From
Ramusio, However, Hakluyt Gives Rather A Different Account Of This Matter.
By This Account, It Would Appear That The Father John Cabot Had Died
Previous To The Voyage, And That Sebastian Went As Commander Of Two
Vessels Furnished By King Henry.
He sailed to the north-west, not
expecting to find any other land than Cathay, or northern China, and from,
thence to proceed for India.
But falling in with land, he sailed
northwards along the coast, to see if he could find any gulf that
permitted him to proceed westwards in his intended voyage to India, and
still found firm land to lat 56 deg. N. Finding the coast here turning to the
east, he despaired of finding a passage in that direction: he sailed again
down the coast to the southwards, still looking everywhere for an inlet
that would admit a passage by sea to India, and came to that part of the
continent now called Florida; where, his victuals failing, he took his
departure for England[12]. In the preface to the third volume of his
navigations, Ramusio, as quoted by Hakluyt, says that Sebastian Cabot
sailed as far north in this voyage as 67 deg. 30', where on the 11th June the
sea was still quite open, and he was in full hope of getting in that way
to Cathay, but a mutiny of his people forced him to return to England[13].
Peter Martyr of Angleria, as likewise quoted by Hakluyt, says that
Sebastian was forced to return to the southwards by the immense quantities
of ice which he encountered in the northern part of his voyage[14].
Sebastian Cabot, on his return to England, found matters in a state which
did not promise him any farther advantages as a mariner, on which he went
into Spain, where he was employed by Ferdinand and Isabella, in whose
service he explored the eastern coast of South America, and discovered the
Rio Plata, up which he sailed above 360 miles, finding it to flow
through a fine country, everywhere inhabited by great numbers of people,
who flocked from all parts to admire his ships.
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