JOHN VAZ COSTA CORTEREAL. 
1 ) 
quarter where the communication was to be looked for, for instead 
of pursuing’ his course northwards, and thereby attempting to 
ascertain the extreme northernmost point of America, round 
which he might have sailed into the Pacific, he directed his 
course southwards, and in 1497, he discovered the country now 
known by the name of the Floridas. The cunning Venetian 
also discovered that no very great sources of wealth were to be 
found in the inhospitable clime, and dense fogs of Newfoundland; 
and although it seemed not to be a matter of any great difficulty 
so punctually to fulfil one part of his instructions, namely, “ to 
conquer” his newly discovered territory, seeing that there were 
very few natives to dispute his right of conquest, yet on the 
other hand, he felt no disposition to follow the other part of his 
instructions, “ to settle lands unknown;” for he looked upon 
his newly discovered country, as almost upon the verge of crea¬ 
tion, and only fit for the residence of wild beasts, and human 
savages. The wigwam of the Esquimaux presented a sorry con¬ 
trast with the palaces and temples of the Mexicans, glittering 
with their burnished gold, which had so enraptured the eyes of 
the crew of Columbus, and cod fish and seal skins were a poor 
substitute for the pearls and diamonds, which glistened in the 
habiliments of the Peruvians. Wealth, and not discoveries, was 
the chief aim of the Venetian, and having satisfied his cupidity 
by trafficing in the Gulf of Mexico, he returned to England, with 
as little knowledge of the existence of a communication between 
the two oceans as at his departure. 
In regard to the discovery of Newfoundland, as claimed by 
Cabot, it is almost certain that the honour of that discovery does 
not belong to him, for there is little reason to doubt, that New¬ 
foundland had been discovered by a Portuguese navigator, long 
before the time of Cabot; and this fact being authentically 
established, the great fame awarded to Cabot for his northern 
discoveries, appears to have been undeservedly bestowed. As 
early as the year 1463, being 33 years before the expedition of 
Cabot, John Vaz Costa Cortereal, a gentleman of the royal 
household of Alphonso V., had by older of that monarch, ex¬ 
plored the North Seas, and discovered the Terra de Raccalhaos 
