the port of Bristol. On the
24th of June, 1497, Cabot discovered the coast of Labrador, and gave it
the name of _Primavista_. This was, without doubt, the first visit of
Europeans to the Continent of North America,[51] since the time of the
Scandinavian voyages. A large island lay opposite to this shore: from
the vast quantity of fish frequenting the neighboring waters, the
sailors called it _Bacallaos_.[53] Cabot gave this country the name of
St. John's, having landed there on St. John's day. Newfoundland has long
since superseded both appellations. John Cabot returned to England in
August of the same year, and was knighted and otherwise rewarded by the
king; he survived but a very short time in the enjoyment of his fame,
and his son Sebastian Cabot, although only twenty-three years of age,
succeeded him in the command of an expedition destined to seek a
northwest passage to the South Seas.

Sebastian Cabot sailed in the summer of 1498: he soon reached
Newfoundland, and thence proceeded north as far as the fifty-eighth
degree. Having failed in discovering the hoped-for passage, he returned
toward the south, examining the coast as far as the southern boundary of
Maryland, and perhaps Virginia. After a long interval, the enterprising
mariner again, in 1517, sailed for America, and entered the bay[54]
which, a century afterward, received the name of Hudson. If prior
discovery confer a right of possession, there is no doubt that the whole
eastern coast of the North American Continent may be justly claimed by
the English race.[55]

Gaspar Cortereal was the next voyager in the succession of discoverers:
he had been brought up in the household of the King of Portugal, but
nourished an ardent spirit of enterprise and thirst for glory, despite
the enervating influences of a court. He sailed early in the year 1500,
and pursued the track of John Cabot as far as the northern point of
Newfoundland; to him is due the discovery of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence,[56] and he also pushed on northward, by the coast of
Labrador,[57] almost to the entrance of Hudson's Bay. The adventurer
returned to Lisbon in October of the same year. This expedition was
undertaken more for mercantile advantage than for the advancement of
knowledge; timber and slaves seem to have been the objects; no less than
fifty-seven of the natives were brought back to Portugal, and doomed to
bondage. These unhappy savages proved so robust and useful, that great
benefits