A keen controversy has raged as to the exact landfall of John Cabot in his 1497 voyage, and it cannot be said that a decisive conclusion has followed. A long tradition (fondly repeated by Mr Justice Prowse) finds the landfall in Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. It is difficult to say more than that it may have been so; it may too have been in Cape Breton Island, or even some part of the coast of Labrador. In any case, whether or not Cabot found his landfall in Newfoundland, he must have sighted it in the course of his voyage. It may be mentioned here by way of caution that the name Newfoundland was specialized in later times so as to apply to the island alone, and that it was at first used indifferently to describe all the territories discovered by Cabot.
As no true citizen of Newfoundland will surrender the belief that Cape Bonavista was in fact the landfall of Cabot, it seems proper to insert in the story of the island, for what they are worth, the nearest contemporary accounts of Cabot's voyage. They are more fully collected in Mr Beazley's monograph,[10] to which I am indebted for the translations which follow. The first account is contained, as has already been pointed out, in a letter written by Raimondo di Raimondi to the Duke of Milan:
"Most illustrious and excellent my Lord,—Perhaps among your Excellency's many occupations, you may not be displeased to learn how His Majesty here has won a part of Asia without a stroke of the sword. There is in this kingdom a Venetian fellow, Master John Cabot by name, of a fine mind, greatly skilled in navigation, who, seeing that those most serene kings, first he of Portugal, and then the one of Spain, have occupied unknown islands, determined to make a like acquisition for His Majesty aforesaid. And having obtained Royal grants that he should have the usufruct of all that he should discover, provided that the ownership of the same is reserved to the Crown, with a small ship and eighteen persons he committed himself to fortune. And having set out from Bristol, a western port of this kingdom, and passed the western limits of Hibernia, and then standing to the northward, he began to steer eastwards [meaning westwards], leaving, after a few days, the North Star on his right hand. And having wandered about considerably, at last he fell in with terra firma, where, having planted the Royal banner and taken possession in the behalf of this King; and having taken several tokens, he has returned thence. The said Master John, as being foreign-born and poor, would not be believed, if his comrades, who are almost all Englishmen and from Bristol, did not testify that what he says is true.
"This Master John has the description of the world in a chart, and also in a solid globe which he has made, and he [or it] shows where he landed, and that going toward the east [again for west] he passed considerably beyond the country of the Tansis. And they say that it is a very good and temperate country, and they think that Brazil wood and silks grow there; and they affirm that that sea is covered with fishes, which are caught not only with the net but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order that the baskets may sink in the water. And this I heard the said Master John relate, and the aforesaid Englishmen, his comrades, say that they will bring so many fish, that this kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from which country there comes a very great store of fish called stock-fish ('stockfissi'). But Master John has set his mind on something greater; for he expects to go further on towards the east [again for west] from that place already occupied, constantly hugging the shore, until he shall be over against [or on the other side of] an island, by him called Cimpango, situated in the equinoctial region, where he thinks all the spices of the world and also the precious stones originate. And he says that in former times he was at Mecca, whither spices are brought by caravans from distant countries, and these [caravans] again say that they are brought to them from other remote regions. And he argues thus—that if the Orientals affirmed to the Southerners that these things come from a distance from them, and so from hand to hand, presupposing the rotundity of the earth, it must be that the last ones get them at the north, toward the west. And he said it in such a way that, having nothing to gain or lose by it, I too believe it; and, what is more, the King here, who is wise and not lavish, likewise puts some faith in him; for, since his return he has made good provision for him, as the same Master John tells me. And it is said that in the spring His Majesty aforenamed will fit out some ships and will besides give him all the convicts, and they will go to that country to make a colony, by means of which they hope to establish in London a greater storehouse of spices than there is in Alexandria, and the chief men of the enterprise are of Bristol, great sailors, who, now that they know where to go, say that it is not a voyage of more than fifteen days, nor do they ever have storms after they get away from Hibernia. I have also talked with a Burgundian, a comrade of Master John's, who confirms everything, and wishes to return thither because the Admiral (for so Master John already entitles himself) has given him an island; and he has given another one to a barber of his from Castiglione, of Genoa, and both of them regard themselves as Counts, nor does my Lord the Admiral esteem himself anything less than a prince. I think that with this expedition will go several poor Italian monks, who have all been promised bishoprics. And as I have become a friend of the Admiral's, if I wished to go thither, I should get an Archbishopric. But I have thought that the benefices which your Excellency has in store for me are a surer thing."
To those who, in the teeth of contemporary evidence, prefer the claims of Sebastian, the following extracts may be offered; the first from Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, who wrote in the early sixteenth century, the second from Ramusio. Martyr writes:
"These north seas have been searched by one Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian born, whom, being yet but in matter an infant, his parents carried with them into England, having occasion to resort thither for trade of merchandises, as is the manner of the Venetians to leave no part of the world unsearched to obtain riches. He therefore furnished two ships in England at his own charges; and, first, with 300 men, directed his course so far towards the North Pole, that even in the month of July he found monstrous heaps of ice swimming in the sea, and in manner continual daylight, yet saw he the land in that tract free from ice, which had been molten by heat of the sun. Thus, seeing such heaps of ice before him, he was enforced to turn his sails and follow the west, so coasting still by the shore he was thereby brought so far into the south, by reason of the land bending so much southward, that it was there almost equal in latitude with the sea called Fretum Herculeum [Straits of Gibraltar], having the North Pole elevate in manner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so far toward the west that he had the Island of Cuba [on] his left hand in manner in the same degree of longitude. As he travelled by the coasts of this great land, which he named Baccallaos [cod-fish country], he saith that he found the like course of the water towards the west [i.e. as before described by Martyr], but the same to run more softly and gently than the swift waters which the Spaniards found in their navigation southward.... Sebastian Cabot himself named those lands Baccallaos, because that in the seas thereabout he found so great multitudes of certain big fish much like unto tunnies (which the inhabitants called Baccallaos) that they sometimes stayed his ships. He found also the people of those regions covered with beasts' skins, yet not without the use of reason. He saith also that there is great plenty of bears in those regions, which used to eat fish. For, plunging themselves into the water where they perceive a multitude of those fish to lie, they fasten their claws in their scales, and so draw them to land and eat them. So that, as he saith, the bears being thus satisfied with fish, are not noisome to men."
Ramusio represents Sebastian Cabot as making the following statement:
"When my father departed from Venice many years since to dwell in England, to follow the trade of merchandises, he took me with him to the city of London while I was very young, yet having nevertheless some knowledge of letters, of humanity, and of the sphere. And when my father died, in that time when news were brought that Don Christopher Colombus, the Genoese, had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talk in all the Court of King Henry the Seventh, who then reigned; in so much that all men, with great admiration, affirmed it to be a thing more divine than human to sail by the west into the east, where spices grow, by a way that was never known before; by which fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing. And understanding by reason of the sphere that if I should sail by way of the north-west wind I should by a shorter track come to India, I thereupon caused the King to be advertised of my device, who immediately commanded two caravels to be furnished with all things appertaining to the voyage, which was, as far as I remember, in the year 1496 in the beginning of summer. Beginning therefore to sail toward north-west, nor thinking to find any other land than that of Cathay, and from thence to turn towards India, after certain days I found that the land ran toward the north, which was to me a great displeasure. Nevertheless, sailing along by the coast to see if I could find any gulf that turned, I found the land still continent to the 56th degree under our Pole. And seeing that there the coast turned toward the east, despairing to find the passage, I turned back again and sailed down by the coast of that land toward the equinoctial (ever with intent to find the said passage to India) and came to that part of this firm land which is now called Florida; where, my victuals failing, I departed from thence and returned into England, where I found great tumults among the people and preparation for the war to be carried into Scotland; by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage."[11]
The discoveries of Cabot were appreciated by Henry VII., a prince who rarely indulged in unprovoked benefactions, for on December 13th, 1497, we find a grant of an annual pension to Cabot of £20 a year, worth between £200 and £300 in modern money (a pension that was drawn twice):