108 THE LABRADOR rKXLVSULA. chap, \xvii. 



curious letter from Pietro Pas-^quiligi, tlie Venetiau am- 

 bassador at the Court of Portugal, written in 1500, in 

 which reference is made to the voyage of Cortereal to the 

 coast of Labrador, and a description of the inhabitants 

 given. This description does not apj^ly to the Esqui- 

 maux ; but in some points it is a rude pictm^e of the 

 Nasquapees, especially in that feature which relates to 

 tattooino- the face with a row of marks.* It is written in 

 the exaggerated style common at that time, but its re- 

 ference to the inhabitants of Labrador is clearly to the 

 Lidians and not to Esquimaux. ' On the 8th of October,' 

 says he, ' there arrived in this port one of the two 

 caravels Avhich were last year despatched by the King of 

 Portugal for the discovery of lands lying in the north, 

 under the command of Gaspar Cortereal. He relates 

 that he has discovered a country situated between the 

 west and north-west, distant from this about two thousand 

 miles, and which before the present time was utterly 

 unknown. They ran along the coast between six hiui- 

 dred and seven hundred miles without arriving at its 

 termination.' 



' They report that this land is thickly peopled, and that 

 the houses are built of very long beams of timber, and 

 covered with furs and the skins of fishes.' 



They have brought hither along with them seveii of the 

 inhabitants, including men, women, and children ; and in the 

 other caravel, which is looked for every hour, they are bringing 



* Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in liis ' Voyages,' when writing of the 

 Knisteneaux or Crees, states that '■ some of the women tattoo three perpen- 

 dicuLar lines, which are sometimes double : one from the centre of the chin 

 to that of the under lip, and one parallel on either side to tlie corner of the 

 mnuth.'^ — A (h-mral Hidon/ of the Fur Trade. 



