done. He easily obtained royal authority to make the attempt. After
a prosperous voyage, he came in sight of the sterile region of
Labrador, and sailed along the coast for many leagues. This was
_fourteen months before Columbus discovered the continent_.
Cabot supposed that he had reached the territory of the "Great
Cham," king of Tartary. Nevertheless, he landed, planted a banner,
and took possession in the name of the king of England. On his
return home he was received with much honor, was dressed in silk,
and styled the "Great Admiral." The booty which he brought back
consisted of only two turkeys and three savages.

[Footnote: There is a map of Cabot's preserved at Paris, on which
the land he first saw, and named _Prima Vista_, corresponds
with Cape Breton. On it is the date 1494. If this be authentic, it
will give the priority of the discovery of the American continent
to Cabot by four years, and decide that Cape Breton, and not
Labrador nor the Orinoco River, was first seen by European eyes.
Very little is definitely known of John Cabot, and even the time
and place of his birth and death are matters of conjecture.]

SEBASTIAN CABOT continued his father's discoveries. During the same
summer in which Columbus reached the shore of South America,
Sebastian, then a youth of only twenty-one, discovered
Newfoundland, and coasted as far south as Chesapeake Bay. As he
found neither the way to India, nor gold, precious stones, and
spices, his expedition was considered a failure. Yet, by his
discoveries, England acquired a title to a vast territory in the
new world. Though he gave to England a continent, no one knows his
burial-place.