or 
(3) ] 
DISCOVERY OF PORTO SANTO AND MADEIRA. 4: 
but spirited people could hope to reap a rich harvest of wealth 
and glory. 
The first two ships which Prince Henry sent out on a voyage 
of discovery along the African coast (1412) did not reach 
farther than Cape Bojador, whose rocky cliffs stretching far out 
‘nto the Atlantic intimidated their inexperienced commanders. 
Six years later (1418) Juan Gonsalez Zarco and Tristan Vaz 
Tejeira were intrusted with a new expedition, and sailed with 
express commands to double that ill-famed promontory; but a 
terrible gale drove them out to sea, and forced them to seek 
a refuge on an unknown island, to which they thankfully gave 
the name of Porto Santo. This discovery, though extremely 
unimportant in itself, served to confirm the prince in his 
projects, and encouraged him to send out in the following year 
a new expedition under the same commander, to take posses- 
sion of the island. 
This led to a more important discovery, for on landing on 
Porto Santo the attention of the Portuguese was struck by a 
black and prominent spot, rising above the southern horizon. 
To this they now directed their course, and were equally de- 
lighted and surprised to see it swell out as they approached to 
the ample proportions of a large island; to which, on account of 
the dense forests which at that time covered its verdant hill- 
slopes up to the very top, they gave the name of Madeira. Prince 
Henry immediately equipped a considerable fleet to carry a 
colony of his countrymen to the new land of promise, and fur- 
nished them with the vine of Cyprus, and the sugar-cane of 
Sicily, which throve so well on the Atlantic isle, that after a 
few years the produce of Madeira began to be of consequence in 
the trade of the mother country. 
Thus the first undertakings of Prince Henry were not left 
unrewarded; but, besides the commercial advantages arising 
from the possession of Madeira, it encouraged the Portuguese 
navigators no longer servilely to creep. along the coasts, but 
boldly to steer into the open sea. Thus Don Gilianez, by avoid- 
ing the shore-currents, succeeded at last in doubling the dreaded 
Cape Bojador (1433), and opening a new sphere to navigation. 
One discovery now rapidly followed another. Gonsalez and Nuno 
Tristan (1440-1442) penetrated as far as the Senegal; Cape de 
Verd was reached in 1446; and three years later, the limits of 
