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regard to the river St. Lawrence. Even without specific evidence it might safely have been concluded that, as a passage to India was the grand object of research, so large an opening as is presented by the mouth of this river could not have escaped examination. Independent however of this general reasoning, the evidence furnished by Ramusio is decisive. In describing the principal places on that coast, he says that beyond Cabo do Gado (Cattle Cape) which is in 54 degrees, it runs two hundred leagues to the westward, to a great river called St. Lawrence, which some considered to be an arm of the sea, and which the Portugueze ascended to the distance of many leagues.

The extent of this navigation was probably limited to the ascertaining that it was not an arm of the sea, but a large river. As to the name of Canada, which was given to the country on the right of the entrance, it was by many geographers confined to a village situated at the confluence of the Seguenai, and according to most writers originated in the following circumstance:-When the Portugueze first ascended the river, under the idea that it was a strait, through which a passage to the Indies might be discovered-on arriving at the point where they ascertained that it was not a strait, but a river, they, with all the emphasis of disappointed hopes, exclaimed repeatedly, Cà, nada!-(here, nothing!) which words caught the

attention of the natives, and were remembered and repeated by them on seeing other Europeans, under Jacques Cartier, arrive in 1534-but Cartier mistakes the object of the Portugueze to have been gold mines, not a passage to India; and if the Portugueze account be true, he also mistook the exclamation of Cà, nada, for the name of the country.

It has been already stated that, in the course of this voyage, Cortereal discovered many islands, which he found were inhabited, and to which he gave Portugueze names. Ramusio, in his map, lays down the Ilha dos Baccalhaos (Cod Island) almost joining Terra de Cortereal; the island of Boa Vista; and another which he names "Monte de Trigo" (wheat heap or hill); and in the map of Ortelius there is laid down, in lat. 43°, Ilha Redonda (Round Island); in lat. 47°, Ilha da area (Sand Island); and in lat. 57°, Ilha dos Cysnes (Swan Island); and, finally, in the mouth of Hudson's Straits, he places a little islet under the name of Caramilo-from which it may almost be concluded that the Portugueze had been here also, as this name is only a mis-spelling of the Portugueze word Caramelo or Icicle.

These circumstances render it probable that during the enthusiasm excited by the voyages of Gama and of Magalhanes, other voyages were undertaken, and countries described, by the Portugueze, which subsequent events caused to be neglected and forgotten.

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As Gaspar Cortereal was fully persuaded that a north-west passage to India might be found, and that its discovery would be honourable to himself and highly advantageous to his country, he continued his preparations for a second expedition, to which he had no difficulty in obtaining the king's consent; and he sailed, accompanied by the anxious prayers and hopes of his countrymen, from the port of Lisbon, on the 15th of May, 1501, with two vessels.

The voyage is said to have been prosperous until they reached Terra Verde; but here he was separated by bad weather from his consort, who, after having long searched and waited for him in vain, returned to Lisbon, with the melancholy tidings of what had happened. It is stated, in several of the collections of voyages, that the name of Anian was given to the Strait supposed to have been discovered by Gaspar, in honour of two brothers who accompanied him; but there are no grounds whatever for such a supposition, nor for that of other geographers who pretend that the name of Ania, as applicable to the north-western extremity of America, is mentioned by Marco Polo as a province of China, there being no such province in China, nor any such mentioned by Marco Polo. The origin of the word is, in fact, utterly unknown.*

* In the earliest maps Ania is marked as the name of the northwestern part of America. Ani in the Japanese language is said to signify brother; hence probably the mistake.

Michael Cortereal, grand door-keeper of the king Don Manuel, seeing himself thus deprived of a brother for whom he entertained the warmest affection, would not entrust the task of sending in search of him to any other, and therefore he himself set sail with three vessels from Lisbon, on the 10th of May, 1502.

Antonio Galvam informs us that, upon their reaching the coast, they discovered many rivers and openings, and each vessel entered a separate one, with the understanding that they should all meet at a certain point on the 20th of August. Two of the vessels did so meet, but Miguel de Cortereal did not appear, nor was any thing more ever heard of him; and the only memorial of his and his brother's fate is the name of Cortereal given to the country.

When these two vessels returned to Lisbon with the melancholy news of the loss of this second Cortereal, there remained yet a third brother, Vasco Eanes, master of the household, and one of the privy council of king Don Manuel, who immediately prepared to set out in search of his lost brothers; but no entreaty, no influence, could obtain the king's consent, who constantly replied that in this undertaking he had already lost two of his most faithful servants and valuable friends, and was resolved at least to preserve the third; he very readily, however, granted leave for other vessels being prepared and dispatched on this

search; but they also returned without any intelligence of these unfortunate navigators.

Notwithstanding these disasters, those voyages were nevertheless productive of great advantages to Portugal: they led to the establishment of a settlement on Newfoundland and to the prosecution of very extensive fisheries, in which were employed, at one period, between two and three hundred vessels from the ports of Vianna and Aveiro alone. But when Portugal had passed under the dominion of Spain, her commerce languished and her marine was destroyed, from the combined effect of domestic oppression and foreign war; and the ports both of Aveiro and Vianna are at present, and have been for many years, by sheer neglect, nearly choaked with sand and mud, and can no longer receive vessels of burthen.

The family of Cortereal has long been extinct, but it was for many years one of the most distinguished in Portugal. The family name was originally Costa or Coste, and of French extraction, having come to Portugal along with the Count Alfonso Henriquez, under whom one of the Costas served in the taking of Lisbon and conquering of Portugal from the Moors.

The family settled in Algarve; and when John Vaz da Costa (some say his father) came to the Portugueze court, he used to live in such a style of splendour and hospitality, that the king observed to him, "Your presence, Costa, in my court,

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