The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 23, 1897, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 23, 1897 BRISTOL, Ex6, May 10, gland is cele- brating the fourth cen- te of the voyage of Cabot, who no 1 authority than Royal Geographical Society of England says was the real discoverer n Ie the nt is known to cience that John of America. Unfortu- netely the vaulting am- bi n and the over- weening pride of an un- dutiful son, Sebastian | Cabot, have clouded the bistorical records of Ca- bot the or. Still, | Cabot, rather than Columbus, discovered | the continent of North America. | Johunm Cabot was a Genoese by birth, but went to Venice, where he resided from 1461 t0 1476. He married there and became a Venetian citizen. At the end of the| period mentioned he went to Spain and | Portugal, where he learned of the plans of Columbus to sail westward in search of the mythical Isle of Cathay. After this/ | bhe emigrated to Engiand with his wife and three sons in the year 1494 March 4, | 11497, Henry VIL granted him letters | patent permitting him and his three sons to fit out ships under the protection of the English flag. Under these auspices, therefore, Cabot accomplished the undertaking that make it necessary, according to Sir Clements | | Markham, president of the Royal Geo-| | bus. | overative with the one here of the fourth | centenary of Cabot’s vi yage. | same as it would be had a celebration oc- | graphical Society, for tne people of the | out Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland and the United States to regard Cabot as the discoverer of America instead of Colum- And so there is to-day in the Britisn possessions in Amarica a celebration co- The Royal Society of Canada will place a brasstablet in the Legislative Hall at Halifa Vova Scotia, as a tribute to the explorer. Newfoundland will improve the signal station at Sti. Johns and erect an observatory there in memory of the event thar is celebrated. While the com- mittee Liere which has had the matter in charge was unable to secure any general observance of the centenary in the United States, it has received so many assurances of enire sympathy and indorsement of the idea tnat the effect is practically ‘the curred under the stars and stripes. The voyage which ended so notably be- | gan at Bristol, where John Cabot fitnd a small vessel 1n the Matthew. The crew consisted of eighteen men, all of whom were British sailors except two, a Burgundian and a barber from Castigliona, a vplace near Genoa, in Italy. Cabo’s plan was the same as thatof Columbus—to sail west- ward until he reached the ports of Cathay and Cipango. May 3, 1497, the Matthew set sail from Bristol on her memorable voyage. Cabot passed Ireland and then shaped a northerly course, finally navigat- ing to the west, having the north star on his right. Having wandered thus for a time, he at Jength reached land, where he hoisted the royal standard and took pos- session. It is believed that this was at a point in or about Cape Race. Certainly it was between the two landfalls. - Cabot called it the Cape of England. This was on June 4, 1497, St. John’s day, and the island that was found that same day was called St. John, believed to be the present location of St. Johns, Newfoundland. On Cabot’s map, which is still in existence, a large island cailed St. Juan is placed to the west of Cape Breton in the position of the Magdalena group. The map shows New- foundland asadetached group of small islands. President Markbam believes | that Cabot made a landing at Cape Bona- vista, on the east coast of Newfoundland. The chart that Cabot sent to Spain in 1489 bas a coast line which seems to indi- cate that the Matthew sailed along the south coast of Newfoundland. The first voyage of John Cabot was the first successful exhibition of discovery which sailed from an English port. Those who place credence in the statements of his son Scbastian believe that he passed Cape Race in thick weather and made a landing on Cape Breton on June 24, Those who reject the evidence of Sebas. tian Cabot’s map believe that he landed at Bonavista Bay, not necessarily on June 24, then coasted along the south coast ot Newfoundland until he was in sight of Cape Breton, returning nearer the land so as to pass the isiands of St. Pierre and Miquelon at the right. Much confusion was caused both by early writers and their modern com- mentators, owing to the events of the sev- eral voyages made by Cabot being con- founded. Letters that are stillin exist- ence, written by two men named Pasqua- ligo and Soncino, refer to the lirst voyage, though several writers have made the mistake of declaring the second voyage the subject matter of the documents. The statements of Sebastian Cabot, which Martyr, referrea to the second voyage. When John Cabot returned to Eng- land he was received with enthusiasm, and the King gave him a grant of §50 for discovering North America, besides al- lowing him a pension of $100 a year. Ca- bot lived at Bristol for a time with his family, but on February 3, 1498, fresh letters patent were granted him by Henry VII to take six ships for the further dis- covery of *new isles.”” It was Cabot's fond hove that by sailing westward he might reach Cipango. Like the first ex- pedition tue second was fitted out at Bris- tol. One shipof the fleet was commanded by Lancelot Thirkill, an experienced nav- igator from London, who secured a royal loan of $150 with which to equip a ship. Thomas Thirkill commanded a second vessel and secured a similar loan, as did Thomas Bradley, who commanded a third. A fourth vessel was captained by John Carter, who receved a loan of $201 25. In the records of Cabot’s expe- ditions all the men whose names are given are referred to as “going to the newe isle.”” This expedition, by far the most notable which ever set sail up to that time and for such a purpose, consisted of five vessels. The crews numbered 300 men and they sailed for the mysterious west in the spring of 1495. This is the last that was ever known of John Cabot, S0 far as his- torical records tell us. His fate and the date of his death are unknown. Whether he perished at sea or whether he reached some laud and died there no modern man can say. Sebastian Cabot, the undutiful son, was a pilot like his father. Hischar- acter is indicated by the fact that while he was in Spain subsequent to his father's death he spoke of his father's second voy- ace as if he (Sebastian) had not only commanded the expedition, but fitted it out at his own expense. In all the various statements to increase his own glory, Sebastian Cabot never men- tioned his father, except to utter the false- hood that the father was dead before the voyages of discovery were made, and that he, Sebastian, fitted out and commanded the expeditions. This falsifier and unworthy son wss not even a good liar, for he did not stick to the same tale. He told one man that the King fitted out two ships for him, and another that he had equipped the ships at his own expense. These, however, are the cnly accounts—the atements of Sebastian Cabot — loaded dowsn they are with falsehood, which have come down to us giving the detail of the second voyage of John Cabot. Prasident Mark- ham believes that the great navigator, or the English captain who commanded after his death, went north along the coast of Labrador until bhis progress was checked by ice, then retracing his journey and going as far south as Cape Hatteras. It is known that one of Cabot’s captains, the Lancelot Thirkill mentionea, returned home safely from his second voyage. It is further known that the wife of Gasper Corte Real, one of the men who accom- panied the expedition, went to Lisbon in October, 1501, taking with her from North America a broken piece of sword, gilded, Which was certainly madein Italy, and she reported that sheé had seen two silver rings of Vénetian workmanship in the possession of a native North American boy. These articles must have been left by Cabot’s people in 1498. John Cavot was, as stated, the first to lead Englisimen across the Atlantic, and his voyage must, therefore, be ever mem- orable. It is only possible to form a judg- ment of the character of Cabot that is correct, for whatever opinion we may hold is based on only a few recorded facts. Still it is certain that he was a scientific seaman and a good navigator, energetic, brave and persevering. Those qualities were absolutely necessary to successfully accomplish the enterprise undertaken by him. He must have combined practical abilities with imagination and enthusi- asm. A foreigner and at first unknown, he must also have possessea the faculty of winning the confidence of his men and of gathering around him the most able and daring seamen of the time. Summing up all the matters relative to Cabot’s death it is possible to learn of, it TO HONOR CABOT’S DISCOVERY OF NORTH AMERICA 1497 called ! were reported by Ramusio and Peter | seems a reasonable statement to say tha, Cabot probably died soon after his sége ond expedition leit England. This and this only in the minds of scientists could account for the utter absence of any state- ments concerning him which would con- nect bim with the expedition after it set sail. Discarding, as teems the only way to do, the utterances of Sebastian Cabot, it is only fair to say that the credit of com. plating that most important voyage which gave to England the whole eastern coast of North America by right of discovery belonged to the English captains probe ably led by Lancelot Thirkill. The position assumed by scientists and { the Royal Geographical Society is taken neither with a view of belittling or dis- crediting Columbus. Itshould no more be taken as in icatinga purpose otherwise i than stated, than should the fact that th Norsemen were undoubtedly the white men to land on American soil. Co- lumbus undoubtedly discovered certain islands which belong in the Wesiern Archipelago, but the student of the his. tory of the world has demonstrated to his entire satisfaction that the honor of the discovery of the American continent be- longs to John Cabot and not to Chris- topher Columbus. Mrs. Nansen, wife of the famous Arctic explorer, is the owner of a remarkable carriar igeon, which after being away from its home for nearly two years, winged its way back over 1000 miles of frozen waste and yet another 1000 of ocean and frost and plain. Under its shining white wing It brought a note from Nansen, telling his wife that he was well and that the expedition was doing finely. California is noted for some high water- falls, but there is one of these natural won- ders which has been comparatively over- looked in the cataloguing of the State’s possessions in that line. This is a double fall, over 100 feet high, in Napa Coun- t It is called “‘The Falls of La Joda.” La Joda Creek has its sources on Mount Howell, and, after accumulating 1 vol- ume as it descends the mountain, it be- comes in dimensions a good-sized stream. Nine miles from the city of St. Helena it passes throngh La Joda chasms, a great canyon in the rocks, with overhanging walls hundreds of feet high and filled to the top with lofty timber, festooned with vines and crowded with shrubbery. Here the creek makes a rapid de:cent over the rocks which have failen from the sides of the chasm above, form- ing cascades and rapids of surpasing peauty as it proceeds on its turbulent course. At La Joda Falls the stream de- scends over a hundred feet in one pre- cipitous incline, the waters in their de- scent forming a bridal veil as delicate and cloud-like as real lace. The place is wild and difficult of ac- cess. Consequently, of the bundreds who resort to the meighboring watering places, but few have the physical strength to undertake the journey to the falis. The canyon is a moted resort for rat- tiesnakes and vigilance is required to escape their deadly fangs. | He Knew the Color. Martin Haurwitz, the well-known opera manager, who recently came to this City from South Africa with Mme. Trebelli, tells a good story of an occurrence that came under his observation while in Pre- toria, the seat of the recent troubles be- tween the Boers and Jameson’s raiders. Soon after the daring filibuster saw the hopelessness of further struggling and surrendered an old Boer, who had aided |in the capture and who had not been off | his farm in the veldt for years before, vis- ited the capital of the Tranavaul with his sons. The town had grown greatly since his last previous visit, and he saw many flags floating from buildings that were | That is the English flag.”” new to him. “What is that flag, my son?” he asked, pointing to our national emblem. “That is the American flag,” was the answer. “And that?” “The Italian flag, father.” ‘““And this one?” - “Tne Russian flag, father.” “And what may this one be?’* “Why, don’t you know thatone, father? +Oh, no, it is not, my son,” said the old man, with a reminiscent gleam in nis eye. “Isaw the English flag at Bronkhorst Spruit, at Amajuba Hill and at Doornkop, and the English flag was always pure A COMPASS THAT IS ALWAYS TRUE The Invention of a San Francisco Man That Promises to Be of Incalculable Value to Navigators. Ever since man began to navigate the tempestuous ocean and to find his way across the trackless waste with the aia of the slim, directing finger in the com pass, otherwise known as the magnetic needle, be has been conscious of various defects and shortcomings on the part of that val- uable monitor. The mariner's compass has been de- flected from the path of rectitude, so to speak, by magnetism and by atmospheric electricity. The electrical influences may, if an invention recently patented by Cap- tain C. F. Swan, aSan Francisco shipmas- ter, works as well in practice as it does in theory, do much to prevent electrical de- flection of the needle. The invention is, in brief, an electrically insulated compass. Speaking of the fact that the majority of the ships are now made of iron Captain Swan say: ““That the ship’s metal acts as a reser- voir for the accumulation of electricity no experienced seaman or astute scientific man can doubt. The constraction of iron ships is such that the metallic plating cov- ering the ship’s hull is in direct contact with her stem and stern posts. These lat- ter in their turn are connected with each other through the cavity of the ship’s hull by two horizontal and perpendicular supports. This simple arrangement will admit of electrical currents, for 1+ forms in itself a complete electrical current. “Farther, this admissible current may traverse various sections of the ship, ac- cording to circumstances. An electrical current may establish itself, following the fore and aft medium line of the sliip, and by means of the vessel's outer plating, and vice versa, as the case may be. In the movement of a vessel tbrough the water immense force is consumed in friction and resistance, and this certainly results in the generation lectricity to a greater or lesser degree, the metal entering into the construction of a ship acting asits reservoir or storehouse.” The suggestion of electricity produced by the friction of a ship’s hull upon the water struck one or two gentlemen to whom the matter was suggested as new. Capiain Swan’s application of this claimed fact ‘is this: “If the friction of water against the iron plating of a ship’s hull will generate electririty, and the metal will admit of a current, we find an ex- planation for the alternate deviation of compass needles when the ship is directed upon either a nortberlv or southerly course, and laboring in a rough, beam sea. ““That side of the ship that is buried most fully beneath the surface of the water must necessarily generate the most | electricity. The currents generated by either side of the ship preponderate al- ternately as the ship rolls in tne sea, consequently the needle deflects regu- larly.” Captain Swan, having fizured out to his sfaction that the sudden devi- of the compass are due to elec- tricity to a very large extent, went to work to see what could be done to make the compass more relisble as a guide. He has constructed a binnacle, composed wholly of non-conducting materials and insulatec completély. Within this bin- white.”" nacle the compass is worked within a | vacuum, which in turn is within a second vacuum. More particular description is given in Captain Swan’s own words: ‘Within an outer polished-glass globe of any dimension ana a half inch in thick- ness is a second or inner glass globe of similar description, which is supported at 8 distance of two inches from the inner surface of the outer zlobe by six gutta- percha rings. Each globe is divided hori- zontally into hemispheres, which are ad- justed to each other and rendered air- tight by means of a rubber fitting. From the compass, which occupies the inner globe, the air is exhausted, leaving the needle in a vacuum. “‘The hemispheres of the globe are then adjusted and the air is exhausted. The inner globe is also suspended within a vacuum, which has within its cavity a seconc vacuum, which represents the po- sition of the needle. The entire apparatus is then clothed in a gutta-percha covering, not only to protect the glass, but to serve as sdditional insulation, and is thoroughly insulated from the deck by similar mate- riais.” Captain Swan has tried some experi- ments with his insulated compass. “A needle swinging in tLis apparatus I have found,” he says, “'in no wise influenced by extraordinary quantities of iron, conveyed to its immediate vicinity.” All he asks now is “that seamen generously reserve their opinions until I am able to practi- cally demonstrate to each individual the truthfulness of my assertions.” 'I'nat is asking little, as a matter of course. “Since the magnet was first utilized in the form of a compass needle for the pur- poses of navigation ithas exhibited a ae- flective tendency and will continually do so as long as our present compass bin- nacles remain popular. Iam ready to as- sert that sudden deflection of the compass needle 1s due either directly or indirectly to electrical influences. It may be due directly to the passage of electrical cur- rents in the vicinity of the needle or indi- rectly to the magnetization of metal caused by similar currents.” Captain Swan makes an interesting claim to the effect that sudden deviations of the needle, which are observed in damp or foggy weather on metallic ships, do not take place upon wooden vessels, simply because wood is of a low conducting power. “The metallic vessel must,” he says, ‘‘under all circumstances act to a greater or less degree as an electrical reservoir and the degree to which it is so influenced will depend upon thesurround- ings. For instance, in fair weather, when the clouds float high above the ocean’s surface, there is not so great a tendency toward electrical interchange between them and theearth’ssurface. The greater degree to which a ship’s metal acts as an electrical reservoir the greater must be any established electrical current that may circulate through the ship, and con- seauently the greater the needie deflec- tion.” Fiashing and glowing in the Arctic sky, is the magnificent and electrically dis- turbing aurora borealis. While it is pic- turesque, awe-inspiring, wonderiul and A COMPASS THAT IS ALWAYS TRL.. somewhat mysterious, it 13 not looked upon with favor by the practical naviga- tor. Possibly the best test of Captain | Swan’s invention could be made under the skies of *'the boreal pole,” as Edgar A. Poe termed the frigid northern coun- | try. That would be an experiment which | Captain Swan is anxious to have made, The great streamers und flickerimg radi- ance which splendor the frosty skies have no scientific terrors for him. Every mariner would hope :hat the experiment might prove successful. — Children of Executioners. The popular belief to the effect that an executioner must be a particularly hard- hearted individual—a sentiment shared by his relations—will have to be modified in the case of M. de Paris, as the execu- tioner of France iseupnemistically called, says Pearson’s Weekly. M. Deibler, when he had the misfortune to lose his wife a short time ago, gave evi- dence of the fact that constant intercourse with death and the sight of the dead had not robbed him of the sensitiveness per- taining to it when brought within his own intimate surroundings. He was mani- festly overcome at the graveside and the impression he gave of the genuineness of his griel was such that nobody suggested that he was acting—expert as all Frencn people are in that art. In private life, it is said, he and his wife were bound by the closest ties of affection which likewise linked them with their children. No attempt was made to con- ceal the nature of his calling from them, and Mme. Deibler was, it is said, even proud of her husband’s profession. Her c_hnncler wa3 based on strictly religious lines and she therefore not unnaturally regarded her husband as an instrument in the hands of Providence for the punish- ment of the criminals. It is said that their children had little guillotines for toys. On the last birtnday of the young- boy he was given a model of an Ean lish gallows as an object lesson, from- Mme. Deibler's point of view, of the *'per- fidious English brutality in the treatment of its criminals.” Whether these children will grow up with the taste for execution in their blood is a point which cannot fail to be of inter- est to every one who knows how strong is the bent of hereditary force. The executioner in one of the towns of South Africa, for example, had two chil- dren who were the most beautiful to look at in the whole town. They were rosy- y cheeked, bright-eyed, golden-haired little cherubs who would never have been sus- pected of even being known to an individ- val who pursued so horrible a calling as that of a public executioner. In spite, however, of their seraphic ex- pression they were perfectiy callous little creatures and amused themselves by build- ing ‘m gallows upon which the ex- ecuted mice which they caught for the ex. Press purpose of practicing their skill, — ——— Galbara, an Arabian giant, who was brought to Rome by the Emperor Claudius to serve in the Imperial body guard; was 9 feet 9 inches high. Pliny says he was the tallest man ever seen 10 Rome, i £ | e G ——— R L