five hundred miles beyond Cape Verde, and certainly reached the
Gambia, whose great mouth, "like an arm of the sea," is well described
in his journal.

The second is the "true account of the finding of the Cape Verde islands
by Diego Gomez, servant of Don Henry," who writes the story of the
Prince's death and was as faithful a servant as he had at his Court. But
there is one other chapter of the exploration directed from Sagres and
described by Azurara, which must find its place, and is best spoken of
here and now, in the interval between the two most active periods of
African coasting voyages. This is the story of the colonisation of the
Azores, of the Western or Hawk islands, known to map-makers at least as
early as 1351, for they figure clearly enough on the great Florentine
chart of that year, though not reclaimed for Europe and Christendom till
somewhere about 1430. These islands were found, says a legend, on the
Catalan map of 1439, by Diego de Sevill, pilot of the King of Portugal,
in 1427. But these islands were after all only two groups of the
Archipelago, and the rediscovery or finding of the rest fell between the
years 1432 and 1450.

The voyage of Diego de Sevill and Gonzalo Velho Cabral to the Azores,
that is to the island of St. Mary and the Formigas, has been alluded to
as among the earliest of Prince Henry's successes. But as it was out of
this first attempt that the discovery of the whole group resulted, it
has been necessary to refer to it again. Cabral, rewarded by his lord
with the gift of his discoveries and living in St. Mary's island as
"Captain Donatory" or Lord of the Land, was in charge of the
colonisation of the islands he had already found, and of as many others
as might come to light. He spent three years (1433-6) collecting men
and means in Portugal and then settled in the "Western Isles" with some
of the best families in this country.

With this, discovery seemed to have come to a standstill, but years
after, somewhere about 1440-1 an odd chance started exploration westward
once more. There was a hunt after a runaway slave, a negro, of course,
from the continent, who had escaped to the top of the highest mountain
in St. Mary. The weather was of the clearest, and he fancied that he saw
far off on the horizon the outline of an unknown land. Was it another
island? He knew his masters were there as explorers quite as much as
colonisers, and he must often have heard their talk about the findi