The vessels duly reached Lisbon, bringing their
captives and the news of the voyage. Corte-Real, however,
never returned, nor is anything known of his fate.
When a year had passed with no news of Gaspar Corte-Real,
his brother Miguel fitted out a new expedition of three
ships and sailed westward in search of him. On reaching
the coast of Newfoundland, the ships of Miguel Corte-Real
separated in order to make a diligent search in all
directions for the missing Gaspar. They followed the deep
indentations of the island, noting its outstanding
features. Here and there they fell in with the natives
and traded with them, but they found nothing of value.
To make matters worse, when the time came to assemble,
as agreed, in the harbour of St John's, only two ships
arrived at the rendezvous. That of Miguel was missing.
After waiting some time the other vessels returned without
him to Portugal.
Two Corte-Reals were now lost. King Manoel transferred
the rights of Gaspar and Miguel to another brother, and
in the ensuing years sent out several Portuguese expeditions
to search for the lost leaders, but without success. The
Portuguese gained only a knowledge of the abundance of
fish in the region of the Newfoundland coast.
Pages:
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117