Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/62

 44 WEST AFEICA. encircled by deep waters, in which the sounding-line plunges 2,200 fathoms without touching the bed of the sea. But in the direction of Europe there occur several banks and plateaux, such as that of Gettysburg, about 150 miles from the nearest Portuguese headland, flooded only by 200 feet of water. This bank of bright pink coral forms the crest of an extensive submerged land, which ramifies on the one hand towards Madeira, on the other towards the Azores through the Josephine bank lying under 85 fathoms of water. In the early records of doubtful geographical discovery Madeira flits like a shadow before the puzzled gaze of the observer. Is it to be identified with the Jeziret-el-Ghanam, discovered by the Arab navigators before the time of Edrisi, that is, before the twelfth century ; and is Porto-Santo the Jeziret-el-Tiur, or " Isle of Birds " of these explorers ? On the map of the brothers Pizzigani, dated 1367, and several other more recent Italian charts, the Madeira group is indicated as the archipelago of Saint Brendan's Fortunate Islands. But so early as 1351 Madeira is already mentioned in a Medicean document by the name it still bears, the " Isle of Wood " (in Italian kgname, the equivalent of the Portuguese madeira, " wood " ), the other islets of the group being also indicated by their present appellations. Nevertheless, Madeira was again forgotten by the western seafarers, or at least the vague memory of its existence faded away into a popular legend. " It seems," says one au-thor, " that such a delightful island could only have been discovered by love ; " and thus arose, embellished by a Portuguese writer, the story of the two English lovers who fled from Bristol in the reign of Edward III., and were driven by a storm to the coast of Madeira. But however this be, the definite registration of the archipelago in the records of geographical discovery dates only from the year 1418 or 1419. Accord- ing to Barros, the cavaliers Gon^alvez Zarco and Tristam Yaz Teixeyra, "still unaccustomed to sail on the high seas," were driven by the tempest far from the African shore, which they were coasting in the direction of Bojador, and landed at Porto-Santo, the " Sacred Port," or haven of refuge. On their return to Portugal they received from Don Henri a commission to colonise the new island, and they proceeded forthwith to explore a dark spot visible from Porto-Santo on the south-western horizon. Madeira was at last discovered. Contemporary evidence leaves no room to doubt that the Portuguese navigators really rediscovered the archipelago. At the same time it cannot be pretended that the islands were previously unknown to Prince Henry, for the very names given them by the Portuguese were identified with those already assigned to them on the Italian maps. Madeira, chief member of the group, so far exceeds all the others in extent, population, and resources, that in ordinary language no account is taken of these minor satellites, and Madeira is spoken of as if it were a solitary island in the waste of waters. Disposed in the direction from east to west, it has an extreme length of over 35 miles, and a width of 14 miles at its widest part, between the northern and southern headlands of San-Jorge and Santa-Cruz, with a superficial area of about 280 square miles. Madeira is entirely occupied by igneous rocks