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.
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