History of the United States

by John Clark Ridpath

4. Sebastian, son of John Cabot, inherited his father's genius. He had already been to the New World on the first voyage, and now he took up his father's work with all the fervor of youth. The very fleet which had been equipped for John Cabot was intrusted to Sebastian. The object in view was the discovery of a northwest passage to the Indies.

5. The voyage was made in the spring of 1498. Far to the north the icebergs compelled Sebastian to change his course. It was July, and the sun scarcely set at midnight. Seals were seen, and the ships plowed through such shoals of codfish as had never before been heard of. Labrador was again seen. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine were next explored. The whole coast of New England and of the Middle States was now, for the first time since the days of the Norsemen, traced by Europeans. Nor did Cabot desist from this work, which was bestowing the title of discovery on the crown of England, until he reached Cape Hatteras.

6. The future career of Cabot was a strange one. Henry VII. was slow to reward the discoverer. When that monarch died, the king of Spain enticed Cabot away from England and made him pilot-major of the Spanish navy. He lived to be very old, but the place and circumstances of his death are unknown.

7. The year 1498 is the most marked in the whole history of discovery. In the month of May, Vasco da Gama, of Portugal, doubled the Cape of Good Hope and succeeded in reaching Hindostan. During the summer, the younger Cabot traced the eastern coast of North America through more than twenty degrees of latitude. In August, Columbus himself reached the mouth of the Orinoco. Of the three great discoveries, that of Cabot has proved to be by far the most important.

8. In 1493 Pope Alexander drew an imaginary line three hundred miles west of the Azores, and gave all countries west of that line to Spain. Henry VII. was a Catholic and did not care to have a conflict with his Church by claiming the New World. Henry VIII. adopted the same policy, and it was not until after the Reformation in England that the decision of the pope was disregarded.

9. During the reign of Edward VI. the spirit of adventure was again aroused. In 1548 the old admiral Sebastian Cabot quitted Seville and once more sailed under the English flag. In the reign of Queen Mary the power of England on the sea was not materially extended, but with the accession of Elizabeth a new impulse was given to voyage and adventure.

The Northwest Passage.

10. Martin Frobisher began anew the work of discovery. Three small vessels were fitted out to sail in search of a northwest passage to Asia. One ship was lost on the voyage, another returned to England, but the third sailed on as far north as Hudson Strait. A large island lying northward was named Meta Incognita. Frobisher entered the strait which has ever since borne his name, and then sailed for England, carrying with him an Esquimo and a stone said to contain gold.

11. London was greatly excited. In May, 1577, a new fleet departed for Meta Incognita to gather the precious metal. But the vessels did not sail as far as Frobisher had done on a previous voyage. The mariners sought the first opportunity to get out of these dangerous seas and return to England.

12. The English gold-hunters were not yet satisfied. Fifteen new vessels were fitted out, and in 1578 a third voyage was begun. Three of the ships, loaded with emigrants, were to remain in the promised land. The vessels, struggling through the icebergs, finally reached Meta Incognita and took on cargoes of dirt. With several tons of the supposed ore under the hatches, the ships set sail for home. The El Dorado of the Esquimos had proved a failure.