Even Sabellicus In His Eighth Book, Mentions The Great Discovery Of The Admiral, Though Less Obliged To Inquire Into It, But Without Adding The Twelve Lies Which Justiniani Inserted.

To return to the matter in hand.

While the admiral my father sailed along with Columbus junior, which he long did, they received intelligence of four large Venetian galleys being on their voyage from Flanders, and going in quest of them, came up with them near Cape St Vincent on the coast of Portugal. A furious contest took place, in which the hostile vessels grappled with each other, and the crews fought with the utmost rage, not only using their hand weapons but artificial fire-works. The fight continued with great fury from morning till night; when the vessel in which my father was took fire, as did likewise a great Venetian galley to which she was fast grappled by strong iron hooks and chains. In this dreadful situation neither of them could be relieved, on account of the confusion and terror of fire, which increased so rapidly that all who were able of both crews leapt into the water, preferring that death to the torture of fire. In this emergency, my father being an excellent swimmer, and having the good fortune to lay hold of an oar, made for the land, which was little more than two leagues distant. Sometimes swimming, and at other times resting on the oar, it pleased God, who preserved him for the accomplishment of greater designs, that he had sufficient strength to attain the shore, but so exhausted by his exertions and by long continuance in the water that he had much ado to recover. Being not far from Lisbon, where he knew that many Genoese his countrymen then dwelt, he made all haste to that city; where making himself known, he was courteously received and entertained by the Genoese.

After remaining some time at Lisbon, where he behaved himself honourably, being a man of comely appearance, it happened that Donna Felipa Moniz, a lady of good family, then a boarder in the nunnery of All-Saints whether my father used to go to mass, fell in love with him and married him. The father of his lady, Peter Moniz Perestrello, being dead, the newly married pair went to live with the widow; who seeing her son-in-law much addicted to cosmography, informed him that her husband, Perestrello, had been a great sea-faring man, and had gone with two other captains to make discoveries with the license of the king of Portugal, and under an agreement that they were to divide their discoveries into three portions, and each to have a share by lot. That accordingly they had sailed from Lisbon towards the south-west, where they discovered the islands of Madeira and Porto Sancto, places which had never been seen before. And as Madeira was the largest, they divided it into two portions, making Porto Sancto the third, which had fallen to the lot of her husband Perestrello, who continued in the government of that island till his death.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 15 of 415
Words from 7546 to 8062 of 219607