Tema: Portuguese Pilgrims and Dighton Rock

DIGHTON ROCK
Chapter 7

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Dighton Rock in it's original site at midtide

WHERE IS DIGHTON ROCK?

The position of Dighton Rock is 41.48° North, 71.7° West. It is located on the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America, in the southern part of Massachusetts. It rests on the left bank of Taunton River, 30 miles from the mouth of Narragansett Bay, within the boundaries of the town of Berkley. (The town of Berkley was formerly a part of Dighton. Dighton Rock faces the town of Dighton on the right side of the Taunton River.

Dighton Rock is 9 miles from Fall River, 8 miles from Taunton, 20 miles from New Bedford, 50 miles from Boston, and 210 miles from New York City. (It can be reached by Mass. Route 21. Exit 10.)

In November, 1952, the Miguel Corte Real Memorial Society of New York City acquired 49 1/2 acres of land ($5,0OO) adjacent to the Rock for the purpose of creating a park. However, in 1951 the Massachusetts Legislature expropriated the same land for a State Park. Many more acres were purchased and Dighton Rock State Park now has an area of 100 acres. The vicinity of Dighton Rock has been beautified and furnished with parking and picnic facilities.

PHYSICAL HISTORY OF DIGHTON ROCK:

Up until August, 1963, Dighton Rock was situated on the left bank of the Taunton River between the flow of the high and low tides. At high tide, the top of the rock was covered by three to four feet of water. During the winter when the river was frozen, the rock could not be seen because of the thick ice cap. In the past the rock was covered by tidal water about 20 hours daily. Only during the period when the tide was sufficiently low (during new and full moon) could the inscriptions be satisfactorily studied but only for two hours each day.

White Man's brook, near Dighton Rock

For centuries this monument was covered with mud and exposed to all kinds of weather conditions. Ironically, because the inscriptions were covered by water most of the day, vandalism such as the throwing of stones or bottles or the engraving of initials and dates, was discouraged.

NEW SITE:

Since 1 829, there were many proposals to remove the rock to various museums in Fall River, Boston, and even as far as Denmark. Only in 1955 was action taken to relocate the rock. However, because the cables of the crane damaged the rock, a court injunction was obtained to stop the removal.

In 1963, the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources ended a long controversy by proving that the rock was a boulder and not a ledge. The Department then built a coffer dam at a cost of $50,000. The rock is now situated on the cofferdam, eleven feet above its original level, and protected by a fence.

Dighton Rock, covered by winter ice cap

Damage to Dighton Rock from the 1st removal attempt in 1955

DIMENSIONS AND POSITION:

Dighton Rock is approximately the form of a parallelepiped 5 feet high, 9 1/2 feet wide, and 11 feet long. The face of the rock overlooks the river, and has a trapezoidal surface, 11 feet long and 5 feet high. When the rock was in its original site, the face was inclined at an angle of 39 degrees to the vertical. Now, it is inclined at 70 degrees it continues to face northwest as before.

Dighton Rock being removed from its original site (1963)

Dighton Rock on Cofferdam. (1963) The inscriptions face the river.

All the engravings on Dighton Rock delineated by Delabarre in 1927

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COMPOSITION:

Dighton Rock is a gray-brown feldspathic sandstone of medium to coarse density. It does not have a strong consistency. Weather and vandals have erased or obscured some of the original engravings. It has a density of2.45 g /cm3 and a volume of 500 + cubic feet. Therefore, it weighs approximately 40 tons.

DEPTH OF ENGRAVINGS:

The first documents written about Dighton Rock refer to it as the “Dighton Writing Rock”. Perhaps. students of Dighton Rock use the word “writing’’ to better convey the fact that the rock has on it many inscriptions similar to a blackboard, with one writing on top of another. The depth of engraving runs from 2 to 7 millimeters The markings on the rock are not doodlings or cracks due to weathering. All the lilies carved on Dighton Rock were done by human hands, using sharp instruments of metal or hard stone

WHY A PUZZLE FOR SO LONG?:

There are two main reasons why the inscriptions have been a puzzle for so many years and to so many scholars:

• (1) Throughout the years. different individuals have inscribed dates, their initials and other drawings on the surface of the rock obscuring the ORIGINAL inscriptions.
• (2) Scholars did not correctly interpret the ORIGINAL inscriptions because they did not consider the possibility of a Portuguese origin

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGRAVINGS:

Professor Edmund Delabarre published in 1927 a photograph of the face of the rock on which lie delineated all the lines en graved up until 1920. If we examine this photo graph. we are immediately overcome by a tangled net of lines. This mesh of lines and curves suggested to several scholars Greek, Japanese, or Hieroglyphic forms.

To sonic scholars, the inscriptions became a joke. The attitude of the shortsighted scholar was expressed in this one sentence: “I believe the mystery of the inscriptions will never be interpreted.’’ That is what was said of Champollion and the Rosetta Stone.

Edmund Burke Delabarre (1920)

DELABARRE’S CORTE REAL THEORY:

Around 1913 Professor Edmund Burke Delabarre became interested in the study of Dighton Rock because:

• (1) He felt it to be: An exceedingly interesting problem in the psychology of perception as well as another in the psychology and art of copying.”
• (2) As he delved into the bibliography of the rock, he realized that "no one has yet brought together all the available historical facts concerning the rock and discussion of it.’’

Hathaway photo on which Delabarre first saw the date 1511. (Dec 2 1918)
It took Delabarre two years to compile all the research concerning Dighton Rock. He found hundreds of articles dealing with the inscriptions: In 1915 he wrote the first volume entitled "Early interest in Dighton Rock’’ which was published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. In 1 916 he completed the "Middle Period of Dighton Rock History” and in 1919 "The Recent History of Dighton Rock”.
In all three publications. Delabarre discussed the various theories, analyzing them without formulating any theory of his own. His investigation of Dighton Rock was impartial. Perhaps this was the reason why, after studying more than twenty distinct theories, an entirely new theory occurred to Delabarre: “It may well be imagined with what astonishment on examining the Hathaway Photograph for the hundredth time on December 2, 1918.
I saw in it clearly and undoubtedly the date 1511. No one had ever seen it before, on rock or photograph: yet once seen, its genuine presence on the rock cannot be doubted. The date 1511 was the earliest date engraved on the rock. This date gave Delabarre an exact period of World History to examine and led him to research navigators or explorers who might have landed in New England just before or on that date.
He began searching through European History and soon discovered that there existed in Lisbon, Portugal. royal charters attesting to the fact that Gaspar Corte Real came to North America in 1501—his second voyage—and never returned to Portugal. He further uncovered the fact that Miguel Cone Real, Gaspar’s brother left Lisbon on May 10. 1502 in his search. Both navigators, however, shared a similar fate, and never returned to their home land.
With this in formation available, Delabarre once more began to review all of the drawings, paintings, and photographs of Dighton Rock in order to formulate a new diagnosis.
Delabarre then verified that the date 1511 composed of shortened 's (ones) with serifs, and the 5, like a capital "S" could easily be deciphered:
‘‘Out of: twenty-seven drawings and chalking's of this part of the inscriptions, twenty one include both the initial and the final figures 1 , and only one omit them both."
Following the same line of investigation, he easily proved that the capital letters MI and CORT were undoubtedly a part of Miguel Corte Real’s name. It should be noted that the last drawing made of the inscriptions (Rhode Island Historical Society, 1830) reveals more letters of Miguel Corte Real’s name, but were not recognized as such.
A total of eight letters can be clearly seen on drawings and photographs made before 1918, that is, made by men who, (a) represented rival theories, (b) never gave any indication that they had ever thought of the Corte Real theory.
As he continued to familiarize himself with Portuguese history and national symbols, Professor Delabarre eventually detected the ‘V” shaped Portuguese coat-of-arms inscribed on the lower south side of the face of the rock. Delabarre reports that this shield within a shield could be seen in drawings of the inscriptions as far back as 1 768, but was never recognized as the Portuguese coat-of-arms.
As the originator of the Corte Real theory, Delabarre made the three basic discoveries:

• (I) Date 1511 (detected December 2, 1918)
• (2) The name of Miguel Corte Real.
• (3) Portuguese "V" shaped coat of arms.

(A) Miguel Corte Real (Folsom, 1868)
(B) Miguel Corte Real (Blake 1876)


(C) Miguel Corte Real - at daylight (Delabarre 1920)
(D) Miguel Corte Real - (Delabarre, 1920) with flash light
(E) Miguel Corte Real delineated by Delabarre (1920)

Because he firmly established the Corte Real theory, Delabarre was awarded the Cross of the Order of Christ by the Portuguese government. This decoration contains the same 45 degrees cross as appears on Dighton Rock. Even while wearing the Cross of the Order of Christ on his chest, Delabarre, unfortunately, missed making the diagnosis of the same Cross engraved on Dighton Rock.
Delabarre also proposed that the letters A.D. were engraved near the date 1511, and that a message in abbreviated Latin (V. Dei hic Dux Ind = By Grace of God, Chief of the Indians, here.), could be seen near the V shaped coat of arms. These additions to the theory are not correct as we shall see later.

First photograph of Dighton Rock by Capt. Seth Eastman (1853)




pilgrim chapter 7

FRAGOSO’S THEORY—CONFIRMATION OF CORTE REAL THEORY:
Joseph Dâmaso Fragoso became interested in Dighton Rock in 1928, and 2 years later invited Prof. Delabarre to New York City to lecture on his findings. Fragoso studied the history of Dighton Rock for more than 20 years. He organized the Miguel Corte Real Memorial Society which bought 49 1/2 acres of land adjacent to the rock, and also founded a magazine entitled “The Portuguese World” to campaign for the establishment of a park to preserve the rock.

Joseph Dâmaso Fragoso. He became the center of much controversy even sustaining bodily injuries while defending his beliefs about the Dighton Rock inscriptions.
While a language instructor (Portuguese) at New York University, Fragoso wrote in 1951 a small article in which he describes the Cross of the Order of Christ on Dighton Rock. He stated that:

• (a) “The base of the figure representing a doll on the left side of the rock (north side), cannot be anything else but one of the branches of the Cross of the Order of Christ.”
• (b) “The so-called arms of the doll are also other branches of the Cross of the Order of Christ.”
• (c) and what has been thought to be the face of the doll (mermaid or God) is nothing else but the Portuguese coat of arms, “U” shaped, with the Quinas of Portugal.”
• (d) "Other fragments and extremities of the Cross of the Order of Christ can be seen above Miguel Corte Real’s name and next to the ‘V” shaped Portuguese coat of arms discovered by Delabarre on the right, side (south side) of the face of the inscriptions.’’

Though Fragoso never made a drawing or a photograph of Dighton Rock in an attempt to explain his findings, examination of the early drawing reveals clearly that in the first document made by Rev. John Danforth in 1680, what he called a ‘‘ship without masts’’ is indeed the Cross of the Order of Christ.
Fragoso's discovery of the Cross of the Order of Christ was the decisive contribution to the Corte Real theory. Actually, when we review all of the drawings from 1680 to 1919, the parts most consistent of the inscriptions are those belonging to the Cross of the Order of Christ.
CRITICAL REVIEW OF DELABARRE'S AND FRAGOSO'S THEORY:
After giving serious consideration to Delabarre’s and Fragoso's theory, this author (then a Fellow in Internal Medicine at famous Lahey Clinic, in Boston) presented an exhaustive interpretation of the Dighton Rock at the First Inter national of the History of the Discoveries held in Lisbon, Portugal. (September 8, 1960).
In this presentation the author concluded that:

• (1) The letters A.D., near IS11, as proposed by Delabarre, do not exist.
• (2) The name of Miguel Corte Real appears as Delabarre so indicated.
• (3) The "V" shaped Portuguese coat of arms is engraved on the rock.
• (4) The message in abbreviated Latin (V. Dei hic Dux IND) is not on Dighton Rock because of the following objections:

(a) The abbreviated forms were too hypothetical,
(b) The letter's have an inconsistent size and shape (e.g. not all capital letters),
(c) Other Portuguese land markers do not have Latin inscriptions,
(d) The lines attributed to the X and N form part of the angles of the Cross of the Order of Christ.

(5) There are four Crosses of the Order of Christ, one U-shaped Portuguese Coat of Arms, and one V-shaped Portuguese Coat of Arms, engraved on Dighton Rock.
With all respect to Professor Delabarre, as he was the first to give a correct interpretation to some of the engravings the author believes that his “message in Latin’’ has been a hindrance to the acceptance of the Corte Real Theory. This “Latin message’’ unfortunately, has been an error that continues to be repeated by those who are not familiar with the Cross of The Order of Christ, or by scholars who desire to exaggerate doubts, because they do not want to accept a Portuguese theory.
In respect to Fragoso's, who first discovered the Crosses of Order of Christ on Dighton Rock, the author must criticize his adherence to Delabarre’s non-existing Latin message, and also his failure to point out the fragments of another Cross of the Order of Christ which lies parallel to the one he had described above Miguel Corte Real’s name.

Delabarre's "message in Latin"



What Delabarre thought to be an "N" and "X" are fragments of the Cross of the Order of Christ.

TESTING THE VALIDITY OF THE CORTE REAL THEORY
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THE COMPLETE CORTE REAL THEORY: Photo by da Silva, (Nov 1959)


The following table lists the four groups of symbols attributed to Dighton Rock. Keeping these four characteristics in mind, we can proceed to examine the most outstanding reproductions of the Dighton Rock inscriptions.
The first recorded document of the Dighton Rock inscriptions was produced by Reverend John Danforth in 1680. Danforth drew only the upper half of the inscriptions, perhaps because the lower half was covered by tidal water most of the day. Danforth’s interpretation of his drawing was described as follows:
“It is reported from the tradition of the old Indians, that there came a wooden house (and men of another country in it) swimming up the river Assonet, that fought the Indians and slew their Saunchem (Sachem) . Some interpret the figures here to be hieroglyphical. The first figure representing a ship, without masts, and a meer (mere) wreack cast upon the Shoales. The second representing an head of land, possibly a cape with a peninsula. Hence a gulf.”
In 1732. the Royal Society of London requested and received Danforth’s copy of Dighton Rock and later presented it to the British Museum where it is preserved today.

FIRST DOCUMENT BY DANFORTH 1680:

The first document of Dighton Rock was made by John Danforth in 1680


It can be readily seen that what Danforth called “a ship without masts” or a “peninsula” are indeed sections of the Cross of the Order of Christ.

The fact that so many fragments of the Cross of the Order of Christ appeared on the first drawing is sufficient evidence to eliminate any suspicion that the Cross was engraved in recent times to support the Portuguese theory.


JAMES WINTHROP’S INK IMPRESSION — 1788:
In 1788, James Winthrop placed a large sheet of paper across the face of Dighton Rock and obtained a rubbing of the inscriptions. Afterwards he made a reduced copy in the same scale as the original.
In this Winthrop copy we can distinguish a more complete Cross of the Order of Christ on the upper center of the inscriptions. On the north side appears the base of another cross and the so-called “face of a mermaid” which is actually the Quinas of Portugal. On the south side, the V within a V-shaped shield and the lower branch of another cross begin to take shape.



LETTERING:
The Stephen Sewell copy made in 1788 depicts some of the letters and the complete V-shaped shield.

Two years later, in 1790, Baylies and Goodwin drew a complete M, and a diamond shaped Gothic 0, an R, and part of a T. The entire V-shaped shield was drawn, but was not recognized as the Portuguese symbol.



In 1830, a copy of the inscriptions was commissioned by the Rhode Island Historical Society . In this reproduction, the letters M, I, part of the C and 0 (both Gothic), R, T, and part of E were revealed. This copy again delineates the fragments of the Cross of the Order of Christ, and the U- and V-shaped Portuguese coat of arms. And once again, the students of Dighton Rock failed to discover that these symbols were Portuguese.

The Rhode Island Historical Society drawing, together with a sketch of the Dighton Rock and its surroundings, were sent in 1834 to Professor Charles C. Rafn of Denmark who had requested in 1829 evidence of Norse voyages to North America. Wishing to substantiate his preconceived Norse theory, Rafn, who never came to America, proceeded to interpret the letters in Corte Real’s name as Runic for Thorfinn, a Norse explorer.

Bartlett's view or sketch 1834

Rafn, unfortunately, influenced public opinion in favor of the Norse theory by encouraging a hysterical rather than a historical controversy. He not only attributed the Dighton Rock inscriptions to the Norsemen, but further claimed that the Newport Tower was also built by the Vikings.
Rafn based his claim for Newport Tower on the Viking theory for Dighton Rock, but later Delabarre proved that the Norsemen had nothing to do with the Dighton Rock inscriptions.

SYNOPSIS OF SELECTED COPIES OF
THE INSCRIPTIONS LISTED CHRONOLOGICALLY

In the following series of copies, we observe progressively greater detail recorded from one copy to another. Paradoxically, as the engravings continued to weather over the centuries, the copies became more complete in detail. If we were to superimpose these copies, one upon another, we would obtain a composite of all the lines which make up the engravings carved by Miguel Corte Real, in 1511.

Click here to see modern photos
and close-ups of the face of Dighton Rock

COMPARISON OF DIGHTON ROCK WITH
UNDISPUTED PORTUGUESE LANDMARKERS

IN AFRICA:

Dighton Rock is approximately 3,000 nautical miles from Lisbon, Portugal. Yellala Rock is 5000 nautical miles from Lisbon. It is located 147 miles from the mouth of the Congo River, and has inscriptions on it made by Diogo Cão in 1484

These inscriptions are typical of the Portuguese landmarkers, and show the transition from the high type cross to the Cross of the Order of Christ with concave base extremities. The Yellala inscriptions states in Portuguese: “The ships of wise King John II arrived here Diogo Cão, Pero Anes, Pero da Costa.”

IN ASIA:

The St. Laurence Rock, in Ceylon, is approximately 10,000 nautical miles from Lisbon. The Cross engraved there is the early form of the Cross of the Order of Christ with straight base extremities. The date 1501 on the St. Laurence Rock is illustrative of the form in which the Arabic numerals were written in Portugal. The digit one (1) is short and with serifs. The numeral 5 is in the form of a large capital 5, and the zero is made small to conform with the concept of emptiness.

ASIAN "CONTINENT": St Lawrence Rock (10,000 miles from Lisbon) Notice the date 1501 with short ones and the fives like a capitol "S"

AFRICAN CONTINENT: Yellala Rock (5,000 miles from Lisbon.)

IN AMERICA:

The similarity of these three landmarkers, so many thousands of miles away from each other, is indeed striking. They have engraved on them the same Portuguese coat of arms, the same Cross of the Order of Christ, and the same style of numerals.

The uniform use of these Portuguese national and religious symbols is a result of the fact that the Portuguese navigators received the same training and education at the School of Prince Henry the Navigator. In contrast to the early forms of the Cross engraved on the St. Laurence and the Yellala Rock, the Cross of the Order of Christ on Dighton Rock has the mature form of 45 degree extremities, the only cross of its kind in the world.

We consider the Dighton Rock inscriptions primary evidence for the Corte Real theory. In the next four chapters we present the secondary evidence for the Portuguese theory.

pilgrim chapter 7

WHITE AMERICAN INDIANS
Chapter 8

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In the first dictionary of the language of the New England Indians, compiled by Roger Williams (1643) and entitled “Key Into The Language of America”, we can verify that the name of the Wampanoag Tribe meant “white people” in English. Wompi ( = white) combines with nanoag (people or men) to form Wampanoag. Another example, is the word wampum which refers to white shell money used by the Wampanoags.
Roger Williams noted that the Wampanoags “themselves are tawnie, by the Sunne and their annoyntings, yet they are borne white”. He also remarked along with his Pilgrim contemporaries on the unusual friendliness of the Wampanoag Indians. For example, Massasoit, the Chief of the Wampanoags, was given the epithet of “good chief” by the Pilgrims whom he protected.
A century before the Pilgrims landed, Giovanni Verrazzano sailed on Narragansett Bay (1524) for fifteen days and was also quite impressed by the friendly nature of the Wampanoag Indians. The three existing copies of the letter attributed to Verrazzano, describing his voyage to North America, are somewhat different from each other. However, all three copies give the same description of the aborigines of Narragansett Bay:

• (1) “This is the finest looking tribe (Wampanoag) , and the handsomest in their costumes, that we have found in our voyage. They exceed us in size, and they are of a very fair complexion; some of them incline more to a white and others to a tawny color. (di colore bianchissimo; aicuni (some, not all) pendano piu in bianchezza, altri in color flavo).
• (2) . . “Their faces are sharp, their hair long and black, upon the adorning of which they bestow great pains; their eyes are black and sharp, their expressions mild and pleasant.”
• (3) “Their women are of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine countenance, and of pleasing appearance and manners and modesty.”
• (4) “We find (them) kind and gentle”... “We formed a great friendship with them”
• (5) The Wampanoags are “situated in 41 degrees 40 minute of north latitude”

Dighton Rock, "White Man's Brook." and it's source, the White Spring

Although the navigators of the time had difficulty in measuring longitude, they accurately calculated latitudes in a routine fashion “by taking the sun’s altitude from day to day” (Verrazzano). Both “the very excellent harbor” where Verrazzano found “the white and friendly Indians” and the Mount Hope (Bristol, R. I.) headquarters of the Wampanoag Indians are situated in the latitude of 41°40' minutes’. Dighton Rock, which is only 12 miles north of Mount Hope and within the Narragansett Delta, is situated at 41 degrees 48' minutes latitude.

PORTUGUESE PROMISCUITY:

The descriptions given of “white and friendly (Wampanoag) Indians” by Verrazzano, Roger Williams, and the Pilgrim writers, constitute enough anthropological evidence to merit our analysis of the genetics and the linguistics of the Wampanoag Tribe.

The nine years between the arrival of Corte Real and his crew in New England (1502) and the date on Dighton Rock (1511) is sufficiently long for the Portuguese to have lived intimately with these natives. Few realize, that of all European peoples, the Portuguese were always the ones which mingled most freely with the natives among which they settled.

Detail from "The Final Judgment" by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican. A Portuguese bending down tries to raise to Heaven two gentiles: A Negro from African and an Indian from Brazil

Motivated by a sense of brotherhood or, perhaps, simple promiscuity they mixed with the natives, imparting their language and physical characteristics. This Portuguese manner of civilization is succinctly expressed by Gilberto Freyre, a Brazilian philosopher: “God created the white and the Negro, and the Portuguese made the mulatto!”


Genetic scheme of Mestiço hybrid (Dobzhansky)

WHITE INDIANS:
The apparent skin color of a person is determined by three components: carotene, oxyhemoglobin, and melanin. It is melanin, however, which constitutes the true pigment of the skin. The variation in the amount of melanin produces skin shades from white to black. In the interbreeding of black and white races, half of the genes (black producing more pigment) , and the other half (white genes producing less pigment), always blend together. It has been verified that the genetic mixing of pure Negroes with pure Caucasians always produces, in the first generation, Mulattoes of intermediate skin color.
Dobzhansky’s diagram shows clearly that in the first generation the pigment genes are equally represented — (half white and half black) —producing always a Mulatto. While in the first generation the white and black genes are equally represented, later generations show a greater variability in the combinations of these genes. Thus, the skin color of the subsequent generations can extend from extremely dark or pure black to extremely fair or pure white.
Re-examining Dobzhanskv’s diagram we can better visualize the genetic mosaic of skin tones for the third or fourth generation with its greater genetic variability.
The interbreeding of an American Indian with a pure white produces a specific type of mulatto called Mestiço or half breed. Anthropological studies done in North, Central, and South America are in agreement that the genetic distribution of the pigment genes in the Mestiço is the same as that of the mulatto, but extending over a range of lighter skin colors.
It has also been observed that the Indian Mestiço of the first generation is taller than the full-blooded parents. Pure American Indians have a larger and rounder face than the Caucasians. However, American Indian hybrids of the first generation were found to have faces of a smaller size and narrower form, approaching the characteristics of the white pa rent.
Dr. Lawrence Angel, Curator of the Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, wrote: “One further point of interest is that American Indians, especially the Eastern Woodland variants, were much less different from Europeans in size and other measurements than are most Mongoloid or proto-Mongoloid groups.”
There is an interval of 22 years between the arrival of Miguel Corte Real (1502) and Verrazzano (1524) . During these two decades ample time was provided for the first generation of Mestiços to attain young adulthood. Thus, we can understand Verrazzano’s amazement at finding white Indians among the Wampanoags in contrast with the dark skinned tribes he encountered to the South.
When the Pilgrims and Roger Williams described the whiteness of the Wampanoag Indians they were observing Mestiços of the fourth generation because the average life span was approximately thirty years for the aborigines of that period. It is not difficult to accept the theory that the Wampanoag Indians had genetic contact with white men if we consider the reports of their friendly behavior and fair ness of skin.
If the Wampanoag Indians had indeed such genetic and cultural intercourse with white men, we would expect that, besides the imprint of civilized manners and light skin color, the language of the newly arrived race must also have been assimilated by the aborigines.
If our interpretation is correct, and the white men in question were Miguel Corte Real and his crew, we should be able to find proper and place names of Portuguese origin in the Wampanoag language.
INTERNATIONAL PORTUGUESE:
Before we take on the task of analyzing the vocabulary of the Indians of New England, we should review the Portuguese words which have been used in more than 60 languages since the time of the Portuguese discoveries. The most profound cultural influence left by any explorer or settler is his language. It resists the “washing out” of generations, particularly if the words are descriptive of things new to the inhabitants.
In the 16th Century, Portuguese was the first modern language to be spoken on all the continents. The impact of Portuguese navigators and missionaries was so great that even today, 53 Asiatic languages in Indian, Ceylon, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Burma, Formosa, the Philippines, Japan — employ Portuguese words. Today, among hundreds of languages, Portuguese is the eighth most spoken in the world.
JAPANESE-PORTUGUESE:
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan. Fernando Mendes Pinto, Cristovão Borralho, Diogo Zaimoto, and António da Mota all taught the Japanese the use of gun powder in the harquebus (1542).
Later the Portuguese founded the city of Nagasaki as a commercial center where they introduced tobacco by growing it on the hill sides of the city. At the same time they converted many of the Japanese to the Catholic religion and constructed many churches.
Most significant of all, many Portuguese words indicating objects and religious terms foreign to the Japanese were so strongly assimilated that even today the Japanese language contains 90 Portuguese-derived words. We should note that some of the Portuguese-Japanese words are seldom used today, but others are part of everyday conversation throughout modern Japan.

JAPANESE

PORTUGUESE

ENGLISH

Abito

Hábito

Habit

Amen

Amen

Amen

Amendo

Amendoa

Almond

Anjo

Anjo

Angel

Banku

Banco

Bench

Baputesuma

Baptismo

Baptism

Barsan

Bálsamo

Bal

Bateren

Padre

Priest

Biidoro

Vidro

Glass

Birodo

Veludo

Velvet

Bisukoto

Biscoito

Biscuit

Boru

Bolo

Loaf

Butan

Butão

Button

Confeto

Confeito

Sug. coy, almond

Ekirinji

Igreja

Church

Furasuko

Frasco

Flask

Gomu

Goma

Gum

Inferno

Inferno

Hell

Truman

Irmão

Brother

Jaketsu

Jaqueta

facket

jejun

jejum

Fasting

Jiban

Jibão

Undershirt

Kapitan

Capitão

Captain

Kappa

Capa

Cape

Karisu

Calis

Chalice

Karusan

Cruz

Cross

Kurusu

Calção

Pants (shorts)

Karuta

Carta

Letter

Kataru

Catarro

Catarrh

Katoriku

Católico

Catholic

Kirishtan

Cristão

Christian

Kirismo

Crisma

Confirmation

Kohisan

Confissão

Confession

Kompasu

Cornpasso

Compass

Kompra

Compra

Buy

Kontasu

Contas

Beads of Rosary

Koppu

Copo

Cup

Koreijo

Colégio

College

Manteka

Manteiga

Butter

Manto

Manto

Mantle

Maruchiru

Martir

Martyr

Orashyo

Oração

Praying

Ostiya

Hóstia

Host

Pan

Pão

Bread

Pappu

Papas

Popes

Paraizo

Paraizo

Paradise

Pisturu

Pistola

Pistol

Sabon

Sabão

Soap

Seito

Santo

Saint

Sinnyoro

Senhor

Mister

Tabako

Tabaco

Tobacco

Taifu

Tufão

Typhoon

Tanto

Tanto

a great deal

PORTUGUESE SEA:
Portugal was the first modern nation to have an empire in which the sun never set. During the discoveries, the Atlantic Ocean practically became a Portuguese Sea.
When Spain began to challenge Portugal’s supremacy in the Atlantic after Columbus’ voyage (1492) to West Indies, the two peninsular monarchs compromised their ambitions by agreeing to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). They divided the World into two halves by drawing an imaginary line from pole to pole, 370 leagues west of Cape Verde Islands. All territories lying west of that line would belong to Spain: all other lands on the east side of the same meridian and discovered by the Portuguese up to 1494 would belong to Portugal. In the early maps which describe the Tordesillas line (e.g. Cantino map) , we can see that Newfoundland and eastern Canada in the north, and Brazil in the south, were included in the Atlantic dominions of Portugal.
Even today, the Portuguese-speaking communities, as remnants of a huge empire, constitute the most strategic chain of territories from North to South Atlantic (the 23 islands of the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, São Tome, and Príncipe, plus the territories of Portuguese Guiné and Angola and Brazil).
PORTUGUESE-CANADIAN:
Ninety years before the Corte Real theory was conceived, Reverend George Patterson, D. D. wrote a monograph entitled “The Portuguese on the North-East Coast of America, and the first European attempt at Colonization There. A Lost Chapter in American History,” (1890).
Reverend Patterson presented a list of 52 place names of Portuguese origin along the coast of Canada. He based his study on the revision of place names in early maps made by various cartographers, selecting only those names that had either continued in use to that date (1890) or had been employed for long periods in earlier times.
For example, the word Kanata is an Indian word derived from “Canada”, a Portuguese word used in the 15th century to denote a narrow bordered passage traced in an un known wilderness. This was the name given to the St. Lawrence River by the Portuguese navigators during their search for the Northwest passage to India. In Newfoundland there is a narrow bay, known as Canada Bay, a narrow harbor called Canada Harbor with a cape at its entrance named Canada Head. Bacallaus, another word once thought to be Indian, is Portuguese for codfish. Even to day in Portugal, Newfoundland is referred to as the land of Bacalhaus as it was named on many early maps of different cartographers.

CANADIAN

PORTUGUESE

Anticosti

Ante Costa

Bacallao

Bacalhau

Baccaro Point

Bacalhau

Cape Blanco

Cabo Branco

Boa Ventura

Boa Ventura

Bona Vista

Boa Vista

Brazil Rock

Rocha Brasil

Canada

Canada

Canada Bay

Baia do Canada

Canada Harbor

Enseada do Canada

Canada Head

Ponta do Canada

Canaries

Canarias

Carbonear

Carbonear

Catalina

Catalina

Conception Bay

Baja de Concepcão

D'Espera

Espera

Fermuse

Formoso

Fogo

Fogo

Flowers Island

Ilha das Flores

Baya Fundo

Baia funda

San Francesquo

São Francisco

I das Garnas

Ilha das Gamas

Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Labrador

Lavrador

Minas

Minas

Mira

Mira

Monte Real

Monte Real

Ninganis

Enganos

Porto Novo

Porto NOVO

Port Real

Porto Real

Portugal Cove

Enseada Portugal

Portuguese Shoal

Portugal

San Johan

São João

St. Michaels Bay

São Miguel

San Paulo

São Paulo

San Pedro

São Pedro

Tor Bay

Baía da Torre

Labrador (from Labrador) , meaning farmer, was the surname of Joao Fernandes, who discovered the region of Cabo Razo, today Cape Race, meaning in Portuguese “flat cape”, which accurately describes its appearance. Patterson strongly asserted that the Portuguese navigators were the first colonizers of North America: “The fact that so many names should have been affixed to places so firmly as to adhere to them through all the changes of well nigh four hundred years is very significant. It clearly implies occupancy, and that for sometime. The mere visit of an explorer could not itself have effected such a result.”
PORTUGUESE-INDIAN:
Now that we have traveled around the world and verified the influence of the Portuguese language on so many and diversified peoples, it is time to review the language of the Indians of New England and sort out the place and proper names of Portuguese origin. We should note that the Indians of eastern Canada were part of the Algonquin Nation which also included all the Indian tribes of New England and the coastal tribes extending to Virginia. It is also necessary to recall that from the time of Miguel Corte Real (1502) to the landing of the Pilgrims (1620) there passed about four generations of American Indians, the life span being approximately thirty years.
In 1617 a plague swept through New Eng land and wiped out several tribes completely, while killing the older Indians of the surviving tribes. The Pilgrims were forced to rely! on oral tradition to record the Algonquin language be cause the Indians had no alphabet or written language.
Any linguistic influence on the Wampanoags had to sift through at least four filters before the Pilgrim Writers had occasion to register the Indian names and places in writ ten form. The phonetics and the meaning of each word had to resist the "washing out” of four generations:
Before proceeding, we should remember that Quina is the name of the Portuguese Coat of Arms. The Portuguese flag is called Bandeira das Quinas, or Flag of Quinas.
The word Quina mar also refer to the extract of cinchona bark, an evergreen from which the quinine drugs are obtained. Inasmuch as this alkaloid was first found in Peru (1638) it could not have been reported in Europe prior to the departure of the Pilgrims in 1620. Since the natural habitat of the cinchona tree extends only 20° above or below the equator — in Peru, the Congo, São Tomé, the East Indies, and Ceylon it cannot grow in North America. Quina in American Indian, therefore, must be a Portuguese derivation or native in some way other than as a reference to the Quina tree.
NATIVE NOBILITY:
Quina was combined with the names of the tribal chiefs of New England to denote nobility and leadership. Massasoit (massa=great + soit=chief) was the king or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians who occupied eastern Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including Cape Cod.
However, Massasoit was only his title, from which we derive Massachusetts”. His name was actually Osamequina, which meant “Yellow Feather” or “Strong Power”. The pronunciation of Osamequina is not greatly changed if the spelling is altered to Osanaquina. The addition of an “H” (silent in Portuguese) converts the word to Hosanaquina — meaning “Glory to the King” or “God save the King”. Massasoit would probably have been addressed as Osanaquina or Hosanaquina as a form of respect and loyalty. His famous son, King’ Philip, was also addressed as Osamequina.
The name of Massasoit’s brother, Quadequina, was one hundred per cent Portuguese: quade, the version of corte from Corte Real, plus quina. The Narragansett sachem’s name was Quinapin and Maine’s tribal chief was called Amen quina. Massasoit’s minister of war was Testaquina. In Portuguese, testa means “tough” or “rigid”, probably a clue to the man’s character and his policy with other tribes. Several Indian sites in New England have names that include the word quina.
The genetic name for all the tribes of the so-called Indian Federation was Algonquin. Algonquins, Algonkins, or Algonquinas, is a combination of the Portuguese words, quinas for the five dots of the Portuguese emblem and Algon which is derived from one of two forms:

(1) Algarve, the name of the most southern province of Portugal where Prince Henry the Navigator developed his School of Navigation at Sagres, and where the Corte Real family originated;
(2) Algo, (somebody) which in Portuguese refers to a person who is important or prominent. Fidalgo (=nobleman) was derived from the contraction of Filho de Algo, meaning “son of somebody”.

MEANING OF THE WORDS:
The Pilgrims and the other English writers who followed them recorded the names and places of the natives in more tham1 fifty histories and dictionaries. They used, of course, English phonetics to compile the Indian vocabulary. Thus we find some variations in the spelling of Indian words, but more importantly they retain the same meaning.
The Romance languages (Italian, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish) have many words that are common to each other. As we review the Algonquin word list of Portuguese origin, some terms are easily recognized as Spanish or Italian. However, there are other nouns which cannot belong to any other language but Portuguese.
Nowadays we are concerned with an atomic shelter. The American Indians of New England needed an Abrigador, their word for shelter. This is the same word with the same meaning used today in Portuguese. The essentials of Indian life were not much different from ours. When they wanted a small inlet or hiding place for their canoes, they wanted an Abrigada. Abrigada is a name which refers to a small bay, such as those along the coast of Portugal.
Other examples are:

1. Cabbo, in American-Indian, meaning cape in English, has the Portuguese equivalent of cabo.
2. Casco, meaning round in American Indian, corresponds to the Portuguese casco or the small barrel which was used to contain drinking water on the caravels.
3. Curvo, meaning curve in American Indian, is curvo in Portuguese.
4. Pico, (Indian) meaning peak, is the name of the Azorian Island, Pico, the highest point in the Atlantic.
5. Manhan, (Indian) meaning east, is the same word manhan in Portuguese for very early in the morning.

One of the most impressive Indian words is Sementels, meaning grains. Today the unique Portuguese word for grains is Sementes.
Pocasset, (Indian) derived from the Portuguese word pouca meaning little or small, is another word commonly used in Portugal. It describes well the small Pocasset bays at Cape Cod and Mt. Hope. The famous Indian princess, Pocahontas, was given her name because she was a “little woman”.
Vasque was for five generations the name of the first-born of the Corte-Real family. It should not come as a surprise that the Indians used the name Wasque as in Wasque Point and Pasque Island, both in Buzzards Bay.
During the time of the great explorations, several names were bywords to the Portuguese navigators. Tomar was (and still is) the name of the city that housed the headquarters of the Order of Christ, where all the navigators received their religious training. When the Pilgrims arrived in America, they discovered the following Indian names: Tomah River, Tomah Brook, and Tomah Lake (the H is sounded).
Tagus is the name of the river running through Lisbon from which all the sea expeditions departed. From the Indians, the Pilgrims heard of the Togus River and Togus Lake.
Sagres was the name of the ocean promontory where Prince Henry! housed his school of navigation. Saugus, an Indian name, is a town north of Boston. And three miles west of Dighton Rock, there is a locale named Sagues. In addition to its phonetic similarity to Sagres, it meant in Indian “wet by overflow”, which is somewhat descriptive of Sagres, where the Promontory is always wet by the splashing of the waves.
Some of these words illustrate by them selves the epic of the Portuguese discoveries from one extreme of the globe to the other. For example, the word Catana, means “big knife”. It is used in Portugal and its overseas provinces, Brazil, Japan, and was used by American Indians of New England.
Mount Hope (Bristol, R. I.) the highest point in Narragansett Bay is a name derived from the Indian word Montaup, meaning “lookout place”. In Portuguese Mon'alto meaning a “high mount”, is pronounced very similar to montaup.
We have seen that the Portuguese missionaries gave the religious word Amen to the Japanese people. Thus we have Amenquina as the name of an Indian chief.


Profile Rock, is five miles east of Dighton Rock. It served as a natural shelter for the Wampanoags and a stopping place from Cape Cod to the Taunton River
The Japanese were not acquainted with bread until the Portuguese arrived. This is the reason why in Japan today they still use the Portuguese word for bread: Pan (Pão, in modern Portuguese) . But the word Pano (Indian) in the Catholic mass had a religious significance. Another Indian chief was named Panoquina (Pano + Quina). The word Hosana, meaning “Glory to the King” is also used in the Catholic mass. This is the origin of the name Osanaquina. The Indians also called their God, Okeus, which is derived from the Portuguese “0 Deus”, meaning “God”.
One of the outcomes of the Portuguese discoveries was the spreading of the Christian faith. And the foregoing linguistic analysis indicates that Miguel Corte Real attempted to Christianize the Indians.
PORTUGUESE FADO:
Fado, meaning “fate” is a type of Portuguese national folk song. It is usually dramatic and melancholic.
The Portuguese attempt at colonization New England is indeed a “lost chapter in American History”. While the Portuguese colonizers have shared the “fate” of the Indians, the words echo again. And when a Nova Scotian poet lamented the passing of the red man. he may well have sung a fado for the Portuguese Indian:

“The memory of the red man,
How can it pass away,
When its names of music linger,
On each mount, and stream and bay!’

pilgrim chapter 8

I've had a problem when copying and pasting the files. For some reason, the charts with Japanese/Portuguese or Canadian Indian/Portuguese words have come out in one column instead of three or two. But I guess you can still get the idea.

THE PORTUGUESE TOWER OF NEWPORT
Chapter 9

Click on all photos for a larger view

The Newport Tower at night

The Newport Tower, located in Touro Park (Newport, Rhode island) , is considered the single most enigmatic and puzzling structure to be found in the United States. Many scholars here and abroad have written extensively about its probable builders. They all agree that it was not erected by the American Indians. Its architectural characteristics indicate a style from Europe or the Near East.
LOCATION: The tower is situated at 41degrees and 27 minutes north latitude on the highest point of the peninsula which forms the City of Newport. It was built about a half mile from both the East and West shore lines of the city. Its panoramic view dominates all water entrances of the Narragansett Delta.

Newport Tower covered with vine and surrounded by its first iron fence. (1873)

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES: The tower is a cylindrical structure with an outside diameter of 23 feet, and 24½ feet in height. It has eight round columns or pillars, 7½ feet high.
Columns 1 and 5 are situated in a true North-South line oriented by the North Star. Each column rests on a base with a circumference of 12 feet. The columns are connected by 8 round arches, forming an inverted U and suggesting a Romanesque style.
Above the arches are three principal windows. The first window, at 700 east northeast looks toward Easton Point and the mouth of the Sakonnet River. The second window is situated due south facing the Atlantic Ocean. The third window points west facing Newport Harbor and the entrance to Narragansett Bay.
Inside, the Tower has 7 small niches and a so-called “fireplace” built into the wall. At the top of each column on the inner side, and between the arches, there are triangular sockets which served to insert wooden beams. The Tower is composed of laminated slate, sea-worn stones and mortar. The mortar is composed of sand, fine gravel and lime derived from sea shells or limestone. All these materials were native and could be found within the region nearby. The seashore is only one-half mile away.


Evolution of the round tower.
OCTAGONAL CONFIGURATION: The round arch as an architectural form, first appeared in the Near East. Byzantine architects (IV th Century, A.D.) began constructing four-sided towers, gradually evolving into an octagonal shape, and finally! building round towers on which to rest the domes of their churches.
Since then, both the round and octagonal forms have been used interchangeably as serving the same architectural function. Both styles were adopted throughout Christendom. The church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem (built 330 A.D.) containing the tomb of Christ, has a round altar. The Templars worshipped at the main altar of the Holy Sepulcher Church. Upon returning from the Crusades (XII th Century) they introduced round and octagonal churches throughout most of Europe.
Initially, the round towers were used to support domes which symbolized the stars or heaven. But soon the same style was used in building the watchtowers of the medieval castles. There are many round and octagonal churches in Europe but most are to be found in Southern Europe. The secret of the Newport Tower lies in one of these round European structures erected by the Templars.

THEORIES: There are two major theories concerning the origin of Newport Tower: 1) the Arnold or Yankee theory, 2) The Norse, Viking, or Scandinavian theory.

THE ARNOLD THEORY The Arnold theory is based on two assumptions:

I) Benedict Arnold, Governor of Newport, R. I. refers to the Tower in his, will (November 24, 1677) as "my stone built-wind mill”

2) The architectural form of the Tower resembles a windmill standing in Chesterton, England, where Arnold was born. Robert Philip Means in his book, New port Tower (1942,) disproved conclusively the Arnold theory.

First, Means shows that Arnold was born far from the Town of Chesterton and what the Arnoldists refer to as a “mill” was actually an observatory of six arches and six columns. He also observes that in the year 1675 when Arnold was supposed to have built the Tower — the colonists were engaged in a bloody Indian war known as “King Philip’s War.” The year 1 675 marked the peak of the war between colonists and Indians. How could Arnold mobilize the manpower to move tons of material to build such a fancy “windmill” and not erect instead a fort to protect the whites from the rampaging red men? “Building from the ground up so amazing a windmill under these circumstances is inconceivable”, Means asserted.

And he finally proposed that, if Governor Arnold built the Newport Tower he should be credited with ‘The first and only tower wind mill in the English-speaking world.”

If the Arnoldists insist on supporting their theory with a pair of hyphenated words (“stone built-windmill") they will be propping their view only with sentimentality and prejudice.

THE NORSE THEORY The Viking theory is based on three assert ions:

1) According to the “Vindland Sagas”, the Norsemen (Norwegians chiefly, Danes and Swedes) made voyages to North America from the Xth to the XIIth Centuries:

• a) Leif Ericsson c. l0l0A.D.
• b) Thorfinn Karlsefin c. 1010 A.D.
• c) Bishop Eric Grunpfson c. 1121 A.D.

2) The Norsemen, during that period, made the inscriptions on Dighton Rock.

3) The Norsemen also built the Newport Tower as a Catholic Scandinavian church.

REFUTATION

1) The "Vindland Sagas" can not be considered reliable historical references. The scholars that have studied the "Sagas" are the first to admit that they are a collection of legends carried down through generations of hearsay. Until more concrete evidence is found, no historical value can be attributed to the tales described in the voyages of the Norseman to North America and more specifically to the Narragansett Bay.

2) It has been demonstrated conclusively (Chap. 7) that the theory proposed by Charles Rafn in 1836, namely that Thorfinn Karlsefni was the author of the Dighton Rock inscriptions, has no foundation and is totally erroneous.

3) The Scandinavians were the last to accept the Catholic religion. They also have the smallest number of round or octagonal churches in Europe. Denmark has one octagonal and three round churches. Sweden has two round ones and Norway none.

Robert Means, after doing such excellent work in killing the Arnold theory, went specially to the Scandinavian countries hoping to find an abundance of round churches to up hold the Norse theory. He was heartbroken, when in Norway, the country chiefly associated with the Norse voyages, he could not find even one round or octagonal church standing.

If we assume that Ericsson and Karlsefin came to America in the XIIth Century, it is obvious they could not have built the Newport Tower inspired by the style of the Holy Sepulchre rotunda, because the first crusade to the Holy Land took place a century later.

Bishop Eric Grunpfson also could not have built the round tower of Newport because there were, before his supposed departure, no round or octagonal churches in any of the Scandinavian countries. It is impossible to believe that with the tempting offer of heaven to those who would participate in the crusades, some Bishop would choose to venture into the unknown Atlantic to Christianize the natives, when Christian Europe was actively fighting the Arab and Turkish infidels. If the Norsemen made so many trips to North America, as noted in the “Sagas”, why did they not build any other church, round or square, elsewhere in America?

If the Norsemen did come to North America, it is because they drifted into the Greenland Current which runs from Europe to Greenland. With their type of sailing vessel, the Norsemen could not navigate below the tip of Cape Cod, against the strong opposing winds and currents of the Gulf Stream. Centuries later, this same current forced the Pilgrims to navigate above Cape Cod, and away from their original destination of Virginia.

The Norsemen also did not have the jib sail, which was necessary in order to navigate against the wind or in a zigzag fashion. This technique was later developed by the Portuguese. It is absurd to claim that the Norsemen navigated the rough North Atlantic, from Ice land or Greenland, directly to Narragansett Bay before the discovery of the caravel.

The arguments in favor of the Norse theory are much weaker than those backing the Arnold theory. They are so vague and un specific, that the Nordists can hardly support their theory on ethnic sentimentality and prejudice.

Means confessed to be “bothered” by the evidence of Dighton Rock inscriptions in favor of Corte Real and also by the cannon and sword found near Ninigret Fort. He also states that “he saw in the old Portuguese fort of Tangier cannons like this one (at Ninigret) “.

Disillusioned, Means, who painstakingly gathered material for the Norse theory, in the last chapter of his book nevertheless assigns a meager “five per cent” probability to the Portuguese theory of Newport Tower.

PORTUGUESE THEORY: The Portuguese theory begins in Tomar, a city in central Portugal. It is not a legend nor a saga. It is there today, gallant and beautiful, as the main rotunda or Charola of the Castle of Tomar. It was erected in 1160 by the Portuguese Order of Templars, which later in 1320 was named Order of Christ. This Order furnished the financial resources, the man power, and religious training for the navigators and missionaries of the Portuguese discoveries.

The Portuguese Templars, inspired by the round and octagonal churches they saw in the Near East, especially the Hold Sepulcher, built five castles (Almoural, Idanha, Monsanto, Pombal, Tomar and Zêzere), in the same style.

Herbert Pell (1948)

The Castle of Tomar is the prototype of the Portuguese octagonal rotundas with eight arches. It has an outside wall which is round and terminates in a watch tower. Herbert Pell, former United States Ambassador to Portugal, was the first (1948) to make the direct connection between Newport Tower and the main tower of the Castle of Tomar.

Newport Tower with 8 arches.

CHAROLA or main alter with 8 round arches, in the Convent of Tomar.

He pointed out that the Portuguese have always been good masons: “Even today their favorite way of construction is to use small stones thickly embedded in cement” which was the method used in Newport Tower. Pell should have noted that the Portuguese, during the time of the discoveries, used the same method to build more than 150 castles and churches in North, West, and East Africa, the Far East (Ceylon, Japan, India) and Brazil.

No European country has built more churches and castles with round and octagonal towers than Portugal in so many distant lands. In fact, the Portuguese flag is the only one in the world on which there are castles. The arches of these castles resemble those of the Newport Tower.

It does not matter for which purpose the Newport Tower was built:

• (a) windmill,
• (b) Catholic church rotunda,
• (c) watchtower

The evidence in favor of the Portuguese theory by far outweighs that of the Yankee or Norse theories. The round windmills, which had their origin in Persia, were introduced into Europe by the Moors via the Iberian Peninsula. Advanced knowledge of the windmills was acquired by the Portuguese Navigators on their voyages to the Persian Gulf.

In the United States, it is thought that Holland is the country that has the largest number of windmills. In actual fact, the Dutch have five-hundred windmills and Portugal has three thousand. We have seen that the Portuguese had the practice of building a combined church and fortress. Starting with the main rotunda (octagonal or round), the church terminated in the watchtower.

The construction of Newport Tower was a gigantic enterprise, considering the availability of material and manpower. Only a very strong motive could have inspired its builders. There are many octagonal and round churches in Portugal which could serve as prototypes to the Newport Tower.

However, evidence strongly indicates that Miguel Corte-Real and his crew built the New port Tower to use as a church-watchtower in anticipation that Miguel’s oldest brother, Vasqueances, would come searching for him, as Miguel had done for Gaspar.

As stated before, Dighton Rock is the primary evidence for the Corte-Real discovery of Narragansett Bay. Together with the anthropological and linguistic evidence, the Newport Tower constitutes another strong link in the Portuguese theory. One further link in the Portuguese chain of facts brings us to the archeological findings at Ninigret Fort.

pilgrim chapter 9

NINIGRET — A PORTUGUESE FORT
Chapter 10

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Outline of Fort Ninigret is characterized by five-sided bastions on three corners.
Few people know of Fort Ninigret in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Yet, this intriguing structure has captivated the interest of scholars for many years because of its unique configuration and the open breech cannon and sword found nearby.
Named after Ninigret, sachem of the Niantics, the fort is situated on the point of land facing Ninigret Pond, off State Route 2, half a mile west of Charlestown, a short distance from the ocean. Actually, all that remains of the old fort are the mound and some loose stones and earth from the original walls.
However, its most striking characteristic is the outline maintained by the railing, marking off three-foot high mounds of the original fort. The fort is rectangular with the corners terminating in five-sided bastions, except for the one facing the water. It measures 152 feet long (from bastion to bastion) and 137 feet wide. The angles of the bastions are approximately 130 degrees. No one doubts that the style in which the fort is built clearly shows the influence of European civilization.


Ninigret Statue in Watch Hill Rhode Island

DUTCH THEORY: In 1858, 5. G. Arnold, in a footnote in his “History of the State of Rhode Island”, stated for the first time in print, that “the Dutch had two fortified trading posts on the South Shore of Narragansett in what is now Charlestown”. But he presented no proofs, and gave no references.
Later historians followed Arnold’s theory without questioning its origin or basis until 1921, when Leicester Bradner, after reviewing all the documents concerning the activities of the Dutch West India Company in America since 1626, refuted vehemently Arnold’s theory. Bradner stated that the theory was conceived “with the naive credulity of an old style historian”. Then he concluded: “The facts I have presented are conclusive and their importance can only be altered by the discovery of new sources. On the present evidence, I consider it impossible that the Dutch owned or occupied the fort in Charlestown.”
CANNON AND SWORD: In the following year (1922) new discoveries were made. A cannon, open breech type, a sword, and four skeletons were found near Ninigret Fort on the farm of T. L. Arnold (not related to S. G. Arnold) . The Dutch theory was again revived in regional historical circles. In 1932 William B. Goodwin decided to excavate at the ruins of the fort and defend once more the Dutch theory. In spite of all the efforts spent in reviewing the documents of the Dutch Company, he flatly admits that the “five-sided bastions are very unusual”, and that he could “find no such shaped bastions in any of the books on fortifications which I have been able to locate”.


Open breech cannon found near the site of Fort Ninigret closely resembles 15th and 16th century cannons exhibited at the military museum in Lisbon.



Open breech cannon (15th - 16th century) at the military museum in Lisbon closely resembles Ninigret cannon



Sword found nearby Ninigret Fort. Its handle shows a significant similarity to that of the sword (XV - V\XVI century) in the historical museum of Angra, Terceira, Azores.



Sword preserved in the historical museum of Angra, Terceira, Azores. Its handle shows a striking similarity to that of Ninigret Fort


BLUE POTTERY: Goodwin, during his superficial excavation, found in the center of the fort a well four feet in diameter with three circular layers of field stone. He then dug to the depth of nine feet and found “several stones which showed signs of fire and to One side of which stones adhered a layer of clay.” He came to the conclusion that “those stones were out of a chimney which at one time or another had been erected in another place".
He also found several archeological objects which he attributed without hesitancy, both to the Indians and the Dutch. Among these he obtained part of a plate dish made of blue pottery — which he called “our greatest find” — because it had on it the letter “R” written in blue. He believed that the “R” was the initial for Isaac de Rasier, secretary to the Dutch West India Company which had its head quarters in Manhattan (New York) . Of course, he was never aware that the “R” could very well be a part of Miguel Corte Real, who explored the Narragansett delta in 1502.
In an effort to demonstrate that the blue and white pieces of pottery came from Holland, Goodwin consulted the experts who informed him that such pottery was Spanish in origin and could have been brought from that country during the Spanish occupation of Holland between 1545 and 1574.
Many people, even today, mistakenly think that Portugal is a province of Spain, and therefore do not know that Portugal has blue and white pottery par excellence, considered the most beautiful blue tile murals that exist in Europe.
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM: In his determination to defend the Dutch theory, Goodwin “with photographs made of the cannon and sword from all points of view”, went to New York City to consult with the foremost authorities on armor. Mr. Grancsay, curator of armor at the Metropolitan Museum gave him ‘‘his unquestioned opinion that the sword could well date back to the early 1500’s and declared the cannon to be a very early breechlock type. In fact, the cannon could go back to the 15th century.” There is no doubt that both pieces of armor were of European fabrication. And once more their Spanish origin was consider ed, forgetting, as usual, the possibility of their being Portuguese.
PORTUGUESE THEORY: Up until now, there have been two theories concerning Fort Ninigret: (1) the Dutch, amid (2) the anti-Dutch theory. The latter, being negativistic, has been favored by the Yankee historians, realizing that they have no claim whatsoever on the Fort. Both groups have been watchful of each other to the point of not being able to envision any other theory.
American historians find the five-sided bastions of Fort Ninigret very unusual and are unable to determine the origin of its configuration because they have no knowledge of the forts of Portugal, or those built by the Lusitanian navigators in other continents during the great period of the discoveries. If historians had the required knowledge, they would have very easily found that the Portuguese forts are characterized by four, five, and six-sided bastions.
Any student of arms knows that the open- breech type cannon found at Ninigret was obsolete after 1540. Why do historians try to make us believe that such a cannon was used almost one century later by the Dutch or the British?
Most striking is the similarity of the can non and sword now preserved by the Rhode Island Historical Society, in Providence, with the 15th and 1 6th century cannons and swords in existence at the Military Museum in Lisbon. Furthermore, if we examine Chinese and Japanese paintings depicting the enterprises of the Portuguese explorers in the Orient, we will see a great similarity between the handles of the Portuguese swords and that of the Ninigret sword.
The Fort and its artifacts are significant because they demonstrate not only the presence of the Portuguese, but also their occupancy of the land. Ninigret Fort, together with all other evidence presented in the previous chapters, actually make Narragansett Bay a Portuguese Museum of Early American History.


pilgrim chapter 10

PORTUGUESE BULLS, FIRST IN NORTH AMERICA
Chapter 11

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The Portuguese navigators made their voyages in progressive stages:

• 1. Discovery
• 2. Exploration
• 3. Colonization

Portuguese fisherman on the Grand Banks
Discovery was the first step taken to find a new island or continent and report back to Prince Henry or the King of Portugal. Exploration confirmed the discovery and studied the conditions for settlement. Colonization began by leaving domestic animals on the new lands to be followed by men and women settlers.
After the discoveries of Porto Santo (1419) Madeira (1420), and the Azores Islands (1431- 1439) — exploration revealed that they were never inhabited, but had excellent pasture lands. With that information, Prince Henry ordered to be taken to those islands, a variety of domestic animals, such as, cattle, hogs, sheep, horses, and goats (1432). This measure of casting domestic animals on the various islands of the Atlantic proved to be an intelligent step towards colonization.
All the animals multiplied and grew in great numbers because of the climate and abundance of pasture. Soon the Azores Islands be came the “refueling” and trading stations of the navigators, when port of calls were made to obtain fresh water, milk, fruits, and meats. Because of its excellent natural harbor at Angra, the Island of Terceira became the “inter planetary station” for the navigators returning to Lisbon from America, Africa, or India. (Azores Arc of Navigation).
The Portuguese policy of populating the North Atlantic islands with domestic animals before colonization, was repeated in other islands and lands in Africa, Brazil, and North America.
NOT THE LAST: Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real were not the first Portuguese navigators to explore North America. Neither were they the last to come. The Corte Real brothers were not making voyages of discovery, but of exploration in preparation for the third stage: Colonization.
The discovery of North America had al ready been made by their father in 1472, twenty years before Columbus arrived at the West Indies. Vasqueanes Corte Real, the oldest brother of Gaspar and Miguel Corte Real asked permission from King Manuel I to go in search of his two lost brothers, but he was denied a charter. However, João Alves Fagundes and Manuel Corte Real, son of Vasqueanes obtained a charter from King Manuel I (1520) to establish settlements in Newfoundland.
LAND OF BACALHAUS (CODFISH): We have seen in the Cantino map (1502) that the territory of Newfoundland was shown to be on the eastern side of the Tordesillas demarcation line, that is, within the Portuguese hemisphere of discovery. Because of this, the Portuguese explored and colonized the north eastern coast of America for almost a century. Furthermore, it is evident from the decree of 1506 issued by King Manuel I and establishing a 10 percent (Dízimo) import tax on the codfish brought back from Newfoundland, that the voyages of the Portuguese to the Grand Banks were by then a long established practice.
For thousands of years the sediment of the cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream formed very large submarine sand beds or banks, now called the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. The Grand Banks are a five hundred mile stretch of shallow water off the southeast coast of Newfoundland. They begin about 100 miles from Cape Race at the south eastern tip of Newfoundland. They extend as far as 300 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean.
They are known as one of the best fishing grounds in the world. Thousands of sea birds circle over the waters abounding with fish. The navigators knew very well that great flocks of sea birds were the best guide for locating schools of fish. We should note that the distance from the Azores (Santa Maria) to Lisbon (800 miles) is the same distance from the Azores (Flores) to the Grand Banks.
COD OR BACALHAUS: Cod is one of the most important food fishes found in the northeastern shores of America. Because of its abundance, it gave its name to Cape Cod and to Newfoundland, once called the Land of Bacalhaus. The seal of colonial Massachusetts had on it a codfish, and today a gilded representation of a codfish hangs in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, (Resolution of March 17. l784). Codfish prefer the Grand Banks because of the ideal water temperature (40 - 50°F.) water depth (6-300 feet) . and the abundance of food supply (Crustaceans, Mollusks, and sea weed) provided by the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current.
SABLE ISLAND: The sedimentation resulting from the con verging of the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream formed, over the ages, a sand bank (Nova Scotian bank) from which emerged Sable Island. This island of sand is located (40°N. and 60°W) near the edge of the continental shelf, 100 miles from the Nova Scotian coast. It has the shape of a crescent moon, about 20 miles long and 1 mile wide. The island is composed of white sand dunes, with several fresh water ponds filled by the rain formed by the condensation of the warm atmosphere of the Gulf Stream with the cold air of the Labrador Currents. Fresh water can be found any where in the sand by digging to the depth of two feet. No trees or shrubs grow there, but it has an abundance of knee-deep grass.
Sable Island is known to sailors as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. It lies on the North Atlantic shipping lane between North America and Europe, and because of long sub merged sand bars surrounding the island, more than 500 vessels have been shipwrecked there. Dense fog and irregularities of currents and winds further endanger navigation.
Unimportant and treacherous as its seems today, Sable Island was chosen by the Portuguese navigators as a supply station. They placed on the Island the same type of domestic animals that they bred in the Azores. The Portuguese observed that Sable Island had several advantages:

• (a) It was close to the codfish banks.
• (b) It was longer than most Azorean islands.
• (c) Fresh water was plentiful.
• (d) Pasture was abundant.
• (e) It was less rugged and cold than the continental coast because it was closer to Gulf Stream.

For these reasons, Sable Island became a supply station for the Portuguese navigators
RED BULLS: John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts Colony, in his “History of New England” (1630-1649) gives an account of John Rose’s description of Sable Island after he was forced to land there:
“The Island is 30 miles long, 2 miles broad in most places, a mere sand, yet full of fresh water ponds, etc. He (John Rose) saw about 800 cattle, small and great, all red. and the largest he ever saw - . .ª
John Rose did not forward any theory as to the origin of those ‘‘800 cattle, small and great, all red, and the largest he ever saw”. But, he was not the first to note the existence of the red cattle on Sable Island.
Samuel Champlain, the first French explorer of North America (1603) and founder and governor of Quebec (1633), reported in the first edition of his “Voyages” (1613) that: “The bullocks and cows (were) taken there (Sable Island) over 60 years ago by the Portuguese" i.e., prior to 1613 and therefore be fore 1553.
However, before Champlain, an English man, Sir Humphrey Gilbert reported in con nection with his voyage to St. John in 1583 that: “Upon intelligence we had of a Portugal (during our abode in St. John) who was him self present, when the Portugal's (about 30 years past” i.e., before 1553) “did put into the same island both meat and swine, to breed, which were since exceedingly multiplied. This seemed unto us a very happy tidings to have on an island lying so near into the main, which we intend to plant upon, such store of cattle, whereby we might at all times conveniently be relieved of virtual, and served of store for breed”. Champlain and Gilbert clearly stated that the domestic animals on Sable Island were of Portuguese origin. The question now arises as to who brought these animals to Sable Island.


Solar (manor) of Pinheiros in Barcelos (1448) Today it is a national monument.
BARCELOS FAMILY: Besides the Corte Reais there were several other families from the Island of Terceira who were interested in the exploration and colonization of Newfoundland. One of the most important was the Barcelos family which worked on colonization for three generations.
Pedro Pinheiro, descendant of one of the most noble families of Barcelos (Town — North of Oporto) migrated to Terceira in the last quarter of the 15th Century. (Because of his name Pinheiro (Pine) his family coat of arms contained a pine tree and golden pinecones.) In Terceira he was nicknamed Barcelos which later became part of his name.
Under a charter granted by King John II (1492), Pedro Pinheiro de Barcelos made his first voyage to Newfoundland with his partner, João Fernandes Labrador (who gave the name to Labrador). When Pedro Pinheiro died in 1507, his son Diogo Pinheiro de Barcelos obtained from King Manuel I a charter (1508) allowing him to continue with the colonization begun by his father. Dr. Baptista de Lima of the Historical Institute of the Island of Terceira, revealed at the first International Congress of the History of the Discoveries (1960) important findings concerning Diogo’s colonization of the Barcelona Island (Sable Island) — named after Barcelos family.


Chart of Bartolomeu 1560. Arrow indicates Barcelona Island
Diogo had a brother, Afonso Pinheiro de Barcelos, who, according to the charter granted to them by the King, had equal rights (profits) and duties (expenses) in the colonization of the lands of Bacalhaus. However, because Afonso was not willing to participate in any of the expeditions, Diogo asked for a legal hearing on the matter so that he could obtain sole rights to the lands he had colonized. Five witnesses testified at that hearing (October 7, 1531) and all declared that they had seen on the Island of Barcelona: “Cattle, sheep, goats, and swine taken there by Diogo’s ships, and all animals were well fed and multiplied.” After the hearing, Afonso and his wife relinquished all the rights stated in the charter.
In 1550, Manuel de Barcelos (son of Diogo, and grandson of Pedro de Barcelos) took with him more domestic animals and settlers to continue the colonization of the Barcelona Island. It is believed that this is the expedition referred to by Sir Humphrey Gilbert.
Samuel de Champlain refers to other Portuguese settlements at Ninganis (derived from Enganos, called today Ingonish) on Cape Briton Island, English Harbor (Louisburg) and the Tor Bay area, (from Torre-fort) all on Nova Scotia. At Louisburg, the same type of open-breech cannon was found that was uncovered at Ninigret Fort. At the same place was also found an old anchor.

CARTOGRAPHY OF SABLE ISLAND: Sable Island appears for the first time with the name of San João (St. John) on a map drawn by Pedro Reinel in 1502. The name of San João appears again on the maps made by Joao Freire in 1546. However, charts by Lopo Homem (1540 and 1554) called the Island, Fagunda Island (derived from Joao Fagundes) . The same name of Fagunda was adopted by the cartographers Andre Homem (1559) and Diogo Homem (1565).

Some historians consider the Island of Santa Cruz on Pedro Reinel’s chart (1502) as the same Sable Island. In his later maps, Diogo Homem changed the name of Fagunda to Santa Cruz (1565)

Today, we realize that it was no easy task for the early cartographers to accurately map the Northeastern Coast of America because of the many bays, harbors, and islands. To further complicate the work of cartographers, Sable Island varied in shape and size depending on the combined forces of the Labrador Current and Gulf Stream. Judging by John Rose’s description in 1633, Sable Island was wider and longer than it is today.

Dr. Baptista de Lima found on Bartolomeu Velho’s chart a small island opposite the Nova Scotian coast with the name “Barcelona”. This island does not correspond to the of Sable Island. However, there are historical documents in Terceira referring to a colony on an island named “Barcelona” and such a name is found in the early cartography of Canada. Further attesting to the voyages of Barcelos family, we find in the early charts of Newfoundland:

• Baía (bay) de Manuel Pinheiro
• Rio (river) de Manuel Pinheiro
• Angra (harbor) de Manuel Pinheiro
• Terra (land) de Manuel Pinheiro

Click on all photos for a larger view

Barcelos Red Bull, Mirandês type

Red Bulls (Ramo Grande, or large type) on the island of Terceira

ORIGIN OF RED BULLS: Historical references clearly indicate that the cattle found on Sable Island are of Portuguese origin. To understand Rose’s amazement, we must now demonstrate that such un usually large, red bulls existed only in Portugal.

Today if we visit the Island of Terceira, we will find large, red bulls (Ramo grande — “large type”) on the very land once owned by the Barcelos family. The breeding of this type of cattle is a specialty in this area of Terceira.

This breed of cattle resulted from a hybrid obtained by crossing the red cattle, of Miranda (near Barcelos, Portugal), brought to Terceira by Pinheiro, and the red cattle of Alentejo (center of Portugal) . Both parent stocks were brought to Terceira during the period of colonization. This breed provided milk, meat, and farm tillage.

Batalha da Salga or Battle of the Bulls (1581). Painting ordered made by Philip II of Spain or Philip I of Portugal.


BATTLE OF THE BULLS: The red cattle has given the Island of Terceira a most unique page of its history. In 1580 Portugal lost her independence to Spain (until 1640) . In 1581 a Spanish fleet (2000 men) attempted to force the people of Terceira to obey the Spanish King. A native of the island gathered all the wild cattle and led them against the Spanish invaders, who were hurled into the sea at the horns of the Portuguese bulls. It was this remarkable Battle of the Bulls — Battle of Salga — which gave the origin to the Spanish proverb: Vienen con ganado, ganado somos!” (“If they come with bulls, horned we are! “


Tourada à Corda (Bull fighting with a cord) or street bull fighting on the island of Terceira

Of all the nine Azorean islands, it is only in Terceira that bull fighting is a favorite sport. Typically, bull fighting is done on the street by having a long rope tied around the bull’s neck. Usually the bulls used for the rope bull fighting are, of the Barcelos type. This is a most colorful and dangerous type of bull fighting



Wild ponies living today on Sable island

WILD PONIES OF SABLE ISLAND: Today Sable Island has a light house, a weather station, and 300 wild ponies. Recently an oil company has begun drilling on the island. The ponies are small, but hearty enough to resist the severity of the weather conditions.
Mr. Buchanan in his “Early Canadian History” says: “They may be descendants of horses left there by the Portuguese.” We do not have any evidence that horses were brought to Sable Island by the Portuguese, but there is no indication that they were brought there by any other Europeans. The fact that it is certain the Portuguese brought cattle, sheep, and hogs to Sable Island leads us to conclude: That the wild ponies on Sable Island are of Portuguese origin until proven otherwise.


pilgrim chapter 11

BEFORE COLUMBUS BORN If Columbus could have foreseen how determined historians are to prove that he was not the first to discover America, he certainly would not have taken the trouble to make a single trip. Though we are two decades away from the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ first voyage to San Salvador (Antilles) in 1492, there are already plans for a big celebration. At the same time, during the next two decades, there will be an increasing number of books refuting Columbus as the first discoverer of the Americas.
HISTORICAL FABRICATION: It was Columbus himself who first exaggerated the importance of his discovery. He was convinced he had landed in China and Japan. Not finding the expected riches, he misled the King and Queen of Spain into thinking that he had found great wealth in these islands.
As the race to India intensified between Portugal and Spain, Columbus continued to persuade the Spanish sovereigns to support his voyages. As Columbus set out on his third voyage, Vasco da Gama was arriving in India (1498) . Columbus was so persuasive, that on his fourth and final voyage (1502) the Spanish sovereigns gave him a letter of introduction to Vasco da Gama in the hope that they would meet in India.
When Europe finally realized that Columbus had failed to reach India, he fell into disgrace. Both Columbus’ self-propaganda and the competition between the Spanish and Portuguese crowns caused attention to be diverted from the Portuguese discovery of North America by privately financed voyages.
Washington Irving was the first American writer to popularize the idea that Columbus was the first to discover America. (The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1828) . Actually, Protestant Americans had ignored Columbus until Irving’s book came along. The Anglo-Saxons had always played down any major accomplishment from the Catholic Latin countries. Fortunately, this attitude has been disappearing in the last few decades.
Columbus never set foot on the land which is now called the United States. Yet, yielding to Italian - Americans, our largest immigrant group (25 million) , it is in this country that Columbus’ voyage is most widely commemorated
COLUMBUS’ INFORMATION: It is irrelevant to involve ourselves in the question of whether Columbus was Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, or Jew. What is more important is our understanding of the prior information Columbus had before his voyages:

• (a) He acquired his nautical knowledge in Portugal.
• (b) For ten years he sailed in Portuguese caravels along the African coast.
• (c) He married Filipa de Perestrelo (1479),daughter of the Governor of Madeira Islands.
• (d) Only after his father-in-law died, leaving him access to maps and secret information about the lands to the west, did Columbus begin making plans for a voyage across the Atlantic.

Columbus, however, underestimated the circumference of the globe by 4,000 miles. But the Portuguese mathematicians knew the actual distance, therefore King John II wisely declined (1482) to support Columbus’ plan to discover a western water route to India.
NIGHT SAILING: It was a well-established rule that any navigator sailing in an unknown sea would anchor at night by putting the sails down so as not to risk being wrecked on a reef in the darkness. It was Professor David Tsukernik of the Soviet Geographic Society who first commented on the fact that Columbus’ ships traveled full speed day and night. More astonishing is that on the return trip (first voyage) Columbus navigated 300 miles more during the night than during the day. This seems foolhardy for a man who supposedly did not have any prior knowledge of the prevalent water and wind currents of the Atlantic.
Some American scholars are pro-Columbus to the extent of claiming that Columbus knew of the favorable winds of the North Atlantic through ‘inspiration and instinct’’, thereby allowing him to sail day and night. How ridiculous can one be? The ‘‘genius’’ that American historians so quickly attribute to Columbus is actually a strong indication that Columbus must have had prior nautical information. Columbus was honest enough to admit that his nautical knowledge came from the Portuguese. The historians on the other hand, could learn much from Columbus himself.
Las Casas, the chronicler who sailed with Columbus, wrote that they “navigated 700 leagues day and night because the Admiral had not expected to sight land sooner than 750 leagues west of the Canary Islands.” The last 50 leagues were sailed only during the day, Las Casas informs us. Noteworthy is the fact that the distance of 750 leagues is almost exactly the distance from the western islands of the Canary Archipelago, where the flotilla began its voyage, to the eastern islands of the Caribbean Sea.
Las Casas also says that, while in Madeira, Columbus learned from the crew of a Portuguese ship that they were returning from a land further west. Moreover, Fernando Columbus states in his father’s biography that Columbus had previous information of the existence of land in the West Atlantic and even possessed a map “with chartered islands in this sea” (Caribbean.) Columbus learned celestial navigation from the Portuguese pilots. He was also taught to sail through the great circles of navigation (1480-1490) when returning from Africa: Arc of Mina, Arc of Azores, and Arc of Sargasso Sea. Before Columbus was born, the Portuguese sailors were already familiar with the water currents and winds which later brought him to the West Indies.
We have already stated that, once the Portuguese navigators were locked in the Canary current and the North Equatorial Drift (Trade Winds) , they were practically forced to terminate their voyage at the West Indies or in South America. This is a conclusion that can be verified today with modern scientific methods of navigation.
The more American historians study the epic of the discoveries, the more convinced they will become that Columbus learned all about the previous discoveries of the Portuguese and was not “self-taught”, as Professor Samuel Eliot Morison would like us to believe.
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE: We have stressed before that the Corte Reais and other Portuguese navigators financed their own expeditions to the New World. They were not required to give a detailed report of their voyages to the king, as was the case in the voyages to Africa, India, and Brazil sponsored by the Portuguese crown. For similar reasons, Columbus kept a log which he was required to present to the Spanish monarchs.
The Portuguese navigators to the New World were more preoccupied with discovery than writing about it. In fact, they usually kept their discoveries “top secret”. This explains why much of the coastline and many of the islands of the American Continent were known to the Portuguese navigators many years before they were first documented on logs or charts. The best example is the Cantino map (1502), taken secretly from Portugal, which shows Newfoundland, West Indies, and the Florida Peninsula, eleven years before Ponce de Leon arrived there.
THE FOUR CAPES OF GOOD HOPE: The main objective of the Portuguese voyages was to find a water route around Africa to India. Every navigator hoped to pass that tip of Africa which would be properly named the Cape of Good Hope. This was accomplished by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488.
During his voyage of circumnavigation Fernão de Magalhães rounded the second “Cape of Good Hope” in South America by passing the strait that today bears his name (Strait of Magellan) . He then sailed into the largest ocean in the world to which he gave the Portuguese name: Pacífico the search for the fourth “Cape of Good Hope” the Portuguese failed to find a passage to India.
From the Danes, the Portuguese learned that the geographic configuration of Lapland took the shape of the third “Cape of Good Hope” on the north of Europe and that only the frozen sea prohibited passage to the East. It was only in 1660 that the Portuguese navigator David Melgueiro succeeded in his amazing voyage across the Arctic Ocean, down to the coast of eastern China to India.
TWENTY YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS: We should know that Christian I of Denmark was first cousin to Prince Henry the Navigator. (Their mothers were both from the Royal House of England). Thus, by 1448 we find a Danish navigator in the Portuguese Court.
From the Danes the Portuguese tried to learn about the fourth “Cape of Good Hope”. The search for a “Cape of Good Hope” persisted for many years in the Corte Reais’ quest for the North American passage to India.
The Danish historian, Sophus Larsen, in his book “The Discovery of North America Twenty years Before Columbus” (1925) presented evidence that João Vaz Corte Real made a voyage of discovery (1472) to Greenland and Newfoundland with two Danish pilots named Pining and Pothorst. For the discovery of the fourth “Cape of Good Hope” João Vaz Corte Real was given (1474) the governorship of Angra (Island of Terceira) as a reward.
SEVENTY YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS: The period of the Portuguese discoveries is one of the most amazing studies of universal history because even today we can experience the same navigational conditions that existed 500 years ago.
Admiral Gago Coutinho sailed 31,000 miles into the Atlantic aboard a caravel, similar to those of the 15th century. On these extensive voyages he made observations of water currents, winds and stars with modern navigational instruments. In 1952, he wrote: “Childish conclusions are easily dispelled by anyone navigating under sail, and seeing for himself, as I have for the last sixty years there are proofs that the Portuguese pilots who sailed the Sargasso Sea prior to 1446 — before the birth of Columbus — had the experience of sailing to the American coast before 1472. Based on my technical and nautical experience, I find the Corte Reais to be the undisputable discoverers of America.”
PORTUGUESE CHART OF 1424: In 1954, Coimbra University published a book on The Nautical Chart of 1424, uncovered in the William H. Robinson London Collection, by Professor Armando Cortesão This map was bought for a large sum of money by the Minnesota Library and placed in the James Ford Bell Collection. This Portuguese chart shows the Antilles or West Indies.
In 1965 there was much excitement about the so-called Vinland Map published by Yale University. This map is important because it shows portions of North America, but the map has no date on it. The date has been estimated to be 1440 at the earliest. The Portuguese chart has the date 1424 written very clearly on the map. No one as yet believes that the Vikings made the Vinland map. It is yet to be proven that this map was not copied from older Portuguese maps.

CONCLUSIONS

NATIONAL MONUMENT: Dighton Rock should have been made a national monument long ago.

• First, because there is no other monument in the United States that has merited the attention of so many scholars and stimulated so many theories.
• Secondly, it should be properly protected and preserved for further study, using new scientific techniques.
• Thirdly, because the U. S. Secretary of the Interior would be able to give research grants to specialists, not only to study the inscriptions, but also to excavate in the vicinity of Dighton Rock. The State of Massachusetts alone, with its limited funds, cannot project the national importance of Dighton Rock.
• Fourth, it must be emphasized that Dighton Rock is not a Portuguese monument. It is an American monument. It should be preserved and cared for as such — a very important cornerstone of American history.
• Filth and most important, it is a document in rock — the only witness to the discovery of our great nation, the first chapter of American History.

DIGHTON ROCK AND THE PLANETS: With the exploration of outer space we have taken over where the Portuguese left off. The United States has been in a race to the moon with Russia, just as centuries ago Portugal and Spain were racing to India. The courage in face of the unknown is a characteristic of both the Portuguese explorers and the American astronauts.
In the XV Century the Portuguese were the first Europeans to make transatlantic voyages and be able to return home because they had invented the caravel. Today Americans are the first to go to the moon and return because they have developed the Apollo rockets. Just as long ago the Portuguese planted landmarkers in the lands they discovered, the astronauts will place on the planets, planet-markers with the American National Symbols.



IN SEARCH OF THE "FIFTH CAPE OF GOOD HOPE." The American Astronaut's footprints in the soil of the moon and the American flag.
THE FIFTH “CAPE OF GOOD HOPE”: Somewhere deep into outer space, beyond the reach of the sextant and the astrolabe, blown by solar winds and bounded by falling stars is the mystical celestial entity, the “Cape of Good Hope”, the fifth, a double symbol of the conquerable unconquerable. The explorers of the space age — the sailors of the stars, the astronauts, the reincarnation of the Portuguese spirit of exploration, — will round this mystical cape as they did the others. And what will they see beyond this Cape — who knows? They may even meet The Navigator, face to face.


pilgrim chapter 12