what is now Brazil and finally to the whole new world on this side of the Atlantic.

Death of the great discoverer. - Columbus made no more voyages. He lived about eighteen months after returning from his last voyage. He was almost alone, sick and in poverty. At length, on the 20th day of May, 1506, he died. Very few people knew of his death, or cared when they heard about it; but later his body was laid in a fine tomb at Seville. The casket in which he was placed was afterwards removed to Haiti, then it was taken to Cuba, and a few years ago it was carried back to Spain.

REVIEW

How long has America been known to the people of Europe? With what country did the merchants of Europe wish to carry on trade? Why? Why was it so difficult to bring merchandise from India? How did ships from Portugal attempt to reach India? What did Columbus think was a better way? What did others think of his plan? Why? Why was he so long in getting ready to sail across the ocean? Who finally helped him? What land did he first discover, and when? What land did he think he had discovered? How did the people of Spain receive him when he returned from his first voyage? Why was his second voyage a disappointment? What part of the mainland of America did Columbus first reach? On which of his voyages did he first see the coast of North America? Why was this continent called America? Why was it called a new world?

JOHN CABOT

AND THE DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA

I. A DARING SEA CAPTAIN

John Cabot, like Columbus, was born in Genoa, Italy. For all that we know, he and Columbus may have been schoolboys together at the same school. At about the time that Columbus was first telling his plans to the king of Portugal, Cabot was living in Venice. He was a merchant and sea captain. His ships sailed to the ports at the farther end of the Mediterranean Sea and brought back goods from Syria and other distant lands.

Merchandise from India. Once when he was in one of these ports, he saw a long train of camels that had just arrived from Arabia. The animals were loaded with rich spices which they had brought across the deserts.

"Where did those spices come from?" asked Cabot. "They came from India," was the answer, "and they have been many months on the way."

This set him to thinking. Was there not some easier and shorter route by which the merchandise of India could be brought to Europe? Columbus and the king of Portugal were trying to solve the same question.

Cabot in England. - About two years before Columbus made his first voyage, John Cabot left Venice and went

with his family to England. He settled in Bristol, which was then the most important of all the English seaports. Ships from Bristol often went on long voyages to Nor

way and Iceland, and some sailed even to Spain and the Mediterranean Sea.

Cabot soon became known as the most daring of all the merchant captains of Bristol.

Within twelve months after settling at that port, he sent some ships far out into the Atlantic to search for an island which was said to lie somewhere southwest of Ireland. This was a year before Columbus sailed from Spain. Cabot's ships ventured farther out into the ocean than any others had gone, but they did not discover any land.

By the king's leave. When the news was told in England that Columbus had really sailed across the Atlantic, and had reached what he believed to be India, the merchants and sailors of Bristol were greatly excited. John Cabot resolved that he also would discover new lands; and King Henry of England very graciously gave him leave "to sail to the east, west, or north, with five ships carrying the English flag, to seek and discover all the islands, countries, regions, or provinces of pagans in whatever part of the world." He was not to sail south lest he should make trouble with Spain.

Cabot sails from Bristol. One thing and then another delayed him. It was not until four years after the return of Columbus from his first voyage that Cabot was ready to sail. He had but one ship, called the Matthew.

1497

With

him went his son Sebastian, a young man probably not more than twenty years of age. It was early in May when he sailed from Bristol, and his course was straight west, across the Atlantic.

II. NORTH AMERICA DISCOVERED

A strange coast. The sea was rough and the voyage was tedious and long, but at the end of six weeks a strange, rocky coast was discovered. It was a part of North America, probably the coast of Labrador. Although the season was almost midsummer, the shore seemed bare and desolate. The Matthew sailed along within sight of it for nearly nine hundred miles. Cabot landed now and then and took possession of the country in the name of

the king of England. But he found no such beautiful and interesting things as Columbus had discovered farther south. At length he caused the Matthew to be turned about, and before the end of July the little vessel and its crew were safe home in Bristol harbor. Columbus was just then preparing to make his third voyage.

The Grand Admiral. Cabot hastened to London and reported to the king that he had discovered the coast of China. Henry was so highly pleased that he gave the brave captain a present of £10 in gold (as much now as $200 in our money), and settled a pension on him for the rest of his life. Cabot himself was the hero of the hour. He dressed himself in silk robes, and was called the Grand Admiral of England; and whenever he walked out in Bristol or London, the people ran after him in crowds, like madmen.

The second voyage. Early the next spring Cabot started on another voyage. He believed that if he should sail a little farther south than before, he would discover the rich island of Cipango, or Japan, about which many wonderful stories were afloat. He followed the eastern coast of our country from Maine to Cape Cod and perhaps much farther. But he saw no signs of the wealth and splendor which were said to exist in Japan and India. There were neither cities nor towns nor orchards nor fields. Everywhere there were dense woods, in which wild animals and a few savage men had their homes.

It was not a very promising country; but Cabot, as on his former voyage, took possession of the coast for his