João Álvares Fagundes
João Álvares Fagundes | |
---|---|
Explorer, ship-owner | |
Known for | Expeditions to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia |
João Álvares Fagundes (born c. 1460,
Fagundes, together with his second captain
King Manuel I of Portugal gave Fagundes exclusive rights and ownership of his discoveries on 13 March 1521.
In 1607,
Fishing colony of Cape Breton
Captain Francisco de Souza (Feitor or governor of the king) of the
Only later did news of the fate of the colonists come through the reports of Basque fishermen who visited the region. The Basques brought information of the colony and its inhabitants and descendants "and said that they were asked to let the authorities in Portugal know about their situation in the land and to send them priests, because the Gentiles [possibly the Mi'kmaq people] "are peaceful and docile, and from notorious men that are sailing there." According to Souza, it was in Cape Britão (Cape Breton in old Portuguese - already having that name in 1570 due to the expeditions of Jacques Cartier and others), "at the entrance of the north coast, in a beautiful bay", according to the chronicler, "which had a settlement, with very valuable things, and a lot of walnut, chestnut, grapes, and other fruits, where it seems to be good land and so among this company were some couples from the Azores; that they have settled here as is well-known".
The governor of Madeira ended the reference to this colony with a prayer and a plea: "May Our Lord in His mercy pave the way to get them help, and my intention is to go to the said path of coastline when I reach the Island of São Francisco, which we can do on a single trip". This possible colony may have lasted at least until the 1570s, or until the end of the century.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Ganong, W. F., Crucial Maps in the Early Cartography and Place-Nomenclature of the Atlantic Coast of Canada, with an introduction, commentary and map notes by Theodore E. Layng (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964), Chapter II: "João Àlvares Fagundes," 45–97.
- ^ Mount Allison University, Marshlands: Records of Life on the Tantramar: European Contact and Mapping Archived 2021-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, 2004
- ^ Tratado das ilhas novas e descombrimento dellas e outras couzas, 1570, Francisco de Souza, Typ. do Archivo dos Açores, 1884 – University of Harvard, p. 6 [1]
Further reading
- Morison, Samuel Eliot (1971). European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages. Oxford University Press. pp. 228–231.
- Vigneras, L.-A. (1979) [1966]. "Fagundes, João Álvares". In Brown, George Williams (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.