[Footnote 17: See Discovery of the Mainland of North America by the Cabots, page 282.]

DISCOVERY OF THE MAINLAND OF NORTH AMERICA BY THE CABOTS A.D. 1497 SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON Newfoundland prides herself on being the oldest colony of the English crown.

Henry VII of England aided the Cabots, father and son, to fit out two expeditions from Bristol to explore the coasts of the New World and extend the search for hitherto unknown countries.

Probably no question in the history of this continent has been the subject of so much discussion as the lives and voyages of the two Cabots.

Nevertheless, solely upon the discoveries of the Cabots have always rested the original claims of the English race to a foothold upon this continent.

That John Cabot was a Venetian, of Genoese birth, naturalized at Venice on March 28, 1476, after the customary fifteen years of residence, and that he subsequently settled in England with all his family.

As for John Cabot, Sebastian said he died, which is one of the few undisputed facts in the discussion; but if Sebastian is correctly reported in Ramusio to have said that he died at the time when the news of Columbus' discoveries reached England, then Sebastian Cabot told an untruth, because the letters-patent of 1498 were addressed to John Cabot alone.

He advanced the theory that Labrador was the Cabot landfall in 1497.

They were probably the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon; but that John Cabot had no idea of a northward voyage at that time in his mind would appear from his intention to sail farther to the east on his next voyage until he reached the longitude of Cipango.

John Cabot's genius was more practical, as the second letter of Raimondo di Soncino shows.

That La Cosa based the northern part of his map upon Cabot's discoveries is demonstrated by the English flags marked along the coast and the legend "Mar descubierto por Ingleses," because no English but the Cabot expeditions had been there; and what is evidently intended for Cape Race is called "Cavo de Ynglaterra."

"DISCOVERY OF THE MAINLAND OF NORTH AMERICA BY THE CABOTS."

THE RED (Besides the Northmen or Norsemen, those ancient Scandinavians celebrated in history for their adventurous exploits at sea, the Chinese and the Welsh have laid claim to the discovery of North America at periods much earlier than that of Columbus and the Cabots.

The career of the Cabots would of itself suffice to render such a supposition doubtful.

[Footnote 46: From Cabot.]

Worthy New-Englanders, like Cabot, Fisher Ames, and Wolcott, had no longer hope.

Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same ground as the Cabots.

After the discovery of the North American coast by the Cabots, England made no attempt to settle it for nearly eighty years; and even then the colonies planted by Gilbert and Ralegh were failures.

But with the Cabots and their followers, Frobisher and Gilbert and Drake and Hawkins, all this was changed; once more the ocean became the highway of our national progress and adventure, and by virtue of our shipping we became competitors for the dominion of the earth.

SEE Cabot, Richard C. MOSES, BERNARD.

by Richard C. Cabot. © 22Mar29; A6145.

And forbidding all the subjects of England from frequenting or visiting their discoveries, unless by license from the Cabots, their heirs or deputies, under forfeiture of their ships and goods[10].

Discovered by the Cabots, it was settled by the French in 1715, and ceded to Great Britain in 1763.

He was the first of the Italians who came as torch-bearers of the Renaissance into Spain, to be followed by Peter Martyr, Columbus, the Cabots, Gattinara, the Geraldini and Marliano.

Henry Harrisse makes frequent mention of the Vespucci in his work on the Cabots.]