departure (the Desertas) before we reached land in the latitude of
34, we have to count 300 leagues which we ran northeastwardly, and
400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the 50TH PARALLEL
OF NORTH LATITUDE, the point where we turned our course from the
shore towards home. BEYOND THIS POINT THE PORTUGUESE HAD ALREADY
SAILED AS FAR AS THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, WITHOUT COMING TO THE
TERMINATION OF THE LAND."

That this latitude must be taken as correctly determined follows
from the representation of the letter, that they took daily
observations of the sun and made a record of them, so that no
material error could have occurred and remained unrectified for over
twenty-four hours; and from the presumption that they were as
capable of calculating the latitude as other navigators of that
period, sent on such purposes by royal authority, like Jacques
Cartier, whose observations, as the accounts of his voyage to this
region show, never varied half a degree from the true latitude. The
fiftieth parallel strikes the easterly coast of Newfoundland three
degrees north of Cape Race, and to that point the exploration of
Verrazzano is therefore to be regarded as claimed to have been made.
[Footnote: Damiam de Goes, Chronica do felicissimo rei Dom Emanuel
parte I. C. 66. (Fol., Lisboa, 1566)]

This intention is made positively certain by the remark which
follows the statement of the latitude, that "beyond this point the
Portuguese had already sailed as far north as the Arctic circle
without coming to the termination of the land." The exploration of
the Portuguese here referred to, and as far as which that of
Verrazzano is carried, was made by Gaspar Cortereal in his second
voyage, when according to the letter of Pasqualigo the Venetian