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"Sebaftian Cabot told me that he was borne

in Brystowe, and that at iiij yeare ould he was carried with his father to Venice, and fo returned agayne into England with his father after certayne years, whereby he was thought to have been born in Venice."

Here we have the question fettled more than three hundred years fince, on the highest authority, as to the city of his birth; the date is not so easily fixed, different writers placing it from about A.D. 1474 to A.D. 1477.

We are much inclined, for several reasons, to adopt the first date as the nearest the truth. Richard Eden, in his "Decades of the New World," &c. (A.D. 1 555), speaking of him as one knowing him intimately, does fo in language. which implies great age. One chapter has for its title, "Lykewyfe of the vyages of that woorthy man, Sebastian Cabote, yat lyvynge," &c. But the matter is now, we think, satis factorily fettled by Rawdon Brown's "Venetian Calendar," taken from the Archives of Venice, where, under date of August 11, 1472, is a privilege conferring the rights of citizenship on Aloife Fontano, of Bergame,

Eden's "Decades," 255.

"Venetian Calendar."

John Cabot made a citizen of Venice 1476, "Venetian Calendar."

Born in 1472.

Sebaftian
Cabot old

enough to
command

in 1497.

and a fupplementary memorandum, purporting that fixteen other privileges, of later date, had been conceded to various individuals, including one to John Cabot, thus: "Simile privilegium factum fuit Johanni Caboot fub duce fupra fcripto, A.D. 1476."

Under date March 29, 1476, we find a decree of the Senate, "That a privilege of citizenship, within and without, be made for John Cabot, as ufual, for a refidence of fifteen years. Ayes, 149. Noes, o. Neutral, o."

This proves John to have been in Venice in 1476. Sebaftian fays that he was four years old when taken there, which places his birth in 1472. If, however, John arrived in Venice and fued out a patent in A.D. 1472, which was not completed until 1476, when he was again leaving— and the two entries may mean this-this would then place Sebaftian's birth as early as A.D. 1468.

However, the proof feems conclufive that he was at the leaft twenty-three years of age at the date of the first patent of 1495, and confequently was twenty-five at the failing of the expedition and the landing on the American continent in 1497.

This removes an objection which some have hazarded as to Sebastian's extreme youth, and the improbability of his being employed in fo hazardous a work.

We must remember also that Venice and Genoa largely fupplied us with failors as well as ships, and all Sebaftian's after life proved that he was the peer of Columbus himself in the science of navigation, and his most worthy fucceffor in the office of Grand Pilot to the Court of Spain.

Such a manhood would have had a promising youth; the future feaman must have been plainly discoverable between the age of seventeen and twenty-five-the two extremes given as to his age at the date of the first voyage.

What countryman originally was John Cabot? As we have feen, he only becomes a Venetian citizen in 1476. Was old John Stow right in calling him a Genoese, or was he after all an Englishman, who for fome fervice had this honour conferred upon him, even as William Gold had? For aught that appears to the contrary, he himself might have been born in Bristol; and not many years

Trained with firft rate fai

lors.

What countryman was John Cabot?

Wm. Gold, fee" Venetian Calendar," a brave English ad

venturer.

Attefted deeds now loft.

Further proofs of Sebaftian's

age.

Bred as a thorough seaman.

fince we are affured there were feveral deeds in the muniment chest of St. Thomas, in this city, of Henry VII.'s reign, which were attested by some of that name. Unfortunately, and though moft diligent fearch has been made after them, it has been hitherto unsuccessful.

Ere we leave this part of the subject, let us observe, that in the first patent the name of his youngest brother, Sanctus, is also mentioned. This, we think, affords ftrong corroboration, if not abfolute proof, that the age of Sebaftian was greater than many of his biographers have supposed, for it is not very likely that a minor's name would be affociated in a King's patent.

Further, though it is faid of him that he returned, when a youth, from Venice to England, it is nowhere said that this patent of 1495 was granted immediately on his arrival; he may probably have been here for years.

"His early voyages foftered in him a love for the fea, and from boyhood he was instructed in all the known branches of navigation; he thus became an apt fcholar in the profeffion he loved, and made several short trips to sea,

in order to acquire a practical as well as theoretical knowledge."

from his voy.

ages, he hears of the fame of Columbus.

Henry VII. treaty for

concludes a

trading with Iceland.

At the probable period of his return to his Returning native place, Europe was ringing with the dif coveries of Columbus, and Henry VII., full of chagrin that through his own parfimony and delay he had loft the prize which Spain had won, had concluded a treaty with Denmark, by which he could pour into Iceland (Ifland) all kinds of clothing, provifions or other commodities, without let or hindrance, evidently (and probably by the elder Cabot's advice) aiming to make it a fort of half-way house in the north-weft road to Cathay.

Sebaftian Cabot, full of enthusiasm, does full juftice to the mafter-mind of the feas; and speaking of the discoveries of Columbus, fays: "All men with great admiration affirm it to be more divine than human: the fame and report thereof increased in my heart a great flame and defire to attempt fome notable thing."

Cabot praises and feeks to emulate Columbus.

nals," p. 804, ed. 1605 A.D.

And being, Stow fays, "expert with know- Stow's " Anledge of the circuit of the world, and the islands of the same, as by his charts and other

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