40 DISCOVERIES OF 1500. 



Goes, describe the qualities of the country, and 

 the manners of the inhabitants. 



In the first coUection of voyages which is 

 known to have been pubhshed in Europe, and 

 printed in Vicenza, by Francazano Montaboldo,* 

 there is inserted a letter from Pedro Pascoal, 

 ambassador from the repubhc of Venice to the 

 court of Lisbon, addressed to his brother in 

 Italy, and dated 29th October 1501, in which he 

 details the voyage of Cortereal, as told by himself 

 on his return. 



From this authority, it appears that, having 

 employed nearly a year in this voyage, he had 

 discovered, between west and northwest, a con- 

 tinent until then unknown to the rest of the 

 w^orld ; tliat he had run along the coast upwards 

 of eight hundred miles ; that according to his con- 

 jecture this land lay near a region formerly ap- 

 proached by the Venetians,! almost at the North 

 Pole ; and that he was unable to proceed farther 

 on account of the o-ieat mountains of ice which 

 incumbered the sea, and the continued snows 

 Vv^hich fell from the skv. 



He further relates that Cortereal brought fifty- 

 seven of the natives in his vessels — he extols the 

 countiy on account of the timber which it pro- 



* Mundo Nuovo e Paesi nuovamente retrovati,&c. Vicenza, 

 3507 ; a very rare book ; translated into Latin, by INIadrigano, 

 under the title of " Itinerarium Portugalensium e Lusitania in 

 Jndiam, &c." 



t Nicolo and Antonio Zeno.. 



