Early Life
ohn Cabot was born in Italy. His father was a sailor and a merchant. He told John stories about Marco Polo. John wanted to be an explorer.
W hen John was 16 he went to Mecca. Mecca was an exciting place. It made him want to learn to sail. For 10 years he studied sailing. One day John met a beautiful girl named Mattea. They got married and had 3 sons. He was ready to be an explorer. He had to find someone to sponsor his voyage.
Spain and Portugal said no to John. Finally, King Henry VII of England said he would help. He told John to sail north, east or west but not south. He knew the Spaniards were in the South and didn’t want to fight them. John moved his family to England.
Voyages 
ohn Cabot set sail on May 2, 1497 from Bristol. John’s ship was the Matthew. It had a crew of 18 men. It was very small. The crew did everything on the deck. They slept and worked there. There were two very important jobs on a ship. One was to pump the saltwater out of the hull. The other was to be lookout. The sailor climbed high up into the crows nest to look for rocks, ice, and logs. On such a small ship these things were very dangerous.
hen John past the tip of Ireland he headed north for a while. Then he headed west. After 5 weeks they saw land. John and his crew went into the forest. They did not meet any Indians, but they found things that belonged to them. John took some of these back to the ship. John was surprised by how many fish were in the harbor. He could just lower a basket into the sea and it would fill with fish. John decided to sail down the coast of this new land.
hen he got back to England, people cheered. King Henry gave him 10 pounds. King Henry sent him back to the new world. He gave John 300 men and 4 or 5 ships. Sadly, this expedition was lost. No one knows what happened.
John is important because he claimed land for England in the new world. The map below shows that John laid claim to most of North America leaving Central and South American to Spain and Portugal.
This map is the only map drawn by Sebastian Cabot that survived. It is in the National Library of France.
Sebastian Cabot
John Cabot's son, Sebastian, was a great mapmaker and navigator. He believed that you could find a way to sail through the new continent to Asica. In 1508 King Henry VII's sent him to find this "Northwest passage." His crew wanted to mutiny so Sebastian headed back to England. On the way back he explored the coast of North America. When he got back to England in 1509 King Henry had died. The new king, Henry VIII wasn't interested in exploring. Sebastian moved to Spain.
In 1526, he set sail with four ships. He spent four years trying to find a better passage to the orient. He failed and returned to Spain in disgrace. He went home to England and lived as a mapmaker until his death in 1557.
Links
Includes a timeline of exploration, great activities
Discovery Web has many sites for every type of exploration!