It is but fair to mention that many authors have held these great discoveries to be merely re-discoveries. Some people affirm that Madeira was really discovered by Emmanuel Pessanha, the first Lord High Admiral of Portugal, in 1351, during the reign of Affonso “the Brave,” and there seems to be more foundation for the story of Robert Machin, which is at all events of great antiquity. The story runs that Robert Machin, son of a merchant in Bristol, loved and was beloved by a lady of noble birth, whose relations refused to countenance him, and threw him into prison. About the year 1370, on his release, he found that his lady love had married a wealthy baron, but he continued his suit and she consented to elope with him. He took her on board a ship intending to go to France, but a gale came on and the ship, after being driven south for thirteen days, struck upon an island. They found the island uninhabited and very beautiful, and Machin and some of his companions took up their residence upon it, and built huts under the branches of a spreading tree. Here they lived very happily until a storm one day drove the ship from its moorings, which so grieved the lady that she died in despair at the thought of never seeing her native land again. She was buried beneath the tree, and Machin soon followed her to the grave, having first erected a cross with a brief inscription, narrating his adventures, and begging any Christians who might come to the island to erect a church over the place where her remains rested. After his death, those of his companions, who remained, determined to try to escape in the ship’s boat, but they were taken by a Moorish cruiser and sold for slaves. While in captivity in Morocco, one of the Englishmen told a Spanish fellow-captive, named Juan Morales, the whole history, and this Morales, being afterwards taken prisoner by João Gonçalves Zarco, related the narrative to his captor and to Prince Henry. Morales, according to this tale, was the pilot of Zarco and Tristão Vaz on their voyage of discovery, and the story goes on to say that the grave of the two English lovers was discovered, and that Machin’s dying desire was fulfilled, and a church erected over their remains. Whatever may be the truth of this legend, and whether Machin ever landed on Madeira or not, the fact remains that the first occupation of the island, and its being marked upon the chart, were due to the enterprise of Prince Henry.