A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 2 | Page 7

was afterwards published in French at Paris in
1671[3]. From this French edition the following account is extracted,
because the original Portuguese has not come to our knowledge, neither
can we say when that was printed; but as the anonymous French
translator remarked, that "Don Francisco keeps the original MS. with
great care," it may be concluded, that the Portuguese impression did not
long precede the French translation. The French translator
acknowledges that he has altered the style, which was extremely florid
and poetical, and has expunged several useless and tedious digressions,
etymologies, reflections, and comparisons; but declares that he has
strictly presented, the truth and substance of the history, so as not to
vary from it in the least, or to omit the smallest material circumstance.
It is remarkable that there is no mention whatever in any of the English
histories of Machin, Macham, or Marcham, the supposed author of this
discovery; so that Hakluyt was beholden to Antonio Galvano for the
imperfect account he gives of that transaction[4]. By the following
abstract the complete history becomes our own, and we shall be no

longer strangers to an event which has for several ages, rendered an
Englishman famous in foreign countries, while wholly unknown in his
own. It must not, however, be omitted to observe, that some objections
may be stated against the authenticity of this history, on account of
certain circumstances which do not quadrate with the time assigned for
Machin's voyage by the author. From these it is obvious, either that the
relation given by Alcaforado is not genuine, or that it has been
interpolated. How far this objection may be admitted, without prejudice
to the authority of the whole story, must be left to the judgment of our
readers; we shall only add, that so far as relates to Macham it agrees
with the tradition of the inhabitants of Madeira.
According to Alcaforada, Juan Gonsalvo Zarco, a gentleman of the
household of Don Henry, being sent out by that prince upon an
expedition of discovery to the coast of Africa, made prize, in the year
1420, of a Spanish vessel filled with redeemed captives, on their way
from Morocco to Spain. In this vessel there was one John de Morales,
an experienced and able pilot, whom he detained as an acceptable
present to his master Don Henry, and set all the rest at liberty. Morales
on being made acquainted with the cause of his detention, entered
freely into the service of the prince, and gave an account to Gonsalvo
of the adventures of Machin, and the situation and land-marks of the
new discovered island, all of which he had learnt from certain English
captives in the jails of Morocco, who had accompanied Macham, or
Machin, in his expedition.
The year of this extraordinary adventure is not mentioned by Galvano,
who only says, that in 1344, Pedro IV. reigning in Arragon, the
chronicles of his age reported, that about this time the island of
Madeira was discovered by one Macham, an Englishman. It must be
confessed that an objection arises against this history which is not
easily removed. We are told that, immediately after the death of
Macham, his companions sailed over to Morocco, and that Morales was
in prison when they arrived. Supposing the discovery by Macham to
have been made about 1344, as related by Galvano, from the Castilian
chronicles, Morales must have been no less than seventy-six years a
prisoner when redeemed, and when he was detained by Gonsalvo in
1420. Herbert places the adventure of Macham in 1328, which would
increase the captivity of Morales to ninety-two years. Alcaforado

places the event in the reign of Edward III. of England, which began in
1327 and ended in 1378; Even supposing it to have happened in the last
year of Edward, Morales must have remained forty-two years in
captivity; which is not only highly improbable, but is even contrary to
the sense of the historian, who supposes but a small space to have
elapsed between the two events; besides, the records quoted by
Galvano are said expressly to assert that Macham went himself into
Africa, whence he was sent to the king of Castile. This last
circumstance may have been invented by the Spaniards, to give them a
better title to the island of Madeira: But the former objection remains in
full force, and can only be obviated by supposing that either Morales
advanced a falsehood in asserting, that he had the account of this
discovery from the English themselves, instead of learning it from the
other slaves, among whom the tradition might have been current for
many years after the event; or Alcaforado may have mistaken the report
of Morales in this particular. The following is the substance of the
narrative, as given by Alcaforado.