CHAPTER XV 



THE PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN THE 

 NORTH-WEST 



VOYAGES OF THE BROTHERS CORTEREAL 



THE Portuguese, who in the fifteenth century were the 

 most enterprising of seafaring peoples as regards 

 discoveries, had, as already stated, made various attempts to 

 find new countries out in the ocean to the west of the Azores, 

 from which islands the majority of the expeditions proceeded. 

 It was therefore to be expected that the important discoveries 

 of Columbus should encourage them to fresh attempts of this 

 kind; it was also natural that such enterprises should originate 

 especially in the Azores. From what has been stated above 

 (p. 128), it appears that the King of Portugal (Alfonso V.) 

 induced Christiern I. to send out expeditions (Pining and 

 Pothorst) to search for new islands and lands in the North. 

 It seems probable that the King of Portugal was informed 

 of the results of these expeditions, and that in this way the 

 Portuguese may have known of the existence of Greenland 

 or of countries in the north-west. In the same way, as we 

 have seen (p. 132, note 2), the fact that the earliest literary 



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