On this voyage see _Navigationum Alberici Vesputii Epitome_, in _Grynæus_, _Novus Orbis_, pp. 122, 155; _Varnhagen_, _Le Premier Voyage de Vespucci_; Id., _Vespuce et son Prem. Voy._; also in _Société Géog._, _Bulletin_, Jan. and Feb., 1853; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 58-68, and _Additions_, pp. xxvii-viii.; _Lester and Foster's Life of Vespucius_, pp. 93-139; _Leben der See-Helden_, p. 24; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 183-241, 291-3, 309-34; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. iii. pp. 395-418; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. v.; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 370-5; _Kerr's Col. Voy._, vol. iii. p. 342; _Eerste Zee-Togt van Alonso D'Ojeda, en Amerikus Vesputius_, in _Gottfried_, _Reysen_, tom. iii. p. 38; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 41-7, 257. * * * * * [Sidenote: CABOT AND VASCO DA GAMA.] [1497.] To continue our chronological summary. Following the brilliant success of Spain, England was the first nation to attempt discovery to the westward. Fully acquainted with the achievements and hypotheses of Columbus, having been indeed almost persuaded by him to embrace his beliefs, King Henry VII. on the 5th of March, 1496, granted a license to John Cabot, a Venetian citizen and trader of Bristol, to attempt discoveries in that direction. Either from respect for Portuguese and Spanish rights in the south, or from some vague hints received from the Northmen during their trading voyages to Iceland, or possibly from a dim idea of the advantages of great-circle sailing, the English determined to attempt reaching India by a northern route. This expedition of Cabot's, with perhaps several vessels, sailed from Bristol probably in May, 1497; discovered land the 24th of June on the coast of Labrador between 56° and 58°; sailed some 300 leagues in a direction not known, but probably northward; and one vessel, the _Matthew_, returned to Bristol in August of the same year. No further details of the voyage are known, and those given, which are the conclusions of Humboldt, Kohl, and Stevens, have all been disputed in respect to date, commander, and point of landing. D'Avesac, as we have seen (pp. 98-9), insists on a previous voyage in 1494. Biddle, _Memoir of Sebastian Cabot_, London, 1831, p. 42 et seq., claims that Sebastian Cabot was the commander. Robinson, _Account of Discov. in the West_, Richmond, 1848, pp. 81-93, explains that by a change in the method of reckoning time after 1752, the date should properly read 1498. Many authors moreover confound this voyage with a later one. _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii. pp. 4-11; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 87-9; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 40-1. Irving, _Columbus_, vol. ii. p. 316, names but one voyage and regards the accounts as "vague and scanty." See also _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 279, 313; _Hakluyt Soc._, _Divers Voy._, pp. lxviii., 19-26; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 121-35; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 48-53;