PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES 



would have had to steer about west-south-west by compass, and 

 in fact Newfoundland (Terra del Key de portuguall) lies approxi- 

 mately in this direction in relation to the southern point of 

 Greenland on the Cantino map. But it may be, of course, 

 that Cantino's statement of the direction is due to a misunder- 

 standing ; ^ he may have heard that the newly found land 

 lay to the north-west and west from Lisbon, as Pasqualigo 

 says. 



Another possibility is that it was on the Newfoundland Banks 

 that Cortereal met with icebergs; but in that case he must have 

 held a very westerly course, almost west-north-west, all the way 

 from Lisbon, and there would then be little meaning in the 

 statement that he altered his course to north-west and west to 

 avoid the ice, even if we take into account the possibility of the 

 variation of the compass having been 20° greater on the New- 

 foundland Banks than at Lisbon. Another difficulty is that on 

 the Newfoundland Banks he would hardly have found " the sea 

 frozen," if by this ice-floes are meant; for that he would have 

 had to be (in June?) farther to the north-west in the Labrador 

 Current. In neither case would he have been very far from land, 

 so that the times mentioned, three months with a favorable wind 

 from the ice to land, and four months from Lisbon, are out of 

 proportion.- 



Thus Cantino's words cannot be brought into agreement with 

 facts ; but at the same time many things point to its having been 

 the Greenland ice that Cortereal first met with, in 1501. Doubt- 

 less it might be objected that he is said in the previous year to 



1 It may also be supposed that from the ice off the south-west of Greenland 

 Cortereal steered north-west and west, and met with the ice in the Labrador 

 Current, and was then obliged to turn southward along the edge of the ice 

 until he sighted land. 



-These times given by Cantino for the voyage are, of course, improbable; 

 if we might suppose that he meant weeks instead of months, it would agree 

 with the time naturally occupied on such a voyage. If we add his one month 

 for the homeward voyage to the seven months given above, and if another 

 month be reckoned for the stay in the country, we shall have his nine months 

 for the whole voyage. 



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