38 DISCOVERIES OF 1500. 



become vacant by the death of Jacome Bruges, 

 they sohcited the appointment, and in reward 

 for their services the request was granted, their 

 patent commission being dated in Evora, 2d 



April, 1464. 



Notwithstanding this early date of a voyage 

 across the Atlantic, there exists no document to 

 prove that any thing further was done by the Por- 

 tugueze, in the way of discovery, till towards the 

 close of the fifteenth century ; and if the evidence 

 of that in question rested on this single testimony 

 of Cordeiro, and on the fact of the patent, it 

 would scarcely be considered as sufficiently strong 

 to deprive the Cabotas of the honour of being the 

 first who discovered Newfoundland ; at the same 

 time if the patent should specify the service for 

 which it was granted, and that service is stated to be 

 the discovery of Newfoundland, the evidence would 

 go far in favour of the elder Cortereal. But there is 

 another indirect testimony afforded by Francisco 

 de Souza,^ who in 1570 wrote a treatise on the 

 New Islands, and of their discovery ; as also con- 

 cerning those Portugueze who went from Vianna, 

 and from the islands of the Azores, to people the 

 Terra Nova do Baccalhao twenty years before that 

 period; which would prove that the Portugueze 

 not only were in the habit of fishing on the banks 



* Tratado das Ilhas noxaSy Sfc. 1570. 

 Bibliotheca Lusitana. 



