The Life of Columbus | Page 6

ready forthwith, and placed them under the command of two
gentlemen of his household, Zarco and Vaz, whom he directed to
proceed down the Barbary coast on a voyage of discovery. A
contemporary chronicler, Azurara, tells the story more simply, and
merely states that these captains were young men, who, after the ending
of the Ceuta campaign, were as eager for employment as the prince for
discovery; and that they were ordered on a voyage having for its object
the general molestation of the Moors as well as the prosecution of
discoveries beyond Cape Nam.
DISCOVERY OF PORTO SANTO.
The Portuguese mariners had a proverb about the Cape, "He who would
pass Cape Not either will return or not," [Quem passar o Cabo de Nam,
ou tornara ou nam], intimating that if he did not turn before passing the
Cape he would never return at all. On this occasion it was not destined
to be passed, for the two captains were driven out of their course by
storms, and accidentally discovered a little island, where they took
refuge, and which, from that circumstance, they called Porto Santo. On

their return their master was delighted with the news they brought him,
more on account of its promise than its substance. In the same year he
sent them out again with a third captain, Bartholomew Perestrelo, to
convey a supply of seeds and animals for the newly-found island.
Unfortunately, however, among the animals were some rabbits, which
multiplied so rapidly that they overspread the whole island, and, by
devouring every plant and blade of grass which grew there, soon
changed a fruitful land into a bare wilderness.
MADEIRA DISCOVERED.
In the following year, Zarco and Vaz, seeing from Porto Santo
something that seemed like a cloud, but yet different (the origin of so
much discovery, noting the difference in the likeness), built two boats,
and, making for this cloud, soon found themselves alongside a beautiful
island abounding in many things, but most of all in trees, on which
account they gave it the name of Madeira (wood). The two discoverers
landed upon the island in different places. The prince, their master,
afterwards rewarded them with the captaincies of the districts adjacent
to those places. To Perestrelo he gave the island of Porto Santo, to
colonize it. Perestrelo, however, did not make much of his captaincy;
and spent his life in endeavouring to make head against the rabbits,
which were as destructive as a plague of locusts, and which by their
fecundity resisted all his efforts to exterminate them. This captain has a
place in history, as being the father-in-law of Columbus, who, indeed,
lived at Porto Santo for some time, and here, on new found land,
studied the cosmographical works which Perestrelo had been at pains to
accumulate; meditating far bolder discoveries.
AFRICAN COAST EXPLORED.
Zarco and Vaz began the cultivation of their island of Madeira, but met
with an untoward event at first. In clearing the wood, they kindled a fire
amongst it, which burned for seven years, we are told; and, in the end,
that which had given its name to the island, and which, in the words of
the historian, overshadowed the whole land, became the most deficient
commodity. The captains founded churches in the island, and the King
of Portugal, Don Duart, gave the temporalities to Prince Henry, and all

the spiritualities to the Knights of Christ.
From this time forth, Prince Henry prosecuted his explorations with a
fixity of purpose which could not but ensure success. Through every
discouragement he persevered still. Many a Swiss peak has gone
through three phases. It has been pronounced, first, "inaccessible," then,
"a very dangerous ascent," and finally, "a pleasant excursion." So it was
with each fresh headland which seemed to bar the way down the
African coast. And the travellers who came last, in each case, found it
next to impossible to imagine what were the difficulties and dangers
that had seemed so formidable to their predecessors.
BARRIER OF ROCKS.
For a long time Cape Bojador, which is situate seventy leagues to the
south of Cape Nam, was the extreme limit of discovery. This cape was
formidable in itself, being terminated by a ridge of rocks, with fierce
currents running round them; but was much more formidable from the
fancies which the mariners had formed of the sea and land beyond it.
"It is clear," they were wont to say, "that beyond this cape there are no
people whatever; the land is as bare as Libya--no water, no trees, no
grass in it; the sea so shallow, that at a league from the land it is only a
fathom deep; the currents so fierce, that the ship which passes that cape
will never return;" and thus their theories were brought in to