256 THE OCEAN RIVER 



Congress, or in various other maritime libraries whose store of 

 manuscript material has not yet been thoroughly studied. The 

 principal point of interest in this study of the Atlantic is to 

 see how widespread in European ports was the half-knowledge 

 of a waiting western world beyond the Ocean River. 



The Portuguese interest in the new fishing grounds was 

 stimulated by the voyages of the two Corte-real brothers from 

 the Azores. Caspar and Miguel both lost their lives, disap- 

 pearing into the fog-bound waters of the Crand Banks, but 

 not before they had extended the search of the coasts in look- 

 ing for a Northwest Passage to Cathay and the Indies. Theirs 

 was the first important effort, after Cabot, to solve the impos- 

 sible problem of finding an open way by the back door of the 

 west to eastern riches. The history of the opening of the Atlan- 

 tic waters and the mapping of the North American eastern 

 seaboard is the story of many such trials by men of all the 

 coastal European nations. And while the land of the cod was 

 revealing itself in the northeast, other explorers from the 

 Caribbean were diligently pushing north from the roots of the 

 Stream beyond the Florida Straits. 



The chief credit for exploration during the first half of the 

 sixteenth century on the Codfish Frontier belongs to France 

 under the leadership of Henry IV. But before this Vespucius 

 for Spain and Verrazano for Francis I had put the Atlantic 

 seaboard on the map. The voyage of Vespucius is important 

 because it is likely that the information he gathered in 1497 

 was used five years later by Cantino in the first reasonably 

 accurate map of the North American coast. Cantino's map 

 shows Cuba as an island, calls the West Indies for the first 

 time the Antilles, and has the position of Newfoundland care- 

 fully indicated. Vespucius made his way north through the 

 Florida Straits, riding the current of the Stream after a voyage 

 to the Honduras coast. Like many others, he was searching for 

 a break in the continental landfall. With him Were such expe- 



