Corte-Real Brothers' Voyages to Newfoundland (1500–1502)

The Corte-Real voyages of 1500–1502 were Portugal’s attempt to explore the North Atlantic and claim the lands that John Cabot had recently reached for England. The brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real sailed from Portugal to Greenland, Labrador and Newfoundland, bringing back captives and reports of rich forests and fishing grounds. Both brothers then vanished at sea, but their voyages helped establish the Portuguese presence in the Newfoundland fishery.

Background

The Corte-Real family came from the Azores, the Portuguese islands in the mid-Atlantic. Their father, João Vaz Corte-Real, was captain of part of the island of Terceira. Later legends claimed he had reached North America before Columbus, but there is no reliable evidence for this.

In the late 1490s Atlantic exploration was intensely competitive. John Cabot had sailed from Bristol in 1497 and reached land, probably Newfoundland or Cape Breton. Under the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal held rights to lands east of a north–south line in the Atlantic, and the Portuguese hoped northern lands might fall on their side. On 12 May 1500 King Manuel I granted Gaspar Corte-Real rights over any islands or mainland he might find.

The first voyage, 1500

Gaspar’s first voyage in 1500 is poorly documented. He appears to have reached a land with high mountains and ice, most likely southern Greenland, but was unable to land because of pack ice. He returned to Portugal later that year determined to try again.

The second voyage, 1501

In the spring of 1501 Gaspar left Lisbon with three ships. He reached a coast with dense forests, many rivers and abundant fish, almost certainly Labrador or Newfoundland. The Portuguese seized about 50–60 Indigenous people, men, women and children, to take back to Portugal as slaves.

Two of the ships returned to Lisbon in October 1501 with the captives. Letters written that month by two Italian diplomats in Lisbon, the Venetian envoy Pietro Pasqualigo and Alberto Cantino, agent of the Duke of Ferrara, describe them. Pasqualigo noted that one captive carried a broken gilded sword of Italian make and another wore silver earrings of Venetian origin, which suggests earlier contact with Europeans, perhaps Cabot’s men. The identity of the captives is uncertain; Beothuk and Innu are among the peoples suggested.

Gaspar’s own ship had stayed behind to explore further. It never returned.

Miguel’s search, 1502

In May 1502 Gaspar’s elder brother Miguel sailed from Lisbon with three ships to find him. When they reached Newfoundland, the ships agreed to search different stretches of coast and meet again at an agreed point. Two ships returned to Portugal; Miguel’s did not. Neither brother was ever heard from again.

A third brother, Vasco Anes Corte-Real, asked permission to search for them, but King Manuel refused to risk him. The king did, however, send ships in 1503 to look for the missing men, without success.

The Cantino map and the Portuguese claim

The Cantino planisphere, a Portuguese world map smuggled to Italy in 1502, shows the results of the Corte-Real voyages. A large land in the North Atlantic, decorated with Portuguese flags and labelled as belonging to the King of Portugal, sits just east of the Tordesillas line. In reality Newfoundland lies well west of that line, but the map reflects Portuguese hopes.

The voyages had a lasting practical effect. Portuguese and other European fishermen soon began crossing the Atlantic every year to fish for cod on the Grand Banks. Names of Portuguese origin, such as Cape Race (from the Portuguese Cabo Raso), survive on the map. Labrador is named after João Fernandes Lavrador, another Azorean navigator who explored the region around the same time.

Legacy and myths

In 1918 the American scholar Edmund Delabarre argued that the markings on Dighton Rock, a boulder in Massachusetts, included Miguel Corte-Real’s name and the date 1511. The theory became popular among Portuguese Americans, but most historians and archaeologists do not accept it.

In 1965 the Portuguese fishing industry presented a statue of Gaspar Corte-Real to St. John’s, Newfoundland, in thanks for the hospitality shown to Portuguese fishermen over centuries. It stands across the road from the Confederation Building, with a commemorative plaque.

Timeline

• 1497: John Cabot reaches North America for England.
• 1500, 12 May: Manuel I grants Gaspar Corte-Real rights to lands he discovers.
• 1500: Gaspar sails north-west and sights an icy land, probably Greenland.
• 1501, spring: Gaspar leaves Lisbon with three ships for the North Atlantic.
• 1501, October: Two ships return to Lisbon with Indigenous captives; Gaspar’s ship is missing.
• 1502, May: Miguel Corte-Real sails to search for his brother.
• 1502: Miguel’s ship disappears; the other two return to Portugal.
• 1965: A statue of Gaspar Corte-Real is unveiled in St. John’s.

Why it matters

The Corte-Real voyages show how quickly Portugal, Spain and England competed over the North Atlantic after Columbus and Cabot. They opened the way for the European fisheries that shaped Newfoundland’s history, began a tragic pattern of kidnapping Indigenous people, and remind us how dangerous early exploration was: two leaders lost in two years.