This book commemorates the unveiling of a statue of Gaspar Corte-Real at St. John, Newfoundland in 1964, the gift of the Portuguese cod-fishing fleet. The explorer and his family are the subject of the first third of the paperback; the second of its three divisions is devoted to Gaspar’s voyages in the North Atlantic; and the third portion deals with Miguel Corte-Real’s fruitless search for his brother, who never returned from his Newfoundland journey.
All three essays are heavily annotated and display great erudition in the field of Atlantic exploration, both before and after Columbus’ expeditions. An occasional lapse from the author’s commendable practice of translating his quotations from Portuguese sources makes now and then for some difficulty for readers unversed in that language, but, in general, the French text is not difficult, and the author writes simply and effectively. It is no disparagement of his competence to state, as he himself does on more than one occasion, that he has added nothing new in the way of documentary evidence, but has contended himself with making new interpretations.
