Note 227 — Chapter X · VOYAGES AND PROJECTS OF DISCOVERY UNDER HENRY VIII

This passage has been regarded as fatal to the connexion of Sebastian Cabot with a voyage in 1516, and even to his claims to have made discoveries under Henry VII. As regards the former, it is quite compatible with an expedition which returned without discovering land, which is precisely what Eden hints at. On the latter point it is to be remarked that the third Cabot voyage (that of Sebastian in search of the North-West Passage) ended in failure and obscurity and was overshadowed by the expeditions of the Bristol syndicates; thus it is not surprising that the London Drapers were able to profess a very convenient ignorance of it. They could hardly do the same about John Cabot in view of the notoriety of his discovery in 1497, and the brilliance of his reception in London in that year.