The Many Landfalls of John Cabot

Olaf Uwe Janzen is an associate professor of history at Memorial
University and reviews editor of The Northern Mariner.

This is a scholarly analysis, not just of John Cabot and his voyage to
North America in 1497 but also of the heated debate over the past
century about the precise location of Cabot’s landfall and the
significance that has been attached to the voyage.

Using Hobsbawm’s paradigm of the “invention of tradition,” Pope
explores the national and cultural chauvinism that has driven the debate
to this day. Cabot is particularly vulnerable to this kind of distortion
because the historical evidence remains so slim. Indeed, what we
actually know about Cabot is covered by Pope in just one chapter. He
then shows how Cabot’s achievements were appropriated by his son,
Sebastian (though Pope’s treatment of this controversial figure is
fair, even sympathetic). This is followed by a chapter on more recent
appropriations, namely the debate over where Cabot made landfall.
Throughout, Pope gives careful attention to context; students of 15th-
and 16th-century history will welcome the clarity of the social,
technological, political, and intellectual background to Cabot’s
voyage.

The heart of the book, however, is devoted to the way in which English
Canadians and Newfoundlanders generated several Cabot
traditions—partly in response to American and French-Canadian
veneration of Columbus and Cartier respectively, and partly in response
to their own emerging nationalisms. This leads Pope into a discussion of
the idea and nature of “discovery.” Defying today’s conventions,
Pope insists not only that it is legitimate to define Cabot’s voyage
as one of European “discovery,” but that efforts to disconnect Cabot
from the idea of discovery does both Cabot and the Native inhabitants of
North America a terrible disservice. To deny Cabot’s role as a
“discoverer” is to reject the very implications and consequences of
his voyage. This argument alone should make The Many Landfalls of John
Cabot required reading for anyone interested in understanding the
encounter of the Old and New Worlds. That the book is a pleasure to read
is a delightful bonus.