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.
The admiral being much delighted with the relations of sea voyages, his
mother-in-law gave him the journals and sea charts which had been left by
her husband, which excited his curiosity to make inquiry respecting the
other voyages which the Portuguese had made to St George del Mina and the
coast of Guinea, and he enjoyed great delight in discoursing with such as
had sailed to those parts. I cannot certainly determine whether he ever
went to Mina or Guinea during the life of this wife. But while he resided
in Portugal he seriously reflected on the information he had thus received;
and concluded, as the Portuguese had made discoveries so far to the
southward, it was reasonable to conclude that land might be discovered by
sailing to the westwards.
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