Vespucci was induced to leave Seville in order to accompany the fleet, which consisted of three vessels—some editions say ten, some fourteen—and which sailed from Lisbon on the 13th of May. Passing the Canaries without landing, to the African coast and Basilica in 14°, probably Cape Verde, there he remained eleven days. At this place he met Cabral's fleet returning from India and learned the particulars of the voyage, including the American discoveries, of which he gives a full account in a letter written at the time under date of June 4, 1501, which is a strong proof of the veracity of his other accounts. See extracts in _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. v. pp. 34-44. It is extraordinary that in the several accounts of this meeting the name of Vespucci's commander is not mentioned. From Cape Verde the fleet sailed south-west sixty-seven days and touched the main-land the 17th of August, at a point in 5° south latitude, taking possession for the king of Portugal. Thence it followed the coast south-east, doubled Cape St Augustine, and went on in sight of land for 600 leagues to a point in 32° south—according to Gomara, 40°; Navarrete thinks it could not have been over 26°. Having found no precious metals during a voyage of ten months, the Portuguese abandoned this coast on the 13th (or 15th) of February, 1502, and after having been driven by storms far to the south-east, and discovering some land whose identity is uncertain—Humboldt thinks it was an accumulation of ice, or the coast of Patagonia—they reached the coast of Ethiopia on the 10th of May, the Azores toward the end of July, and Lisbon September 7, 1502. Vespucci gives full descriptions of the natives of Brazil, but these descriptions, together with the numerous conflicting statements, or blunders of the various texts relating to details of the voyage, I pass over as unimportant to my purpose. That Vespucci was with a Portuguese fleet which in 1501-2 explored a large but ill-defined portion of the Brazilian coast, there can be no doubt. _Grynæus_, _Novus Orbis_, pp. 122-30; _Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. i. pp. 139-44; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 46, 262-80; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. v. pp. 1-115; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 375-7; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 98-9. [1502.] Miguel Cortereal sailed from Lisbon May 10, 1502, in search of his brother Gaspar, only to share his brother's fate. Neither of his two vessels appears to have returned. _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 44; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 226; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 374; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 171-2. It is probable that Portuguese fishermen continued their trips more or less to Labrador and Newfoundland, but if so, no accounts have been preserved. _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 187-92; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 69, 95; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.