In the Critical Essay appended to a chapter on the voyages of the Cabots, in the _Narrative and Critical History of America_, there is published, for the first time, an English translation of a dispatch from Raimondo de Soncino, envoy of the Duke of Milan to Henry VII., written Aug. 24, 1497, and giving an account of the voyage from which 'Master John Caboto,' 'a Venetian fellow,' had just returned. This paper was brought to light in 1865, from the State Archives of Milan. Referring to the dispatch, and to a letter, also quoted, from the 'Venetian Calendars,' written Aug. 23, 1497, by Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a merchant in London, to his brothers in Venice, Mr. Charles Deane says: "These letters are sufficient to show that North America was discovered by John Cabot, the name of Sebastian being nowhere mentioned in them, and that the discovery was made in 1497. The place which he first sighted is given on the map of 1544 [a map of Sebastian Cabot, discovered in Germany in 1843] as the north part of Cape Breton Island, on which is inscribed 'prima tierra vista,' which was reached, according to the Legend, on the 24th of June. Pasqualigo, the only one who mentions it, says he coasted 300 leagues. Mr. Brevoort, who accepts the statement, thinks he made the periplus of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, passing out at the Straits of Belle Isle, and thence home. … The extensive sailing up and down the coast described by chroniclers from conversations with Sebastian Cabot many years afterwards, though apparently told as occurring on the voyage of discovery—as only one voyage is ever mentioned—must have taken place on a later voyage." _C. Deane, Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 3, chapter 1, Critical Essay._ ALSO IN _R. Biddle, Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, chapter 1-8._ AMERICA: A. D. 1497-1498. The first Voyage of Americus Vespucius. Misunderstandings and disputes concerning it. Vindication of the Florentine navigator. His exploration of 4,000 miles of continental coast.