1476?-1557

Italian navigator and cartographer who sailed (for British investors) to North America in the first recorded attempt to find the Northwest Passage (1508-1509). Cabot served as royal cartographer for both England (1509-1512) and Spain (1512-1518). From 1518 to the 1540s, Cabot sailed for Spain as chief pilot and explored parts of South America, including the Río de la Plata, the Paraná River and the Paraguay River (1526-1529). Retiring from the sea, he turned to mapmaking and, in 1544, completed a world map based, in part, on his voyages and exploration. In 1551, Cabot began his last career as governor of the Muscovy Company, an English trading organization that initiated trade between Russia and England.