Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/77

 *mandment of Henry VII." The same authority, quoting from Peter Martyr, further says, "He" (Cabot) "was thereby brought so far with the south, by reason of the land bending so much to the southward, that it was there almost equal in latitude with the sea Fretum Herculeum, having the North Pole elevated in manner in the same degree. He sailed likewise in this tract so far towards the west that he had the island of Cuba on his left hand in manner in the same degree of longitude."

That one of the Cabots discovered the northern continent of America, at the period named, is well authenticated, and in Biddle's memoirs of him many other authorities are quoted in confirmation of this fact. But if any doubt still remains,*