The Story of Newfoundland | Page 9

that a decisive conclusion has
followed. A long tradition (fondly repeated by Mr Justice Prowse) finds
the landfall in Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. It is difficult to say
more than that it may have been so; it may too have been in Cape
Breton Island, or even some part of the coast of Labrador. In any case,
whether or not Cabot found his landfall in Newfoundland, he must have
sighted it in the course of his voyage. It may be mentioned here by way
of caution that the name Newfoundland was specialized in later times
so as to apply to the island alone, and that it was at first used
indifferently to describe all the territories discovered by Cabot.
As no true citizen of Newfoundland will surrender the belief that Cape
Bonavista was in fact the landfall of Cabot, it seems proper to insert in
the story of the island, for what they are worth, the nearest
contemporary accounts of Cabot's voyage. They are more fully
collected in Mr Beazley's monograph,[10] to which I am indebted for
the translations which follow. The first account is contained, as has
already been pointed out, in a letter written by Raimondo di Raimondi
to the Duke of Milan:
"Most illustrious and excellent my Lord,--Perhaps among your
Excellency's many occupations, you may not be displeased to learn
how His Majesty here has won a part of Asia without a stroke of the
sword. There is in this kingdom a Venetian fellow, Master John Cabot
by name, of a fine mind, greatly skilled in navigation, who, seeing that
those most serene kings, first he of Portugal, and then the one of Spain,
have occupied unknown islands, determined to make a like acquisition
for His Majesty aforesaid. And having obtained Royal grants that he
should have the usufruct of all that he should discover, provided that
the ownership of the same is reserved to the Crown, with a small ship
and eighteen persons he committed himself to fortune. And having set
out from Bristol, a western port of this kingdom, and passed the
western limits of Hibernia, and then standing to the northward, he
began to steer eastwards [meaning westwards], leaving, after a few
days, the North Star on his right hand. And having wandered about
considerably, at last he fell in with terra firma, where, having planted

the Royal banner and taken possession in the behalf of this King; and
having taken several tokens, he has returned thence. The said Master
John, as being foreign-born and poor, would not be believed, if his
comrades, who are almost all Englishmen and from Bristol, did not
testify that what he says is true.
"This Master John has the description of the world in a chart, and also
in a solid globe which he has made, and he [or it] shows where he
landed, and that going toward the east [again for west] he passed
considerably beyond the country of the Tansis. And they say that it is a
very good and temperate country, and they think that Brazil wood and
silks grow there; and they affirm that that sea is covered with fishes,
which are caught not only with the net but with baskets, a stone being
tied to them in order that the baskets may sink in the water. And this I
heard the said Master John relate, and the aforesaid Englishmen, his
comrades, say that they will bring so many fish, that this kingdom will
no longer have need of Iceland, from which country there comes a very
great store of fish called stock-fish ('stockfissi'). But Master John has
set his mind on something greater; for he expects to go further on
towards the east [again for west] from that place already occupied,
constantly hugging the shore, until he shall be over against [or on the
other side of] an island, by him called Cimpango, situated in the
equinoctial region, where he thinks all the spices of the world and also
the precious stones originate. And he says that in former times he was
at Mecca, whither spices are brought by caravans from distant countries,
and these [caravans] again say that they are brought to them from other
remote regions. And he argues thus--that if the Orientals affirmed to the
Southerners that these things come from a distance from them, and so
from hand to hand, presupposing the rotundity of the earth, it must be
that the last ones get them at the north, toward the west. And he said it
in such a way that, having nothing to gain or lose by it, I too believe it;
and, what is more, the King here, who is wise and not lavish, likewise
puts some faith in him; for, since his return he has made good provision
for