Entries tagged with: western africa
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Porto Santo
The adventurers, it is said, carried on a good trade till 1430-90, when the civil wars distracting France left her without stomach for distant adventure; and in 1452 Portugal walked over the course. M. d’Avezac, who found Porto Santo in a French map of the fourteenth century, [Footnote: Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, cinquième série, tome v. p. 260. Also ’Iles de l’Afrique,’ in the Univers. Paris, 1868.] seems inclined to take the part of ’quelques précurseurs méconnus contre les prétentions trop exclusives des découvreurs officiels.’ Barbot’s details are circumstantial, but they have not been confirmed by contemporary evidence or by local tradition. The Portuguese indignantly deny the whole, and M. Valdez in his ’Complete Maritime Handbook’ [Footnote: Six Years of a Traveller’s Life in Western Africa. London, Hurst & Blackett, 1861.] alludes contemptuously to ’Norman pirates.’ They point out that Diego d’Azembuja, the chief captain, sent in 1481...
Posted on May 31, 2007 3:25 PM
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