The
Principal Motive Of This Enterprize Was To Make A Perfect Discovery Of
Madeira, Of Which Macham Had Before Given
So much information; yet he
went to the Canaries, where he carried a friar named Mendo as bishop, who
had
Received that dignity from Pope Martin V. He reduced Lancerota,
Fuerteventura, Gomera, and Ferro; whence he sent into Spain many slaves,
and considerable quantities of honey, wax, camphire, hides, orchill, figs,
dragons-blood, and other merchandize, of which he made good profit. This
armament is said to have likewise discovered Porto Santo. The island
first occupied by Betancourt was Lancerota, where he built a castle of
stone for the better defence of the new settlers.
In the year 1418, John Gonzales Zarco, and Tristram Vaz Teixera,
gentlemen of the household to Don Henry, perceiving the great desire of
their master to discover new countries, requested and obtained a bark to
proceed to the coast of Africa; where they were overtaken by a violent
tempest, and driven into a haven of the island now called Porto Santo,
where they remained two years. In 1420, they discovered the island of
Madeira, where they found the chapel, tomb, and stone on which Macham had
engraved his name. Others write, that a Castilian had informed Don Henry
of having made the discovery of Porto Santo; and that he sent
Bartholomew Perestrello, John Gonzales Zarco, and Tristram Vaz Teixera,
purposely in search of that island, according to the signs and directions
indicated by the Castilian; and that these persons afterwards discovered
Madeira in 1420, where they found the memorial and monument left by
Macham the Englishman.
Betancourt, who begun the conquest of the Canaries, was slain in a war
with the natives, leaving one Menante his heir; who afterwards sold the
islands to one Peter Barba of Seville. But others say, that John de
Betancourt went to France to procure reinforcements, to enable him to
complete his conquests, and left the command of Lancerota with his
nephew; who, hearing nothing of his uncle, and being unable to continue
the contest with the natives, sold the Canaries to Don Henry, for an
estate in the island of Madeira.
It is related that, in 1424, Don Henry sent a squadron with some land
forces, under Don Ferdinando de Castro, on purpose to make a conquest of
these islands; but, being repulsed by the bravery of the natives, de
Castro prudently desisted from the enterprize and returned home; and
that Don Henry afterwards resigned his claim to these islands in favour
of the crown of Castile. The Castilian writers, however, assert that both
Don Henry and the king of Portugal refused to give up these islands,
until the dispute was ended by the judgment of Pope Eugenius IV. who
awarded them to the king of Castile. These islands, anciently called the
Insulae Fortunatae, or Fortunate Islands, are seven in number, in lat.
28 deg. N. where the longest day is thirteen hours, and the longest night the
same. They are 200 leagues distant from the coast of Spain, and 18
leagues from the coast of Africa. The people were idolaters, and eat raw
flesh for want of fire. They had no iron, but raised or tilled the ground
with the horns of oxen and goats, for want of better implements of
husbandry. Every island spoke a separate language, and many pagan customs
prevailed among the natives; but now the Christian religion is planted
among them. The commodities of these islands are wheat, barley, sugar,
wine, and Canary-birds, which are much esteemed for the sweetness and
variety of their song. In the island of Ferro they have no water but what
proceeds in the night from a tree, encompassed by a cloud, whence water
issues, and serves the whole inhabitants and cattle of the island[4].
In the year 1428, Don Pedro, the king's _eldest_[5] son, who was a great
traveller, went into England, France, and Germany, and thence into the
Holy Land and other places, and came home by Italy, through Rome and
Venice. He is said to have brought a map of the world home with him, in
which all parts of the earth were described, by which the enterprizes of
Don Henry for discovery were much assisted. In this map the Straits of
Magellan are called the _Dragons-tail_, and the Cape of Good Hope the
_Front of Africa_, and so of the rest[6]. I was informed by Francis de
Sosa Tavares, that in the year 1528, Don Fernando, the king's eldest son,
shewed him a map which had been made 120 years before, and was found in
the study of Alcobaza, which exhibited all the navigation of the East
Indies, with the cape of Bona Speranca, as in our latter maps; by which
it appears that there was as much discovered, or more, in ancient times
as now[7].
Though attended with much trouble and expence, Don Henry was unwearied in
prosecuting his plan of discoveries. At length Gilianes, one of his
servants, passed Cape Bojador, a place terrible to all former navigators,
and brought word that it was by no means so dangerous as had been
represented, he having landed on its farther side, where he set up a
wooden cross in memorial of his discovery.
In the year 1433 died John king of Portugal, and was succeeded by his
eldest son Duarte or Edward. In 1434, Don Henry sent Alphonso Gonzales
Balduja and Gillianes, who penetrated from Cape Bajador to another cape,
where they found the country to be inhabited, and went forward to another
point of land, whence they returned to Portugal. In 1438 king Duarte died,
and his son Alphonso being young, the kingdom was governed during his
minority by his uncle Don Pedro. In 1441, Don Henry sent out two ships
under Tristan and Antonio Gonzales, who took a prize on the coast, and
sailed to Cape Blanco, or the White Cape in lat. 20 deg. N.[8]. From thence
they brought home some Moors, from whom Don Henry learned the state of
the country.
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