Neither He Nor De Barros Have Been Able
To Remove The Uncertainty Respecting The First Discovery Of The Island Of
St Thomas On The Coast Of Africa, The South End Of Which Touches The
Equinoctial.
During the remainder of the reign of Alphonzo, the line of
coast, from Cape Verga in lat.
10 deg. N. to Cape St Catherine in 1 deg. 40' S.
was much frequented by the Portuguese. Of this coast an ample account has
been given by Dapper and Barbot, chiefly following a tract published by
Gotard Artus of Dantzick, which is to be found in De Bry's Collection,
and that of David von Nyendael and others. This was the work of a Dutch
navigator, which was first translated in to German, and thence by Artus
into Latin. But our peculiar department is confined to actual voyages and
travels, and the progress of discovery; and it would both much exceed our
proper limits, and would be an entire deviation from our plan of
arrangement, to admit lengthened geographical and topographical
disquisitions; which, so far as they are at all admissible, must be
reserved for the more particular voyages and travels, after those of
general discovery have been discussed.
There are four principal islands in the Gulf of Guinea, or Bight of
Biafra, as it is usually called by English navigators, Ferdinand Poo,
Princes isle, St Thomas, and Annobon, the discovery of which have been
related as follows by Barbot, and his account seems the most probable[2].
Fernando Lopez discovered the first of these in 1471, in lat.
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