These He Alleged To
Have Shewn To The King Of Portugal, And As There Were No Such Canes In Our
Parts Of The World, He Believed That The Winds Must Have Wafted Them From
Some Distant Islands In The West, Or Else From India:
More especially as
Ptolemy, in the first book of his cosmography, and chapter 17.
Says, that
such canes grow in the eastern parts of India; and some of the islanders,
particularly those in the Azores, informed Correa that when the west wind
blew long together, the sea sometimes drove pine trees on the islands
Gratioso and Fayal, where no such trees were otherwise to be found. He was
likewise told that the sea had cast upon the island of Flores, another of
the Azores, the dead bodies of two men, having very broad visages, and
very different in their appearance from Europeans.
It was likewise reported to the admiral that the people about Cape Verga
had once seen some almadias or covered boats, which it was believed had
been driven thither by stress of weather while going from one of these
supposed islands in the west to another island. One Anthony Leme, who was
married and settled in the island of Madeira, told the admiral that,
having once made a considerable run to the westward, he had descried three
islands. To this information, however, he gave little credit, as by his
own account Leme had not sailed above 100 leagues to the west, and might
have been deceived by some rocks; or what he had seen might have been some
of those floating islands, called Aguades by the sailors, of which Pliny
makes mention in the 97th chapter of the first book of his natural history.
Pliny says that some spots of land are seen in the northern parts of the
ocean on which there are deep-rooted trees, and that these parcels of land
are carried about like floats, or islands swimming upon the water. Seneca,
in his third book, endeavouring to give a probable reason for the
existence of such islands, alleges that there are certain rocks so light
and spongy in their substance, that islands in India which are composed of
such do actually swim upon the water. Therefore, even if it were actually
the case that Leme had seen the three islands, the admiral, was of opinion
that they must have been of that kind, such as those called the islands of
St Brandan are supposed to be, where many wonders are reported to have
been seen. Accounts have also been propagated of other islands, which are
continually burning, and which lie far to the northward[8].
Juventius Fortunatus mentions an account of two floating islands
considerably to the west, and more southward than those of Cape Verd.
These and such like reports, might induce several of the inhabitants of
Ferro and Gomera, and of the Azores, to affirm that they saw islands
towards the west every year; of which they were so thoroughly convinced,
that many reputable persons swore that it was true.
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