Giovanni Caboto was a Genoese; he came to England some time between 1484 and 1490, and settled among the merchant adventurers of Bristol.
Eventually he interested Henry VII in the project of a northern route to the East, and secured a patent to End lands unknown to Christians. He set sail from Bristol May 2, 1497 and made a landfall on the Labrador coast; the expenses, of the voyage were borne by the Bristol merchants.
In the summer of 1497, he crossed the Atlantic and discovered the mainland of North America—probably the Labrador coast. On this achievement was based the claim of England to North America.