CHAP. XXI.

_Discovery of Madeira_[1].

Although the Era of modern discovery certainly commenced under the
auspicious direction of Don Henry of Portugal, who first conceived and
executed the sublime idea of extending the knowledge and commerce of the
globe, by a judicious series of maritime, expeditions expressly for the
purpose of discovery; yet as Madeira is said to have been visited, and
the Canaries were actually discovered and settled before that era, it
appears necessary to give a previous account of these discoveries, before
proceeding to the second part of this work.

Several authors have left accounts of the real or pretended original
discovery of this island of Madeira, all of whom concur in asserting that
it was first discovered by an Englishman. Juan de Barros, the Livy of
Portugal, mentions it briefly in the first decade of his Asia. The
history of this discovery was written in Latin, by Doctor Manoel Clemente,
and dedicated to Pope Clement V. Manoel Tome composed a Latin poem on the
subject, which he intitled _Insulana_. Antonio Galvano mentions it in a
treatise of discoveries, made chiefly by the Spaniards and Portuguese
previously to the year 1550[2]. Manoel de Faria y Sousa, the illustrious
commentator of Camoens, cites Galvano in illustration of the fifth stanza
in the fifth book of the immortal Lusiad, and likewise gives an account
of this discovery in his Portuguese Asia. But the earliest and most
complete relation of this discovery was composed by Francisco Alcaforado,
who was esquire to Don Henry the _infant_ or prince of Portugal, the
first great promoter of maritime discoveries, and to whom he presented