Cabot Sebastian - Caboto Sebastiano 1484-1557

John Cabot, the father of Sebastian, of whom we have no portrait, was a Venetian by birth, but a resident of England at the time of the birth of the subject of this memoir. Under the patronage of King Henry VII. he sailed on a voyage of discovery in 1497, accompanied by his son Sebastian, then only twenty years of age. The elder Cabot had three sons, whom he educated especially as navigators. Sebastian was the second son. In this voyage the continent is said to have been seen for the first time, and was explored from the sixty-seventh degree of latitude to Florida.

Sebastian Cabot was born at Bristol, England, in 1476-7. As we have seen, he accompanied his father on his first voyage in 1499. He sailed again under commission from the court of England, in 1517. His object, like that of Vespucius, was to discover a new passage to the East Indies. In this he was disappointed, and returned to England without having added to the amount of knowledge obtained on the former voyage.


In 1525, Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain, invited him to court, showed him many flattering attentions, and put a fleet under his command, which sailed in April of the same year. He visited the coast of Brazil, and entered a great river, to which he gave the name of Rio de la Plata, running up its course between three and four hundred miles. He consumed six years in this voyage, and made many valuable additions to the geography and natural history of the country. On his return to Spain in 1531, he experienced, like all others who shared the patronage of that court, the fickleness and perfidy of the weak and vacillating Ferdinand.

Cabot made several other voyages, of which we have no veritable records, and at length retired to Seville, holding the commission of chief pilot to the court of Spain. In this capacity he drew many valuable charts, in which he delineated not only his own, but all others’ discoveries. It fell to him, also, to draw up the instructions of those who sailed on new voyages of discovery, some of which are still extant, and exhibit an unusual sagacity in their conception, and a remarkable perspicacity in their execution.

In his old age he returned to England, and resided once more at Bristol, the place of his birth, supported by a pension from King Edward VI. He was also appointed governor of a company of merchants, associated for the purpose of making voyages of discovery to unknown lands — an office for which his vast experience and knowledge eminently fitted him. Perhaps no man of his age did more to give an impulse to the commerce of England than Cabot. He was the founder of the „Russian Company,“ and the projector of several commercial enterprises, from which England derived no inconsiderable importance. He cherished the belief that a north-east passage to China might yet be found, and died in the faith.

The last account we can find of him is the relation of a pleasing and characteristic incident, which occurred in 1556, about a year previous to his death. The company had fitted out a vessel, which was just ready to sail on a voyage of discovery; and, as was his custom, he visited the ship in person to see if every thing was in accordance with his instructions. He mingled freely with the seamen and passengers, having a cheerful word for each, and a smile and benediction for all. „The good old man Cabota,“ says the journal of the voyage, still extant, „gave to the poor most liberal alms, wishing them to pray for the good fortune and prosperous success of our pinnace. And then, at the sign of St. Christopher, he and his friends being rested, and for very joy, that he had seen the towardness of our intended discovery, he entered into the dance himself among the rest of the young and lusty company; which being ended, he and his friends departed, most gently commending us to the governance of Almighty God.“ It is a pleasant picture of the greenness and freshness of his soul, although cumbered with the decaying tenement in which it had been enclosed for nearly eighty years.

Cabot lived but a year after this event, and died at Bristol, in 1557, aged eighty years. He was a most remarkable man. Sagacious, methodical, thorough, and persevering, he was just the man for his office, whether he trod the quarter deck of his vessels, or presided at the board of commerce and navigation, of which he was governor for so many years. He is said to have been a mild and gentle person in all his relations on shore, although he was a rigid and even severe disciplinarian at sea; and there are some intimations that he was even cruel in his treatment of offenders against the regulations of his squadrons. He is supposed to have been the first navigator who noticed the variations of the magnetic needle, and he published a work in Venice, in 1533, on the subject. He also published a large map, which was engraved by Clement Adams, and placed in the King’s Gallery, at Whitehall. On this map was inscribed, in Latin, an account of the discovery of Newfoundland.