What is, however, more to the point, is a letter from Pasqualigo, a Venetian merchant, who says, writing to Venice, on the twenty-third of August, 1497, that Cabot had discovered the mainland at seven hundred leagues to the west, and had sailed along it for a coast of three hundred leagues.  He says the voyage was three months in length.  It was made, then, between May and August, 1497.  The evidence of this letter seems to show that the mainland of North America was really first discovered by Cabot.  The discussion, however, does not in the least detract from the merit due to Columbus for the great discovery.  Whether he saw an island or whether he saw the mainland, was a mere matter of what has been called landfall by the seamen.  It is admitted on all hands that he was the leader in all these enterprises, and that it was on his success in the first voyage that all such enterprises followed.