History of Portugal since the Battle of AljubarrotaTravel and discovery

Voyages of the Corte-Real brothers to Newfoundland

Sailing west for King Manuel I in search of a northern route to Asia, Gaspar Corte-Real reached Greenland and then Newfoundland or Labrador; he and his brother Miguel, who went to look for him, were lost at sea.

Date: 1500–1502year known · duration: ≈ 2 years
Place: Newfoundlandapproximate locationtoday: Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada · North America
Participants: Gaspar Corte-Real, Miguel Corte-Real, Manuel I of Portugal, Kingdom of Portugal
Threads: History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota
Also known as: Terra Nova; Terra del Rey de Portuguall; Корте-Реал

Manuel I believed that the lands found by John Cabot for England in 1497 might lie on the Portuguese side of the Tordesillas line. In 1500 Gaspar Corte-Real, from a noble family of Terceira in the Azores, sighted Greenland but could not land because of the ice. In 1501 he sailed again with three caravels and reached a land of great rivers and pine forests — Newfoundland or Labrador; 57 Indigenous people were seized and taken to Portugal to be sold as slaves. Two ships returned, but Gaspar’s was lost. In 1502 Miguel Corte-Real set out to find him and vanished in turn; a search in 1503 found no trace of either brother.

Where exactly the brothers landed is unknown, so the place is shown approximately. On the Cantino planisphere of 1502 Newfoundland is marked as the land of the King of Portugal. The 20th-century cult of the Corte-Reals and the claim that Miguel left an inscription on Dighton Rock in Massachusetts have been rejected by historians.

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Related events

Treaty of Tordesillas7 June 1494 · Western and Central EuropeManuel I hoped that the new lands lay east of the Tordesillas line
John Cabot’s voyage to North AmericaMay 1497 – 6 August 1497 · North AmericaCabot’s landfall for England prompted Portugal to explore the North Atlantic