What did Prince Henry the Explorer tell?

Prince Henry is an important figure in the history of Portuguese exploration. He never personally participated in long-distance expeditions, but was the organizer and leader of many maritime expeditions. During his 45 years of activity, he trained and created a group of experienced sailing explorers, making the Portuguese fleet the world's leading fleet, and Portugal's sailing exploration industry ranked among the top in the world. He commanded the expedition team to investigate four relatively large archipelagos in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, and also explored the west coast of Africa, which is about 3,500 kilometers long from the Strait of Gibraltar to Guinea. Although the expeditions of Prince Henry's time were aimed at colonialism, Prince Henry was an outstanding explorer in the sense of exploration itself.

Don Henry was born in 1394 and died on November 13, 1460. He was the third son of King Jo?o I of Portugal. He received religious and general education from his mother, who was born in the royal family of England, learned martial arts from his father and inherited the spirit of medieval chivalry. Because of this, Henry was uneasy with court life and yearned to obtain the qualifications of a knight. During Portugal's first expansion to seize Ceuta, Henry was knighted by his father Jo?o I for his "war exploits". Henry got his wish.

While supervising the construction of ships and participating in battles, Henry came into contact with many experienced sailors and learned about the situation in the Arab world, which gradually enhanced his desire and confidence to march into the ocean.

First of all, he was determined to carry forward the spirit of the "Crusader" and vowed to fight the infidels to the end. But he knew that Portugal's strength was weak and it was impossible to launch a large-scale expedition, so he thought about using a fleet to attack the weakly defended borders of the Arab Empire like he had captured Ceuta. This requires a nautical survey.

In order to look for the East, Henry gave up the comfort of the court from 1418 and lived in Saccles near the port of Ragush. There he studied mathematics, astronomy and geography. Supported by the new concepts of Ptolemy's "Geography", he was brewing unprecedented big plans. He established an observation post, shipyard, fortifications and a small town in Sacles, and later established an "aviation school". Here, a large number of ancient Greek and Roman astronomical and geographical works were collected, some scholars were hired, new sea and land explorations were conducted, new navigation charts were drawn, and the circumference of the earth was recalculated.

Henry's first goal is to have the crew sail to the Canary Islands, then cross Cape Bogador, and explore further unknown waters. At that time, there were no records of people returning safely from Cape Bogador. There were only terrible legends about ships sailing there and finding it difficult to survive. They said that the sea water south of there was boiling and people would turn black when they got there. There is also a drawing of Satan's hand sticking out of the water here on the map of Arabia. The crew said to Henry: "How can we cross the cordon set by our ancestors? We have lost our souls and bodies, what benefit is it to His Royal Highness?"

In 1418, Prince Henry of Fengtang On the order of the British Empire, captains Jo?o Gon?alves Zalco and Tristen Vás Teixeira led an expedition with the goal of crossing Cape Bogador to Guinea.

The fleet encountered headwinds shortly after setting sail. After several diagonal sailings, Zarco and others unexpectedly discovered an island, which they named San Bordeaux Island. The island is uninhabited but has fresh water and vegetation.

After inspecting the situation on the island, they returned to the kingdom with satisfaction, reported to the prince, and brought back soil and plant samples. Prince Henry was very happy and ordered ships to be prepared, he wanted to capture the island.

In 1419, Henry sent the original two captains, accompanied by Bartolomeu Perestrello. When they landed on the island of San Bordeaux again, they found several half-starved Portuguese monks there - survivors of a shipwreck. So they named the place where they met the monks "Friar's Harbor".

Standing on the island, they saw a rising "dark cloud" in the distance, which scared the sailors out of their wits. They were worried that it might be an abyss swallowing the ship or a gate to hell. Zarko decided to watch and wait for the moon to change, hoping that the "dark clouds" would dissipate by then. But the "dark cloud" remained the same, so I decided to take a few people with me to see what happened. Many begged the captain not to take the risk. Others laughed at the timidity of those people, saying that it could only be a piece of land that was filled with mist because of the many trees growing there.

Despite the opposition of some people, Captain Zarco led the sailors to sail towards the mysterious "dark clouds" on a Sunday morning. At noon they entered darkness. The sailors were frightened to death. They howled because they heard the terrible crash of the waves, but they didn't know where they hit them. Everyone begged the captain to return to the original place, no one wanted to be sucked into the abyss.

Joao Goncalves Zalco and the helmsman remained calm as usual and drove the boat into the thick fog. They finally saw the tip of the land. But because I was so nervous and scared, I didn’t even believe that it was land. After a long time, they realized that there was indeed no danger ahead, and they saw how beautiful the island was. They couldn't help cheering loudly and laughing at themselves.

This island is Madeira. They called the first "horn" that came into their sight "San Lorenzo" because the ship the captain was on was "San Lorenzo". Number.

The Portuguese were intoxicated by the beauty and coolness of Madeira. However, landing was difficult because the vegetation was so dense that it stretched all the way to the water's edge. They took a small sampan and found a smooth boulder before jumping to the island.

Full of curiosity, they followed a small river into the woods. There is no one living on the island, and there are no poisonous snakes or beasts. This is the news they brought back later.

The helmsman proposed to the captain: let the big ship anchor in a safe place, and then row the sampan to continue the reconnaissance. Zarko agreed. The next day the weather was clear and calm. They set off on their sampan, sailing along the coast of Madeira for the first time. They walked unhurriedly around boulders and passed clear rivers without any danger. They wrote down the places they passed along the way and named them according to the features they saw: Cape Seyiso (pebbles), because there There are a lot of cobblestones; Funchal (the fennel field) because fennel grows there.

Continue sailing forward and come to a calm bay. There were many seals in the bay, and Captain Zarco called this place the "Seal Hall." Later this place had a strange connection with the captain.

Prince Don Henry was very happy when he got the news they brought back from the island. King Jo?o I decided to reward the explorer and made Captain Zarco a nobleman. The emblem chosen for it featured a circular pattern of seals: two standing and one crouching. From then on, his family changed their surname to "Kamara".

After the discovery of the Madeira Islands, they were regarded as belonging to Prince Henry, who gave the islands to the discoverers to colonize and develop. The island of San Bordeaux was given to Bartolomeu Perestrello; the island of Madeira was given to Joao Goncalves Zalco and Tristen Vaz Teixeira.

The captains took their families, livestock, various utensils and seeds with them. The king allowed all men and women who were willing to become colonists to go with the captains, even prisoners and fugitives. As long as they went to colonize, their sins would be pardoned. To avoid trouble, Captain Zarco refused to allow criminals accused of treason, theft, or anti-religious crimes to board the ship, but allowed those accused of other crimes to go on board. At that time, at least 14 families ventured to the desert island to start a new life. They come from small nobles and common people, mostly in the Algarve province.

On the eve of Bartolomeu Perestrello taking his people to the island of San Bordeaux, a friend gave him a pregnant female rabbit. The female rabbit gave birth to a litter of rabbits during the voyage. After arriving on the island of San Bordeaux, they released the rabbits, which laid the foundation for disaster. Rabbits reproduce extremely quickly, creating a veritable disaster.

The colonists' life on the island was quite difficult. There is only one freshwater spring, and the only natural plants are dragon pine, juniper and rice vine. With great effort the land was cleared and wheat and oats grew. But the rabbits kept destroying the crops. There are also problems with raising livestock. There is a lack of pasture and the livestock can only drink salt water. The only source of wealth is the bees, which produce very sweet honey. Dragon pine is the source of wood and in particular grows a gum called dragon's blood, which is used to make pigments and medicines and is popular in Europe.

Madeira has plenty of water, but the plants are too dense. Because there were so many trees, people couldn't farm and build settlements. Cutting down trees is difficult and slow due to lack of manpower and supplies. Finally Jo?o Goncalves made a decision and sent people to set fire to the tree. The fire spread and turned the entire island into a large fire pit, which burned for 7 years before it was extinguished.

As more and more arable land became available, crops began to be grown. The land is so fertile that planting one seed can yield 60 seeds. The first good harvest was wheat. Later, sugarcane cultivation was introduced, which was also quite successful. Experiments with grape cultivation began during the reign of Prince Don Henry, and the results were good, but it was not until much later that Madeira's wine became famous and surpassed cane sugar.

The island of Madeira is under the jurisdiction of two captains, Tristen Vas Teixeira and Jo?o Goncalves Zalco. This division was confirmed by Prince Don Henry, who also signed the instrument of gift, which detailed the rights and obligations of the captains.

Captains have almost unlimited power over their lands. They distributed land, levied taxes, and tried criminal cases, but they were not allowed to carry out capital punishment or mutilation. They gave 1/10 of all proceeds to the prince.