PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES 



they found there, and that certainly would not be so numerous or so large on 

 an island. They say that this land has many inhabitants, and that their houses 

 are made of great wooden poles, which are covered on the outside with skins 

 of fish [i.e., seals?]. They have brought seven men, women, and children from 

 thence and fifty more are coming in another caravel, which is hourly expected. 

 These are of similar color, build, stature, and appearance to gypsies, clad in 

 skins of various animals, but mostly otter; in the summer they turn the skin 

 in, in winter the reverse. And these skins are not sewed together in any way, 

 and not prepared, but they are thrown over the shoulders and arms just as 

 they are taken off the animals. The loins are fastened together with strings 

 made of very strong fish-sinews. Although they seem to be savages, they are 

 modest and gentle, but their arms, legs, and shoulders are indescribably well 

 shaped; they have the face marked [tattooed] in the Indian fashion, some with 

 six, some with eight, and some with no figures [lines?]. They speak, but are 

 understood by no one; I believe they have been addressed in every possible 

 language. In their country they have no iron, but make knives of certain 

 stones, and spear-heads in the same way. They have brought from thence a 

 fragment of a broken gilt sword, which was certainly made in Italy. A boy 

 among them wore in his ears two silver rings, which seem without doubt to 

 have been made in Venice. This induced me to believe that it is a continent, 

 for it is not a place to which ships can ever have gone without anything hav- 

 ing been heard of them.^ They have a very great quantity of salmon, herring, 

 cod, and similar fish. They have also great abundance of trees, and above 

 all of pine trees for making ship's masts and yards of. For this reason it is 

 that this most serene King thinks he will derive the greatest profit from the 

 said land, not only on account of the trees for shipbuilding, of which there 

 is much need, but also on account of the men, who are excellent laborers, and 

 the best slaves that have hitherto been obtained; this seems to me to be a 

 thing worth giving information about, and if I hear anything more when the 

 commander's caravel [caravella capitania] arrives, I will also communicate 

 it." [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 211 f.]. 



Alberto Cantino, Minister at Lisbon of Duke Ercule d'Este 

 of Ferrara, wrote to the Duke as follows, on October 17, 

 1501: 



"It is already nine months since this most serene King sent two well- 

 equipped ships to the northern regions [alle parte de tramontana] with the ob- 

 ject of finding out whether it was possible to discover lands and islands in 

 those parts; and now on the nth of this month one of these ships has safely 

 returned with a cargo, and brought people and news, which I have thought 

 it my duty to communicate to Your Excellency, and thus I write here below 

 accurately and clearly all that the captain [of the ship] reported to the King 

 in my presence. First, he stated that after leaving the port of Lisbon they 



1 As remarked above (p. 328), it is possible that these objects belonged to 

 John Cabot's unfortunate expedition of 1498. 



349 



