the charter extends its privileges to the sons of John Cabot. It is
better, with Mr Justice Prowse, to see in this circumstance a proof of
the prudence of the adventurer, who prolonged the duration of his
charter by the inclusion of his infant sons, than to infer in the
absence of evidence that any of them was his companion. According to
one often quoted authority, Sebastian Cabot claimed in later life not
merely to have taken part in the expedition, but to have been its
commander,[5] and placed it after his father's death. Against this
claim, if it was ever made, we must notice that in the Royal licence
for the second voyage the newly found land is said to have been
discovered by John Cabotto. It is impossible to say with certainty how
many ships took part in Cabot's voyage. An old tradition, depending
upon an unreliable manuscript,[6] says that Cabot's own ship was
called the _Matthew_, a vessel of about fifty tons burden, and manned
by sixteen Bristol seamen and one Burgundian. It is probable that the
voyage began early in May, and it is certain that Cabot was back in
England by August 10th, for on that date we find the following entry
in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII., revealing a particularly
stingy recognition of the discoverer's splendid service, which,
however, was soon afterwards recognized less unhandsomely:

"1497, Aug. 10th.--To hym that found the New Isle, £10."[7]

The only reliable contemporary authorities on the subject of John
Cabot's first voyage are the family letters of Lorenzo Pasqualigo, a
Venetian merchant resident in London, to his brother, and the official
correspondence of Raimondo di Raimondi, Archpriest of Soncino. The
latter's account is somewhat vague. He says, in his letters to Duke
Sforza of Milan, August 24th, and December 18th, 1497, that Cabot,
"passing Ibernia on the west, and then standing towards the north,