ments from the rolls, however (London, 1831), has established many facts before doubtful. Cabot told Eden, author of Decades of the New World, that he was born in Bristol, and that at three years old he was carried with his father to Venice, and so returned to England with his father after certain years—whence he was thought to have been born in Venice. He is described as a very gentle person, possessing a knowledge of the letters of humanity and the sphere, able to make "cardes for the sea" with his own hand, very expert and cunning in knowledge of the circuit of the world, and having in his heart "a great flame and desire to attempt some notable thing." A patent was granted by Henry VII., 5th March, 1496, authorizing John Cabot and his three sons, Louis, Sebastian, and Sancius, to seek out whatsoever isles, countries, provinces, "which before this time have been unknown to all christians;" and to set up the royal banner in every place by them newly found. The king reserved one-fifth of the profit, while the privilege of exclusive traffic was secured to the patentees. It is very uncertain whether John Cabot ever sailed on this expedition. Hakluyt appears to have altered the name of Sebastian, originally given in Stow (Annals, page 804, edition 1605), to John; and this error has been followed by Campbell, Barrow, and others. The expedition, consisting of four or five ships, sailed from Bristol, May, 1497, and on 24th June, discovered "that land which no man before had attempted," and which is described by the chroniclers as Terra Prima Vista, or Newfoundland, while the island of St. John is mentioned as discovered on the same day. The question is, Was this land, first seen by Cabot, our present Newfoundland, or was it the continent of America? We have no space to detail the evidence, but there seems no doubt that it was the great American continent itself, on which Cabot first gazed. The whole of the north region of America was designated Terra Nova in old maps, and the term Newfoundland was applied to the same district, while Ortellius (who had the map of Cabot before him) places an island of St. John, lat. 56°, on the east of Labrador, thus distinguishing the one seen by Cabot from the St. John in the gulf of St. Lawrence, so named long after (1534) by Cartier. Columbus was not acquainted with the continent of America until he coasted the isthmus of Darien during his last voyage, fourteen months after Cabot's discovery. On February 3, 1498, a second patent was granted to John Cabot or his deputies, giving authority to conduct ships "to the lande and isles of late founde by the seid John, in oure name and by oure commandement." About this time John Cabot, the father, died, while Sebastian, understanding, "by reason of the sphere," that if he sailed by way of the north-west he would, "by a shorter tract, come into India," undertook a second voyage. He had with him three hundred men with a view to colonization, and directed his course by the tract of land upon the cape of Labrador at 58°, where in the month of July there was "such cold and heaps of ice" that he durst pass no further, and turned his course to the westward. In another voyage, probably in 1517, Cabot reached W. lat. 67° 30´. Subsequently he became pilot-major in Spain in 1518, was made captain-general of a Spanish fleet to the Moluccas in 1526, and entered the Rio de la Plata. In 1548 he again fixed his residence in England, was pensioned by Edward VI., and assumed a general superintendence over maritime affairs, being consulted whenever nautical experience was required. He advised the expedition which opened a trading intercourse with Russia, and his instructions for its conduct are not only masterly in seamanship, but afford a pleasant revelation of the character of the man. He urges that the inhabitants of nations visited should not be provoked by disdain, laughing, or contempt, but treated "with all gentleness and curtesie," and that their own laws and rights should be respected; while with simple and affectionate earnestness he inculcates upon every sailor personal purity, and remembrance of his oath, conscience, duty, and charge. Cabot received the office of governor "of the mysterie and companie of the merchant adventurers for the discoverie of regions, dominions, islands, and places unknown." He observed and explained to the king the variation of the needle, showing that it was different in different places, and the seamen he instructed were attentive to scientific facts. Many pleasant pictures of the great navigator occur in the history of his genial old age. When the Searchthrift was despatched to the north, "the good olde gentleman. Master Cabota, gave to the poor most liberal alms, wishing them to pray for its good fortune, and then he made great cheer," says the captain, "and for very joy that he had to see the towardness of our intended discovery he entered into the dance himself, which being ended, he and his friends departed, most gently commending us to the governance of Almighty God." Cabot died about 1557, the time of his death and the place of his burial being uncertain. On his deathbed his mind wandered again over the ocean he loved with most pure and true and faithful passion; and he spoke, in moments of wandering fancy, of a divine revelation made unto him of a new and infallible method of finding the longitude, which he was not permitted to disclose to any mortal. Thus passed away one of the true sea-kings of old, as adventurous as wise, as courteous as bold, as gentle as daring, and no man knoweth where slumber the mortal remains of him who, first of Europeans, gazed on the mighty continent of the west.—L. L. P.
CABOT, Vincent, a French publicist and jurist, born at Toulouse about the middle of the sixteenth century; died in his native town in 1621. His great reputation as a lawyer secured for him the appointment of professor of civil and canon law in the university of Orleans, whence he was recalled to Toulouse.—G. M.
CABRAL, Pedro Alvarez, a celebrated Portuguese navigator, born in the second half of the fifteenth century; died about 1526. He is known to have belonged to a noble family, but very few circumstances of his early history have been left on record. He was a contemporary of Vasco da Gama, whose esteem he had acquired, and at whose recommendation he was intrusted, when yet very young, with the command of an expedition to Calicut, for the purpose of opening up commercial relations with the rajah of that place. On his voyage, from some cause unexplained, he stretched away towards the south-west, and touched on the coast of Brazil, which, ignoring the previous discovery of that country by the Spaniards, he complacently took possession of for the crown of Portugal. On reaching Calicut, Cabral obtained an interview with the rajah, concluded with him a commercial treaty, and was permitted to establish a Portuguese factory. This treaty proved subsequently of immense advantage to the commerce of Portugal. Setting out on his return home, his fleet was dispersed by a tempest; but, on his arrival at Lisbon, he had the satisfaction of finding there two of his vessels which he had supposed to be lost. He was received with distinguished honours, and rich rewards were heaped upon him; but of his subsequent career little or no account has been left. Even his tomb has only recently, and after much research, been discovered.—G. M.
* CABRERA, Don Ramon, a Carlist chief, celebrated in the recent annals of Spain for his daring and military talent, and no less notorious for his sanguinary disposition, was born at Tortosa in 1809 or 1810. He was destined for the priesthood, but not by nature, for Latin proved an insuperable difficulty; and when in 1833, on the death of Ferdinand VII., he was expelled, along with other absolutists and malcontents, from his native town, he was only known as a youth of riotous and dissolute habits. The threat—for it was rather a threat than a prophecy with which he departed from Tortosa—"I swear I will make some noise in the world," he fulfilled in no long time. The wild district of Maestrazgo was in open revolt for Don Carlos, and there Cabrera soon made himself a name; being appointed second in command of the insurgents, and on the death of Ramon Carnicer, commander-in-chief. This district for several years was the scene of his most brilliant exploits, and of his most wanton atrocities. When Gomez began his daring march through Andalusia, he was joined by Cabrera, who afterwards took Valencia, and would have taken Madrid but for the timid counsels of Don Carlos. For his great and unscrupulous services to the Carlist party he was created count of Morella. In 1840, at the conclusion of the civil war, he took refuge in France, where he was confined a short time in the fortress of Ham. Returning to Spain in 1848, with the hope of rekindling the civil war, he was defeated and severely wounded in an action fought at Pasteral in January, 1849. Since then he has been in exile in France; in England, where he married a young lady of fortune; and in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, from which he was expelled in 1851.—J. S., G.
CABRILLO, Joao or Juan-Rodriguez, a celebrated Portuguese navigator of the sixteenth century. He entered the Spanish service, and discovered the islands of Santo-Tomas, Santa-Cruz, Santa-Rosa, and San-Bernardo, on the last of which he died in 1543.
