further relates that Cortereal brought fifty-seven of the natives in his vessel-he extols the country on account of the timber which it produces, the abundance of fish upon its coasts, and the inhabitants being robust and laborious." (Barrow, Chronological History, p. 40, 41.)

"From his own account it appears that having employed nearly a year in this voyage, he had discovered between West and North-West, a Continent till then unknown to the rest of the world; that he ran along the coast upwards of eight hundred miles; that according to his conjecture this land lay near a region formerly approached by the Venetians (an allusion to the voyages of the Zeni), and almost at the North Pole, and that he was unable to proceed further, &c." (Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia, Hist. of Maritime and Inland Discovery, vol. ii. p. 139.)

Our criticism on this epitome of errors is confined to the original wrong-doer. Not only does Mr Barrow fall an unresisting victim to the treachery of the monk, but, such is the influence of bad company, he himself is found taking, in his turn, rather dishonest liberties with his own guide. In the original, Cortereal is said to have passed along between six and seven hundred miles of the newly discovered coast without reaching its termination. Madrignanon stretches out the distance to almost eight hundred, while Mr Barrow insists on "upwards" of eight hundred. For all this, too, he vouches the wretched monk, whereas his audacity, as we have seen, did not quite enable him to reach the point over which the Secretary of the Admiralty, with the gathered impetus of so rapid a progress, takes a fearless leap.

In happy ignorance of the host of authorities which fix conclusively the limit of the voyage, this gentleman evinces an amiable anxiety to frame an apology for one of Cortereal's countrymen whose statement he found in Hakluyt's translation:

"Galvano places it, although with little accuracy, in 50°; misprinted probably for 60° which would be correct!" (Barrow, p. 39.)

We have forborne, as has been said, to press a censure of the writer in Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia, because he is merely a pitiable martyr to faith in his predecessor; but another work, published on the 1st of October last, does not merit the same forbearance, as it sets at equal defiance the genuine and the spurious authorities. The reference is to the "Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in the Polar Seas and Regions,

&c.; by Professor Leslie, Professor Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esqre. F.R.S.E." forming vol. i. of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library. By this work it appears (p. 158) that Cortereal," immediately upon the discovery of the Western World, resolved to follow in the steps of Columbus." We are informed further (ib.), "Respecting the details of this voyage, there remain only detached shreds which Mr Barrow has collected with equal learning and diligence!" The character of a work put forth under such auspices, may be gathered from the following passage (p. 159)—

"The natives are correctly described as of small stature—a simple and laborious race; and no less than fifty-seven being allured or carried on board were conveyed to Portugal. After a run along this coast estimated at 800 miles Cortereal came to a region which appeared to some (!) as lying almost beneath the Pole, and similar to that formerly reached by Nicolo and Antonio Zeno! Ramusio more explicitly states, &c. &c."

All the rest is in a similar strain. Only one part of the passage quoted calls for particular remark,-that as to the stature of the inhabitants. The writer is evidently anxious to give a sanction to his own absurd hypothesis that the natives whose wonderful symmetry and aptitude for labour extorted the admiration of the Venetian Ambassador-whose "goodly corporature" is specially mentioned by Richard Eden (Decades, 318) were the Esquimaux of Labrador. Now, without relying on the circumstances already stated, we mention one fact. Ramusio, whose name is here invoked, devotes to the voyage of Cortereal about half a page, and expressly declares that the inhabitants were large and well proportioned, "gli habitanti sono huomini grandi, ben proportionati.”

CHAP. VI.

DIFFUSIVE MISCHIEF OF THE ITINERARIUM PORTUGALLENSIUM-GRYNÆUS -MEUSEL-FLEURIEU—HUMBOLDT, &c.

THE perversion by Madrignanon has passed into the earliest and most esteemed Collections of Voyages and Travels, and thus exercised a mischievous influence on more recent works.

In the Novus Orbis of Grynæus published at Basle, in 1532, the Letter of Pasquiligi is given (p. 138) according to the version of the Itinerarium; and so in the edition of that work published in the same year at Paris (p. 121), and in the Basle Edition of 1555 (p. 99). Everywhere, indeed, we are presented with lamentable proofs of the blind confidence reposed in it, even as to other matters. Thus, the "Biographie Universelle" (art. Cadamosto) sharply rebukes Grynæus for having stated 1504, instead of 1454, as the year in which Cadamosto represents himself to have been at Venice previous to his voyage. The Itinerarium (cap. ii.) is the source of this error. The explanation does not, it is true, relieve Grynæus from censure. The mistake appears in the Basle Edition of the Novus Orbis of 1532 (page 5), in the Paris Edition of the same year (p. 3), and is not corrected in that of Basle in 1555 (p. 2).

So implicitly has Madrignanon been followed, that Meusel (Biblioth. Hist., original Leipsic Ed. vol. ii. part ii. p. 318) not only gives the year 1504, but finding a statement, on the same page, by Cadamosto as to his age, makes a calculation accordingly, and gravely informs us that the voyager must have been born in 1483-just, in fact, twenty-nine years after the expedition! Meusel finds out afterwards, in some way, that he was wrong, and throws the blame (vol. iii. p. 159, 160), like the "Biographie Universelle," on Grynæus.

Even in translating the title of that chapter of the "Paesi," (book 6, cap. cxxvi.) which contains the letter of Pasquiligi, the Itinerarium commits a blunder, that has been, in the same manner, perpetuated. In the original it runs thus: "Copia de una Lettera de Domino Pietro Pasqualigo Oratore della Illustrissima Signoria in Portugallo scripta (a soi fratelli) in Lisbona adj. xix. Octobrio, &c." The words indicating the address we have placed within a parenthesis, in order to mark, with more distinctness, the manner in which it is plain they must be read and understood. The place, as well as the time, mentioned are parts of the date of the letter, for Pasquiligi is obviously conveying intelligence from Lisbon, where Cortereal had arrived, to his brothers in Italy. Not attending to a matter so obvious, the Itinerarium (fol. lxxix.) represents the personages addressed as residing in Lisbon, "ad germanos suos in Ulisbona commorantes!" This absurdity also is copied into the Novus Orbis (Basle Ed. of 1532, p. 138; Paris Ed. same year, p. 121; and the Basle Ed. of 1555, p. 99).

Such, then, is the unhappy fate of a modern reader. By the writers who minister to his instruction it is deemed a wonderful effort to go back to the Novus Orbis of 1555. To consult the earlier editions of 1532 would be considered quite an affectation of research. Yet on reaching that distant point, it is plain we cannot read a single line without a distressing uncertainty whether it may not merely reflect the dishonesty, or ignorance, of an intermediate translator, instead of the meaning of the original work.

The question how far the author of the "Paesi" was indebted to previous publications, now finally lost, for part of his materials, particularly as to the first four books, is one of much curiosity, and with regard to which a great deal has been said by many learned critics who had plainly never examined any one of its pages; but the inquiry would here be irrelevant, as it is not pretended that the Letter of Pasquiligi and the others addressed to persons in Italy, given in Book Sixth, had ever before appeared in print. The remarks prepared on that point arc, therefore, withheld, as they would

unwarrantably swell a part of the subject which has already expanded beyond its due proportion.

The name Labrador or Laborer, connected with the perversion by the Itinerarium of "very populous" into "admirably cultivated," has led to a singular medley of errors in all the accounts of Cortereal's voyage. It would require a volume to exhibit them, but a reference to a few of the more recent writers will show how completely all the sources of information within their reach had been poisoned. Thus M. Fleurieu, in his Introduction to the Voyage de Marchand (tom. i. p. 5), says:

"En 1500 ou 1501 Gaspar de Cortereal, Portugais, homme de naissance partit de Lisbone, arriva a Terre Neuve, en visita la cote orientale, se presenta á l'embouchure du fleuve Saint Laurent, decouvrit au-dessus du cinquantieme Parallile une Terre qu'il nomma de Labrador parce qu'il la jugea propre au labourage et a la culture, parvint, enfin, remontant vers le Nord á l'entreé d'un Detroit auquel il imposa le nom de Detroit d'Anian et qui plus de cent ans aprés fut appellé Detroit de Hudson,* &c."

It is to be regretted that Baron Humboldt (Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, Lib. iii. ch. viii.) should have hastily given an incidental sanction to a passage replete with errors of every description.

Mr Barrow, with that wary caution which is generally the result of long official training, does not dwell on this perplexing point, but others have rushed in where he dared not tread:

"That part of it which being on this side of the 50th degree of N. latitude he thought was still fit for tillage and cultivation he named Terra de Labrador" (Forster, p. 450). "He arrived at Conception Bay in Newfoundland, explored the East Coast of that Island, and afterwards discovered the River St Lawrence. To the next country which he discovered he gave the name of Labrador, because from its latitude and appearance it seemed to him better fitted for culture than his other discoveries in this part of America." (Kerr's Collection of Voyages, &c. vol. xviii. p. 354.) "He appears first to have reached Newfoundland, whence pushing to the North he came. to that great range of Coast to which from some very superficial observation he gave the name of Labrador or the Laborers Coast" (Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in North America, &c. by Hugh Murray, Esq. vol. i. p. 69).

Mr Barrow must have a further hearing (p. 41).

"To this evidence may also be added that of Ramusio, whose accuracy in such

So the Biographie Universelle (art. Cortereal), "Ce detroit auquel il donna le nom d'Anian a recu depuis celui d'Hudson.”