upon, it is said, by Ferdinand, when the death of that
illustrious sovereign prevented the realization of the
project. After Ferdinand's death, Cabot fell out with
the grandees of the Spanish court, left Madrid, and
returned for some time to England. Some have it that he
made a new voyage in the service of Henry VIII, and sailed
through Hudson Strait, but this is probably only a confused
reminiscence, handed down by hearsay, of the earlier
voyages. Cabot served Spain again under Charles V, and
made a voyage to Brazil and the La Plata river. He
reappears later in England, and was made Inspector of
the King's Ships by Edward VI. He was a leading spirit
of the Merchant Adventurers who, in Edward's reign, first
opened up trade by sea with Russia.

The voyages of the Bristol traders and the enterprise of
England by no means ended with the exploits of the Cabots.
Though our ordinary history books tell us nothing more
of English voyages until we come to the days of the great
Elizabethan navigators, Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and
to the planting of Virginia, as a matter of fact many
voyages were made under Henry VII and Henry VIII. Both
sovereigns seem to have been anxious to continue the
exploration of the western seas, but they had not the
good fortune again to secure such master-pilots as John
and Sebastian Cabot.

In the first place, it seems that the fishermen of England,
as well as those of the Breton coast, followed close in
the track of the Cabots. As soon as the Atlantic passage