The year of this extraordinary adventure is not mentioned by Galvano, who only says, that in 1344, Pedro IV. reigning in Arragon, the chronicles of his age reported, that about this time the island of Madeira was discovered by one Macham, an Englishman.  It must be confessed that an objection arises against this history which is not easily removed.  We are told that, immediately after the death of Macham, his companions sailed over to Morocco, and that Morales was in prison when they arrived.  Supposing the discovery by Macham to have been made about 1344, as related by Galvano, from the Castilian chronicles, Morales must have been no less than seventy-six years a prisoner when redeemed, and when he was detained by Gonsalvo in 1420.  Herbert places the adventure of Macham in 1328, which would increase the captivity of Morales to ninety-two years.  Alcaforado places the event in the reign of Edward III. of England, which began in 1327 and ended in 1378; Even supposing it to have happened in the last year of Edward, Morales must have remained forty-two years in captivity; which is not only highly improbable, but is even contrary to the sense of the historian, who supposes but a small space to have elapsed between the two events; besides, the records quoted by Galvano are said expressly to assert that Macham went himself into Africa, whence he was sent to the king of Castile.  This last circumstance may have been invented by the Spaniards, to give them a better title to the island of Madeira:  But the former objection remains in full force, and can only be obviated by supposing that either Morales advanced a falsehood in asserting, that he had the account of this discovery from the English themselves, instead of learning it from the other slaves, among whom the tradition might have been current for many years after the event; or Alcaforado may have mistaken the report of Morales in this particular.  The following is the substance of the narrative, as given by Alcaforado.

In the glorious reign of Edward III.  Robert a Machin, of Macham, a gentleman of the second degree of nobility, whose genius was only equalled by his gallantry and courage, beheld and loved the beautiful Anna d’Arfet[5].  Their attachment was mutual, but the pleasing indulgence of ardent hope gratified and betrayed the secret of their passion.  The pride of the illustrious family of d’Arfet was insensible to the happiness of their daughter, and they preferred the indulgence of their own ambition to the voice of love.  The feudal tyranny of the age was friendly to their cruelty, and a royal warrant seemed to justify the vanity of her parent.  The consolation of an ingenious mind supported Machin under confinement, and enabled him to seek after redress without yielding to despondency.  On his releasement from prison, he learned that the beloved cause of his persecution had been forced to marry a nobleman, whose name he could not discover, but who had carried her to his castle near Bristol.  The friends of