The expedition arrived back at Bristol early in August and the story it brought created a sensation. With his report to the king Cabot exhibited a map of the region visited and a solid globe, and presented the game-snares and net-needle which he had found. He told the king that he believed it practicable by starting from the parts which he had discovered, and constantly hugging the shore toward the equinoctial, to reach an island called by him Cipango, where he thought all the spices of the world and also the precious stones originated; and this region found and colonized, there might be established in London a greater storehouse of spices than the chief one then existing, in Alexandria. All this much moved the king, and he promised to promote a second expedition for this purpose in the following spring.
Kidder’s sketch-map of John Cabot’s voyage in 1497.
Meanwhile John Cabot became the hero of the hour, and great honours were paid him. The king gave him money and granted him an annual pension of twenty pounds (equal to two hundred modern pounds in purchasing value), which was to be charged upon the revenues of the port of Bristol; he dressed in silk; and he was styled the “Great Admiral.” He also appears to have been knighted. He distributed largess with a free hand, if the tales of the letter-writers of the day are to be accepted. One wrote that he gave an island to the Burgundian of his crew and another to the Genoese, “a barber of his from Castiglione, of Genoa.” And this writer adds, “both of them regard themselves counts.” Reports of his exploits and of the king’s further intentions were duly made known to rival courts by their envoys in England, and excited their jealousy.
The second expedition was provided for by the king’s license dated the third of February, 1497/8. This was a patent granted to John Cabot alone, the sons not being named. Hakluyt gives only the following record from the rolls:
“The king upon the third day of February, in the 13 yeere of his reigne, gave license to John Cabot to take sixe English ships in any haven or havens of the realme of England, being of the burden of 200 tunnes, or under, with all necessary furniture, and to take also into the said ships all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the king as willingly will go with him, &c.”
The patent itself did not find print till the nineteenth century. It was published for the first time in 1831, in the Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, by Richard Biddle, an American lawyer of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sometime resident in London, by whom, after painstaking search, it was found in the rolls. Quaint of style as well as of spelling, it runs as below:
“To all men to whom theis Presenteis shall come send Gretyng: know ye, that We of our Grace especiall, and for divers causes us movying We have geven and graunten, and by theis Presentis geve and graunte to our welbeloved John Kabotto, Venecian, sufficiente auctorite and power, that he, by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficient, may take at his pleasure VI Englisshe Shippes in any Porte or Portes or other place within this our Realme of England or obeisance, so that and if said Shippes be of the bourdeyn of C C tonnes or under with their apparail requisite and necessarie for the safe conduct of the said Shippes, and them convey and lede to the Londe [land] Isles of late founde by the seid John in oure name and by our commaundemente. Paying for theym and every of theym as if we should in or for our owen cause paye and noon [none] otherwise. An that the said John by him his Deputie or Deputies sufficiente, maye take and receyve into the said Shippes, and every of theym all such maisters, maryners, Pages, and other subjects of their owen free wille woll goo [would go] and passe with him in the same Shippes to the said Lande or Iles, without anye impedymente, lett or perturbance of any of our officers or ministres or subjects whatsoever they be by theym to the sayd John, his Deputie, or Deputies, and all other our seid subjects, or any of theym passinge with the sayd John in the said Shippes to the said Londe or Iles to be doon, or suffer to be doon or attempted. Geving in commaundemente to all and every our officers, ministres and subjects seying or herying theis our Lettres Patents, without any ferther commaudement by Us to theym or any of theym to be geven to perfourme and secour the said John, his Deputie and all our said Subjects so passyng with hym according to the tenor of theis our Lettres Patentis. Any Statute, Acte, or Ordennance to the contrarye made or to be made in any wise notwithstanding.”
Five ships were got together for this expedition. Three of them are supposed to have been furnished by Bristol merchants and two by the king; one chronicler, however, says that the Cabots contributed two. London merchants joined with Bristol men in the adventure. It was understood to be an enterprise for colonization combined with further discovery. The number of men enlisted for the voyage was placed at three hundred. Among them, as on the first voyage, were mariners experienced in venturesome undertakings. The fleet sailed off at the beginning of May, 1498. One of the ships, aboard of which was the priest, “Friar Buel,” put back to Ireland in distress. The other four continued the voyage.
With the departure from Bristol nothing more is heard of John Cabot. He drops out of sight instantly and mysteriously. Various conjectures as to his fate are entertained by the historians. Some contend that he died when about to set sail. But confronting this theory is a letter of the prothonotary, Don Pedro de Ayala, residing in London, to Ferdinand and Isabella, under date of July 25, 1498, reporting the sailing of the expedition. “His [the king’s] fleet consisted of five vessels which carried provisions for one year. It is said that one of them ... has returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being much damaged. The Genoese [John Cabot, as appears in the text elsewhere] has continued the voyage.” If so important a man as John Cabot had now become had died before May and the departure of the expedition of which he was the acknowledged head, it is fairly reasoned that Ayala would have been aware of it. No shred of satisfactory information has rewarded the searcher for a solution of the problem. Nobody knows what became of him.