JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGES.
John Cabot was a Venetian merchant, and a bold seafaring man. For purposes of trade he had taken up his home in Bristol, England. Bristol at that time was the most important seaport of England, and carried on a large fishing trade with Iceland.
| Sebastian Cabot. |
When the news of the voyage of Columbus reached Bristol, Cabot begged the English king, Henry VII., to let him go and see if he could find a shorter route to the Indies. The king gave his consent, and told Cabot to take possession of any land he might discover for England.
Cabot fitted out his vessel and, taking his son Sebastian and a crew of eighteen men with him, set sail in 1497. He headed his ship westward, hoping to reach the Spice Islands and that part of Asia which was so rich in gold, and which Columbus had failed to find. At last, one sunny morning in June, land was sighted in the distance.
This land, which was probably a part of Nova Scotia, proved to be a lonely shore with dense forests. Cabot called it "Land First Seen." It was entirely deserted, not a human being nor a hut of any kind being in sight.
Here Cabot and his son Sebastian and some of his crew went ashore, and were the first white men, excepting the Norsemen, to step upon the mainland of America. Up to this time, Columbus had discovered only islands of the West Indies. A year later than this he discovered the continent of South America. Cabot and his companions erected a large cross on the shore, and planted two flagpoles in the ground, from which they unfurled the English and Venetian flags. Then they returned to their ships, and, after sailing about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, went back to England.
King Henry and the people received John Cabot with great honor. Everybody thought that Cabot had reached Asia, and he also believed that he had. He was called the "Great Admiral," and the people of Bristol ran after him on the street, shouting his name and trying in every way to show him how much they admired and honored him. The king gave him fifty dollars in money, which seems to us in these days a small sum for so long and dangerous a voyage. Besides this, the king urged him to undertake another voyage.
About a year later Sebastian Cabot made the second voyage, and this time the gloomy shore of Labrador was reached.