24 THE CABOTS. THE CORTEREALS. 



doubled the works of creation, while at the same time 

 it offered to the intellect new and powerful incitements 

 to the improvement of the natural sciences in their 

 physical and mathematical departments.' 5 



As we approach the period here referred to, we find a 

 new spirit at work ; no longer the boisterous adventurous- 

 ness of the Northmen, but an earnest spirit of enterprise. 

 In 1380, the Zeni, two Venetian navigators, voyaged into 

 the north, ignorant of the fact that the Scandinavians 

 had preceded them by three centuries, and brought home 

 accounts of the countries they had seen. In 1497, dur- 

 ing the reign of Henry VII., British enterprise was first 

 directed to a region in which it has been subsequently 

 developed to a degree without example ; and Cabot, or 

 Cabota, the younger, landed at Labrador eighteen months 

 before Columbus saw the mainland of tropical America. 

 He contemplated also a voyage to the pole, and sailed 

 up to 67| of north latitude. It was thought scarcely 

 possible that the newly-discovered continent stretched 

 so far from north to south without a single opening to the 

 westward, and the search for this became the prime 

 object with mercantile adventurers, who hoped to find a 

 way to the rich and gorgeous countries lying beyond. 



In the year 1500, Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, 

 animated with the desire to emulate Columbus in mak- 

 ing discoveries in the western world, set sail for that 

 part of the globe, and reached the latitude of 50 north, 

 whence he appears to have run as far as 60. The 

 account given of his voyage is very vague. After en- 

 trapping on board no less than fifty-seven of the natives 

 of the western continent, there can be very little doubt 

 for the purpose of making them slaves, he returned to 

 Portugal, carrying them away with him. He arrived at 

 Lisbon on the 8th of October, 1501. He sailed again 

 the next season with two vessels, when, in entering a 



