[323] Possibly the first-named Portuguese was the origin of the name of “Labrador.” On a Portuguese map of the sixteenth century, preserved at Wolfenbüttel, it is stated that the country of Labrador was “discovered by Englishmen from the town of Bristol, and as he who first gave the information was a ‘labrador’ [i.e., labourer] from the Azores, they gave it that name” [cf. Harrisse, 1892, p. 580; 1900, p. 40]. Ernesto do Canto [Archivo dos Açores, xii. 1894] points out that in documents of as early as 1492 there is mention of a João Fernandez who is described as “llavorador,” and who was engaged with another (Pero de Barcellos) in making discoveries at sea. “Llavorador” did not mean merely a common labourer, but one who tilled the ground, an agriculturist, landowner. We are then tempted to suppose that, as Do Canto assumes, this João Fernandez llavorador is John Fernandus, who is mentioned in the letters patent of 1501. The name of Labrador first appears on Portuguese maps (cf. the King map of about 1502), and is there used of Greenland. It may there be due to this João Fernandez (llavorador), who, perhaps, returned to Portugal in 1502, as he is no longer mentioned in the letters patent of December 1502 [cf. Harrisse, 1900, p. 40, ff.; Björnbo, 1910, p. 174]. Possibly he may have accompanied Corte-Real in 1500, or himself made a voyage in that year (see next chapter), before he came to Bristol; of that we know nothing, but in that case the name refers to some such Portuguese voyage, on which we know that Greenland was sighted in 1500, though the voyagers were unable to reach the coast (see next chapter). It may then be supposed that the English expedition from Bristol in 1501, in which João Fernandez took part, did reach the coast of Greenland, and therefore on later maps the discovery was attributed to the English, who not only saw the coast, but also landed on it. The Spanish cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz (born 1506) says: “It was called the land of Labrador because it was mentioned and indicated by a ‘labrador’ from the Azores to the King of England, when he sent on a voyage of discovery Antonio [sic] Gabot, the English pilot and father of Sebastian Gabot, who is now Pilot Major (piloto mayor) to Your Majesty” [cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 80]. As this was written so long after, and in Spain, it is not surprising that Cabot’s voyage of 1497 has been confused with the voyage of 1501, especially as it was not to the interest of Sebastian, who was still in Spain at that time, to correct this. The statement agrees, moreover, with the legend on the Portuguese map at Wolfenbüttel.
[324] Cf. Harrisse, 1896, p. 147.
[325] In the repetition of the same statement (from Fabyan) in Stow’s Chronicle the eighteenth year is given as the date, i.e., August 22, 1502, to August 21, 1503; but it is doubtful which is correct; it appears to me that the text itself must be more original in Hakluyt; but the date occurs in the heading added by himself.
[326] The most natural explanation of this seems to me to be that Fabyan, whom Hakluyt quotes, thought that these savages were taken on the same island [i.e., North America] that John Cabot had discovered [in 1497]; of whose expedition in 1498 he had said that it had not returned during the mayoralty of William Purchas, see above, [p. 326]. That Hakluyt also interpreted Fabyan’s words thus seems to result from the fact that in his later repetition of this, in “Principal Navigations,” in 1589 and 1599-1600, he has altered the heading, making it the fourteenth (instead of the seventeenth) year of Henry VII. [i.e., August 22, 1498-August 21, 1499] when the three savages were brought to him. Hakluyt must then have misunderstood it to mean that they were taken on the voyage of 1498.
[327] In Hakluyt’s heading to this statement we are told that it was Sebastian Cabot who brought these savages; but his name is not mentioned in the text itself, which appears to be more genuine than the heading, and there is no ground for supposing that Sebastian took part in either of these expeditions of 1501 or 1502; in any case he was not the leader. In Stow’s version [Winship, 1900, p. 95] Sebastian Gabato is introduced into the text as he who had taken the three men; but, as suggested above, Stow’s text seems less original than Hakluyt’s. It is probable that both Stow and Hakluyt may have started from the assumption that it was Sebastian Cabot who made the voyage, and, therefore, that they thoughtlessly introduced his name [cf. Harrisse, 1896, pp. 142, ff.]; on the other hand it appears to me doubtful that his name should already have occurred in Fabyan in this connection.
[328] Greenland is represented on the map conformably to the type that was introduced on some mappemundi after Clavus’s map (cf. [p. 278]).
[329] As to the works of these authors, see Winship [1900]. Markham [1893] reproduces them (except Contarini’s report of 1536) in translations, which, however, must be used with some caution.
[330] These two ships and the three hundred men occur in Peter Martyr and Contarini, as well as in Gomara and Galvano; while Ramusio only has two ships and says nothing about the crews.
[331] In Peter Martyr’s original account no latitude is given.
[332] The meaning must be that these islands of ice were aground, but that nevertheless a line of one hundred fathoms did not reach the bottom. The ice must consequently have been over one hundred fathoms thick, which, of course, was a remarkable discovery at that time.