ABSTRACT
From the '' Chrom"ca do Felicissimo Rei dom Emanuel", composita per Damiam de Goes (Lisboa, 1566, fol. 65). Gaspar Corte Real, son of J oam V az Corte Real, was an
enterprising man, valorous, and eager to gain honour. He proposed to undertake the discovery of lands towards the north, because many discoveries had been made to the south. Thus he obtained favour for his undertaking from the king, whose servant he was when Duke of Beja, and armed one ship, which was well supplied with men and all necessanes. He sailed from the port of Lisbon in the beginning of the summer of I 500. In this voyage he discovered, in that direction of the north, a land which was very cool and \\·ith great woods, as arc all lands that lie in that direction. He gave it the name of Green Land.1 The people are very barbarous and wild, almost like those of the land of Sancta Cruz.2 At first they are white, but they are so cut up by the cold that they lose their whiteness with age, and remain brown. They are of medium height, very agile, and great archers, using sticks hardened by fire instead of darts, with which they make as good a cast as if it was tipped with fine steel. They dress in the skins of animals which abound in that land. They live in caverns of the rocks and in huts. They believe much in diviners ; they practise matrimony, and are very jealous of their women : in which things they resemble the Lapps, who also live in the north from 70 to 85 degrees, fugitives from the Kings of Norway and Sweden, to whom
they pay tribute, always remaining in their heathen state from want of teaching. In the book that treats of the faith, customs, and religion of the Ethiopians, Abexis in the Latin language, dedicated to Pope Paul I I I, towards the end there is a lamentation, in which it is explained in detail whence so great an evil proceeds. Returning to Gaspar Corte Real, after he had discovered that land, and coasted along a great part of it, he returned to this kingdom. Presently, in the year 1501, being desirous of discovering more of this province, and of becoming better acquainted with its advantages, he departed from Lisbon on the r 5th of May; but it is not known what happened to him in this voyage, for he never more appeared, nm· were there any tidings of him. The delay and the suspicion that began to arise of his fate caused Miguel Corte Real, Chief Porter of the King, for the great love he bore his brother, to determine to go in search of him. He left Lisbon on the roth of May 1502 with two ships, but there were never any tidings of them. The king felt the loss of these two brothers very much, and, of his O\Vn royal and pious motion, in the year I 503, he ordered two armed ships to be fitted out at his own cost, to go in search of them. But it could never be ascertained how either the one or the other was lost. To that part of the province of Green Land where it was believed that the brothers were lost the name was given of the Land of the Corte Reals. These two brothers, Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real, had another brother, whose name was Vasque Anes Corte Real, who was Controller of the King's Household, of his Council, Captain-Governor of the Islands of St. George and Terceira, and Alcalde Mayor of the city of Tavilla.1 He was a very g-ood knight and Christian, a man of exemplary life, and one who dispensed many charities, both publicly and
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