1503. THE CORTEREALS, 47 



search; but they also returned without any intel- 

 ligence of these unfortunate navigators. 



Notwithstanding these disasters, those voyages 

 were nevertheless productive of great advantages 

 to Portugal: they led to the establishment of a 

 settlement on Newfoundland and to the prose- 

 cution of verv extensive fisheries, in which were 

 employed, at one period, between two and three 

 hundred vessels from the ports of Vianna and 

 Aveiro alone. But when Portugal had passed 

 under the dominion of Spain, her commerce lan- 

 guished and her marine was destroyed, from the 

 combined effect of domestic oppression and foreign 

 war; and the ports both of Aveiro and Vianna 

 are at present, and have been for many years, by 

 sheer neglect, nearly choaked with sand and mud, 

 and can no longer receive vessels of burthen. 



The family of Cortereal has long been extinct, 

 but it was for many years one of the most distin- 

 guished in Portugal. Tlie family name was ori- 

 ginally Costa or Coste, and of French extraction, 

 having come to Portugal along with the Count 

 Alfonso Henriquez, under whom one of the Costas 

 served in the taking of Lisbon and conquering of 

 Portugal from the Moors. 



The family settled in Algarve ; and when John 

 Vaz da Costa (some say his father) came to the 

 Portugueze court, he used to live in such a style of 

 splendour and hospitality^, that the king observed 

 to him, " Your presence, Costa, in my court, 



