IN NORTHERN MISTS 



not tell us how he had heard about the voyage, but it may have 

 been on the same occasion. The letters of the two Italians re- 

 producing the Portuguese narrative, cannot therefore be treated 

 as exact historical documents, every detail of which is 

 correct. 



Cantino says in his letter (of October, 1501) that Caspar 

 Cortereal had sailed nine months before, that is, in January, 

 1 50 1. Pasqualigo says that he left in the previous year, 

 which agrees with Cantino, since the civil year at that time 

 began on March 25. But the existing receipt of April 21, 

 1 501, from Caspar Cortereal proves with certainty that 

 the two Italians were mistaken on this point. It may be 

 supposed that they regarded the expeditions of the two con- 

 secutive years as a connected voyage (?), but even this will 

 not agree with Cantino's nine months. According to Cantino's 

 letter, Cortereal on leaving Portugal held a northerly course 

 ("towards the pole" are the words), and Pasqualigo says 

 something of the same kind; but this is scarcely to be taken 

 literally, for otherwise we should have to suppose that from 

 Portugal he sailed northward towards Iceland; besides 

 which, Pasqualigo says in both his letters that the land dis- 

 covered was between north-west and west. Cantino's state- 

 ment about the ice might give us firm ground for determining 

 Cortereal's route; if it were not unfortunately the case 

 that there are here two possibilities, and that Cantino's words 

 do not agree well with either of them. The description of 

 the ice points most probably to Cortereal's having first met 

 with icebergs; he may have come upon these in the sea off 

 the southern end of Greenland, and as in continuing his course 

 he found the " sea frozen," he may have reached the edge 

 of the ice-floes. As nothing is said about land, we must 

 suppose that he did not sight Greenland. It is a more difficult 

 matter when, by changing his course to the north-west and 

 west, he finally in this direction sighted land, which, according 

 to the description and the Cantino map, must have been 

 Newfoundland. To arrive there from the Greenland ice he 

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