m. this morning, our three
navigators congratulated themselves and each other on the good
land-fall they had made.
It looks a curious little island, and is situated about thirty-five
miles north-east of Madeira, with a high peak in the centre, of which
we could only see the extreme point, appearing above the clouds.
It is interesting to know that it was from his observation of the
drift-wood and debris washed on to the eastern shore that Columbus,
who had married the daughter of the Governor of Porto Santo, derived
his first impressions of the existence of the New World. Here it was
that he first realised there might possibly be a large and unknown
country to the westward; here it was that he first conceived the
project of exploring the hitherto unknown ocean and of discovering
what new countries might bound its western shores.
An hour later we saw Fora and its light, at the extreme east of
Madeira, and could soon distinguish the mountains in the centre of the
latter island. As we rapidly approached the land, the beauty of the
scenery became more fully apparent. A mass of dark purple volcanic
rocks, clothed on the top with the richest vegetation, with patches of
all sorts of colour on their sides, rises boldly from the sea. There
are several small detached rocks, and one curious pointed little
island, with an arch right through the middle of it, rather like the
Perce Rock on the coast of Nova Scotia.
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