DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA

By Adam S. Eterovich

John and Sebastian Cabot, father and son, are credited with the discovery of continental America between 1494-1497. With first landfall at Cape Breton or Newfoundland in Canada. Columbus did not sail to or discover mainland America or Canada.

The Cabots sailed from Bristol, England on behalf of the English crown and planted the English flag in Canada and claimed all the new found lands for England. The Cabots also planted the flag of St. Mark in respect to their “birthplace”, Venice. Historians over the centuries have claimed them to be English, Italian, Genovese and Venetian. John Cabot was naturalized by the Venetian Senate on March 29, 1476, meaning that he lived in the city for fifteen years but was not born in the city. John Cabot remains a mystery in that he kept no diary, left no maps, his birthplace and origin is clouded, and no biography was left for future generations. The father, John Cabot, disappeared from the scene in approximately 1500. Sebastian Cabot went on to become the Pilot Major of the Spanish and English Fleets.

The first indication of Cabot’s discovery was the world map of Juan de la Cosa, compiled in 1500 and known in Spain at the opening of the 16th century, showing the English exploration of the North American coast from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Long Island New York.

The only contemporary accounts of John Cabot’s first voyage come from the letter of Lorenzo Pasqualigo to his brothers in Venice on August 13, 1497 making mention to discoveries and naming Cabot.

The letter in the Marciana Library at Venice, as abbreviated:

“Pasqualigo reports that the Venetian, called Zuam Talbot, said that he had found the territories of the Gran Cam on the mainland at a distance of 700 leagues, having coasted 300 leagues: dice haver trovato lige 700 lontam de qui Terraferma el paexe del Gram Cam, Andato per lacosta lige 300. He planted a large cross with the flags of England and the Venetian St. Mark.”

Lorenzo Pasqualigo was a merchant in England. Paskvalic, Paskval, Pasquali, Pasquale is found in Dalmatia. A Dalmatian in Venice would be Pasqualico or Pasqualigo. Captain Giovanni Pasquale of 700 ton Ragusan (Dubrovnik) galleon, San Vincenzo, served in the West and the San Elmo of 600 tons, Captain Pasquali of Ragusa, also traded in West in 1500’s. Mihal Paskval of Dubrovnik was masterbuilder in late 1400’s. In 1494-1497 most of Dalmatia was Venetian territory. The coat of arms of Pasqualigo of Venice and Pasquali of Dalmatia have exactly the same shield which indicates relationship. Venice and Dalmatia were within the “Republic of Venice”.

Sebastian Cabot and Dubrovnik

Sebastian Cabot, the son, could have been born in England or Venice. He lived with his Italian wife, Catalina Medrano, in England. In 1515 he was appointed Pilot to the Spanish Crown and in 1518 was appointed Pilot Major of the Spanish Fleet. Proposals were made for a voyage to the Moluccas in the East Indies and in1525 Sebastian was appointed Captain-general of the Fleet equipped to discover “ Las islas de Tarsis e Ofire el Catayo Oriental”. Cabot experienced great difficulties and many and varied intrigues in obtaining the necessary financing of the Crown and private investors. He was to travel across the Atlantic to Brazil and then around cape Horn into the Pacific and sail to the Moluccas. After reaching South America, Cabot heard of the riches of the Rio de la Plata ( River of Silver) and decided to find his fame and fortune there.

In Sebastian Cabot's voyage to the Rio De La Plata in 1526-30, his map has a bay, Mime Ragoso, or "Just like Ragusa", this is in Brazil. Some of the mariners and officers in this voyage were Bozo de Araguz-Dubrovnik, Stephan de Lezna-Lesina or the Island of Hvar, an Esclavon, Stephen de Arva-Arbe or the Island of Rab and Matias Mafrolo-Esclavon.

Prior to his voyage Cabot formed a great friendship with a Ragusan (Dubrovnik) lawyer in Spain.

Marino de Bucignola

Ragusa-Dubrovnik

Marino also known as Jerome de Marin de Busignola was a Ragusan nobleman living in Spain as a lawyer. The historian Appendini states that Bucignola was a personal friend of Plania, secretary to King Carlo V of Spain. Sebastian Cabot while the Pilot Major of the Spanish Fleet, secretly intended to offer the Republic of Venice the benefits of exploration and the riches of the New World. Such an undertaking if known to the Spanish Crown, would have cost him his life. Cabot’s closest confidant in this affair was the Ragusan Buzignola. The historian Tarducci in his book John and Sebastian Cabot ,1893, states:

“Still for the nonce he took no action on the new proposition, but kept reflecting on it and maturing it in his mind. Perhaps the delay arose from the difficulty he saw in the way of drawing Venice into benefits of the navigation of the New World. Menawhile at Seville he contracted a close friendship with a Jerome de Marin de Busignola from Ragusa in Dalmatia, and knowing that he was about to proceed to Venice opened himself to him under vow of secrecy, and engaged him to appear in his name before the council of Ten and make known his intention of asking to be allowed to appear before them in person for the purpose of declaring by word of mouth what he had in his mind. In September 1522 the Ragusan executed the commision. The Ten were in some doubt as to the seriousness of the proposal, but considering it to be a matter of grave importance,were unwilling to let it fall through. With the usual prudence and astuteness of that famous council they warily sent in advance to ascertain what foundation there was for a good result rewarding the Ragusan for his pains with a sum of money. They made him write to Sebastian that it would give the Ten pleasure to receive him. This letter they themselves sent to the Venetian ambassador in Spain, informing him to remit it directly or by the matter, and intrusting him to remit it directly or by the safest means to Cabot’s hands. The ambassador was to pretend to know nothing unless Sebastian himself should disclose it, and then he was to try to learn his sentiments from his own lips, as far as possible, and see if he had any good foundation for his actions.”

Gasparo Contarini, Venetian Ambassador to the Court of Spain, wrote a letter to the Senate of Venice on December 31,1522 regarding Sebastian Cabot and Marino de Bucignola. A copy of this letter is on file at the Marciana Library in Venice. What is most interesting and significant is the fact that Sebastian Cabot, the son, stated he was born in Venice. He probably was born during his father’s fifteen years plus residence in the city.

The letter in part:

“In accordance with instructions from Venice, Contarini reports that he had had three interviews with Sebastian Cabot. He found that Cabot was highly esteemed: ha grande fama. At the first interview, he handed Cabot the letter from the Ragusan Marino de Bucignola, upon reading which Cabot lost colour, putting it in his pocket with the appearance of fear and uncertainty. Having been reassured, at their second conference Cabot stated that he was born in Venice, but brought up in England. Contarini praised his affection for their native land, and promised to assist him in securing permission to go to Italy, the two agreeing as a reason that Cabot must appear in Venice in person in order to secure the dowry of his mother. The ambassador suggested some difficulties in the way of a voyage from Venice to the newly-discovered portions of the globe, but Cabot, without expaining his scheme, assured him that it was feasible, and could be managed despite the control by Spain of the Strait at Gibraltar and of the German coast on the North Sea, and the impossibility of building ships on the Red Sea. Cabot maintained that there were another way.

At their third meeting Cabot spoke of the method he had noticed for finding out the distance between two places east and west of each other, by means of the compass needle”

Marino de Bucignolo wrote to Cabot from Venice concerning his mother’s dowry. The letter is in State Archives in Venice.

The letter in part:

“The letter states that Cabot can doubtless recover the dowry of his mother if he appears in person to claim it: et mi tu dato bona speranza de recuperar la dote di vostra madre, et ameda,-the latter being very old and likely to die, haste is necessary. The exact significance of his term “ameda” apparently puzzles all who have undertaken the elucidation of this passage.” Perhaps some scholars or linguists can shed some light on the term in the text “Et Ameda”.

A very respected scholar and historian, Raymond Beazley, wrote a book, John and Sebastian Cabot, 1898, with further commentary on Cabot’s dowry and the origins of the Cabot’s.

The letter and commentary in part:

“but something more than a legal fiction is implied by Cabot’s agent in Venice, Hieronymo the Ragusan , on April 28,1523: ‘Some months ago, on arriving here in Venice, I wrote to you what I had done to discover where your property was. I received fair promises from all quarters, and was given good hope of recovering the dowery of your mother and aunt, so that I no doubt, had you come hither, you would already have attained your object. I therefore exhort you not to sacrifice your interests, but betake yourself here to Venice. Do not delay coming, as your aunt is very old’. In the same way , in 1551, Cabot’s claims to ‘credits the recovery of property’ in Venice seem to have had this much of truth at the bottom of them-that relatives of his had lived and died within the territories of the Republic, and that there existed property left by them which Sebastian may have had less claim than others in (or out of) possesion, but which at any rate gave a decent pretext for him as a descendant of John Cabot to institute legal inquiries in his native place.”

The statement “that relatives of his had had lived and died within the territories of the Republic”, is very significant. A map of the Venetian Republic in the 1520’s will indicate that Croatian Istria and Dalmatia included the bulk or majority of Venetian territory from 1450-1550.

There is a good probability or possibility that the origins of the Cabot’s were Croatian and that the name Cabot was a nadimak or clan name as was given to many in Dalmatia.

Why a Dubrovnik-Ragusan lawyer?

Adam S. Eterovich