[93]Ibn-Batuta, iv, 396. (Defrémery and Sanguinetti).
[94]SeeAlvarez, Hakl. Soc. Edition, p. 352.
[95]Ruins?
[96]See Nerazzini,Musulman Conquest of Ethiopia, Rome 1891. (Ital. Transl. from Arab MS.).
[97]Africa.
[98]Azurara, c. vii.
[99]Ibid., c. xvii.
[100]See Maqrīzī,Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks de l'Egypte, Quatremère, 1837-45, t. ii, Pt. 11, p. 183.
[101]Portugal.
[102]To find such a "Christian Lord" in the person of Prester John was said to have been one of the chief objects of D. Pedro's travels. This object Pedro avowed in Cairo; and with this, among other aims, he visited not only Egypt but Sinai and the Red Sea (see Martins,Os Filhos, pp. 83, 97, 121-2, etc., and pp. xvii-xviii of this volume).
[103]In 1076, the Church of Barbary could not provide three bishops to consecrate a new member of the Episcopate, and Gregory VII named two bishops to co-operate with the Archbishop of Carthage (See Migne,Pat. Lat., cxlviii, p. 449; Mas Latrie,Rélations de l'Afrique septentrionale avec les Nations chrétiennes au Moyen Age, p. 226). In 1053, Leo IX declared that only five bishops could be found in North Africa (Migne,P. L., cxliii, p. 728). On the thirty bishops of the tenth century, see Mas Latrie,Ibid.pp. 27-8. It is curious to find Gregory II, inc.730, forbidding St. Boniface of Mainz to admit emigrants from North Africa to Holy Orders without inquiry (Migne,P. L., lxxxix, p. 502)—a remarkable proof of mediæval emigration.
[104]See Mas Latrie,Afrique Septentrionale,passim, and especially pp. 61-2, 192, 266-7, 273.
[105]See C. Trumelet,Les Saints de l'Islam(1881), pp. xxviii-xxxvi. In this connection we may notice one or two other traces of intercourse between the Moslems of Granada and those of Africa,e.g.(1) Ibn-Batuta's mention of the tomb of the poet Abu Ishak es Sahili, born in Granada, died and buried in Timbuktu, 1346. (2) Leo Africanus' notice of the stone mosque and palace in Timbuktu, the work of an architect from Granada in the fifteenth century. On Timbuktu, see Ibn Batuta (Def. and San.), iv, 395, 426, 430-2; Leo Afr. (Hakluyt Soc.), 4, 124, 128, 133-4, 146, 173, 255, 306, 798, 820, 822-4, 842.
[106]But in one view Tokrur is merely a generic name for the Sudan and Sudanese, and is only by mistake converted into a definite kingdom by Arab writers of second-rate authority.
[107]From the same he may have heard the tradition of Bakui's voyage in 1403, from the Maroccan coast to about the latitude of the Bight of Arguim, a parallel adventure to Ibn Fatimah's. See above, p. xliv.
[108]Raymond Lulli ["of Lull"] is thought by some to have made the first definite suggestion of this route in the central mediæval period. This "doctor illuminatus" was born at Palma in Majorca, 1235, became a Franciscan Tertiary in 1266, and died 1315. We may perhaps connect him with the very early school of portolano-draughtsmanship in the Balearics. See Map section of this Introduction.
[109]= Lancelote? See pp. lxxviii-lxxix.
[110]According to some authorities, 1281. See Giustiniani,Castigatissimi Annali di Genova, 1537, fol. cxi, verso. Giustiniani refers to Francesco Stabili, otherwise Cecco d'Ascoli, in his Commentary on theDe Sphaera Mundiof Sacrobosco (John of Holywood, in Yorks,c.a.d.1225). The year 1291 corresponds with the fall of Acre, and the consequent embarrassment of the Syrian overland routes to Inner Asia.
[111]At or near Cape Non, which, on the Pizzigani Map of 1367, is marked "Caput Finis Gozole."
[112]This statement, it has been conjectured, was intended for use in a "forthcoming globe or map." Uso di Mare's statement was first noticed by Gräberg af Hemsö. See Peschel,Erdkunde, p. 179 (Ed. of 1865); Major,Henry Navigator, 99-106 (Ed. of 1868), P. Amat di S. Filippo,Studi biografici, etc. (Ed. of 1882), i, p. 77, for recent studies on the general question of the Genoese Voyage of 1291, and Uso di Mare's letter. The earliest modern notice of the account of this voyage in the Public Annals of Genoa was by G. H. Pertz, in his memoir, "Der älteste Versuch zur Entdeckung des Seewegs nach Ostindien", offered to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Munich, March 28th, 1859 (Festschrift, Berlin, 1859). The Genoese Annals referred to are a continuation of the Chronicles of Caffaro. Muratori has printed an abstract of the narrative. See also Nordenskjöld,Periplus(1897), pp. 114, 116;Nouvelles Annales des Voyages(d'Avezac), vol. cviii, p. 47.
[113]In 1455?
[114]Nile.
[115]Thus it has been pointed out that two of Tedisio Doria's galleys were registered in a legal document of 1291, under the names of St. Antonio and Allegrancia, and that the name Allegranza, applied for some time to one of the Canaries, was perhaps derived from this ship. Either from this or from Malocello's venture of 1270, the islands of Lançarote and Maloxelo in the same group probably took their names. Lançarote was marked with the red cross of Genoa on most Portolani down to a late period of the sixteenth century.
[116]I.e., Guinea.
[117]10th August.
[118]See Papers presented to Archives of Genoa by Federico Federici, 1660. Reference discovered by Gräberg af Hemsö.
[119]The River of Gold.
[120]Yet, proceeds this record, the "river [of gold] is a league wide and deep enough for the largest ship. This is the Cape of the end ... of W. Africa."
[121]Nordenskjöld,Periplus, p. 114 (1897), gives a confirmation from experience. "There is hardly any doubt that the ship-drawing on the Atlas Catalan is in the main correct.... Even in my time, Norwegians went out fishing on Spitzbergen in large undecked boats, somewhat like that of Ferrer."
[122]Such as dealt in Guinea products, especially malaguette pepper, at Nismes, Marseilles, and Montpellier.
[123]"The Mine" of Hakluyt and early English geographers.
[124]See the MS. edited by Margry, and given in Major's Introduction to hisLife of Henry the Navigator; theShort History of the Navigation of Jean Prunaut of Rouen; alsoLa Relation des Costes d'Afrique appelées Guinées, by Sieur Villaut de Bellefond, Paris, 1669; L. Estancelin,Recherches sur les voyages des navigateurs normands, 1832; Père Labat,Nouvelle rélation de l'Afrique Occidentale, 1728; Pierre Margry,Les Navigations Françaises du XIV.meau XVI.mesiècle, 1867. The French claim is fully admitted by Nordenskjöld,Periplus, 115-6 (1847), but of course vigorously denied by the Portuguese, whom Major supports.—Henry Navigator, Introduction, pp. xxiv-li, and text, pp. 117-133.
[125]Especially some of the ivory carvings said to have been made from spoils of this fourteenth-century trade.
[126]The "short history" of Prunaut's navigation assigns September, 1364, for the start of the first voyage; makes the sailors reach "Ovideg" at Christmas ("Ovidech" in Barros,Decade I, occurs as a native name for the Senegal); and tells us the anchorage was at C. "Bugiador," in "Guinoye." The blacks, called Jaloffs or Giloffs, had never seen white men before. Small presents were exchanged for "morphi" or ivory, skins, etc. Next year (?) Prunaut (called "Messire Jean of Rouen" throughout), returned with four ships and acquired land from the natives. Here he built houses for wares and habitation, and proposed to his men to settle there permanently. They agreed, but quarrels prevented the foundation of the colony. In September, 1379, Prunaut sailed again to Guinea with a very fine ship,Notre Dame de bon Voyage, but lost many men from sickness; he himself returned after Easter, 1380, with much gold. After this Prunaut was made a captain in the French navy. Next year (1381) theNotre Dameagain went out with theSt. NicholasandL'Espérance, of Dieppe and Rouen. The first-named cast anchor at La Mine, where Prunaut built a chapel, a castle, a fortalice, and a square house, on a hill called the "Land of the Prunauts." Near this were Petit Dieppe, Petit Rouen, Petit Paris, Petit Germentrouville; French forts were also built at Cormentin and Acra. But from 1410 all this prosperity decayed; in eleven years only two ships went to the gold coast, and one to the Grande Siest; and soon after the wars in France destroyed this commerce altogether.
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 outNotre 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 theNotre Damereturned to Dieppe richly laden; in 1382 three ships set sail together, September 28th, viz,La Vierge,Le Saint Nicholas,L'Espérance.La Viergestopped at La Mine, the first place discovered on the Gold Coast. TheSt. Nicholastraded at Cape Corse and at Mouré below La Mine, andL'Espérancewent 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.
[127]See De Bry'sCollection des petits Voyages, Frankfort, 1625; Oliver Dapper'sDescription of Africa(in Dutch), Amsterdam, 1668; Ramusio'sCollection, Ed. of 1565, iii. p. 417verso, in theDiscorso sopra la Nuova Francia; Dr. David Lewis'Letter to Burleigh, March 9, 1577. Santarem'sPriority of Portuguese Discoveries, etc.(1842), is mainly directed against the French claims.
[128]Genoese.
[129]Venetian.
[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 chiefcrucesof Mediæval geography.
[131]See theBook 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.
[132]See section of this Introduction on the African Islands, pp. lxxxii-lxxxiv.
[133]Buyetder on the Catalan Atlas of 1375.
[134]This is identified by Nordenskjöld,Periplus79, following Espada, with the recently rediscoveredLibro 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 theBoletin de la Sociedad Geographica de Madrid1877. "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 theConquest of the Canaries(Hakluyt Soc. ed., ch. 55). TheConosçimientocannot well be of later date than 1330-1340. In many places it copies Edrisi.
[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.
[136]See Atlantic Islands.
[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]
Leaving out of serious consideration the Atlantis story in Plato'sTimaeus(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 limitof 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.
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 undoubtedlythe 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 inlatitude,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 thewestern extremity of these, after the example of Marinus, he drew the first meridian of longitude.[146]
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.
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 aMusulmanvisit 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." TheWanderers 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.'"
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]
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.
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 possiblereconnaissanceon 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, writingc.1335a.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.
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 theFortunate 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.
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.
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-foundlands 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]
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 ofthe 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.
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 fourChristian colonies in Palma and Ferro, Lançarote and Fuerteventura.
The Madeira group are laid down[168]in theConosçimiento de todos los Reynosof 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 hisDiscoveries 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.
"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 awoman,[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]
The Azores, or Western Islands, are also (in part) laid down in theConosçimientoabove quoted (of abouta.d.1330), and in the Medicean Portolano of1351;[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 Atlanticislands, 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."
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.
[138]Guadalquivir.
[139]Madeira and Porto Santo(?)
[140]Plutarch,Sertorius, c. 8.
[141]Pliny,Hist. Nat., vi, 32.
[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.
[143]And are therefore accepted as the Purpurariae by D'Anville Gossellin, Major, and, with some hesitation, by Bunbury.
[144]"A mere confused jumble of different reports." Bunbury,Anc. Geog.ii, 202.
[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.
[146]Cerne, so important a mark in Hanno'sPeriplus, 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.
[147]C.a.d.950.
[148]They started with a full east wind.
[149]Sargasso Sea?
[150]Madeira?
[151]One of the Canaries?
[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.
[153]See Berthelot,Histoire Naturelle des Iles Canariens.
[154]"Saga of King Sigurd" (inHeimskringla), ch. vi.
[155]In Lançarote island?
[156]Cf. especially theConosçimientoof 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 theConquest 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.
[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, between1331and 1344. Perhaps this is only a loose reference to the expedition of 1341.
[158]Clement VI. Major,Prince Henry, 140, andConquest 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.
[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.
[160]Major conjectures Fuerteventura.
[161]Grand Canary?
[162]Major here suggests the pines of Ferro.
[163]Gomera?
[164]Probably Teneriffe. Palma has also been suggested, with less likelihood.
[165]See the section of this Introduction on "Maps and Scientific Geography;" also Wappäus,Heinrich der Seefahrer, pp. 174-5.
[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.
[167]See Azurara,Guinea, c. xcv, lxxix, etc.
[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.
[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 hisEpanaphoras 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.
[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.
[171]Anne d'Arfet, or Dorset.
[172]Mello's.
[173]See J. I. de Brito Rebello, in Supplement toDiario de Noticiasof 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 theSaudadesdaterraof Dr. G. Fructuoso, pp. 348-429.
[174]It is not at all certain, as Major assumes (Prince Henry, 1868, p. 235), that this group was first discovered by "Portuguesevessels under Genoese pilotage."
[175]In 1431, etc.
[176]See Nordenskjöld,Periplus, 118 A; also P. Amat di S. Filippo,I veri Scopritori delle isole Azore, Ital. Geog. Soc. Bolletino, 1892.
[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.
[178]Periplus, 116 A.
[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 colonisationamong 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 beforea.d.1450, either by Prince Henry's sailors, or by an expedition ofFlemish 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.
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 Jacquesde 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.
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 beengranted 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 thesetenuninhabited 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 theArchivo 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.
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.
* * * * *
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:
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 expeditionset outon 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'sHistoire de l'Afriquehas July. Once more the festival of St. James (July 25th) has been suggested,[193]in exchange for that ofSS. 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.
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."
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]
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 workUeber 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'ssailors 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'sAtlas(Amsterdam, 1663) speaks of the same point in exactly similar terms: "à son embouchure large d'environ un trait d'arc."