Paragraph: (History-Anthropology/oanc-HistoryMadeira-1-2.txt)
Sent 1: Befitting a lush, tropical island stranded in the middle of the ocean, Madeira’s origins are shrouded in mystery and fanciful legend.
Sent 2: Some claim that the archipelago is what remains of Plato’s lost Atlantis, or part of a landmass that once fused the continents of Europe and America.
Sent 3: The Portuguese Step Ashore: Recorded history of the volcanic archipelago begins in relatively recent times: 1418, just as the golden age of Portuguese discovery was erupting.
Sent 4: Under the leadership of Henry the Navigator, caravels set out from the westernmost point of the Algarve, in southern Portugal, in search of foreign lands, fame, and wealth.
Sent 5: João Gonçalves Zarco, sailing in the service of Prince Henry, made the first of many famous Portuguese discoveries, which would culminate a century later in Magellan’s historic circumnavigation of the globe.
Sent 6: Zarco happened upon a small volcanic archipelago 1,000 km from Lisbon.
Sent 7: Perhaps Zarco knew precisely where he was heading, having learned of the existence of Madeira from a Castilian source.
Sent 8: After all, the waters of the Canary Islands, only 445 km (275 miles) to the south, had occupied busy shipping lanes for very nearly a century, and Genovese maps from the mid-14th century depict both Madeira and Porto Santo.
Sent 9: More likely, Zarco was heading for Guinea and storms forced him onto the beach of Porto Santo.
Sent 10: If so, then he was extremely fortunate, for he managed to land on the only large, sandy beach for hundreds of miles around.
Sent 11: Little wonder he subsequently named it Porto Santo (Holy Port).
Sent 12: The following year Zarco returned to claim the larger island he had seen from Porto Santo, and with him went Tristão Vaz Teixeira and Bartolomeu Perestrelo.
Sent 13: They officially became the first men to set foot on the heavily forested island, naming it Ilha da Madeira, “Island of Timber.
Sent 14: ” The Portuguese Crown, delighted with its first important discovery, immediately embarked on a program of colonization.
Sent 15: Zarco and Teixeira were appointed co-go­vern­ors of Madeira, while Perestrelo was awarded Porto Santo.