PORTUGUESE BEGINNINGS IN MADEIRA

In the eastern waters of the North Atlantic, between the latitude of Lisbon and the tropic of Cancer, lie three archipelagoes: the Madeira group, the Azores and the Canaries. The Portuguese, during the course of their Atlantic voyaging in the first half of the fifteenth century, became thoroughly familiar with all three. With crown sanction, Prince Henrique proceeded to annexe and colonise in turn first Madeira and then the Azores, beginning in the 1420s. The prince also tried to occupy various islands in the Canaries; but here he had to contend with both native resistance and strong Castilian competition – and ultimately failed.

The Madeira archipelago consists of the island of Madeira itself, Porto Santo and three small islets. It is located off the Moroccan coast about 1,000 kilometres southwest of Lisbon and within just 500 kilometres of the northern Canaries. Whether or not Madeira was known in Antiquity, and precisely when Medieval navigators became aware of it, are both uncertain. On the latter issue there is some slight but inconclusive evidence that Muslim sailors from Lisbon visited the islands sometime during the Islamic period. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the archipelago had been discovered, or re-discovered, before 1351 because it begins to appear on Italian and Catalan maps from that date. However, the islands were uninhabited and situated a considerable distance from the mainland; so for long they attracted little attention.