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XIV. FAYAL AND THE AZORES.1

The Discovery of the. Azores.

The discoverers of the Azores are not known to
history. They may have been Vikings or Crusaders
coming from the north on their way to the Mediterranean
; Catalans, Genoese or Venetians driven out of
their course whilst making for Flanders, England or
Ireland. They certainly were not Portuguese. Prince
Henry seems first to have seen these islands upon a chart
which his far-travelled brother, D. Pedro, brought from
Venice in 1428.2

This, however, is not the oldest available chart upon
which the Western Islands are delineated, for they may
already be seen upon one designed by a Genoese, in 1351,
which is preserved in the Biblioteca Laurenziana at
Florence.3

Even more ancient is a list of the islands in the
account of an imaginary journey through all parts of the
world which was compiled by a Spanish friar before the
middle of the fourteenth century, which he entitled
1 Libro del conocimiento de todos los Reinos y Senorios.'4

Prince Henry, in 1431, despatched Goncalo Velho
Cabral5 in search of these lost islands. Velho in that
year discovered the Formigos or " ants," a group of low
rocks lying between the islands of S. Maria and S. Miguel,
either of which must have been distinctly visible from
these rocks.

The second group of the Archipelago, including five
islands, may have been discovered by Diogo de Sevilla,
pilot of the King of Portugal, in 1437. Such at least is
the statement in a beautiful map of the world by Gabriel
de Valsequa, a Majorcan cartographer.6 This map is

disposing of the spices and other products of the countries he had
discovered, and which had hitherto been distributed by Venice. Behaim
had first visited D. Jorge, who was then in England, came to Antwerp
and Brugge, and recognising the advantages of the former, advised the
King to establish a factory there, which was actually done in 1503.

1 J. Mees,' Hist, de la decouverte des iles Acores' (Ghent, 1901); P. J.
Baudet, ' Beschryving van de Azorische eilanden' (Antwerp, 1879).

1 D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, son of John I., was born in 1391. He
was regent of the kingdom during the minority of his nephew, Affonso V.,
1433-49, when he was killed at the battle of Alfarrobeira. His children
tied to the Court of the Duke of Burgundy. On this chart see p. 40, note.

3 Facsimiles of this Portolano chart, also known as the ' Medicean
Portolano,' because included in a library founded by the Medici, have
been published by Theob. Fischer and A. E. Nordenskiold (' Periplus,' X.).

4 Marcos Jimenez dc la Espada, who published this interesting
document in the Boletin of the Geogr. Society of Madrid, II., 1877,
believes the friar to have been born in 1305, and the 'Conocimiento' to
have been compiled in 1345.

* Ayres de Sa, ' Frei Gonsalo Velho,' 3 vols., Lisbon 1893-1900.
Cabral was the family name of Velho's mother. See Plate for a map of
these islands.

6 Hamy, 'Etudes,' pp. 111-120, furnishes information on this
cartographer, and publishes his chart of the Mediterranean drawn in
1449, and purchased by Amerigo Vespucci for 130 golden ducats. His
map of the world has not yet been published.

dated 1439, and in that very year the youthful King
Affonso V., with the consent of the Queen-mother and of
the Regent D. Pedro, authorised his uncle Henry the
Navigator to people the " seven islands of the Azores,"7
thus named after the flocks of wild birds, supposed to be
hawks (acores), but which were in reality kites (milhanos).

The third group, including Flores and Corvo, was
certainly re-discovered before 1453, for in January of that
year Corvo was granted to D. Affonso, Duke of Braganca,
the bastard son of John I.8 It is probable that the
discoverer was Joao de Teive of Madeira, whose pilot,
Pedro de Velasco, told Columbus at Rabide that this
discovery had been made in 1452 in the course of an
unsuccessful search after Antillia."

On the death of Henry the Navigator, in 1460, the
Azores were transferred to Don Fernando,10 the Navigator's
nephew and adopted son, and his successor as Master of
the Order of Christ.11 When Fernando died in 1470, he
was succeeded by his son, Don Diogo, Duke of Vizeu,
after whose murder by John II. in 1484, the islands were
granted to the King's brother-in-law, Don Manuel, Duke
of Beja, who subsequently became famous as King
Manuel the Fortunate.

i

Nomenclature of the Azores.

The names borne by the seven islands of the Azores,
and of Corvo and Flores, since 1345 may be gathered
from the table on page 47.

The nomenclature of the Spanish Friar is undoubtedly
Spanish (and not Italian or Portuguese), and his knowledge
of the archipelago was certainly more complete than was
that of the Genoese compiler of the Laurentian Portolano
Chart. The only island omitted by him is the Ilha
grcKjiosa, which only made its appearance after the rediscovery
of the archipelago had been inaugurated by Henry
the Navigator. The Isla del brazil may owe its name to a
dye-plant—orchil—which reminded its discoverers of the
East Indian brazil, a dye wood which had found its way
into Italy and Catalonia as early as the twelfth century.
Isla del lobo, Seal Island, seems to me more appropriate
than Lovo, the egg-shaped island, for S. Maria, resembles
by no means an egg ; originally S. Maria was named after
its discoverer, Goncalo Velho. The names of the other
islands may be translated thus:—Goat Island, St. George,

7 ' Alguns documentos,' p. 6.

8 ' Alguns documentos,'p. 14.

» Harrisse, « Christopher Columbus ' (Paris, 1884), I., 311. In 1474
Diogo de Teive, the son of the discoverer, was authorised to cede the
island to Fernao Telles (' Alg. doc.,' p. 38).

10 D. Fernando, Duke of Vizeu, born 1433, was the son of King
Duarte and the father of King Manuel and Queen Lianor, consort of
King John II. His sister D. Leanor, married the Emperor Frederick III.
in 1451. His widow, D. Brites or Beatrice, was a granddaughter of
King Duarte.

11 Letters patent (carta de merc6) of December, 1460 (' Alg. doc.,'
p. 27).