John Cabot's 1497 Voyage to North America on the Matthew

John Cabot’s voyage of 1497 was the first recorded European expedition to reach mainland North America, or one of its large islands, since the Norse around AD 1000. Sailing from Bristol in the small ship Matthew under a licence from King Henry VII of England, the Italian navigator landed on 24 June 1497 on a coast that was probably Newfoundland. His voyage became the basis of later English claims in North America, although the exact landfall is still debated.

Background and the royal licence

John Cabot was born Giovanni Caboto, probably around 1450, in Genoa or Gaeta in Italy. He became a citizen of Venice in 1476, where he worked as a merchant, and later appears in Valencia, in Spain, in the early 1490s working on harbour projects.

Like Columbus, Cabot believed that Asia could be reached by sailing west. He argued that a more northerly route would be shorter, because the distance between lines of longitude shrinks towards the poles. When Columbus returned from his first voyage in 1493 claiming to have reached Asia, Cabot sought a sponsor of his own.

Bristol was a natural choice. Its merchants traded with Iceland and Ireland and knew the North Atlantic. Bristol ships had searched for a legendary island called Brasil in the 1480s, and some historians believe Bristol fishermen may already have reached the fishing grounds off Newfoundland, though this remains unproven.

On 5 March 1496 Henry VII granted letters patent to John Cabot and his sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sancio. They were authorised to sail “to all parts, regions and coasts of the eastern, western and northern sea” under the English flag, to find lands unknown to Christians, and to occupy them in the king’s name. The crown would receive one fifth of the profits, and all trade had to pass through Bristol.

The licence avoided the southern seas, which were already claimed by Spain and Portugal. A first attempt in 1496 turned back, according to a later account, because of shortage of food, bad weather and disputes with the crew.

The voyage of 1497

Cabot sailed from Bristol in the Matthew around 20 May 1497. She was a small ship of about 50 tons, carrying a crew of about 18 to 20, including Bristol merchants and possibly a Burgundian and a Genoese barber.

After passing Ireland, the ship headed west across the North Atlantic. On 24 June 1497, the feast of St John the Baptist, Cabot sighted land. He went ashore, possibly only once, and raised the banner of Henry VII, along with the papal banner and that of St Mark of Venice.

The landing party found signs of people: a trail leading inland, the remains of a fire, snares for game and a carved, painted stick pierced at both ends, which they took as signs that the land was inhabited. They saw no inhabitants and, being few in number, did not go far from the shore. Cabot then spent about a month coasting before heading home.

The Matthew reached Bristol on 6 August 1497. Cabot travelled to London, and on 10 August the king’s privy purse records a payment of £10 “to hym that founde the new Isle”. In December Henry VII granted Cabot an annual pension of £20, to be paid from the customs of Bristol.

How we know: the surviving letters

No journal or map by Cabot survives. The voyage is known from a handful of letters written by others.

A Venetian merchant in London, Lorenzo Pasqualigo, wrote on 23 August 1497 that Cabot had found land 700 leagues away and was being honoured as a great admiral. The Milanese envoy Raimondo de Soncino wrote two letters, including one dated 18 December 1497, describing Cabot’s claim to have reached the land of the Great Khan and the extraordinary abundance of fish.

The most detailed account is a letter by an English merchant named John Day, written in Spanish during the winter of 1497–98 to a “Lord Grand Admiral” in Spain, very probably Christopher Columbus. It was discovered in the Spanish archive at Simancas and published in 1956. It gives the details of the landing and the coasting voyage.

Where did Cabot land?

The landfall is one of the most debated questions in the history of exploration. The letters give latitudes and descriptions but no clear place names, and they disagree in details.

• Newfoundland: Most historians favour a landfall somewhere on Newfoundland. Cape Bonavista is the traditional choice in Newfoundland, while scholars such as Samuel Eliot Morison argued for the far north of the island near the Strait of Belle Isle, using the latitudes in John Day’s letter.
• Cape Breton Island: Some historians, and Canadian tradition in the early 20th century, placed the landfall on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where a monument marks the claim.
• Labrador or Maine: These have also been suggested but have fewer supporters.

In 1997 both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia held anniversary celebrations. Queen Elizabeth II attended the arrival of the replica Matthew at Bonavista on 24 June 1997.

The 1498 voyage and Cabot’s fate

Encouraged by his success, Cabot planned to sail along the coast until he reached Cipangu (Japan) and the spice lands. In 1498 he left Bristol with five ships carrying goods for trade. One ship, damaged in a storm, put into an Irish port.

The fate of the others is uncertain. Most historians believe Cabot was lost at sea, but there is evidence that some ships may have returned, and the question remains open. His son Sebastian Cabot later became a famous navigator in English and Spanish service.

Consequences

Cabot’s voyages had little immediate effect. England did not follow them with settlement, and for decades English interest in the far north-west was sporadic. Further Bristol voyages took place in the early 1500s. In 1501 and 1502 Henry VII issued new patents to a partnership of Bristol merchants and Portuguese sailors from the Azores, sometimes called the Company Adventurers to the New Found Land, which made several voyages but founded no lasting settlement. Sebastian Cabot probably searched for a north-west passage around 1508–09. The name “New Found Land”, first used in English records of these years for the lands Cabot had reached, survives today as Newfoundland.

The most lasting result was economic. Reports of the rich cod fisheries off Newfoundland drew Portuguese, Basque, French and English fishermen across the Atlantic in growing numbers through the 16th century. In 1583 Sir Humphrey Gilbert formally claimed Newfoundland for Elizabeth I at St John’s.

When England later founded colonies such as Jamestown in 1607, its lawyers and propagandists pointed back to Cabot’s voyage as the basis of an English claim to North America. France, meanwhile, built on the voyages of Jacques Cartier from 1534.

Myths and facts

Myth: Cabot was the first European to reach North America. Norse Greenlanders reached Newfoundland around AD 1000, as shown by the excavated site at L’Anse aux Meadows. Cabot’s is the first well-documented European landing after the Norse period.

Myth: Cabot was an Englishman. He was an Italian-born Venetian citizen sailing for the English crown. The English form of his name, John Cabot, comes from his years in Bristol.

Myth: Bristol sailors had certainly discovered America before Cabot. A letter by John Day says that men from Bristol had found land in the past, and Bristol ships did search for the island of Brasil in 1480–81. However, there is no direct evidence of an earlier landing, and historians remain divided on what Day meant.

Myth: Cabot met and traded with Indigenous people. The sources say he saw signs of inhabitants but no people. The area he reached was home to the Beothuk in Newfoundland or the Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, but there is no record of an encounter on the 1497 voyage.

Key people

• John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto, c. 1450–c. 1498): Italian navigator and Venetian citizen who led the expedition.
• Henry VII of England (1457–1509): the first Tudor king, who licensed the voyages and rewarded Cabot.
• Sebastian Cabot (born c. 1474–1484, died 1557): John’s son, named in the 1496 patent, later a leading navigator and cartographer.
• John Day: English merchant whose letter is the fullest source for the voyage.

Timeline

• 1476: Giovanni Caboto becomes a citizen of Venice.
• 1496, 5 March: Henry VII grants letters patent to Cabot and his sons.
• 1496: A first attempt turns back.
• 1497, c. 20 May: The Matthew sails from Bristol.
• 1497, 24 June: Cabot sights land and goes ashore.
• 1497, 6 August: The Matthew returns to Bristol.
• 1497, 10 August: Henry VII pays Cabot £10.
• 1497, 13 December: Cabot is granted a pension of £20 a year.
• 1498: Cabot sails on a second voyage and disappears.
• 1997, 24 June: The replica Matthew arrives at Bonavista for the 500th anniversary.

Why it matters

John Cabot’s voyage brought England into the age of Atlantic exploration and gave it a claim it would later use to justify colonisation in North America. It also opened the way to the great North Atlantic cod fishery, which drew Europeans to the coasts of Newfoundland and Canada for centuries.