The Flemings Pretend
That They Were Discovered By A Navigator Of Their Nation, John Vanderberg,
Who Sailed From Lisbon In 1445 Or 1449.
Santa Maria, one of these islands,
250 leagues west from Cape St Vincent, was first seen on the 15th August
1432, by Cabral, who sailed under the orders of Don Henry.
San Miguel was
taken possession of by the same navigator on the 8th May 1444; and Ponta
Delgada its capital, received its charter from Emanuel in 1449. Tercera
was given to Jacome de Brujes in 1450, by Don Henry, in which year St
George was discovered. Pico and Gracioso were discovered about the same
time. Perhaps Fayal may actually have been first explored, as many of the
inhabitants are of Flemish descent, under the command and protection of
the Portuguese. Flores and Corvo, which lie seventy leagues west from
Tercera, are not reckoned among the Acores by some writers. In this
latter island, the Portuguese pretend that there was discovered an
equestrian statue made from one block of stone. The head of the man was
bare, his left hand rested on the mane of his horse, and his right
pointed towards the _west_, as if indicating the situation of another
continent. In addition to all this, an inscription appeared to have been
traced on a rock beneath the statue, but in a language which the
Portuguese did not understand.
In the slow progress of discovery, the perils endured by the officers and
men employed by Don Henry, from the Moors and Negroes, frequently
occasioned murmurs against his plans of discovery; but the several
clusters of islands, the Madeiras, Cape Verd, and Acores, formed a
succession of maritime and commercial colonies, and nurseries for seamen,
which took off from the general obloquy attending the tedious and
hitherto unsuccessful attempts to penetrate farther into the southern
hemisphere, and afforded a perpetual supply of navigators, and a stimulus
to enterprize. The original prejudices against the possibility of
navigating or existing in the torrid zone still subsisted, and although
the navigators of Don Henry had gradually penetrated to within ten
degrees of the equator, yet the last successive discovery was always held
forth by the supporters of ignorant prejudice, as that which had been
placed by nature as an insurmountable barrier to farther progress in the
Atlantic. In this situation, the settlement of the Acores was of
considerable importance. In 1457, Don Henry procured the grant of many
valuable privileges to this favourite colony, the principal of which was
the exemption of the inhabitants from any duties on their commerce to the
ports of Portugal and even of Spain.
In 1461, a fort was erected in the isle of Arguin on the African coast of
the Moors, to protect the trade carried on there for gold and negro
slaves. Next year, 1462, Antonio de Noli, a Genoese, sent by the republic
to Portugal, entered into the service of Don Henry, and in a voyage to
the coast of Africa, discovered the islands which are known by the name
of the Cape de Verd Islands, though they lie 100 leagues to the westward
of that Cape.
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