The Discovery History of Madeira Islands

Henry, the "navigator", initially sent an African sailing expedition, which never made any progress, because the sailing technology and equipment at that time were still very rudimentary, which made them afraid to stay away from the coast. However, during a voyage, the sailboat was blown off the coast by a storm, sailed into the vast Atlantic Ocean, and accidentally drifted to an island in the Madeira Islands, thus making the first major geographical discovery in the era of great navigation-more accurately, it was a "rediscovery".

Now we know that the existence of Madeira Islands was recognized a long time ago. It is said that the ancient Romans first discovered it in 80 BC, and named it "Inslae Purpurrinae" according to a tree growing on the island that can make purple dyes, while the Carthaginians called it "Al Agnam". After the destruction of these two ancient countries, these islands were forgotten. Thousands of years later, about 1339 years ago, some unknown Genoese navigators rediscovered the islands. They also called the main island "isola Del Leggnay" and the second island "Isole Desert". Some cartographers painted it on maps, but those precious ancient maps were generally hidden in a few hands, which led to the island being forgotten again.

14 18 years, Henry pairao gonsalves (jo&; Atil deogon & Ampccedillaves Zarco) and Trist &; Vaz Texeira(Trist & amp； AtildeO Vaz Teixeira), two royal aristocrats who volunteered to serve under Henry, commanded a Balcha sailboat to sail south along the northwest coast of Africa. They were caught in a storm on the way and were blown to an ocean they had never been to. In the stormy waves, the boat may be swallowed up at any time, which makes people feel desperate. I don't know how long it took, but the storm stopped a little. They were ecstatic to see an island about 20 miles in front of them, and then sailed into a small bay on the southwest side of the island. Fortunately, they escaped the disaster. Because it is Halloween, they named the island Santo, Puerto Rico.

Haud gonsalves sarko

To the east of St. Hong Kong Island, Cape Cantin (Cape Maiduza, located at 32 35' north latitude and 918' west longitude) faces the Moroccan coast, and the sea surface is more than 500 kilometers apart. It is speculated that Zarco and others may have just sailed to Cape Deger, south of Cape Contan, and were blown to the western ocean by the wind and waves, so they were lucky to meet St. Hong Kong Island. If a storm hits Cape Non further south, it will definitely enter the Canary Islands immediately, and it will be eight years since Portugal discovered the island. By that time, other Europeans had already arrived there first.

Haud gonsalves sarko

After the storm stopped, Zarco and others returned to Portugal by boat, reported their unexpected discovery to The Prince Henry, and asked for permission to immigrate to St. Hong Kong Island, because the island was uninhabited and the environment was good. Considering that establishing a base on the island will be helpful for future maritime exploration, Henry agreed to this request. In addition, some adventurous Portuguese people applied to join the upcoming immigration expedition, including Bartolomeu Terreiro, who is also a noble, and his father, Hill moniz, is a good friend of Henry.

Tristan Vaz Teksella

The following year, three sailboats, led by Zarco, Vaz and Perez Terreiro respectively, settled in St. Hong Kong Island with immigrants, livestock and a large number of seeds. Perez Terreiro's children brought a pet rabbit aboard, and it gave birth to a litter on the way. After arriving on the island, it multiplied rapidly, reaching an amazing number, which later brought great trouble to immigrants. Zarco and others built houses on the island, planted and domesticated animals, and initially settled down. After that, Perez Terreiro returned to Portugal to report the progress of the migration to Henry, while Sarkozy and Vaz stayed to take care of their new territory.

Bartholoma Pé rez Terreiro

Shortly after Pé rez Terreiro left, Zarco and Gas toured and explored the island, and found a huge shadow like a cloud or water vapor on the sea level in the far southwest. Based on experience, they speculated that there might be a piece of land there. So they sailed to the sea over there to search, and soon found an island much larger than St. Hong Kong Island, namely Madeira Island. Because the trees on the island are extremely dense, they call it Ilha da Madeira, which means "wooden island". This name coincides with some of its previous names, which makes people suspect that the Portuguese may know those forgotten facts. Seeing the vast area, fertile land and pleasant environment on the island, Zarco and Garth were filled with joy and immediately went back to report this new discovery to Henry. In order to reward their contributions, with the consent of King Joao I, Madeira Island was granted as a hereditary territory to two people, including Zarco named Fonshar and Gass named Macko.

The names of the two fiefs in Madeira Island are also the names of their respective capitals. Among them, the word Funchal comes from the Portuguese word Funcho, namely fennel, because there are many such plants growing nearby. Funchal later became the capital of the whole archipelago. Mahiko is said to come from the word Macham, which is the name of the protagonist in a tragic story. The content of the story is rather lengthy, which is supplemented by another article. That is to say, after Zarco and Gas were sealed off, they took back their homes from 1420 and supervised diligently. They set fire to the forest because the trees on the island were so dense that there was almost no open space. Unexpectedly, the fire was getting bigger and bigger, and it was out of control. It burned for several years, so that they all lacked available wood. The name "Wooden Island" was not worthy of the name. This is really a painful lesson. If we put it aside now, we will at least be convicted of intentional deforestation, and I am afraid we will not be out of prison for three to five years.

However, after the fire left thick ashes, the soil became more fertile. They introduced sugar cane from Crete, learned sugar cane planting and sugar cane squeezing technology from Arabs, and planted it all over the island. The warm and humid climate on the island is very suitable for the growth of crops and soon becomes an important sugarcane producing area. A large amount of sucrose is supplied to the European market, which makes the price of this luxury condiment fall back and enter the homes of ordinary people. At the same time, grapes imported from Portugal also flourished. When sugarcane planting in Brazil rose rapidly, and sugarcane here was devastated by pests, grapes became the main cash crop in Madeira Island. The famous Madeira wine is continuously supplied to the markets of Europe and its colonies, which is well received and welcomed.

St. Hong Kong Island was named Perez Terreiro, but the situation there was worse at first. As mentioned earlier, rabbits brought to the island have no natural enemies, and their breeding speed is amazing, which quickly destroys the ecological balance on the island. They eat everything they can, making any farming futile. So people launched a big action to kill rabbits. It is said that 3,000 rabbits were killed at one time, and it was not until a long time later that the rabbit's injury was slowly calmed down, which made progress in Perez Terreiro's territory.

Pé rez Terreiro died in 1475. His son became the governor of St. Hong Kong, and his daughter Filipa married Columbus in 1479. Columbus was still an unknown young man. He lived on St. Hong Kong Island for more than two years, and carefully studied the logbooks and charts left by his late father-in-law, which will undoubtedly be of great help to his future navigation career.