1. The first point is probably founded on a misprint. As a correction, d'Avezac[[192]] has suggested that Santiago was so called because the expedition set out on May 1st. It has also been noticed that the German and French versions of Cadamosto's Italian text (which contains this mistake) give March and not May as the month of sailing, while the translation in Temporal's Histoire de l'Afrique has July. Once more the festival of St. James (July 25th) has been suggested,[[193]] in exchange for that of SS. Philip and James. In support of this, the most likely alternative to a simple blunder, caused by haste, carelessness, and lapse of time, it is pointed out that Cadamosto seems to have arrived at the islands during the rainy season; that this season prevails from mid-June to November; and that the festival of St. James would agree with the time required for a voyage from Lagos, even if commencing not in March or May, but as late as the beginning of July.
This date is apparently confirmed by the earliest known official document which relates to the Cape Verde Islands, viz., a decree, dated December 3rd, 1460, issued just after the death of Prince Henry.[[194]] In this is given a list of seventeen islands discovered by the Infant's explorers, beginning with the Madeiras and Azores, and ending with five of the Cape Verdes, S. Jacobe (Santiago), S. Filippe (Fogo), De las Mayaes (Maio), Ilha Lana (Sal?), and S. Christovão (probably Bonavista). The only festival of St. Christopher in the Calendar falls on the day of St. James, or July 25th. We may notice that in the earliest map containing these islands,[[195]] Cadamosto's name of Bonavista prevails, as now, over "St. Christopher."
2. This charge seems founded on a mistranslation. In the original text of 1507, after a description of the process of putting out to sea from Cape Blanco, we have these words:[[196]] "and the following night there arose a strong wind from the south-west, and in order not to turn back we steered west and north-west ... so as to weather and hug the wind for two days and three nights." That is, the contrary wind met with after leaving Cape Blanco did not turn the ships back, as they managed to sail close to it.[[197]]
It is probable, however, that the text is corrupt, and it is only too common in records of this time to have mistakes as to points of the compass creeping into the record of voyages performed some time before. In any case, it is surely not enough to upset the whole of Cadamosto's narrative.
3. Here Cadamosto seems to have made no mistake, in his first printed text of 1507. The islands have never been properly surveyed, but Prof. C. Doelter, in his work Ueber die Kapverden nach dem Rio Grande (1884), speaks of seeing Bonavista from the Pico d'Antonio on Santiago, together with all the rest of the group, even the more distant Sal and St. Vincent. It is therefore quite probable that Cadamosto's sailors did see Santiago from Bonavista, and this feat was certainly possible.
4. In this once more Cadamosto is clearly right, and the attempt to discredit him ridiculous. Salt is so abundant in the Cape Verdes, especially in the western group, that these were at one time called the "Salt islands." Turtles are also common enough in the rainy season, and are mentioned by plenty of visitors and residents.[[198]] Lastly, the river in Santiago, "a bow-shot across," does not correspond to any fresh-water stream found there, but by this expression may be intended an inlet of the sea, like the Rio d'Ouro of Prince Henry's sailors, north of Arguim. Curiously enough, this very expression—"a bow-shot wide"—is employed by Dapper of the Estuary at Ribeira Grande in Santiago; while Blaeuw's Atlas (Amsterdam, 1663) speaks of the same point in exactly similar terms: "à son embouchure large d'environ un trait d'arc."
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Thirdly, the attempts of Prince Henry to acquire possession of the Canaries for Portugal may be noticed. In 1414, Maciot de Béthencourt, nephew and heir of the famous John, "Jean le Conquérant," having, under threat of war from Castille, ceded the islands to Pedro Barba de Campos, Lord of Castro Forte, sailed away to Madeira; and in 1418, according to some authorities, he made a sale of the "Fortunatae" to Henry of Portugal. This was not enough for him, as afterwards he made a third bargain with the Count of Niebla; while meantime Jean de Béthencourt himself left his conquests by will to his brother Reynaud. Pedro Barba de Campos soon parted with his new rights, which passed successively to Fernando Perez of Seville, and the Count of Niebla. But the latter, though now uniting in himself all Spanish claims to the islands, did not cling to them, but made over everything to Guillem de las Casas, who passed on his rights to Fernam Peraza, his son-in-law. While this transference was going on in Castille and in France, Henry, in the name of Portugal, attempted in 1424 to settle the question by sending out a fleet under Fernando de Castro, with 2,500 foot and 120 horse. With this force he would probably have conquered the Archipelago, in spite of the costliness and trouble of the undertaking, if the protests of Castille had not led King John I to discourage the scheme and persuade his son to defer its execution.
In 1445,[[199]] seven of the Prince's caravels visited the islands, received the submission of the chiefs Bruco and Piste in Gomera (who had already experienced the Infant's hospitality and become his "grateful servitors"), and made slave-raids upon the islanders of Palma. Alvaro Gonçalvez de Atayde, João de Castilha, Alvaro Dornellas, Affonso Marta, and the page Diego Gonçalvez, with many others, took part in this descent, which did not altogether spare the friendly Gomerans, and brought on the perpetrators the severe rebuke of Prince Henry.
In 1446, however, he followed up the reconnaissance of 1445 by another attempt at complete conquest, which also seems to have ended in failure, though the account that remains is very inadequate; perhaps in the future it may be supplemented from the disinterred treasures of Spanish documentary collections. We only know that Henry obtained, in 1446, from the Regent D. Pedro a charter, giving him the exclusive right to sanction or forbid all Portuguese voyages to the Canaries; that in 1447 he conferred the captaincy of Lançarote on Antam Gonçalvez,[[200]] and that Gonçalvez sailed to establish himself there. So far, according to Azurara; Barros and the Spanish historians would ante-date all these measures of 1446-7 by several years. In 1455 Cadamosto, sailing in the Portuguese service, visited and described the islands, and in 1466 Henry's heir, D. Fernando, made one more attempt to reclaim the Canaries for Portugal. It failed, and in 1479 the islands were finally adjudged to Spain, or the now united monarchy of Castille and Aragon.