Born c. 1455, Portugal
Died 1501

Miguel Corte-Real

Born c. 1450, Portugal
Died c. 1502

Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real were born in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in the mid-fifteenth century. They, along with older brother Vasco Annes, were the sons of Joäo Vaz Corte-Real, a nobleman and military officer who served as captain of Terceira, one of Portugal’s Azore Islands, located about eight hundred miles west of that country’s Atlantic coast. According to some historical sources, Joäo Vaz may have preceded his sons in exploring the North Atlantic, participating in a joint Portuguese-Danish expedition to Greenland and Newfoundland around 1472, well before Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was credited with discovering the New World. For in 1474 the elder Corte-Real was given the title Discoverer of La Terra do Bacalhao—Land of the Codfish—which suggests that he had indeed sailed as...