In the year 1496, a Venetian named John Cabota, or Gabota, went to England; and having acquired a knowledge of the new discoveries, and perceiving by the globe that the islands of the Antilles were almost in the same latitude with his own country, and lay much nearer to England than Spain and Portugal, he acquainted Henry VII. with this circumstance, and offered his services to make discoveries for the crown of England.  Henry was much pleased with the proposal, and furnished him with two ships and three hundred men, with which he set sail in the spring of that year, and sailed west till he came in sight of land, in lat. 45 deg.N.  Whence he sailed northwards till he came into the latitude of 60 degrees, where the day is 18 hours long, and the night is very clear and bright.  He there found the air very cold, with great islands of ice, and found no bottom with a line of 100 fathoms.  From thence, finding the land turn eastwards, he coasted along it, discovering all the bay and river named Deseado[8], to see if it passed on to the other side of the land.  Cabot afterwards sailed down the coast to the lat. of 38 deg.N. though some people allege that he reached Cape Florida, in 25 deg.N.

In the year 1497, Columbus was again sent out on discovery, with six ships furnished by the crown of Spain, and two others fitted out at his own expence.  Sending his brother before, he sailed from Cadiz, taking his son Don Diego along with him.  It was then reported, that he meant to take the island of Madeira, because he distrusted the Frenchmen, and therefore sent three ships thither; others say, that his object was for the Canaries.  However this may be, he went with four ships to the Cape de Verd islands, whence he ran along a parallel, finding great rains and calms, and the first land he came to in the Antilles was an island in nine degrees of north latitude, called Trinidada,[9] which lies close to the main land.  Here he entered the Gulf of Paria, and came out by the Bocca de Dragone, or Dragons-mouth.  Holding his course westwards along the coast of Paria, he came to the islands called Los Testigos, or the Witnesses, beyond which is the island of Cubagua, where there is a great fishing for pearl-muscles, and where also there is a well of rock oil.  Beyond that he came to the Frailes islands, named Roques, Aruba, and Curacoa, and other small islands, along the coast of the main land, and to the point of land named Cabo de Vela, having discovered 200 leagues of coast.  He thence crossed over the Caribbean Sea, directly north for Hispaniola, passing by the island Beata.