Though the exact details of his life and expeditions are the
subject of debate, John Cabot (or Giovanni Caboto, as he was
known in Italian) may have developed the idea of sailing
westward to reach the riches of Asia while working for a
Venetian merchant. By the late 1490s, he was living in England,
and gained a commission from King Henry VII to make an
expedition across the northern Atlantic. He sailed from Bristol
in May 1497 and made landfall in late June. The exact site of
Cabot's landing has not been definitively established; it may
have been located in Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island or
southern Labrador. After returning to England to report his
success, Cabot departed on a second expedition in mid-1498, but
is thought to have perished in a shipwreck en route. John
Cabot's Early Life Giovanni Caboto was born circa 1450 in Genoa,
and moved to Venice around 1461; he became a Venetian citizen in
1476. Evidence suggests that he worked as a merchant in the
spice trade of the Levant, or eastern Mediterranean,