The Ilha de San Thome, or island of St Thomas, which is said to have received its name from the saint to whom the chapel of the great monastery of Thomar is dedicated, and to which all the African discoveries are subjected in spirituals, has its southern extremity almost directly under the equinoctial, and is a very high land of an oval shape, about fifteen leagues in breadth, by twelve leagues long.
The most southerly of these islands, in lat. 1° 30' S. now called Annobon, was originally named Ilha d'Anno Bueno, or Island of the Happy Year, having been discovered by Pedro d'Escovar, on the first day of the year 1472. At a distance, this island has the appearance of a single high mountain, and is almost always topt with mist. It extends about five leagues from north to south, or rather from N. N. W. to S. S. E. and is about four leagues broad, being environed by several rocks and shoals. It has several fertile vallies, which produce maize, rice, millet, potatoes, yams, bananas, pine-apples, citrons, oranges, lemons, figs, and tamarinds, and a sort of small nuts called by the French noix de medicine, or physic nuts353. It also furnishes oxen, hogs, and sheep, with abundance of fish and poultry; and its cotton is accounted excellent.
Including the voyages of Cada Mosto and Pedro de Cintra, which have been already detailed, as possibly within the period which elapsed between the death of Don Henry in 1463, and King Alphonzo, which latter event took place on the 28th August 1481, and the detached fragments of discovery related in the present Section, we have been only able to trace a faint outline of the uncertain progress of Portuguese discovery during that period of eighteen years, extending, as already mentioned, to Cape St Catherine and the island of Annobon. A considerable advance, therefore, had been made since the lamented death of the illustrious Don Henry; which comprehended the whole coast of Guinea, with its two gulfs, usually named the Bights of Benin and Biafra, with the adjacent islands, and extending to the northern frontier of the kingdom of Congo354. If the following assertion of de Barros could be relied on, we might conclude that some nameless Portuguese navigators had crossed the line even before the death of Don Henry; but the high probability is, that the naval pupils of that illustrious prince continued to use his impress upon their discoveries, long after his decease, and that the limits of discovery in his time was confined to Cape Vergas. Some Castilians, sailing under the command of Garcia de Loaysa, a knight of Malta, landed in 1525 on the island of St Matthew, in two degrees of southern latitude355. They here observed that it had been formerly visited by the Portuguese, as they found an inscription on the bark of a tree, implying that they had been there eighty-seven years before356. It also bore the usual motto of that prince, talent de bien faire.
In the paucity of authentic information respecting these discoveries, it seems proper to insert the following abstract of the journal of a Portuguese pilot to the island of St Thomas, as inserted by Ramusio, previous to the voyage of Vasco de Gama, but of uncertain date; although, in the opinion of the ingenious author of the Progress of Maritime Discover, this voyage seems to have been performed between the years 1520 and 1540. In this, state of uncertainty, it is therefore made a section by itself, detached in some measure from the regular series of the Portuguese discoveries.
Before I left Venice, I was requested by letter from Signior Hieronimo Fracastro of Verona, that, on my arrival at Conde, I would send, him an account of my voyage to San Thome, to which island our ships often sail for cargoes of sugar. The passage of the equinoctial line, under which that island, is situated, appeared to that gentleman so extraordinary a circumstance as to merit the attention of men of science; and you likewise made me a similar request. I began, therefore, immediately after my return, to draw up an account of my voyage, from those notes which we pilots usual keep of all occurrences, and I compared it in my progress with the journals of some friends who had formerly made the same voyage. When I afterwards attentively perused my manuscript, it did not appear to me worthy of being communicated to a gentleman of such scientific character as Signor Hieronimo, whose talents I had duly appreciated, by the perusal of his publications, which I received from you before my departure from Venice. I therefore laid my manuscript aside, not wishing that any one might peruse it; but as you have again urged the performance of my promise, I now anxiously obey a request, which, as coming from you, I must always consider a command. Apprehensive, likewise, of appearing forgetful of your polite attentions, I prefer the danger of exposing my ignorance, to the possibility of being charged with ingratitude or want of attention. Being a sailor, and unused to composition, I pretend to little more than copying the remarks of those who have sailed from our continent to Ethiopia, without attempting to reduce my narrative into lucid order, or to embellish it with fine writing. You will therefore have the goodness to destroy this account, after its perusal, that the errors I have committed, by compliance with your commands, may not draw upon me the imputation of presumption.
The Portuguese ships which sail to the island of St Thomas from Lisbon, for cargoes of sugar, usually put to sea in February, though some vessels make this voyage at every period of the year. Their course is S.S.W. until they reach the Canary Islands; after which they steer for the island of Palmas, which is opposite to Cape Bojador on the coast of Africa, and is about ninety leagues from the kingdom of Castile. This island has plenty of provisions, and abounds in wine and sugar. The north– west wind prevails most, and a great sea rages continually on its coast, particularly in the month of December358.
If the ships which are bound for the island of St Thomas find it necessary to obtain a quantity of salt after having taken on board a sufficient supply at the island of Sal, they steer for the coast of Africa at the Rio del Oro; and, if they have calm weather and a smooth sea; they catch as many fish in four hours, with hooks and lines, as may suffice for all their wants during the remainder of the voyage. But, if the weather is unfavourable for fishing at the Rio del Oro, they proceed along the coast to Cape Branco; and thence along the coast to the island of Arguin. The principal sorts of fish on this coast are pagros, called albani by the Venetians; likewise corvi and oneros, which latter are only a larger and darker-coloured species of pagros. As soon as taken, the fish are opened and salted, and serve as an excellent supply of provisions to navigators. All the coast of Africa, from Cape Bojador, otherwise called Cabo della Volta, as far as Cape Branco and even to Arguin, is low and sandy. At Arguin, which is inhabited by Moors and Negroes, and which is situated on the confines between these two nations, there is a capacious harbour, and a castle belonging to our king of Portugal, in which some Portuguese always reside with the royal agent.
353
These may possibly be the nuts of the Ricinus Palma Christi, from which the castor oil is extracted. –E.
354
Strictly speaking the northern limits of Loango, one of the divisions of the extensive kingdom of Congo, is at the Sette river, ten leagues S.S. E. from Cape St Catherine. –E.
355
There is no island of that name in this position; so that the island of St Matthew of de Barros must refer to Annobon. –E.
356
These dates would throw back the discovery of this island, and the passage of the line by the mariners of Don Henry, to the year 1438, at a time when they had not reached the latitude of 25° N. which is quite absurd. –E.
357
Ramusio. Clarke I. 298. This voyage was communicated by the relator to Count Raimond della Torre, a nobleman of Verona. –Clarke.
358
A description of the islands of Cape Verd, and an account of the supply of salt usually taken on board by the Portuguese ships at the island of Sal, for the purpose of laying in a sea store of salt fish, is here omitted. –Clarke.