With the departure from Bristol nothing more is heard of John Cabot. He drops out of sight instantly and mysteriously. Various conjectures as to his fate are entertained by the historians. Some contend that he died when about to set sail. But confronting this theory is a letter of the prothonotary, Don Pedro de Ayala, residing in London, to Ferdinand and Isabella, under date of July 25, 1498, reporting the sailing of the expedition. “His [the king’s] fleet consisted of five vessels which carried provisions for one year. It is said that one of them ... has returned to Ireland in great distress, the ship being much damaged. The Genoese [John Cabot, as appears in the text elsewhere] has continued the voyage.” If so important a man as John Cabot had now become had died before May and the departure of the expedition of which he was the acknowledged head, it is fairly reasoned that Ayala would have been aware of it. No shred of satisfactory information has rewarded the searcher for a solution of the problem. Nobody knows what became of him. At this point Sebastian Cabot enters upon the scene in the leading part. That he started with the expedition there is no doubt. Doubtless he succeeded to its leadership as the “Deputie” of his father in accordance with the terms of the patent. The conduct of it and the discoveries that followed, big in import, were his from the outset. Sebastian Cabot, though not over twenty-four, was an experienced mariner, and accomplished, like his father, in the science of navigation. He was full of ardour to achieve distinction as a discoverer. The news of Columbus’s exploits had kindled in his heart “a great flame of desire to attempt some notable thing.” As the master spirit of this second Cabot expedition and with its results his heart’s desire was splendidly attained; although the expedition was counted a failure by its backers, and the value of its discoveries to England was lost to the now indifferent king.