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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. rrata :o pelure, 1 a □ 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE VOYAGE OF JOHN (iBOT IN UD TO NORTH AilElUCA THE TIME OCCUPIED IN COASTING ALSO THE ISLAND OF ST. JOHN. Mr. G. R. F. PROWSE'S FURTHER REPLY TO MR. HENRY HARRISSE. Biprinted frorn Notes and Queries, September Uth, 1897. Bradford t Privately rKiNXEU row tiik authok, 18J7. 30/ JOHN CABOT AND THE MATTHEW. ;My foriiier letter dealt mainly with the date Aug," ill the l'\ist chronicle. T(^ the ar^o that Cahot coasted 300 lea,i;ue8 (an impossil)ihty it liie voyage oidy Uisted three months), to the niucii nioi'c modest one that Cabot when lie hit upon hind, " hoisteil the royal standard and took posscs'^ion for His Highness, and having oiiiained various proofs of his discovery he returned." " In returning Cabot saw two ishinds to tiie right," PasquaUgo says. As these isLincU were not seen twice, it appears most probable that he sailed along a eoast trending approximately north and soutli, not east and west, and that he proceeded direct to Europe fi'om the extreme point reached. Consequently it is not necessary to double the time taken in exploring. It seems, also, almost incredible that he could have sailed 800 oi' 600 leagues in June and seen no natives fishing. Apart from the actual statement about the coasting, the letter of Pasqualigo itself, when carefully analyzed, does not give the impression that the sojourn was lengthy ; the facts reported are somewhat superficial in character, suggestive of haste, and could all have been gained in one locality. They erected only one set of teriitorial marks; this fact alone is enough to upset the idea of a prolonged survey. It may l)e noticed here incidentally that if these con- elusions are sound in whole, or even in part, it becomes almost impossible to accept a laiulfall in Labrador and extremely ditlicult at Cape Breton. It does not appear, therefore, that Mr. Hakrissk has made out a prima facie case upon the want of time. How does his statement that Sebastian Cabot or Dr. Grajales invented the date 24 June stand '.' The island of St. John figures on maps from 150o for- wards ; it is not apparently one of the pre-Cabotian Atlantic isles ; the frequent shifting of its position seems to indi- cate that it was not connected tlirectly with the Breton voyage or the later English and Portuguese surveys which completed the outline of the north-eaat coast, Its con- nexion by Sehiistiaii Caliot with his father's first voya^^c seems to sugfi,'c'st the p()ssil)ility of its I'epresentinj,,' tlie coast seen on this cxpechtion. To accept this theory it is necessary to assume ; {a) that Cabot's observations of latitude and Idngilude were wronji; and niisleadin;j; ; {/>) that his coasting did not extend far, and few terri- torial marks were erected ; (c) that it was along apart of the nortli-east coast not mucli frefpiented iit hrst by fishermen; and (J) con^('(|uently, that the identilication of his landfall pi'esented difllculties. These are all points well rec()gniz('(l by cartographers as having occurred in other cases. The Cabotian h'gend, abridged, reads : — "Thin land was liscdvcivd. ll!»l [IIDT] <>ii tlic ■lith ni .hiiic. in tlir morning [Hakluyi ; ulxuil liuc n\' tlif cKx'K-i' (.■iiily in the ni(prninj;,j to wliicli they giivo the nani'' oi I'riiua Tii'iiii Vista, ami td a liii'm' islam! wliicli i» near ti.c said land they ;;avc tlic name nt St. Joliii bcuant<(i it wa.s di imvciviI the s.miu^ day." The description of the country which follows evidently refers to the second voyage ; but the date cannot, lor Ramusio mentiDUs ('abol"s being in high latitudes on II June, apparently upon the second voyage. What obligation was there for this map-maker to account for the island of St. John being where it was at all unless it had always been associated with Cabot's first voyage ? Assuming even tiiat Baijastian Cabot placed the land- fall at Cape North on Cape Breton Island, for reasons of state, it is more natural lo assume that he would give the account an air of actuality (which tlie legend certainly has) l)y weaving intcj it tlie cvurent ideas of this voyage. It may, not, however, be necessary even to assume political motives. It is possible that wrong readings of the latitude and longitude had obscured the position of the actual landfall. I am inchned to accept Mr. H.vmiisHK's theory that the location of the [landfall was dictated by territorial considerations. The truth nuiy lie l)etweeu the two conjectures, ^Ir, TTAimissE is undoubtedly justified in questioniuf,' I his Ici^ciul, cni.uiiitin;^ iis it apparently does from Subastian. 1 think, however, he has not, so far, made out a sut1i(;iently strong case to warrant the com- plete rejection of the date 24 June llakluyt accepts the date. Between 1589 and 15!)!) ho sui)mittc{l tilt' year of discovery to accurate, also possihly, to independent and adverse criticism as tar as the Cabots wore (!oneei'ne(l, for he postpones the year of discoverv. it seems only reasonable t(j su])posc that the alleged date of the landfall was iilso closely M-rutinized. The Fust ]\IS. (anil J^arri'tt) ignores Cabot. This omission sup- ports my statement that there must have been a distinct Bristol tradition ; it does not coincide with Mr. IIakuissk'h ai'gument that Sebastian was the /e//.s rt orUjo of all these legends. If Mit. Harkisse will read a connnunication of inine to the Canadian (iavcftc of 26 Nov., l.Si)6, and my remarks at Sir Clements Markham's lecture on 12 April {(irnyraji- Itical Joiiriad for June, 1897, p, (5 HI), he will see that, while personally in favour of Cape Bonavista or the vicinity, I assei'ted that there is " absolute uncertainty as to the position of the first landfall," and again that " there is no direct evidence of the lirst [coasting] voy- age of Cabot." The presence of such words as Keels, Castileon, Sec, in Bonavista Bay, liave not, of course, the slightest value as direct evidence. The tablet at Halifax says: "John Cabot sailed in a Bristol ship The Matthew, and first planted the flags of England and Venice on the 24th of June, 1497." T strongly approve of the wording which follows: "on the north-eastern seaboard of North America," and I think I may claim some credit for its moderation. To avoid prejudicing the question of the landfall, I suggested in November, 189G, a monument at Cape Race as being free fi-om contention. My proposal has since been endorsed by Sir C. Markham and in the United States. The Fust Chronicle contains four statements found nowhere else ; two of these are supported by independent corroborative contemporary accounts of the voyape. ap- parently beyond the reach of the forf,'er; the others, the name and ref^istration of the ship, stand logically with the first two. The onus of proof lies upon the assailant. All the other matter, except the word America— the use of which is surely a (juestion mainly for the grammar- ians—is either unquestionably true or quite credible. In conclusion. Does it seem possible that a forger in 1760 could have been so skilful as to avoid committing himself to any palpably false statement V Why, even the minute poiiit that 24 .lune, 1497, was in the Bristol civic year 1496 is correct. 66 Leamington Street. Bradford. G. R. F. Prowbe.