Sea Thoughts - 4

Sea Thoughts - 4

Sea myths and legends are strange things, and do not as a rule persist in the minds of men

unless they have had some ghostly foundation; so it is possible that these fabled islands

of the West were lands that had actually been seen by living eyes, although their position

could never be properly laid down nor their identity assured. Of all the wandering seamen

who talked in the wayside taverns of Atlantic seaports, some must have had strange tales

to tell; tales which sometimes may have been true, but were never believed. Vague

rumours hung about those shores, like spray and mist about a headland, of lands seen and

lost again in the unknown and uncharted ocean. Doubtless the lamp of faith, the inner

light, burned in some of these storm-tossed men; but all they had was a glimpse here and

there, seen for a moment and lost again; not the clear sight of faith by which Columbus

steered his westward course.

The actual outposts of western occupation, then, were the Azores, which were discovered

by Genoese sailors in the pay of Portugal early in the fourteenth century; the Canaries,

which had been continuously discovered and rediscovered since the Phoenicians

occupied them and Pliny chose them for his Hesperides; and Madeira, which is believed

to have been discovered by an Englishman under the following very romantic and

moving circumstances.

In the reign of Edward the Third a young man named Robert Machin fell in love with a

beautiful girl, his superior in rank, Anne Dorset or d'Urfey by name. She loved him also,

but her relations did not love him; and therefore they had Machin imprisoned upon some

pretext or other, and forcibly married the young lady to a nobleman who had a castle on

the shores of the Bristol Channel.

The marriage being accomplished, and the girl carried away by her bridegroom to his seat

in the West, it was thought safe to release Machin. Whereupon he collected several

friends, and they followed the newly-married couple to Bristol and laid their plans for an

abduction. One of the friends got himself engaged as a groom in the service of the

unhappy bride, and found her love unchanged, and if possible increased by the present

misery she was in. An escape was planned; and one day, when the girl and her groom

were riding in the park, they set spurs to their horses, and galloped off to a place on the

shores of the Bristol Channel where young Robert had a boat on the beach and a ship in

the offing. They set sail immediately, intending to make for France, where the reunited

lovers hoped to live happily; but it came on to blow when they were off the Lizard, and a

southerly gale, which lasted for thirteen days, drove them far out of their course.

The bride, from her joy and relief, fell into a state of the gloomiest despondency,

believing that the hand of God was turned against her, and that their love would never be

enjoyed. The tempest fell on the fourteenth day, and at the break of morning the sea-worn

company saw trees and land ahead of them. In the sunrise they landed upon an island full

of noble trees, about which flights of singing birds were hovering, and in which the

sweetest fruits, the most lovely flowers, and the purest and most limpid waters abounded.

Machin and his bride and their friends made an encampment on a flowery meadow in a

sheltered valley, where for three days they enjoyed the sweetness and rest of the shore

and the companionship of all kinds of birds and beasts, which showed no signs of fear at

their presence. On the third day a storm arose, and raged for a night over the island; and

in the morning the adventurers found that their ship was nowhere to be seen. The despair

of the little company was extreme, and was increased by the condition of poor Anne,

upon whom terror and remorse again fell, and so preyed upon her mind that in three days

she was dead. Her lover, who had braved so much and won her so gallantly, was turned

to stone by this misfortune. Remorse and aching desolation oppressed him; from the

moment of her death he scarcely ate nor spoke; and in five days he also was dead, surely

of a broken heart. They buried him beside his mistress under a spreading tree, and put up

a wooden cross there, with a prayer that any Christians who might come to the island

would build a chapel to Jesus the Saviour. The rest of the party then repaired their little

boat and put to sea; were cast upon the coast of Morocco, captured by the Moors, and

thrown into prison. With them in prison was a Spanish pilot named Juan de Morales, who

listened attentively to all they could tell him about the situation and condition of the

island, and who after his release communicated what he knew to Prince Henry of

Portugal. The island of Madeira was thus rediscovered in 1418, and in 1425 was

colonised by Prince Henry, who appointed as Governor Bartolomeo de Perestrello, whose

daughter was afterwards to become the wife of Columbus.