"England: Her Mark."

Manawatu Herald, 10 November 1896, Page 3

"England: Her Mark."

At daybreak on June 24, 1497. the welcome cry of " Land ho I" from the masthead of The Mat hew, of Brißtol, proclaimed the discovery i Of what to-day is England's oldest colony. The warning of the look- ! out was responded to by a round of British cheers from the deck below, j Tb« tight little pioneer ship, not j more than two-hundred tons, was j manned by West-country sailors. Her commander was John Cabot. His first officer was his worthy son Sebastian. At this period Amerigo Vespucci, whose name was to give a j titla to the New World, had not yet ' made his first voyage across the Atlantic The importance of Sabot's discovery can hardly be overrated. It gave to England her claim to the sovereignty of ft large portion of North America. It injured her flr3t impulse of colonisation; But for the Oabotf, Spain would no doubt have monopolised discovery in North as well as South America. Never, perhaps, was a voyage of discovery, the consequences of which were so far-reaching, entered upon with less tomp and circumstance. History has carefully gathered into her golden urn every incident connected with tht voyage of Columbus, and eloquent pins have told the thrilling story with every variety of its picturesque details. But of the voyage of Cabot we know almost nothing. No diary was kept on board the Mathew. The raoordi of the enterprise which have come down to vi were written i long time afterwards, tnd are of tb« most meagre description. " The English," says Oarlyle, " are a dumb people. They can do great acts but not describe them. Like the old Bomans and some few others, tht ir opic poem is written on the earth's surface — England : Her Mark." Without flourish of trumpet, Cabot and his British seamen sailed away into the unknown waste of waters. Of the difficulties and hardships which they encountered in crossing the Atlantic in muoh etormier lati tudes than those through which Oolumbus's course lay we know absolutely nothing. The commander was content simply to mention the results of hi 3 voyage and little more. On Juna 24 land was discovered, and Cabot named tbe headland in light Prima Vista. A Bristol manuscript which has survived the wrecks of time chronicles the discovery in the following curt terms : — " In the year 1497, tbe 24th of Juna, on St. John's Day, was Newfoundland found by Bristol men in a ship called the Mathew." And the English archives contain no other official notice of the discovery except a memorandum in the Privy Purse Accounts, set down, no doubt, that the King's " liberality " should be known to posterity :— " August 10, to Hym that found the New lelo, 410."