Major (Richard Henry)

A contemporary English writer, who died in London in June 1901. He was a member of the Royal Geographical Society and keeper of the department of maps and charts at the British Museum. The work he published in 1868 under the title The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal became very well known in our country; it is a true commemorative pillar (padrão) raised to the memory of Prince Henry the Navigator, and also an unimpeachable tribute to the maritime odyssey accomplished by the Portuguese in the course of the 15th century. Richard Henry Major regards the legend of Robert Machin as historical truth, but Dr Álvaro de Azevedo triumphantly refuted the English writer's assertions, devoting to this subject some of the most interesting pages of his learned notes to ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra). Dr Rodrigues de Azevedo's irrefutable argument reduced the Machin affair to the proportions of a charming and poetic legend without the slightest glimmer of historical foundation. Major published another work entitled The Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and their results (London 1877), and his first work was translated into Portuguese by José António Ferreira Brandão.