IN NORTHERN MISTS 



while Newfoundland (Terra de Cortereal) continued through 

 the whole of the sixteenth century to be regarded as a province 

 under the Portuguese crown, and the post of its governor, with 

 special privileges, was hereditary in the family of Cortereal, until 

 Manuel Cortereal II., the last of the male line, fell fighting by 

 the side of King Sebastian, in the fatal battle of Kas-rel-Kebir, in 

 1578.^ 



The Portuguese seem for a long time to have kept up 

 the connection with Newfoundland, more especially in order to 

 avail themselves of the rich fisheries that had been discovered 

 there. But of this it is only by the merest accident that history 

 has anything to relate. It appears as though this fishery became 

 active immediately after Cortereal's discovery; for we see 

 that, as early as 1506, King Manuel gave orders that the fisher- 

 men on their return from Newfoundland to Portugal were to 

 pay one-tenth of the proceeds in duties [cf. Kunstmann, 1859, 

 p. 69]. 



1 It is reported that, in 1574, Vasqueanes Cortereal IV., father of this 

 Manuel, undertook an expedition to Labrador to find the North-West Passage. 



378 



