The first voyage to the northern coast was made by John Cabot in 1497, under the auspices of Henry VIII of England. His object was less the discovery of a new continent than the finding of a northwest passage to the coast of Asia. Cabot sighted land on the 26th of June, probably the Island of Newfoundland. On the 3d of July he reached the coast of Labrador. He was then the first of modern navigators to discover the North American continent, Columbus being a whole year behind him. Cabot explored the coast for nine hundred miles, in a southerly direction, and returned to England. The next year his son, Sebastian, visited the same region, still looking for that northwest passage. The Portuguese also, made early voyages with the same illusory object in view. In 1500, Gaspar Cortereal reached the American continent. In his second voyage his ship was lost, and his brother, who went in search of him, also perished. In 1524, Francis I of France resolved to have a share in these new discoveries. A company of Breton sailors had already partly explored the coast. As early as 1506 the Gulf of St. Lawrence [Illustration: WASHINGTON. Direct Reproduction of the Original Painting, by Gilbert Stuart, in the Museum of the Fine Arts, Boston. The Property of the Boston Athenæum.] was discovered. A squadron of four ships, under Giovanni Verrazano, an Italian navigator in the service of Francis, explored the coast from the Carolinas northward, probably visiting New York and Narragansett Bays. He also searched for the northwest passage, and on his return succeeded in convincing the King that no such passage existed. In 1534 a second expedition was fitted out under command of Jacques Cartier, a fearless mariner, who had previously made fishing voyages to the Banks of Newfoundland. This expedition consisted of two vessels, and left St. Malo on the 20th of April. After a short stay at Newfoundland, Cartier sailed northward, passed through the Straits of Belleisle and entered the St. Lawrence.