SECTION II.

_Summary of Portuguese Discoveries, from the Commencement of the
Fifteenth Century, to the Discovery of America by Columbus_[1].

According to the chronicles of Portugal, John I. went from Lisbon in 1415,
attended by his sons Don Duarte, or Edward, Don Peter, and Don Henry, and
other lords and nobles of his realm, into Africa, where he took the great
city of Ceuta, which was one of the principal causes of extending the
dominions of Portugal. After their return, Don Henry, the king's
_third_[2] son, being then in Algarve, and desirous to enlarge the
kingdom by the discovery of unknown regions, gave directions for
discovering the coast of Mauritania; for in those days none of the
Portuguese had ever gone beyond Cape Non, in lat. 29°. N.[3]. For the
better accomplishment of this purpose, Don Henry prepared a fleet, and
commanded the officers whom he employed to proceed in making discoveries
to the south of that cape, which they did; but when they came to another
cape, named Bajador, none of them dared for a long time to go beyond it,
at which cowardice the prince was much displeased.

In 1417, in the reign of John II. of Castile, and while his mother the
lady Catharine was regent of the kingdom, Ruben de Bracamonte, the
admiral of France, craved a grant of the Canary Islands, and the title of
king, for his kinsman John de Betancourt; which being conceded, he
departed from Seville with an armament to attempt the conquest. The
principal motive of this enterprize was to make a perfect discovery of
Madeira, of which Macham had before given so much information; yet he
went to the Canaries, where he carried a friar named Mendo as bishop, who
had received that dignity from Pope Martin V. He reduced Lançerota,