62 CAPE BOJADOR. [chap. iv. 



1420 *, the island to which, from the trees that covered it, 

 he gave the name of Madeira^. 



From these events we may date the commencement of that 

 great epoch of maritime adventure which raised Portugal to 

 the rank of one of the chief nations of Europe, and paved 

 the way to the discovery of the New World. 



CAPE BOJADOR. 



It was not till twelve years } after the discovery of Madeira 

 that the doubling of Cape Bojador was accomplished. It is 

 not a little remarkable, as Rennell observes, that the Portu- 

 guese, the best mariners at that day, should have found so 

 much difficulty in accomplishing a task which had been often 

 performed by ancient navigators. 



COLUMBUS. 



Gomara and other Spanish writers affirm that Columbus 

 was a resident in Madeira. Juan de Mariana relates " that a 

 certain ship was driven from the coast of Africa by a tempest 

 to unknown lands. The storm at length abated, and the 

 ship was cast upon the island of Madeira. There was by 

 chance on that island one Christopher Columbus, a Genoese 

 by birth, who had married in Portugal, and was a very ac- 



* Azur, cap. 83. 



+ " The word Madeira has the same signification as the Lat. Materia, 

 from which it is only vernacularised, the Portuguese frequently substituting 

 d for the Lat. t, and transposing the r from its situation with its connecting 

 vowel ; of which we need give no more familiar instances than -padre and 

 fradre for pater and frater, when used in a spiritual sense. That materia is 

 the classical term for forest trees, we have the authority of Caesar, in his 

 Commentaries, who remarks of Britain, ' Materia cujusque generis, ut in 

 Gallia, est ; prater fagum et abietem.' " — Rees' Cyclopaedia, art. Madeira. 



J Faria y Sousa. 



