USA > Maine > A history of the discovery of Maine > Part 15
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From this point Cortereal sailed along the coast, probably in a north-west direction, six or seven hundred Italian miles, without coming to the end of it. Nor was he able to reach again the northern country which he had seen the year before, and which he had called " Terra verde;" because the sea was more filled with ice than the year before. He, therefore, again turned to the south. On his return, he seized fifty-seven of the aborigines, men and boys, fifty of whom he took on board his own vessel, and seven he put in his consort.
These aborigines, captured according to the custom of the explorers of that day, are described, by an eye-witness who
* Kunstmann (1. c. p. 58) speaks of three vessels. I can find only two. So also, Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 331 seq.
t "Tra maestro e ponenti," says Pietro Pasqualigo, the Venitian envoy at the court of Portugal, who received his information from Cortereal's companions, and wrote to his family in Venice what he heard about the undertaking. See this letter, printed in Biddle's Memoir, p. 237 seq.
170
VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS.
saw them in Lisbon, as tall, well built, and admirably fit for labor .* We infer from this statement, that they were not Esquimaux from the coast of Labrador, but Indians of the Micmac tribe, inhabitants of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The name of Labrador, though afterwards confined to a more northerly region inhabited by the Esquimaux, here includes a territory lying south of it.
One of the two ships of this expedition arrived at Lisbon, October 8, 1501; the other, with Cortereal himself and fifty of the captured natives, never returned.
What became of this gallant adventurer, and his large crew, is wholly unknown; no trace of them anywhere remains.
The commander and sailors of the second vessel reported, that they had seen, in the country which they had visited, abundant forests, well adapted for ship-building, large rivers, and the sea-coast well stocked with fish of various kinds, especially the cod-fislı.
They brought home "a piece of a gilded sword, of Italian workmanship," and two silver ear-rings, which they had found in the possession of the aborigines. There can be scarcely a doubt, that these interesting objects had been left there by the Cabots, who, some years before, had visited the same region.
[NOTE .- We are indebted to Dr. Kohl for this new light from the Portu- guese archives relative to the Cortereal voyages. Neither Mr. Biddle, Mr. Bancroft, nor subsequent writers on our country, nor even Humboldt, who have treated of the early voyages, have made the distinction here noted in the voyages of Gaspar Cortereal. They have spoken but of one voyage,
* The letter of the Venitian Pasqualigo. [Pasqualigo says, "They are of like color, stature, and aspect, and bear the greatest resemblance to the Gypsies." And again he says, "His serene Majesty contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on account of the timber of which he has occasion, but of the inhabitants who are admirably calcu- lated for labor, and are the best slaves I have ever seen."-ED.]
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171
VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS.
and derived their evidence from the letter of Pasqualigo, the Venitian ambassador at Lisbon. This letter, which appeared first in a collection of voyages published at Vicenza, in Italy, in 1507, entitled "Paesi nova- mente retrovati et Novo Mondo," etc. (the country newly discovered and called the New World), is dated October 19, 1501, and says, " On the 8th of the present month, one of the two caravels, which his most serene majesty despatched last year, on a voyage of discovery to the north, under com- mand of Gaspar Corterat, arrived, and reports the finding of a country distant hence, west and north-west, two thousand miles, heretofore quite unknown." He then speaks of his bringing fifty-seven native inhabitants of the country. This letter is written certainly more than a year after the sailing of the first expedition, which, in all probability, must have returned within the year, and did not, bring the natives, as reported by Pasqualigo. We therefore infer that the voyage above reported from the Portuguese records, must have been prior to the one mentioned by the ambassador, which had arrived but eleven days before the date of his letter. It is con- trary to all experience, for those early voyages, to occupy the length of time required by Pasqualigo's statement. Neither of Cabot's voyages much exceeded three months. The first voyage of the Cortereals was commenced in 1500; the second, in May, 1501 .- ED.]
4. THE VOYAGE OF MIGUEL CORTEREAL TO THE NORTH-WEST, IN THE YEAR 1502, IN SEARCH OF HIS BROTHER.
Miguel Cortereal, a younger brother of Gaspar, had taken a great interest in his brother's enterprise. He had con- tributed to the cost of his outfit, and had prepared a vessel of his own to accompany him on his second expedition, but had been prevented from so doing, by several circumstances .* After waiting in vain for the return of his brother, he ob- tained from the king a commission for a searching expedition, and, at the same time, an extension to himself of the privi- leges and donations granted to his brother.
He sailed from Lisbon with two vessels, on the 10th of May, 1502, on a search for his brother ; but never returned, and was never heard from afterwards.
Notwithstanding these disasters, the noble Emanuel, moved
* See Kunstmann, l. c. p. 58.
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.
172
VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS.
with sympathy for his gallant subjects, fitted out a new expe- dition in 1503, to ascertain the fate of the adventurers. The expedition consisted of two vessels, which, after an unsuc- cessful cruise, returned without tidings or trace of the lost brothers and their crews .*
Then the eldest of the three brothers, Vasqueanes Corte- real, who had become governor of Terceira, as successor to his father, offered to embark for a further search. But to this proposal, Emanuel refused to give his consent; being un- willing to risk further the lives of his subjects.
I believe it has been pretty clearly shown, that Gaspar Cortereal did not touch the coast of Maine on his expedition in 1500. And there is no evidence, that either he or his brother Miguel, in their subsequent voyages of 1501 and 1502, visited that coast, although it is by no means improbable : but in regard to the time, the place, and other circumstances of the unhappy fate of those enterprising adventurers, we are left without the slightest evidence or suggestion. We may conjecture, with some degree of probability, that their sad fate was a retribution, and not an unjust one, by the native inhabitants of the country, for the cruel abduction of a portion of their people. And that the act took place at least south of the Esquimaux country, perhaps in Maine, we may infer, from the description given of the captured natives.
Such searching expeditions generally take a wide range, because of the uncertainty of the region in which the persons missing are lost. We shall see hereafter, that, at a later time, a Spanish expedition of this kind, in seeking one of their famous captains, lost in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico,-Fernando De Soto, the discoverer of the Missis-
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* See, upon this expedition, Kunstmann, loc. cit. p. 58, and Peschel, Ge- schichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 334. Stuttgart, 1858.
173
VOYAGES OF THE CORTEREALS.
sippi,-proceeded for this purpose as far north as New Eng- land and Newfoundland. It is therefore possible, that the two searching vessels of Emanuel looked also into the southern harbors of Nova Scotia, or New England, to find the adven- turous Cortereals, who had been lost.
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APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER V.
1. ON A PORTUGUESE CHART, NO. 8, OF THE COASTS OF NEW- FOUNDLAND, LABRADOR, AND GREENLAND, ABOUT THE YEAR 1504.
No. 8 is the copy of part of a Portuguese chart found in the collec- tion of old sea-charts in the archives of the Bavarian Army at Munich; and is a most interesting and precious document for the illustration of the Cortereal voyages.
The author of the map is not mentioned. That it was made in Por- tugal is evident from the circumstance, that nothing but Portuguese discoveries and names are inscribed upon it. Besides the northern section, which we give here, the original map contains also a part of Eastern Africa, the Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, and that part of the coast of Brazil, along which Cabral sailed in the year 1500. The map contains nothing of the West Indies, and has not the slightest trace of the Spanish discoveries in the new world. Between Brazil and the northern parts of America is a broad open space occupied by water. Both of these sections of America, which the Portuguese dis- covered, lie in the ocean as large islands, well defined in the east, but with uncertain boundaries toward the west.
The year in which the map was made is not indicated. But from internal evidence it is nearly certain, that it was drawn very soon after the expeditions and discoveries of Cabral in 1500, and of the Cortereals, which came to an end in 1503. The map was probably made for Emanuel, to combine on one sheet all the discoveries made by his captains on the western side of the ocean. We may, therefore, fix its date in the year 1504 or 1505 .*
In the east, the section of the map which we present, shows somo of the countries of the old world, as a part of Ireland and " Islant " (Iceland). The latter has its latitude between about 63º and 67º N.,
. Nearly of the same opinion is Peschel, who ascribes its date to " the year 1502 or 1503." See his work, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 331.
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NEWFOUNDLAND, LABRADOR and GREENLAND from a Fortuquife chart of the year 1504.
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175
PORTUGUESE CHART OF 1504.
which is nearly correct, and proves that the author of the map was well informed on the subject. Among the names contained in Iceland I mention only "hollensis," which is also found on the map of the Zeni; and which indicates the famous old Icelandic residence of the "Episcopus Holensis " (Bishop Holar).
To the west of Iceland appears a large country, which evidently is the southern part of Greenland; and though this name is not given. it has exactly the configuration of that country. It is placed at about the same distance from Iceland as our Greenland, and it ends like that in the south, about 60º N .* We are at a loss to say where and from what source the Portuguese map-maker, in the year 1504, could have found an original for so good a representation of Greenland, if not from charts brought home by Gaspar Cortereal, after his first expedi- tion in 1500. I think our chart renders it probable that Cortereal, on this voyage, saw and explored Greenland.t The names " C. de S. Paulo," and some others, on the east coast of Greenland, I cannot ex- plain. They may be names placed by Cortereal on his chart. They also appear on other Portuguese maps.
To the west of Greenland we meet another large tract of country called " Terra de cortte Real" (the country of Cortereal) ; this is Corte- real's principal discovery, and the one granted to him by Emanuel as his province. The configuration of the coasts, and the names written upon them prove, that parts of Newfoundland and of our present Lab- rador are the regions intended.
The " Cabo de Concepicion " (Cape of Conception), on the southern point of the country, is near Cape Race, and was probably the land-fall of Cortereal. We still have "Conception Bay," in which I think Corte- real had his first anchorage.
The name, "Baya de S. Cyria," long kept its ground on many old maps, and has been often repeated. Our map proves, that it was given by Cortereal. It appears to be the present Trinity Bay. "Cabo do San Antonio" is our Cape Bona Vista; and " Rio de Rosa " would seem to have been a river emptying into this bay.
The "Ilha de frey Luis" (the island of brother Louis) was proba- bly named in honor of brother Louis, who may have been a priest on board the fleet. It is one of the large islands not far from the present "Cape Freels," which is an English corruption and contraction of the Portuguese " Ilha de frey Luis," and from which no doubt it derived
. Peschel (I. c. p. 331) also thinks that it is Greenland, " and that it is represented ou our map with nearly modern accuracy."
t Peschel (l. c. p. 330) is also of this opinion.
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176
PORTUGUESE CHART OF 1504.
its name; so that the memory of this good brother still lives in our "Cape Freels."
To the north of Cape Freels, between it and the modern Cape Bauld, the east coast of Newfoundland forms a large, deep gulf, which is indi- cated on this map, by a bay entering deeply into the country .* In comparing Cortereal's chart with our present map of Newfoundland, we must come to the conclusion that Cortereal entered and explored nearly every bay and gulf of the east coast of Newfoundland; for he has noted them all on his chart, although he has given them too high a latitude.
The entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle is not indicated on our map. In 55° N. we find the name " Baxos do medo" ( ?) Soon after the coast turns to the north-west, and runs in this direction a long way. At the point " Baxos do medo" we are in the neighborhood of the northern end of Newfoundland and of the south-eastern capes of Labrador. It is nearly impossible to indicate the trending of the north-eastern coast of Labrador more exactly, than it has been done on this chart. Un- happily the chart ends in 62º N., at about the entrance of Hudson's Strait. Thus far to the north-west it is probable that Cortereal went in 1500; and there was stopped by the ice.
Like the coast of Labrador and Greenland, the southern part or entrance of Davis' Strait is much better given on our chart, than on any other before this time, or on any other map for a long time after Cortereal.
In about the latitude of the arctic circle, a dotted line is made on this map, which cuts through the northern parts of Iceland, Greenland, and Davis' Strait. All the water north of this line has, on the original, a dark blue color, which we could not reproduce on our copy. The map-maker intended, perhaps, to express by this line the arctic circle, and the southern boundary of the " Mare congelatum," where Corte- real's progress ended.
To the south of " Cabo de Concepicion" (near Cape Race), the coast of Newfoundland turns to the west, and runs east and west a long dis- tance. The coast of Newfoundland has really this direction, and Cor- tereal may have looked westward of Cape Race, though he does not appear to have followed this route for any considerable distance. There are no names placed along this coast. Cortereal may have copied this part of his chart from Cabot's, of which he probably had a sketch on
* How Kuntsmann (Die Entdeckung America's, p. 128) could think that this is the mouth of the great river St. Lawrence, and the outlet of Lake Ontario, is inconceiva- ble to me. The entire explanation which this estimable scholar gives of Cortereal's chart, is evidently erroneous.
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REINEL'S CHART, 1505.
. board, such as Cosa, in 1500, had made. On Cosa's (Cabot's) chart, the south coast of Newfoundland and its continuation follow exactly the same line, and have about the same configuration. Cortereal probably thought this region hopeless for his purpose of finding a shorter north- western route to Eastern Asia.
It does not appear by this chart that Cortereal, in 1500, saw the en- trance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or discovered that Newfoundland was an island. " He thought it to be one great mainland." This, or something like this, is expressly said in the first and most authentic report we have on Cortereal's expeditions ; * and it is so represented on our chart.
The length of the southern coast of this continent from east to west is about three times the length of the east coast of Newfoundland; from which we conclude, that the western end of the coast-line, given on our chart, reaches the coast of Maine.
At Cape Race, the maker of this map began to sketch a coast-line, which he has left unfinished, running into the water. What he meant by it I cannot tell. He has drawn with great accuracy all the Azores, . the principal starting-point of the Cortereals.
If subsequent map-makers had known and copied this original map of Cortereal, particularly that part which relates to Labrador, Davis' Strait, and Greenland, they would have avoided much misrepresenta- tion, and rendered a useful service to science.
2. ON A CHART, NO. 9, OF NOVA SCOTIA, NEWFOUNDLAND, AND GREENLAND, BY PEDRO REINEL, MADE IN ABOUT 1505.
Number 9 is a copy of that section of North America which appears on a chart of the Atlantic Ocean preserved in the Royal Library at Mu- nich. A fac-simile of this chart was published by the Royal Academy of Bavaria in the " Atlas zur Entdeckungengeschichte America's (Atlas for the history of discovery of America. Munich, 1859).
On another part of this map an inscription is written in great let- ters, which runs thus: " Pedro Reinel a fez" (Pedro Reinel made it). According to the Spanish historian Herrera,t Reinel was a Portuguese pilot of great fame (Piloto Portuguez de mucha fama) ; who, like many Portuguese, entered the Spanish service some time after 1522. The lan- guage of the map is Portuguese. It presents only Portuguese discov- eries; and shows the arms and flags of Portugal, but not of Spain. From these circumstances it is probable, that the map was made by
* See the letter of the Venitian ambassador, Pasqualigo.
t Herrera, Hist. gen. de las Indias, Dec. III, cap. 13.
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178
REINEL'S CHART, 1505.
Reinel in Portugal before he entered the service of Spain, and proba- bly soon after the voyage of the Cortereals and Cabral. We may, therefore, assign it to the year 1505 .*
There is one indication of latitude along a perpendicular line, run- ning across the entire sheet of the chart; and another indication along an oblique or transverse line, which is shorter, and runs only along the shores of Northern America. Along the perpendicular line, Cavo Raso (Cape Race) has the latitude of 501º N. Along the oblique line it has the latitude of 47º N. This latter line is nearer the truth; and perhaps was added to the map by a later hand.
The south-eastern part of Newfoundland is here easily recognized, as is the case on all the old charts. The cape which was called on former maps the Cape of England, or the Cape of the Portuguese, is here for the first time named, " Cavo Raso" (the flat cape), a name which is of Portuguese origin, and which may have been introduced by the Corte- reals, or by the first Portuguese fishermen on the banks of Newfound- land. The name contains a good description of the natural features of that cape, which is represented by Blunt " as a table-land moderately . high."1 The English, who did not understand the meaning of the Por- tuguese word, afterwards changed it to "Cape Race," which has no meaning in this connection.
Our chart shows, in the high north, a nameless country which ends toward the south, in about 60º N. There can be no doubt, that Green- land is meant. Cape Farewell, the southern end of Greenland, has the latitude of 60º N., and is one of those points which, like Cape Race, generally has nearly its true position on all the old charts.
To the west of this nameless country, Greenland, is a broad gulf, and a strait running from it in a north-western direction in about 60º N., clearly indicating the entrance of Davis' and Hudson's Straits.
To the south of Hudson's Strait, follow the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland from "Isla da Fortuna " (our present Resolution Isl- and ( ? ) to " Cavo Raso." The entrance to the strait of Belle Isle is per- haps indicated by the great bay near " C. de Boa Ventura," but not as an open strait. The entire coast is covered with many Portuguese names, which probably date from the voyage of the Cortereals. I cannot enter here upon a detailed examination of these names, but only observe that many of them reappear on subsequent charts, and some of them have been retained even down to our time; for instance, that of " Y. dos Bocalhas" (Island of the Cod-fish). We still have an
* Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 332, puts it in the year 1504.
t See Blunt, American Coast Pilot, p. 13. New York, 1857.
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Parts of North America from a Portuguese map in about the year 1520.
179
PORTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF N. AMERICA.
" Island of Baccalhao" on the coast of Newfoundland. Some of these old Portuguese names have been changed by subsequent English map- makers and mariners. I have already mentioned the name, " Isla de frey Luis " (the island of brother Louis) changed to Cape Freels. An- other instance is " Cavo da Espera " (Cape of Hope) changed to Cape Speer. In this modern form, we find these ancient names still on our present maps of Newfoundland.
To the west of C. Raso we have on our chart the south coast of New- foundland and the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clearly indi- cated; and further to the west, the rectangular or square form of a nameless peninsula in about 45° N., which is, no doubt, the square- shaped end of the peninsula of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. As upon Newfoundland and Labrador, so also on this peninsula, a flag-staff, with the Portuguese arms, is planted, which shows that Nova Scotia and its neighborhood were once claimed by that nation. I have found no map on which the flag-staff of Portugal has been erected so near the State of Maine.
The island of " Sancta Cruz," south of Cape Race, may be intended for the dangerous Sable island, and has its true position. We are in- formed by early writers, that Sable Island was known to the Portu- guese .*
3. ON A PORTUGUESE CHART, No. 10, OF FLORIDA, NOVA SCOTIA, NEWFOUNDLAND, LABRADOR, AND GREENLAND, MADE ABOUT 1520.
Though Sebastian Cabot, in 1498, had surveyed nearly the entire east coast of North America, and pronounced it continental; and though Juan de la Cosa, in 1500, following the reports and charts of Cabot, had so depicted it on his map; yet it was a long time before this represen- tation was adopted by the map-makers and geographers of the differ- ent European nations. Cabot published no report of his voyages ; and the maps of Cosa were hung up in the office of the Spanish ministers of marine, but were not generally known or acknowledged. We have, therefore, many charts and maps in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, on which the lands discovered by the English and Portuguese in the higher latitudes of the new world, and by the Spaniards in the vicinity of the West India islands, are represented as separate coun-
* Compare on this chart, also, "J. A. Schmeller, Ueber einige ältere handschrift liche Seekarten," in the " Abhandlungen der I. CI. d. Ak. der Wissenschaften, IV. Band. Abth. 1, page 247 seq. And Kunstmann, Die Entdeckung America's, p. 125 seq. München, 1859.
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180
PORTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF N. AMERICA.
tries. On these maps North America is broken up into large islands, separated from each other by broad gulfs or straits, and the coasts of New England entirely disappear.
Map No. 10 is a part of one of these representations. The original was discovered in the royal collections of the king of Bavaria at Mu- nich, and a fac-simile of it has been given by the Royal Academy in the work before cited : " Atlas zur Entdeckungsgeschichte America's " (An Atlas of the history of discovery in America). From this we have taken our copy.
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