A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Gilianez and Baldaya were again ordered in the year 1435 to prosecute
their discoveries, with instructions to prolong their voyage, if possible,
till they should meet with inhabitants. Having proceeded about forty
miles to the southward of the Angra dos Ruyvos, without being able to see
a single inhabitant, they adopted an expedient which had been suggested
by Don Henry, and for which they were provided with the means. Two horses
were landed, and two youths named Hector Homen and Diego Lopez d'Almaida,
who had been educated in the household of Don Henry, and were scarcely
sixteen years of age, were directed to penetrate into the interior of the
country, that they might endeavour to ascertain whether it were inhabited.
They were directed to keep close together, and on no account to leave
their horses, and if possible to bring back some of the Moors; and lest
they should rashly expose themselves to unnecessary danger, they were
only allowed each a sword and spear, without any defensive armour. After
wandering almost a whole day in the barren sandy desert, they at length
descried nineteen Africans, armed with assagays or javelins, whom they
ventured to attack, though contrary to their orders. The natives
retreated into a cave where they were safe from the farther assaults of
the rash Portuguese youths; and as one of them had received a wound in
the foot, they thought it prudent to return to the shore, which they were
unable to reach before the next morning. Gilianez and Baldaya then
dispatched a stronger force to the cave in which the Africans had taken
shelter, where nothing was found but some weapons which had been left by
the fugitives. Owing to this event, the place where the two cavaliers
were landed was named Angra dos Cavallos, or the Bay of Horses; which is
in latitude 24° N.
The navigators proceeded along a rugged coast to the south of the Bay of
Horses, upon which the sea breaks with a terrible noise, and which, on
account of being entirely composed of a hilly shore, faced with rocks and
small rocky islands, is called _Otegado_, or the Rocky Place. At about
twelve leagues distance from the bay of Cavallos they entered the mouth
of a river, where they killed a number of sea wolves or seals, the skins
of which they took on board in defect of any other productions of the
country; these seals were found on an island at the mouth of this river,
on which the mariners are said to have seen at least 5000 asleep on the
shore. The voyage was continued to Punta de Gale, forming the western
head-land of the Rio de Ouro, immediately under the tropic, where a
fishing net was found constructed of twine, made from the inner bark of
some tree of the palm tribe, but no natives were met with; and as
provisions began to grow scarce, the adventurous mariners were
constrained to return into Portugal, after ranging for some time up and
down the rocky coast of Otegado, without making any important discovery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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