A history of Madeira. With a series of twenty-seven coloured engravings, illustrative of the costumes, manners, and occupations of the inhabitants of that island / [Anon].

  • William Combe
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of Madeira. With a series of twenty-seven coloured engravings, illustrative of the costumes, manners, and occupations of the inhabitants of that island / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Ovington, in his History of Surat, observes that some geographers ascribe the discovery of Madeira to John Gonsalvo and Tristram, who were among the navigators state of things which presented themselves to his inquisitive spirit, thus introduces an account of the Madeiras, in his celebrated work, entitled A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies. This eminent writer is known to have possessed a vivid imagination, which has sometimes lessened con- fidence in his authority as an historian, in whom a disposition to indulge the excursive flights of fancy must ever be a suspected quality. But the curiosity of the account, and the celebrity of its writer, will justify, it is presumed, an allusion to it. After an animated description of the state of Europe at the commencement of the fourteenth century, he represents the character of the Portuguese monarch, then at the head of an active and intelligent people, as forming an unexampled design of extending his dominions by sea, and encouraging, by his patronising spirit and ample rewards, the adventurous voyages of his subjects into those seas, where from remote traditions, derived, fancifully, as it now appears, from ancient geographers, or the dreams of poetry, the island Atalantis was, in that credulous age, believed to exist. It was an opinion generally prevailing, that it was impossible to sail across the Atlantic Ocean ; this error, however, was dissipated by the Moors and the Arabs; who had already communicated so much knowledge to Europe. They, it was believed, had not only sailed across a sea that was deemed imprac- ticable, but had also obtained riches from a country supposed to be on fire. Such prevailing notions, suited to the genius of the age, encouraged an adventurous spirit among the more maritime nations of Europe. But Henry, son of John the First, King of Portugal, was the only one who adopted wise measures in pursuit of it. This prince; availing himself of the knowledge, imperfect as it might be, which was preserved among the Arabs, established an observatory at Sagres, a city of Algarva, a maritime province of Portugal, on the borders of the Atlantic Ocean, where the young noblemen who composed his court were instructed. He had himself a considerable share in the invention of the astrolabe, and 5 et
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