It
reminds all who see it of that voyage in 1497 by which England got
possession of a very large part of the continent of North America.
[Footnote 8: The church of St. Mary Redcliffe.]
25. The second voyage of the Cabots; how they sailed along the eastern
shores of North America.--About a year later the Cabots set out on
a second voyage to the west. They reached the gloomy cliffs of
Labrador[9] on the northeastern coast of America, and they passed
many immense icebergs. They saw numbers of Indians dressed in the
skins of wild beasts, and polar bears white as snow. These bears were
great swimmers, and would dive into the sea and come up with a large
fish in their claws. As it did not look to the Cabots as if the polar
bears and the icebergs would guide them to the warm countries of Asia
and the Spice Islands, they turned about and went south. They sailed
along what is now the eastern coast of the United States for a very
long distance; but not finding any passage through to the countries
they were seeking, they returned to England.
[Illustration: Map showing how much of the continent of North America
was discovered by the Cabots.]
The English now began to see what an immense extent of land they had
found beyond the Atlantic.
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