[313] Hakluyt [Principal Navigations, London, 1589] gives a corresponding inscription from the copy of this map which at that time was in the queen’s private gallery at Westminster; it was engraved in London in 1549 by the well-known Clement Adams. As in 1549 Sebastian Cabot held a high position with the King of England as adviser on all maritime matters, and especially as cartographer, we must suppose that he was consulted in the publication of so important a map, especially as it was attributed to himself. We may therefore assume that the inscription was revised by Sebastian Cabot. Hakluyt mentions this legend on Clement Adams’s map for the first time in 1584 [cf. Winship, 1900, p. 56] and then says, as in the first edition of Principal Navigations, that the date of the discovery was 1494; but in the 1600 edition of Principal Navigations he corrected it to 1497, for what reason is uncertain [cf. Taducci, 1892, p. 47; Harrisse, 1892, 1896; Winship, 1900, pp. 20, f.]. How the certainly erroneous date 1494 got on to the map of 1544 is unknown; it may be supposed that MCCCCXCIIII is an error of reading or writing for MCCCCXCVII, the two strokes of V being taken to be divided: II [cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 61].

[314] Another possible explanation is that Cauo de Ynglaterra, Cabot’s most eastern point of the country, was Cape Race in Newfoundland, in spite of Sebastian Cabot’s having placed it at Cape Breton. As has been said, it is very doubtful whether Sebastian Cabot was with his father in 1497, though on the other hand he probably knew his father’s map, and in 1544 had a copy of it, or at any rate of La Cosa’s. Then he saw the French maps representing Cartier’s discoveries, e.g., Deslien’s map of 1541; and it was a question of identifying his father’s discoveries with this map. It would then be perfectly natural to assume that C. de Ynglaterra answered to Cape Breton, which looked like the easternmost point of the mainland in that region, while farther east there was a group of islands which might well answer to S. Grigor and Y. Verde on La Cosa’s map. Perhaps he also had a note to the effect that it was on St. John’s day that the first land was sighted. On his father’s map he found an island of St. John off this promontory, or he knew it from the tradition of Reinel’s and later maps, and so placed his “Prima tierra vista” at Cape Breton. If the view that C. de Ynglaterra is Cape Race be regarded as correct, it might be assumed that Cauo descubierto was really the place where Cabot first made the land, perhaps in the neighbourhood of Cape Breton, and that from thence he sailed eastward, the supposed 300 leagues, along the south coast of Newfoundland. The two islands he discovered to starboard might then be Grand Miquelon and St. Pierre, though this is not very probable, and he would then have sailed between them and the land. But in that case we have a difficulty with the two islands, S. Grigor and Y. Verde, which must then lie east of Cape Race, where no islands exist. That they were icebergs taken for islands is not very likely. It is more probable that, as already suggested, they are the ghosts of the “Illa Verde” and “Illa de Brasil” of earlier compass-charts (of the fifteenth century; see above, pp. 279, 318). But the whole of this explanation seems rather artificial, and the even coast of La Cosa’s map is difficult to reconcile with the extremely uneven coast-line we should get between Cape Breton Island and Cape Race. There is the further difficulty, if La Cosa’s coast was the south coast of Newfoundland, that we should have to assume that John Cabot was aware of the variation of the compass, and allowed for it on his chart.

[315] This would be, according to the reckoning of that time, February 3, 1497, since the civil year began on March 25; in New Style it will therefore be February 12, 1498.

[316] The MS. is preserved in the British Museum. Cf. G. P. Winship, 1900, p. 47.

[317] The text has “vicinidades,” but Desimoni [1881, Pref. p. 15] supposes it to be a misreading for “septe citades,” i.e., “the Seven Cities.”

[318] “Spero” is obviously a slip of the pen for “spera.”

[319] Harrisse’s contention [1896, pp. 129, ff.], that this expression, “surmysed to be grete commodities,” points to the chronicler here having introduced statements about the first voyage, in 1497, is hardly well founded. For Cabot discovered, according to the statements, no commodities (except fish) in 1497; on the other hand, he supposed that by penetrating farther to the west along the coast he would reach these treasures.

[320] Cf. G. P. Winship, 1900, p. 47. In the Cottonian Chronicle this account is given under the thirteenth year of Henry VII.’s reign, which lasted from August 22, 1497, to August 21, 1498. This has led some to think it referred to the voyage of 1497, but that is impossible, as, of course, Cabot had returned before the thirteenth year of Henry’s reign began.

[321] In the note preceding this statement taken from Fabyan, Hakluyt has made Sebastian Cabot leader of the expedition; but there is nothing to this effect in the text.

[322] It was suggested above that the Burgundian who took part in Cabot’s voyage in 1497 may have been from the Azores. It might be supposed that he also accompanied João Fernandez or Corte-Real in 1500, and now took part with Fernandez in the English undertaking, and in this way we should get a connection; but all this is mere guessing.

[323] Possibly the first-named Portuguese was the origin of the name of “Labrador.” On a Portuguese map of the sixteenth century, preserved at Wolfenbüttel, it is stated that the country of Labrador was “discovered by Englishmen from the town of Bristol, and as he who first gave the information was a ‘labrador’ [i.e., labourer] from the Azores, they gave it that name” [cf. Harrisse, 1892, p. 580; 1900, p. 40]. Ernesto do Canto [Archivo dos Açores, xii. 1894] points out that in documents of as early as 1492 there is mention of a João Fernandez who is described as “llavorador,” and who was engaged with another (Pero de Barcellos) in making discoveries at sea. “Llavorador” did not mean merely a common labourer, but one who tilled the ground, an agriculturist, landowner. We are then tempted to suppose that, as Do Canto assumes, this João Fernandez llavorador is John Fernandus, who is mentioned in the letters patent of 1501. The name of Labrador first appears on Portuguese maps (cf. the King map of about 1502), and is there used of Greenland. It may there be due to this João Fernandez (llavorador), who, perhaps, returned to Portugal in 1502, as he is no longer mentioned in the letters patent of December 1502 [cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 40, ff.; Björnbo, 1910, p. 174]. Possibly he may have accompanied Corte-Real in 1500, or himself made a voyage in that year (see next chapter), before he came to Bristol; of that we know nothing, but in that case the name refers to some such Portuguese voyage, on which we know that Greenland was sighted in 1500, though the voyagers were unable to reach the coast (see next chapter). It may then be supposed that the English expedition from Bristol in 1501, in which João Fernandez took part, did reach the coast of Greenland, and therefore on later maps the discovery was attributed to the English, who not only saw the coast, but also landed on it. The Spanish cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz (born 1506) says: “It was called the land of Labrador because it was mentioned and indicated by a ‘labrador’ from the Azores to the King of England, when he sent on a voyage of discovery Antonio [sic] Gabot, the English pilot and father of Sebastian Gabot, who is now Pilot Major (piloto mayor) to Your Majesty” [cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 80]. As this was written so long after, and in Spain, it is not surprising that Cabot’s voyage of 1497 has been confused with the voyage of 1501, especially as it was not to the interest of Sebastian, who was still in Spain at that time, to correct this. The statement agrees, moreover, with the legend on the Portuguese map at Wolfenbüttel.

[324] Cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 147.

[325] In the repetition of the same statement (from Fabyan) in Stow’s Chronicle the eighteenth year is given as the date, i.e., August 22, 1502, to August 21, 1503; but it is doubtful which is correct; it appears to me that the text itself must be more original in Hakluyt; but the date occurs in the heading added by himself.

[326] The most natural explanation of this seems to me to be that Fabyan, whom Hakluyt quotes, thought that these savages were taken on the same island [i.e., North America] that John Cabot had discovered [in 1497]; of whose expedition in 1498 he had said that it had not returned during the mayoralty of William Purchas, see above, p. 326. That Hakluyt also interpreted Fabyan’s words thus seems to result from the fact that in his later repetition of this, in “Principal Navigations,” in 1589 and 1599-1600, he has altered the heading, making it the fourteenth (instead of the seventeenth) year of Henry VII. [i.e., August 22, 1498-August 21, 1499] when the three savages were brought to him. Hakluyt must then have misunderstood it to mean that they were taken on the voyage of 1498.

[327] In Hakluyt’s heading to this statement we are told that it was Sebastian Cabot who brought these savages; but his name is not mentioned in the text itself, which appears to be more genuine than the heading, and there is no ground for supposing that Sebastian took part in either of these expeditions of 1501 or 1502; in any case he was not the leader. In Stow’s version [Winship, 1900, p. 95] Sebastian Gabato is introduced into the text as he who had taken the three men; but, as suggested above, Stow’s text seems less original than Hakluyt’s. It is probable that both Stow and Hakluyt may have started from the assumption that it was Sebastian Cabot who made the voyage, and, therefore, that they thoughtlessly introduced his name [cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. 142, ff.]; on the other hand it appears to me doubtful that his name should already have occurred in Fabyan in this connection.

[328] Greenland is represented on the map conformably to the type that was introduced on some mappemundi after Clavus’s map (cf. p. 278).

[329] As to the works of these authors, see Winship [1900]. Markham [1893] reproduces them (except Contarini’s report of 1536) in translations, which, however, must be used with some caution.

[330] These two ships and the three hundred men occur in Peter Martyr and Contarini, as well as in Gomara and Galvano; while Ramusio only has two ships and says nothing about the crews.

[331] In Peter Martyr’s original account no latitude is given.

[332] The meaning must be that these islands of ice were aground, but that nevertheless a line of one hundred fathoms did not reach the bottom. The ice must consequently have been over one hundred fathoms thick, which, of course, was a remarkable discovery at that time.

[333] This was the name at that time (1550) for the whole south-eastern part of the present United States.

[334] Cf. Winship, 1900, p. 89. Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1576 repeats the same statement almost word for word, saying that he has taken it from maps, on which Sebastian Cabot had described “from personal experience” the north-west passage to China [cf. Winship, 1900, pp. 17, 52; Kohl, 1869, p. 217].

[335] Cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. 159, ff.; Winship, 1900, p. 44.

[336] We must then suppose that “Henry VII.” in Ramusio is an error for “Henry VIII.”

[337] Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 44.

[338] Cf. Harrisse, 1883, Supplement post scriptum, pp. 6, ff.

[339] As remarked above (p. 328), it is possible that these objects belonged to John Cabot’s unfortunate expedition of 1498.

[340] The document, as reproduced, has 1502. As the civil year at that time began on March 25, the date given would correspond to January 24, 1503, according to our calendar. But, according to the tradition given in later accounts, Miguel Corte-Real sailed in 1502, the year after his brother (cf. the legend on the Portuguese chart of about 1520, p. 354). Either we must suppose that the year or month in the document is an error, or the tradition is incorrect.

[341] These five months are a little difficult to understand. Either they must be reckoned from his departure—if we put that in May 1501, five months will take us to October 1501, but then the other ship had returned (see pp. 347, ff.)—or they must be reckoned from the return of the “two ships” (in October), but that takes us to March 1502. Thus neither gives good sense. Most likely, as in the case of the three ships instead of two, it is an error in the document.

[342] Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 214.

[343] Cf. Kohl, 1869, p. 179, Pl. X.; Kretschmer, 1892, Pl. XII.; Björnbo, 1910, p. 212.

[344] It might be objected that Gaspar Corte-Real’s name is not mentioned in the whole letter, and that he might thus have also been in command of these “other caravels”; but in Pasqualigo’s letter to his brothers Gaspar’s name is mentioned, and there too the meaning does not seem to be that he was connected with the discovery in the previous year of the country which could not be approached because of ice; but nothing definite can be concluded on this point from the two letters.

[345] The connection with the latter is evidently brought about by the south coast of the insular Greenland (Terra Laboratoris)—which we meet with first on the King map (p. 373), and which was given a broad form like that of the Greenland coast on the Oliveriana map (p. 375), but even broader—being transferred westward towards America, to the north of the coast of Corte-Real or Newfoundland, as we find it on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 (p. 354) and on Reinel’s map (p. 321). Maggiolo’s map (see above) forms a transitional type between these maps and the Oliveriana. Greenland (Labrador) was later made continuous with Newfoundland (cf. Ribero’s map of 1529, p. 357), and remained so on maps for a long time (see the map of 1544, p. 320).

[346] The expedition attributed to João Vaz Corte-Real, on which he is said to have discovered Newfoundland as early as 1464 or 1474, is unhistorical, and is a comparatively late invention which is first found in the Portuguese author, Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, in his “Saudades da Terra” [vi. c. 9], written about 1590 [cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 26, ff.]. Father Antonio Cordeyro (Historia Insulana, Lisbon, 1717) says that the discovery was made in company with Alvaro Martins Homen.

[347] It may also be supposed that from the ice off the south-west of Greenland Corte-Real steered north-west and west, and met with the ice in the Labrador Current, and was then obliged to turn southwards along the edge of the ice until he sighted land.

[348] These times given by Cantino for the voyage are, of course, improbable; if we might suppose that he meant weeks instead of months, it would agree with the time naturally occupied on such a voyage. If we add his one month for the homeward voyage to the seven months given above, and if another month be reckoned for the stay in the country, we shall have his nine months for the whole voyage.

[349] That the Eskimo lived in caves in the mountains or underground was a not uncommon idea even in later times; see, for instance, Wilhelmi: Island, Hvitramannaland, Grönland und Finland, 1842, p. 172.

[350] We do not know that the Indians of Newfoundland had hide-boats; but it is not impossible.

[351] This land connection is found on the Canerio map of 1502-1507, which is of the same type as the Cantino map and is an Italian copy, either of the Cantino map itself or of a similar Portuguese map of 1501 or 1502 [cf. Björnbo, 1910, p. 167].

[352] Since I contended, in a preliminary sketch of this chapter, which Dr. A. A. Björnbo read, that the representation of Greenland on the Cantino map was most probably based on a voyage along the west coast as well as the east, Dr. Björnbo [1910a, pp. 313, ff.; 1910, pp. 176, ff.] has examined the delineation of Greenland on the Oliveriana map, and found that it represents discoveries made during a cruise, not only along the east coast, but also along a part of the south-west coast, and he sees in this a partial confirmation of my contention. He thinks it was during Corte-Real’s voyage of 1500 that this cruise was made, and even supposes that the prototype of the Oliveriana map was Corte-Real’s admiral’s chart itself; but this I regard as very doubtful, as will appear from what I have said above regarding the discoveries of 1500. Björnbo thinks that an original map like the Oliveriana map is sufficient to explain the form of the west coast of Greenland on the Cantino map, while the more northern portion has been given a direction in accordance with the Clavus maps. I have admitted to Björnbo the possibility of such an explanation. But the more I look at it, the more doubtful it seems; for the form of the west coast on the Cantino map has, in fact, not the least resemblance to that of the Clavus maps; indeed, the very direction is different, more northerly and more like the real direction, when allowance is made for the probable variation. It appears to me, therefore, that we cannot assume offhand that the Clavus maps could lead to a representation like that of the Cantino map.

[353] Owing to the compass error varying in the course of the voyage, the courses sailed will be more nearly parts of a great circle.

[354] According to the scale of the Cantino map this distance is about 2250 miglia, but according to Pasqualigo’s letters it should be 1800 or 2000, and according to Cantino’s letter 2800 miglia.

[355] This is not the place to discuss what is represented by the coast of the mainland to the west of Cuba on the Cantino map, whether the east coast of Asia, taken from Toscanelli’s mappamundi (or a source like Behaim’s globe), or real discoveries on the coast of North America made by unknown expeditions (?). In any case this coast has nothing to do with Gaspar Corte-Real, and Sir Clements Markham [1893, pp. xlix, ff.] is evidently wrong in thinking that this discoverer on his last voyage (in 1501) may have sailed along this coast.

[356] Yet a third type of representation of Greenland may be said to be found on the so-called Pilestrina map (p. 377), perhaps of 1511 [cf. Björnbo, 1910, p. 210], where Greenland forms a peninsula (from a mass of land on the north) as on the Cantino map, but much broader still. On the south-eastern promontory of Greenland is here written: “C[auo] de mirame et lexame” (i.e., Cape “look at me but don’t touch me”), which may be connected with the Portuguese voyage of 1500, when the explorers saw the coast but could not approach it on account of ice. Finally, I may mention the type of the Reinel map (see p. 321), where Greenland in the form of a broad land has been transferred to the coast of America. On all these maps with their changing representation of Greenland, Newfoundland has approximately the same form and position.

[357] Cf. Harrisse, 1900, pp. 54, f.

[358] That Miguel Corte-Real really reached Newfoundland seems also to result from the legend quoted above from the chart of about 1520, since he would hardly be named on this coast unless there were grounds for supposing that he arrived there; but this again must point to some of the expedition having returned.

[359] If Miguel Corte-Real set out in 1503, and not in 1502 (cf. p. 353, note 1), it must have been in 1504 that the King despatched these fresh ships.

[360] It is reported that in 1574 Vasqueanes Corte-Real IV., father of this Manuel, undertook an expedition to Labrador to find the North-West Passage.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Footnote 18 appears on page 22 of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page.

Footnote 182 appears on page 200 of the text, but there is no corresponding marker on the page.