1497 John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), a Venetian sailor in the pay of the first Tudor king of England, Henry VII, set out from Bristol in search of a “northwest passage” to the Far East. He too hit a buffer, encountering lands that were probably Newfoundland (the region of the old Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows) before he turned back. In 1508–9 Cabot’s son Sebastian made another attempt, sighting what would later be dubbed Hudson Bay before opting to turn south, scouting the north American coastline as far as the Chesapeake.
