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The map is evidently of Portuguese origin. The names of places, and some of the inscriptions, are in the Portuguese language. The longer inscriptions are in Latin. The author of it is unknown, as is also the precise time of its composition .*
From the circumstance, however, that Yucatan, which was discov- ered in the year 1517, is indicated on the map, and nothing of the dis- covery and conquest by Cortes in 1519, everything on the map west of Yucatan being designated as unknown; we infer that the map was made between 1518 and 1520.
The whole of North America is given in three or four large islands. First, we have Yucatan and its vicinity. The Gulf of Mexico is open toward the west. Then comes "Tera Bimini" (the country of Bimi- ni), our present Florida and the vicinity. The east coast of Florida and the neighboring southern States, runs first toward the north and then to the north-east, and ends on the shores of our present States of Geor- gia and Carolina, though the latitudes for these regions are too high. Spanish ships under Ponce de Leon, in 1513; Alaminos, in 1519; and Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, in 1520, had sailed along these coasts. The coast-line appears to end in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras, and this territory is called " Tera Bimini," a name which was introduced by the expedition of Ponce de Leon in search of the mythical country and fabulous fountain of Bimini, in 1513.t
After this is a great gulf or open space, represented as water. Fur- ther east, in about the longitude of Brazil, the discoveries of the Cor- tereals are depicted in nearly the same manner as on the map of Reinel (No. 9). The coast of Nova Scotia, on our map, is a little further prolonged to the west. The part where New England should be, ap- pears as water.
* See Kunstmann, Die Entdeckung America's, p. 129 seq. Munich, 1859.
t [This country is represented by some to have been an island belonging to the Ba- hama group, but lying far out in the ocean. The fountain was supposed to possess the power of restoring youth. It was an object of eager search by early adventurers. -ED.]
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PORTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS OF N. AMERICA.
Newfoundland and Labrador are named "Bacalnaos," under which name Nova Scotia is also included. Greenland, as usual, is called Lab- rador.
The Portuguese inscription, added to Nova Scotia and the island of Cape Breton, describes it as "a country discovered by Bretons."
The inscription written upon Labrador literally translated is this : "The Portuguese saw this country, but did not enter it."
The long Latin inscription, which seems to be intended for all these regions, may be thus translated : " This country was first discovered by Gaspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white bears. There are to be found in it plenty of animals, birds, and fish. In the following year he was shipwrecked and did not return; the same happened to his brother Michael in the next year."
Iceland (Islanda) has its true position and latitude on the east of Greenland. A perpendicular line, on which the degrees of latitude are indicated, runs through the whole map. It is the famous " line of de- marcation," by which, at the treaty of Tordesilas (June 7, 1494), the world was divided between Spain and Portugal. The line sets off to Portugal, 1. The greater section of Brazil, which we have not repro- duced on our map. 2. Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, which we have retained in our copy. The Portuguese flag covers all these regions. The Spanish flag is planted " in Tera Bimini."
The latitude and longitude, given on our map to the Portuguese dis- coveries, are much more correct, than those given to the Spanish do- minions ; which fact proves, that the Portuguese map-maker had not very good authority for his Spanish insertions. The group of the Azores, however, is placed too near the northern part of the continent. That ' they always are laid down in connection with Greenland and New- foundland, is explained from the circumstance, that those islands were the starting-points of the Cortereals for their excursions to the north. Several of the Cortereals being governors of the Azores, they consid- ered the northern part of America, "Bacallaos " and the vicinity, as a part of their hereditary government.
In the central parts of America near St. Domingo, our map has a Latin inscription, of which a literal translation is as follows: "The country of the Antipodes, of the king of Castile, discovered by Chris- topher Columbus, the Genoese." This name, " The country of the An- tipodes," appears to be the name adopted by our map-maker for all the surrounding islands and countries, or for the whole of America.
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PORTUGUESE MAP OF PARTS. OF N. AMERICA.
The results of the examination of these maps, for the early history of Maine, may be summed up thus :
1. No coast of New England whatever is here indicated. A void space appears where it ought to be.
2. New England, like the rest of America, is comprised under the name of " The country of the Antipodes."
3. The flags and frontiers of the Portuguese dominions come very near to Maine.
1.
CHAPTER VI.
ENGLISH, SPANISH, AND FRENCH VOYAGES, DESIGNED OR ACCOMPLISHED, SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXPEDITIONS OF THE CABOTS AND THE CORTEREALS.
1. Two PATENTS OF HENRY VII, OF ENGLAND, TO NAVIGA- TORS IN 1501 AND 1502 .- ENGLISH VOYAGES TO NEW- FOUNDLAND IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
WHETHER Sebastian Cabot made a voyage to the new world in 1499 is uncertain ; and we have no authentic infor- mation as to his employment after his return in 1498, for several years. No early writer speaks of him until the year 1512, when, according to Herrera, he accepted from Ferdi- nand an invitation to Spain. His fame, as the projector of great circle-sailing, as the earnest advocate of a north-western passage to India, and as the discoverer of a new region, was widely spread.
The knowledge of his discovery and adventures must early have reached Spain and Portugal, and inspired the sover- eigns of those countries with desire to engage in further explorations in the north-west. The expedition of Dornelos in Spain, and of the Cortereals in Portugal, may have been the direct results of the voyages of 1497 and 1498.
We seek in vain for the cause why Cabot himself did not continue the work so successfully commenced by him, and why he left its accomplishment to others. Had he despaired,
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
after all his arctic trials, of finding an open route to the Molluccas ? Or was he discouraged by not finding, on his long exploring voyage from Labrador to Florida, a single attractive section of the coast, worthy of further exami- nation ? *
However this may have been, there is nothing to show that Sebastian Cabot entered on a new enterprise for a long time ; whilst others, stimulated by the fame of his discoveries, fol- lowed his track.
As in Portugal and Spain, so also in England, we recog- nize some traces of the "quickening impulse of his, in some respects, successful enterprise." In 1501, and again in 1502, Henry VII. issued patents for discoveries in foreign lands.
The first of these, dated March 19, 1501, is alluded to by Lord Bacon in his history of Henry VII .; But more recently, Mr. Biddle has discovered the original document in the Rolls Chapel, in London ; and has, for the first time, pub- lished it in his memoir of Cabot .¿ Its contents are similar to those of the first patent given to Jolin Cabot in 1496, which seems itself to have been copied from the commis- sions given by the Spanish kings to their adventurers.
The second patent bears date December 9, 1502, and is granted to a portion of the same patentees ; namely, Thomas Ashehurst, John and Francis Fernandus, and John Gunsolus, Portuguese, named in the first patent, together with Hugh Elliott ; and conveys similar, but even more extensive privi- leges.
These patents gave a roving commission to the parties to
* [See on this, Ramusio, " ... di ritornarmene in Inghilterra : dove giunto trovai grandissimi tumulti di popoli sollevati, e della guerra in Scotia: ne pia era in consideratione alcuna il navigare a queste parti, per ilche me ne venni in Spagna al Re Catholico," vol. 1, fol. 374. 1563 .- ED.] t See Bacon's History of King Henry VII, p. 189. London, 1629.
# See this work, p. 312. London, 1832.
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
explore, at their own expense, all islands and regions "in the eastern, western, southern, and northern seas heretofore unknown to Christians."
What was done under these broad commissions, is no- where reported, so far as we know. It is supposed that one voyage was made, but no particulars of it exist.
That explorations in Newfoundland and its neighborhood were intended, and that a connection existed between the English expedition and the Portuguese undertaking of the Cortereals, appears probable from the circumstance, that among the principal patentees were the three above-named " Portuguese Squyres from the Isles of Surrys " (Azores), where one of the Cortereals was then governor, and where, the year before, 1500, Gaspar de Cortereal had touched on his expedition to the north-west.
Mr. Biddle thinks that one voyage at least, in the year 1501, was made. He infers this, first, from the improbability of the three Portuguese "Squyres" remaining idle in Eng- land for nearly two years ; secondly, from the probability that the patentees, by an experimental voyage, may have turned to account the first patent, and therefore called for a second ; and thirdly, from the fact, that the English chronicler, Stow, states in his Annals, that three Indians, "taken in the New- found Islandes " were presented, in 1502, to Henry VII .*
Another circumstance, not mentioned by Mr. Biddle, ap- pears to me to sustain his supposition. Hakluyt, in his great work, ¡ gives "a brief extract concerning the discovery of
* See Biddle, Memoir, p. 228 seq. He also quotes (p. 226, Amer. edit.) from entries in the account of the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII, this entry: "7 January, 1502, To men of Bristol that found Th' Isle, £5; 30 September, 1502, To the Merchants of Bristol that have been in the Newe founde Launde, £20." [Other items from the Privy Purse account are afterwards quoted by our Author .- ED.]
t Hakluyt, Voyages, etc, vol. 3, p. 10. 1600.
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EARLY ENGLISH VOYAGES.
Newfoundland, taken out of the book of Mr. Robert Thorne to Doctor Leigh," in which Thorne mentions " that his father had been one of the discoverers of Newfoundland, in company with another merchant of Bristol, named Hugh Elliot." Elliot was one of the patentees named in the grant of Decem- ber, 1502 .* He and his associates would scarcely have been called by Thorne "discoverers of Newfoundland," if they had not made a voyage thither.
From certain entries in the account of the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII, it appears, that after the voyages of the Cabots, an intercourse was kept up for several years between England and the newly discovered regions. These entries are too remarkable not to be mentioned here.
On Nov. 17, 1503, the king paid one pound to "a man that brought hawkes from the Newfound island ;" on April 8, 1504, two pounds to a priest, "who was going to that island ; " and on Aug. 25, 1505, a small sum to a man who brought "wylde cats and popyngays of the Newfound island to Richmond."
The king had before made similar small presents to persons who had been out with the Cabots, namely : "On Aug. 10, 1497, 10 pounds to him that found the new isle." Some have supposed that John Cabot was rewarded in this manner ; others, with more probability, that this small royal present was given only to the man on board the Matthew, who first discovered land. " On March 24, 1498, To Lanslot Thirkill, of London, upon a prest for his ship going toward the New Islande, 20 pounds ; on April 1, 1498, to Thomas Bradley and Launcelot Thirkill, going to the New Isle, 30 pounds."f
These memoranda, which have been brought to light by Mr. Biddle,¿ seem pretty clearly to prove the continuation
* See Biddle, I. c. p. 225.
t See Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, vol. 1, p. 8.
# See Biddle, Memoir, p. 234.
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PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS.
of voyages between England and Newfoundland in the begin- ning of the sixteenth century.
It is a very curious circumstance, that the country in which the Cabots started their idea for a navigation to the north-west, and in which they at first proclaimed their dis- covery of the rich fishing-banks near their New-found-Isles, did not at once profit by it so much as their neighbors, the French and the Portuguese, as we shall hereafter relate. During the first half of the sixteenth century we hear little of English fishing and commercial expeditions to the great banks ; although they had a branch of commerce and fishery with Iceland. Perhaps, having the fish-market of this north- ern country at their disposal, for some time they did not seek new fishing-grounds. "It was not until the year 1548, that the English government passed the first act for the encour- agement of the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, after which they became active competitors in this profitable occu- pation."*
2. PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE NEWFOUNDLAND BANKS.
Gaspar Cortereal undertook his enterprise with the lofty intention of finding the rich countries of the east. " But," says the Spanish historian, Gomara, " he found no passage."
King Emanuel, having heard of the high trees growing in the northern countries, and having seen the aborigines who appeared so well qualified for labor, thought he had found a new slave-coast like that which he owned in Africa ; and dreamed of the tall masts which he would cut, and the men- of-war which he would build, from the forests of the country of the Cortereals. But if he had made an experiment with his
* Memorial volume of the Popham Celebration, Aug. 29, 1862, p. 38. Portland, 1863.
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PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS.
American Indians, he would soon have known, that, as labor- ers, they were not to be compared with the negroes from Africa. And as to the masts for his men-of-war, he would also have found, that he could procure them at a much cheaper rate from the Baltic, or some other European country in the neighborhood of Portugal, than from the distant land of the Cortereals, where no harbors, no anchoring stations, and no roads existed, and no saw-mills had been erected.
The great expectations raised by the Cortereals had no immediate results. But another discovery of Cortereal, as well as of Cabot, had revealed to the Portuguese the wealth to be derived from the fish, particularly cod-fish, which abounded on that coast. The fishermen of Portugal and of the Western Islands, when this news was spread among them, made preparations for profiting by it, and soon extended their fishing excursions to the other side of the ocean.
According to the statement of a Portuguese author, very soon after the discoveries by the Cortereals, a Portuguese Fishing Company was formed in the harbors of Vianna, Aveiro, and Terceira, for the purpose of colonizing New- foundland and making establishments upon it .* Nay, already, in 1506, three years after the return of the last searching ex- pedition for the Cortereals, Emanuel gave order, "that the fishermen of Portugal, at their return from Newfoundland, should pay a tenth part of their profits at his custom-houses." } It is certain, therefore, that the Portuguese fishermen must, previous to that time, have been engaged in a profitable busi- ness. And this is confirmed by the circumstance, that they originated the name of " tierra de Bacalhas " (the Stock-fish- country), and gave currency to it; though the word, like the
* See Peschel, Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 334. Stutt- gart, 1858.
1 See Kunstmann, Die Entdeckung America's, pp. 69 and 95.
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PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS.
cod-fishery itself, appears to be of Germanic origin .* The name may have been given by the Portuguese fishermen at first, to what the king of Portugal and his official map-makers called "terra de Cortereal" (Cortereal's land) ; that is to say, to our present Newfoundland ; and then have been extended, with the progress of their discoveries, to the adjacent coun- tries. The nations, who followed them in the fishing busi- ness, imitated their example, and adopted the name "country of the Bacalhas" (or, in the Spanish form, Baccallaos), though sometimes interchanging it with names of their own invention, as the " Newfoundland," " Terre neuve," etc.
Enterprises in such a new branch of activity, must, of . course, have been attended with great difficulties ; some pre- liminary explorations must have been necessary to find the best places for fishing, the most convenient harbors for refuge, the easiest coasts for watering, for repairs, and for drying the fish.
The Portuguese Fishing Company probably made these experiments ; and their first fishing voyages were undoubt-
* The cod-fish was caught on the coasts of Europe from time immemo- rial, by the Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, and English, in the northern waters of the continent, and toward Iceland. These Germanic nations had long called it by the name of " Cabliauwe," or " Kabbeljouwe," and with some transposition of the letters, "Backljau." The name, in several forms, had been used long before the discoveries of the Cabots and Corte- reals, in many Flemish and German books and documents. The root of the word appears to be the Germanic " bolch," meaning fish. The Portu- guese, who had no cod-fish on their coasts in Europe, but who had prob- ably known it before the Cortereals, by way of the Netherlands, adopted the Germanic name in the above-mentioned form " Bacalhao " (pronounced like the German Backljan); and then becoming the first and most active fishermen on the coasts of Newfoundland, communicated this form of the word to the rest of the world. That the name should have been introduced by the Cabots, is, for many reasons, most improbable; and that they should have heard and received the name from the Indians, is certainly not true ; though both these facts are asserted by Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, Dec. III, cap. G.
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PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS ..
edly, at the same time, real exploring expeditions, continuing the work commenced by the Cortereals.
It is, therefore, matter of regret, that no journals of the voyages of these first Portuguese fishermen have come down to us, and that we know so very little of the beginning and progress of their fisheries. Were we better informed on those points we should probably find, now and then, exploring Portuguese merchants and fishermen on shores somewhat dis- tant from Newfoundland, and perhaps also on the coasts of Nova Scotia and of the Gulf of Maine ; and we might be able to show how some of the Portuguese geographical names, so widely scattered on all the old maps of the countries about the " Golfo Quadrado" (the Gulf of St. Lawrence), origi- nated. Many of them probably were not given by the official expeditions of the Cortereals, but came gradually into use among the fishermen, and were afterwards adopted on tlre maps and in the books of geographers.
A Scandinavian author informs us, that sometimes in stormy seasons, during the sixteenth century, Portuguese fishermen were blown off from the Newfoundland Banks, and driven by westerly gales to the unfriendly shores of Greenland .* If such events happened with westerly storms on the coast of Greenland, they also may have happened with easterly gales on the coast of New England, although no report exists of such cases. The coast of the Gulf of Maine lies at about the same distance south-west of Newfoundland, as the coast of Greenland does to the north-east. The Por- tuguese fishermen may thus have often appeared on our coast, and become acquainted with it.
They continued their expeditions to Newfoundland and its neighborhood for a long time. They were often seen there by later English and other visitors during the course of the
* See Kunstmann, l. c. pp. 70 and 95.
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PORTUGUESE FISHERMEN ON THE BANKS.
sixteenth century ; for instance, according to Herrera, in 1519; * again by the English in 1527; f and again by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583. This English navigator, or his historian, praises " the Portugal fishermen " he met there, for their kindness "above those of other nations," and for the liberal assistance which they rendered him .. " They pre- sented him with wines, marmelades, most fine ruske and bisket, sweat oyles, and sundry dilicacies." ¿ He states also, that the Portuguese had made a very interesting settlement for shipwrecked seamen upon "Sable Island," that danger- ous spot in the vicinity of Nova Scotia, famous for shipwrecks and disasters. "Some Portugals," he says, "above thirty year past," consequently about the middle of the sixteenth century, "put into the same island both neat and swine to breed, which were since exceedingly multiplied." Gilbert and his men thought it extremely convenient "to have such a store of cattle in an island, lying so near unto the maine which they intended to plant upon." §
* See Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 5, cap. 3.
t See Purchas, Pilgrims, tom. 3, p. 809.
# See Hakluyt, "The Principal Navigations," etc., p. 687. London, 1589 [The Portuguese engaged in this fishery as early as 1501, according to good. authorities, and perhaps under the charter of Henry VII. In 1578, they had fifty ships employed in that trade, and England as many more, and France 150. In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert found in the harbor of St. John, when he took possession of the island, twenty Portuguese and Spanish vessels, and sixteen of other nations. So important had the fishe- ries become to English commerce, that, in 1626, 150 ships were sent out from Devonshire alone. How singularly has the prophetic voice of the New England explorer, Capt. John Smith, been fulfilled, when, in his account of the country, he says, "Therefore honorable and worthy coun- trymen, let not the meannesse of the word fishe distaste you; for it will afford as good gold as the mines of Guiana or Potassie, with lesse hazard and charge, and more certainty and facility."-ED.]
§ See Hakluyt, 1. c. p. 691. French authors say, that this useful estab- lishment on Sable Island was made by French fishermen, and not by Por- tuguese.
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SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND.
From all these reports it is clear, that the Portuguese. throughout the whole course of the century with the history of which we are occupied, were active on the banks and shores of Newfoundland, and found refuge in storms in its harbors, and even in those as far north as Greenland, and probably also as far south as Maine. They had thus made themselves prominent and useful in the progress of the explo- ration and discovery of this part of our coast. This may be considered as a continuation and consequence of the work commenced by King Emanuel, and the energetic though unfortunate brothers Cortereal, who are justly celebrated in the geographical history of the north-east of America.
The discoveries of the Portuguese fishermen have been delineated by some of their countrymen on charts and maps ; some of which, coming to our time, have given us a clearer knowledge of their acts. I shall reproduce, in subsequent pages, some of these charts, and examine their contents.
3. VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND, PROPOSED BY JUAN DORNE- LOS, JUAN DE AGRAMONTE, AND SEBASTIAN CABOT, IN 1500, 1511, AND 1515.
When Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain heard, in 1496, of the proposed voyage of Cabot, they ordered their ambassador in England, De Puebla, to notify and warn the king, that he could not engage in such an enterprise, without prejudice to the rights of Spain and Portugal. And when, in 1498, Cabot's discovery had been actually made, and possession of the country taken in the name of the king of England, the Spanish ambassador then in England, Don Pedro de Ayala, wrote to his sovereigns, that he had protested against such acts on the ground, that Newfoundland was already in pos- session of their Spanish majesties.
We may well suppose that the Spanish sovereigns would
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SPANISH VOYAGES TO NEWFOUNDLAND.
not content themselves with a mere protestation against what they considered inroads upon their territorial rights. And indeed the Spanish archives furnish evidence, that in the beginning of the sixteenth century, Spain not only kept her eyes on the northern regions, but had planned, if not exe- cuted, voyages toward them.
In the year 1500, when the king of Portugal was fitting out Cortereal for his voyage of discovery, the king of Spain summoned to his court Juan Dornelos, a Spanish navigator, to plan an exploring expedition.
Navarrete, the Spanish historian, thinks that this voyage of Dornelos was projected for the purpose of reconnoitering the seas and countries discovered by the Cabots. It is uncertain whether the project was carried into effect .*
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