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Updated: August 25, 2024
From Madeira he took a southerly course to the Canary Islands, and on June 16th anchored at Gomera, where he found a French warship with two Spanish prizes, all of which put to sea as the Admiral's fleet approached. On June 21st, when he sailed from Gomera, he divided his fleet of six vessels into two squadrons.
Ten days later Columbus cast anchor before the Great Canary Island, where the rudder of the caravel was repaired. Nineteen days afterwards he arrived before Gomera, where the inhabitants assured him of the existence of an unknown land in the west of the Archipelago. He did not leave Gomera until the 6th of September.
Spanish forts at Peñon de Velez de la Gomera and Alhucemas, and Portuguese garrisons, repressed piracy in their vicinity; and in later times Salē was perhaps the only port in Morocco that sent forth buccaneers. Reefs of rocks and drifts of sand render the west coast unsuitable for anchorage, and the roads are unsafe when the wind is in the south-west.
Teneriffe, 80,000; Grand Canary, 60,000; Palma, 25,000; Lanzerota, 15,000; Forteventura, 10,000; Heirro, 4,000; Gomera, 6,000. The imports are sugar, cocoa, oil, tobacco, paper, &c. from Cadiz; earthenware, from St. Lucia; brandy, from Catalonia; dry goods, cloth, iron, and hardware, from England; and staves, soap, candles, and rice from the United States of America.
Here he fell in with some residents of the Ferro, the westermost of the group, who repeated the old stories of land occasionally seen from its heights, lying towards the setting sun. Having taken on board wood, water, and provisions, Columbus finally sailed from Gomera on the morning of Thursday, September 6.
Scarcely had he gone, before the officers arrived to institute the search. At all events, no further obstacles were thrown in Hernando's way, and he was permitted, with the rest of the squadron, to join his brother, according to agreement, at Gomera. After a prosperous voyage, the adventurers reached the northern coast of the great southern continent, and anchored off the port of Santa Marta.
When this reached the sovereigns, they were so overcome with grief that they shut themselves up for eight days, and admitted no one to their presence. The rumor proved to be incorrect: but one ship was lost. The others assembled again at the island of Gomera in the Canaries, and, pursuing their voyage, arrived at San Domingo on the 15th of April.
This partial current becomes very strong at those times when the west winds are of long continuance: and, like that which flows along the isles of Ferro and Gomera, it deposits every year on the western coasts of Ireland and Norway the fruit of trees which belong to the torrid zone of America.
And Franciscus Lopez de Gomera, in his Generall Historie of the Indies, fol. 297. and 298. in treatinge of the seconde voyadge of Franciscus Vasques de Coronado from Ceuola to Tigues, from Tigues to Cicuic, and from Cicuic to Quiuira, saieth firste of the contrye about Tigues: Ci sono in quel paese melloni, e cottone bianco e rosso, del quale fanno piu larghi mantelli, che in altre bande delle Indie.
Anthony Leme, who had married in Madeira, declared that he once run a considerable way to the westwards of that island in his caravel, and fancied that he saw three islands; and many of the inhabitants of Gomera, Hierro, and the Azores, affirmed that they every year saw islands to the westwards.
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