it may be concluded, that the Portuguese impression did not long precede the French translation. The French translator acknowledges that he has altered the style, which was extremely florid and poetical, and has expunged several useless and tedious digressions, etymologies, reflections, and comparisons; but declares that he has strictly presented, the truth and substance of the history, so as not to vary from it in the least, or to omit the smallest material circumstance.

It is remarkable that there is no mention whatever in any of the English histories of Machin, Macham, or Marcham, the supposed author of this discovery; so that Hakluyt was beholden to Antonio Galvano for the imperfect account he gives of that transaction[4]. By the following abstract the complete history becomes our own, and we shall be no longer strangers to an event which has for several ages, rendered an Englishman famous in foreign countries, while wholly unknown in his own. It must not, however, be omitted to observe, that some objections may be stated against the authenticity of this history, on account of certain circumstances which do not quadrate with the time assigned for Machin's voyage by the author. From these it is obvious, either that the relation given by Alcaforado is not genuine, or that it has been interpolated. How far this objection may be admitted, without prejudice to the authority of the whole story, must be left to the judgment of our readers; we shall only add, that so far as relates to Macham it agrees with the tradition of the inhabitants of Madeira.

According to Alcaforada, Juan Gonsalvo Zarco, a gentleman of the household of Don Henry, being sent out by that prince upon an expedition of discovery to the coast of Africa, made prize, in the year 1420, of a Spanish vessel filled with redeemed captives, on their way from Morocco to Spain. In this vessel there was one John de Morales, an experienced and able pilot, whom he detained as an acceptable present to his master Don Henry, and set all the rest at liberty. Morales on being made acquainted with the cause of his detention, entered freely into the service of the prince, and gave an account to Gonsalvo of the adventures of Machin, and the situation and land-marks of the new discovered island, all of which he had learnt from certain English captives in the jails of Morocco, who had accompanied Macham, or Machin, in his expedition.

The year of this extraordinary adventure is not mentioned by Galvano, who only says, that in 1344, Pedro IV. reigning in Arragon, the chronicles of his age reported, that about this time the island of Madeira was discovered by one Macham, an Englishman. It must be confessed that an objection arises against this history which is not easily removed. We are told that, immediately after the death of Macham, his companions sailed over to Morocco, and that Morales was in prison when they arrived. Supposing the discovery by Macham to have been made about 1344, as related by Galvano, from the Castilian chronicles, Morales must have been no less than seventy-six years a prisoner when redeemed, and when he was detained by Gonsalvo in 1420. Herbert places the adventure of Macham in 1328, which would increase the captivity of Morales to ninety-two years. Alcaforado places the event in the reign of Edward III. of England, which began in 1327 and ended in 1378; Even supposing it to have happened in the last year of Edward, Morales must have remained forty-two years in captivity; which is not only highly improbable, but is even contrary to the sense of the historian, who supposes but a small space to have elapsed between the two events; besides, the records quoted by Galvano are said expressly to assert that Macham went himself into Africa, whence he was sent to the king of Castile. This last circumstance may have been invented by the Spaniards, to give them a better title to the island of