Porto Santo is in about lat. 33 deg.  N. The same day at 11 o’clock A.M. we raised the island of Madeira, which is 12 leagues S.W. from Porto Santo.  Madeira is a fine and fertile island belonging to the Portuguese, and rises from afar like one great high mountain.  By 3 P.M. being athwart of Porto Santo, we set our course to the S.W. leaving both Madeira and Porto Santo to the eastwards, being the first land we had seen after leaving England.  About three next morning we were abreast of Madeira, within three leagues of its west end, and were becalmed under its high land.  We estimated having run 30 leagues in the past day and night.  The 4th we remained becalmed under the west end of Madeira till 1 P.M. when the wind sprung up at east, and we continued our course S.W. making in the rest of that day 15 leagues.  The 5th we ran 15 leagues.

[Footnote 226:  Hakluyt, II. 480, Astl.  I. 150.—­From several passages in this journal it appears that Towerson had been on the former voyage to Guinea with Captain Lock; but in the present voyage he appears to have acted as captain or chief director, and seems to have been the author of the journal here adopted from Hakluyt.—­Astl.  I. 150, 2.]

[Footnote 227:  The saddle-backed hills of old navigators, are to be considered in reference to the old demipique or war-saddle, having high abrupt peaks, or hummocks, at each end, with a flattish hollow between.—­E.]

The 6th in the morning we got sight of Teneriffe, otherwise called the Peak, being very high land, with a peak on the top like a sugar loaf; and the same night we got sight of Palma, which also is high land and W. from Teneriffe [W.N.W.] The 7th we saw Gomera, an island about 12 leagues S.E. from Palma, and eight W.S.W. from Teneriffe; and lest we might have been becalmed under Teneriffe, we left both it and Gomera to the east, and passed between Palma and Gomera.  This day and night our course was 30 leagues.  These islands, called the Canaries, are 60 leagues from Madeira, and there are other three islands in the group to the eastward of Teneriffe, named Gran Canarea, Fuertaventura, and Lancerota, none of which we saw.  All these islands are inhabited by Spaniards.  On this day likewise we got sight of the Isle of Ferro, which is 13 leagues south from Gomera, and belongs to the Spaniards like the others.  We were unable all this day or the following night to get beyond Ferro, unless we had chosen to go to the westwards, which had been much out of our proper course; wherefore we put about, and stood back five hours E.N.E. in hope of being able to clear it next tack, the wind keeping always S.E. which is not often met with in that latitude by navigators, as it generally keeps in the N.E. and E.N.E.  Next morning, being on the other tack, we were nearly close in with the island, but had room enough to get clear past.