Late authorities of the sixteenth century
Galvano on G. Corte-Real
As already stated, Gaspar Corte-Real’s voyages are mentioned in several works of the sixteenth century, but as these were written so long after the events took place, no particular importance can be attached to them in cases where they conflict with the earlier documents. The allusions to Gaspar Corte-Real in the Spanish author Gomara and the Italian Ramusio seem for the most part to be derived from Pietro Pasqualigo’s letter of October 19, 1501, to his brothers at Venice, which was published for the first time as early as 1507. The Portuguese Antonio Galvano says in his “Tratado” (1563) that Gaspar Corte-Real sailed in 1500
“from the island of Terceira with two ships, fitted out at his own expense, and travelled to the region that is in the fiftieth degree of latitude, a land which is now called by his name. He returned safely to Lisbon; but when he again set out, his ship was lost, and the other ship returned to Portugal.”
This, it will be seen, agrees remarkably well with the conclusions we arrived at above; but as Galvano spent the greater part of his life in the East Indies, and only came home to end his days in a hospital at Lisbon, no great importance can be attached to his statements [cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 35], except in so far as they reproduce a Portuguese tradition.
De Goes on G. Corte-Real
Damiam de Goes, in his “Chronica do Felicissimo Rei dom Emanuel” (Lisbon, 1566), has a more detailed account of Gaspar Corte-Real’s voyage of 1500, and of the land he visited. He says:
“He sailed from the port of Lisbon at the beginning of summer, 1500. On this voyage he discovered in a northerly direction a land which was very cold, and with great forests, as all those [countries] are that lie in that quarter. He gave it the name of Terra verde [i.e., green land]. The people are very barbaric and wild, almost like those of Sancta Cruz [i.e., Brazil], except that they are at first white, but become so weather-beaten from the cold that they lose their whiteness with age and become almost dark brown. They are of middle height, very active, and great archers, using sticks hardened in the fire for throwing-spears, with which they make as good casts as though they had points of good steel. They clothe themselves in the skins of beasts, of which there is abundance in that country. They live in caves, and in huts, and they have no laws. They have great belief in omens; they have marriage, and are very jealous of their wives, in which they resemble the Lapps, who also live in the north from 70° to 85°.... After he [Gaspar Corte-Real] had discovered this land, and sailed along a great part of its coast, he returned to this kingdom. As he greatly desired to discover more of this province, and to become better acquainted with its advantages, he set out again immediately in the year 1501 on May 15 from Lisbon; but it is not known what happened to him on this voyage, for he was never seen again, nor did there come any news of him” [Cf. Harrisse, 1883, p. 233].
The last statement, that Corte-Real disappeared without any more being heard of him, shows that De Goes was not well informed, in spite of his being chief custodian (Guarda m’or) of the Torre do Tombo, where the State archives were kept at Lisbon. His whole account may therefore be of doubtful value as a historical document. His description of the newly discovered land and of the inhabitants may be derived from other statements, or from literary sources, and is of the same kind as we often meet with in accounts of natives in the authorities of that time. It appears that the cold country, Terra verde, with great forests and wild, barbaric people, must be the Greenland (Gronolondes) that is referred to in the anonymous letter of about 1450 to Pope Nicholas V.[349] Most of what is said about these natives would apparently suit the Eskimo quite as well as the Indians, but as we do not know from whence the whole is derived, it is not easy to form an opinion as to which people is really referred to in the description. The remarkable statement that the natives are at first white, but turn brown through the cold, will hardly suit the Indians, but might apply to the Eskimo, who at an early age have a very fair skin, perhaps quite as light as the Portuguese.
Mention of the natives in Pasqualigo and Cantino
What is said of the natives in the letters of Pasqualigo and Cantino seems on the whole to suit the Eskimo better than the Indians; typical Eskimo features are: that they had boats covered with hides (it is true that Cantino says stags’ hides, i.e., reindeer hides, but this must be a misunderstanding);[350] also houses (i.e., tents) of long poles covered with fish skin (i.e., sealskin); that the colour of their skin was rather white than anything else, that they laughed a good deal and showed much cheerfulness. It may seem somewhat surprising that the Eskimo should be “a little bigger than our countrymen” (i.e., the Italians), but, in the first place, it may have been particularly good specimens of the race that were exhibited, and in the next place the Eskimo are a race of medium stature, and, perhaps, on an average, quite as tall as Italians and Portuguese. That they were naked with the exception of a piece of skin round the loins answers to the indoor custom of the Eskimo. Pasqualigo’s description: that they were clothed in the skins of various animals, mostly otter, and that the skins were unprepared and not sewed together, but thrown over the shoulders and arms as they were taken from the animals, conflicts with the words of Cantino, and is, no doubt, due to a misunderstanding; it does not sound probable. If it is correct, Pasqualigo and Cantino must have seen different natives.