The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-25


 Interesting Paper on John Cabot, Who First Discovered the Mainland, by Pro- lessor Bourne-His Relation to Columbus
 Early English Voyages. Yesterday was the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the mainland of the North American conti- nent by John Cabot.
 | In recognition of this important an- niversary an exceedingly interesting paper on the subject of the discovery was read by Professor E. G. Bourne, professor of history in Yale university, before the Historical society last even | ing.
 At a meeting of the society two weeks ago 1t was voted to discuss the subject at the next meeting, and the society was especially fortunate in se- curing Professor Bourne to read a pa per. Professor Bourne said, among other things:
 Tt is difficult for us to picture to ourselves the England of the Middle l ASGS Y UT us IALlS l1llA 10 SCilSA oi sAiS commercial world, the metropolis of an empire which encircles the globe, the spring of our own political and relig- ious institutions, the home in fine. of our civilization. But the England of the Middle Ages was remote island on the frontier of the known world, and its people lived, in many respects, the rude and simple life of frontiersmen. | ua remote from the center of things as the Australian is to the Londoner. The English were, like the Australians, crudely rich, but the refined Italian re- garded them as barbarians. The cele- brated Florentine scholar and wit, Pog- gio Bracciloini, visited England in the first part of the fifteenth century as papal envoy, and later he often lament ed over his life there as wasted in eat ing and drinking. He used to say good humoredly that often when invited by the English prelates or lords to dinner or supper, when they sat four hours at the table, he had frequently to rise from the table and wash his eyes with cold water to keep from falling asleep.
 English science and literature were at low ebb in this century, and polit- ical disorders were rife. The intellect ual stimulus of the age came from Italy and the great mariners of the age, as every one knows, were the Italians and the Portuguese. It was natural, there. fore, that the Spanish as well as the English discoveries should have been brought to successful issue by Ital- ians. Not that the English were not then good sailors; they were expert navigators of the northern seas, and the ships of Bristol and London kept up an irregular trade with Iceland Co., lumbus himself is reported to have sailed from Bristol, far beyond Ice land, in 1477. Down to about one hun dred years ago Bristol was the city next to London in size in Great Brit ain. -
 There was evidently some interest in voyages of exploration among the Brit ish merchants of sort different from that of the Italians With the Italians the ever impelling motive was to find an all sea route to the Indies to save the spice trade, which languished under the hostile restrictions of the rising Turkish power. The English in the meantime directed their efforts to the discovery of the legendary island of Brazil and the island of the Seven Git ies. Such was the expedition sent out in 1!7SO by John Jay, jr,, of Brazil, un- der the conduct of Thomas Lloyd, the master mariner of all England to go to the Island of Brazil, to the west of Ireland. The failure of this attempt was only temporary discouragement, for the Spanish envoy Ayala wrote his sovereigns in 179S: The people of Bris- tol have for the last seven years sent out every year two, three or four cara vels in search of the Island of Brazil and the Seven Cities
 Tt Is not unlikely that some such voyage would have resulted in the dis covery of America had Columbus never sailed. On the other hand the success of John Cabot's voyage in 1497 can be directly connected with Columbus achievements. Cabot shared with the other Italian sailors the interest in the spice trade, and his coming to England introduces that motive for English voy- ages. That Columbus success encour- aged him to apply to the king for aid appears from the letter of December 8. 1497, from Raymond Soncino, the agent of the Duke of Milan.
 Until within a generation or so most of our knowledge of the Cabot voyages was derived from the utterances of Sebastian Cabot when well on in years. In these accounts he is the discoverer and his father has no honor save that of being his progenitor This view passed into history. But Sebastian Cabot's unworthy attempt to displace bis father and to glorify himself has been completely unmasked by the dis covery of unimpeachable contemporary accounts from disinterested witnesses, in the archives of Spain, Milan and Venice. Nothing that Sebastian has said about the voyage can be believed without confirmatory evidence, with the possible exception of such inciden- tai details as he would be likely to re- member and would have no interest in distorting.
 'Of John Cabot's plans the earliest evidence We have is found in the patent granted by King Henry VII, March 5, 1496. Of the details of this memorable voyage of 400 years ago we have only a very few that are trustworthy He set sail early in May and returned early in August, as is indicated by an item in the privy purse expenses of Henry VII. August 10, 1497. To him who found the new Isle, 910." The next bit of evidence comes from letter written by Venetian merchant, Lorenzo Pas qualigO to his brothers in Venice, dated