Possible Portuguese enterprises in the western regions were barred by the claim of the Spanish Crown to the dominion over all lands to the west of a certain boundary, and in the final treaty of Tordecillas, June 7, 1404, between Portugal and Spain, this boundary was fixed by the Pope at 370 leagues (about 1200 geographical miles) to the west of the Cape Verde Islands, and it was to follow the meridian from pole to pole. All that lay to the west of this meridian was to belong to Spain, while Portugal had the right to take advantage of all lands to the east. Thereby the Portuguese were debarred from the search for India and China to the west. These enterprising seafarers must therefore have had every reason to find out whether there were any countries on their side of the boundary-line, and it may be supposed that their attention would naturally be drawn in the direction of the north-western lands (Greenland) of which they had already heard.

And, in fact, such voyages were undertaken from Portugal (and the Azores ?) about 1500; but the accounts of them are meagre and casual, and have been interpreted in very different ways.

In order to enable one to form as unbiased a view as possible of these voyages, it will be necessary to begin by reviewing the most important contemporary documents which may contain statements of value; and afterwards to summarise what may be concluded from these documents.

On October 28, 1499, King Manuel of Portugal issued at Lisbon to João Fernandez letters patent (preserved in the Portuguese State archives, Torre do Tombo) for discoveries, evidently in the north-west, in which it is said:

On May 12, 1500, King Manuel granted to Gaspar Corte-Real letters patent, as follows:

An order is preserved dated April 15, 1501, from King Manuel to the master of the bake-house at the city gate of La Cruz to deliver biscuits to Gaspar Corte-Real, and further, a receipt of April 21, 1501, for the biscuits, signed by Gaspar Corte-Real himself, proving that the latter was in Portugal on that date.[338]

Pietro Pasqualigo, the Venetian Minister at Lisbon, wrote as follows to the Council at Venice on October 18, 1501:

On October 19, 1501, Pietro Pasqualigo writes to his brothers at Venice:

Alberto Cantino, Minister at Lisbon of Duke Ercule d’Este of Ferrara, wrote to the Duke as follows, on October 17, 1501:

Portion of the “Cantino” map of 1502, preserved at Modena. The network of compass-lines omitted

At the request of the Duke of Ferrara Cantino had a map made at Lisbon, chiefly for the purpose of representing the Portuguese discoveries, and sent it to the Duke in 1502. In a letter to the Duke, dated November 19, 1502, he mentions having already sent it. This map, commonly called the Cantino map, and now preserved at Modena, gives a remarkably good representation of southern Greenland, which is called “A ponta de [asia]” [i.e., a point of Asia]. On its east coast are two Portuguese flags to show that it is a Portuguese discovery, one flag somewhat to the north of the Arctic Circle, the other a little to the west of the southern point, and this coast bears the following legend:

To the west of Greenland on the same map a country is marked, called “Terra del Rey de portuguall” (the Land of the King of Portugal); it answers approximately to Newfoundland, possibly with the southern part of Labrador (?). The north and south ends are marked with two Portuguese flags, and the country bears the following legend:

On January 15, 1502,[340] King Manuel gave Gaspar’s brother, Miguel Corte-Real, fresh letters patent as follows:

Two legends on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 are also of interest.[343] On the land “Do Lavrador” [i.e., Greenland] is written:

On Newfoundland, called “Bacalnaos,” is written:

Portion of an anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520, preserved at Munich.
The network of compass-lines omitted

In addition to this may also be mentioned the various maps of Portuguese origin of 1502 or soon after, especially the Italian mappamundi, the so-called King map of about 1502 (p. 373), which must be a copy of a Portuguese map, where Newfoundland is called Terra Corte Real.

Besides these documents contemporary with the voyages, or of the years immediately succeeding, there are also several much later notices of them in Gomara (1552), Ramusio (1556), Antonio Galvano (1563) and Damiam de Goes (1566), but as these were written so long after, we will leave them on one side for the present.

When we endeavour to form an opinion as to the Portuguese voyages of these years on the basis of the oldest documents, the first thing that must strike us is that there are indications of several voyages, and of the discovery of two wholly different countries, which must undoubtedly be Greenland and Newfoundland. As it is expressly stated on the Cantino map, on the Portuguese chart of about 1520, and in many other places, that Newfoundland was discovered by Gaspar Corte-Real, while his name is not mentioned in a single place in these documents in connection with Greenland (or Labrador), and as Pasqualigo’s letter to the Council of Venice expressly says that that land was seen the previous year (1500) by “the other caravels [l’altre caravelle] belonging to this majesty,”[344] the logical conclusion must be that it was not Gaspar Corte-Real who saw Greenland in the year 1500, but some other Portuguese. It may be in agreement with this that on the King map (of about 1502) Newfoundland is called Terra Cortereal (see p. 373), while the island which clearly answers to Greenland is called Terra Laboratoris. One might be tempted to suppose that both lands were named after their discoverers, one, that is, after Corte-Real, the other after a man who is described as “laborator.” The generally accepted view that it was Gaspar Corte-Real who saw Greenland on his voyage of 1500 is thus unsupported by the above-mentioned documents.

On the other hand, we seem to be able to conclude from the royal letters patent to Miguel Corte-Real that Gaspar made two voyages, one in 1500, and another in 1501, and that it was the same country (i.e., Newfoundland) that he visited on both occasions. This is also confirmed by the legend on the Portuguese chart of about 1520. If it was not he who on the first voyage, in 1500, saw Greenland without being able to approach it, we must conclude that yet another expedition, on which Greenland was sighted, left Portugal in the year 1500. One is then inclined to suppose that this was commanded by the same João Fernandez, to whom the King gave letters patent as early as October 1499. This supposition becomes still more probable when we take it in conjunction with what has already been said as to the possible origin of the name of Labrador (see p. 331). We must suppose that this is the same man from the Azores who, under the name of John Fernandus, took part in the Bristol enterprise of 1501, and who is further mentioned in documents of as early as 1492, together with another man from the Azores, Pero de Barcellos, and is described as a “llavorador.” These men would already at that time have been engaged in making discoveries at sea.

If we compare the legend attached to Labrador (Greenland) on Diego Ribero’s Spanish map of 1529 with the corresponding legend on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 this will also confirm our supposition. While on the latter we read that “the Portuguese saw the land, but did not enter it,” Ribero’s map has: “this land was discovered by the English, but there is nothing in it that is worth having.” As this part of Ribero’s map is evidently a copy of the Portuguese maps, we may conclude Ribero’s alteration of the legend to mean that doubtless the land was first sighted by the Portuguese, but that it was the English who first succeeded in landing there, and in this way were its real discoverers. If we add to this the statement on the sixteenth-century Portuguese chart preserved at Wolfenbüttel, that the land was discovered by Englishmen from Bristol, and that the man who first gave news of it was a “labrador” from the Azores, then everything seems to be in agreement.

We may hence suppose the connection to be somewhat as follows: having obtained his letters patent in October 1499, João Fernandez fitted out his expedition, and sailed in the spring of 1500; he arrived off the east coast of Greenland and sailed along it, but the ice prevented him from landing. We have no information at all as to where else he may have been on this voyage. But having returned to Portugal, perhaps after a comparatively unsuccessful expedition, and finding furthermore that the King had issued letters patent to Gaspar Corte-Real, whose voyage had been more successful, Fernandez may have despaired of finding support for fresh enterprises in Portugal, and have turned at once to Bristol, where he took part in getting together an Anglo-Portuguese undertaking, and was thus the “llavorador” who first brought news of Greenland.

Portion of Diego Ribero’s map of 1529. (Nordenskiöld, 1897)

It must, of course, be admitted that the hypothesis here put forward of the voyage and discovery of João Fernandez is no more than a guess; but it seems more consistent than any of the explanations hitherto offered, and, as far as I can see, it does not conflict on any point with what contemporary documents have to tell us. It may be supposed that here, as so frequently has happened, the name of the discoverer, João Fernandez, has been more or less forgotten. His memory has perhaps only been preserved in the name Labrador itself—originally applied to Greenland, but afterwards transferred to the American continent[345]—whilst all the Portuguese discoveries in the north have been associated in later history with the other seafarer, Gaspar Corte-Real, who was of noble family and belonged to the King’s household, and who came from the same island of the Azores, Terceira.

Portion of Maggiolo’s map of 1527 (Harrisse, 1892). Compass-lines omitted

Gaspar Corte-Real belonged to a noble Portuguese family from Algarve and was born about 1450. He was the third and youngest son of João Vaz Corte-Real, who for twenty-two years, since 1474, had had a “capitanerie” as Governor of the Azores—first at Angra in the island of Terceira, later in São Jorge—and died in 1496.[346] Gaspar probably spent a part of his youth in the Azores, which were altogether “a hot-house of all kinds of ideas of maritime discovery”; he certainly became familiar at an early age with narratives of the numerous earlier attempts, and with the many plans of new ocean voyages which were discussed by the adventurous sailors of those islands. As already mentioned, the German, Martin Behaim, was also living in the Azores (cf. p. 287).

The newly discovered north-western lands made continuous
with Asia, on Maggiolo’s map of 1511. (Harrisse, 1900)

From the letters patent of May 1500, we see that Gaspar Corte-Real had at his own expense been trying even before that time to discover countries in the ocean, but as no more is said about it, the attempt was doubtless unsuccessful. It was pointed out above that from the King’s letters patent to his brother Miguel it looks as though Gaspar had made two voyages to the land he had discovered, which is also confirmed by the legend referred to on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520. On the other hand, nothing is said about this voyage in the letters of the two Italian Ministers, nor on the Cantino map. It may seem natural to conclude that Gaspar, after having obtained his letters patent in May 1500, set out on an expedition, the expenses of which were defrayed by himself and his brother Miguel in partnership (cf. the letters patent to the latter).

On his first voyage of 1500 Gaspar had already discovered a part of Newfoundland; but we know nothing of what else he may have accomplished on this expedition. He must have returned to Lisbon by the same autumn.

Encouraged by his success he then set out again with a larger expedition in 1501, after April 21, at which date he was still in Lisbon. This time the expenses were again borne by himself and his brother Miguel in partnership. According to the King’s letters patent of January 1502, he had three ships on this voyage, of which two returned. This does not agree with the letters of the two Italian Ministers, which distinctly say that he left with two ships. But these letters, it is true, do not mutually agree in their statements as to the ship that had returned: Pasqualigo says that the ship arrived at Lisbon on October 9 in one of his letters, on the 8th in the other, and that it brought seven natives; while Cantino says that the ship arrived on October 11 and brought fifty natives to the King. As Pasqualigo says that the other ship was expected daily with fifty natives, it has been thought (cf. Harrisse) that this was the ship referred to by Cantino; but in that case it is puzzling that two Ministers in the same city should have heard of two different ships, and that they should both be ignorant of more than one ship having arrived, although there was an interval of no more than two or three days between each ship’s arrival, and they are both writing a week after that time. Besides, both mention that the second ship, and only one, is expected, and Pasqualigo calls it the commander’s caravel (caravella capitania). We may readily suppose that it is the arrival of the same ship that is alluded to by the two Ministers (no importance need be attached to the discrepancy of dates, since we see that Pasqualigo alters the date of his ship’s arrival from one letter to the other). They may both have heard of fifty natives having been captured, of which they had seen some (seven, for instance); but while Cantino understood that the whole fifty had arrived, Pasqualigo thought that only the seven he had seen had come, while the other fifty were expected on the next ship. Considerable weight must be attached to the fact that in the legend on the Cantino map, which must evidently have been drawn from Portuguese documents, only one ship is mentioned as having returned. The chief difficulty is that this is in direct conflict with the King’s later letters patent to Miguel. We should then have to suppose that the statement in this document as to three ships having sailed and two returned is due to a clerical error or a lapse of memory, which may seem surprising. But the question is, after all, of minor importance. The main point is that Gaspar Corte-Real’s ship never returned.

In estimating the degree of trustworthiness or accuracy to be attributed to Pasqualigo’s and Cantino’s statements about the voyage, it must be remembered that they are both only repeating what they have heard said on the subject in a language not their own, and that when the letters were written they had probably seen no chart of the voyage or of the new discoveries. Cantino says that he was present when the captain of the ship gave his account to the King, and that he is writing down everything that was then said; so that perhaps he had only heard the narrative once, and without a chart, which easily explains his obvious errors; it is no difficult matter to fall into gross errors and misunderstandings in reproducing the account of a voyage which one hears in this way told even in one’s own language. Pasqualigo does not tell us how he had heard about the voyage, but it may have been on the same occasion. The letters of the two Italians reproducing the Portuguese narrative cannot therefore be treated as exact historical documents, every detail of which is correct.

Cantino says in his letter (of October 1501) that Gaspar Corte-Real had sailed nine months before, that is, in January 1501. Pasqualigo says that he left in the previous year, which agrees with Cantino, since the civil year at that time began on March 25. But the existing receipt of April 21, 1501, from Gaspar Corte-Real proves with certainty that the two Italians were mistaken on this point. It may be supposed that they regarded the expeditions of the two consecutive years as a connected voyage (?), but even this will not agree with Cantino’s nine months. According to Cantino’s letter, Corte-Real on leaving Portugal held a northerly course (“towards the pole” are the words), and Pasqualigo says something of the same kind; but this is scarcely to be taken literally, for otherwise we should have to suppose that from Portugal he sailed northward towards Iceland; besides which, Pasqualigo says in both his letters that the land discovered was between north-west and west. Cantino’s statement about the ice might give us firm ground for determining Corte-Real’s route; if it were not unfortunately the case that there are here two possibilities, and that Cantino’s words do not agree well with either of them. The description of the ice points most probably to Corte-Real’s having first met with icebergs; he may have come upon these in the sea off the southern end of Greenland, and as in continuing his course he found the “sea frozen,” he may have reached the edge of the ice-floes. As nothing is said about land, we must suppose that he did not sight Greenland. It is a more difficult matter when, by changing his course to the north-west and west, he finally in this direction sighted land, which according to the description, and the Cantino map, must have been Newfoundland. To arrive there from the Greenland ice he would have had to steer about west-south-west by compass, and in fact Newfoundland (Terra del Rey de portuguall) lies approximately in this direction in relation to the southern point of Greenland on the Cantino map. But it may be, of course, that Cantino’s statement of the direction is due to a misunderstanding;[347] he may have heard that the newly found land lay to the north-west and west from Lisbon, as Pasqualigo says.

Another possibility is that it was on the Newfoundland Banks that Corte-Real met with icebergs; but in that case he must have held a very westerly course, almost west-north-west, all the way from Lisbon, and there would then be little meaning in the statement that he altered his course to north-west and west to avoid the ice, even if we take into account the possibility of the variation of the compass having been 20° greater on the Newfoundland Banks than at Lisbon. Another difficulty is that on the Newfoundland Banks he would hardly have found “the sea frozen,” if by this ice-floes are meant; for that he would have had to be (in June ?) farther to the north-west in the Labrador Current. In neither case would he have been very far from land, so that the times mentioned, three months with a favourable wind from the ice to land, and four months from Lisbon, are out of proportion.[348]

Thus Cantino’s words cannot be brought into agreement with facts; but at the same time many things point to its having been the Greenland ice that Corte-Real first met with in 1501. Doubtless it might be objected that he is said in the previous year to have already found part of Newfoundland, and in that case he would be likely to make straight for it again; but Pasqualigo’s letter gives one the impression that Gaspar Corte-Real may have been interested in finding out whether the land he had found was mainland and continuous with the country (Greenland) which in the previous year (1500) had been seen by the other caravels (João Fernandez ?), and thus it may have been natural that he should first steer in that direction, but he was then forced by the ice westward towards the land he himself had discovered.

Modern map   Cantino map   Reinel’s map   King map

The eastern coast-line of Newfoundland, with possibly the southern part of Labrador

That it was really Newfoundland, and not the coast of Labrador farther north, that Corte-Real arrived at, appears plainly enough from the maps (the Cantino map, the King map, etc.), and may also be concluded from the descriptions in the letters of Pasqualigo and Cantino. We read, amongst other things, that many great rivers ran through that country into the sea. The east coast of Labrador has no rivers of importance, with the exception of Hamilton River; but the entrance to this is by a long estuary, Hamilton Inlet and Lake Melville, up which they would hardly have sailed. On the other hand, there are in Newfoundland several considerable rivers falling into the sea on the east coast, up the mouths of which Gaspar Corte-Real might have sailed. The allusion to the country as fertile, with trees and forests of pines of remarkable height and size, and to there being abundance of timber for masts, etc., also agrees best with Newfoundland. In addition, the coast-line of the country, both on the Cantino map and on later Portuguese maps, agrees remarkably well with the coast-line along the east and north-east sides of Newfoundland.

The statement in Pasqualigo’s letter of October 18, that they sailed “along the coast of the said land for a distance of six hundred miglia and more,” which agrees with the extent of the coast on the Cantino map, must be an exaggeration. It is a common error to exaggerate the distance during a voyage along a coast so indented as that of Newfoundland, where Corte-Real may perhaps have sailed in and out of bays and inlets.

As already stated, Gaspar Corte-Real’s voyages are mentioned in several works of the sixteenth century, but as these were written so long after the events took place, no particular importance can be attached to them in cases where they conflict with the earlier documents. The allusions to Gaspar Corte-Real in the Spanish author Gomara and the Italian Ramusio seem for the most part to be derived from Pietro Pasqualigo’s letter of October 19, 1501, to his brothers at Venice, which was published for the first time as early as 1507. The Portuguese Antonio Galvano says in his “Tratado” (1563) that Gaspar Corte-Real sailed in 1500

This, it will be seen, agrees remarkably well with the conclusions we arrived at above; but as Galvano spent the greater part of his life in the East Indies, and only came home to end his days in a hospital at Lisbon, no great importance can be attached to his statements [cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 35], except in so far as they reproduce a Portuguese tradition.

Damiam de Goes, in his “Chronica do Felicissimo Rei dom Emanuel” (Lisbon, 1566), has a more detailed account of Gaspar Corte-Real’s voyage of 1500, and of the land he visited. He says:

The last statement, that Corte-Real disappeared without any more being heard of him, shows that De Goes was not well informed, in spite of his being chief custodian (Guarda m’or) of the Torre do Tombo, where the State archives were kept at Lisbon. His whole account may therefore be of doubtful value as a historical document. His description of the newly discovered land and of the inhabitants may be derived from other statements, or from literary sources, and is of the same kind as we often meet with in accounts of natives in the authorities of that time. It appears that the cold country, Terra verde, with great forests and wild, barbaric people, must be the Greenland (Gronolondes) that is referred to in the anonymous letter of about 1450 to Pope Nicholas V.[349] Most of what is said about these natives would apparently suit the Eskimo quite as well as the Indians, but as we do not know from whence the whole is derived, it is not easy to form an opinion as to which people is really referred to in the description. The remarkable statement that the natives are at first white, but turn brown through the cold, will hardly suit the Indians, but might apply to the Eskimo, who at an early age have a very fair skin, perhaps quite as light as the Portuguese.