It would appear that the patent of 1495 had never been acted upon; but
in consequence of this new licence, John Cabot and his son Sebastian
proceeded from the port of Bristol and discovered an island somewhere on
the coast of America to which they gave the name of _Prima Vista_,
probably the island of Newfoundland. The short account of this voyage of
discovery left to us by Hakluyt, is said to have been inserted in Latin
on a map constructed by Sebastian Cabot, concerning his discovery in
America, then called the West Indies; which map, engraved by Clement
Adams, was to be seen in the time of Hakluyt in the private gallery of
Queen Elizabeth at Westminster, and in the possession of many of the
principal merchants in London. This memorandum, translated into English,
is as follows[2].

[Footnote 2: Id. III. 27.]


SECTION I.

_Discovery of Newfoundland by John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497, in the
service of Henry VII. of England._


"In the year 1497, John Cabot a Venetian and his son Sebastian,
discovered on the 24th of June, about five in the morning, that land to
which no person had before ventured to sail, which they named _Prima
Vista_[3], or, _first-seen_, because as I believe it was the first part
seen by them from the sea. The island which is opposite[4] he named St
Johns Island, because discovered on the day of St John the Baptist. The
inhabitants of this island use the skins and furs of wild beasts for