (1895); Nicholls, Remarkable Life of Sebastian Cabot (1869); Frederick A. Ober, John and Sebastian Cabot (1908); Winship, Cabot Bibliography (1900); Bacon, English Voyages of Adventure and Discovery (1908); C. R. Beazley, John and Sebastian Cabot; H. R. F. Bourne, English Seamen under the Tudors; Charles Morris, The Discoverers and Explorers of America, pp. 32-38; Documents relative to voyages

The next important discoverer was Vasco da Gama, who sailed under the patronage of Emanuel, king of Portugal, an able and enterprising monarch. In 1498 Da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and on May 20 sailed into the harbor of Calcutta, thus opening to the Portuguese a new and important route to the Indies.* Emanuel also sent Gaspar Cortoreal in 1501 with two vessels to explore the northwestern ocean. Cortoreal sailed about 700 miles along the shores of North America, but his most noteworthy exploit was the kidnapping of a number of natives and carrying them to Portugal as slaves.†

A hardy old Spanish warrior who had been one of the companions of Columbus, Juan (or Hernan) Ponce de Leon, was the next to cover himself with glory in his discoveries on this continent. De Leon had conquered Porto Rico and had added to his fortune by the compulsory labor of the unfortunate natives whom he conquered; but he was now well advanced in years and was not content to let go his grasp upon the possessions for which he had so long toiled and so strenuously fought. He there

of John Cabot and Cortoreal (Hakluyt Society, London, 1893); Hume, History of England, vol. iii.; Weare, Cabot's Discovery.

*G. M. Towle, Voyages and Adventures of Vasco da Gama (1878); H. E. J. Stanley, The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society, London, 1869).

† Fiske, Discovery of America, vol. ii., pp. 1821; Charles Morris, The Discoverers and Explorers of America, pp. 52-53; Bancroft, vol i., p. 14 (last rev.).