3. John Cabot's Statue
Let's
go back to 1500, or to be precise 1497.
Why
is John Cabot, an Italian, commemorated in Bristol? 
Why is Bristol known as "the Birthplace of America"?
In
1703 England declared war on France and Spain, in the War of the Spanish
Succession.
In the next 10 years 120 Bristol ships became "privateers" for a
voyage or two, giving them the right to seize merchant ships of the enemy.
Good training for a pirate.
Cabot's statue on The Grove
Cabot has a statue here, one in front of the Council House, and a tower on Brandon Hill.
Depicting a
seafarer of the 15th century
Note the strong hands for hoisting sails aloft and the soft leather boots for keeping steady on a windswept rolling deck at sea lashed by storms on the Atlantic run.
Bristol's western approaches to the ocean made it the main English
port for exploration to the new found lands and colonies, much to the
jealousy of London merchants who liked to keep control.
Bristol
seafarers had secretly been sailing to the New Foundland banks for fish
for a few before Columbus and Cabot visited the city in the 1480's
seeking sponsorship from the leading shipbuilding magnate .
William Canyngs in his huge mansion on the Redcliffe backs, had the means for them to achieve their ambitions of sailing west. Christopher Columbus' brother Ferdinand was sent from Spain to meet the English king but was seized for ransom by French pirates, as a result the course of history was changed.
John Cabot, with very similar ambitions to Columbus, also knew about the voyages that Bristol fishermen were making to Newfoundland prior to 1490.
He went to Bristol in 1494 and asked to be taken to
Newfoundland on a Bristol ship. 
The merchants took him there on the
“Matthew” and on 24 June 1497 they landed at a beach on North America,
probably in Maine. Cabot was an explorer who wrote about his voyage and it
is he who gets the credit for being the first European to stand on North
American soil.
His sponsor Ameryk was the King's customs officer for the port of
Bristol and he paid his yearly pension of £10
The Spanish were
furious, especially as Queen Isobella's daughter, Catherine of Aragon, was
betrothed to King Henry Tudor's son and so had to keep secret that they
had despatched a vicious pirate called Hojeda to murder Cabot and all his
Bristol crew on their return voyage the following year.
High up on the
hill overlooking the harbour is a hermits cave dedicated to the Irish monk
St. Brendon , legend says he sailed to the new found lands in a boat
covered in cow hides in the first millenium
The council purchased this dominating hilltop with the fresh water springs that fed the monastry below .To commemorate Cabot's landfall in 1497 they constructed the 300ft high Cabot tower. It was opened on the 23 rd august on the 400 years anniversary
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