Cabot

John, an Italian navigator. Little is known of his birthplace or the place of his death. He was in the employ of the English government with headquarters at Bristol where his son Sebastian, also a celebrated navigator, was born. In 1497 John and his son Sebastian sailed west-ward from Bristol in a single vessel. June 24, 1497, they discovered the coast of Newfoundland, or, as others think, of Labrador, and followed it south for a distance of 300 leagues as far as Florida. The English exchequer of the period records a gift $50 "to him that found the new Isle." On the following year they revisited the coast of North America. They were the first to raise a flag on the American mainland. Their voyages are the basis on which English title to territory in the New World rested. Among the odd stories told by the sailors was one to the effect that the codfish on the banks of Newfoundland were so thick that they retarded the ships. Sebastian's part in the voyages of 1497 and 1498 has been disputed. His journeys, it is said, were all taken with his pen within the safe precincts of his father's house at Bristol. See Bristol