CABLE. See ROPE-MAKING.
CA130T, SEnAST1AN, an eminent navigator, flourish ed in the beginning of the sixteenth century. his father, John Cabot, merchant and pilot, was by birth a Venetian ; but, recommending himself, by his address and enter prise, to the notice of King Henry VII., he came to settle in England, under the patronage of that politic prince. :Where Sebastian was born is a subject of dispute be tween the English and Italians ; the former asserting, that he was born at Bristol about the year 1477 ; while the latter contend, that he was by birth, as wtll as ex traction, a Venetian. One thing is certain, that in the oldest documents, written, it is true, by foreigners, he is constant ly spoken of as born at Venice, and only brought. to this country when a boy. In the report of the pope's legate, to %%limn Cabot had 1,i% en a colloquial narrative of his voyages and discoveries, that navigator himself is made to say, that his father, on a mercantile expedition, had brought him from Venice to London when %cry young, "having nevertheless some knowledge of letters of humanitie, and of the sphere." Be this, how ever, as it may, young Sebastian received a thorough education suitable to his intended profession, combining at once a knowledge of mathematics and astronomy v. ith early ap plication to the practice of seamanship. Ile had already, it is said, made several voyages before the age of Seven teen.
The whole world at this time resounded w ith the dis coveries of Columbus, who returned from his first expe dition in 1493. The skilful and enterprising of all de scriptions, were, as is generally the case, seized with a universal frenzy for discovery, in consequence of his suc cess ; and merchants and private citizens staked the whole of their fortunes on the chance of discovering lands abounding with gold and spices. John Cabot, who seems to have been nothing inferior in abilities to his son, repre senting- to King Henry the wealth, conquest, and glory which might accrue to England limn a successful vo age of the same kind, that monarch granted letters patent. dated the eleventh year of his reign, 1495, to John Ca bot, citizen of Venice, and his three sons, Lewis, S, bastion, and Sancius, for the discovery of new and un known lands. In this deed, preserved in Hakluyt, the king gives full and free authority, leave and power, to sail to all parts, countries, and seas of the cast, of the west, and of the north, under our banners and ensigns. with five ships. All the countries discovered were to be taken possession of in the king's name ; but to be settled and governed by Cabot, his sons, and heirs, in quality of vassals, or lieutenants, who were to enjoy a kind of feu dal authority over the population and traffic of such re gions. They were subjected to the restriction of im
porting the merchandise of their possessions into the of Bristol only, where, on paying one-fifth part of the clear profits to the king, they were to be exempted from all other customs and imports NNhatever.
Whether the Cabots sailed this year is uncertain. Bet we are informed, on the authority of the pope's legate, that, in 1496, Sebastian undertook a voyage of discovery with two ships. Il is great object, in common with most navigators of that period, was to find a passage leading to Cathay and the spices of the East ; and this passage, Ire conjectured from his globe, might possibly exist in a north-west direction. In the beginning of summer, he accordingly set sail w ith his two barks, and boldly stand ing- across the Atlantic, in a north-westerly course, tr usting, like Columbus, to the guidance of his sphere and his compass, he came in sight of land much sooner than he expected or desired. Ileedless of the great glo ry a Inch on this occasion he acquired, of being the first navigator who saw the continent .if America, he felt ex cessively mortified, that the passage to the Indies should thus be obstructed. Observing that the country ex tended towards the north, he continued his voyage in that and coasting along dreary shores, which mortal eyes till then had never surveyed, he anxiously examined the bays and inlets ; but still found the land " continent." He continued this search, it is said, as far as 67-i degrees ; when discovering that the land turned round to the cast, and finding himself surrounded by mountains of ice, in a sea where there was no night, with other circumstances of horror, he felt himself under the necessity of putting about, and retracing the whole of his fruitless course. This resolution, it is said also, was accelerated, by a mutiny of the masters and crews of his ships, who refused to proceed fin ther in these dis mal seas. It is likewise added, that on this occasion he sailed south as far as Florida, all along examining the coast, in the hope of finding the desired passage. But this account cannot be true, as in that case he would have fallen in with the island of Baccalos, or Newfound land, which lie discovered afterwards ; unless, indeed, we suppose the dates to be inaccurate, and that the whole of this north-west expedition took place after his disco very of that island.