nner of St Mark, the patron saint of
Cabot's city of Venice.

The older histories used always to speak as if John Cabot had landed
somewhere on the coast of Labrador, and had at best gone no farther
south than Newfoundland. Even if this were the whole truth about the
voyage, to Cabot and his men would belong the signal honour of having
been the first Europeans, since the Norsemen, to set foot on the
mainland of North America. Without doubt they were the first to unfurl
the flag of England, and to erect the cross upon soil which afterwards
became part of British North America. But this is not all. It is likely
that Cabot reached a point far south of Labrador. His supposed sailing
westward carried him in reality south of the latitude of Ireland. He
makes no mention of the icebergs which any voyager must meet on the
Labrador coast from June to August. His account of a temperate climate
suitable for growing dye-wood, of forest trees, and of a country so
fair that it seemed the gateway of the enchanted lands of the East, is
quite unsuited to the bare and forbidding aspect of Labrador. Cape
Breton island was probably the place of Cabot's landing. Its balmy
summer climate, the abundant fish of its waters, fit in with Cabot's
experiences. The evidence from maps, one of which was made by Cabot's
son Sebastian, points also to Cape Breton as the first landing-place of
English sailors in America.

There is no doubt of the stir made by Cabot's discovery on his safe
return to England. He was in London by August of 1497, and he became at
once the object of eager curiosity and interest. 'He is styled the
Great Admiral,' wrote a Venetian resident in London, 'and vast honour
is paid to him. He dresses in silk, and the English run after him like
mad people.' The sunlight of royal favour broke over him in a flood:
even Henry VII proved generous. The royal accounts show that, on August
10, 1497, the king gave ten pounds 'to him that found the new isle.' A
few months later the king granted to his 'well-beloved John Cabot, of
the parts of Venice, an annuity of twenty pounds sterling,' to be paid
out of the customs of the port of Bristol. The king, too, was lavish in
his promises of help for a new expedition. Henry's imagination had
evidently been fired with the idea of an Oriental empire. A
contemporary writer tells us that Cabot was to have ten armed ships. At
Cabot's request, the king conceded to him all the prisoners needed to
man this f