The inhabitants of Madeira and Puerto Santo were for centuries under the impression that they could see at certain times, and in clear weather, land appearing in the western horizon, and ever in the same direction. This belief is said to have continued until a comparatively recent period; indeed, some people say it yet exists in a few of the credulous inhabitants.

References to "Antilla " and "the Island of the Seven Cities" appear in Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. The work of Ferdinand Columbus is regarded by students of American history as one of great value. He tells us that his father fully expected to meet with, "before he came to India, a very convenient island or continent, from which he might pursue with more advantage his main design. This hope was grounded upon the statements of many wise men and philosophers, who believed that the greatest part of this terraqueous globe was land, or that there was more land than water, and, if this were true, he assumed that between the coast of Spain and the limits of India, then known, there existed many islands and a considerable extent of mainland. A pilot of the King of Portugal, named Martin Vicente, told him that, being at one time four hundred and fifty leagues westward of Cape St. Vincent, he found and picked up in the sea a piece of wood ingeniously carved, but not with iron, which led him to believe, as the wind had been blowing from the west for several days, that the piece of wood had drifted from some island lying toward the west. Then one Pedro Correa, who had married the sister of the admiral's wife, told him that at the island of Porto Santo 1 he had seen

1 Situated to the north-west of Madeira.

another piece of wood, brought by the same winds, as nicely carved as the piece already mentioned, and that canes had been found there so thick that each joint would hold more than four quarts of wine, which reports, he said, he communicated to the King of Portugal while talking to him about these matters. The pieces of cane were shown to him. There being no place in our parts where such cane grew, he inferred it to be true that the wind had brought the cane from some neighbouring islands or else from India. For Ptolemy, in the first book of his geography, in the seventeenth chapter, says there is such cane in the eastern parts of India. And some of the people living on the islands, particularly on the Azores, told him that the west wind blew for a long time, the sea drifted some pieces of pinewood upon these islands, particularly on the islands Gratiosa and Fayal, there being no pine-wood in all these parts, and that the sea cast upon the island of Flores, another of the Azores, the bodies of two dead men, who were very broad faced and different in appearance from Christians. At Cape Verd and thereabouts, they said they once saw some covered canoes or boats, which, the people believed, were driven there by stress of weather while the persons in them were going from one island to another. Nor were these the only grounds he then had which seemed reasonable, for there were those who told him that they had seen some islands in the Western Ocean.... These persons he did not believe, because he discovered from their own words and statements that they had not sailed one hundred leagues to the westward. . . He says, moreover, that in the year 1484 a man came to Portugal from the

island of Madeira to beg a caravel of the king to discover a country which he affirmed he saw every year, and always after the same manner, he agreeing with others who said they had seen the island from the Azores. On this account the Portuguese placed some islands thereabouts on the charts and maps made at that time; and also because Aristotle, in his book of wonderful things, affirms that it was reported that some Carthaginian merchants had sailed over the Atlantic Ocean to a most fruitful island. . . . This island the Portuguese inserted in their maps, calling it Antilla; and though they did not give it the same situation designated by Aristotle, yet none placed it more than two hundred leagues due west from the Canaries and the Azores. Some believe it to be the Island of the Seven Cities, peopled by the Portuguese at the time that Spain was conquered by the Moors, in 714,—at which time, they say, seven bishops with their people embarked and sailed to this island, where each of them built a city; and in order that none of their people might think of returning to Spain, they burnt the ships, tackle, and all things necessary for sailing. . . . It was also said that in the time of Prince Henry of Portugal, a Portuguese ship was driven by stress of weather to this island of Antilla, where the men went on shore, and were conducted by the islanders to their church, to learn whether or not they were Christians and acquainted with the Roman ceremonies. After perceiving that they were, the people of the island importuned them to remain till their king came, who was then absent, and who would be delighted to see them, and would give them many presents. . . . But the master and the seamen were afraid of being detained, suspecting

these people did not wish to be discovered, and might for this reason burn their ship. On this account they returned to Portugal, hoping to be rewarded by the prince for what they had done. He reproved them severely, and bid them return at once to the island, but the master, through fear, ran away from Portugal with the ship and men. It is reported that while the seamen were at church on the island, the ship-boys gathered sand for the cook-room, the third part of which they found to be pure gold. Seneca, in his fourth book, tells us that Thucydides speaks of an island called Atlantica, which in the time of the Peloponnesian war was entirely, or the greater part of it, submerged; whereof Plato also makes mention in his Timæus."

It is said that in 1431 Prince Henry of Portugal sent Goncalo Cabral in search of certain islands which were marked on a map brought from Italy (Lisboa, lib. iv. cap. i. p. 97). A belief existed in Portugal that in 1447 a Portuguese ship was driven by stress of weather "to the Island of the Seven Cities" (De Originibus Americanis, p. 77); and, according to Columbus, an adventurer named Vogado succeeded in discovering two oceanic islands (Christopher Columbus, i. p. 315).

In the early part of the fifteenth century, according to a tradition, a pilot arrived at Lisbon, and stated that he had landed upon an island in the Atlantic Ocean "which he had found peopled with Christians and adorned with noble cities." The sequel of this story is exceedingly romantic in its details. Don Fernando de Alma, a young Portuguese cavalier, came to the conclusion that the pilot had discovered the Island of the Seven Cities. With

seen.

the consent of the king he fitted out two vessels, and started upon a voyage of discovery. After encountering some difficulties, the caravel, with Don Fernando on board, after a storm, lay perfectly becalmed off the mouth of a river, "on the banks of which, about a league off, was descried a noble city, with lofty walls and towers and a protecting castle." Don Fernando was welcomed to the Island of the Seven Cities by the Grand Chamberlain. He spent an agreeable time on shore, and at night he returned in the State barge of the Grand Chamberlain. "The barge sailed out to sea, but no caravel was to be The oarsmen rowed on,-their monotonous chant had a lulling effect. A drowsy influence crept over Don Fernando; objects swam before his eyes, and he lost consciousness. On his recovery he found himself in a strange cabin, surrounded by strangers. Where was he? On board a Portuguese ship bound for Lisbon. How had he come there? He had been taken senseless from a wreck drifting about the ocean. The vessel arrived in the Tagus, and anchored before the famous capital. Don Fernando sprang joyfully on shore, and hastened to his ancestral mansion. A strange porter opened the door, who knew nothing of him or of his family; no people of the name had inhabited the house for many a year. He sought the house of his betrothed, the Donna Serafina. He beheld her on the balcony; then he raised his arms towards her with an exclamation of rapture. She cast upon him a look of indignation, and hastily retired. He rang at the door; as it was opened by the porter, he rushed past, sought the well-known chamber, and threw himself at the feet of Serafina. She started back