According to the chronicles of Portugal, John I. went from Lisbon in 1415, attended by his sons Don Duarte, or Edward, Don Peter, and Don Henry, and other lords and nobles of his realm, into Africa, where he took the great city of Ceuta, which was one of the principal causes of extending the dominions of Portugal. After their return, Don Henry, the king's _third_[2] son, being then in Algarve, and desirous to enlarge the kingdom by the discovery of unknown regions, gave directions for discovering the coast of Mauritania; for in those days none of the Portuguese had ever gone beyond Cape Non, in lat. 29°. N.[3]. For the better accomplishment of this purpose, Don Henry prepared a fleet, and commanded the officers whom he employed to proceed in making discoveries to the south of that cape, which they did; but when they came to another cape, named Bajador, none of them dared for a long time to go beyond it, at which cowardice the prince was much displeased. In 1417, in the reign of John II. of Castile, and while his mother the lady Catharine was regent of the kingdom, Ruben de Bracamonte, the admiral of France, craved a grant of the Canary Islands, and the title of king, for his kinsman John de Betancourt; which being conceded, he departed from Seville with an armament to attempt the conquest. The principal motive of this enterprize was to make a perfect discovery of Madeira, of which Macham had before given so much information; yet he went to the Canaries, where he carried a friar named Mendo as bishop, who had received that dignity from Pope Martin V. He reduced Lançerota, Fuerteventura, Gomera, and Ferro; whence he sent into Spain many slaves, and considerable quantities of honey, wax, camphire, hides, orchill, figs, dragons-blood, and other merchandize, of which he made good profit. This armament is said to have likewise discovered Porto Santo. The island first occupied by Betancourt was Lançerota, where he built a castle of stone for the better defence of the new settlers. In the year 1418, John Gonzales Zarco, and Tristram Vaz Teixera, gentlemen of the household to Don Henry, perceiving the great desire of their master to discover new countries, requested and obtained a bark to proceed to the coast of Africa; where they were overtaken by a violent tempest, and driven into a haven of the island now called Porto Santo, where they remained two years. In 1420, they discovered the island of Madeira, where they found the chapel, tomb, and stone on which Macham had engraved his name. Others write, that a Castilian had informed Don Henry of having made the discovery of Porto Santo; and that he sent Bartholomew Perestrello, John Gonzales Zarco, and Tristram Vaz Teixera, purposely in search of that island, according to the signs and directions indicated by the Castilian; and that these persons afterwards discovered Madeira in 1420, where they found the memorial and monument left by Macham the Englishman.