Porto Santo

“ They reached Porto Santo, where they heard of a dark line visible in all clear weather on the southern horizon, and sailing for it through the fogs, came to a marshy cape, and beyond this cape to high wooded land which Morales recognized at once from his fellow-prisoner's description. Yes, and bringing them to shore he led them, unerring, to the wooden cross above the beach; and there, over the grave of these lovers, Zarco took seizin of the island in the name of King John of Portugal, Prince Henry, and the Order of Christ. ”

“ It is generally held that the discovery of the Madeiran group (1418-19) was the first marking feature of the century which circumnavigated Africa, and that Porto Santo was 'invented 'by the Portuguese before Madeira. The popular account, however, goes lame. For instance, the story that tried and sturdy soldiers and seamen were deterred from advancing a few miles, and were driven back to Portugal by the 'thick impenetrable darkness which was guarded by a strange noise,' and by anile fancies about the 'Mouth of Hell' and 'Cipango,' reads like mere stuff and nonsense. ”

“ On Wednesday, the 8th of August, we came in sight of Porto Santo. The first appearance of land always produces a degree of interest in the ship even to sailors, but to passengers it is generally the cause of great excitement. In the afternoon we saw Madeira, [1] and on the following day we rounded the west end of the island, and stood for Funchal Roads, having passed along the north side in order that Captain Owen might ascertain its length, which he found to be thirty-four miles ”

“ Beyond Porto Santo we obtain a superb view of the abrupt and furrowed N. coast of Madeira, with the curiously shaped Penha d’Aguia (p. 27) .
Farther on appears the long E. promontory of Madeira, a rocky peninsula worn by the surf, and connected with the islet of Ponta de São Lourenço by a grand rocky gateway called the Ponta do Furado. We steer round the Ilheo de Fora, an outlying islet with a lighthouse (Farol; 348 ft.) , visible from a distance of 28 M., towards which the steamers from Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Morocco direct their course, passing to the S. of Porto Santo. ”

“ When the Deptford approached the Latitude of Porto Santo, the crew who were confident in their reckonings, made her considerably to the eastward of that Island, which differed widely from the Longitude shown by the Timekeeper. But the Captain, though he would have laid five to one that the ship was too far run easterly, yet, as if out of courtesy, would not alter his course, Mr. Harrison having declared, that if the wind and weather continued the same, and Porto Santo was accurately laid down in the maps, they must see it the next morning—a prediction which was verified at seven o'clock. ”

“ They are some six hundred miles from Lisbon, four hundred from the nearest part of the African coast, and five hundred from the nearest of the Azores. The principal island is called Madeira, from which Porto Santo, the only other island of any importance, is only thirty-five miles distant. The other three islands are called the Desertas: they are merely uninhabited rocks. ”

“ These are quite clearly the Portuguese version, brought down to that date, of the newly rediscovered Azorean archipelago. But Bianco was obviously put to it to conjecture what islands these might be. He drew names from miscellaneous sources: in particular the largest island of the main group, corresponding to Terceira, bears the title “ya fortunat de sa. beati blandan.” Nevertheless, he shows and names Madeira, Porto Santo, and Deserta in their usual places. Evidently he had given up, if he ever held, all thought of annexing St. Brendan’s special blessing to them. ”

“ There was not much to gaze at; but what will not attract man's stare at sea?—a gull, a turtle, a flying fish! By the by, Captain Tuckey, of the Congo Expedition, remarked the 'extraordinary absence of sea-birds in the vicinity of Madeira and the Canaries:' they have since learned the way thither. Porto Santo appeared as a purple lump of three knobs, a manner of 'gizzard island,' backed by a deeper gloom of clouds—Madeira. Then it lit up with a pale glimmer as of snow, the effect of the sun glancing upon the thin greens of the northern flank ”

“ Proceeding to Madeira, where they were detained for some months, he wrote a geological description of the island of Porto Santo, the trigonometrical measurement of the peaks, a flora, &c., which was published in 1825, after his death. ”

“ The former (late eleventh century) relates that an Arab expedition sailed from Lisbon, shortly after the eighth century, and named Madeira and Porto Santo the 'Islands El-Ghanam and Rákah.' However that may be, the first Portuguese occupants found neither men nor ruins nor large quadrupeds upon any of the group. ”

“ She was obviously a good teller of tales, and had all the old history and traditions of Madeira at her fingers’ ends; the story of Robert Machin and Anne Dorset; the story of the isle of Seven Cities; and the black cloud on the horizon that turned out in the end to be Madeira. She told Christopher how her husband, when he had first gone to Porto Santo, had taken there a litter of rabbits, and how the rabbits had so increased that in two seasons they had eaten up everything on the island, and rendered it uninhabitable for some time. ”

“ Wherefore they abandoned that island and passed over to the other isle of Madeira, which will be forty leagues in circumference, and twelve leagues distant from Porto Santo; and there stayed the two, to wit, John Gonçalvez and Tristam, and Bartholomew Perestrello returned to the kingdom. This second island they discovered to be good, especially in very noble flowing waters, which are made to irrigate what part they will; and there they began to make very great sowings, from the which they obtained most abundant crops. ”

“ Philippa's grandfather had himself been a bold sailor and an adventurous explorer and discovered the Madeira Islands, where his granddaughter owned some property. As she did not like the idea of having her husband work constantly making maps, the young couple went to live on the Madeira Islands at a place called Porto Santo, where Philippa's brother was Governor. ”

“ Pedro Correa, who had married Columbus's wife's sister, had seen upon Porto Santo a similar piece of carving that had drifted from the west. Huge reeds sometimes floated ashore upon those islands, and had not Ptolemy mentioned enormous reeds as growing in eastern Asia? Pine-trees of strange species were driven by west winds upon the coast of Fayal, and two corpses of men of an unknown race had been washed ashore upon the neighbouring island of Flores. Certain sailors, on a voyage from the Azores to Ireland, had caught glimpses of land on the west, and believed it to be the coast of "Tartary;" ”

“ The dragon-tree was considered by Humboldt as exclusively indigenous to India, but I am inclined to think it is also natural to Porto Santo, and perhaps to Madeira—not from the few specimens which now remain on these islands, but from the account of Cadamosto, who visited Porto Santo in 1445, and writes that the dragon-trees of Porto Santo were so large that fishing-boats capable of [123] containing six or seven men were made out of the trunks, and that the inhabitants fattened their pigs on the fruit ”

“ They returned home (marvellous to relate) without touching at Madeira, only twenty-three miles distant; and next year (1420) Prince Henry commissioned Palestrello also.
The Spaniards prefer to believe that after Jehan de Béthencourt's attack upon the Canaries (A.D. 1403) , his soldier Lancelot, who named Lanzarote Island, touched at Porto Santo in 1417; and presently, sailing to the south-west, discovered Madeira. This appears reasonable enough.
Patriotic Barbot (1700) , in company with the mariner Villault de Belfons, Père Labat, and Ernest de Fréville, [6] claims the honour for France. ”

“ A large majority of the land shells are considered to be peculiar. Many of the species are variable in form or colour, and some have an extraordinary number of varieties. Of the land mollusca 91 species are assigned to the genus Helix, 31 to the genus Pupa, and 15 to the genus Achatina (or Lovea) . About 43 species are found both living and fossil in superficial deposits of calcareous sand in Madeira or Porto Santo. These deposits were assigned by Lyell to the Newer Pliocene period. Some 12 or 13 species have not been hitherto discovered alive. ”

“ In general, a scanty population was scattered along the shores and in the islands; and here and there we read of a place, such as Porto Seguro, possessing a population of fifty inhabitants. The numbers, on the whole, are so scanty that it seems strange that the Portuguese could have at the same time contended successfully with a foreign invader and with hostile tribes in the interior. Espirito Santo had five hundred Portuguese in its district; whilst the population of Rio de Janeiro was estimated at five times that number, exclusive of a garrison of six hundred. ”

“ The harbour of Porto affords good anchorage in from six to eight fathoms. In entering it on the S.W. the main land is on the right, and a large island on the left, all the coast appearing very high land, consisting of mountains and intermediate vallies, overgrown with trees and shrubs. Porto is in a pleasant situation, but at this time had no inhabitants. They caught here both fish and tortoises of exquisite flavour, and so very nourishing, that about forty of the people who were ill of the scurvy, recovered very fast. ”

“ It is fortified by a high stone wall, mounted by a considerable number of guns, which were formerly only on the land side, but have now been added to the side next the sea. The city has vast trade, being the staple or emporium for all goods to and from Peru and Chili; besides that, every three years, when the Spanish armada comes to Porto Bello, the Plate fleet comes here with the treasure belonging to the king and the merchants, whence it is carried on mules by land to Porto Bello, at which time, from the vast concourse of people, everything here is enormously dear. ”

“ The capital, of the same name, lies in the interior parts of the country, and is the see of the bishop of all the Cape-Verd islands. This isle is divided into eleven parishes, and the most populous of these contains about four thousand houses, so that it is but very thinly inhabited.
Porto-Praya stands on a steep rock, to which we climbed by a serpentine path. Its fortifications are old decayed walls on the sea side, and fences, scarce breast-high, made of loose stones, towards the land. A small church is inclosed within these walls, towards the sea ”

“ After the suppression of piracy the islanders came down to the marina, or coast, and established themselves in the towns of Porto Ferrajo, Porto Longone, Marciana, and Rio. The resources of the island are considerable, and afford plenty of occupation to fishermen, salt-makers, wine-growers, and gardeners. The inhabitants are hospitable, and, though neighbours of the fierce Corsicans, they possess all the gentleness of Tuscans. ”

“ Fabos leaves the Yacht “White Wings.”
You should know that Santa Maria is an island of the Azores group standing at the extreme south-east of the Archipelago and being some thirty-eight square miles in extent. Its harbour, if such it can be called, is at Villa do Porto, where there is a pleasant, if puny, town, and a little colony of prosperous Portuguese merchants. Of anchorage for ships of considerable burden there is none worth speaking of. Those who ship goods to the island send them first to the neighbouring port of St. ”

“ Without making any stay here, the admiral proceeded on till he put into Porto Bello, to which he gave that name because it is large, well peopled, and encompassed by a finely cultivated country. He entered this place on the 2d of November, passing between two small islands within which ships may lie close to the shore, and can turn it out if they have occasion. The country about that harbour and higher up is by no means rough, but cultivated and full of houses a stone throw or a bow-shot only from each other, and forms the finest landscape that can be imagined. ”

“ But for want of vegetation in its neighbourhood, a more picturesque little bay than Porto Grande can hardly be conceived. Towering a short distance above the town, is a kind of table mountain, some 2,500 feet high; and at the opposite side, forming the south-west entrance, is another very lofty one, remarkable as representing the colossal profile of a man lying on his back, à la Prometheus. ”

“ I say the country is ripening for immigration. The Pike’s Peak fever will ere long be exhausted. Then there is, probably, no more promising field for enterprise than this in the entire new world. Most any point could be made to flourish by the opening of good roads. With Porto Cabello this is peculiarly so. Santiago is the principal interior town. It is the proper place for, and was the former capital. It is situated on the river Yaque, which courses La Vega Real, (the Royal Plains,) and contains about 12,000 inhabitants. The trade of Porto Plata is kept alive{56} mainly from this source ”

“ Porto Vecchio is a little unwalled town, of about two thousand inhabitants, lying on a gulf of the same name, the last which occurs on the east coast. It is large and beautiful, and, as it lies opposite the mainland of Italy, might be made of the highest importance. The Genoese founded Porto Vecchio in order to ward off the piratical attacks of the Saracens. They granted many privileges to colonists, to induce people to settle there; but as the numerous marshes made the locality unhealthy, fever began to rage, and Porto Vecchio was three times forsaken and left desolate. ”