Discovery of the archipelago

Much has already been written about the discovery of the Madeira archipelago, yet the precise date of this happy and momentous event remains shrouded in deep darkness. The question matters not only to Madeira but equally to the history of our maritime discoveries, for it marks the glorious beginning of our Homeric deeds across continents and oceans. The discovery of Madeira is the great, undying commemorative pillar (padrão) that truly marks the auspicious start of our odyssey as navigators. Before the Portuguese put in at these unknown shores, they had undertaken only bold but almost entirely fruitless ventures; it was afterwards that they discovered the Azores, Guinea, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, the Cape of Good Hope, India, Brazil and the countless islands scattered across the vastness of the Atlantic and the Pacific. The discovery of this archipelago represents not only a notable territorial expansion of our dominions as a nation but, above all, our first great conquest as navigators and future masters of the seas. For a nation whose chief role in history was that of voyages and maritime conquests, the first important discovery we made cannot but be regarded as a great and glorious event, and the utmost zeal ought to be shown in establishing, with complete and absolute precision, the date on which this remarkable event took place. The truth is that nothing whatever has been done to this end. Although the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (Academia das Sciencias de Lisboa) has a commission specially charged with promoting the commemoration of our conquests and discoveries, we are not aware that it has undertaken any historical research aimed at determining precisely the date of any of these discoveries and conquests, as the sound and indispensable basis for holding those very commemorations.

Various legends, conjectures and hypotheses trace knowledge of Madeira and other islands of the Atlantic Ocean back to very remote times, but nothing definite has been established on the matter. In the article Atlantis we have already referred to the possible existence of that island, of which the philosopher Plato speaks, reproducing ancient Egyptian traditions, and of which Madeira might perhaps be a small fragment left by the great cataclysm that buried the perhaps mythical Atlantis in the depths of the Ocean.

Around the supposed or real existence of this island many hypotheses have been constructed and varied conjectures invented, which are of particular interest only to those who wish to study the subject in greater depth. Another legend, mentioned by some authors, is that of the islands of St Brendan, an Irish monk who is supposed to have travelled to various islands of the Atlantic, one of which would have been Madeira. Others further assert that the Phoenicians, the Arabs, the Carthaginians and the Normans, at different periods, sailed along the western coasts of Africa and visited many of the islands scattered across the Atlantic, leaving traces of their passage on some of them. Many writers have dealt in particular with the Carthaginian Hanno and his Periplus, or description of his sea route, and some authors of good repute and sound critical judgement regard this voyage as genuine. This would allow for the possibility that the Madeira archipelago was a point of passage on one or more of these doubtful and problematic voyages. It is generally believed, and on the firmest grounds, that such voyages were made only along the coasts. This was owing to the backward state of the art of navigation, the small size of the vessels, the terror inspired by the vastness of the ocean, the belief in sea creatures of enormous bulk capable of swallowing ships or sinking them, and yet other legends and superstitions. The chief beacons and points of reference were the most prominent capes, promontories and headlands of the land, and navigators did not then venture on voyages on the high seas or on long, distant runs that would take them too far out of sight of the mainland. It is for these weighty reasons that, although the possibility of these remote voyages is admitted, all the probabilities favour the generally accepted and acknowledged fact that the Madeira archipelago was not visited before João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira made for these unknown waters. The distinguished geographer and historian M. d’Avezac, in the second part of his notable work Iles de l’Afrique, pp. 2 to 41, deals at length with the legends and traditions to which we make only a brief reference here; they are also dealt with by the illustrious annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra), in one of his learned notes to the work of Gaspar Frutuoso. We do not refer here to the well-known legend of Robert Machin, because we shall deal with it in a separate article.

Leaving these legends and traditions aside, some authors have claimed that Portuguese ships were not the first to make for the shores of this archipelago. This view was echoed by our learned fellow Madeiran and distinguished researcher Dr Jordão de Freitas in his interesting pamphlet Quando foi descoberta a Madeira? He states that a Spanish mendicant friar of the 14th century made a voyage to this island, and that his account of it, published in 1877 in the bulletin of the Geographical Society of Madrid, clearly mentions the islands Salvage, Desierta, Lecname and Puerto Santo. Seventy years earlier the Viscount of Santarém had already referred to this voyage of the Spanish monk, but without giving it any credence, and indeed regarding it as of no historical or geographical value. Others again, relying chiefly on the historical memoirs of the academician Joaquim José da Costa de Macedo, included in the Memórias da Academia de Lisboa and published in 1816 and 1835, believed it had been proved in the most conclusive manner that the Portuguese discovered the Canary Islands in the second quarter of the 14th century. They therefore asserted that the Madeiran archipelago must have been discovered at about that time, so that the Infante’s caravels, commanded by Zarco and Tristão Vaz, were not the first to put in at Madeira. The illustrious writer Dr Teófilo Braga, seeking to strip Henry the Navigator of the glory of having been the true initiator of our great maritime discoveries, also shared that opinion, but without bringing forward decisive arguments, or even acceptable probabilities, that might lend his bold assertion at least an appearance of truth. Costa de Macedo’s argument rests above all on a letter addressed by Afonso IV to Pope Clement VI, a letter copied from a foreign author and offering no sure guarantee of authenticity. These various historical problems, to which we refer here only briefly, were dealt with by Aires de Sá in his notable work on Gonçalo Velho Cabral, and later by João da Rocha in the work entitled Lenda Infantista, published in 1916. This last study proves abundantly, and without fear of any well-founded rebuttal, that the Portuguese were not in the Canaries in the second quarter of the 14th century, and that the Madeiran archipelago was discovered by João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz at the time commonly given by historians, having been unknown before then to other navigators, Portuguese or foreign. The Lenda Infantista is, on this subject, a complete and exhaustive work, as people nowadays like to say, not only for its tireless and extensive historical research but above all for the impartial and fair criticism with which it is written, and also for the sure and tight reasoning that guides its author’s entire argument.

It appears to be established that João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz were driven by a violent storm onto the shores of the island of Porto Santo. So say the oldest chroniclers who deal with the discovery of this island. These navigators had set out in search of discoveries, to explore the unknown, making especially for the lands of Guinea, which was then the goal of the Portuguese’s daring voyages, when the tempest unexpectedly carried them to the coasts of an unknown island. Gomes Eanes de Zurara (see that entry), the earliest narrator of these events, says that ‘the Infante, seeing their good will (that of Zarco and Tristão), ordered a barcha to be fitted out for them, in which they might go armed against the Moors, directing them to go in search of the land of Guinea... and as God wished to bring so much good to this kingdom... He guided them so that with contrary weather they arrived at the island which is now called Porto Santo... for which reason they left that island and crossed over to the other, Madeira... ’. To shed fuller light on this text of Zurara, we transcribe the judicious commentary that Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo made on it in one of his annotations to the ‘Longing for the Homeland’:

“

In view of the preceding text of Zurara, it is clear that when Zargo and Tristão Vaz first appeared in the waters of this archipelago of Madeira, no report of it, whether of Castilian, English or other origin, had brought them here; they were going “in search of the Land of Guinea”, which was the constant aim of Dom Henrique, and according to which he had given regulations (regimento) to his navigators: no one but “GOD GUIDED THEM”, driving them with contrary weather” off the course they were following, until “THUS they arrived at the island which is now called Porto Santo” and “in the following year” the same discoverers “CROSSED OVER” from the island of Porto Santo “to the other island, Madeira”.','cells':null}

“

“They crossed over”, Zurara put it very well; for in this single word the whole history of the discovery of this island is perfectly contained – a history far more artless and sound than all those that have since been dreamed up; for it is physically impossible to spend any time on the island of Porto Santo and, on clear days, not plainly see the land of Madeira, lofty as it is. On this point Zurara has on his side the unanimous testimony of all who live here, confirmed by that of every generation that has lived here from Zargo’s day to ours. The discovery of the one necessarily entailed that of the other. – “They crossed over”, yes, the Portuguese discoverers, and of their own accord, without any adventure of Machim or tip-off from a Castilian, simply and plainly, over a sea of roses; and so the discovery was accomplished.','cells':null}

“

In the light of the evidence from examining the place itself, Zurara was scrupulously truthful. Let no one charge him with being deficient; for he wrote the precise words needed to relate and affirm the fact. “God guided them by the hand of the tempest to the island of Porto Santo; and from there Zargo and Tristão Vaz crossed over to Madeira: all is said.”

The chroniclers who, immediately after Zurara, dealt with the discovery of Madeira were João de Barros and Damião de Góis, whose narratives do not differ essentially from the account given by the author of the Chronica da Guiné. Before Barros and Góis, it is true, Diogo Gomes and Alvise Cadamosto referred in their narratives to the discovery of this archipelago, not as historians or chroniclers but simply as seafarers. Nothing is found in their accounts, however, that contradicts the categorical assertions of the historians cited, particularly Eanes de Zurara, who was a contemporary of the events he narrated.

In what year was the island of Porto Santo discovered? As we have already noted above, the precise date of that event has not yet been established. Meanwhile, let us hear Gaspar Frutuoso’s account:

“

Arriving within a few days at Porto Santo... they at once saw from the sea that darkness... And so they stayed some days... One Sunday before dawn, three hours before sunrise, he had the ships set sail... They ran a good while to approach the darkness... And it being already midday... having gone but a short distance... they saw... land... and because it was already very late they did not go ashore that day... On the next day... having landed... he took possession... on the day of the Visitation of St Elizabeth of Portugal, the second of July of the aforesaid year of 1419’. The passages from Dr Gaspar Frutuoso transcribed above are commented upon by the illustrious annotator of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’, Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, in the following terms:

“

As to 1 July, given by Dr Frutuoso, having been the day on which Zargo first reached this island, we have no objections to raise; on the contrary, the wealth of detail about what preceded, accompanied and followed it leads us to presume that this passage is one of those preserved from the old manuscript attributed to Gonçalo Aires, which was later corrected and enlarged by Canon Leite’.

For those less versed in Madeiran history, it should be recalled that Gonçalo Aires Ferreira was one of Zarco’s companions. He is credited with the authorship of a writing entitled Descobrimento da Ilha da Madeira, whose original passed down by inheritance, from father to son, among the captains-donatary of Funchal. Then, in the time of the sixth captain and second Count of Calheta, João Gonçalves da Câmara, Jerónimo Dias Leite, a canon of Funchal Cathedral (the Sé), made use of this manuscript to write the notes he sent to Dr Gaspar Frutuoso, who drew on them for his important work ‘Longing for the Homeland’.

If we were to take Frutuoso’s account as absolutely certain, Madeira would have been discovered on Sunday 1 July 1419, with the first landing made on the beach at Machico the following day, that is, on Monday 2 July of the same year. Against this categorical assertion by the author of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’, Dr Manuel Sardinha, in an article published in the Diário de Notícias of this city, of which he is an editor, sets out the following judicious reflections:

“

Since the distinguished Azorean writes in his “Descobrimento das Ilhas ou Saudades da Terra” that the navigators Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira reached Madeira in their carrack “São Lourenço” on a Sunday, the first day of the month of July, this discovery could only have taken place in 1414 or 1425, the years closest to those claimed in which 1 July fell on a Sunday. In 1420, 1 July was a Monday. Frutuoso’s statement certainly contains an error: either of the day of the week or of the day of the month. Whereas 2 July 1419 was a Sunday!’ Dr M. Sardinha reached these conclusions, which are entirely correct, after serious research and study, so it may be stated peremptorily that 1 July 1420 fell on a Monday and 2 July 1419 fell on a Sunday.

There is evidently a clear mistake on the part of the historian of the islands in seeking to fix the day of Madeira’s discovery with such precision. Subject to better-informed opinion, we are inclined to believe that the caravel São Lourenço rounded the point that later took this name and approached the bay of Machico on the afternoon of 1 July 1419, and that the landing took place on Sunday 2 July of the same year, the day of the Visitation of St Elizabeth of Portugal.

In the article transcribed above, written many years ago, we set down the ideas then current and generally accepted about the discovery of our archipelago. In the time that has passed since, many articles have appeared scattered through the newspapers and several pamphlets have been published. None of them settled the matter definitively, particularly with regard to the reliable dating of the event, the names of the true discoverers and other incidental circumstances that may have accompanied it. It is nevertheless beyond doubt that new and valuable evidence has been brought to bear on this interesting problem, raising weighty doubts and giving rise to conflicting opinions born of the discussion and study that this much-debated subject has prompted. In this way certain principles have been established and highly probable conjectures have gradually been formed which, placed at the service of more rigorous historical research, may lead to the truth.

In the light of what we know today, no one can maintain as an undisputed fact that the island of Porto Santo was discovered in 1418 or 1419 and Madeira in one of the years immediately following, 1419 or 1420, as has generally always been asserted, invariably repeating what some of our oldest chroniclers said on the subject. The only exception would be if we give the word ‘discover’ the meaning it once had of ‘reconnoitre’ or ‘find again’, and also of ‘visit’, as some have already judiciously observed.

Those who have studied this subject in recent years hold the view that, by the date to which the discovery of the archipelago is generally attributed, it was already known to Portuguese navigators, as various reasons lead them to believe. It is well known that a degree of secrecy was then kept about the early maritime explorations, as regards dates and places. It is even claimed that some rutters and accounts of these voyages contain deliberate errors, intended to conceal, as circumstances advised, the discoveries that were being made across the unknown seas.

It is hard to accept that the royal charters of grant (doação) issued to João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, the two appointments as heads of the captaincies, and other official documents of the period make no reference whatever to the fact of the discovery. These documents do allude to personal circumstances of little importance compared with so remarkable and honourable an event. It should also be noted that they were issued when the work of settlement was already well advanced, so there was then no longer any need to keep the recommended silence about the discoveries that had been made. What appears to be established, and is steadily gaining the standing of historical truth, is that João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, shortly before beginning the arduous work of colonising Madeira, carried out a ‘reconnaissance’ of this archipelago. This was done in preparation for its forthcoming settlement and under orders and instructions issued by Prince Henry the Navigator himself.

We would go too far if we tried to reproduce here the long series of arguments that have been put forward in support of these probable conjectures, but the brevity we must strictly observe in writing these pages obliges us to bring this already long and tedious article to a close.