Summary: In 1902 Isabel Moore published an interesting article in The New York Times regarding the theory of the discovery of Cape Labrador, based upon a text written a few years before by Ernesto do Canto and revealed in his “Archivo dos Açores”. In this article we present Isabel Moore’s text, in English, and its translation, duly annotated and confronted with the original text of this illustrious Azorean.
Key-words: Isabel Moore; Ernesto do Canto; Archivo dos Açores; Cape Labrador; Gaspar Corte Real; Terceira; Pedro de Barcellos; João Fernandez.
«Collectors and students of Americana have long been interested in the undetermined question regarding the discovery and naming of Labrador, but have never sufficiently considered a contribution to the subject from the pen of Senor Dr. Ernesto do Canto. This learned antiquarian and scholarly gentleman, who died in 1900, was an Azorean by birth, and the author of several valuable works; the most valuable being, perhaps, the series of pamphlets compiled under the heading “Archivo dos Açores.” This record was bequeathed, with many other choice possessions, to the Lyceum Library of Ponta Delgada, and in Vol. 70 are to befound the old Portuguese version of three ancient documents with Dr. Ernesto do Canto’s illuminating remarks and deductions upon the vexed Labrador question. These documents were discovered among a vast number sent to him by Dr. Eduardo Abreu from the Torre de Tombo in Lisbon. Their context had been completely lost sight of, and it remained for Dr. Ernesto do Canto to give them their proper value in the reinstating of the claims of one of his compatriots; dedicating his translations and opinions to the friend who has secured to him so valuable a possession. It is difficult for us to realize that Portugal was once an intrepid nation. After the establisment of her independence under Dom Joao I., there had dawned a wonder of peace on land and glory upon the high seas. The discovery of the islands of Porto Santo and of Madeira (1418-20) was the first step in the marvelous maritime activity of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. Soon after, they dis-covered seven of the Azores, and following these western expeditions they commenced their navigation along the African coast, where, successively, Gil Annes doubled Cape Bojador 1434, the Islands of Cape Verde were discovered 1446, Diogo Cao arrived at Zaire 1484, Bartholomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope 1486, and, finally, Vasco da Gama arrived in India on the 20th of May, 1498. In 1474, King Dom Affonso V. had consulted the wise astronomer Toscanelli upon the possibility of reaching the Orient by way of the Occident as a necessary consequence of the spherical form of the earth. And in the Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo there are innumerable grants and land patents to all such as should go forth and discover. Among these occurs the name of Joao Fernandez, and the Joao Fernandez of the Straits of Magellan and the Pacific Ocean island was probably the same Joao Fernandez of Terceria to whom Dom Manuel gave “for his security and our remembrance” the Captaincy of any “island or islands either inhabited or uninhabited that he discovers or finds anew,” and who, in the letter patent of Henry VII. of England, March 19, 1501, is associated with the three merchants of Bristol who went to make discoveries. This is the opinion of Mr. Harrisse in his book on “Les Corte-Real,” published in 1882, and also of Dr. Ernesto do Canto in his “Memorial upon the Corte-Reaes.” There are so many probabilities of this as almost to remove it from the realm of supposition; but, as if to make assurance doubly sure, these old Portuguese documents reveal the proceedings of a primitive lawsuit, and in so doing incidentally record that Joao Fernandez, lavrador, (laborer,) accompanied Pedro of Barcellos, a well-known Portuguese explorer and plaintiff in the case, on a voyage of exploration. The lawsuit had no direct bearing on Joao Fernandez. It took place in the little village of Praia, Island Terceria, over a fajá (low rocky land near the sea gener-ally used for the cultivation of vineyards) near the house of Salga in the locality of the Quatro Rebeiras. In the transcript of the trial (Folio 9) we find the following allegation on the part of Pedro of Barcellos: “I and one Joao Fernandez, laborer, had a mandate from the King to go and discover; on which voyage we were three good years, and when I re-turned to the said island I found * * *in possession some sons of Joao Valladam.” Fortunately for our purpose, in the documents of the same trial are found the land grants in favor of Joao Valladam (Jan. 30, 1495,) and of Pedro of Barcellos, (Oct. 19, 1496, and April 14, 1493.) It is then evident that if Pedro of Barcellos found the sons of João Valladam in possession of the disputed lands it was because he arrived at Terceria after the 30th of January, 1493, the year in which the lands were given to Joao Valladam and his sons. It is not less evident that by the 14th of April of the same year Pedro of Barcellos was already in the town of Praia, where was given him a letter of confirmation. Therefore, discounting “good three years” from the date indicated, (April, 1493,) it cannot but be admitted that he and Joao Fernandez departed on the voyage in 1492.In 1492 Dom Joao II. was reigning in Portugal, and it is not said in any document whatsoever that he sent to make discoveries except along the coast of Africa. The affirmation of Pedro of Barcellos has then an appreciable value, demonstrating that Dom Joao II., with a laudable curiosity, not only sent to prosecute discoveries along the coast of Africa, but also to explore other regions of the globe. Pedro of Barcellos says nothing, indeed, about the direction in which he navigated, but by exclusion from certain parts, if it were not along the coast of Africa, he could only have made for the Ocident, then completely unknow. Besides this, the direction afterward taken by Joao Fernandez, who gave the advice to the merchants of Bristol, offers a plausible indication that he had previously explored the same regions. The conjectures of Harrisse, (1883,) based only on important coincidents, now acquire a degree of credibility that almost attains certainty. In all these laconic and incomplete notices there is nothing senseless or inadmissable. The significance of each is small, but united, all form an acceptable conclusion: at least, until more explicit and complete documents have proved the contrary. In further substantiation of this theory Dr. Ernesto do Canto insists that the name “Labrador” is the Portuguese word lavrador, derived from the Latin labor, and used in the same sense. The change of v to b, besides being common to-day in the north of Portugal, can yet further be explained by the tendency of the authors of the ancient maps to give a translation similar to the Latin. A lavra-dor is not exclusively one who drives the plough or tills the land, but, in a moregeneric sense, the proprietor or renter who commands the cultivation of lands that may belong to him or to others, paying whoever works them – a synonym for agriculturist. Moraes, in his Dictionary of the Portuguese Language, says: “He who works and cultivates land and is not himself of the profession.”All conjectures as to the discovery of Labrador and the origin of the name have been most conflicting. Some attribute the discovery to the Cabots in 1497; others to Gasper Corte Real in 1500; yet others to the English of Bristol in 1501. Malte Brun says: “This region was discovered in 1511 by the Portuguese, who had called it Terra do Labrador, (land of the laborer,) because it seemed appropriate for agriculture!” Bouillet held almost the same opinion, saying that Gaspar Corte Real, approaching Labrador in 1501 and finding the coast “with some fertility,” gave it the name of Labrador. J. B. Eyries likewise says that Corte Real gave the name to Labrador because of the “verdant aspect of the coasts.” And Alexander Humboldt, citing Bidle, affirms that Gaspar Corte Real invented the name ofLabrador because he had there encoun-tered men singularly “aptos para o trabalho” (fitted for labor.) It is very difficult indeed to admit that Gaspar Corte Real, living in a fertile island like Terceria, could find a country appropriate for cultivation that all describe as covered with dense layers of snow, and that, in fact, is so preserved unto this day. It is in the ancient maps that we find a more logical enlightenment. That of the Bibliotheca Oliveriana de Pesaro (1501) has both a cape and an island – Labradore; the same that in the map of the Vesconte Maggiolo is affirmed to be “land of the King of Portugal,” which is equivalent to having been found by the Portuguese. In the map of Kunstmann can yet be read that they “were Portuguese who saw the land of Labrador, but did not disembark there.” Finally, in Map B of the Bibliotheca Ducal of Wolfenbuttle, without date, (1534?) we meet with this notable account: Tiera del Labrador. La qual fue descubierta por los inglezes de la vila de Bristol e por que el que dio el aviso era lavrador de las islas de los Açores (Azores) le quido este nombre.This is the explanation of all others that is most acceptable. The terms “to discover” and “discovery” are used by Pedro of Barcellos as an equivalent of “to explore”; and the same interchange of meaning is quite possible on the part of the author of the map of Wolfenbuttle, calling discoverers those who only fol-lowed the track indicated by the laborer of the Açores, the true discoverer in the full meaning of the word. Diego Ribeiro also affirms that the English of Bristol saw Labrador, having previously heard of the land.From all these vague and incomplete assertions, these coincidences of time, locality, and personality, the natural conclusion is that the Joao Fernandez of all the documents was one and the sameperson, and that it was he who gaveadvice to the English of Bristol of theexistence of the land which he and Pedro of Barcellos had seen in the explorations of 1492, and to which they had given the name of Lavrador or Labrador. Dr. do Canto says:“If the demonstration has not attained a degree of absolute certainty, it is not, however, repugnant to the spirit to accept it, since it is free from any preconceived ideas extraneous to the subject. Admiting the hypothesis of Joao Fernandez being one and the same individual, others immediately arise, more or less probable, with relation to his compatriot, Corte Real. Could they have been companions in the explorations? Could Joao Fernandez of Terceria have gone out as a resultof a rivalry with Gaspar Corte Real,and for that reason could he have been associated with the English of Bristol? Had one or the other received from the English sailors brought commerce to Angra, some vague notice of the discovery of the Cabots in 1497? Could Joao Fernandez have found in the delayed attempts of 1492 and 1495 some certain indication of the existence of new western regions? These and other analogous problems become, however, of very difficult solution, five centuries having elapsed; so, prudently evading the perils of such enterprise, we content ourselves with demonstrating only, that of all the explanations given to the name of Labrador, the most probable and rational is to be derived from Joao Fernandez, Lavrador of the Island Terceria.”
