ike, at night at least, a course due east
or west. But when the weather was not favourable for observations they
had to rely on the compass alone. Now the compass in actual fact does
not always and everywhere point due north. It is subject to variation,
and in different times and places points either considerably east of
north or west of it. In the path where Cabot sailed, the compass
pointed west of north; and hence, though he thought he was sailing
straight west from Ireland, he was really pursuing a curved path bent
round a little towards the south. This fact will become of importance
when we consider where it was that Cabot landed. For finding distance
east and west the navigators of the fifteenth century had no such
appliances as our modern chronometer and instruments of observation.
They could tell how far they had sailed only by 'dead reckoning'; this
means that if their ship was going at such and such a speed, it was
supposed to have made such and such a distance in a given time. But
when ships were being driven to and fro, and buffeted by adverse winds,
this reckoning became extremely uncertain.

John Cabot and his men mere tossed about considerably in their little
ship. Though they seem to have set out early in May of 1497, it was not
until June 24 that they sighted land. What the land was like, and what
they thought of it, we know from letters written in England by various
persons after their return. Thus we learn that it was a 'very good and
temperate country,' and that 'Brazil wood and silks grow there.' 'The
sea,' they reported, 'is covered with fishes, which are caught not only
with the net, but with baskets, a stone being tied to them in order
that the baskets may sink in the water.' Henceforth, it was said,
England would have no more need to buy fish from Iceland, for the
waters of the new land abounded in fish. Cabot and his men saw no
savages, but they found proof that the land was inhabited. Here and
there in the forest they saw trees which had been felled, and also
snares of a rude kind set to catch game. They were enthusiastic over
their success. They reported that the new land must certainly be
connected with Cipango, from which all the spices and precious stones
of the world originated. Only a scanty stock of provisions, they
declared, prevented them from sailing along the coast as far as Cathay
and Cipango. As it was they planted on the land a great cross with the
flag of England and also the ba