any six ships that he liked from the ports of the kingdom,
paying to their owners the same price only as if taken
for the king's service. The 'Grand Admiral' became a
person of high importance. On one friend he conferred
the sovereignty of an island; to others he made lavish
promises; certain poor friars who offered to embark on
his coming voyage were to be bishops over the heathen of
the new land. Even the merchants of London ventured to
send out goods for trade, and brought to Cabot 'coarse
cloth, caps, laces, points, and other trifles.'

The second expedition sailed from the port of Bristol in
May of 1498. John Cabot and his son Sebastian were in
command; of the younger brothers we hear no more. But
the high hopes of the voyagers were doomed to
disappointment. On arriving at the coast of America
Cabot's ships seem first to have turned towards the north.
The fatal idea, that the empires of Asia might be reached
through the northern seas already asserted its sway. The
search for a north-west passage, that will-o'-the-wisp
of three centuries, had already begun. Many years later
Sebastian Cabot related to a friend at Seville some
details regarding this unfortunate attempt of his father
to reach the spice islands of the East. The fleet, he
said, with its three hundred men, first directed its
course so far to the north that, even in the month of
July, monstrous heaps of ice were found floating on the
sea. 'There was,' so Sebastian told his friend, 'in a
manner, continual daylight.' The forbidding aspect of
the coast, the bitter cold of the northern seas, and the