In Northern Mists Volume Ii Part 25

[Sidenote: Cantino's letter, Oct. 1501]

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

"It is already nine months since this most serene King sent two well-equipped s.h.i.+ps to the northern regions (alle parte de tramontana) with the object of finding out whether it was possible to discover lands and islands in those parts; and now on the 11th of this month one of these s.h.i.+ps has safely returned with a cargo, and brought people and news, which I have thought it my duty to communicate to Your Excellency, and thus I write here below accurately and clearly all that the captain [of the s.h.i.+p] reported to the King in my presence. First he stated that after leaving the port of Lisbon they sailed for four months at a stretch always with the same wind, and towards the same pole, and in all that time they never saw anything.

When they had entered the fifth month and still wished to proceed, they say that they encountered immense ma.s.ses of snow frozen together, floating on the sea and moving under the influence of the waves. On the top of these [ice-ma.s.ses] clear fresh water was formed by the power of the sun, and ran down through little channels hollowed out by itself, wearing away the foot [of the ice] where it fell. As the s.h.i.+ps were already in want of water they approached in boats, and took as much as they required; and for fear of staying in that place on account of the danger, they were about to turn back, but impelled by hope they consulted as to what they could best do, and determined to proceed for a few days yet, and they resumed their voyage. On the second day they found the sea frozen, and being obliged to abandon their purpose, they began to steer to the north-west and west, and they continued on this course for three months, always with fair weather. And on the first day of the fourth month they sighted between these two points of the compa.s.s a very great land, which they approached with the greatest joy; and many great rivers of fresh water ran through this region into the sea, and on one of them they travelled for a legha [== about three geographical miles] inland; and when they went ash.o.r.e they found a quant.i.ty of beautiful and varied fruits, and trees, and pines of remarkable height and size, that would be too large for the masts of the largest s.h.i.+p that sails the sea. Here is no corn of any kind, but the people of the country live, they say, on nothing but fis.h.i.+ng and hunting animals, of which the country has abundance. There are very large stags [i.e., caribou, Canadian reindeer] with long hair, whose skin they use for clothes and for making houses and boats; there are also wolves, foxes, tigers [lynxes ?], and sables. They declare, what seems strange to me, that there are as many pelerine falcons as there are sparrows in our country; and I have seen them, and they are very handsome. Of the men and women of that place they took about fifty by force, and have brought them to the King; I have seen, touched, and examined them. To begin with their size, I may say that they are a little bigger than our countrymen, with well-proportioned and shapely limbs, while their hair is long according to our custom, and hangs in curly ringlets, and they have their faces marked with large figures like those of the Indians. Their eyes have a shade of green, and, when they look at you, give the whole face a very wild aspect. Their speech is not to be understood, but it is without harshness, rather is it human. Their conduct and manners are very gentle, they laugh a good deal, and show much cheerfulness; and this is enough about the men. The women have small b.r.e.a.s.t.s and a very beautiful figure, and have a very attractive face; their colour may more nearly be described as white than anything else, but that of the males is a good deal darker.

Altogether, if it were not for the wild look of the men, it seems to me that they are quite like us in everything else. All parts of the body are naked, with the exception of the loins, which are kept covered with the skin of the aforesaid stag. They have no weapons, nor iron, but all the work they produce is done with a very hard and sharp stone, and there is nothing so hard that they cannot cut it with this.

This s.h.i.+p came thence in one month, and they say that it is 2800 miglia [miles] distant; the other consort has decided to sail along this coast far enough to determine whether it is an island or mainland, and thus the King is awaiting the arrival of this [the consort] and the others [i.e., his companions] with much impatience, and when they have come, if they communicate anything worthy of Your Excellency's attention, I shall immediately inform you of it..." [cf.

Harrisse, 1883, pp. 204, ff.].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portion of the "Cantino" map of 1502, preserved at Modena.

The network of compa.s.s-lines omitted]

[Sidenote: The Cantino map, 1502]

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:

"This country, which was discovered by the command of the most highly renowned prince Dom Manuel, King of Portugal, is a point of Asia (esta a ponta d'asia). Those who made the discovery did not land but saw the land, and could see nothing but precipitous mountains. Therefore it is a.s.sumed, according to the opinion of the cosmographers, to be a point of Asia."

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:

"This land was discovered by command of the most exalted and most renowned royal prince Dom Manuel, King of Portugal; Gaspar de Corte-Real, a n.o.bleman of the said King's household, discovered it, and when he had discovered it, he sent [to Portugal] a s.h.i.+p with men and women taken in the said land, and he stayed behind with the other s.h.i.+p, and never returned, and it is believed that he perished, and there are many masts [i.e., trees for masts]."

[Sidenote: Letters patent to Miguel Corte-Real, 1502 or 1503 (?)]

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

"We make known to all who may see this letter that Miguell Cortereall, a n.o.bleman of our household and our head doorkeeper [chamberlain ?], now tells us that, seeing how Gaspar Cortereall, his brother, long ago sailed from this city with three s.h.i.+ps to discover new land, of which he had already found a part, and seeing that after a lapse of time two of the said s.h.i.+ps returned to the said city [Lisbon], and five months have elapsed without his coming,[341] he wishes to go in search of him, and that he, the said miguell corte-reall, had many outlays and expenses of his own in the said voyage of discovery, as well as in the said s.h.i.+ps, which his said brother fitted out the first time for that purpose [i.e., for the first voyage], when he found the said land, and likewise for the second [i.e., the second voyage], wherefore the said gaspar cortereall in consideration of this promised to share with him the said land which he thus discovered and ... which we had granted and given to him by our deed of gift, for which the said gaspar cortereall asked us before his departure, etc." Therefore Miguel claimed his share of the lands discovered by his brother, which he obtained from the King by these letters patent, as well as the right to all new islands and lands he might discover that year (1502), besides that which his brother had found.[342]

[Sidenote: Portuguese chart of about 1520]

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:

"This land the Portuguese saw, but did not enter."

On Newfoundland, called "Bacalnaos," is written:

"To this land came first Gaspar Corte Regalis, a Portuguese, and he carried away from thence wild men and white bears. There is great abundance of animals, birds, and fish. In the following year he suffered s.h.i.+pwreck there, and did not return, and his brother, Micaele, met with the same fate in the next year."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portion of an anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520, preserved at Munich. The network of compa.s.s-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.

[Sidenote: Later notices]

Besides these doc.u.ments 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.

[Sidenote: Gaspar Corte-Real not the discoverer of Greenland (Labrador)]

When we endeavour to form an opinion as to the Portuguese voyages of these years on the basis of the oldest doc.u.ments, 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 doc.u.ments 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 doc.u.ments.

[Sidenote: Joo Fernandez sighted Greenland, 1500 ?]

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 Joo 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 doc.u.ments 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 Wolfenb.u.t.tel, 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, Joo 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portion of Diego Ribero's map of 1529. (Nordenskiold, 1897)]

It must, of course, be admitted that the hypothesis here put forward of the voyage and discovery of Joo Fernandez is no more than a guess; but it seems more consistent than any of the explanations. .h.i.therto offered, and, as far as I can see, it does not conflict on any point with what contemporary doc.u.ments have to tell us. It may be supposed that here, as so frequently has happened, the name of the discoverer, Joo 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 a.s.sociated in later history with the other seafarer, Gaspar Corte-Real, who was of n.o.ble family and belonged to the King's household, and who came from the same island of the Azores, Terceira.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portion of Maggiolo's map of 1527 (Harrisse, 1892).

Compa.s.s-lines omitted]

[Sidenote: Gaspar Corte-Real]

Gaspar Corte-Real belonged to a n.o.ble Portuguese family from Algarve and was born about 1450. He was the third and youngest son of Joo 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 So 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).

[Ill.u.s.tration: The newly discovered north-western lands made continuous with Asia, on Maggiolo's map of 1511. (Harrisse, 1900)]

[Sidenote: Corte-Real's voyage of 1500]

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 partners.h.i.+p (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.

[Sidenote: Corte-Real's voyage of 1501]

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 partners.h.i.+p. According to the King's letters patent of January 1502, he had three s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps. But these letters, it is true, do not mutually agree in their statements as to the s.h.i.+p that had returned: Pasqualigo says that the s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p arrived on October 11 and brought fifty natives to the King. As Pasqualigo says that the other s.h.i.+p was expected daily with fifty natives, it has been thought (cf. Harrisse) that this was the s.h.i.+p referred to by Cantino; but in that case it is puzzling that two Ministers in the same city should have heard of two different s.h.i.+ps, and that they should both be ignorant of more than one s.h.i.+p having arrived, although there was an interval of no more than two or three days between each s.h.i.+p's arrival, and they are both writing a week after that time. Besides, both mention that the second s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p'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 s.h.i.+p. Considerable weight must be attached to the fact that in the legend on the Cantino map, which must evidently have been drawn from Portuguese doc.u.ments, only one s.h.i.+p 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 doc.u.ment as to three s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p 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 doc.u.ments, 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 compa.s.s, 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 compa.s.s 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 (Joo 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Modern Cantino Reinel's King map map map map

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