Under this year likewise, 1447, the
Antilles, or Caribbee islands, are pretended to have been discovered by a
Portuguese ship driven, thither by a storm. But the fact rests only on
the authority, of Galvano, a Portuguese historian, and is not at all
credible. Indeed the story is an absolute fable; as the inhabitants are
said to have spoken the Portuguese language, and to have had _seven
cities_ in their island. In the same year, Gomez Perez went with two
caravels to Rio del Ouro, whence he carried eighty Moors to Lagos as
prisoners.
About this period the progress of discovery was arrested by political
disputes in Portugal, which ended in a civil war between Don Pedro, Duke
of Coimbra, and King Alphonso V. his nephew and son-in-law, in the course
of which Don Pedro was slain. Don Henry appears to have taken no share in
these disputes, except by endeavouring to mediate between his nephew and
brother; and, after the unhappy catastrophe of Don Pedro, Don Henry
returned to Sagres, where he resumed the superintendence of his maritime
discoveries.
[1] Explained by the celebrated Dr Johnson, as "so named from its
progression into the ocean, and the circuit by which it must be
doubled." Introduct. to the World Displayed. - Clarke.
[2] Cape Bojador is imagined to have been the _Canarea_ of Ptolemy. -
Clarke I. 15
[3] The _barcha_ is a sort of brig with topsails, having all its yards on
one long pole without sliding masts, as still used by tartans and
settees. The _barcha longa_ is a kind of small galley, with one mast
and oars. - Clarke, I. p. 153.
[4] Clarke says in the same year 1418. But this could not well be, as the
Discovery of Puerto Santo was made so late as the 1st of November of
that year. The truth is, that only very general accounts of these
early voyages remain in the Portuguese historians. - E.
[5] Such is the simple and probable account of the discovery of Madeira in
Purchas. Clarke has chosen to embellish it with a variety of very
extraordinary circumstances, which being utterly unworthy of credit,
we do not think necessary to be inserted in this place. See Progress
of Maritime Discovery, I. 157. - E.
[6] In the Introduction to the World Displayed, Dr Johnson remarks on this
story, that "green wood is not very apt to burn; and the heavy rains
which fall in these countries must surely have extinguished the
conflagration were it ever so violent." Yet in 1800 Radnor forest
presented a conflagration of nearly twenty miles circumference, which
continued to spread for a considerable time, in spite of every effort
to arrest its progress. - E.
[7] De Barros; Lafitan; Vincent, in the Periplus of the Erythrean sea;
Meikle, in his translation of the Lusiad. Harris, in his Collection,
Vol. I. p. 663, postpones this discovery to the year 1439. - Clarke.
[8] In Purchas this person is named Antonio Gonsalvo; but the authority of
Clarke, I. 188, is here preferred. - E.
[9] Progr. of Nav. Disc. I. 184.
[10] This tribe of Assenhaji, or Azanaghi, are the Zenhaga of our maps,
and the Sanhagae of Edrisi and Abulfeda. They are at present
represented as inhabiting at no great distance from the coast of
Africa, between the rivers Nun and Senegal. - Cl.
[11] No such name occurs in the best modern charts, neither is there a
river of any consequence on the coast which answers to the distance.
The first large river to the south of the Nuno is the Mitomba, or
river of Sierra Liona, distant about 130 maritime miles. - E.
SECTION VI.
_Discovery and Settlement of the Acores_[1].
These nine islands, called the Acores, Terceras, or Western islands, are
situated in the Atlantic, 900 miles west from Portugal, at an almost
equal distance from Europe, Africa, and America. The Flemings pretend
that they were discovered by a navigator of their nation, John Vanderberg,
who sailed from Lisbon in 1445 or 1449. Santa Maria, one of these islands,
250 leagues west from Cape St Vincent, was first seen on the 15th August
1432, by Cabral, who sailed under the orders of Don Henry. San Miguel was
taken possession of by the same navigator on the 8th May 1444; and Ponta
Delgada its capital, received its charter from Emanuel in 1449. Tercera
was given to Jacome de Brujes in 1450, by Don Henry, in which year St
George was discovered. Pico and Gracioso were discovered about the same
time. Perhaps Fayal may actually have been first explored, as many of the
inhabitants are of Flemish descent, under the command and protection of
the Portuguese. Flores and Corvo, which lie seventy leagues west from
Tercera, are not reckoned among the Acores by some writers. In this
latter island, the Portuguese pretend that there was discovered an
equestrian statue made from one block of stone. The head of the man was
bare, his left hand rested on the mane of his horse, and his right
pointed towards the _west_, as if indicating the situation of another
continent. In addition to all this, an inscription appeared to have been
traced on a rock beneath the statue, but in a language which the
Portuguese did not understand.
In the slow progress of discovery, the perils endured by the officers and
men employed by Don Henry, from the Moors and Negroes, frequently
occasioned murmurs against his plans of discovery; but the several
clusters of islands, the Madeiras, Cape Verd, and Acores, formed a
succession of maritime and commercial colonies, and nurseries for seamen,
which took off from the general obloquy attending the tedious and
hitherto unsuccessful attempts to penetrate farther into the southern
hemisphere, and afforded a perpetual supply of navigators, and a stimulus
to enterprize.
