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.
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