CAPE HENLOPEN REFUGE FOR 1498 JOHN CABOT’S MUTINOUS CREW

HISTORY OF CAPE HENOPEN AND BEYOND.

IN 1498 CAPE HENLOPEN BECAME REFUGE OF THE MUTINOUS CREWS OF THE ENGLISHMAN EXPLORER JOHN CABOT.

Captain John Cabot returned to King Henry VII 's England early fall of 1498 and

reported he had found the western sea passage to Asia, the rich lands, of The Great Khan,

2100 miles west of Ireland. However this was unproven as Cabot had brought back no silks

nor spices. Jolly good sport, King Henry VIII . excepted the lands he did prove to have

found as Captain of the ship Mathew.

This lands turned out to be Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The crew of Mathew, 18 men

had landed 24 June 1497, which brought Captain John Cabot 10 pounds and a pension of

20 pounds a year as reward. At that time of the year the weather was warm and green but

Cabot was stead fast he had reached northeast Asia.

King Henry VIII figured Cabot had found someplace of value and the next year

outfitted two vessels with 800 men who reached Baffin Land. Inuktitut, aka, Qikigtaaluk,

Candian territory.

Cabot continued north until the cold and ice caused his men to muntiny and bring

the vessels back southward to Cape Henlopen for refuge.

Abstract: Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, 9 August, 1959.