Cabot.

The life and navigational career of John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) in many ways parallel that of his contemporary and fellow Genoa native Christopher Columbus. Like Columbus, Cabot sought and eventually attained the financial backing of a foreign monarch for a voyage west into the Atlantic in hope of reaching Asia. Also like Columbus, Cabot appears to have believed until his death that the lands he found on his westerly voyage were extensions of the Asian landmass. Cabot left his native Genoa in 1495 and settled in England, where he managed to convince the customarily frugal King Henry VII to fund his plan for a westerly journey to Asia. Cabot's 1497 voyage carried him all the way to the coast of New England from which he sailed northward perhaps as far as Newfoundland and Labrador, claiming the entire region for the English crown...