seas, by order of King Alfonso the Fifth, and discovered the Terra de Baccalhaos (the land of Cod Fish) afterwards called Newfoundland.

“This voyage is mentioned by Cordeiro, (Historia Insulana Cordeiro 1 vol. fol.) but he does not state the exact date, which however is ascertained to have been in 1463 or 1464; for on their return from the discovery of Newfoundland, or Terra Nova, they touched at the Island of Terceira, the Captaincy of which Island having become vacant by the death of Jacome Bruges, they solicited the appointment, and in reward for their services the request was granted, their patent commission being dated in Evora, 2nd April 1464.

"Notwithstanding this early date of a voyage across the Atlantic, there exists no document to prove that any thing further was done by the Portuguese, in the way of discovery, till towards the close of the fifteenth century; and if the evidence of that in question rested on this single testimony of Cordeiro, and on the fact of the Patent, it would scarcely be considered as sufficiently strong to deprive Cabotas of the honour of being the first who discovered Newfoundland; at the same time if the Patent should specify the service for which it was granted, and that service is stated to be the discovery of Newfoundland, the evidence would go far in favour of the elder Cortereal."

Supposing, for a moment, the statement here made to be correct, it must doubtless be received with astonishment. In all the eager controversies between Spain and Portugal, growing out of the discovery of America by the former power, not the slightest reference is made to this antecedent voyage, although we are apprised, by the letter of Thorne, of a resort even to the falsification of maps. Is it possible that Portugal, during the most stirring period of her history, would not attempt to follow up a discovery which was yet deemed worthy of a signal reward? The younger Cortereal, moreover, we have seen, speaks of the country visited by him in 1501 as before altogether unknown, and of that lying further north as discovered only the year before. Would such language have been used by him, or endured by his countrymen, if he had merely revisited a region discovered thirty-seven years before by a member of the same family?

We have in the work of the Portuguese writer Galvano, translated by Hakluyt, a minute and copious History of Maritime Discovery, in which, though the voyage of Gaspar Cortereal is particularly described, not the slightest allusion is found to this earlier enterprise.

It will probably be considered, also, rather remarkable that when Columbus, twenty years after this discovery, submitted

to the Court of Portugal his project for seeking land in the West, it was referred to a learned Junto, who pronounced it extravagant and visionary, and that on appeal to the Council this decision was affirmed. To remove all doubt a Caravel was secretly sent to sea, provided with the instructions of Columbus, and her return, not long after, without success, was considered to establish, conclusively, the impracticable character of the scheme.

But it happens that Mr Barrow, in putting forth the statement, has not looked even into the work which he professes to cite as his authority. The volume of Cordeyro was published in 1717, and is entitled "Historia Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal sugeytas no Oceano Occidental." Of it, and of its author so little is known that his name does not find a place even in the Biographie Universelle. A greater part is occupied with adulation of some of the principal families of the different islands; yet there is supplied the very Document at full length, to whose possible language Mr Barrow hypothetically attaches so much importance. A copy of the work is found in the Library of the British Museum. The Commission of Cortereal, as Governor of Terceira, bears date (p. 246), Evora, 12 April, 1464, and in the consideration recited for the grant not the slightest reference is made to any such discovery.*

Thus does the evidence in support of this preposterous claim disappear. The whole story had probably its origin in some confused tradition whicn reached Cordeyro as to the voyage of 1574. Yet mark how Error, "like to an entered tide, rushes by and leaves" even Mr Barrow hindmost.

"There seems little reason to doubt that a Portuguese navigator had discovered Newfoundland long before the time of Cabot. John Vaz Casta Cortereal, a gentleman of the Royal Household, had explored the Northern Seas by order of Alphonso

"E considerando en de outra parte os servicos que Joao Vas Cortercal, fidalgo da casa do dito Senhor meu filho, tem feyto ao Infante meu Senhor seu padre que Deos haja,, & depois a mim & a elle, confiando em a sua bondade, & lealdade, & vendo a sua disposicao, a qual he para poder servir o dito Senhor & manter seu direyto, & justica, em galardao dos ditos servicos lhe fiz merce de Capitania da Ilha Terceyra."

the V. about the year 1463, and discovered the Terra de Baccalhaos or land of Codfish, afterwards called Newfoundland.”*

As authority for these assertions, Mr Barrow is cited!
Again:

"This house was that of Cortereal: for a member of which, John Vaz Cortereal, claims are advanced as having discovered Newfoundland nearly a century (!) before the celebrated voyages of Columbus or Cabot.Ӡ

• Dr Lardner's Cyclopædia, History of Maritime and Inland discovery, vol. ii. p. 138.

+ Edinburgh Cabinet Library, by Professors Leslie and Jameson, and Hugh Murray, Esq. vol. i. p. 158.

CHAP. XII.

SIR MARTIN FROBISHER.

To exhibit a just estimate of the merits of this navigator, is one of the gravest portions of the duty that remains to be performed. There will here be found, probably, the most striking proof yet presented of injustice to the fame of Sebastian Cabot.

Had Frobisher seen the tract of Sir Humphrey Gilbert? The question may not, perhaps, be deemed one of essential importance, when we know that Ramusio, twenty-two years before, had furnished a statement, which it is impossible to misunderstand, of the course pursued, and of the point attained, by Cabot, and that there was suspended in the Queen's Gallery the Map, exhibiting his discoveries, referred to in that tract. Yet the evidence happens to be so singularly conclusive as to invite the inquiry.

A doubt, indeed, on the subject has arisen only from the conduct of Hakluyt, who in giving a place to the work of Sir Humphrey Gilbert has suppressed the very curious and interesting explanation of its history; and, owing to the blind confidence in that compiler, no one has since thought of going beyond his volumes. There is, fortunately, a copy of the original publication in the Library of the British Museum (title in catalogue Gilbert).

The tract was published on the 12 April 1576, and is preceded by an Address to the reader from George Gascoigne, who thus explains the manner in which it came into his possession:

"Now it happened that myself being one (amongst many) beholden to the said Sir Humphrey Gilbert for sundry courtesies, did come to visit him in the winter last past, at his house in Limehouse, and being very bold to demand of him, how he spent his time in this loitering vacation from martial stratagems, he courteously took me into his study, and there shewed me sundry profitable and very com

mendable exercises which he had perfected painfully with his own pen, and amongst the rest this present discovery. The which, as well because it was not long, as also, because I understood that M. Forboiser, a kinsman of mine, did pretend to travel in the same discovery, I craved it at the said Sir Humphrey's hand for two or three days."

Gascoigne retained possession of the tract, and subsequently published it.

Frobisher (or Forboiser as he is more commonly called in the old accounts) sailed from Gravesend, on his first voyage, 12 June, 1576. We thus find that the tract was obtained by a kinsman, for his use, the preceding winter, and that it even appeared in print two months before Frobisher left the Thames. The following is an extract from it (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 16).

"Sebastian Cabota by his personal experience and travel hath set forth and described this passage in his Charts, which are yet to be seen in the Queen's Majesty's Privy Gallery at Whitehall, who was sent to make this discovery by King Henry VII. and entered the same fret: affirming that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the North on the North side of Terra de Labrador the 11th of June. until he came to the Septentrional latitude of 67° and-a-half, and finding the sea still open said, that he might and would have gone to Cataia if the mutiny of the master and mariners had not been."

There is another tract in Hakluyt (vol. iii. p. 24) already referred to, entitled "Certain other reasons or arguments to prove a passage by the North-West, learnedly written by Mr Richard Willes, Gentleman." Here, also, a perilous discretion has been exercised in the way of curtailment. The Essay appeared originally in a new edition of Richard Eden's Decades, published by Willes, in 1577.* The tract is addressed to the Countess of Warwick whose husband was the patron of Frobisher, and is headed "For M. Captayne Frobisher, passage by the North-West" (fol. 230). That Willes had been solicited to prepare it is apparent from the conclusion (fol. 236).

"Thus much, Right Honorable, my very good Lady, of your question concerning your servant's voyage. If not so skilfully as I would, and was desirous fully to do, at the least as I could and leisure suffered me, for the little knowledge God

• "The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies, &c. by Richard Eden. Newly set in order, augmented and finished by Richarde Willes. London, 1577."