Anthony Leme, Who Had Married In
Madeira, Declared That He Once Run A Considerable Way To The Westwards Of
That
Island in his caravel, and fancied that he saw three islands; and
many of the inhabitants of Gomera, Hierro, and
The Azores, affirmed that
they every year saw islands to the westwards. These were considered by
Columbus as the same with those mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History,
where he says, "That the sea to the northwards cuts off some pieces of
woods from the land; and the roots being very large, they drift on the
water like floats, and looked at a distance like islands."
In the year 1484, an inhabitant of the island of Madeira asked permission
from the king of Portugal to go upon the discovery of a country, which he
declared he saw every year exactly in the same position, agreeable to what
had been reported by the people of the Azores. On these accounts, the
ancient sea-charts laid down certain islands in these seas, which they
called Antilla, and placed them about 200 leagues west from the Canaries
and Azores; which the Portuguese believed to be the island of the Seven
Cities, the fame of which has occasioned many to commit great folly from
covetousness, by spending much money to no purpose. The story is, that
this island of the Seven Cities was peopled by those who fled from the
persecution of the infidels, when Spain was conquered by the Moors, in the
reign of king Roderick; when seven bishops embarked with a great number of
people, and arrived in that island, where they burnt their ships to
prevent any one from thinking to return, and each of the bishops built a
separate city for his flock.
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