IN NORTHERN MISTS 



the Portuguese chart of about 1520. If it was not he who on 

 the first voyage, in 1500, saw Greenland without being able 

 to approach it, we must conclude that yet another expedition, 

 on which Greenland was sighted, left Portugal in the year 

 1500. One is then inclined to suppose that this was commanded 

 by the same Joao Fernadez, to whom the king gave letters 

 patent as early as October, 1499. This supposition becomes 

 still more probable when we take it in conjunction with 

 what has already been said as to the possible origin of the 

 name of "Labrador" (see p. 331). We must suppose that this 

 is the same man from the Azores who, under the name of 

 John Fernandus, took part in the Bristol enterprise of 1501, 

 and who is further mentioned in documents of as early as 1492, 

 together with another man from the Azores, Pero de Barcellos, 

 and is described as a " Uavorador." These men would 

 already at that time have been engaged in making discoveries 

 at sea. 



If we compare the legend attached to Labrador (Greenland) 

 on Diego Ribero's Spanish map of 1529 with the corresponding 

 legend on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 this 

 will also confirm our supposition. While on the latter we read 

 that the " Portuguese saw this land, but did not enter it," Ribero's 

 map has, " this land was discovered by the English, but there is 

 nothing in it that is worth having." As this part of Ribero's 

 map is evidently a copy of the Portuguese maps, we may 

 conclude Ribero's alteration of the legend to mean that 

 doubtless the land was first sighted by the Portuguese, but that 

 it was the English who first succeeded in landing there, and in 

 this way were its real discoverers. If we add to this the state- 

 ment on the sixteenth-century Portuguese chart preserved 

 at Wolfenbiittel, that the land was discovered by English- 

 men from Bristol, and that the man who first gave news of it 

 was a " labrador " from the Azores, then everything seems to be 

 in agreement. 



We may hence suppose the connection to be somewhat 

 as follows; having obtained his letters patent in October, 

 356 



