year. A letter was also written to the Spanish ambassador in England to
help Cabot and his family to return to Spain, with the result that in March
1514 he was again back at Court discussing with Ferdinand the proposed
expedition to Newfoundland. Preparations were made for him to set sail in
March 1516; but the death of the king in January of that year put an end to
the undertaking. His services were retained by Charles V., and on the 5th
of February 1518 Cabot was named Pilot Major and official examiner of
pilots.

In the winter of 1520-1521 Sebastian Cabot returned to England [v.04
p.0923] and while there was offered by Wolsey the command of five vessels
which Henry VIII. intended to despatch to Newfoundland. Being reproached by
a fellow Venetian with having done nothing for his own country, Cabot
refused, and on reaching Spain entered into secret negotiations with the
Council of Ten at Venice. It was agreed that as soon as an opportunity
offered Cabot should come to Venice and lay his plans before the Signiory.
The conference of Badajoz took up his time in 1524, and on the 4th of March
1525 he was appointed commander of an expedition fitted out at Seville "to
discover the Moluccas, Tarsis, Ophir, Cipango and Cathay."

The three vessels set sail in April, and by June were off the coast of
Brazil and on their way to the Straits of Magellan. Near the La Plata river
Cabot found three Spaniards who had formed part of De Solis's expedition of
1515. These men gave such glowing accounts of the riches of the country
watered by this river that Cabot was at length induced, partly by their
descriptions and in part by the casting away of his flag-ship, to forgo the
search for Tarsis and Ophir and to enter the La Plata, which was reached in
February 1527. All the way up the Parana Cabot found the Indians friendly,
but those on the Paraguay proved so hostile that the attempt to reach the
mountains, where the gold and silver were procured, had to be given up. On
reaching Seville in August 1530, Cabot was condemned to four years'
banishment to Oran in Africa, but in June 1533 he was once more reinstated
in his former post of Pilot Major, which he continued to fill until he
again removed to England.

As early as 1538 Cabot tried to obtain employment under Henry VIII., and it
is possible he was the Sevillian pilot who was brought to London by the
king in 1541. Soon after the accession of Edward VI., however, his friends
induced the Pr