ries are supposed to have been known, however imperfectly, to
the ancients; but, in the confusion of the subsequent ages, they were
lost and forgotten, till, about the year 1340, the Biscayners found
Lucarot, and invading it, (for to find a new country, and invade it has
always been the same,) brought away seventy captives, and some
commodities of the place. Louis de la Cerda, count of Clermont, of the
blood royal both of France and Spain, nephew of John de la Cerda, who
called himself the Prince of Fortune, had once a mind to settle in those
islands, and applying himself first to the king of Arragon, and then to
Clement the sixth, was by the pope crowned at Avignon, king of the
Canaries, on condition that he should reduce them to the true religion;
but the prince altered his mind, and went into France to serve against
the English. The kings both of Castile and Portugal, though they did not
oppose the papal grant, yet complained of it, as made without their
knowledge, and in contravention of their rights.

The first settlement in the Canaries was made by John de Betancour, a
French gentleman, for whom his kinsman Robin de Braquement, admiral of
France, begged them, with the title of king, from Henry the magnificent
of Castile, to whom he had done eminent services. John made himself
master of some of the isles, but could never conquer the grand Canary;
and having spent all that he had, went back to Europe, leaving his
nephew, Massiot de Betancour, to take care of his new dominion. Massiot
had a quarrel with the vicar-general, and was, likewise, disgusted by
the long absence of his uncle, whom the French king detained in his
service, and being able to keep his ground no longer, he transferred his
rights to Don Henry, in exchange for some districts in the Madera, where
he settled his family.

Don Henry, when he had purchased those islands, sent thither, in 1424,
two thousand five hundred foot, and a hundred and twenty horse; but the
army was too numerous to be maintained by the country. The king of
Castile afterwards claimed them, as conquered by his subjects under
Betancour, and held under the crown of Castile by fealty and homage: his
claim was allowed, and the Canaries were resigned.

It was the constant practice of Henry's navigators, when they stopped at
a desert island, to land cattle upon it, and leave them to breed, where,
neither wanting room nor food, they multiplied very fast, and furnished
a very commodious s