olumbus name the island? What did he find on it? What is said of
other islands? What is said of the return of Columbus to Spain? What
about the last voyages of Columbus? Did he ever land on any part of
what is now the United States? What about his old age? What is said
of his death and burial?

JOHN CABOT[1]
(Lived in England from 1472-1498).

21. John Cabot discovers the _continent_ of North America.--At the
time that Columbus set out on his first voyage across the Atlantic
in 1492, John Cabot, an Italian merchant, was living in the city of
Bristol,[2] England. When the news reached that city that Columbus
had discovered the West Indies, Cabot begged Henry the Seventh, king
of England, to let him see if he could not find a shorter way to the
Indies than that of Columbus. The king gave his consent, and in the
spring of 1497 John Cabot, with his son Sebastian,[3] who seems to
have been born in Bristol, sailed from that port. They headed their
vessels toward the northwest; by going in that direction they hoped
to get to those parts of Asia and the Spice Islands which were known
to Europe, and which Columbus had failed to reach.

[Illustration: Map showing the city of Venice, Italy, where John
Cabot had lived.]

Early one bright morning toward the last of June, 1497, they saw land
in the west. It was probably Cape Breton[4] Island, a part of Nova
Scotia.[5] John Cabot named it "The Land First Seen." Up to this time
Columbus had discovered nothing but the West India Islands, but John
Cabot now saw the continent of North America; no civilized man[6]
had ever seen it before. There it lay, a great, lonely land, shaggy
with forests, with not a house or a human being in sight.

[Illustration: Map showing Nova Scotia.]

[Footnote 1: Cabot (Cab'ot).]

[Footnote 2: See map in paragraph 62.]

[Footnote 3: Sebastian (Se-bast'yan).]

[Footnote 4: Breton (Bret'on).]

[Footnote 5: Nova Scotia (No'vah Sko'she-a).]

[Footnote 6: The Northmen: an uncivilized people of Norway and
Denmark discovered the continent of North America about five hundred
years before Cabot did. Nothing came of this discovery, and when
Cabot sailed, no one seems to have known anything about what the
Northmen had done so long before.]

22. John Cabot takes possession of the country for the king of
England.--Cabot went on shore with his son and some of his crew. In
the vast, silent wilderness they set up a large cross. Near to it
they plant