[343] Cf. Kohl, 1869, p. 179, Pl. X.; Kretschmer, 1892, Pl. XII.; Björnbo, 1910, p. 212.
[344] It might be objected that Gaspar Corte-Real’s name is not mentioned in the whole letter, and that he might thus have also been in command of these “other caravels”; but in Pasqualigo’s letter to his brothers Gaspar’s name is mentioned, and there too the meaning does not seem to be that he was connected with the discovery in the previous year of the country which could not be approached because of ice; but nothing definite can be concluded on this point from the two letters.
[345] The connection with the latter is evidently brought about by the south coast of the insular Greenland (Terra Laboratoris)—which we meet with first on the King map ([p. 373]), and which was given a broad form like that of the Greenland coast on the Oliveriana map ([p. 375]), but even broader—being transferred westward towards America, to the north of the coast of Corte-Real or Newfoundland, as we find it on the anonymous Portuguese chart of about 1520 ([p. 354]) and on Reinel’s map ([p. 321]). Maggiolo’s map (see above) forms a transitional type between these maps and the Oliveriana. Greenland (Labrador) was later made continuous with Newfoundland (cf. Ribero’s map of 1529, p. 357), and remained so on maps for a long time (see the map of 1544, [p. 320]).
[346] The expedition attributed to João Vaz Corte-Real, on which he is said to have discovered Newfoundland as early as 1464 or 1474, is unhistorical, and is a comparatively late invention which is first found in the Portuguese author, Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, in his “Saudades da Terra” [vi. c. 9], written about 1590 [cf. Harrisse, 1883, pp. 26, ff.]. Father Antonio Cordeyro (Historia Insulana, Lisbon, 1717) says that the discovery was made in company with Alvaro Martins Homen.
[347] It may also be supposed that from the ice off the south-west of Greenland Corte-Real steered north-west and west, and met with the ice in the Labrador Current, and was then obliged to turn southwards along the edge of the ice until he sighted land.
[348] These times given by Cantino for the voyage are, of course, improbable; if we might suppose that he meant weeks instead of months, it would agree with the time naturally occupied on such a voyage. If we add his one month for the homeward voyage to the seven months given above, and if another month be reckoned for the stay in the country, we shall have his nine months for the whole voyage.
[349] That the Eskimo lived in caves in the mountains or underground was a not uncommon idea even in later times; see, for instance, Wilhelmi: Island, Hvitramannaland, Grönland und Finland, 1842, p. 172.
[350] We do not know that the Indians of Newfoundland had hide-boats; but it is not impossible.
[351] This land connection is found on the Canerio map of 1502-1507, which is of the same type as the Cantino map and is an Italian copy, either of the Cantino map itself or of a similar Portuguese map of 1501 or 1502 [cf. Björnbo, 1910, p. 167].
[352] Since I contended, in a preliminary sketch of this chapter, which Dr. A. A. Björnbo read, that the representation of Greenland on the Cantino map was most probably based on a voyage along the west coast as well as the east, Dr. Björnbo [1910a, pp. 313, ff.; 1910, pp. 176, ff.] has examined the delineation of Greenland on the Oliveriana map, and found that it represents discoveries made during a cruise, not only along the east coast, but also along a part of the south-west coast, and he sees in this a partial confirmation of my contention. He thinks it was during Corte-Real’s voyage of 1500 that this cruise was made, and even supposes that the prototype of the Oliveriana map was Corte-Real’s admiral’s chart itself; but this I regard as very doubtful, as will appear from what I have said above regarding the discoveries of 1500. Björnbo thinks that an original map like the Oliveriana map is sufficient to explain the form of the west coast of Greenland on the Cantino map, while the more northern portion has been given a direction in accordance with the Clavus maps. I have admitted to Björnbo the possibility of such an explanation. But the more I look at it, the more doubtful it seems; for the form of the west coast on the Cantino map has, in fact, not the least resemblance to that of the Clavus maps; indeed, the very direction is different, more northerly and more like the real direction, when allowance is made for the probable variation. It appears to me, therefore, that we cannot assume offhand that the Clavus maps could lead to a representation like that of the Cantino map.