In The Year 1420 Zarco Began The Plantation Of Madeira, And Being Much Impeded In His Progress By The Immense Quantity Of Thick And Tall Trees, With Which It Was Then Everywhere Encumbered, He Set The Wood On Fire To Facilitate The Clearing Of The Surface For Cultivation.

The wood is reported to have continued burning for seven years[6], and so great was the devastation as to occasion great inconvenience to the colony for many years afterwards, from the want of timber.

Don Henry appears to have been a prince of most uncommonly enlarged and liberal views; not only capable of devising the means of making maritime discoveries, which had never been thought of before his time, but of estimating their value when made, and of applying them to purposes the most useful and important for his country. Reflecting upon the reported fertility of the soil, and the excellence of the climate of Madeira, and comparing both with the judicious foresight of a philosopher, politician, and naturalist, in reference to the most valuable productions of similar climates and soils, he wisely conceived, and successfully executed the idea of introducing the cultivation of sugar and wines into this new colony; For these purposes, Portugal would readily supply him with vines; and with people conversant in their management: But he had to procure sugar canes, and persons experienced in their cultivation, and in the process of manufacturing sugar from their juice, from the island of Sicily, into which that article of culture had been introduced by the Arabs.

So great was the success of this new subject of industry in Madeira, that the fifth part of the produce of one district only, little more than nine miles in circumference, which proportion the prince reserved as the patrimony of his military order, amounted, in some years, to 60,000 arobas of twenty-five pounds each; giving the entire acknowledged produce of one district only, of the island at 7,500,000 pounds, or 2350 tons. This, at the modern price of eightpence a-pound, amounts to the enormous sum of L. 250,000 value of merchantable produce, from a district which could not contain above 5760 English acres; or above the value of L. 43 of average yearly value from every acre of that district. This astonishingly valuable produce was in the infancy of the sugar trade, when that bland and wholesome condiment was still an article of luxury, and not as now almost an indispensable necessary, even in the lowest cottages of modern Europe. The sugars of Madeira were long famous; but after the establishment of the sugar plantations in Brazil, and the destructive ravages of a worm which infested the sugar canes of Madeira, that article, of cultivation had to be abandoned, and the principal attention of the islanders was transferred to the grape, which still continues to supply Europe, America, and the East Indies with the justly celebrated Madeira wine.

At the same time with the grant of Madeira to Zarco and Vaz, Perestrello received a donation of the island of Puerto Santo, on condition of colonizing it and bringing it into culture. But so great was the multitude of rabbits, all said to have been produced from one doe transmitted in a pregnant state from Portugal, that cultivation was attended with peculiar difficulties occasioned by their ravages; insomuch, that in one islet only, 3000 are reported to have been killed at one time.

SECTION III.

_Prosecution of Discovery in Africa, to Cape Branco_.

Partly diverted from the original object of prosecuting discoveries along the African coast, by the attentions requisite for forming this first establishment of modern colonization, but chiefly owing to the extreme difficulties of the navigation in the infancy of that art, fifteen years were passed from the first discovery of Cape Bojador before that formidable obstacle could be surmounted. In all ages of the world, ignorant and indolent men have represented new and unusual enterprises in scientific pursuits as rash or improper deviations from the established experience and vaunted wisdom of antiquity; and those who promoted them have been held out as dangerous, or even impious innovators. It so fared with Don Henry, who far outstripped the science, or ignorance rather, of his day. At home, the discontented spirits, ignorant of his enlarged views, perhaps envious of the reputation his very limited discoveries had already attained, represented that the tempestuous seas, strong currents, and whirlpools, which they fancied must prevail on the other side of Cape Bajadore, would necessarily destroy every vessel which should attempt to penetrate beyond that absolute limit of human navigation; they alleged that all the country to the south of that cape was utterly unfit for the habitation of mankind, sterile, burnt up, and destitute of soil and water, like the sandy deserts of Lybia; and they pretended to object on principles of patriotism, that the natives of Portugal were improvidently wasted on idle discoveries, which, if at all advisable, would have been undertaken by their former, wise sovereigns; who, contented with the known world, did not, vainly seek for conquests in the torrid zone, which was altogether unfit for the habitation of mankind. They insinuated, that the expences which had been lavished upon those fruitless and dangerous maritime expeditions, might lave been much more profitably employed for the improvement of some of the more barren parts of Portugal. Even the probable profits and advantages derivable from the new colonies of Madeira and Puerto Santo, as they were only eventual and contingent, did not satisfy the minds of those discontented detractors from the merits and enlightened views of the prince. But Don Henry despised those vain endeavours to misrepresent and counteract the important enterprise in which he was engaged, and undismayed by the natural difficulties which had hitherto retarded the progress of his mariners, continued his laudable endeavours to extend his discoveries along the coast of Africa. The people, likewise, whom he employed in his service, frequently made predatory invasions on the coast, taking every Moorish vessel which they were able to master, and made many slaves, by the sale of which, the charges attending those maritime expeditions were partly defrayed.

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