In the year 1447, Nuna Tristan made another voyage to the coast of Africa; and, advancing beyond Cabo dos Mastos , or the Cape of Masts, so named from some dead palms resembling masts, seen there by Lançarot, who made this discovery in the former voyage, Nuna Tristan proceeded southwards along the coast of Africa, 180 miles beyond Cape Verd, where he reached the mouth of a river which he called Rio Grande, or the Large River, since called Gamber, Gambra, or Gambia. Tristan came to anchor at the mouth of this river, and went in his boat with twenty-two armed men on purpose to explore its course. Having reached to a considerable distance from his ship, he was environed by thirteen almadias or canoes, manned by eighty negroes, who advanced with dreadful yells, and poured in continual vollies of poisoned arrows, by which he, and almost every man in his boat were wounded before they could regain the ship. Nuno Tristan and all the wounded men died speedily of the effects of these poisoned weapons, himself only living long enough to recount the nature of the terrible disaster to the small remainder of the crew who had been left in charge of the caravel; which was brought home by only four survivors, after wandering for two months in the Atlantic, scarcely knowing which way to steer their course.
There appears some difficulty and contradiction in regard to the river discovered by Nuna Tristan, from the vague name of Rio Grande. Instead of the Gambia, in lat. 13° 30' N. some of the Portuguese historians are inclined to believe that this fatal event took place at another river, in lat. 10° 15' N. at least 500 nautical miles beyond the Gambia, to the S.S. E. which was afterwards called Rio de Nuno. This is scarcely probable, as no notice whatever is taken of the great archipelago of shoals and islands which extend from Cabo Rosso to beyond the mouth of that river which is still called Rio Grande. Yet it must be acknowledged that our remaining information respecting these early Portuguese voyages of discovery, is unfortunately vague and unsatisfactory.
In the same year, 1447, Alvaro Fernando proceeded to the coast of Africa, and is said to have advanced forty leagues beyond Tristan, having arrived at the mouth of a river called Tabite[11], 100 miles to the south of Rio Nuno. Notwithstanding the appearance of a determined opposition on the part of the natives, who had manned five almadias, Alvaro resolved to explore its course in his boat, and proceeded up the river for that purpose, with the utmost circumspection. One of the almadias stood out from the rest, and attacked his boat with great bravery, discharging a number of poisoned arrows, by which Alvaro and several of his men were wounded, which forced him to desist and return to his ship. Being, however, provided with theriac and other antidotes against the poison, Alvaro and all his men recovered from their wounds. He resolved, after leaving the river Tabite, to proceed along the coast, which he did to a sandy point; and, apprehending no danger in so open a situation, was preparing to land, when he was suddenly assailed by a flight of poisoned arrows, from 120 negroes who started up from a concealment. Alvaro, therefore, desisted from any farther attempt to explore the coast, and returned to Lagos to give an account of his proceedings.
[11] No such name occurs in the best modern charts, neither is there a river of any consequence on the coast which answers to the distance. The first large river to the south of the Nuno is the Mitomba, or river of Sierra Liona, distant about 130 maritime miles.--E.
In the same year, ten caravels sailed from Lagos for Madeira, the Canaries, and the coast of Africa, but returned without making any progress in discovering the coast. Under this year likewise, 1447, the Antilles, or Caribbee islands, are pretended to have been discovered by a Portuguese ship driven, thither by a storm. But the fact rests only on the authority, of Galvano, a Portuguese historian, and is not at all credible. Indeed the story is an absolute fable; as the inhabitants are said to have spoken the Portuguese language, and to have had seven cities in their island. In the same year, Gomez Perez went with two caravels to Rio del Ouro, whence he carried eighty Moors to Lagos as prisoners.
About this period the progress of discovery was arrested by political disputes in Portugal, which ended in a civil war between Don Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, and King Alphonso V. his nephew and son-in-law, in the course of which Don Pedro was slain. Don Henry appears to have taken no share in these disputes, except by endeavouring to mediate between his nephew and brother; and, after the unhappy catastrophe of Don Pedro, Don Henry returned to Sagres, where he resumed the superintendence of his maritime discoveries.
SECTION VI.
Discovery and Settlement of the Açores [1].
[1] So called from the number of hawks which were seen on these islands when first discovered, Açor signifying a hawk in the Portuguese language; hence Açores or Açoras, pronounced Azores, signifies the Islands of Hawks.--Clark.
These nine islands, called the Açores, Terceras, or Western islands, are situated in the Atlantic, 900 miles west from Portugal, at an almost equal distance from Europe, Africa, and America. The Flemings pretend that they were discovered by a navigator of their nation, John Vanderberg, who sailed from Lisbon in 1445 or 1449. Santa Maria, one of these islands, 250 leagues west from Cape St. Vincent, was first seen on the 15th August 1432, by Cabral, who sailed under the orders of Don Henry. San Miguel was taken possession of by the same navigator on the 8th May 1444; and Ponta Delgada its capital, received its charter from Emanuel in 1449. Tercera was given to Jacome de Brujes in 1450, by Don Henry, in which year St. George was discovered. Pico and Gracioso were discovered about the same time. Perhaps Fayal may actually have been first explored, as many of the inhabitants are of Flemish descent, under the command and protection of the Portuguese. Flores and Corvo, which lie seventy leagues west from Tercera, are not reckoned among the Açores by some writers. In this latter island, the Portuguese pretend that there was discovered an equestrian statue made from one block of stone. The head of the man was bare, his left hand rested on the mane of his horse, and his right pointed towards the west , as if indicating the situation of another continent. In addition to all this, an inscription appeared to have been traced on a rock beneath the statue, but in a language which the Portuguese did not understand.
In the slow progress of discovery, the perils endured by the officers and men employed by Don Henry, from the Moors and Negroes, frequently occasioned murmurs against his plans of discovery; but the several clusters of islands, the Madeiras, Cape Verd, and Açores, formed a succession of maritime and commercial colonies, and nurseries for seamen, which took off from the general obloquy attending the tedious and hitherto unsuccessful attempts to penetrate farther into the southern hemisphere, and afforded a perpetual supply of navigators, and a stimulus to enterprize. The original prejudices against the possibility of navigating or existing in the torrid zone still subsisted, and although the navigators of Don Henry had gradually penetrated to within ten degrees of the equator, yet the last successive discovery was always held forth by the supporters of ignorant prejudice, as that which had been placed by nature as an insurmountable barrier to farther progress in the Atlantic. In this situation, the settlement of the Açores was of considerable importance. In 1457, Don Henry procured the grant of many valuable privileges to this favourite colony, the principal of which was the exemption of the inhabitants from any duties on their commerce to the ports of Portugal and even of Spain.
In 1461, a fort was erected in the isle of Arguin on the African coast of the Moors, to protect the trade carried on there for gold and negro slaves. Next year, 1462, Antonio de Noli, a Genoese, sent by the republic to Portugal, entered into the service of Don Henry, and in a voyage to the coast of Africa, discovered the islands which are known by the name of the Cape de Verd Islands, though they lie 100 leagues to the westward of that Cape. In the same year Pedro de Cintra, and Suera de Costa, penetrated a little farther along the coast of Africa, and discovered the river or Bay of Sierra Liona or Mitomba, in lat. 8° 30' N. This constituted the last of the Portuguese discoveries, carried on under the direct influence and authority of Don Henry, the founder and father of modern maritime discovery, as he died next year, 1463, at Sagres, in the sixty-seventh year of