Miguel Corte-Real’s voyage, 1503
As he did not return, his brother, Miguel Corte-Real, fitted out a new expedition in the hope, on the one hand of going to help his brother, and on the other of making fresh discoveries. On January (?) 15, 1502 (or 1503 ?), he obtained letters patent from King Manuel (see [p. 353]). On May 10, according to Damiam de Goes, he sailed from Lisbon with two ships, and nothing more was heard of him. Antonio Galvano, on the other hand, says that he had three ships, and that these arrived in Newfoundland (Terra de Corte-Real), but there separated and went into different inlets
“with the arrangement that they should all meet again on August 20th. The two other ships did so, and when they saw that Miguel Corte-Real’s ship did not come at the appointed time, nor for some time after that, they returned to Portugal, and never since was any more news heard of him, nor did any other memory of him remain; but the country is called to this day the Land of the Corte-Reals.”[358]
The King despatches ships
“The King felt deeply the loss of the two brothers, and, moved by his royal and compassionate feeling, he caused in the year 1503[359] two ships to be fitted out to go and search for them. But it could never be discovered how either the one or the other (of the brothers) was lost.”
If this account of Galvano’s is correct, then the last relief expedition returned without having accomplished its purpose. As to what discoveries it may have made, we hear nothing, nor do we see any trace of them on the maps, unless, indeed, the hint of an extension of Newfoundland to the north on the so-called Pilestrina map of about 1511 (see [p. 377]) may be due to this expedition or to the ship that returned from Miguel Corte-Real’s voyage of 1502. On Pedro Reinel’s map ([p. 321]) there is marked a land answering to Cape Breton, with a coast extending westward from it. It is possible that this may be derived from these expeditions, and in the same way all the Portuguese names along Newfoundland, the coast-line of which must be taken from the same source as the Cantino map. It is, however, more probable that the names are due to Portuguese fishermen; though there is also a possibility that Reinel’s additions may be referred to the Anglo-Portuguese expeditions from Bristol in 1501 and the following years. His island, Sam Joha [St. John], points, as has been said ([p. 321]), to a possible connection with John Cabot’s discoveries.
Northern portion of an Italian map, possibly drawn by Pilestrina, 1511.
Only a few of the names are given. (Björnbo and Petersen, 1908)
Vasqueanes Corte-Real refused leave to sail
When neither of the brothers returned, the eldest brother, Vasqueanes Corte-Real—who held very high positions both at the King’s Court and as Governor of the islands of São Jorge and Terceira in the Azores—wished “to fit out ships at his own expense in order to go out and search for them. But when he asked the King to excuse his absence, his Majesty could not consent to his going further in the matter, and insisted that it was useless, and that all had been done that could be done” (De Goes). Thus the spirit of the capable and enterprising Portuguese for further exploration in these difficult northern waters seems to have become cooled, and we do not hear much more of official expeditions despatched from Portugal to find other new countries in that quarter. Meanwhile Newfoundland (Terra de Corte-Real) continued through the whole of the sixteenth century to be regarded as a province under the Portuguese Crown, and the post of its Governor, with special privileges, was hereditary in the family of Corte-Real, until Manuel Corte-Real II., the last of the male line, fell fighting by the side of King Sebastian, in the fatal battle of Kas-rel-Kebir in 1578.[360]