General Discussion

fishing near Canada and Newfoundland off-the-books in the late 15th century. Since the English fishermen had to worry about the Hanseatic League as well as English royal officials, they didn’t go out of their way to say where their catches were actually coming from.

The point is that word about the Americas would have gotten around, even if Ferdinand and Isabella had given Columbus the bum’s rush in the early 1490’s and threatened to behead him if he was found anywhere in Iberia ever again.