'
One-fifth of the profits from the anticipated voyages to
the new land was to fall to the king, but the Cabots were
to have a monopoly of trade, and Bristol was to enjoy
the right of being the sole port of entry for the ships
engaged in this trade.
Not until the next year, 1497, did John Cabot set out.
Then he embarked from Bristol with a single ship, called
in an old history the Matthew, and a crew of eighteen
men. First, he sailed round the south of Ireland, and
from there struck out westward into the unknown sea. The
appliances of navigation were then very imperfect. Sailors
could reckon the latitude by looking up at the North
Star, and noting how high it was above the horizon. Since
the North Star stands in the sky due north, and the axis
on which the earth spins points always towards it, it
will appear to an observer in the northern hemisphere to
be as many degrees above the horizon as he himself is
distant from the pole or top of the earth. The old
navigators, therefore, could always tell how far north
or south they were. Moreover, as long as the weather was
clear they could, by this means, strike, at night at
least, a course due east or west.
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