30' N. Was Either Discovered By Fernando Lopez,
Or By Santaren And Escobar, About The Same Period, And Probably Received
Its Name In Honour Of The Illustrious Prince, Don Henry.
This island is
described as consisting of high table mountains, pyramidal at their bases,
and visible at the distance of twenty leagues; being about nine leagues
long by five leagues broad.
It is said to abound in oranges, lemons,
bananas, cocoa-nuts, sugar-canes, rice, many species of sallad herbs, and
to be susceptible of producing the European grains. The mandioca, or root
of the cassada plant, is generally used for bread, of which the juice
while raw is said to be a virulent poison; while its meal, or rasped root,
after the malignant juice is carefully pressed out, is used for bread.
The inhabitants also, have sheep, hogs, goats, and an immense number of
poultry; but these have probably been introduced by the Portuguese.
The _Ilha de San Thome_, or island of St Thomas, which is said to have
received its name from the saint to whom the chapel of the great
monastery of _Thomar_ is dedicated, and to which all the African
discoveries are subjected in spirituals, has its southern extremity
almost directly under the equinoctial, and is a very high land of an oval
shape, about fifteen leagues in breadth, by twelve leagues long.
The most southerly of these islands, in lat. 1 deg. 30' S. now called Annobon,
was originally named Ilha d'Anno Bueno, or Island of the Happy Year,
having been discovered by Pedro d'Escovar, on the first day of the year
1472. At a distance, this island has the appearance of a single high
mountain, and is almost always topt with mist. It extends about five
leagues from north to south, or rather from N. N. W. to S. S. E. and is
about four leagues broad, being environed by several rocks and shoals. It
has several fertile vallies, which produce maize, rice, millet, potatoes,
yams, bananas, pine-apples, citrons, oranges, lemons, figs, and tamarinds,
and a sort of small nuts called by the French _noix de medicine_, or
physic nuts[3]. It also furnishes oxen, hogs, and sheep, with abundance
of fish and poultry; and its cotton is accounted excellent.
Including the voyages of Cada Mosto and Pedro de Cintra, which have been
already detailed, as possibly within the period which elapsed between the
death of Don Henry in 1463, and King Alphonzo, which latter event took
place on the 28th August 1481, and the detached fragments of discovery
related in the present Section, we have been only able to trace a faint
outline of the uncertain progress of Portuguese discovery during that
period of eighteen years, extending, as already mentioned, to Cape St
Catherine and the island of Annobon. A considerable advance, therefore,
had been made since the lamented death of the illustrious Don Henry;
which comprehended the whole coast of Guinea, with its two gulfs, usually
named the _Bights_ of Benin and Biafra, with the adjacent islands, and
extending to the northern frontier of the kingdom of Congo[4]. If the
following assertion of de Barros could be relied on, we might conclude
that some nameless Portuguese navigators had crossed the line even before
the death of Don Henry; but the high probability is, that the naval
pupils of that illustrious prince continued to use his impress upon their
discoveries, long after his decease, and that the limits of discovery in
his time was confined to Cape Vergas.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 214 of 427
Words from 111637 to 112223
of 224388
