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divide the honors between them. I can find nothing more suitable with which to prelude the navigation of the Cabots, and the inspiring motives, than the statement in after years made to the Pope's Envoy in Spain by Sebastian Cabot. He says: "When news that Don Christopher Colonus (Genoese) had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talk in all the court of King Henry VII, who then reigned, insomuch that all men, with great admiration, affirmed it to be a thing more divine than human, to sail by the west into the east, where spices grow, by a map that was never known before. By this fame and report there increased in my heart a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing." Whether his father was moved to the same extent and by the same desire as his son we are not informed. is known that Sebastian Cabot was well versed in cosmography, and on his removal to Spain, some time after making his voyages for England, was commissioned pilotmajor for Spain, an office he held for several years. The Cabots appear to have fully appreciated the bearing upon great circle sailing, caused by the shortening of the degrees of longitude as we move further north or south from the equator. Bearing in mind that Columbus had sailed nearly due west on the latitude of the Canary islands, discovering land after sailing 33 days and 3200 miles, the Cabots rightly reasoned, that by sailing from Bristol in England, on latitude 53 degrees north, they would come to the coast of Asia, the land that Columbus was supposed to have discovered, in about two-thirds of the time, and two-thirds of the distance, that characterized the voyage of Columbus. When this plausible theory was by them explained to King Henry, he quite readily granted a patent to John Cabot and his sons, upon apparent liberal terms and conditions, to undertake a westerly voyage of discovery. They were to sail from, and return to, the port of Bristol; must sail under the flag of England, and take possession of all lands discovered for the

British crown, and return one-fifth of the profits of the expedition to the king. King Henry was more discreet than the Spanish king, for he did not bestow upon Cabots the title of viceroy over the lands they might discover, as Ferdinand had to Columbus. The king thus wisely avoided any legal contest with the Cabots or their heirs as to great and im\portant rights and prerogatives.

Our subject is ponderous, in that it relates to great men and greater events, therefore I must deal somewhat by wholesale, for our men are giants in the world's history, and cannot be estimated by or compared with common standards, nor can I now attempt measurements of the earth by inches. Let us for two minutes, in imagination, go back to our little old red school-house by the country roadside, and refresh our recollections in geography. Please take seats, facing the north, right hand east, left hand west, at our backs south, the Eastern hemisphere is at the right, and the Western at the left. Open your maps at the familiar old representation of the hemispheres of the earth on plane. Now we take a small brush and dip it in the blackest of black ink, indicative of total ignorance, and proceed to obscure those parts of the earth's surface of which Europeans had no knowledge, and only quite incorrect conception, on the morning of the 3d day of August, A. D. 1492. On that day Columbus sailed on his first and most important voyage to the west.

We place our brush a little to the south and west of the southerly extension of Greenland, on the 60th parallel of north latitude, and draw a line east, on that parallel, to the meridian of 25 degrees west longitude, and follow that meridian to the equator, and blacken the whole of the Western hemisphere west and south of our lines. Now draw a line from the right hand or eastern border of the Eastern hemisphere, at latitude 40 degrees north, and draw a straightline to the equator to the meridian of longitude 110 degrees

east, and follow the equator to the west border of the hemisphere. Blacken all south and east of our lines to the margin of the hemisphere. You now observe that the whole of the land of the American continent has disappeared, together with the greater portion of the Atlantic ocean, and the whole of the Pacific ocean; about one-half of Africa is in mourning, together with Australia, and the islands to the east and north and to the south to the south pole. What remains unpainted upon the hemispheres is more of the earth's surface than with which Europeans were fairly acquainted. In all the historical works of Mr. John Fiske, he has done no better service to the present or for future generations than by his persistent insistance of the necessity of our first banishing from our minds our modern maps, as preliminary to a just understanding of the difficulties that beset the early theorists and navigators. An examination of the charts and maps made by them when they attempted to delineate their new discoveries and connect them to the Eastern and better known hemisphere, will show us at once the difficulties they encountered. At the date last above. given, August 3d, 1492, there was a single grand geographical problem demanding solution; and that was, “Could Europeans travel to Eastern Asia by an all water or sailing route?" There was then two theories. The Portugese had an idea that it might be possible to sail around the south of Africa, and reach the Indian ocean, which was known washed the western shores of India and China, Her daring navigators were at that very date, with doubt and trepidation, slowly ploughing the water of the Atlantic southward on the western coast, to ascertain the southern point of Africa, if there was any. At this period Columbus had determined to anticipate the project of Portugal, by a voyage directly westward over the unknown and untraveled Atlantic, making a shorter journey than by the Portugese theory. Spain, at the moment, was witnessing his departure in her

interest. Europe was on the tiptoe of excitement and hopeful expectation. The objective point of either navigation was the same; the ostensible motives the same-commerce, trade and barter; but, in fact, as was soon to be manifest, conquest and plunder. Down to the first of May, 1497, all that had been discovered for Spain by Columbus was Cuba, San Domingo, Jamaica, and half a dozen smaller islands in the immediate vicinity. Thus the problem stood on that day. Listen; a low muttering thunder reverberates over Europe. It is the threatening growl of the British lion as he breaks from his lair. He sniffs the scent of large game, a continent of royal game. His eyes are balls of fire, his claws as iron, his jaws set with teeth of steel as he crouches in preparation to seize his prey. He brushes aside the Pope's bull. The bull took to the woods or sank beneath the Atlantic's waves as the lion, with a bound, sets his claws in the soil of the American continent, while John Cabot plants the royal standard of England, June 24, 1497, recalling to us the long drawn words of a youthful play, HOLDFAST-ALL-I-GIVE-YOU.

From that June morning 1497, England could make lawful claim to the whole American continent, by right of first discovery. That is horn-book law, sound law, from the beginning to the end of the world. The right by first discovery extends to and embraces all land connected by continuity of visible and tangible surface with the place of discovery.

John and Sebastian sailed early in May 1497, in the ship Mathew, with a crew of eighteen men. They took a course a little north of west and discovered land early in the morning of the 24th day of June following, after sailing by their reconing, 2100 miles. They planted the flag of England upon the land, but saw no native inhabitants. They discovered immense shoals of cod-fish on those coasts, so

dense, that they impeded the sailing of their ship. By the latter part of July following the Cabots had returned to Bristol and made report of their voyage. The precise place of their terra prima visa (land first seen) has never since been determined, but it is certain that it was in the region of Newfoundland, most probably at Cape Breton. And it is quite certain that upon that voyage they did not visit the coast of Labrador as some writers have asserted. Such a claim arises by commingling or reversing the places of landing of the two voyages made. King Henry was so well pleased with the reports of discovery that he gave John Cabot fifty dollars, wherewith he might take a spree, and in silken dress show himself to Londoners as the great navigator who had found, for King Henry, a shorter route to Asia than Columbus had for Spain.

A second and similar patent to the first was granted to the Cabots, and Sebastian Cabot set sail again to renew and extend the discoveries of the former voyage. He sailed in 1498, this time with five ships. As we have never heard a word again of John Cabot, nor know what became of him, it has been surmised that he died before the expedition sailed, but we cannot assert it as a fact. Sebastian Cabot certainly sailed with the fleet, and for aught we know, John also sailed. It seems strange to us that if the son knew what became of his father, he never alluded to it. Sebastian Cabot completed the second navigation, discovering land, first, on the coast of Labrador. After following the coasts northward to a high degree of latitude, and finding the weather very cold, and the coast still trending north, he turned about, following the coast southwardly, we know not precisely how far, but quite certainly not as far as Florida, as some have contended. On this voyage native inhabitants were seen on the coasts. Three were captured and taken to England. Bears and other animals were seen. Sebas