The Discovery Of This Cape Is
Assigned By Some Writers To Sequiera, A Knight Belonging To The Royal
Household.
The celebrated Portuguese historian, Emanuel de Faria, in his _Asia
Portuguesa_, has recorded all the Portuguese voyages, from their
First
attempts under Don Henry, to their developement of China and Japan, and
has even left an account of all the ships that sailed from Lisbon for
Africa and Asia, down to the year 1600; but was unable to ascertain the
dates of many important events. Neither he nor De Barros have been able
to remove the uncertainty respecting the first discovery of the island of
St Thomas on the coast of Africa, the south end of which touches the
equinoctial. During the remainder of the reign of Alphonzo, the line of
coast, from Cape Verga in lat. 10 deg. N. to Cape St Catherine in 1 deg. 40' S.
was much frequented by the Portuguese. Of this coast an ample account has
been given by Dapper and Barbot, chiefly following a tract published by
Gotard Artus of Dantzick, which is to be found in De Bry's Collection,
and that of David von Nyendael and others. This was the work of a Dutch
navigator, which was first translated in to German, and thence by Artus
into Latin. But our peculiar department is confined to actual voyages and
travels, and the progress of discovery; and it would both much exceed our
proper limits, and would be an entire deviation from our plan of
arrangement, to admit lengthened geographical and topographical
disquisitions; which, so far as they are at all admissible, must be
reserved for the more particular voyages and travels, after those of
general discovery have been discussed.
There are four principal islands in the Gulf of Guinea, or Bight of
Biafra, as it is usually called by English navigators, Ferdinand Poo,
Princes isle, St Thomas, and Annobon, the discovery of which have been
related as follows by Barbot, and his account seems the most probable[2].
Fernando Lopez discovered the first of these in 1471, in lat. 3 deg. 40' N.
giving it the name of _Ilha formosa_, or the Beautiful Island, which was
afterwards changed to that of _Fernando Poo_, which it still retains. In
an account of the kingdom of Congo, in Churchill's Collection, viii. 527,
more properly named the Oxford Collection, or that of Osborne, v. 2. This
island, and a river on the coast of the continent of Africa, directly
east, now called Cameroon River, are said to have taken their names of
Fernando Poo from their first discoverer. Some writers assign the
discovery of these four islands, and that of St Matthew, to Fernando
Gomez, who formed the Guinea trade. Perhaps they were discovered under
his auspices, by the navigators whom he employed. This island is composed
of very high land, easily seen at a great distance, and the Portuguese
had formerly sugar plantations upon it. The _Ilha do Principe_, or
Princes Island, in lat. 1 deg.
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