Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/58

 

CHAP.II.

 

The Passage from Madeira to the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope.

 

1772.
August.

Late in the evening on the first of August, we got under sail, in company with the Adventure. A North-east wind forwarded our course so well, that we got sight of Palma on the fourth, early in the morning.

Tuesday 4.

This island is one of the group now called the Canaries, known to the ancients by the name of Insulæ Fortunatæ, one of them being already at that time distinguished by the name of Canaria^[1]. They were entirely forgotten in Europe, till towards the end of the fourteenth century, when the spirit of navigation and discovery was revived. Some adventurers then found them again, and the Biscayans landed on Lanzarota, and carried off one hundred and

 

1. It is probable that not only the Canaries, but likewise Madeira, and Porto-Santo were known to the ancients; a circumstance from which it is possible to reconcile their various accounts of the number of these islands. See Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vi. cap. 37. The description given of them by ancient writers, agree with the modern accounts. See Vossius in Pompon. Melam. ad cap. x. v. 20. Ex iisdem quoque insulis cinnabaris Romam advehebatur. Sane hodie etiamnum frequens est in insulis fortunatis arbor illa quæ cinnabarin gignit. Vulgo Sanguinem Draconis appellant.—We have Pliny's testimony, lib. vi. cap. 36. that Juba, the Mauritanian king, dyed purple in some of these isles, opposite to the Autololes in Africa.

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