CHRONOLOGY ; THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY : 565-1626
 

II
 

on Aug. 23, says: "the Venetian, , , , who went with the ship
from Bristol, in quest of new islands is returned, and says that 700
leagues hence he discovered land, the territory ot the Gran Cam.
He coasted for 300 leagues and landed; he saw no human beings.
... He was there three months on the voyage . , . "

It is altogether probable that Cabot's landfall took place between
Cape Breton and the Strait of Belle Isle, Although Harrisse, and
other writers, have placed this landfall in New Foundland, north
of Cape Race, it seems much more likely that it took place on Cape
Breton Island, or at the north end of Nova Scotia; as, otherwise,
it would be difficult, even making due allowance tor fogs and off
shore winds, to explain why Cabot, in search of a western passage,
should have passed by the entrance to the Gulf of St, Lawrence.

On this voyage, which lasted about three months, or more likely
on the second, undertaken during the following year, with five
vessels, or during both of these voyages together, he sailed along
the North East Coast.

Cabot's journals and charts are lost, and our contemporary
information in regard to this second voyage is confusing and contra¬
dictory, even such as is derived from Cabot himself. Indeed, the
very existence of this voyage, or rather the arrival of the expedition
in American waters has been questioned. It seems altogether
probable, however, that the voyage look place and that Cabot
followed the coast, at least as far south as Cape Hatteras, and very
likely sighted Sandy Hook. It is even possible that he coasted as
far south as Florida, and there is good reason to believe that he
landed, and explored the coast at a :mmber of points.

The celebrated world-map drawn by Juan de la Cosa In 1500
(C, PL I, Vol. n) is, doubtless, the first map to embody the results
of Cabot's explorations on these voyages. This important map,
with its mysterious and insinuating coast-line, is also the first to
show any part of the North American continent. That this coast
line was intended for America, and not for Asia, is evident, from the
fact that the names which it contains are entirely different from
those found at the time along the Asiatic coast, as well as for other
reasons, fully discussed by Harrisse in Discov. of No. Am. {q.v.)

From the delineation ot our coast on this map, it seems clear that
Cabot (or the author of the map, whoever he was) followed
pretty closely the sinuosities of the shore, and It does not require
much imagination to recognize, in the prominent headland
thereon delineated. Cape Cod, One might even venture to won¬
der whether the well-defined bay full of islands, south-west of
the prominent cape, and just where the land begins to trend
distinctly to the south, may not have been intended to represent
the bay of New York; but this, of course, is mere surmise. See
Harrisse, John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America, and Sebastian,
his Son (London, 1898); The Discovery of North America (London,
1900), etc.; also C. R. Beazley, John and Sebastian Cabot, the Dis¬
coverers of America (London, 1898).

On May 10, 1497, Vespuccius sailed from Cadiz, and about
July I sighted land, which be believed to be the continent, in 16°
NX. (probably in the Gult of Honduras). Thence he followed the
coast in a general northerly direction until he reached a place which
is called Lariab in the Italian version of his joumal (Letlera), and
Parias in theLatin version (Cosmographiae Inlroductio).   Vide infra.

This place, we ate told by Vespuccius, was "in 23° beneath the
parallel ot Cancer," and probably corresponds to the modern
Tampico, the most westerly port on the Gult of Mexico. The name
Parias is found in this location on Schoner's globe of 15'5- His
globe of 1520 has Paria. See Thacher, The Continent ofN. Am.,
Index, under Parias.

From this point, Vespuccius says, he continued, always follow¬
ing the sinuosities of the coast, a distance of 870 leagues—about
3,200 miles—in a north-nxj/er/y direction. This is evidently an
error for nortb-eailer/y, as otherwise he would have travelled, over¬
land, almost to California, At the end of this course, he reached
"the finest harbour in the world," where he remained 37 days.

Leaving here in July, he sailed 100 leagues, in an E.N.E. direc¬
tion, to an archipelago, which has usually been identified with the
Bermudas, but which there is equally good reason to identity with
the islands off the coast of Maine. Thence he returned to Cadiz,
reaching there Oct. 15,1498 (theLatin edition gives 1499, evidently
an error), after an absence of 17 months.

Vespuccius' original journals of his four voyages, to which he
several times refers in his Mundus Novus, and his Lettera, under
the name "Quatro Glornale," as having been submitted to the
King ot Portugal, have disappeared.   They were, however, men¬
 

tioned by Jean Vespuccius, his nephew and successor as pilot-major.   May
as being, after his uncle's death, in bis possession.                               10

All the infonnarion that we have on thesubjectof the first voyage
is contained in La Lettera (a letter addressed to Pietro Soderlni,
"Gonfalonier Perp^tuel" ot Florence, signed by Vespuccius, and
dated from Lisbon, Sept. 4, 1504). This letter contains a resume
of Vespuccius' four voyages.

The Lettera is known by two versions, the original, in Italian,
with the title Lettera di Amerigo Vespucci detle isole njfovamenti
irovate in quatro suoi viaggi, being a small quarto ot 16 leaves,
undated, but probably printed at Florence, in 150; or 1506, for
Pietro Paccini, by Gian di Carlo di Pavia, The only copy in
America of this rare and important work Is in the Princeton Uni¬
versity Library. The first Latin version was printed in the Cos¬
mographiae Inlroductio, by Wald5eemUller(HyIacomylus),atSt,Difi
in the Vosges mountains, from a French edition, now lost, and is
dated April 25, 1507, The best English translation of the Italian
and Latin texts is that of Michael Kerney, published in 1893, and
reproduced, on the same page with the Italian and Latin texts,
in John Boyd Thacher's The Conlininl of America, from which the
following extract, describing Vespuccius' first voyage, is taken:—

"This land [Lariab) is within the torrid zone, close to or just
under the parallel which marks the Tropic of Cancer: where the
pole of the horizon has an elevation ot 23 degrees, at the extremity
of the second chmate. Many tribes came to see us and wondered
at our faces and our whiteness: and they asked us whence we came:
and we gave them to understand that we had come from heaven,
and that we were going to see the world, and they believed It,
In this land we placed baptismal fonts, and an infinite [number
ot] people were baptized, and they called us in their language
Carabi, which means men ot wisdom. We took our departure
from that port: and the province was called Lariab: and we
navigated along tlie coast always in sight ot land, until we had
mn S70 leagues ot it, stilt going in the direction of the maestrale
[north-west) making in our course many halts, and holding inter¬
course with many peoples; and in several places we obtained gold
by barter but not much in quantity, for we had done enough in
discovering the land and learning that they had gold. We had
now been thirteen months on the voyage: and the vessels and the
tackhng were already much da:naged, and the men worn out by
fatigue: we decided by general council to haul our ships on land
and examine them for the purpose ot staunching leaks, as they
made much water, and of caulking and tarring them afresh, and
[then] returning towards Spain; and when we came to this deter¬
mination, we were close to a harbour the best in the world; into
which we entered with our vessels: where we found an immense
number of people: who received us with much friendliness; and
on the shore we made a bastion with our boats and with barrels and
casks, and our artillery, which commanded every point: and our
ships having been unloaded and lightened, we drew them upon
land, and repaired them in every thing that was needful: and the
land's people gave us very great assistance: and continually fur¬
nished us with their victuals: so that in this port we tasted little
ot our own, which suited our game well: for the stock of provisions
which we had for our return-passage was httle and of sorry kind:
where [i. e.,there] we remained 37 days: and went many times to
their villages, where tbey paid us the greatest honour: and (now)
desiring to depart upon our voyage, they made complaint to us
how at certain times of the year there came from over the sea to
this their land, a race ot people very crael, and enemies of theirs;
and by means of treachery or of violence slew many of them, and
ate them: and some they made captives, and carried them away to
their houses, or country: and how they could scarcely contrive to
defend themselves from them, making signs to us that [those] were
an island-people and lived out in the sea about a hundred leagues
away: and so piteously did they tell us this that we believed them:
and we promised to avenge them of so much wrong: and they
remained overjoyed herewith: and many of them offered to come
along with us, but we did not wish to take them for many reasons,
save that we took seven of them, on condition that they should
come [i.e., return home] afterwards in canoes because we did not
desire to be obliged to take them back to their country; and they
were contented: and so we departed from those people, leaving
them very friendly towards us: and having repaired our ships, and
sailing for seven days out to sea between northeast and east; and
at the end of the seven days we came upon the islands, which were
many, some (of them] Inhabited, and others deserted:   and we