That it is utterly unfounded, so far as regards that portion of the
coast lying east and north of Cape Breton, that is, from 46 Degrees
N. latitude to 50 Degrees N., embracing a distance of five hundred
miles according to actual measurement, or eight hundred miles
according to the letter, is proven by the fact, that it had all been
known and frequented by Portuguese and French fishermen, for a
period of twenty years preceding the Verrazano voyage. The
Portuguese fisheries in Newfoundland must have commenced shortly
after the voyages of the brothers Cortereaes in 1501-2, as they
appear to have been carried on in 1506, from a decree of the king of
Portugal published at Leiria on the 14th of October in that year,
directing his officers to collect tithes of fish which should be
brought into his kingdom from Terra Nova; [Footnote: Memorias
Economicas da academia Real das Sciencias da Lisboa, tom. III, 393.]
and Portuguese charts belonging to that period, still extant, show
both the Portuguese and French discoveries of this coast. On a map
(No. 1, of the Munich atlas,) of Pedro Reinel, a Portuguese pilot,
who entered the service of the king of Spain at the time of fitting
out Magellan's famous expedition, Terra Nova, and the land of Cape
Breton are correctly laid down, as regards latitude, though not by
name. On Terra Nova the name of C. Raso, (preserved in the modern
Cape Race) is applied to its southeasterly point, and other
Portuguese names, several of which also still remain, designating
different points along the easterly coast of Newfoundland, and a
Portuguese banner, as an emblem of its discovery by that nation, are
found. Another Portuguese chart, belonging to the period when the
country between Florida and Terra Nova was unknown (No. 4 of the
same atlas) delineates the land of Cape Breton, not then yet known
to be an island, in correct relation with the Bacalaos, accompanied