to suppose that they were on the coast
of Asia, and that a European ship had recently visited the same spot.
The true explanation, if the circumstance is correctly reported, would
seem to be that the rings were relics of Cabot's voyages and of his
trade in the trinkets supplied by the merchants.

Gaspar Corte-Real sent his consort ships home, promising to explore the
coast further, and to return later in the season. 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. This was
important, and henceforth Portuguese ships joined with the Normans, the
Bretons, and the English in fishing on the Grand Banks. Of the
Corte-Reals nothing more was ever heard.

The next great voyage of discovery was that of Juan Verrazano, some
twenty years after the loss of the Corte-Reals. Like so many other
pilots of his time, Verrazano was an Italian. He had wandered much
about the world, had made his way to the East Indies by the new route
that the Portuguese had opened, and had also, so it is said, been a
member of a ship's company in one of the fishing voyages to
Newfoundland now made in every season.

The name of Juan Verrazano has a peculiar significance in Canadian
history. In more ways than one he was the forerunner of Jacques
Cartier, 'the discoverer of Canada.' Not only did h