Fortune, fitted out three small vessels
from Rochelle in France, containing 200 persons, exclusive of the
mariners, and made a descent upon Lancerota, where they erected a fort at
a harbour, to which they gave the name of Rubicon. Leaving there a small
garrison, they passed over to the island of Fuertaventura; but being
opposed by the natives, they prudently retired without fighting.
Betancour afterwards applied to Don Henry III. king of Arragon, for
assistance to enable him to make a conquest of these islands; who made
him a grant of them in due form, with the title of king, and supplied him
with money to defray the expence of an armament to accomplish their
subjugation. He easily effected the conquest of Lancerota, and divided
its lands among the French and Spanish adventurers who had assisted him
in the expedition.
After the death of John de Betancour, his nephew, Mason de Betancour,
sold the Canary Islands to Don Henry de Guzman, Count of Niebla; who
afterwards conveyed them to Guillen Paraza, and from whom they fell by
inheritance to Diego de Herrera, who died in 1485. In 1487, the
sovereignty was resumed by the crown of Castile, with the title of a
kingdom[3].
[1] Glas. Disc. and Conqu. passim.
[2] The Author of the History of the Canaries, omits the date of this
grant. Clement VI. was Pope from 1343 to 1352, between which years the
papal grant must have been made. - E.
[3] A more extended account or these islands will be found in Part III. of
this work. - E.
A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
PART II.
GENERAL VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, CHIEFLY OF DISCOVERY FROM THE ERA OF DON
HENRY, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL, IN 1412, TO THAT OF GEORGE III. IN 1760.
CHAP. I.
_Summary Deduction of the Discoveries of the World, from their first
Original, to the year 1555, by Antonio Galvano_[1].
INTRODUCTION.
This treatise was written in the Portuguese language, by Antonio Galvano,
who had been governor of Ternate, the chief of the Molucca Islands, and
was first translated into English by the celebrated Richard Hakluyt, who
dedicated it to Sir Robert Cecil, Principal Secretary of State to Queen
Elizabeth. It was afterwards inserted in Osbornes, or the Oxford
Collection of Voyages and Travels, and forms an appendix to the first
volume of Clarke's Progress of Maritime Discovery; and from these sources
the present edition has been carefully prepared. Of Richard Hakluyt, the
original translator, the following notice is worthy of being preserved.
"The _great_ Richard Hakluyt was descended from an ancient family at
Yetton in Herefordshire, and was educated at Westminster School, from
whence he was elected a student of Christ Church, in the University of
Oxford, where he took the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts.
Entering into holy orders, he was first made a prebendary of Bristol, and
afterwards of Westminster, and rector of Witheringset in Suffolk.
