Of this saint, and the curious institutions which he formed, and the beautiful track of country in which they were placed, I have given an account in the third edition of Letters from Spain and Portugal, vol. i. p. 103.
Sacaru ... indignantly
Did he toward the ocean bend his way,
And shaking from his feet the dust of Spain,
Took ship, and hoisted sail through seas unknown
To seek for freedom.—[IV. p. 43.]
This tale, which is repeated by Bleda, rests on no better authority than that of Abulcacim[10], which may, however, be admitted, so far as to show that it was a prevalent opinion in his time.
Antonio Galvam, in his Tratado dos Descobrimentos Antigos e Modernos, relates a current, and manifestly fabulous story, which has been supposed to refer to Sacaru, and the companions of his emigration. “They say,” he says, “that at this time, A. D. 1447, a Portugueze ship sailing out of the Straits of Gibraltar, was carried by a storm much farther to the west than she had intended, and came to an island where there were seven cities, and where our language was spoken; and the people asked whether the Moors still occupied Spain, from whence they had fled after the loss of King Don Rodrigo. The contramaster of the ship said, that he brought away a little sand from the island, and sold it to a goldsmith in Lisbon, who extracted from it a good quantity of gold. It is said that the Infante D. Pedro, who governed at that time, ordered these things to be written in the Casa do Tombo. And some will have it that these lands and islands at which the Portugueze touched, were those which are now called the Antilhas and New Spain.” (P. 24.)