active 1895-1897 Elizabeth Hodges

“ And we grudge not the mead of praise. He who gives of his best to the service of God and his fellow men deserves high honour. But, when all is said, the work of William Canynge was as a drop in the ocean compared with that accomplished by the merchant-pilot, his contemporary and probable neighbour. ”

“ A modern writer suggests in excuse that he feared to excite the jealous displeasure of the King of Spain, in whose service he then was, by attracting attention to the prior discovery of a continent which his Catholic majesty would fain claim as his own. Perhaps, however, as the conversation was transcribed not at second, but at third hand, the indictment may be best taken with the proverbial grain of salt; and, certainly, both on Sebastian's portrait and on his famous "Mappamundi," the claims of the elder Cabot are acknowledged. ”

“ Sebastian Cabot appears to have devoted himself entirely to nautical science; attaining such eminence that, on the death of Columbus, the King of Spain engaged his services as Cartographer, at a salary of 30,000 maravedas, intending to send him on another voyage. Before the design could be carried out, Ferdinand died, and Sebastian returned to England. ”

“ In 1526, Cabot commanded a Spanish expedition to Brazil, which although he penetrated some distance into the interior, ended disastrously, and resulted in his being imprisoned for a year on the charge of "mismanagement and excesses."
The first count of the indictment may have been true. Very probably the great cartographer was not skilled in the management of men. As Oviedo, the Spanish historian, sapiently remarked, "it is not the same thing to command and govern people as to point a quadrant or an astrolabe" ”

“ The Hill takes its name from the Irish saint, Brendan, a chapel and hermitage dedicated to him having once stood on its summit.
This St. Brendan is said to have been a great sailor, and claims to have himself discovered land across the Atlantic. Whether the claim be true or false, certain it is that the story of his "voyages," and the golden legends connected therewith, aroused men's curiosity and incited to subsequent expeditions, which, nearly a thousand years after Brendan's death, resulted in the discovery of the Northern Continent. ”

“ Practically, the birthplace of either father or son is of little moment, even to Bristolians; nor the question of earlier voyages, so long as the great fact remains—That it was from Bristol port, in a Bristol ship, manned by Bristol sailors, on the initiative of Bristol merchants, that John Cabot sailed on that memorable May morning four hundred years ago ”