Lying some 900 miles from the coast of Portugal in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean the Azores Islands cover an area of some six hundred kilometres in length and a land area of 2.333 square kilometres. Plato in his reference to the “Empire of Atlantis” must have been based on some knowledge of the existence of these Islands, and equally Plutarch refers to the “Atlantic Islands”. It is almost certain that they were previously known about and there is reference to their existence in the Catalan Atlas of 1375 by Jafunda Cresquez. Some 100 years later in 1427 a ship commanded by Diogo da Silva is recorded to have visited the Azores. Based on all this information Henry the Navigator organized two voyages in 1431 and 1432 under the command of Frei Gonçalo Velho a Knight of the Order of Christ, and who was later instructed under royal edict to find the islands and take possession in the name of Portugal.
Related posts:
Recent Comments