The first Portuguese settlers began colonizing the islands around 1420 or 1425. The three Captains-majorhad led the first settlement, along with their respective families, a small group of minor nobility, people of modest conditions, and some prisoners, who could be trusted to work the lands. To gain the minimum conditions for the development of agriculture, they had to […]
João Gonçalves Zarco (c. 1390 – 21 November 1471) was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator. Zarco was born in Portugal, and became a knight at the service of Prince Henry the Navigator‘s household. In his service at an early age, Zarco commanded the caravelsguarding the coast of Algarve from the incursions […]
In 1419 two captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven by a storm to the island they called Porto Santo, or Holy Harbour, in gratitude for their rescue from shipwreck. The next year an expedition was sent to populate the island, and, Madeira being described, they made for it, and took possession […]
Pliny mentions certain Purple Islands, the position of which with reference to the Fortunate Islands or Canaries might seem to indicate Madeira islands. Plutarch (Sertorius, 75 AD) referring to the military commander Quintus Sertorius (d. 72 BC), relates that after his return to Cádiz, “he met seamen recently arrived from Atlantic islands, two in number, divided from one another only by a narrow […]
