The Same Fortunatus
Relates, That A Person Came From Madeira To Portugal In The Year 1484, To
Beg A Caravel
From the king in which he might go in quest of an island
which he made oath that he saw
Every year, and always after the exact same
manner; with whom others agreed, who declared that they had seen the same
land from the Azores.
On these grounds, in all the former maps and charts, certain islands were
placed in that direction. In his book concerning the wonderful things of
nature, Aristotle informs us of a report, that some Carthaginian merchants
had sailed across the Atlantic to a most beautiful and fertile island, of
which we shall give a more particular account hereafter. Some Portuguese
cosmographers have inserted this island in their maps under the name of
Antilla; though they do not agree with Aristotle in regard to its
situation, yet none have placed it more than 200 leagues due west from the
Canaries and Azores. This they assert to be certainly the island of the
seven cities, which is said to have been peopled by the Portuguese in the
year 714, at the time when Spain was conquered by the Moors. At that time,
according to the legend, seven bishops with their people sailed to this
island, where each of them built a city; and, that none of their people
might ever think of returning to Spain, they burnt their ships with all
the tackling, and destroyed every thing that was necessary for navigation.
There are who affirm that several Portuguese mariners have been to that
island, but could never find their way back to it again. It is said
particularly, that in the time of Don Henry, infant of Portugal, a
Portuguese ship was driven by stress of weather upon this island of
Antilla, where the men went on shore, and were led by the islanders to a
church, that they might see whether they were Christians and observed the
ceremonies of the Roman worship; and perceiving that they did, the
islanders requested them to remain till their lord should return, who
happened to be then absent, but who would be very kind to them, and give
them many presents. But the master and seamen were afraid of being
detained, and suspected that the islanders had no mind to be discovered,
and might burn their vessel; wherefore they sailed back to Portugal,
hoping to be rewarded for their discovery by Don Henry. But he reproved
them severely, and ordered them to return quickly; wherefore the master
and all his crew escaped from Portugal with their ship, and never
returned. It is likewise reported, that while the master and seamen of
this vessel were at church in the foresaid island, the boys of the ship
gathered sand for the cook room, a third part of which was found to be
pure gold.
Among others who set out to discover this island was one Jattes de Fiene,
whose pilot Peter Velasquez, of the town of Palos de Moguer, told the
admiral in the monastery of St Mary de la Rabida, that they sailed 150
leagues south-west from Fayal, and discovered the island of Flores in
their return, to which they were led by observing numbers of birds to fly
in that direction, and because these were land birds they concluded that
they were making for land, as they could not rest upon the waters. Leaving
Flores, they sailed so far to the north-east, that they came to Cape Clear
in the west of Ireland, where they met with a stiff western gale and yet a
smooth sea, whence they concluded that there must be land in that
direction by which the sea was sheltered from the effects of the west wind;
but it being then the month of August, they did not venture to proceed in
search of that supposed island, for fear of winter. This happened about
forty years before the discovery of the West Indies.
The foregoing account was confirmed to the admiral by the relation of a
mariner whom he met with at Port St Mary, who told him that, once in a
voyage to Ireland he saw that western land, which he then supposed to be a
part of Tartary stretching out towards the west, but could not come near
it on account of bad weather. But it is probable that this must have been
the land now called Bacallaos, or Newfoundland. This was farther
confirmed by what was related to him by one Peter de Velasco of Galicia,
whom he met with in the city of Murcia in Spain: who, in sailing for
Ireland, went so far to the north-west, that he discovered land far to the
west of Ireland; which he believes to have been the same which one
Femaldolmos endeavoured to discover in the following manner, as set down
in my fathers writings, that it may appear how some men build great and
important matters upon very slight foundations. Gonzalo Fernandez de
Oviedo, in his natural history of the Indies, says that the admiral had a
letter in which the Indies were described by one who had before discovered
them; which was by no means the case, but only thus: Vincent Diaz, a
Portuguese of Tavira, on his return from Guinea to the Tercera islands,
and having passed the island of Madeira, which he left to the east, saw,
or imagined that he saw something which he certainly concluded to be land.
On his arrival at Tercera, he told this to one Luke de Cazzana, a Genoese
merchant, his friend, and a very rich man, and endeavoured to persuade him
to fit out a vessel for the conquest of this place: This Cazzana agreed to,
and obtained a license from the king of Portugal for the purpose. He wrote
accordingly to his brother Francis de Cazzana, who resided at Seville, to
fit out a vessel with all expedition for Diaz; but Francis made light of
the matter, and Luke de Cazzana actually fitted out a vessel from Tercera,
in which the before named pilot sailed from 120 to 130 leagues, but all in
vain, for he found no land.
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