The Cabots (1497-1509)

Hakluyt, Richard (1552?-1616). The Principal Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation [...]. London: George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, 1589.

The place and date of birth of Giovanni Caboto, more commonly known as John Cabot, are unknown.

In 1476 he became a naturalized citizen of Venice, and in the mid-1490s he entered the service of England as an experienced navigator. In May 1497 Cabot left Bristol, England on a voyage of discovery commissioned by Henry VII. On June 24 he sighted land, went ashore and formally took possession of it. He then sailed along the coast for some 30 days without seeing a soul, and in early August returned to England, full of enthusiasm and convinced that he had reached Asia.

In reality, Cabot had just become the first explorer after Columbus to have reached America. As for the exact place where he landed, historians lose themselves in conjectures, but agree in pointing to some place in North America: Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Breton or perhaps even Prince Edward Island.

In May 1498 John Cabot left Bristol on a second voyage of exploration from which he never returned. In the words of one of his contemporaries, "he found new lands only at the bottom of the Ocean."

Born in Venice no later than 1484, Sebastian Cabot, John's son, followed in his father's footsteps. In 1509 he became the first navigator to try to sail round the New World north of it. He seems to have reached the entrance to Hudson Bay, which he thought formed a passage to Cathay, Northern China but he had to turn back because his crew refused to go any further. In 1512 Sebastian entered the service of Spain, serving first as a captain in the navy and then, from 1518 to 1547, as pilot-major, before returning to England, where he died in 1557.

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