THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. ' 4/ 



looked round Cape Wolstenholm into Hudson's Bay, 

 they would have perceived a broad bay and open water 

 before them. 



" Mercator does not indicate, so far as I Icnow, the 

 sources from which he derived these remarkable improve- 

 ments for his chart, which were not known by Homem 

 in 1558, and of which there are only slight indications 

 on the Cabot map of 1544. He adopts the Portuguese 

 names for his ' Terra Corterealis,' namely, 'Goifamde 

 Merosro,' ' Y. dus Demonios,' ' Cabo Marco,' ' Uha 

 da Fortuna,' ' Baia dus Medaus,' ' Rio de Tormenta,' 

 ' Yihas de Caravillo,'- ' Baia de Malvas,' etc. Some of 

 the names are not new, but had been long known, though 

 not always put in the same position. We know of no 

 official Portuguese exploring expedition made to these 

 regions between the time of Homem (1558) and Merca- 

 tor (1569) ; and therefore the suggestions of Dr. Asher, 

 for the solution of this problem, have a high degree of 

 probability. He says :* ' The Portuguese fishermen 

 continued their surveys of the northern coasts,' com- 

 menced by Gaspar Cortereal in 1500, 'most likely for 

 no other purpose than to discover advantageous fisheries. 

 They seem to have advanced slowly, step by step, first 

 along the shores of Newfoundland, then up to the mouth 

 of Hudson's Strait, then through that strait, and at last 

 into Hudson's Bay,' or, as I think, into Ungava Bay. 

 'With a certain number of ancient maps, langing from 

 1529 to 1570, before us, we can trace this progress step 

 by step. In 1544,' the time of Cabot's map, 'the Por- 

 tuguese seem not yet to have reached the mouth of the 

 strait; and in 1570,' or, as I think, f569, the date of 



*See G. M. Asher's " Henry Hudson," Introduction, p. xcvi., London, i860. 



