embassador, he sailed from Lisbon on a course between west and
northwest, and struck a coast along which he ran from six to seven
hundred miles, "without finding the end." [Footnote: Paesi novamente
ritrovati. Lib. sexto. cap. CXXXL. Venice, 1521. A translation into
English of Pasqualigo's letter, which is dated the 19th of October,
1501, is given in the memoir of Sebastian Cabot, p. 235-6.] No other
exploration along this coast by the Portuguese, tending to the
Arctic circle is known to have taken place before the publication of
the Verrazzano letter. The first voyage of Cortereal, was, according
to the description of the people given by Damiam de Goes, among the
Esquimaux, whether on the one side or the other of Davis straits it
is unnecessary here to inquire, as the Esquimaux are not found south
of 50 Degrees N. latitude. The land along which he ran in his second
voyage, was, according to the same historian, distinctly named after
him and his brother, who shared his fate in a subsequent voyage. It
is so called on several early printed maps on which it is
represented as identical with Newfoundland. It appears first on a
map of the world in the Ptolemy of 1511 edited by Bernardus Sylvanus
of Eboli, and is there laid down as extending from latitude 50
Degrees N. to 60 Degrees N. with the name of Corte Real or Court
Royal, latinized into Regalis Domus. [Footnote: Claudii Ptholemaei
Alexandrini liber geographiae, cum tabulis et universali figura et
cum additione locorum quae a recentioribus reporta sunt diligenti
cura emendatus et impressus. (Fol., Venetiis, 1511.)] The length of
the coast, corresponds with the description of Pasqualigo, and its
position with the latitude assigned by the Verrazzano letter for
their exploration. Its direction is north and south. There can be no
question therefore as to the pretension of the Verrazzano letter to
the discovery of the coast by him, actually as far north as the
fiftieth parallel.