[2] Hakluyt dates this expedition in the 32d year of the reign of Henry
    III. of England.  He mentions, in a former passage, I. p. 59. that the
    same Earl of Salisbury, accompanied Richard Earl of Cornwall, in the
    23d year of the same kings reign into Syria against the Saracens, with
    many other English of note, where they performed good service against
    the unbelievers, but gives no relation of particulars.—­E.

[3] The meaning of this term of reproach does not appear; unless,
    from some after circumstances, it may have proceeded from their horses
    having long tails, while those of the French were dockt.—­E.

[4] Probably Aboukir.—­E.

[5] St John d’Acre.—­E.

[6] This is probably meant for that branch of the Nile which
    they had previously crossed on their way to Mansor.—­E.

* * * * *

CHAP.  XXI.

Discovery of Madeira[1].

Although the Era of modern discovery certainly commenced under the auspicious direction of Don Henry of Portugal, who first conceived and executed the sublime idea of extending the knowledge and commerce of the globe, by a judicious series of maritime, expeditions expressly for the purpose of discovery; yet as Madeira is said to have been visited, and the Canaries were actually discovered and settled before that era, it appears necessary to give a previous account of these discoveries, before proceeding to the second part of this work.

Several authors have left accounts of the real or pretended original discovery of this island of Madeira, all of whom concur in asserting that it was first discovered by an Englishman.  Juan de Barros, the Livy of Portugal, mentions it briefly in the first decade of his Asia.  The history of this discovery was written in Latin, by Doctor Manoel Clemente, and dedicated to Pope Clement V. Manoel Tome composed a Latin poem on the subject, which he intitled Insulana.  Antonio Galvano mentions it in a treatise of discoveries, made chiefly by the Spaniards and Portuguese previously to the year 1550[2].  Manoel de Faria y Sousa, the illustrious commentator of Camoens, cites Galvano in illustration of the fifth stanza in the fifth book of the immortal Lusiad, and likewise gives an account of this discovery in his Portuguese Asia.  But the earliest and most complete relation of this discovery was composed by Francisco Alcaforado, who was esquire to Don Henry the infant or prince of Portugal, the first great promoter of maritime discoveries, and to whom he presented his work.  No person was more capable of giving an exact account of that singular event than Alcaforado, as he was one of those who assisted in making the second discovery.  His work was first published in Portuguese by Don Francisco Manoel, and was afterwards published in French at Paris in 1671[3].  From this French edition