pilgrim chapter 4

Many historians have continually misused the verb “to discover”. They imply that discovery is a one way street. It is not. Discovery involves a two way traffic.

If a ship sets sail from Europe for the precise purpose of discovering unknown land and never returns, nothing would be discovered. Even if it arrives at new lands and the crew lives happily ever after but were unable to return to Europe to tell of their findings, actually, no discovery would have been accomplished.

We have always been able to observe the moon and other planets, yet until recently, we were not able to discover them because we did not have the means to send an astronaut to explore them and report back to earth. For example, we have found archaeological evidence that Phoenicians, Romans, or Vikings have once lived in the Americas. However, there is no evidence of their return. Consequently, no discovery is considered to have taken place.

To discover, i.e. — setting out and reporting back — represents a stage of civilization which was first initiated in a scientific manner by Prince Henry’s School of Navigation. No one should dare to speak about maritime discoveries without first studying thoroughly the water currents and the winds of the Atlantic.

The Canary Current originates at the Promontory of Sagres where Prince Henry situated his school, and runs parallel to the African coast. It continues north of the Cape Verde Islands, and becomes the North Equatorial Current, or Trade Winds, crossing the Atlantic parallel to the equator and emptying into the Caribbean Sea. Then, the Gulf Stream, like a huge river, flows toward Europe and at the Azores branches out into the North Atlantic Current and the Canary Current. This dance of the Atlantic has not changed for thousands of years. All these currents create boundaries around the vast sea of seaweed, a sea without shores, forming the heart of the Atlantic. The Portuguese call it Sargasso Sea, a maritime name which is internationally known.

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Chart of the Gulf Steam, commissioned by Ben Franklin (1769

Benjamin Franklin was the first since the Portuguese navigators to recognize the navigational importance of the Atlantic Currents. As a Deputy Postmaster of the colonies, Franklin took an interest in the currents which could increase the sailing speed of the mail ship to Europe. For this purpose, Franklin had the first chart of the Gulf Stream made. (1769)

However, the first modern oceanographic studies of the currents and winds in the Atlantic were carried out by Prince Albert of Monaco (1885-1887). By throwing different sized bottles and barrels into various points in the North Atlantic, he proved that all these buoys made a circle surrounding the Sargasso Sea and that all of them were carried towards the American Continent by the Trade Winds or North Equatorial Drift. He also proved that none of the objects crossed the Equator into the South Atlantic. The findings of Prince Albert have been confirmed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute of Massachusetts.

The Gulf Stream has always brought strange objects to shores of the Azores and Portugal from the New World. Vegetable matter, pine trunks (Azores had no pine trees) and canoes served as evidence to the navigators that unknown lands lay further west.

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One fundamental method of navigating under sail is to travel in an arc, or great circle.

During the first period (1416-1434) of the discoveries, the navigators were reluctant to venture too far into the open seas, until in 1434, they passed the Cape of Bojador in Africa.

Sailing out from Lisbon towards the African coast was fairly easy because they followed the Canary current and winds. Returning to Portugal, they were forced to make a broad swing at considerable distance away from the coast. On each voyage they sailed in ever-widening arms westward into the open Atlantic taking advantage of the Canary winds, now at their right (first part of the navigational arc) and then joined the Gulf Stream to Continental Portugal (second half of the navigational arc). With this technique, the navigators continued to make a series of wider navigational arcs, establishing the now conventional sailing routes:

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Lateen Sailboat passing by the Tower of Belém in Lisbon Harbor

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Sailing against the wind became easier after the Portuguese began using Lateen sailing their caravels. Navigating in a zigzag course, the Portuguese could sail a shorter distance to windward.

In 1537, Pedro Nunes, a Portuguese navigator and mathematician, printed the first details of navigational arcs, or great-circle routes.

The discovery of the Sargasso Sea and the western-most islands of the Azores was made on return voyages from Africa.

Soon the Portuguese pilots learned that navigating the high seas was much easier than sailing along the coast where the water currents and the winds did not follow a fixed pattern. The North Atlantic became their University of Navigation. The Madeira, Azorean, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands became the “interplanetary stations”, the stepping stones in the discovery of the unknown continents.

The knowledge acquired by the Portuguese during the first open-sea voyages in the North Atlantic gave them the key with which, from discovery to discovery, with method and perseverance, they could also open the doors of the South Atlantic Ocean.

It was Bartolomeu Dias, the master of the caravel, who passed the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 because he realized that he could not navigate against the Guinea Current. Instead he decided to take a southwesterly course (Brazilian Current) , out into the open sea, in search of a more favorable wind. His voyage was a mirror image in the South Atlantic of the Sargasso Navigational Route in the North Atlantic.

Sailing in an arc had already solved many problems in the North Atlantic (luring Prince Henry’s lifetime. On his return, Bartolomeu Dias followed the Benguela Current, parallel to the African Coast, and sailed towards the equator, continuing along the conventional Sargasso - Azores Route to Lisbon. His great achievement was in being first to complete the gigantic figure-8 water route embracing both Atlantics.

Even today, many scholars who know nothing about nautical science are amazed to learn that Vasco da Gama in his first voyage to India followed the Brazilian Current. This current, which comprised the southwest arc of the figure-8 water route, lead him to the Indian Ocean.

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Vasco da Gama's route on his 1st voyage to India. He followed the Brazilian coast to reach the cape of Good Hope

The Corte Real family of navigators were familiar with the technique of sailing in an arc long before Bartolomeu Dias or Vasco da Gama. Since 1 472, when John Vaz Corte Real returned from discovering New Foundland, for which he was rewarded with the governorship of half of the Island of Terceira, the Corte Real family spent all its energies pursuing the Northwest passage to India.

Thus, from the Island of Terceira, the Portuguese navigators reached North America by sailing in a Northwest arc which cut across the Gulf Stream. They made their return voyage by joining the main current of the Gulf Stream leading them directly to the Azores. The more knowledge we have of the oceanic forces — water currents and winds — which once moved the caravels across the Atlantic — the more convinced we become that the discovery of the water route to America — North and South — was, indeed, forced upon the Portuguese navigators and therefore the easiest of all the discoveries.

It is noteworthy that while Europe was involved in political and religious wars — Portugal --for more than 70 ears (141 5-1492)-- was pursuing the discovery of the Atlantic alone.

When the other nations in Europe became aware of the importance of the Portuguese achievements, they attempted to compete in the race for discoveries but were never able to surpass the experience, nor offset the advantage that the Portuguese sailors had acquired during their many years of maritime exploration. By the time that the Portuguese passed the Cape of Good Hope in 1487, they had already gained such a momentum of knowledge of navigating the high seas, that no other nation was able to reach their level of scientific navigation.

Portugal had pilots not only for her own needs, but enough to give away. In order to carry out their maritime enterprises, other nations were forced to recruit among the experienced Portuguese masters (e.g. Estevão Gomes, Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan) and João Cabrilho. Suffice to say that all five Spanish ships in Magellan’s fleet were piloted by Portuguese navigators.

When we consider that almost two-thirds of the world was discovered by the Portuguese, we must begin the study of any disputed discovery with the alerting diagnosis: “It was discovered by the Portuguese until proven other wise.

Over the centuries, men have always migrated from one continent to the other, carried off by the oceanic water currents and the winds, but never from the motive of discovery.

Thor Heyerdahl, author of “Kon-Tiki”, has recently (1970) completed a voyage across the Atlantic on a boat made of papyrus. Having set out from Morocco and finally reaching the West Indies, Heyerdahl proved it possible that the Egyptians could have made the same crossing 5,000 years ago, which would explain the similarity between the Maya and Egyptian cultures. But he did not prove that ancient mariners could have returned to report their discovery.

Evidence of voyages by the Vikings under similar circumstances has been found in the traces of villages uncovered in Newfoundland and Greenland. Further evidence has been found in Central and South America that other Europeans (Carthaginians, Romans, Phoenicians) made similar Atlantic crossings. We know today that all these Atlantic crossings had to occur at one time or another be cause of the prevailing forces of the Greenland current in the North, and the Canary current and Trade Winds in the South. We know also that any ship sailing past the Promontory of Sagres runs the risk of being sucked into the Canary Current and forced to cross the Atlantic to Central America. Of the hundreds of Portuguese caravels that sailed along the African coast, many were swept along with the Canary Currents and Trade Winds and forced to Central America.

But the difference between all other Euro who crossed the Atlantic and the Portuguese is that the former were never able to return. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to develop the caravel which enabled them to return home. A voyage without a round trip cannot be called a true discovery. The Portuguese were the first to reach this level of nautical science in transatlantic sailing, and yet historians continue to praise those who have accomplished much less, to the exclusion of the Portuguese who discovered nearly two-thirds of the world.

1415—Ceuta conquered by Portugal during the reign of
Joao I.

1418—João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira discovered Porto Santo island, in the Madeira group.

1419—The same sailors and Bartolomeu Perestrelo discovered the island of Madeira, which at once began to be colonized.

1427—Diogo de Silves discovered part of the archipelago of the Azores, which was colonized in 1431 by Gonçalo Velho Cabral.

1434—Gil Eanes sailed round Cape Bojador, thus destroying the legends of the ‘Dark Sea’.

1435—Gil Eanes and Afonso Gonçalves Baldaia discovered Angra dos Ruivos (Garnet Bay) and the latter reached the Gold River (Rio de Ouro).

144l—Nuno Tristão reached Cape White. 1443—Nuno Tristão penetrated into the Arguim Gulf.

1444--Dias reached Cabo Verde.

1445-Alvaro Fernandes sailed beyond Cabo Verde and reached Cabo dos Mastros (Red Cape)

I446— Alvaro Fernandes reached the northern Part of Portuguese Guinea 1460—Diogo Gomes and António Noli covered sonic islands in the Cabo Verde archipelago.

1461 —Diogo Afonso discovered the western islands of the Cabo Verde group.

1471 João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar crossed the Equator. So the southern hemisphere was discovered and the sailors began to be guided by a new constellation, the Southern Cross. The discovery of the islands of São Tome and Principe is also attributed to these same sailors. 1472—Corte Real and Alvaro Martins Homem reached the Land of Cod, now called Newfoundland.

l482—Diogo Cão reached the estuary of the Zaire (Congo) and placed a landmark there.

1487—Afonso de Paiva and Pero da Covilhã traveled overland from Lisbon in search of the Kingdom of Prester John. (Ethiopia)

1488—Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean, thus effecting what is perhaps the greatest single feat of navigation of the Portuguese sailors.

1492—Christopher Columbus, who had studied the art of navigation in Portugal, rediscovered the American continent.

1494—The Treaty of Tordesilles, which divided the discovered and still un-discovered world into two zones, one for Portugal and the other for Spain.

1495—Voyage of Joao Fernandes, the Farmer, and Pedro Barcelos to Greenland. During their voyage they discovered the land to which they gave the name of Labrador (lavrador, farmer)

1498—The feat of Bartolomeu Dias was completed when Vasco da Gama led the first Beet sent by the Portuguese king to India. His arrival at Calicut is one of the great turning-points of History.

1500—Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil.

1 500—Gaspar Corte Real made his first voyage to Newfoundland, formerly known as Terras de Corte Real.

1502—Miguel Corte Real set out for New England in search of his brother, Gaspar. João da Nova discovered Ascension Island. Fernão de Noronha discovered the island which still bears his name.

1503—On his return from the East, Estevão da Gama discovered Santa Helena island.

1506—Tristão da Cunha discovered the island that bears his name. Portuguese sailors landed on Madagascar.

1509—The Gulf of Bengal crossed by Diogo Lopes Sequeira. On the crossing he also reached Malacca, later occupied by Afonso de Albuquerque, as well as Goa (1510).

151 2—António de Abreu discovered Timor island.

1 513—The first trading ship to touch the coasts of China, under Jorge Álvares.

1518—Ceylon occupied.

1519-1522—Voyage round the world by the Portuguese sailor Fernão de Magalhães, then in the service of Spain. During the voyage the passage linking the Atlantic to the Pacific was discovered (Strait of Magellan).

1522—The discovery of Australia has been attributed to Cristovão de Mendonça (1522) and to Gomes de Sequeira (1525).

1526—Discovery of New Guinea.

1541—Fernão Mendes Pinto, Diogo Zeimoto and Cristovão Borralho reached Japan.

1542—The coast of California explored by João Rodrigues Cabrilho.

1557—Macau (Macao) given to Portugal by the Emperor of China as a reward for services rendered against the pirates who infested the China Sea.

1595—Pedro Fernandes Queiroz, then in the service of Spain, discovered the Marquise Islands.

1660—Voyage of David Melgueiro from Japan to Portugal via the Arctic Ocean. 24

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Prince Henry leading his navigators forward in the monument of the discoveries at Lisbon Harbor.