and it is certain that Cabot was back in
England by August 10th, for on that date we find the following entry
in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII., revealing a particularly
stingy recognition of the discoverer's splendid service, which,
however, was soon afterwards recognized less unhandsomely:

"1497, Aug. 10th.--To hym that found the New Isle, L10."[7]

The only reliable contemporary authorities on the subject of John
Cabot's first voyage are the family letters of Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a
Venetian merchant resident in London, to his brother, and the official
correspondence of Raimondo di Raimondi, Archpriest of Soncino. The
latter's account is somewhat vague. He says, in his letters to Duke
Sforza of Milan, August 24th, and December 18th, 1497, that Cabot,
"passing Ibernia on the west, and then standing towards the north,
began to navigate the eastern ocean, leaving in a few days the north
star on the right hand, and having wandered a good deal he came at
last to firm land.... This Messor Zoanni Caboto," he proceeds, "has
the description of the world in a chart, and also in a solid globe
which he has made, and he shows where he landed." Raimondo adds that
Cabot discovered two islands, one of which he gave to his barber and
the other to a Burgundian friend, who called themselves Counts, whilst
the commander assumed the airs of a prince.[8]

We have from the Venetian, Pasqualigo, a letter, dated August 23rd,
1497, which was probably a fortnight or three weeks after the return
of Cabot. According to this authority, Cabot discovered land 700
leagues away, the said land being the territory of the Great Khan (the
"Gram cham"). He coasted along this land for 300 leagues, and on the
homeward voyage sighted two islands, on which, after taking possession
of them, he hoisted the Venetian as well as the English flag. "He
calls himself the grand admiral, walks abroad in silk attire, and
Englishmen run after him like madmen."[9] It is easy to overrate the
reliability of such letters as those of Pasqualigo and Raimondo, and
Pasqualigo's statement that Cabot sailed from Bristol to this new
land, coasted for 300 leagues along it, and returned within a period
of three months, is impossible to accept. At the same time, the
accounts given by these writers occur, one in the frank intimacy of
family correspondence, the other in the official reports of a
diplomatic representative to his chief. They are both unquestionably
disintereste