In Northern Mists Volume Ii Part 26

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.

[Sidenote: Late authorities of the sixteenth century]

[Sidenote: Galvano on G. Corte-Real]

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 doc.u.ments. 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

"from the island of Terceira with two s.h.i.+ps, fitted out at his own expense, and travelled to the region that is in the fiftieth degree of lat.i.tude, a land which is now called by his name. He returned safely to Lisbon; but when he again set out, his s.h.i.+p was lost, and the other s.h.i.+p returned to Portugal."

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.

[Sidenote: De Goes on G. Corte-Real]

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:

"He sailed from the port of Lisbon at the beginning of summer, 1500.

On this voyage he discovered in a northerly direction a land which was very cold, and with great forests, as all those [countries] are that lie in that quarter. He gave it the name of Terra verde [i.e., green land]. The people are very barbaric and wild, almost like those of Sancta Cruz [i.e., Brazil], except that they are at first white, but become so weather-beaten from the cold that they lose their whiteness with age and become almost dark brown. They are of middle height, very active, and great archers, using sticks hardened in the fire for throwing-spears, with which they make as good casts as though they had points of good steel. They clothe themselves in the skins of beasts, of which there is abundance in that country. They live in caves, and in huts, and they have no laws. They have great belief in omens; they have marriage, and are very jealous of their wives, in which they resemble the Lapps, who also live in the north from 70 to 85....

After he [Gaspar Corte-Real] had discovered this land, and sailed along a great part of its coast, he returned to this kingdom. As he greatly desired to discover more of this province, and to become better acquainted with its advantages, he set out again immediately in the year 1501 on May 15 from Lisbon; but it is not known what happened to him on this voyage, for he was never seen again, nor did there come any news of him" [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 233].

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 doc.u.ment. 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.

[Sidenote: Mention of the natives in Pasqualigo and Cantino]

What is said of the natives in the letters of Pasqualigo and Cantino seems on the whole to suit the Eskimo better than the Indians; typical Eskimo features are: that they had boats covered with hides (it is true that Cantino says stags' hides, i.e., reindeer hides, but this must be a misunderstanding);[350] also houses (i.e., tents) of long poles covered with fish skin (i.e., sealskin); that the colour of their skin was rather white than anything else, that they laughed a good deal and showed much cheerfulness. It may seem somewhat surprising that the Eskimo should be "a little bigger than our countrymen" (i.e., the Italians), but, in the first place, it may have been particularly good specimens of the race that were exhibited, and in the next place the Eskimo are a race of medium stature, and, perhaps, on an average, quite as tall as Italians and Portuguese.

That they were naked with the exception of a piece of skin round the loins answers to the indoor custom of the Eskimo. Pasqualigo's description: that they were clothed in the skins of various animals, mostly otter, and that the skins were unprepared and not sewed together, but thrown over the shoulders and arms as they were taken from the animals, conflicts with the words of Cantino, and is, no doubt, due to a misunderstanding; it does not sound probable. If it is correct, Pasqualigo and Cantino must have seen different natives.

It is probable that there were Eskimo in the north-east of Newfoundland at that time, and that the natives may have been brought from thence or from southern Labrador.

[Sidenote: Evidence of the Cantino map as to the Portuguese discoveries]

Of all known maps the Cantino map undoubtedly gives the most complete and trustworthy representation of the Portuguese discoveries of 1500 and 1501 in the north-west; we know, too, that it was executed with an eye to these, at Lisbon, and immediately after the return thither of those who had taken part in the later voyage. We may consequently suppose that the cartographer availed himself of the sources then at his disposal. He may either himself have had access to log-books, with courses and distances, and to the original sketch-charts of the voyages, or he may have used charts that were drawn from these sources. But he used in addition maps and authorities of a more learned kind, as appears, for instance, in the legend attached to Greenland, where he speaks of the opinion of cosmographers, and says that this country is a point of Asia. It is clear, as pointed out by Bjornbo [1910, p. 167], that Greenland was connected on the map with Scandinavia, which is called "Parte de a.s.sia," but the upper edge of the map has been cut off, so that this land connection is lost,[351] as is the last part (asia) of the inscription on Greenland. The basis of this idea of a land connection must have been a map of Clavus's later type; while the delineation of Greenland itself is evidently new. In fact, it is here placed for the first time very nearly at a correct distance from Europe, and with Iceland in a relatively correct position; and in addition to this it has been given a remarkably good form. If we a.s.sume that the variation of the compa.s.s was unknown, and that the coasts were laid down according to the courses sailed by compa.s.s as though they were true, then the southern point of Greenland comes just where it should, if the variation during the voyage from Lisbon averaged 11 west.

The Portuguese flags on the coast indicate that the Portuguese sailed along the east coast of Greenland from north of the Arctic Circle of the map to past Cape Farewell (without landing, according to what the legend says), and its direction on the map is explained by a variation of about 14 west. The remarkably good representation of Greenland with the characteristic form of the west coast cannot possibly be derived from the Clavus maps, where Greenland is a narrow tongue of land with its east and west coasts running very nearly parallel. The west coast has been given a form approximately as though it were laid down from courses sailed with a variation increasing towards the north-west from 20 to nearly 30 (cf. p.

371). It is also characteristic that while the east coast is without islands, a belt of skerries is shown on the north along the west coast. It may seem a bold a.s.sumption to attribute this to pure chance and the caprice of the draughtsman, even though it may be pointed out that he has given the west coast of Norway a similar curved form with a belt of skerries outside (as on the Oliveriana map, p. 375). If the cartographer was acquainted with the representation of Greenland on the Clavus maps, the probability becomes still greater that he had definite authority for his west coast, since it differs from that of the Clavus maps. It is true that the Portuguese flags on the map and the statement in the legend that the Portuguese did not land on the coast do not seem to point to their having sailed any considerable distance to the north along the west coast, for otherwise there would doubtless be mention of this; but there may have been lost authorities for the Cantino map, which were based upon voyages unknown to us, as well as to the cartographer.[352]

If we may suppose that the lighter tone of the sea off the east coast of Greenland and over to Norway (on the original map) represents ice-floes, then this again gives evidence of a knowledge of these northern waters which we cannot a.s.sume to have been derived merely from Portuguese voyages on which the east coast of Greenland was sighted; it must have had other sources, unknown to us.

[Sidenote: Construction of the Cantino map.]

There can be no doubt that the "Terra del Rey de portuguall" of the Cantino map is the east coast of Newfoundland, which, through the variation of the compa.s.s being disregarded, is given a northerly direction. If we draw the east coast of Newfoundland from Cape Race to Cape Bauld on approximately the same scale as that of the Cantino map, and turn the meridian to the west as far as the variation may have been at that time (about 20 at Cape Race, and 4 or 5 more at Belle Isle Strait), we shall have a map (see p. 364) the coast-line of which bears so great a resemblance to that of the Cantino map that it is almost too good to believe it not to be in part accidental (the Newfoundland coast on Reinel's map is also very nearly the same as that of the Cantino map). The resemblance is so thorough that we might even think it possible to recognise the various bays and headlands; but perhaps a part of the southern coast of Labrador has been included in the Cantino map. According to the scale attached to the map, in which each division represents fifty miglia, the distance between the south-eastern point of the country and the northern Portuguese flag is seven hundred miglia, which thus corresponds to the six hundred or seven hundred miglia that Pasqualigo says the Portuguese sailed along the coast. If we divide the map into degrees according to the distance between the tropic and the Arctic Circle, the extent of the country will be about eleven degrees of lat.i.tude. On Reinel's map the length of Newfoundland from north to south is between ten and eleven degrees of lat.i.tude. The distance from Cape Race to Belle Isle Strait corresponds in reality to about 5-1/2, that is, fairly near the half.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Reconstruction of an equidistant chart on which the coasts are laid down from magnetic courses without regard to the variation]

Both Greenland and Newfoundland lie too far north on the Cantino map. The southern point of Greenland lies in about 62 20' N. lat., instead of 59 46', while Cape Race, the south-eastern point of Newfoundland, lies in about 50 N. lat., instead of 46 40'. It is unnecessary to a.s.sume that the too northerly lat.i.tude of Greenland is derived from the Clavus map, where its southern point lies in 62 40' N. lat., since a natural explanation of the position both of this point and of Cape Race is provided by the way in which the Cantino map is drawn. It is, in fact, an equidistant compa.s.s-chart, which takes no account of the surface of the earth being spherical and not a plane, and on which the courses sailed have been laid down according to the points of the compa.s.s, presumably in ignorance of the variation of the needle. If we try to draw a map of the same coasts in the same fas.h.i.+on, using the correct distances, and taking the courses as starting from Lisbon, and the variation to be distributed approximately as given on p. 308,[353] we shall then get a map in its main outlines as here represented. The southern point of Greenland comes in about 62 20', or the same as on the Cantino map, and Cape Race comes still farther to the north than on it. The distance from Lisbon to Greenland is almost exactly the same on both maps, and this seems to point to remarkable capabilities of sailing by log and compa.s.s, while, on the other hand, astronomical observations were probably not used. The distance between Lisbon and Newfoundland (Terra del Rey de portuguall) is on the Cantino map a little longer than reality,[354] and the southern end of the latter is brought so far to the south that it would correspond to an average variation of about 4 west, instead of 10, during the voyage from Lisbon. Newfoundland accordingly comes farther west in relation to Greenland, and its southern end farther south than it should do on a map constructed like this one. But we do not know whether the course from which the position of Newfoundland is laid down was taken as going directly to that country from Lisbon; perhaps, for instance, it went first up into the ice off Greenland, and in that case a greater error is natural. If we lay down the West Indian islands (and Florida) on our sketch-map according to the same method, we shall get them in a similar position to that of the Cantino map, except that there they have a far too northerly lat.i.tude, and the distance from Lisbon is much too great; but this is due to the Spanish maps which served as authorities; for we know that even Columbus was guilty of gross errors in his determination of lat.i.tude,[355] and on La Cosa's map they lie for the most part to the north of the tropic.

[Sidenote: Variation in the Portuguese representation of Greenland]

The representation of the Portuguese discoveries in the north-west evidently varied a good deal even on early maps, and sometimes diverged considerably from the Cantino map; Greenland especially was given various forms, while Newfoundland was more uniform in the different types of map.

This, again, strengthens the supposition that these countries were discovered on various voyages, and not by the same man.

[Ill.u.s.tration: North-western portion of the "King" map, an anonymous Italian mappamundi of about 1502. Scandinavia, with Greenland ("Evglovelant") to the north of it, is of the type of Nicolaus Germa.n.u.s's maps; Newfoundland and the Greenland ("Terra Laboratoris") discovered by the Portuguese and shown as an island, are taken from a Portuguese source.

Compa.s.s-lines omitted]

[Sidenote: The King map, circa 1502]

Thus, on the so-called King map--an Italian mappamundi of about 1502, which was probably taken from Portuguese sources--Newfoundland, called Terra Cortereal, lies in about the same place and has the same form as on the Cantino map (its southern point is called capo raso), while Greenland, called Terra Laboratoris, lies farther south than on the Cantino map and has become a long island, the south-east coast of which should doubtless correspond to the east coast of Greenland on the Cantino map, but has a very different direction and form, and has in addition many islands to the south of it. A similar, but still more varied, representation is found on another Italian mappamundi, the so-called "Kunstmann, No. 2." If Greenland and Newfoundland were both discovered by Gaspar Corte-Real and on the same voyage, and if these discoveries formed the basis both of the Cantino map and of the prototype of the King map, then it would be incomprehensible how the representation of one of these countries should vary so much, and not that of the other.[356]

[Sidenote: The Oliveriana map, after 1503]

The so-called Oliveriana map, an anonymous Italian compa.s.s-chart of a little later than 1503, shows more resemblance to the representation of Greenland on the Cantino map; but here that of Newfoundland is very different from what we find on the other maps, as its east coast is remarkably short and the south coast extends a long way to the west, in the same direction as the coast discovered by the English on La Cosa's map of 1500;[357] but the names have no resemblance to those of that map, unless the island "Groga Y" should be La Cosa's "S. Grigor" (?), which however lies farther east, while the island corresponding to "Groga" is called by La Cosa "I. de la trinidat." "Cauo del marco" might also remind us of the Venetian Cabot. Dr. Bjornbo thinks, as mentioned above (p. 369), that the prototype of the Greenland on the Oliveriana map was Gaspar Corte-Real's own admiral's chart of his voyage of 1500. It seems to me possible that Bjornbo may be right, in so far as the representation may be derived from the Portuguese expedition which sighted Greenland in 1500; but, from what has been advanced above, this was not commanded by Corte-Real, but more probably by Joo Fernandez. As the Newfoundland of the map has so little resemblance to reality and to the usual Portuguese representations [cf. also Bjornbo, 1910, p. 315], it is improbable that the prototype of the map was due to Gaspar Corte-Real. Moreover one cannot imagine that mythical islands such as "Insula de labrador," "Insula stille," etc., were drawn by him; in such a case they would have to be explained as later additions from another source.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Northern portion of an anonymous Italian chart, a little later than 1503. In the Oliveriana Library at Pesaro. Compa.s.s-lines omitted]

We saw from the letters of the two Italian Ministers that King Manuel was very well satisfied with the discoveries of Gaspar Corte-Real, and expected great advantages therefrom, both on account of the trees for masts and of the slaves, etc.; he therefore awaited his return with impatience. But he waited in vain. Gaspar Corte-Real never returned.

Whether he fell fighting with the natives on an unknown coast, or whether he plunged into the mists and ice of the unknown north, there to find a cold grave, or was lost in a storm on the homeward voyage across the Atlantic, will never be revealed.

[Sidenote: Miguel Corte-Real's voyage, 1503]

As he did not return, his brother, Miguel Corte-Real, fitted out a new expedition in the hope, on the one hand of going to help his brother, and on the other of making fresh discoveries. On January (?) 15, 1502 (or 1503 ?), he obtained letters patent from King Manuel (see p. 353). On May 10, according to Damiam de Goes, he sailed from Lisbon with two s.h.i.+ps, and nothing more was heard of him. Antonio Galvano, on the other hand, says that he had three s.h.i.+ps, and that these arrived in Newfoundland (Terra de Corte-Real), but there separated and went into different inlets

"with the arrangement that they should all meet again on August 20th.

The two other s.h.i.+ps did so, and when they saw that Miguel Corte-Real's s.h.i.+p did not come at the appointed time, nor for some time after that, they returned to Portugal, and never since was any more news heard of him, nor did any other memory of him remain; but the country is called to this day the Land of the Corte-Reals."[358]

[Sidenote: The King despatches s.h.i.+ps]

"The King felt deeply the loss of the two brothers, and, moved by his royal and compa.s.sionate feeling, he caused in the year 1503[359] two s.h.i.+ps to be fitted out to go and search for them. But it could never be discovered how either the one or the other (of the brothers) was lost."

If this account of Galvano's is correct, then the last relief expedition returned without having accomplished its purpose. As to what discoveries it may have made, we hear nothing, nor do we see any trace of them on the maps, unless, indeed, the hint of an extension of Newfoundland to the north on the so-called Pilestrina map of about 1511 (see p. 377) may be due to this expedition or to the s.h.i.+p that returned from Miguel Corte-Real's voyage of 1502. On Pedro Reinel's map (p. 321) there is marked a land answering to Cape Breton, with a coast extending westward from it. It is possible that this may be derived from these expeditions, and in the same way all the Portuguese names along Newfoundland, the coast-line of which must be taken from the same source as the Cantino map.

It is, however, more probable that the names are due to Portuguese fishermen; though there is also a possibility that Reinel's additions may be referred to the Anglo-Portuguese expeditions from Bristol in 1501 and the following years. His island, Sam Joha [St. John], points, as has been said (p. 321), to a possible connection with John Cabot's discoveries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Northern portion of an Italian map, possibly drawn by Pilestrina, 1511. Only a few of the names are given. (Bjornbo and Petersen, 1908)]

[Sidenote: Vasqueanes Corte-Real refused leave to sail]

When neither of the brothers returned, the eldest brother, Vasqueanes Corte-Real--who held very high positions both at the King's Court and as Governor of the islands of So Jorge and Terceira in the Azores--wished "to fit out s.h.i.+ps at his own expense in order to go out and search for them. But when he asked the King to excuse his absence, his Majesty could not consent to his going further in the matter, and insisted that it was useless, and that all had been done that could be done" (De Goes). Thus the spirit of the capable and enterprising Portuguese for further exploration in these difficult northern waters seems to have become cooled, and we do not hear much more of official expeditions despatched from Portugal to find other new countries in that quarter. Meanwhile Newfoundland (Terra de Corte-Real) continued through the whole of the sixteenth century to be regarded as a province under the Portuguese Crown, and the post of its Governor, with special privileges, was hereditary in the family of Corte-Real, until Manuel Corte-Real II., the last of the male line, fell fighting by the side of King Sebastian, in the fatal battle of Kas-rel-Kebir in 1578.[360]

The Portuguese seem for a long time to have kept up the connection with Newfoundland, more especially in order to avail themselves of the rich fisheries that had been discovered there. But of this it is only by the merest accident that history has anything to relate. It appears as though this fishery became active immediately after Corte-Real's discovery; for we see that as early as 1506 King Manuel gave orders that the fishermen on their return from Newfoundland to Portugal were to pay one-tenth of the proceeds in duties [cf. Kunstmann, 1859, p. 69].

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CONCLUSION