It Has No Harbour, But A Good
Road In Which Vessels May Moor In Safety, Being Well Sheltered On All
Sides, Except The Quarters Between The South And East, All Of Which Winds
Make It Unsafe To Ride Here At Anchor.
There is plenty of excellent fish
on its shores; such as dentili, gilded fish, and others.
From Puerto Santo, which was discovered twenty-seven years before, we
sailed on the 28th of March, and came the same day to _Monchrico_ or
Machico, one of the ports of the island of Madeira, forty miles distant
from Puerto Santo. In fair weather these islands may be seen from each
other. This latter island was only inhabited within the last twenty-four
years, when the prince appointed two of his gentlemen to be its governors.
Tristan Vaz having the government of that half of the island in which the
port of Monchrico is situated; and the other district of the island, in
which Fonzal, Fonchial, or Funchal stands, is under the government of
John Gonzales Zarcho. The island of Madeira is inhabited in four several
places: Monchrico, Santa Cruz, Fonzal, and Camera-di-Lupi, which are its
principal places, though there are other minor establishments; and is
able to muster about 800 men able to bear arms, of whom an hundred are
horse. There are about eight rivers, which pervade the island in
different places; by means of which they have many saw-mills, from which
Portugal and other places are supplied with boards of many different
sorts. Of these boards, two sorts are in particular estimation, and turn
most to account. The one is cedar, which has a strong odoriferous smell,
and resembles the cypress tree; of this they make fine, large, and long
boards or deals, which they employ for building houses, and for various
other purposes. The other, called nasso[7], is of a red-rose colour, and
extremely beautiful; of which they make excellent and very beautiful bows
and cross-bows, which are sent into the west. In order to clear the land,
the first settlers set fire to the woods, and the fire spread with such
fury, that several persons, with their families, and Gonzales Zarcho
among the rest, were forced to take shelter in the sea to save themselves
from the flames, where they stood up to their necks for two days and two
nights without sustenance. Though this island is mountainous, its soil is
rich and fertile, and it produces yearly 30,000 Venetian _staras_[8] of
bread corn. At first, the newly cultivated land yielded seventy for one,
but has since been reduced to thirty or forty, for want of good husbandry.
Owing to the excellence of its soil and climate, and the abundance of
springs and rivers, Prince Henry procured sugar canes from Sicily, which
he sent to this island, where they have yielded abundant produce;
insomuch, that 400 cantaros of sugar, each containing 112 pounds large
weight of Venice, have been made at one boiling, and the quantity was
likely to increase[9]. They have likewise good wines, considering how
shortly this culture has been introduced; and in such abundance, that
large quantities are exported.
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