John Cabot Reaches North America
John Cabot reached the coast of North America on 24 June 1497, sailing from Bristol in a single small ship with a crew of about eighteen. He was Giovanni Caboto, a Venetian citizen of Genoese origin who had traded in the eastern Mediterranean and had gone to Spain and Portugal seeking backing for a westward voyage, arriving in England after Columbus had returned. Henry VII granted him letters patent in 1496 authorising him to sail under the English flag and to claim any lands unknown to Christians, with a fifth of the profits to the crown — and, notably, at his own expense. Bristol was the right port. Its merchants had been fishing and trading to Iceland for generations and had reportedly sent voyages west looking for an island called Hy-Brasil since the 1480s. The Matthew crossed in about thirty-five days and made landfall somewhere between Labrador, Newfoundland and Cape Breton — the exact place has never been established. He went ashore once, planted banners, saw signs of habitation but no people, and coasted for about a month before returning. He believed he had reached the north-east coast of Asia. The finding that mattered commercially was the fishery. His crew reported cod so thick that baskets weighted with stones could be lowered and filled, and English, Portuguese, Basque and French vessels were working the Grand Banks within a generation. He sailed again in 1498 with five ships and disappeared. England's claim to North America rested on this voyage for the next two centuries.
- Year: 1497 CE
- Category: Political
