chap, iv.] COLUMBUS. 63 



complisbed navigator — a man of a great heart and lofty 

 thoughts. The captain of the ship put Columbus in pos- 

 session of the memorandums of bis voyage, which first in- 

 spired him -with a desire to visit those parts." Though we 

 may doubt the truth of this tale, still the connection of Co- 

 lumbus with the Madeiras may very likely have sown the 

 seed of his subsequent discoveries. His wife was a daughter 

 of Pestrello, who had been engaged in discovering the islands 

 of Porto Santo and Madeira. Columbus, it is said, got pos- 

 session of the journals and charts of his father-in-law, and 

 from them learned the course the Portuguese had held in their 

 discoveries, as well as what they found to guide and encourage 

 them in their attempts. Whilst he read the accounts of new 

 countries and new people the flame of his favourite passion 

 was fanned, and the wish to embark on adventures of bis 

 own became paramount in bis mind. His first voyage was to 

 Madeira*, and he continued for several years to trade with 

 that island, with the Azores, the settlements in Guinea, and 



all the other places which the Portuguese had discovered on 



the continent of Africa. 



The following romantic story of the first re-discovery of 



Madeira is said to have been told by Alcaforado, who 



flourished a few years after the colony was first settled 



here |. 



* Robertson's Life of Columbus, ch. iv. v. 



f Alcaforado's story was translated into French, and published in Paris 

 in the year 1671, in a work called Relation Historiqite de la Decouverte de 

 flsle de Madera, traduit du Portugais. The translator says of his author, 

 " Personne ne pouvait reussir mieux que lui dans sa narration de cette 

 avanture, puis qu'il assista en personne a la decouverte qui fut faite ensuite. 

 Dom Francois Manuel en garde l'original manuscrit avec beaucoup de soin, 

 c'est lui a qui nous avons l'obligation d'en avoir fait part au public en sa 

 langue." 



