New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-07-04
! DISCOVERY DAY, JULY 4.
Il Greater AnniOersary than indie
pendence Day-Cabot's Work.
To the Editor Of The Tribune.


anniversary Of the discovery which resulted in
an English North America
Inc renowned John Cabot, native OF Venice
mad become an Englishman by residence in the
last half of the fifteenth century at Bristol on
the Avon, near the head Of Bristol Channel
the great southwestern seagate to England. 1t
was in 1896. on March 5, that Henry VII of
England, in the eleventh year Of his reign
granted to John Cabot and his sons a patent
empowering them to seek out subdue and oc-
cupy, at their own charges, any regions which
before had been unknown to all Christians
And under this patent the Cabots sailed on
May Of the next year 1897, to attempt dis
covery in the far west of the North Atlantic
A record not long since brought TO light at
Bristol made this reference to the voyage of
the Cabots across the North Atlantic:
This year, 1897, on st. John the Baptist's
Day June "A. old style, July H. the land
Of America was found by the merchants Of
B 4rist bristol Brigstow or Bridgepiace
thew, the which said ship departed from the
port of Bristowe the ID of May. and came
home again on 9th August following
A royal privy purse record Of August TO- 1897
ITO him that found the New Isle, f1O''-ap-
pears to show, when taken in connection with
other records. that to the head of the expedi-
ton, John Cabot. awarded f1O on his re-
turn from discovering some island like New
foundland- The terms Of a second patent show
that the mainland, well the island. had
been discovered. This second patent dated
February 8, 1893, authorized John Cabot to
take six English ships, land them convey and
lede to the Land and Isles of late found by the
said John in and by cure command
ment."
Exactly what the discovery thus referred to
was we may see from an early notice which
said:
In the year Of our Lord 1897. John Cabot.
Venetian and his Sebastian, discovered that
country which no one before his time had vent
ured to approach, on the Path of June, about
o'clock in the morning. He called the land
Terra primum visa, because. as l conjecture,
this was the place that first met his eye in
looking from the sea On the contrary, the ISL
and which lies opposite the land he called the
4Siano oL 81 OoIlH- SuppoSS DeCduse - "eS
discovered on the festival of st. John the Bap-
fist.
1t is customary to assume that the voyages
of the Cabots were a result Of the voyage Of
Columbus; that he broke the ice and showed
the way; that he first in time and greatest in
genius and courage, set forth into the immense
unknown seas. and gave the impulse by which
all others sailed. and that to him. because of
suprenlely great initiation belongs the COM
prehensive honor of all the discoveries by which
a new world was added to the old. So rampant
everywhere has been this view that even
best historical accounts are marred by it, and
not even our best authorities get the facts in a
right light.
1t is a grotesquely false representation. on
which all the honoring of Columbus and of
Spain has proceeded, to the neglect of other
and far higher claims. 1t is not much the
Morse claims going back to about 1000 A. D.,
when the whole seaway by Iceland and Green
laad TO whatever lay beyond was familiar TO
many adventurous keels 1t is far more the
claims which the viking ship development of
later time, in England and in half-English
Portugal, presents; when adventure free and
fearless stood not upon royal subsidies and
patents of dominion, and had desire TO plead
the darkness and dread disasters Of the seas
in apology for blasted expectations. There had
been five hundred years of dauntless breasting
of all seas and plunging into unknown deeps by
Saxon, or Celtic or Morse adventures before
Columbus mustered courage to run before a
favoring wind across the Atlantic.
The fact is that ignorance and imagination
have far too much shaped the popular repre-
sentation of Columbus, The place of the Geno-
csc sailor in the great age &C discovery has been
grossly exaggerated. He is in reality the
fourth of the four heroes Of discovery by whose
lives a new world was added to the Old World.
Before him were Prince Henry of Portugal.
known for immortal honor as Prince Henry the
Navigator; Cabot and Vespucius.
In one of our best historical handbooks the
index has this correct word. Columbus dis
covered the West Indies" and the text says of
the general facts:
Portugal at the end of the fourteenth cen
fury Tor about 400 A D.; it was, in fact, from
about 141S to 1920. seventy years before Co
Iumbus) had led the way in maritime adventure,
and Portuguese navigators discovered way to
India round the Cape of Good Hope (after at
tempts covering the whole period, 1433- 9S):
Spain was anxious to do as much and in 149z
Columbus had discovered the West Indies.
The Portuguese navigators, trained and sent
forth by Prince Henry, had succeeded, through
more than half q century Of daring endeavor
Q433- $50, in sailing down the entire west coast
of Africa and around the stormy cape at us
southern extremity six years before Columbus
carried out his utterly baseless scheme for get
ting to India by sailing west the South At
lantic and they actually reached India, at Call
cut, on it's southwest coast, ten days before
Columbus set sail on his third voyage, in which
he first saw the continental mainland, but dlo
not explore it or even discover what it was, MS
opinion being that it was not new continent
or new world.
The true course of events in the century OF
discovery and the true place of persons in IL
may be seen from the Britannica passages
which correctly refer the great start made az
over the world not to Columbus and SPAN, put
TO Portugal and the great Portuguese lnll!aIOI'
far behind whom came the Genoese saloF. -
When John Cabot on our July /, 4anued oli
the mainland of North America ne SCI up
great cross and unfurled above IL the nag Of
England and the Venetian banner or 81 MAJ n,
The England of Queen Elizabeth built on tlIS
foundation and made possible the United states
of North America Discovery Day stands above
Independence Day in the larger view or ms
tory England and America VIII one day uiIte
to celebrate il as the day OF their mutual LII
periaiism throughout E SI1g ARD c. TowNE.
The Lake George Institute Of Research
July 3, 1893