The brave little ship plowed the mysterious sea for seven hundred leagues, as estimated, when on the twenty-fourth of June, in the morning, land was sighted. This was supposed by the early historians, and so set down in their histories, to have been the island of Newfoundland. But through nineteenth century findings of data it has been made clear that it was the north part, or the eastern point of the present island of Cape Breton, off the coast of Nova Scotia. This is demonstrated by the inscription “prima tierra vista” at the head of the delineation of that island, on a map attributed to Sebastian Cabot composed in 1544, nearly half a century after the voyage, and subsequently missing till the discovery of a copy three centuries later, in 1843, in Germany, at the house of a Bavarian curate, whence it passed to the National Library at Paris. On this map Cape Breton island forms a part of the mainland of Nova Scotia, the Gut of Canso not then having been discovered. On the same day that the landfall was made a “large island adjacent” to it was discovered, and named St. John because of its finding on the day of the festival of St. John the Baptist. It is marked the “I del Juan” on this map, and is the present Prince Edward Island. A landing was made at the landfall and Cabot planted a large cross with “one flag of England, and one of St. Mark by reason of his being a Venetian,” and took possession for the English king. No human beings were seen, but “certain snares set to catch game, and a needle for making nets,” showing that the place was inhabited, were found and taken to be displayed to the king upon the return home. In one contemporary account, a letter of another Venetian merchant in England, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, written from London to his brothers in Venice, Cabot is said to have coasted, after striking land, for three hundred leagues, and to have seen “two islands at starboard.” Accepting this statement as authentic, with other data subsequently found, his course from his “Prima Vista” has been traced by later historical authorities in this wise: northwesterly, to obtain a good view of his Isle of St. John; northerly, through the present Northumberland Strait, sighting the coast of New Brunswick near Miramichi Bay; along the Gulf of St. Lawrence; northeasterly, passing to the north of Newfoundland through the Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador; and thence homeward. It is well indicated on the accompanying sketch-map originally published in connection with a paper contributed to the Maine Historical Society by Frederick Kidder, a competent authority, in 1874. Cabot believed that the lands he had discovered lay in “the territory of the Grand Cham,” as Columbus thought his were of eastern Asia.