To the Gold Coast for Gold | Page 9

at us; Cintra, the apex
of Lisbon's extinct volcano and the Mountain of the (Sun and) Moon,
hid her beautiful head, and even the Rock of Lisbon disdained the
normal display of sturdy flank. Then set in a brise carabinée, which
lasted during our voyage of 525 miles, and the Luso, rolling like a
moribund whale, proved so lively that most of the fourteen passengers
took refuge in their berths. A few who resisted the sea-fiend's assaults
found no cause of complaint: the captain and officers were exceedingly
civil and obliging, and food and wines were good and not costly.
From Madeira the Luso makes, once a month, the tour of the Azores,
touching at each island--a great convenience--and returning in ten days.
Early on Thursday, the 22nd, the lumpy, churning sea began to subside,
and the invisible balm seduced all the sufferers to the quarter-deck.
They were wild to sight Madeira as children to see the rising of the
pantomime-curtain. There was not much to gaze at; but what will not
attract man's stare at sea?--a gull, a turtle, a flying fish! By the by,
Captain Tuckey, of the Congo Expedition, remarked the 'extraordinary
absence of sea-birds in the vicinity of Madeira and the Canaries:' they
have since learned the way thither. Porto Santo appeared as a purple
lump of three knobs, a manner of 'gizzard island,' backed by a deeper
gloom of clouds--Madeira. Then it lit up with a pale glimmer as of
snow, the effect of the sun glancing upon the thin greens of the
northern flank; and, lastly, it broke into two masses--northern and
southern--of peaks and precipices connected by a strip of lowland.
It is generally held that the discovery of the Madeiran group (1418-19)
was the first marking feature of the century which circumnavigated
Africa, and that Porto Santo was 'invented 'by the Portuguese before
Madeira. The popular account, however, goes lame. For instance, the
story that tried and sturdy soldiers and seamen were deterred from
advancing a few miles, and were driven back to Portugal by the 'thick
impenetrable darkness which was guarded by a strange noise,' and by

anile fancies about the 'Mouth of Hell' and 'Cipango,' reads like mere
stuff and nonsense. Again, great are the difficulties in determining the
nationality of the explorers, and settling the conflicting claims of the
French, Genoese, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Arabs. History,
and perhaps an aptitude for claiming, have assigned the honour
exclusively to Lusitania: and every guide-book tells the same old tale.
But I have lived long enough to have seen how history is written; and
the discovery was, at best, a mere re-discovery, as we learn from Pliny
(vi. 36), whose 'insulae purpurariae' cannot be confounded [Footnote:
Mr. Major, however, would identify the Purple Islands with Oanarian
Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, both possibly Continental.] with the
Fortunate Islands, or Canaries. The 'Gaetulian dye' of King Juba in the
Augustan age is not known. Its origin has been found in the orchilla
still growing upon the Desertas; but this again appears unlikely enough.
Ptolemy (iv. 1,16) also mentions 'Erythía,' the Red Isle--'red,' possibly,
for the same reason; and Plutarch (in Suet.) may allude to the Madeiran
group when he relates of the Fortunate Islands: 'They are two, separated
only by a narrow channel, and at a distance of 400 leagues (read 320
miles) from the African coast.'
The Jesuit, Antonio Cordeyro, [Footnote: Historia insulana das Ilhas a
Portugal sugoytas, pp. 61-96. Lisbon, 1717.] who borrows from the
learned and trustworthy Dr. Gaspar Fructuoso, [Footnote: As Saudades
da Terra, lib. i. ch. iii, Historia das Ilhas, &c. This lettered and
conscientious chronicler, the first who wrote upon the Portuguese
islands, was born (A.D. 1522) at Ponta Delgada (Thin Point) of St.
Michael, Azores. He led a life of holiness and good works, composed
his history in 1590, left many 'sons of his soul,' as he called his books,
and died in his natal place, A.D. 1591. The Madeiran portion of the two
huge folios (some 4,000 pages of MS.) has been printed at Funchal,
with copious notes by Dr. A. Rodrigues de Azevedo, Professor of
Literature, &c., at the National Lyceum; and a copy was kindly lent to
me, during the author's absence in Lisbon, by Governor Viscount de
Villa Mendo.] declares in 1590: 'The first discoverers of the Porto
Santo Island, many say, were those Frenchmen and Castilians
(Spaniards) who went forth from Castile to conquer the Canaries; these,
when either outward or homeward bound, came upon the said island,

and, for that they found it uninhabited and small, they abandoned it; but
as they had weathered a storm and saved themselves there, they named
it Port Holy.' Fructuoso (i. 5) expressly asserts that the Portuguese
sailed from Lisbon in June 1419 for 'the Isle of