Some Rantings on the Naming of America

If blame is to lie with someone, it is with map maker,Martin Waldseemüller. Americo Vespucci never asked to have the continents named after himself.

Aside from the Vikings, the Portuguese were the most likely to have discovered the Grand Banks and coastal lands, there are reports of "what was to become" St Johns being populated by Portuguese and Basque cod fishermen (there are archaelogical wrecks and settlements in the Sainte Lawrence estuary belonging to Basque sailors that possibly pre-date 1492). Even early English charts of the Cape (cape cod) were called 'Cabo Bacclava' that is - Cape Cod in Potuguese. The Portuguese discovered the Azores in 1450, it was soon after that boatloads of dried Cod reached the shores of Europe, breaking the monopoly on the Hanseatic League on the salt trade. Salt and Cod went hand in hand, whomever controlled either, was most likely to find out the trade secrets, Baltic Europe was not rich in Salt, most salt was traded from central Germany Bay of Biscay and other southern European areas. It was not long before the Bristol voyages followed Portuguese or Basque routes to the New World.
Still early exploration is full of conjecture and historical errors, look at the Saga's for example, they were proved to be a fraud. Still people today believe the Vikings actually sailed passed Cabo Bacclava and discovered a few islands in the area (?). There is a whaling museum in that area that has this historical error on public file - as historical fact.