[Footnote 173: See J. I. de Brito Rebello, in Supplement to _Diario de Noticias_ of Lisbon, published in connection with the fifth centenary of Prince Henry's birth, 1894. The document referring to Machico is dated April 12th, 1379, and by this, King Ferdinand, "the handsome," of Portugal, gives to one Machico, "mestre de sua barcha," a house in the Rua Nova of Lisbon. This was discovered by Rebello in the Torre do Tombo, acting on a hint given by Ernesto do Canton. Before this, the Macham story was attacked by Rodriguez d'Azevedo, in 1873. See the _Saudades da terra_ of Dr. G. Fructuoso, pp. 348-429.] The Azores, or Western Islands, are also (in part) laid down in the _Conosçimiento_ above quoted (of about A.D. 1330), and in the Medicean Portolano of 1351;[174] and when the Infant sent out Gonçalo Cabral[175] in this direction he was aided, it is said, by an Italian portolano, on which the aforesaid islands were depicted.[176] But no record of any voyage thereto earlier than that of Diego de Sevill[177] (1427) has been preserved; nor did any one before the Prince's time attempt, as far as is known, the colonisation or complete exploration of the Azores. To these, however, like the other Atlantic islands, Nordenskjöld's emphatic words[178] apply, as the cartographical evidence requires. To some extent at least all these groups "were known ... to skippers long before organised ... expeditions were sent to them by great feudal lords." Absolute novelty in geographical discovery is one of the most difficult things to prove, and in no field of historical inquiry does the saying more often occur to the inquirer: "Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona, multi." [Footnote 174: It is not at all certain, as Major assumes (_Prince Henry_, 1868, p. 235), that this group was first discovered by "_Portuguese_ vessels under Genoese pilotage."] [Footnote 175: In 1431, etc.] [Footnote 176: See Nordenskjöld, _Periplus_, 118 A; also P. Amat di S. Filippo, _I veri Scopritori delle isole Azore_, Ital. Geog. Soc. Bolletino, 1892.]