A Sailor Belonging To Port St Mary Affirmed, That In A Voyage To Ireland
He Saw A Country To The
Westward, which he imagined to have been Tartary;
but which has since turned out to be Bacallaos, being a part
Of Canada,
but could not attain the coast by reason of stormy weather[2]. Peter de
Velasco of Galicia declared, that, in a voyage to Ireland, he stood so far
to the northward that he saw land west from that island. Vincent Diaz, a
Portuguese pilot of Tavira, said that one morning, on his return from
Guinea, he thought he saw an island under the parallel of Madeira. Diaz
discovered the secret to a merchant, who procured the leave of the king of
Portugal to fit out a ship for the discovery, and sent advice to his
brother Francis de Cazana to fit out one at Seville, and put it under the
command of Diaz. But Francis Cazana refusing, Diaz returned to Tercera,
where he procured a ship, with the assistance of Luke de Cazana, and went
out two or three times above an hundred leagues to the west, but found
nothing. To these may be added, the attempts made by Caspar and Michael de
Cortereal, sons to him who discovered the island of Tenera; but they were
lost in searching for this land. Yet all these particulars contributed to
encourage Columbus to undertake the enterprise; for, when Providence has
decreed the accomplishment of any thing, it disposes the means, and
provides the proper instruments.
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