should find and conquer, yet he laid them under an obligation to erect
the English standard in every place, and reserved to himself and his
heirs the dominion, title and jurisdiction of all the towns, castles,
isles and lands they should discover; so that whatever acquisitions they
should make, they would only occupy them as vassals of the crown of
England. And lest they should be inclined to go to some foreign port, he
expressly bound them to return to Bristol, and to pay him and his heirs
one fifth part of all the capital gains, after the expences of the voyage
were deducted: and, for their encouragement, he invested them with full
powers to exclude all English subjects, without their particular licence,
from visiting and frequenting the places they should discover.

[Sidenote] A. D. 1497.
[Sidenote] The discovery of Sebastian Cabot.

Soon after receiving this commission from the king, John Cabot died; and
his son Sebastian, who was also a skilful navigator, set sail in 1497,
with the express view of discovering a north-west passage to the eastern
spice islands. Directing his course by his father's journals to the same
point, he proceeded beyond the 67th degree of north latitude; and it is
affirmed, that he would have advanced farther, had not his crew turned
mutinous and ungovernable, and obliged him to return to the degree of
latitude 56. From thence, in a south-west course, he sailed along the
coast of the continent, as far as that part which was afterwards called
Florida, where he took his departure, and returned to England. Thus
England claims the honour of discovering the continent of North America,
and by those voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot, all that right and
title to this extensive region, founded on prior discovery, must be
vested in the crown of England.