CHAPTER IIL

THE PARADISE OF THE WORLD.

EN pounds was the royal reward
which Henry Tudor bestowed on
John Cabot, who in 1497, or
nearly fifteen months before
Columbus touched the mainland
of the American continent, landed
on the shores of North America.

 

 

This sum can scarcely be regarded
as extravagant, even remembering that money had a
greater value in those days than at present, for on
Cabot’s discovery was afterwards founded the English
claim to a large portion of the New World.

For a hundred years after this voyage the people
of England paid little attention to western explora-
tion, leaving Spain to reap the fruits of the daring
adventurers and of the unscrupulous governors, who
regarded the life of an Indian as of far less value
than a few grains of gold. The English were more
interested in trying to solve the problem—how to
reach China by sailing along the north coast of

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