PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES 



to the country as fertile, with trees and forests of pines of 

 remarkable height and size, and to there being abundance 

 of timber for masts, etc., also agrees best with Newfoundland. 

 In addition, the coast-line of the country, both on the Cantino 

 map and on later Portuguese maps, agrees remarkably well 

 with the coast-line along the east and north-east sides of 

 Newfoundland. 



The statement in Pasqualigo's letter of October i8, that 

 they sailed " along the coast of the said land for a distance 

 of six hundred miglia and more," which agrees with the 

 extent of the coast on the Cantino map, must be an exaggeration. 

 It is a common error to exaggerate the distance during a voyage 

 along a coast so indented as that of Newfoundland, where 

 Cortereal may perhaps have sailed in and out of bays and 

 inlets. 



As already stated, Caspar Cortereal's voyages are mentioned 

 in several works of the sixteenth century, but as these were writ- 

 ten so long after the events took place, no particular importance 

 can be attached to them, in cases where they conflict with the 

 earlier documents. The allusions to Caspar Cortereal in the 

 Spanish author, Gomara, and the Italian, Ramusio, seem for the 

 most part to be derived from Pietro Pasqualigo's letter of Octo- 

 ber 19, 1 501, to his brothers at Venice, which was published for 

 the first time as early as 1507. The Portuguese Antonio Gal- 

 vano says in his " Tratado " (1563) that Caspar Cortereal sailed 

 in 1500 



" from the island of Terceira with two ships, fitted out at his own expense, and 

 traveled to the region that is in the fiftieth degree of latitude, a land which is 

 now called by his name. He returned safely to Lisbon; but when he again 

 set out, his ship was lost, and the other ship returned to Portugal." 



This, it will be seen, agrees remarkably well with the conclu- 

 sions we arrived at above ; but as Galvano spent the greater part 

 of his life in the East Indies, and only came home to end his days 

 in a hospital at Lisbon, no great importance can be attached to 

 his statements [cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 35], except in so far as they 

 reproduce a Portuguese tradition. 



365 



