In 1385, Some Biscayners And Inhabitants Of Seville Joined In The
Equipment Of Five Ships At Cadiz, In Order To
Make descents for the sake
of plunder upon the Canary islands, and the adjacent coast of Africa.
After coasting along
The African shore, they sailed westwards, and fell
in with the island now called Lancerota, where they landed; and after a
skirmish with the natives, plundered the town, front which they carried
off a large booty of goat-skins, tallow, and sheep, and 170 of the
inhabitants, whom they sold into slavery. Among these were Guanareme,
king of the island, and his wife Tingua-faya. A similar expedition in
quest of plunder and captives was made to Lancerota from Seville in 1393.
In the year 1400, John de Betancour, a gentleman of Normandy, and Gadifer
de Sala, a person of considerable fortune, fitted out three small vessels
from Rochelle in France, containing 200 persons, exclusive of the
mariners, and made a descent upon Lancerota, where they erected a fort at
a harbour, to which they gave the name of Rubicon. Leaving there a small
garrison, they passed over to the island of Fuertaventura; but being
opposed by the natives, they prudently retired without fighting.
Betancour afterwards applied to Don Henry III. king of Arragon, for
assistance to enable him to make a conquest of these islands; who made
him a grant of them in due form, with the title of king, and supplied him
with money to defray the expence of an armament to accomplish their
subjugation. He easily effected the conquest of Lancerota, and divided
its lands among the French and Spanish adventurers who had assisted him
in the expedition.
After the death of John de Betancour, his nephew, Mason de Betancour,
sold the Canary Islands to Don Henry de Guzman, Count of Niebla; who
afterwards conveyed them to Guillen Paraza, and from whom they fell by
inheritance to Diego de Herrera, who died in 1485. In 1487, the
sovereignty was resumed by the crown of Castile, with the title of a
kingdom[3].
[1] Glas. Disc. and Conqu. passim.
[2] The Author of the History of the Canaries, omits the date of this
grant. Clement VI. was Pope from 1343 to 1352, between which years the
papal grant must have been made. - E.
[3] A more extended account or these islands will be found in Part III. of
this work. - E.
A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
PART II.
GENERAL VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, CHIEFLY OF DISCOVERY FROM THE ERA OF DON
HENRY, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL, IN 1412, TO THAT OF GEORGE III. IN 1760.
CHAP. I.
_Summary Deduction of the Discoveries of the World, from their first
Original, to the year 1555, by Antonio Galvano_[1].
INTRODUCTION.
This treatise was written in the Portuguese language, by Antonio Galvano,
who had been governor of Ternate, the chief of the Molucca Islands, and
was first translated into English by the celebrated Richard Hakluyt, who
dedicated it to Sir Robert Cecil, Principal Secretary of State to Queen
Elizabeth. It was afterwards inserted in Osbornes, or the Oxford
Collection of Voyages and Travels, and forms an appendix to the first
volume of Clarke's Progress of Maritime Discovery; and from these sources
the present edition has been carefully prepared. Of Richard Hakluyt, the
original translator, the following notice is worthy of being preserved.
"The _great_ Richard Hakluyt was descended from an ancient family at
Yetton in Herefordshire, and was educated at Westminster School, from
whence he was elected a student of Christ Church, in the University of
Oxford, where he took the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts.
Entering into holy orders, he was first made a prebendary of Bristol, and
afterwards of Westminster, and rector of Witheringset in Suffolk. Besides
this translation, he illustrated the eight decades of Peter Martyr
Angelericus _de Novo Orbe_ with curious notes. He also translated from
the Portuguese, _Virginia_, richly valued by the description of Florida,
her next neighbour; and wrote notes of certain commodities, in good
request in the East Indies, Molucca, and China; but what has most
deservedly perpetuated his name, is his great pains, and judgment, in
collecting _English Voyages, Navigations, Trafficks, and Discoveries_[2]."
Both from the nature of this treatise on the origin and progress of
maritime discovery, and from respect to the memory of Hakluyt, the father
of our English collections of voyages and travels, it has been selected
for insertion in this place, as an appropriate introduction to the
_Second Part_ of our arrangement; because its author may be considered as
almost an original authority for the early discoveries of the Portuguese
and Spaniards. Although it may be considered in some measure as not
precisely conformable with our plan, yet one portion of this summary is
directly in point; and, the whole being curious, and in no respect
tedious, it is here given entire; changing the antiquated English of
Hakluyt into modern language. Although said in its title to extend to the
year 1555, the chronological series of Galvano properly ends in 1545; and
the only subsequent incident, is a very slight notice of the voyage of
Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, towards the White Sea, in
1553. In the original translation, and in the Oxford collection, this
treatise is preceded by a dedication from Hakluyt to _Sir Robert Cecil_;
and another dedication from the Portuguese editor, Francis de Sousa
Tavares, to Don John, Duke of Aveira; both of which are here omitted, as
having no directly useful tendency, except so much of the latter as
refers to the history of Galvano. Besides the present discourse, Galvano
composed a history of the Molucca Islands, of which he had been governor,
which work has unfortunately been lost, or at least is unknown in this
country. He is likewise said to have published at Lisbon in 1555, an
account of the different routes by which the merchandize of India had
been conveyed into Europe at different periods.
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