Chapter IV: Introduction (3)

Villaut de Bellesfond, Estancelin, and Labat, narrate the same
incidents as follows: Charles V encouraged commerce, so in
November, 1364, the Dieppese fitted out two ships, of 100 tons
each, for the Canaries. About Christmas they reached C. Verde,
and anchored before Rio Fresco, which in 1669 was still called
"Baie de France." Afterwards they went on to a place they
called "Petit Dieppe," and the Portuguese "Rio Sestos," beyond
Sierra Leone; for objects of small value they gained gold,
ivory, and pepper; returning in 1365 they realised great
wealth; and in September of the same year the merchants of
Rouen joined with those of Dieppe to fit out four ships, two
for trade between Cape Verde and Petit Dieppe, the other two
for exploration of the coast beyond. One of these last stopped
at Grand Sestere, on the Malaguette coast, and loaded pepper;
the other ship traded on the Ivory Coast, and went on as far
as the Gold Coast, and depôts were fixed at Petit Dieppe and
Grand Sestere, which was re-named Petit Paris. Factories or
"Loges" were established to prepare cargoes for the ships. The
native languages long retained French words, as was found in
1660. In 1380 the Company sent out _Notre Dame de bon Voyage_,
of 150 tons, from Rouen to the Gold Coast (September). At end
of December they reached the same landing where the French had
traded fifteen years before. In the summer of 1381 the _Notre
Dame_ returned to Dieppe richly laden; in 1382 three ships set
sail together, September 28th, viz, _La Vierge_, _Le Saint
Nicholas_, _L'Espérance_. _La Vierge_ stopped at La Mine, the
first place discovered on the Gold Coast. The _St. Nicholas_
traded at Cape Corse and at Mouré below La Mine, and
_L'Espérance_ went as far as Akara, trading at Fanting, Sabon
and Cormentin. Ten months after, the expedition returned with
rich cargoes. Three more ships were sent out in 1383, one to
go to Akara, the others to build an outpost at La Mine; there
they left ten or twelve men, and returned after ten months. A
church was afterwards built for the new colony, and in 1660
this still preserved the arms of France. After the accession
of Charles VI, the African trade was soon ruined. Before 1410
La Mine was abandoned, and until after 1450 the Normans, it is
believed, abandoned maritime explorations.]

Reliable evidence of French voyages to the Gold Coast of Guinea can only be quoted for the sixteenth century. Thus Braun in 1617, and Dapper some time shortly before 1668, inspected buildings and collected traditions from the natives on that shore which alone would prove these later expeditions, if they were not confirmed by several documents in Ramusio, Temporal, and Hakluyt.[127] Equally reliable is the tradition of Béthencourt's _Conquest of the Canaries_ in 1402, etc.; yet the authors of this history, Béthencourt's chaplains, give no hint of any knowledge possessed by their countrymen about the mainland coast beyond Cape Bojador, but rather imply the reverse. Finally, though so many of the best sixteenth-century maps are Dieppese, none of these show the fourteenth-century settlements, which are also wanting in all charts of the earlier time. The controverted names are first found on a map of 1631, by Jean Guérand; and this is probably not unconnected with the fact that in 1626 Rouen and Dieppe united for trade with the Guinea coast.

[Footnote 127: See De Bry's _Collection des petits Voyages_,
Frankfort, 1625; Oliver Dapper's _Description of Africa_ (in
Dutch), Amsterdam, 1668; Ramusio's _Collection_, Ed. of 1565,
iii. p. 417 _verso_, in the _Discorso sopra la Nuova Francia_;
Dr. David Lewis' _Letter to Burleigh_, March 9, 1577.
Santarem's _Priority of Portuguese Discoveries, etc._ (1842),
is mainly directed against the French claims.]

It is of course possible, as M. d'Avezac long ago argued from the evidence of the great Portolani of the fourteenth century, especially the Laurentian or Medicean[128] of 1351, the Pizzigani[129] of 1367, and the Catalan of 1375, that some unrecorded advance was accomplished along the African mainland coast during the middle years of this century; the imperfection of our records must never be forgotten; and we shall return to this question in another section. But nothing definite and certain can be gathered about the coast beyond Cape Bojador, except in a few small points.[130] With the Atlantic islands the case was very different.

[Footnote 128: Genoese.]

[Footnote 129: Venetian.]

[Footnote 130: Unless the contour of the Laurentian Map of
1351 is held to prove a circumnavigation of Africa shortly
before 1351. The comparative accuracy of this outline, so
incredibly good as mere guesswork, must remain one of the
chief _cruces_ of Mediæval geography.]

The expedition[131] (1402-12) of the Sieur de Béthencourt, Lord of Granville la Teinturière, of the Pays de Caux in Normandy, was chiefly concerned with the Canaries[132]--like the voyages of the Spaniards Francisco Lopez (1382), and Alvaro Becarra (? 1390, etc.) But, after achieving fair success in the islands, De Béthencourt attempted (apparently in 1404) an exploration of the mainland coast "from Cape Cantin, half way between the Canaries and Spain," to Cape "Bugeder" or Bojador,[133] the famous promontory to the right or east of the Canaries. But this was left unfinished; and De Béthencourt's chaplains, in describing their Seigneur's intentions beyond the "Bulging Cape," can only fall back on a certain Book of a Spanish Friar,[134] which professed to give a description of Guinea, and the River of Gold. This last was said by the Friar to be 150 leagues from "the Cape Bugeder," and the French priests declare that "if things were such as described," their lord hoped sometime to reach the said river, "whereby access would be gained to the land of Prester John, whence come so many riches."

[Footnote 131: See the _Book of the Conquest and Conversion of
the Canarians by Jean de Béthencourt_, written by Pierre
Bontier, monk, and Jean le Verrier, priest. Edited for the
Hakluyt Society by R. H. Major, 1872.]

[Footnote 132: See section of this Introduction on the African
Islands, pp. lxxxii-lxxxiv.]

[Footnote 133: Buyetder on the Catalan Atlas of 1375.]

[Footnote 134: This is identified by Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_
79, following Espada, with the recently rediscovered _Libro
del Conosçimiento de todos los reynos & tierras & señorios que
son por el mundo & de las señales & armas que han cada tierra
& señorio por sy & de los reyes & Señores que los proueen_.
This was lost sight of till 1870, when it was found by Marcos
Jimenez de la Espada, who published it in the _Boletin de la
Sociedad Geographica de Madrid_ 1877. "It is certainly not a
record of actual travel, but probably the description of an
imaginary journey, compiled with the help of a richly
illustrated typical portolano, reports by far-famed and
travelled men, and such geographical works as were accessible
to the author. Many names here occurring are, however, not to
be found on the portolanos of the fourteenth century.... Every
city or country spoken of in the book has a chapter to itself,
followed by a representation of the flag or arms of the State.
These also seem ... taken from some portolano." See the
_Conquest of the Canaries_ (Hakluyt Soc. ed., ch. 55). The
_Conosçimiento_ cannot well be of later date than 1330-1340.
In many places it copies Edrisi.]

Thus the French colonists in the early fifteenth century, in Prince Henry's boyhood, know nothing first-hand, nothing save half-legendary rumours, about the African coast beyond Cape Bojador. They are anxious to reach the River of Gold, and traffic there, but they do not know the way. Of Petit Paris, Petit Dieppe, La Mine, and other Norman settlements or factories beyond Cape Verde, they give no sign.

The late and doubtful[135] tradition of Macham's discovery of Madeira (_c._ 1350-1370) does not concern the exploration of the African mainland, except that after the death of the "discoverer" in his island, some of his sailors were said to have escaped in the ship's boat (according to the story) to the Continent, to have been made prisoners by the Berbers, and to have been held in slavery till some of the survivors were ransomed in 1416. But all this, if true, belongs to the well-known coast within Cape Non, and in no manner furthered exploration, except as regarded the island group of Madeira and Porto Santo.[136]

[Footnote 135: Admitted by Nordenskjöld with singular
facility: _Periplus_, pp. 115-6. As to the Portuguese sailor
named Machico, and the possibility that the Machico district
of Madeira was named after him or one of his descendants, see
below, pp. lxxxiv-lxxxv.]

[Footnote 136: See Atlantic Islands.]

Fra Mauro preserves a tradition[137] of two voyages from India or the East coast of Africa round the Southern Cape--one in 1420, the other at an unfixed date. These, he says, had been accomplished by a person with whom he actually spoke, who claimed to have passed from Sofala to "Garbin," in the middle of the West coast, as it is marked on Fra Mauro's planisphere. If genuine, they would be the last anticipations of Prince Henry's enterprises left to chronicle; but few have placed much confidence in these statements, which seem indeed incredible in the form they are related by the Venetian draughtsman.

[Footnote 137: See Map section.]

THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS.

I. BEFORE PRINCE HENRY.

The history of the exploration of the Azores, the Canaries, and the Madeira group, before Prince Henry's time, seems to deserve a special notice in this place.

It is pretty certain that the Fortunate Islands of ancient geography were our Canaries. Eudoxus of Cyzicus was said to have discovered off the West African coast an uninhabited island, so well provided with wood and water, that he intended to return there and settle for the winter. According to Plutarch, Sertorius (B.C. 80-72) is said to have been told by some sailors whom he met at the mouth of the Baetis[138] of two islands[139] in the ocean, from which they had just arrived. These they called the "Atlantic Islands," and described as distant from the shore of Africa 10,000 stadia (1,000 miles), and enjoying a perpetual summer. Sertorius wished to fly from his war with the Romans in Spain, and take refuge in these islands, but his followers would not agree to this.[140]

[Footnote 138: Guadalquivir.]

[Footnote 139: Madeira and Porto Santo(?)]

[Footnote 140: Plutarch, _Sertorius_, c. 8.]

Leaving out of serious consideration the Atlantis story in Plato's _Timaeus_ (which may possibly owe something to early Phœnician and Carthaginian discoveries among the Atlantic islands), it is noticeable that no such Western Ocean lands occur in Strabo (B.C. 30). On the other hand the Canaries are described by Statius Sebosus, as reported in Pliny[141] (B.C. 30-A.D. 70), and by King Juba the younger of Mauretania (_fl._ B.C. 1); are laid down under the name of Fortunate Islands by Ptolemy; and are adopted in his reckonings as the Western limit of the world. Sebosus mentions Junonia, 750 miles from Gades; near this, Pluvialia and Capraria; and 1,000 miles from Gades, off the South-west coast of Mauretania or Marocco, the Fortunatae, Convallis or Invallis, and Planaria.

[Footnote 141: Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, vi, 32.]

Juba[142] again makes five Fortunate Isles: Ombrios, Nivaria, Capraria, Junonia, and Canaria, all fertile but uninhabited. Large dogs were found, however, in the last-named, and two of these had been brought to Juba himself, who called the island after them. Date-palms also abounded. Juba also, according to Pliny, discovered the Purple islands (Purpurariae) off the coast of Mauretania, which have been carelessly identified by some with the Madeira group, though wanting the two essential conditions of Juba's description: (1) producing Orchil; (2) lying very close to the shore of Mauretania. Lançarote and Fuerteventura agree with Juba's conditions on these points,[143] but then why are they made a separate group from Nivaria, etc., which are undoubtedly the main body of the Canaries? Juba's account is the most clear and valuable we have from ancient geography, dealing with the Canaries, and is far better than that[144] of the Alexandrian geographer. Ptolemy lays down the Fortunate Islands--assuming the Canaries to be meant--incorrectly both in latitude and longitude, in a position really corresponding better to that of the Cape Verdes. Hence it has been supposed that he confounded the two groups in one; whereas the Cape Verdes, lying out to sea 300 miles from the Continent, are not likely to have been known, even in his day. An error in position is so common with Ptolemy that it is quite unnecessary to be disturbed by it. But he clearly had some definite knowledge that islands existed in the ocean to the west of Africa, and in his map he probably reproduces the statements of others, without first-hand information of his own, assigning such a position as suited best with his theories. For he not merely brings the southernmost of the Fortunate Isles down to 11° N. lat., but scatters the group through 5° of latitude, placing the northernmost in latitude, 16° N. His names vary much from Juba's, for he gives us six: Canaria, the Isle of Juno, Pluïtala,[145] Aprositus (the Inaccessible), Caspiria, and Pinturia or Centuria; at the western extremity of these, after the example of Marinus, he drew the first meridian of longitude.[146]

[Footnote 142: Copied by Solinus and many mediæval writers
(see Pliny, _Hist. Nat._, vi, 31). Juba's work was dedicated
to Caius Cæsar, B.C. 1, when just about to start on an
expedition to the East. Ombrios, from its mountain lake, has
been identified with Palma; Nivaria more easily with Teneriffe
and Canaria with Grand Canary; Junonia is difficult to fix, as
we have the statement that a second and smaller island of the
same name is in its neighbourhood; Capraria is supposed to be
Ferro. The remaining two of our modern archipelago, Lancarote
and Fuerteventura, are supposed by some to be the
"Purpurariae" of Juba.]

[Footnote 143: And are therefore accepted as the Purpurariae
by D'Anville Gossellin, Major, and, with some hesitation, by
Bunbury.]

[Footnote 144: "A mere confused jumble of different reports."
Bunbury, _Anc. Geog._ ii, 202.]

[Footnote 145: Perhaps a corruption of Sebosus' Pluvialia.
"The Inaccessible" is possibly Teneriffe. Canaria and the Isle
of Juno are of course identical with Juba's nomenclature.]

[Footnote 146: Cerne, so important a mark in Hanno's
_Periplus_, he places in the Ocean 3° from the mainland, in
clear opposition to the Carthaginian authorities whom some
have thought he possessed and used. Cerne is in latitude 25°
40', and east longitude 5° on Ptolemy's map.]

The Arabs seem to have lost all definite knowledge of the Atlantic islands, an impossible possession to a race with such a deep horror of the Green Sea of Darkness. Masudi, indeed, tells us a story, already noticed, of one Khoshkhash, the young man of Cordova, who some years before the writer's time[147] had sailed off upon the Ocean, and after a long interval returned with a rich cargo; but nothing more definite is said about this venture.

[Footnote 147: _C._ A.D. 950.]

Some tradition of the Canaries or the Madeira group seems to have been preserved among Moslem geographers, under the name of Isles of Khaledat, or Khaledad, but we have only one narrative from the collections of these authors which suggests a Musulman visit to the same. This is found in Edrisi, in its earlier form, and must refer to some time before 1147, when Lisbon finally became a Christian city. It probably belongs to a year of the eleventh century, and has perhaps left its impression in the Brandan legend as put forth in the oldest MS., of about 1070.

The Lisbon Wanderers, or Maghrurin, from Moslem Spain, commemorated by Edrisi and by Ibn-al-Wardi, did not apparently venture to the South of Cape Non, but they seem to have reached the Madeira group as well as the Canaries. The adventurers were eight in number, all related to one another. After eleven days' sail, apparently from Lisbon, they found themselves in a sea due[148] West of Spain, where the waters were thick, of bad smell, and moved by strong currents.[149] Here the weather became as black as pitch. Fearing for their lives they now turned South, and after twelve days sighted an island which they called El Ghanam, the Isle of Cattle,[150] from the sheep they saw there without any shepherd. The flesh of these cattle was too bitter for eating, but they found a stream of running water and some wild figs. Twelve more days to the South brought them to an island[151] with houses and cultivated fields. Here they were seized, and carried prisoners to a city on the sea-shore. After three days the King's interpreter, who spoke Arabic, came to them, and asked them who they were and what they wanted. They replied, they were seeking the wonders of the Ocean and its limits. At this the King laughed, and said: "My father once ordered some of his slaves to venture upon that sea, and after sailing it for a month, they found themselves deprived of sun-light and returned without any result." The Wanderers were kept in prison till a west wind arose, when they were blindfolded and turned off in a boat. After three days they reached Africa. They were put ashore, their hands tied, and left. They were released by the Berbers,[152] and returned to Spain, when a "street at the foot of the hot bath in Lisbon took the name of 'Street of the Wanderers.'"

[Footnote 148: They started with a full east wind.]

[Footnote 149: Sargasso Sea?]

[Footnote 150: Madeira?]

[Footnote 151: One of the Canaries?]

[Footnote 152: At a point named Asafi or Safi (at the extreme
south-west of our Marocco), said to have been named after the
Wanderers' exclamation of dismay: Wa Asafi--"Alas! my sorrow."
Cf. Edrisi, Climate III, section i (ed. Jaubert, i, 201);
Climate IV, section i (J., ii, 26-9). Safi is in 32° 20' N.
Lat.]

El Ghanam has been identified by Avezac and others with Legname, the old Italian name for Madeira, and their description of the "bitter mutton" of that island has suggested to some the "coquerel" plant of the Canaries, which in more recent times gave a similar flavour to the meat of the animals who browsed upon it.[153]

[Footnote 153: See Berthelot, _Histoire Naturelle des Iles
Canariens_.]

Some have conjectured that the "White Man's Land" and "Great Ireland," which the Norsemen of Iceland professed to have seen in 983-4, 999, and 1029, was a name for the Canaries, rather than for any point of America, but this appears entirely conjectural--though it is probable enough that some of the Vikings in their wanderings may have visited these islands. In 1108-9, King Sigurd of Norway meets a Viking fleet in the Straits of Gibraltar ("Norva Sound");[154] and in the course of their many attacks on the "Bluemen" or Moors of "Serkland" (Saracen-land) the Northern rovers who reached the New World, Greenland, and the White Sea, may well have sighted and ravaged the Fortunate Islands of the Atlantic, beyond Cape Non.

[Footnote 154: "Saga of King Sigurd" (in _Heimskringla_), ch.
vi.]

No further reference, even conjectural, to the Atlantic Islands is known until the later thirteenth century, when the Mediæval revival in Christian lands, finding its expression in the Crusades and in the Asiatic land-travels of John de Plano Carpini, Simon de St. Quentin, Rubruquis, and the Polos, among others, led to attempts in search of a maritime route to India from the Mediterranean ports. The earliest of these followed immediately on the return of the elder Polos from Central Asia (1269).

In 1270 the voyage of the Genoese, Lancelot Malocello, already referred to as a possible reconnaissance on the African coast route to the Far East, resulted in a re-discovery of some of the Canaries. At any rate, he stayed[155] long enough to build himself a "castle" there; and the recognition of this island, as well as of the adjoining "Maloxelo," as Genoese on maps of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries,[156] was probably due to this. During Béthencourt's "Conquest," some of the followers of his colleague, Gadifer de la Salle, stored barley, we are told, in an old castle which had been built by Lancelot Maloisel. It has been supposed that Petrarch, writing _c._ 1335 A.D., and referring to the armed Genoese fleet which had penetrated to the Canaries a generation before (_a Patrum memoria_), was thinking of Malocello's venture, but the expression is better suited to the Expedition of 1291, led by Tedisio Doria and the Vivaldi.

[Footnote 155: In Lançarote island?]

[Footnote 156: Cf. especially the _Conosçimiento_ of early
fourteenth century; the Laurentian Portolano of 1351; the
Soleri Portolani of 1380 and 1385; the Combitis Portolan of
early fifteenth century; the so-called Bianco of 1436. On a
Genoese map of 1455, executed by Bartholomew Pareto, is a more
explicit legend over against Lançarote Island: "Lansaroto
Maroxello Januensis." See also the _Conquest of ... Canaries_,
by De Béthencourt's chaplains, ch. xxxii; and Major's note,
pp. 55-6 of the Hakluyt Society's edition of this Chronicle.]

It is possible that the Portuguese followed up Malocello's visit by voyages of their own (besides the well-known venture of 1341) before the year 1344,[157] when Don Luis of Spain obtained a grant of the Canaries from the Pope[158] at Avignon (November 15, 1344). This grant conferred on Luis de la Cerda, Count of Talmond, the title of Prince of Fortune, with the lordship of the Fortunate Islands, in fief to the Apostolic See, and under a tribute of 400 gold florins, to be paid yearly to the Chair of St. Peter. The Pontiff also wrote to various sovereigns, among others to the King of Portugal, Affonso IV, recommending the plans of Don Luis to their support. To this Affonso replied (February 12, 1345), reminding the Pope that he had already sent expeditions to the Canaries, and would even now be despatching a greater Armada if it were not for his wars with Castille and with the Saracens.

[Footnote 157: Ships from Portugal (according to Sántarem,
_Cosmographie_, i, 275, copied by Oliveira Martins, _Filhos de
D. João_, i, 68), visited the Canaries under Affonso IV,
between _1331_ and 1344. Perhaps this is only a loose
reference to the expedition of 1341.]

[Footnote 158: Clement VI. Major, _Prince Henry_, 140, and
_Conquest of Canaries_ (Hakluyt Soc.), xi, has apparently
confused matters, giving the date of 1334 (in the Pontificate
of Benedict XII), and implying a grant by Clement VI.]

As early as 1317, King Denis of Portugal secured the Genoese, Emmanuele Pezagno (Pessanha), as hereditary admiral of his fleet. Pezagno and his successors were to keep the Portuguese navy supplied with twenty Genoese captains experienced in navigation and the earliest Portuguese ventures were almost certainly connected with this arrangement.

This was shown in the expedition of 1341, which left Portugal for the Canaries under Genoese pilotage, and quite independently of Don Luis, as far as we know. It was composed of two vessels furnished by the King of Portugal, and a smaller ship, all well-armed, and manned by Florentines, Genoese, Castilians, Portuguese, and "other Spaniards."[159] They set out from Lisbon on July 1, 1341; on the fifth(?) day they discovered land; and in November they returned. They brought home with them four natives, many goat and seal skins, dye-wood, bark for staining, red earth, etc. Nicoloso de Recco, a Genoese, pilot of the expedition, considered these islands nearly 900 miles distant from Seville. The first[160] discovered was supposed to be about 150 miles round; it was barren and stony, inhabited by goats and other animals, as well as by naked people, absolutely savage. The next[161] visited was larger than the former, and contained many natives, most of them nearly naked, but some covered with goats' skins. The people had a chief, built houses, planted palms and fig trees, and cultivated little gardens with vegetables. Four men swam out to the ships, and were carried off. The Europeans found on the island a sort of temple, with a stone idol, which was brought back to Lisbon.

[Footnote 159: The account that has come down to us is by
Boccaccio(?) (discovered in 1827 by Sebastiano Ciampi, who
identified the handwriting), and was professedly compiled from
letters written to Florence by certain Florentine merchants
residing in Seville. Among these, "Angelino del Tegghia dei
Corbizzi, a cousin of the sons of Gherardino Gianni," is
especially mentioned.]

[Footnote 160: Major conjectures Fuerteventura.]

[Footnote 161: Grand Canary?]

From this island several others were visible--one remarkable for its lofty trees,[162] another containing excellent wood and water, wild pigeons, falcons, and birds of prey.[163] In the fifth visited were immense rocky mountains reaching into the clouds.[164] Eight other islands were sighted. In all, five of the new-found lands were peopled, the rest not. None of the natives had any boats, and there was no good store of harbours. On one island was a mountain, which they reckoned as 30,000 feet high, and on its summit a fortress-like rock, with a mast atop of it rigged with a yard and lateen sail--a manifest proof of enchantment. No wealth was found in any of the islands, and hence perhaps the venture of 1341 was not followed up by Portugal for many years; but it is probable that the results of this year are commemorated in the delineation of the Fortunate Isles upon the Laurentian Portolano of 1351.[165]

[Footnote 162: Major here suggests the pines of Ferro.]

[Footnote 163: Gomera?]

[Footnote 164: Probably Teneriffe. Palma has also been
suggested, with less likelihood.]

[Footnote 165: See the section of this Introduction on "Maps
and Scientific Geography;" also Wappäus, _Heinrich der
Seefahrer_, pp. 174-5.]

Nothing, so far as we know, was done for the further exploration of the Canaries (after 1341) till 1382, when one Captain Francisco Lopez, while on his way from Seville to Galicia, was driven south by storms, and took refuge (June 5th) at the mouth of the Guiniguada, in Grand Canary. Here he landed with twelve of his comrades; the strangers were kindly treated, and passed seven years among the natives, instructing many in the doctrines of Christianity. Suddenly Lopez and his men were accused of sending into Christian countries a "bad account" of the islands, and were all massacred. Before dying, they seem to have given one of their converts a written "testament," and this was found by the men of Jean de Béthencourt in 1402.

Apparently, very shortly before the invasion of the latter (? in 1390-5), another Spaniard, Alvaro Becarra, visited the islands,[166] and it was (according to one authority) from information directly supplied by him and two French adventurers who accompanied him, that De Béthencourt was induced to undertake his expedition.

[Footnote 166: Ayala, _Chronicle of Henry III of Castille_,
asserts that in 1393, mariners of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and
Seville, visited the Canaries, and brought back spoils.
Teneriffe they called the Isle of Hell (Inferno), from its
volcano. They also landed on other islands of the group which
they called Lencastre, Graciosa, Forteventura, Palma, and
Ferro. See also Martins, _Os Filhos de D. João I_, p. 68.]

The Lord of Grainville set out with a body of followers, among whom the knight Gadifer de la Salle was chief, from Rochelle, on May 1st, 1402. Eight days' sail from Cadiz, he reached Graciosa. Thence he went to Lançarote, where he built a fort called Rubicon. Going on to Fuerteventura, he was hampered by a mutiny among his men, and by lack of supplies. He returned to Spain, procured from Henry III of Castille what he needed, and reappeared at Lançarote. During his absence, Gadifer, left in command, accomplished a partial exploration of Fuerteventura, Grand Canary, Ferro, Gomera and Palma. The "King" of Lançarote was baptised on February 20th, 1404; but after this, Gadifer quarrelled with his leader and returned to France. All attempts to conquer the Pagans of Grand Canary were fruitless, and De Béthencourt finally quitted the islands, appointing his nephew Maciot[167] to be governor in his place of the four Christian colonies in Palma and Ferro, Lançarote and Fuerteventura.

[Footnote 167: See Azurara, _Guinea_, c. xcv, lxxix, etc.]

The Madeira group are laid down[168] in the _Conosçimiento de todos los Reynos_ of the early fourteenth century, as well as in the Laurentian Portolano of 1351; in the Soleri Portolani of 1380 and 1385; and in the Combitis Portolan of about 1410. But in 1555,[169] A. Galvano, in his _Discoveries of the World_, claimed that an Englishman in the reign of Edward III(?) was the discoverer. He was copied by Hakluyt in 1589, and English patriotism has been loath to surrender the tradition.

[Footnote 168: Under the names of Lecmane, Lolegname, Legnami
[Madeira, the "Isle of Wood"]; Puerto or Porto Santo; and I.
desierta, deserte, or deserta. The last alone is wanting in
the Combitis Portolan.]

[Footnote 169: Still earlier in 1508, Valentin Fernandez, a
printer of Munich, issued the story in a MS., re-discovered in
this century. Later, in 1660, Francisco Manoel de Mello
published it in his _Epanaphoras de Varia Historia Portuguesa_
(_III_), Lisbon, 1660. Mello's account was professedly derived
from an original narrative by Francisco Alcaforado, a squire
of Prince Henry, now lost. Fernandez, Galvano, (copied by
Hakluyt) and Mello, all tell practically the same story, but
with varying details.]

"About this time," says Galvano [viz., between 1344 and 1395, the two dates named immediately before and after this entry], the "island of Madeira was discovered by ... [Robert] Macham,[170] who sailing from England, having run away with a woman,[171] was driven by a tempest ... to that island, and cast ashore in that haven, which is now called Machico, after ... Macham." Here the ship was driven from its moorings; and, according to one account[172] both lovers died; according to the older version, Macham escaped to the African mainland, and was finally saved and brought to the King of Castille. His old pilot, Morales, was supposed to have guided J. G. Zarco in Prince Henry's rediscovery of Madeira (1420). Azurara, however, says nothing about Macham; and it has been conjectured, from a document rediscovered in 1894, that the Machico district of Madeira--whose title, given by the Portuguese in 1420, has often been quoted as an acknowledgement of Macham's claim--derived its name from a Portuguese seaman of that name, who was living in 1379, or from one of his relations.[173]

[Footnote 170: Or Machin, or O'Machin, or as Nordenskjöld,
_Periplus_, 115, also reads: Mac Kean. N. accepts the whole of
the Macham story with extraordinary readiness.]

[Footnote 171: Anne d'Arfet, or Dorset.]

[Footnote 172: Mello's.]

[Footnote 173: See J. I. de Brito Rebello, in Supplement to
_Diario de Noticias_ of Lisbon, published in connection with
the fifth centenary of Prince Henry's birth, 1894. The
document referring to Machico is dated April 12th, 1379, and
by this, King Ferdinand, "the handsome," of Portugal, gives to
one Machico, "mestre de sua barcha," a house in the Rua Nova
of Lisbon. This was discovered by Rebello in the Torre do
Tombo, acting on a hint given by Ernesto do Canton. Before
this, the Macham story was attacked by Rodriguez d'Azevedo, in
1873. See the _Saudades da terra_ of Dr. G. Fructuoso, pp.
348-429.]

The Azores, or Western Islands, are also (in part) laid down in the _Conosçimiento_ above quoted (of about A.D. 1330), and in the Medicean Portolano of 1351;[174] and when the Infant sent out Gonçalo Cabral[175] in this direction he was aided, it is said, by an Italian portolano, on which the aforesaid islands were depicted.[176] But no record of any voyage thereto earlier than that of Diego de Sevill[177] (1427) has been preserved; nor did any one before the Prince's time attempt, as far as is known, the colonisation or complete exploration of the Azores. To these, however, like the other Atlantic islands, Nordenskjöld's emphatic words[178] apply, as the cartographical evidence requires. To some extent at least all these groups "were known ... to skippers long before organised ... expeditions were sent to them by great feudal lords." Absolute novelty in geographical discovery is one of the most difficult things to prove, and in no field of historical inquiry does the saying more often occur to the inquirer: "Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona, multi."

[Footnote 174: It is not at all certain, as Major assumes
(_Prince Henry_, 1868, p. 235), that this group was first
discovered by "_Portuguese_ vessels under Genoese pilotage."]

[Footnote 175: In 1431, etc.]

[Footnote 176: See Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_, 118 A; also P.
Amat di S. Filippo, _I veri Scopritori delle isole Azore_,
Ital. Geog. Soc. Bolletino, 1892.]

[Footnote 177: We learn about the voyage of Sevill from the
Catalan Map of Gabriel Valsecca, executed between 1434 and
1439, which (1) gives a very fair representation of several of
the Azores, under the names: Ylla de Oesels (St. Mary), Ylla
de Fruydols (St. Michael), Ylla de Inferno (Terceira), Ylla de
Guatrilla (St. George), Ylla de Sperto (Pico), and another of
which the name has been effaced: (2) Bears the inscription:
These islands were found by Diego de Sevill, pilot of the King
of Portugal, in 1427. [Some have tried to read the MS. date as
1432 (xxxii for xxvii) but the text is against them]. In the
Mediceum, or Laurentian Portolano, of 1351, St. Mary and St.
Michael are laid down as Insule de Cabrera; St. George, Fayal,
and Pico, as Insule de Ventura sive de Columbis; Terceira (?)
as Insula de Brazi[l]. On the Catalan Map of 1375, we have San
Zorzo ( = St. George, "Jorge"); I. de la Ventura ( = Fayal);
Li Columbi ( = Pico); I. di Corvi Marini ( = Corvo); Li Conigi
( = Flores). On the so-called Andrea Bianco of 1436 (probably
a re-edition of a much earlier map), St. Michael appears as
Cabrera. Corvo and Flores first appear on the Catalan Atlas of
1375, as far as present knowledge goes.]

[Footnote 178: _Periplus_, 116 A.]

The Cape Verdes is the only group of Atlantic Islands as to which we may be reasonably sure that the mediæval discovery at least was not made before Prince Henry's lifetime. Here the Infant's claim of priority is probably most in danger from Phœnician and Carthaginian sailors;[179] but even here the challenge is not very serious, unless we insist on considering as proven a number of pretensions which are almost impossible to substantiate.

[Footnote 179: It is probable that the "Gorgades" of the
Greeks were derived from Phœnician accounts; but it is very
doubtful whether these represent the Cape Verdes. Ptolemy, as
we have seen, places the southern extremity of his Fortunate
Isles much in the true position of Santiago, though extending
them north through 5 degrees of latitude.]

2.--THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS

IN PRINCE HENRY'S LIFETIME.

Azurara also requires some words of supplement as to the progress of discovery and colonisation among the Atlantic Islands in Prince Henry's lifetime.[180] And, first, in the Azores. After the first voyages of Diego de Sevill and Gonçalo Cabral, the latter (according to Cordeiro) sought unsuccessfully for an island which had been sighted by a runaway slave from the highest mountain in St. Mary; at last, corrected by the Prince's map-studies, he found the object of his search on the 8th May, 1444, and named it St. Michael, being the festival of the Apparition of the Archangel.[181] The colonisation of this (even more than of other islands in the group) was impeded by earthquakes, but was nevertheless commenced on September 29, 1445. From the number of hawks or kites[182] found in St. Michael and St. Mary, the present name now began to supersede all others[183] for the Archipelago. The island now called Terceira,[184] but originally "The Isle of Jesus Christ," was apparently discovered before A.D. 1450, either by Prince Henry's sailors, or by an expedition of Flemish mariners or colonists under one Josua van der Berge, a citizen of Bruges, who claimed the exclusive, honour of this achievement under date of 1445. Hence, in some Netherland maps and atlases, of later date, the Azores are called The Flemish Islands.[185] On the other hand, Cordeiro has printed the Infant's charter of March 2, 1450, to Jacques de Bruges,[186] his servant, giving him the Captaincy of the Isle of Jesu Christ, because the said Jacques had asked permission of the Prince to colonise this uninhabited spot. Jacques de Bruges bore all the expenses of this colonisation, and may have been specially recommended to Henry by his sister, the Duchess of Burgundy. He had married into a noble Portuguese family, and had previously rendered some services to the Infant.

[Footnote 180: See Major, _Prince Henry_, pp. 238-245 (Ed. of
1868), mainly based upon Father Cordeiro's _Historia
Insulana_, 1717.]

[Footnote 181: Azurara (_Chronicle of Guinea_, c. lxxxiii.)
says that the Regent, D. Pedro, having a special devotion to
this saint, and being much interested in the re-discovery of
the Azores, caused this name to be given. Prince Henry
afterwards granted the Order of Christ the tithes of St.
Michael, and one-half of the sugar revenues.]

[Footnote 182: "Azores" in Portuguese.]

[Footnote 183: "Western Islands," etc.]

[Footnote 184: "The Third," apparently in order after--1. St.
Mary (reckoned with the Formigas); 2. St. Michael. Its arms
were the Saviour on the Cross, and it was probably sighted by
the Portuguese on some festival of the Redeemer.]

[Footnote 185: "De Vlaemsche Eylanden." So on Amsterdam maps
of 1612 (Waghenaer); 1627 (Blaeuw's _Zeespiegel_) and others,
such as the Atlas Major Blaviana, ix, Amsterdam, 1662, p.
104.]

[Footnote 186: _I.e._, Josua van der Berge. In 1449, according
to Galvano and Barros (1, ii, 1), King Affonso V formally
sanctioned the colonisation of the Azores.]

Graciosa was colonised by Vasco Gil Sodré, a Portuguese, who had been under Prince Henry's orders to Africa, and at first intended to join in the settlement of Terceira, but afterwards passed over to Graciosa. The captaincy of this island he divided for some time with his brother-in-law, Duarte Barreto.

San Jorge received its first inhabitants through a venture of Willem van der Haagen,[187] one of Jacques de Bruges' companions: Van der Haagen brought two shiploads of people and plant from Flanders, but afterwards abandoned the city he had founded there, and transferred himself to the more fertile island of Fayal. The last name brings us to one of the controversial points in the early history of the Azores.

[Footnote 187: "Da Silveira" in Portuguese.]

According to the received account, Fayal was first settled by a Fleming noble, Jobst Van Heurter,[188] Lord of Moerkerke, father-in-law of Martin Behaim, who commemorated this event in a legend on his globe of 1492. The famous Nuremberger declares that the Azores were colonised in 1466, after they had been _granted by the King of Portugal to his sister, Isabel, Duchess of Burgundy_; that in 1490 Job de Huerter came out to settle with "some thousands of souls," the Duchess "_having granted these islands to him and his descendants_;" that in 1431, _when Prince Pedro was Regent_, Prince Henry sent out two vessels for two years' sail beyond Finisterre, and sailing west 500 leagues, they found these _ten_ uninhabited islands; that they called them Azores from the tame birds they found there; and that the King began to settle the islands with "domestic animals" in 1432. This account is full of inaccuracies, and from the documents,[189] noticed by Father Cordeiro, by Barros, and by the _Archivo dos Açores_, it appears probable that the grant of Fayal to Jobst van Heurter as first Captain Donatory was made after Prince Henry's death, perhaps in 1466, by Henry's successor, D. Ferdinand, at the request of the Duchess of Burgundy, and that this grant was confirmed by the Crown of Portugal; which, however, retained its sovereign rights over all the Azores, and did not part with them to the Duchess or anyone else.

[Footnote 188: "Joz de Utra" in Portuguese.]

[Footnote 189: Several documents exist relating to the
Government, etc., of the Azores during Prince Henry's life;
for instance:--(1) A royal charter of July 2, 1439, dealing
with colonisation. (2) A similar charter of April 5, 1443,
exempting the colonists from tithe and customs. (3) A similar
charter of April 20, 1447, establishing the same exemption for
the island of St. Michael, granted to the Infant D. Pedro. (4)
A similar charter of March, 1449, to the Infant D. Henry,
licensing him to people the Seven Islands of the Azores. (5) A
similar charter of January 20, 1453, granting the Island of
Corvo to the Duke of Braganza. (6) A donation of September 2,
1460, from the Infant D. Henry to his adopted son, the Infant
Dom Fernando, of the Isles of Jesus Christ and Graciosa. [To
which may be added: A royal charter of December 3, 1460,
transferring to the Infant D. Fernando, Duke of Viseu, the
grant of the Archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores, vacant by
the death of D. Henry.] See _Archivo dos Açores_, i, 3, 5, 6,
7, 9, 11; Martins, _Os Filhos do D. João_, pp. 261-2 (where
the date of Gonçalo Velho Cabral's discovery of the Formigas
is given as 1435); _Documents_ in Torre do Tombo, Gaveta 15,
Maço 16, No. 5, of September 16, 1571.]

Jobst van Heurter, some time after he had obtained the grant or sub-lease of Fayal, appears also to have become Captain Donatory of Pico, with a commission to colonise this island.

Flores and Corvo were first granted, as far as our records go, to a lady of Lisbon, Maria de Vilhena, likewise after the death of Prince Henry. It is said that Van der Haagen,[190] when he moved from S. Jorge to Fayal, did so at the invitation of Jobst van Heurter, who had been there four years, and now promised him a part of the island. The two quarrelled, however, and "Silveira" left Fayal and went to Terceira. Some time after this he visited Flanders, and returning to the Azores by way of Lisbon, became the guest of D. Vilhena, who had received a grant of Flores and Corvo. She now proposed to Van der Haagen that he should colonise and govern these islands for her, which he did for seven years.

[Footnote 190: "Da Silveira." See above, p. lxxxix.]

* * * * *

Next, as to the Cape Verde islands. There is no positive ground for supposing that any Europeans discovered or colonised these before Prince Henry. The ancient Gorgades, Hesperides, and so forth have been identified with them by some, but all this remains in the state of guess-work--guess-work which has no great probability behind it.

But as to the discovery of the Cape Verdes in the Infant's lifetime, a controversy exists between the claims of Cadamosto and Diego Gomez, which must be shortly noticed. It is happily beyond controversy that five at least of the Archipelago were discovered within the Prince's own "period," as their names occur in a document of December 3, 1460, hereafter noticed.

Cadamosto's claim to the discovery of the Cape Verde islands has been denied[191] on the following grounds:

[Footnote 191: _E.g._ By Major, _Prince Henry_, 1868, p.
286-8, based on Lopes de Lima's _Ensaios sobre a Statistica
das Possessoẽs portuguezas_, Lisbon, 1844; see Zurla's
_Dissertazione_ of 1815.]

1. A mariner sailing from Lagos in early May could not anchor at Santiago on SS. Philip and James' day (May 1st), as stated by Cadamosto.

2. Cadamosto drove three days before the wind from Cape Blanco W.N.W. to Bonavista. But this lies 100 miles S.W. of Cape Blanco.

3. Cadamosto claims to have seen Santiago from Bonavista, which is impossible.

4. Cadamosto is wrong in speaking of any river in Santiago as a "bow-shot wide," or of salt and turtles as found in the island.

To this it has been replied:

1. The first point is probably founded on a misprint. As a correction, d'Avezac[192] has suggested that Santiago was so called because the expedition _set out_ on May 1st. It has also been noticed that the German and French versions of Cadamosto's Italian text (which contains this mistake) give March and not May as the month of sailing, while the translation in Temporal's _Histoire de l'Afrique_ has July. Once more the festival of St. James (July 25th) has been suggested,[193] in exchange for that of SS. Philip and James. In support of this, the most likely alternative to a simple blunder, caused by haste, carelessness, and lapse of time, it is pointed out that Cadamosto seems to have arrived at the islands during the rainy season; that this season prevails from mid-June to November; and that the festival of St. James would agree with the time required for a voyage from Lagos, even if commencing not in March or May, but as late as the beginning of July.

[Footnote 192: "Iles d'Afrique"....]

[Footnote 193: On the strength of Temporal's text in the
_Histoire de l'Afrique_,... Lyons, 1556, by H. Y. Oldham,
_Discovery of Cape Verde Islands_ (paper of 15 pages; see
especially 9-12).]

This date is apparently confirmed by the earliest known official document which relates to the Cape Verde Islands, viz., a decree, dated December 3rd, 1460, issued just after the death of Prince Henry.[194] In this is given a list of seventeen islands discovered by the Infant's explorers, beginning with the Madeiras and Azores, and ending with five of the Cape Verdes, S. Jacobe (Santiago), S. Filippe (Fogo), De las Mayaes (Maio), Ilha Lana (Sal?), and S. Christovão (probably Bonavista). The only festival of St. Christopher in the Calendar falls on the day of St. James, or July 25th. We may notice that in the earliest map containing these islands,[195] Cadamosto's name of Bonavista prevails, as now, over "St. Christopher."

[Footnote 194: See _Indice cronologico das Navigacoẽs ... dos
Portuguezes_, Lisbon, 1841; Oldham, _op. cit._, pp. 12-13.]

[Footnote 195: The Benincasa of 1463.]

2. This charge seems founded on a mistranslation. In the original text of 1507, after a description of the process of putting out to sea from Cape Blanco, we have these words:[196] "and the following night there arose a strong wind from the south-west, and in order not to turn back we steered west and north-west ... so as to weather and hug the wind for two days and three nights." That is, the contrary wind met with after leaving Cape Blanco did not turn the ships back, as they managed to sail close to it.[197]

[Footnote 196: "E la nocte sequente ne a fazo un temporal de
garbin cum vento fortevole, diche per non tornar in driedo
tegnessemo la volta di ponente e maistro salvo el vero per
riparar e costizar el tempo doe nocte e III zorni." Oldham,
_loc. cit._ 11.]

[Footnote 197: Oldham adds: "If _nocte sequente_ means, as it
would seem, the night of the day following that on which Cape
Blanco was passed, the ships would have had time to reach a
point from which a West or West-south-west course would lead
to Bonavista. Moreover, the Latin text gives the wind as
South."]

It is probable, however, that the text is corrupt, and it is only too common in records of this time to have mistakes as to points of the compass creeping into the record of voyages performed some time before. In any case, it is surely not enough to upset the whole of Cadamosto's narrative.

3. Here Cadamosto seems to have made no mistake, in his first printed text of 1507. The islands have never been properly surveyed, but Prof. C. Doelter, in his work _Ueber die Kapverden nach dem Rio Grande_ (1884), speaks of seeing Bonavista from the Pico d'Antonio on Santiago, together with all the rest of the group, even the more distant Sal and St. Vincent. It is therefore quite probable that Cadamosto's sailors did see Santiago from Bonavista, and this feat was certainly possible.

4. In this once more Cadamosto is clearly right, and the attempt to discredit him ridiculous. Salt is so abundant in the Cape Verdes, especially in the western group, that these were at one time called the "Salt islands." Turtles are also common enough in the rainy season, and are mentioned by plenty of visitors and residents.[198] Lastly, the river in Santiago, "a bow-shot across," does not correspond to any fresh-water stream found there, but by this expression may be intended an inlet of the sea, like the Rio d'Ouro of Prince Henry's sailors, north of Arguim. Curiously enough, this very expression--"a bow-shot wide"--is employed by Dapper of the Estuary at Ribeira Grande in Santiago; while Blaeuw's _Atlas_ (Amsterdam, 1663) speaks of the same point in exactly similar terms: "à son embouchure large d'environ un trait d'arc."

[Footnote 198: See Astley's _Voyages and Travels_, vol. i,
Book iv, ch. 6.]

* * * * *

Thirdly, the attempts of Prince Henry to acquire possession of the Canaries for Portugal may be noticed. In 1414, Maciot de Béthencourt, nephew and heir of the famous John, "Jean le Conquérant," having, under threat of war from Castille, ceded the islands to Pedro Barba de Campos, Lord of Castro Forte, sailed away to Madeira; and in 1418, according to some authorities, he made a sale of the "Fortunatae" to Henry of Portugal. This was not enough for him, as afterwards he made a third bargain with the Count of Niebla; while meantime Jean de Béthencourt himself left his conquests by will to his brother Reynaud. Pedro Barba de Campos soon parted with his new rights, which passed successively to Fernando Perez of Seville, and the Count of Niebla. But the latter, though now uniting in himself all Spanish claims to the islands, did not cling to them, but made over everything to Guillem de las Casas, who passed on his rights to Fernam Peraza, his son-in-law. While this transference was going on in Castille and in France, Henry, in the name of Portugal, attempted in 1424 to settle the question by sending out a fleet under Fernando de Castro, with 2,500 foot and 120 horse. With this force he would probably have conquered the Archipelago, in spite of the costliness and trouble of the undertaking, if the protests of Castille had not led King John I to discourage the scheme and persuade his son to defer its execution.

In 1445,[199] seven of the Prince's caravels visited the islands, received the submission of the chiefs Bruco and Piste in Gomera (who had already experienced the Infant's hospitality and become his "grateful servitors"), and made slave-raids upon the islanders of Palma. Alvaro Gonçalvez de Atayde, João de Castilha, Alvaro Dornellas, Affonso Marta, and the page Diego Gonçalvez, with many others, took part in this descent, which did not altogether spare the friendly Gomerans, and brought on the perpetrators the severe rebuke of Prince Henry.

[Footnote 199: _Al._ 1443. See Azurara, _Guinea_, chs.
lxviii-lxix.]

In 1446, however, he followed up the reconnaissance of 1445 by another attempt at complete conquest, which also seems to have ended in failure, though the account that remains is very inadequate; perhaps in the future it may be supplemented from the disinterred treasures of Spanish documentary collections. We only know that Henry obtained, in 1446, from the Regent D. Pedro a charter, giving him the exclusive right to sanction or forbid all Portuguese voyages to the Canaries; that in 1447 he conferred the captaincy of Lançarote on Antam Gonçalvez,[200] and that Gonçalvez sailed to establish himself there. So far, according to Azurara; Barros and the Spanish historians would ante-date all these measures of 1446-7 by several years. In 1455 Cadamosto, sailing in the Portuguese service, visited and described the islands, and in 1466 Henry's heir, D. Fernando, made one more attempt to reclaim the Canaries for Portugal. It failed, and in 1479 the islands were finally adjudged to Spain, or the now united monarchy of Castille and Aragon.

[Footnote 200: Presumably the same man who "brought home the
first captives from Guinea" in 1441. Cf. Azurara, _Guinea_,
ch. xcv.]

* * * * *

Fourthly, in the Madeira group, colonisation made progress during the Infant's lifetime. After the discoveries of 1418-20,[201] Madeira itself was divided up under the feudal lordship of John Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz Teixeira; the former receiving the captaincy of the northern half with Machico for his chief settlement; the latter obtaining the southern portion, with Funchal as capital, and the Desertas as an annexe. From the language of the Infant's Charter[202] of September 18th, 1460, this settlement appears to have taken place in 1425, when the Prince was 35 years old.

[Footnote 201: Cadamosto's statement that Porto Santo had been
found 27 years before his first voyage, has caused some to
date this journey 1445, instead of 1455, reckoning from
Zarco's discovery of 1418, and has led others to post-date
Zarco's discovery by ten years; but the number XXV is no doubt
a slip for XXXV. This is a very common form of error at this
period. Thus, in the "Cabot" Map of 1544, the year of the
original Cabotian discovery of North America is given as
MCCCCXCIIII, instead of MCCCCXCVII, by a (probable)
malformation of the V, or simple inattention of the
draughtsman. Also, in Grynaeus we have MCCCCCIV for MCCCCLIV.]

[Footnote 202: Endowing the Order of Christ with the
Spiritualities of these islands.]