John Cabot
Giovanni Caboto | |
|---|---|
 John Cabot in traditional Venetian garb, from a 16th century painting | |
| Born | 1450 Italy |
| Died | 1498 (aged 47–48) Unknown |
| Nationality | Venetian |
| Occupations | Maritime explorer |
| Title | Admiral of the Ocean Sea |
| Children | Ludovico, Sebastian, and Sancto[1] |
Giovanni Caboto (c. 1450 – c. 1498)[2] known in English as John Cabot, was an Venetian navigator and explorer commonly credited as the second European to discover the mainland of North America,[1] in 1497, after Norseman Leif Ericson's landing (c. 1003). The Canadian and United Kingdom government's official position is that he landed on the island of Newfoundland, i.e., not the mainland, but virtually everything "known" about Cabot's voyage is speculation.[3]
Origins
Cabot's birthplace is a matter of much controversy with Gaeta or Castiglione Chiavarese having been proposed as birthplaces.[4][5] He moved to Venice in 1461, at the age of eleven, and became a Venetian citizen in 1476.[6]
Sponsorship
Like other Italic explorers, including Christopher Columbus, he was commissioned by another country. Once Henry the Navigator began searching for a route around Africa, Italy began losing its place at the center of the merchant seafaring world. The Iberian peninsula (Portugal and Spain) became the place for Italian navigational talent, especially after Columbus's discovery of "the Indies" (as all Asia was called at the time) by sailing west. After that voyage, countless explorers headed in that direction; Cabot had a simple plan, to start from a northerly latitude where the longitudes are much closer together, and where, as a result, the voyage would be much shorter.[7]
John Cabot was looking for a North West Passage to the East Indies. Most countries were uninterested in him, but still he looked for sponsors. Cabot was refused by both Spain and Portugal before seeking funding from England and so his explorations were made under the English flag.
King Henry VII of England gave him letters patent with the following charge:
... full and free authoritie, leave, and Power, to sayle to all Partes, Countreys, and Seas, of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensignes, with five shippes, ... and as many mariners or men as they will have with them in the saide shippes, upon their owne proper costes and charges, to seeke out, discover, and finde, whatsoever Iles, Countreyes, Regions, or Provinces, of the Heathennes and Infidelles, whatsoever they bee, and in what part of the worlde soever they bee, whiche before this time have been unknowen to all Christians..[8]
(Like his contemporary, King Francis I of France, who would send Giovanni da Verrazzano to reconnoiter even more of the Atlantic coastline, Henry VII was in part motivated[citation needed] by the perceived insolence of the division of the world into two halves by Pope Alexander VI in the Bull Inter Caetera following the success of Columbus's first voyage. One half of the globe was for Portugal and the other half for Spain.)
Explorations
First voyage
Cabot went to Bristol to make the preparations for his voyage. Bristol was the second-largest seaport in England, and during the years from 1480 onwards several expeditions had been sent out to look for Hy-Brazil, an island said to lie somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean according to Celtic legends. In 1496 Cabot set out from Bristol with one ship. But he got no further than Iceland and was forced to return because of disputes with the crew.[2]
Second voyage—reaching the new world
On a second voyage Cabot again used only one ship with 18 crew, the Matthew, (50 tons). He departed on either May 2 or May 20, 1497 and sailed to Dursey Head (latitude 51°36N), Ireland. His men were frightened by ice, but he forged on, landing somewhere, possibly on the coast of Newfoundland, possibly on the coast of Cape Breton Island, on June 24, 1497. As so little is known about this voyage, which landing-place to celebrate is a matter for politicians, with Bonavista or St. John's in Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Labrador, or Maine all being possibilities. Cape Bonavista, however, is the location recognised by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom as being Cabot's official landing. His men may have been the first Europeans to set foot on the North American mainland since the Vikings, whose voyages half a millennium earlier were unknown in the age of discovery. On the homeward voyage his sailors incorrectly thought they were going too far north, so Cabot sailed a more southerly course, reaching Brittany instead of England, and on August 6 arrived back in Bristol.[9]
Final voyage
Back in England, Cabot was made an Admiral, rewarded with £10 and a patent was written for a new voyage.[2] Later, a pension of £20 a year was granted to him. The next year, 1498, he departed again, with 5 ships this time. One of the ships returned to an Irish port because of damage taken on in a storm. Upon repair the ship again headed West. Cabot and his expedition were never heard from again and are presumed to have been lost at sea.
Tributes
Along with Cabot Tower in St. John's, Newfoundland, Cabot is remembered in Bristol, England by the Cabot Tower, a 30-metre tall red sandstone tower of 1897 (the 400th anniversary of the landing) on Brandon Hill near the city centre, by a replica of the Matthew built in the city and by a statue of the explorer on the harbour side.
Cabot is also the namesake of John Cabot University, an American university established in 1972 in Rome, Italy.
The scenic Cabot Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands is also named after the explorer, as is Cabot Square in London and the smaller Cabot Square, Montreal.
In 2008 a new shopping mall in Bristol was named Cabot Circus.
References
- ^ a b "Catholic Encyclopedia "John & Sebastian Cabot"" (HTML). newadvent. 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
- ^ a b c "CABOT" (HTML). Canadian Biography. 2000. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
- ^ The Cabot Dilemma: John Cabot's 1497 Voyage & the Limits of Historiography, by Derek Croxton, Essays in History, Vol. 33 (1990-1991) University of Virginia
- ^ "SCHEDA TECNICA DOCUMENTARIO "CABOTO": I CABOTO E IL NUOVO MONDO" (PDF) (Press release) (in Italian). (TECHNICAL DOCUMENTARY "CABOTO": I CABOTO AND THE NEW WORLD)
- ^ Venetian, English and Catalan origins have been proved to be without foundation."CABOT" (HTML). Canadian Biography. 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
- ^ Christopher Columbus (2001), Clement R. Markham (ed.), The Journal of Christopher Columbus and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real, Adamant Media Corporation, p. xi ISBN 140219501X, ISBN 9781402195013
- ^ Derek Croxton (2007). "The Cabot Dilemma:John Cabot's 1497 Voyage &the Limits of Historiography" (HTML). University of Virginia. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
- ^ "The Voyage of John Cabot to America" (HTML). Chronicles of America. 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "The John Day Letter" (HTML). heritage. 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
John Day was an English merchant in the Spanish trade. He wrote this letter in Spain between December 1497 and January 1498 to the "Lord Grand Admiral", probably Christopher Columbus, who definitively discovered the American mainland the following year (identified by enormous rivers of fresh water) in today's South America. This letter was found in 1956 in the Archivo General de Simancas, adding significantly to the slender stock of knowledge concerning the Cabot voyages.