From These Considerations
Don Henry Granted Their Request; And, Yielding To The Adventurous Spirit
Which This Accidental Discovery Had Excited, He Permitted Several Persons
To Join In A New Projected Voyage, Among Whom Was Bartholomew Perestrello,
A Nobleman Of His Household.
Three vessels were soon fitted out[4], which were placed under the
respective commands of Zarco, Vaz, and Perestrello.
These commanders had
orders to colonize and cultivate the newly discovered island, and were
furnished with a considerable assortment of useful seeds and plants for
that purpose. They happened likewise to take with them a female rabbit
great with young, which littered during the voyage; and which being let
loose with her progeny, multiplied so rapidly, that, in two years, they
became so numerous as to occasion serious injury to the early attempts at
cultivation, and to baffle every hope of rendering Puerto Santo a place
of refreshment for the Portuguese navigators; insomuch that a resolution
was formed to abandon the newly established settlement. After having
landed the different animals and seeds which had been sent out by Don
Henry, and seeing them properly distributed, Perestrello returned into
Portugal to make a report to the prince, and Zarco and Vaz remained to
superintend the infant colony.
Soon after the departure of Perestrello, the attention of Zarco and Vaz
was strongly excited by observing certain clouds or vapours at a great
distance in the ocean, which continually presented the same aspect, and
preserved exactly the same bearing from Puerto Santo, and at length
occasioned a conjecture, that the appearance might proceed from land in
that quarter. Gonsalvo and Vaz accordingly put to sea and sailed towards
the suspected land, and soon discovered that the appearances which had
attracted their notice actually proceeded from a considerable island
entirely overgrown with wood, to which, on that account, they gave the
name of Madeira[5]. After bestowing considerable attention upon the soil
and other circumstances of this island, which was utterly destitute of
inhabitants, Gonzalvo and Vaz returned to Portugal with the welcome
intelligence, and gave so favourable a report of the extent, fertility,
and salubrity of Madeira, that Don Henry determined to colonize and
cultivate it. Accordingly, with the consent of the king of Portugal, the
island of Madeira was bestowed in hereditary property upon Zarco and Vaz;
one division named _Funchal_ being given to Zarco, and the other moiety,
named _Machico_, to Vaz.
In the year 1420 Zarco began the plantation of Madeira, and being much
impeded in his progress by the immense quantity of thick and tall trees,
with which it was then everywhere encumbered, he set the wood on fire to
facilitate the clearing of the surface for cultivation. The wood is
reported to have continued burning for seven years[6], and so great was
the devastation as to occasion great inconvenience to the colony for many
years afterwards, from the want of timber. Don Henry appears to have been
a prince of most uncommonly enlarged and liberal views; not only capable
of devising the means of making maritime discoveries, which had never
been thought of before his time, but of estimating their value when made,
and of applying them to purposes the most useful and important for his
country.
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