Portuguese navigator; born in
Lisbon; was in the service of the
King of
Portugal when, in 1500, he left the mouth of the
Tagus with two ships well equipped at his own cost and proceeded to make discoveries in the
Northwest.
Cortereal was a gentleman of enterprising and determined character, who had been reared in the household of the Portuguese monarch and had an ardent thirst for glory.
He first touched, it is believed, the northern shores of
Newfoundland, discovered the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and sailed along the coast of the
American continent to lat. 60°, and named the neighboring coast
Labrador.
Cabot had visited that coast two years before, but did not land;
Cortereal landed in several places, and gave purely Portuguese names to localities.
The natives appearing to him rugged and strong and capital material for slaves, he seized fifty of them, and, carrying them to
Portugal, made a profitable sale of his captives.
The profits of this voyage excited the cupidity of
Cortereal and his
King (Emanuel the
Great), and they prepared to carry on an active slave-trade with
Labrador.
Cortereal went on a second voyage in 1501, but was supposed to have been lost at sea; and his brother Michael, who went in search of him, was never heard of afterwards.
An expedition sent by the
King in 1503 found no trace of him. The commander of one of the vessels seized fifty-seven natives as slaves, but most of them were lost in the ships.
The
King declared that
Cortereal was the first discoverer of the
American continent, and he caused a map to be published in 1508, in which the coast of
Labrador is called Terra Corterealis, or
Cortereal's Land.
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