of the Norsemen met his eyes. The Portuguese pilot
considered Greenland at its southern point to be an
outstanding promontory of Asia, and he struggled hard to
pass beyond it westward to a more favoured region. But
his path was blocked by 'enormous masses of frozen snow
floating on the sea, and moving under the influence of
the waves.' It is clear that he was met not merely by
the field ice of the Arctic ocean, but also by great
icebergs moving slowly with the polar current. The
narrative tells how Corte-Real's crew obtained fresh
water from the icebergs. 'Owing to the heat of the sun,
fresh and clear water is melted on the summits, and,
descending by small channels formed by the water itself,
it eats away the base where it falls. The boats were sent
in, and in that way as much was taken as was needed.'

Corte-Real made his way as far as a place (which was in
latitude 60 degrees) where the sea about him seemed a
flowing stream of snow, and so he called it Rio Nevado,
'the river of snow.' Probably it was Hudson Strait.

Late in the same season, Corte-Real was back in Lisbon.
He had discovered nothing of immediate profit to the
crown of Portugal, but his survey of the coast of North
America from Newfoundland to Hudson Strait seems to have
strengthened the belief that the best route to India lay
in this direction. In any case, on May 15, 1501, he was
sent out again with three ships. This time the Portuguese
discovered a region, so they said, which no one had before
visited. The description indicates that they were on the