The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-05-17
OF NORTH AMERICA.

DIsSOtEHh OF NORTH AMERICA.
Some time IN June. four hundred years
ago. John Cabot discovered the North
American continent The credit IL usually
given 10 Sebastian, hts sou, but this Is now
believed TO be Inaccurate. They sailed to-
gether. but the tendency OF the English
people has been TO award the honor TO the
son. who was an Engiissaman by birth,
while his father was a Genoese by birth,
although citizen Of Venice by adoption.
Canada viii celebrate the four hundredth
anniversary OF the discovery which was
important, although II has not the merit
due 10 Columbus, whose faith and success
had already resulted in the conviction that
there was a great continent on the west
side of the Atlantic. Spain had already
been rewarded by the acquisition of the
Antilles. and the great maritime rival OF
Spain was eager to share IN the honors
and territory which the new land prom
isec.
Henry VII granted a charter to John
Gaiote. citizen OF Venice. TO Lewes. Sc
bastian and santius. sonnes Of the said
due and occupy at their own charges any
region which had before been unknown TO
| all Christians. The navfgators left Bris-
| toll in small ship called the Matthew.
| with a crew o. eighteen men. on May 3,
| 1857. The exact date Of their landing and
| the place is unknown. Sir Clements Mark
| ham has recently argued. after a search
ing inquiry. that II was Bonavista bay.
/ Newfoundland. Sebastian Cabot who was
| the geographer OF the party. and who by
his subsequent writings claimed credit for
the discovery, does not mark IL as an
| island. and there is reason to believe that
| even II the landing was first made on the
island the mainland in the neighborhood
Of Nova Scotia was the first seen. His very
crude map indicates terra primum visa
az somewhere near there with the island
of ST. John. now Prince Edwards Island.
in a gulf now believed to have been the
mouth OF the St Lawrence In the ac-
count of the privy purse Of King Henry
VII. is an entry: 10th of August. l49s. To
him that found the New Isle, go"
The first known map. which is now in
the Imperial Library at Paris. has writ
ten legend ON II which says that: In the
year of our Lord. 1887. John Cabot. We
netian, and his son Sebastian, discovered
| that country which no one before his time
| had ventnred TO approach, on the oath OF
| June. about 5 o'clock In the morning. He
called the land Terra Primum Visa because
| conjecture that this was the place that
| first met his eye in looking from the sea.
4 On the contrary. the Island which lies OPP
/ posfte the land he called the island of ST.
| John, as / suppose because Ii was dis
| covered on the festival of st. John, the
| Baptist" This is not signed, but is sup
| posed TO be the certificate of Clement
Adams. who engraved the map in i54a.
A second patent was issued to John Ca
bot In 1885, and directed him to take six
to the lande and isles Of late found BY the
said John In cure name and by our COM
mandmsnt" Before the expedition start
ed. John Cabot died and Sebastian made
the famous voyage which robbed his father
of honor for 50 many years. There is no
reason TO doubt the claim. however that
the Cabots saw the mainland before either
| Columbus or vespucci. and Sebastian
| traced eighteen hundred miles of the North
American continent. 1t was he, too. who
! first proclaimed the variation of tho
| needle.
| Sebastian Cabot is one of the few great
| dIscoyerers who secured a reward for
| his services The Office of great pilot Of
| England was created for him, and when he
| became too old for further sea going King
| Edward vi. gave him liberal pension.
| He became Identified with English dis
ooveries in America. and IL was not until
| quite recently that the old manuscripts
we're unearthed and John cabot's share
in me work again recognized.
| The Canadians viii not attempt to settle
! the dispute as to the first point Of land
| seen. but have decided to put up a statue
n the memory Of the cabo,s In the lesisla-
| tive hau at Halifax and so avoid aronsing
jeaiousies.