Herbert Places The Adventure Of Macham In 1328, Which Would Increase The Captivity Of Morales To Ninety-Two Years. Alcaforado Places The Event In The Reign Of Edward III.

Of England, which began in 1327 and ended in 1378; Even supposing it to have happened in the last

Year of Edward, Morales must have remained forty-two years in captivity; which is not only highly improbable, but is even contrary to the sense of the historian, who supposes but a small space to have elapsed between the two events; besides, the records quoted by Galvano are said expressly to assert that Macham went himself into Africa, whence he was sent to the king of Castile. This last circumstance may have been invented by the Spaniards, to give them a better title to the island of Madeira: But the former objection remains in full force, and can only be obviated by supposing that either Morales advanced a falsehood in asserting, that he had the account of this discovery from the English themselves, instead of learning it from the other slaves, among whom the tradition might have been current for many years after the event; or Alcaforado may have mistaken the report of Morales in this particular. The following is the substance of the narrative, as given by Alcaforado.

In the glorious reign of Edward III. Robert a Machin, of Macham, a gentleman of the second degree of nobility, whose genius was only equalled by his gallantry and courage, beheld and loved the beautiful Anna d'Arfet[5]. Their attachment was mutual, but the pleasing indulgence of ardent hope gratified and betrayed the secret of their passion. The pride of the illustrious family of d'Arfet was insensible to the happiness of their daughter, and they preferred the indulgence of their own ambition to the voice of love. The feudal tyranny of the age was friendly to their cruelty, and a royal warrant seemed to justify the vanity of her parent. The consolation of an ingenious mind supported Machin under confinement, and enabled him to seek after redress without yielding to despondency. On his releasement from prison, he learned that the beloved cause of his persecution had been forced to marry a nobleman, whose name he could not discover, but who had carried her to his castle near Bristol. The friends of Machin made his misfortune their own, and one of them had the address to get introduced into the service of the afflicted Anna under the character of a groom. The prospect of the ocean during their rides, suggested or matured the plan of escape and the hope of a secure asylum counteracted the imagined dangers of a passage to the coast of France. Under pretence of deriving benefit from the sea air, the victim of parental ambition was enabled to elude suspicion, and embarked without delay, in a vessel procured for the purpose, along with her lover.

In the successful completion of this anxious design, Machin was alike insensible to the unfavourable season of the year, and to the portentous signs of an approaching storm, which in a calmer moment he would have duly observed.

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