THK PORTUGUESE ON THE LABRADOR COAST. 37 



English seamen, then, were the first to reveal to a 

 world which had forgotten the deeds of the Norsemen 

 the northeastern shores of our continent, and to carry 

 to Europe the news of the wealth of life in the seas of 

 Newfoundland and the Bay of St. Lawrence. 



The Cabots were of Italian origin, though Sebastian 

 was born in Bristol. The English did not immediately 

 follow up their discoveries, for the next explorer who 

 ventured near if not within sight of the Labrador coast 

 was a Portuguese, Cortereal, who was commissioned by 

 Emanuel the Great of Portugal, the same enterprising 

 monarch who had previously sent out Vasco de Gama 

 on his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. 



Cortereal sailed from Lisbon in the year 1500. His 

 Oandfall was Newfoundland near Cape Race, or north- 

 ward at Conception Bay. From this point he sailed 

 northward, and probably discovered Greenland. He 

 then came to the mouth of a river called by him " Rio 

 nevado," which is supposed to have been near the lati- 

 tude of Hudson's Strait. Here he is said to have been 

 stopped by ice. He then sailed southward, resting on 

 the east coast of Newfoundland before returning to 

 Lisbon. 



The next year Cortereal returned to Newfoundland. 

 He was unable to reach the northern regions on account 

 ■of the ice, which was more abundant than the year 

 before. On his return his vessel and all aboard foun- 

 dered, the companion ship reaching Lisbon. The land 

 Cortereal visited was mapped on a Portuguese chart in 

 1504, and was called "Terra de Cortte Reall." Kohl 

 claims that " the configuration of the coasts and the 

 na:mes written upon them prove that parts of New- 



