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2009
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The archipelago of Madeira is constituted by the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, Desertas Islands (Bugio, Deserta Grande and Chao Islet) and Savage Islands (Selvagem Grande and Selvagem Pequena), and is currently known as the Autonomous Region of Madeira, part of the Portuguese Republic.
This archipelago's discovery is marked by the romantic mist of the legend of Machim and by the lack of accurate information from the chroniclers of the time.
According to Gomes Eanes de Zurara, "following the arrival of the Infante after the raising of the siege to Ceuta", and wishing to serve their Master, Dom Henrique's squires, Joao Gonçalves Zarco and Tristao Vaz, managed to obtain the command of a ship. Their goal was to sail towards the African coast and fight the Moors. Due to poor weather conditions, the two squires anchored in the island of Porto Santo.
For a more accurate dating of the Portuguese arrival, it was important to set the exact date of the raising of the siege to Ceuta. Zurara sets it sometimes in 1418, other times in 1419, whilst in Livro dos Conselhos de El-Rei D.Duarte (Livro da Cartuxa), this event is dated from 9 October 1419. Damiao de Gois, in Crónica do Princípe D. Joao, also registered it as having happened in the year 1419. Logically, Zarco and Tristao would have arrived in Porto Santo in 1420. However, Jeronimo Dias Leite recorded the depart of the Portuguese from Restelo as having taken place in the beginnings of June 1419, with a fleet ship and a ballinger, what would enable them to arrive to Porto Santo in only a few days.
According to Francisco Alcoforado, the existence of this island had been known for at least two years, as some Castilian ships heading for the Canary Islands and, more recently, the French had given news of it, a fact also mentioned by Dias Leite.
The Portuguese stayed in Porto Santo for a short while, as they wanted to find out what was the dreaded faraway "darkness" they saw. From Porto Santo, Madeira can be sighted in clear days, a detail also noticed by Cadamosto in 1455, and it was only natural for them to sail there and explore its coastline. Dias Leite sets the arrival date on 1 July 1419 in the evening. Despite this, the disembark, the First Mass and the valley's exploration were only done in the following day. They continued the study of the coastline until Cabo Girao, named after being "the last part and cape of their encompassing (giro) and discovery journey", after which they returned to Funchal, where they slept by the bay's islets. They had done the same in the previous night, when they had seen that majestic valley "of fresh and merry pebbles" covered in "endless fennel".
They returned to the kingdom to bring news to king Dom Joao I, praising the abundance of water and wood and the land's potential for agriculture. As said by Alcoforado and Dias Leite, the event was celebrated in Lisbon with processions and dances. Still according to the same authors, in the following summer, beginning of May, the king "ordered swift ships to be built" so these islands could be populated.
A certainty is the fact that the archipelago of Madeira was known, at least, since the middle of the 14th century. In addition to other geographical charts, Madeira's Islands are represented in the Medici Atlas of Mediceo (c. 1370), in the chart attributed to the Pizzigani brothers (1367), in a sheet of the Catalan Atlas by Abraham Cresques (1375), and in the charts of Soleri (1385) and Pinelli (1390). In the map of Pasqualini (1408), the islands are identified by their Portuguese names, what may prove that our sailors were already going to the archipelago of Madeira frequently, as a stopover to collect fresh water during their expeditions to the Canary Islands. It is known that prior to 1336 Dom Afonso IV had sent fleets to explore and conquer the Canary Islands.
The archipelago's settlement process resulted from the initiative of king Dom Joao I, and it was probably in 1425 that official instructions for the endowment of Madeira's lands were given to captain Joao Gonçalves Zarco. Nonetheless, in Dias Leite chronicles (written circa 1579), it is said that captains Zarco, Tristao and Bartolomeu Perestrelo left in 1420 to populate the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira.
The first settlers are mentioned by Alcoforado, Dias Leite and Frutuoso as being Zarco, his wife and their three children, Bartolomeu Perestrelo and Tristao, some law offenders and convicts (not by faith, treason, theft or robbery), and others who went looking for better living conditions, and came mostly from the Algarve.
The latter has led to the false assumption that the settlement of Madeira was essentially made by people from the Algarve, but genealogic and ethnologic studies have indicated the region between Entre-Douro and Minho as the geographical origin of Madeira's settlers, data confirmed by historical documents from the 16th century.
The first settlers not only brought their beliefs and traditions, but also cattle, seeds, household utensils, and all the other necessary things to make life possible in these unpopulated islands. From the start, they tried to create arable soil by promoting more or less controlled slash-and-burn deforestation. From the land, they started to get sustenance and, since the beginning, Funchal became a promising place.
The valleys, the achadas (volcanic plateaus), the fajãs, the lombos and lombadas were soon inhabited and became rich seeding lands, lush reed beds and precious vineyards.
From the start, the abundance of water and the land's fertility made of Madeira the most prosperous island and the most sought-after by the settlers, whilst Porto Santo experienced a slower and more difficult development. Both morphologically and climatologically, the island of Bartolomeu Perestrelo did not display favourable conditions for the practice of agriculture. Therefore, the dissimilarity between the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo is quite large, both in terms of natural characteristics and of human occupation patterns.
Zurara refers that circa 1446 the island of Madeira had 150 inhabitants, in addition to clergymen, merchants, single men and women, and youngsters born on the island. The number Zurara indicates probably refers to the owners of agricultural properties.
Luis de Cadamosto, the Venetian navigator,upon his visit to the island in 1445, registers the existence of "about 800 men" (800 neighbours), from which 100 are of horses (100 land owners), and mentions Funchal, Machico, Santa Cruz and Camara de Lobos as the main settlements. Around the middle of the 15th century, the population must have been between 3200 and 3600 inhabitants.
The intensification of the sugar cane culture attracted a considerable number of new settlers and slaves to the island. It also originated the settling of many Flemish, French, Castilians, Genoese, Florentines and other foreigners, who, from the 1480s, invested in reed beds, engenhos (sugar cane mills) and levadas (irrigation channels), what distinguished them from the traditional agricultural structure of the island. Some of them, probably the majority, came to the island of Madeira motivated solely by the sugar cane commerce, but after decided to stay and became residents.
From its early stage, the settlement of Madeira is associated to an agricultural economy, predominantly a rich culture, but still without the characteristics of monoculture.
In a letter from 26 September 1433, king Dom Duarte offered the archipelago of Madeira to his brother, Infante Dom Henrique, with all the rights and revenues, as well as civil and criminal jurisdiction, except for death penalties and amputations. The donatory captain was also not allowed to coin his own money in the islands. In this same date, the king decreed the Order of Christ should receive "all the spiritual" of the islands, after a request from Dom Henrique. This way, the Infante was doubly linked to the archipelago of Madeira: as donatory captain and as official and Grand Master of the knights of Tomar. However, the donation made by Dom Duarte to the Order of Christ saved the payment of privileges and of tithes, resulting from the fish caught in all the islands, as well as all the other royal rights, for the Crown.
Infante Dom Henrique divided the archipelago of Madeira into captaincies, the real support-structure of the islands' administration in the 15th and 16th centuries. This model lasted until the reforms done by Marquis of Pombal (18th century). The captaincy of Machico was awarded to Tristao, on 8 May 1440, Porto Santo to Bartolomeu Perestrelo on 1 November 1446, and Funchal to Joao Gonçalves Zarco on 1 November 1450.
The creation of the captaincy of Funchal, after the ones of Machico and Porto Santo, and almost 30 years after the beginning of the settlement, can only be seen as the lawful legitimating of an already-existing situation. In fact, Zarco captained the expedition to the islands and was the one to take in his hands the distribution of lands, since the early times of the settlement process, under the orders of king Dom Joao I. According to Dias Leite, it was Zarco who drew the boundaries of the captaincy of Machico, following official instructions by Infante Dom Henrique.
Valentim Fernandes explains that Zarco stayed in Funchal, Tristao in Machico and Bartolomeu Perestrelo in Porto Santo due to "differences" between them. Nonetheless, there is no other record of this being true.
All the other chronicles and official sources defend that Infante Dom Henrique was the one to set up the captaincies. However, both Zurara and Dias Leite say the sharing of the archipelago and the beginning of the settlement process are concurrent, what favours the thesis defending the donation letters only legitimated the division which existed since the early stages of the territory's occupation.
The donation letters granted the captaincies of "juro e herdade", a title which obliged the king to renew it in its rightful heir, "from king to king". The captain applied civil and criminal jurisdiction, on the behalf of the donatory captain, except in cases of death penalty and amputation. The captain had landlord rights: territory revenues (lands and villages), one tenth of the tithe, rents resulting from the ownership and government of the captaincy, such as the donatory seal, and rights over mills, communal ovens, sawmills, soap and salt.
Bibliography:
ALBUQUERQUE, Luís de e VIEIRA, Alberto (1987). O arquipélago da Madeira no século XV. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura - Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico. AZEVEDO, Álvaro Rodrigues de, anot. (1873). As Saudades da Terra pelo Doutor Gaspar Fructuoso. Historia das ilhas do Porto Sancto, Madeira, Desertas e Selvagens. Manuscripto do seculo XVI annotado por... Funchal: Typ. Funchalense. CARITA, Rui (1989-1999). História da Madeira. Funchal: Secretaria Regional da Educação, 5 vols. GONÇALVES, Ernesto (1992). Portugal e a Ilha: colectânea de estudos históricos e literários. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura - Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico (pref., selecção e notas de Alberto Vieira). PEREIRA, Fernando Jasmins (1991). Estudos sobre História da Madeira. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo, Cultura e Emigração - Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico (org., estudo introdutório e índices por Miguel Jasmins Rodrigues). VERÍSSIMO, Nelson (2000). Relações de Poder na Sociedade Madeirense do século XVII. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura - Direcção Regional dos Assuntos Culturais.
Translated by: Marília Pavão
This archipelago's discovery is marked by the romantic mist of the legend of Machim and by the lack of accurate information from the chroniclers of the time.
According to Gomes Eanes de Zurara, "following the arrival of the Infante after the raising of the siege to Ceuta", and wishing to serve their Master, Dom Henrique's squires, Joao Gonçalves Zarco and Tristao Vaz, managed to obtain the command of a ship. Their goal was to sail towards the African coast and fight the Moors. Due to poor weather conditions, the two squires anchored in the island of Porto Santo.
For a more accurate dating of the Portuguese arrival, it was important to set the exact date of the raising of the siege to Ceuta. Zurara sets it sometimes in 1418, other times in 1419, whilst in Livro dos Conselhos de El-Rei D.Duarte (Livro da Cartuxa), this event is dated from 9 October 1419. Damiao de Gois, in Crónica do Princípe D. Joao, also registered it as having happened in the year 1419. Logically, Zarco and Tristao would have arrived in Porto Santo in 1420. However, Jeronimo Dias Leite recorded the depart of the Portuguese from Restelo as having taken place in the beginnings of June 1419, with a fleet ship and a ballinger, what would enable them to arrive to Porto Santo in only a few days.
According to Francisco Alcoforado, the existence of this island had been known for at least two years, as some Castilian ships heading for the Canary Islands and, more recently, the French had given news of it, a fact also mentioned by Dias Leite.
The Portuguese stayed in Porto Santo for a short while, as they wanted to find out what was the dreaded faraway "darkness" they saw. From Porto Santo, Madeira can be sighted in clear days, a detail also noticed by Cadamosto in 1455, and it was only natural for them to sail there and explore its coastline. Dias Leite sets the arrival date on 1 July 1419 in the evening. Despite this, the disembark, the First Mass and the valley's exploration were only done in the following day. They continued the study of the coastline until Cabo Girao, named after being "the last part and cape of their encompassing (giro) and discovery journey", after which they returned to Funchal, where they slept by the bay's islets. They had done the same in the previous night, when they had seen that majestic valley "of fresh and merry pebbles" covered in "endless fennel".
They returned to the kingdom to bring news to king Dom Joao I, praising the abundance of water and wood and the land's potential for agriculture. As said by Alcoforado and Dias Leite, the event was celebrated in Lisbon with processions and dances. Still according to the same authors, in the following summer, beginning of May, the king "ordered swift ships to be built" so these islands could be populated.
A certainty is the fact that the archipelago of Madeira was known, at least, since the middle of the 14th century. In addition to other geographical charts, Madeira's Islands are represented in the Medici Atlas of Mediceo (c. 1370), in the chart attributed to the Pizzigani brothers (1367), in a sheet of the Catalan Atlas by Abraham Cresques (1375), and in the charts of Soleri (1385) and Pinelli (1390). In the map of Pasqualini (1408), the islands are identified by their Portuguese names, what may prove that our sailors were already going to the archipelago of Madeira frequently, as a stopover to collect fresh water during their expeditions to the Canary Islands. It is known that prior to 1336 Dom Afonso IV had sent fleets to explore and conquer the Canary Islands.
The archipelago's settlement process resulted from the initiative of king Dom Joao I, and it was probably in 1425 that official instructions for the endowment of Madeira's lands were given to captain Joao Gonçalves Zarco. Nonetheless, in Dias Leite chronicles (written circa 1579), it is said that captains Zarco, Tristao and Bartolomeu Perestrelo left in 1420 to populate the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira.
The first settlers are mentioned by Alcoforado, Dias Leite and Frutuoso as being Zarco, his wife and their three children, Bartolomeu Perestrelo and Tristao, some law offenders and convicts (not by faith, treason, theft or robbery), and others who went looking for better living conditions, and came mostly from the Algarve.
The latter has led to the false assumption that the settlement of Madeira was essentially made by people from the Algarve, but genealogic and ethnologic studies have indicated the region between Entre-Douro and Minho as the geographical origin of Madeira's settlers, data confirmed by historical documents from the 16th century.
The first settlers not only brought their beliefs and traditions, but also cattle, seeds, household utensils, and all the other necessary things to make life possible in these unpopulated islands. From the start, they tried to create arable soil by promoting more or less controlled slash-and-burn deforestation. From the land, they started to get sustenance and, since the beginning, Funchal became a promising place.
The valleys, the achadas (volcanic plateaus), the fajãs, the lombos and lombadas were soon inhabited and became rich seeding lands, lush reed beds and precious vineyards.
From the start, the abundance of water and the land's fertility made of Madeira the most prosperous island and the most sought-after by the settlers, whilst Porto Santo experienced a slower and more difficult development. Both morphologically and climatologically, the island of Bartolomeu Perestrelo did not display favourable conditions for the practice of agriculture. Therefore, the dissimilarity between the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo is quite large, both in terms of natural characteristics and of human occupation patterns.
Zurara refers that circa 1446 the island of Madeira had 150 inhabitants, in addition to clergymen, merchants, single men and women, and youngsters born on the island. The number Zurara indicates probably refers to the owners of agricultural properties.
Luis de Cadamosto, the Venetian navigator,upon his visit to the island in 1445, registers the existence of "about 800 men" (800 neighbours), from which 100 are of horses (100 land owners), and mentions Funchal, Machico, Santa Cruz and Camara de Lobos as the main settlements. Around the middle of the 15th century, the population must have been between 3200 and 3600 inhabitants.
The intensification of the sugar cane culture attracted a considerable number of new settlers and slaves to the island. It also originated the settling of many Flemish, French, Castilians, Genoese, Florentines and other foreigners, who, from the 1480s, invested in reed beds, engenhos (sugar cane mills) and levadas (irrigation channels), what distinguished them from the traditional agricultural structure of the island. Some of them, probably the majority, came to the island of Madeira motivated solely by the sugar cane commerce, but after decided to stay and became residents.
From its early stage, the settlement of Madeira is associated to an agricultural economy, predominantly a rich culture, but still without the characteristics of monoculture.
In a letter from 26 September 1433, king Dom Duarte offered the archipelago of Madeira to his brother, Infante Dom Henrique, with all the rights and revenues, as well as civil and criminal jurisdiction, except for death penalties and amputations. The donatory captain was also not allowed to coin his own money in the islands. In this same date, the king decreed the Order of Christ should receive "all the spiritual" of the islands, after a request from Dom Henrique. This way, the Infante was doubly linked to the archipelago of Madeira: as donatory captain and as official and Grand Master of the knights of Tomar. However, the donation made by Dom Duarte to the Order of Christ saved the payment of privileges and of tithes, resulting from the fish caught in all the islands, as well as all the other royal rights, for the Crown.
Infante Dom Henrique divided the archipelago of Madeira into captaincies, the real support-structure of the islands' administration in the 15th and 16th centuries. This model lasted until the reforms done by Marquis of Pombal (18th century). The captaincy of Machico was awarded to Tristao, on 8 May 1440, Porto Santo to Bartolomeu Perestrelo on 1 November 1446, and Funchal to Joao Gonçalves Zarco on 1 November 1450.
The creation of the captaincy of Funchal, after the ones of Machico and Porto Santo, and almost 30 years after the beginning of the settlement, can only be seen as the lawful legitimating of an already-existing situation. In fact, Zarco captained the expedition to the islands and was the one to take in his hands the distribution of lands, since the early times of the settlement process, under the orders of king Dom Joao I. According to Dias Leite, it was Zarco who drew the boundaries of the captaincy of Machico, following official instructions by Infante Dom Henrique.
Valentim Fernandes explains that Zarco stayed in Funchal, Tristao in Machico and Bartolomeu Perestrelo in Porto Santo due to "differences" between them. Nonetheless, there is no other record of this being true.
All the other chronicles and official sources defend that Infante Dom Henrique was the one to set up the captaincies. However, both Zurara and Dias Leite say the sharing of the archipelago and the beginning of the settlement process are concurrent, what favours the thesis defending the donation letters only legitimated the division which existed since the early stages of the territory's occupation.
The donation letters granted the captaincies of "juro e herdade", a title which obliged the king to renew it in its rightful heir, "from king to king". The captain applied civil and criminal jurisdiction, on the behalf of the donatory captain, except in cases of death penalty and amputation. The captain had landlord rights: territory revenues (lands and villages), one tenth of the tithe, rents resulting from the ownership and government of the captaincy, such as the donatory seal, and rights over mills, communal ovens, sawmills, soap and salt.
Bibliography:
ALBUQUERQUE, Luís de e VIEIRA, Alberto (1987). O arquipélago da Madeira no século XV. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura - Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico. AZEVEDO, Álvaro Rodrigues de, anot. (1873). As Saudades da Terra pelo Doutor Gaspar Fructuoso. Historia das ilhas do Porto Sancto, Madeira, Desertas e Selvagens. Manuscripto do seculo XVI annotado por... Funchal: Typ. Funchalense. CARITA, Rui (1989-1999). História da Madeira. Funchal: Secretaria Regional da Educação, 5 vols. GONÇALVES, Ernesto (1992). Portugal e a Ilha: colectânea de estudos históricos e literários. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura - Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico (pref., selecção e notas de Alberto Vieira). PEREIRA, Fernando Jasmins (1991). Estudos sobre História da Madeira. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo, Cultura e Emigração - Centro de Estudos de História do Atlântico (org., estudo introdutório e índices por Miguel Jasmins Rodrigues). VERÍSSIMO, Nelson (2000). Relações de Poder na Sociedade Madeirense do século XVII. Funchal: Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Cultura - Direcção Regional dos Assuntos Culturais.
Translated by: Marília Pavão