St. Brendan's Island
Encyclopedia
Situated somewhere west of Northern Africa, St. Brendan’s Isle is a phantom island
often regarded as myth, since, unless it is the so-called "Eighth Canary Island
" known since time immemorial to the Spanish and Portuguese authorities as San Borondón, only a few have claimed to have seen it.
In the Irish tradition, the island is named after the Saint Brendan who founded the Clonfert monastery
and monastic school. It was apparently discovered by the saint and his followers while they were traveling across the ocean, evangelizing to islands. It appeared on numerous maps in Christopher Columbus
's time, apparently acting as one of the things spurring him on to explore the ocean westwards.
It also sparked some controversy because the claim is that St. Brendan and his brethren arrived at the Americas in the 6th century (around 530 A.D.). The first mention of the island was in the ninth-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abatis (Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot), placing the island into Irish and European folklore
.
In 1976, explorer Tim Severin
undertook St. Brendan’s voyage, using a leather currach
, to see if the voyage was possible. They did manage to arrive at Newfoundland following the records of the Latin text, confirming that it was possible to have made the voyage described, but they didn’t find the mysterious isle.
, speaking of the Canary Islands, described in his Geografia (Book IV-6-34) the same Isles of the Blessed
of which one island, Aprositus Nesos "can never be reached or is not visible." Due to its characteristics and weird behaviour, in which it appears and disappears, or hides behind curtains of mist
or low cloud
, it has been called The Inaccessible or Insubstantial or other such names.
577), who claimed to have landed on it in 512 together with 14 monk
s, with whom he held a mass
. The monastic party reported its stay as 15 days, while the ships expecting their return complained that they had been kept waiting a year, during which period the island remained concealed behind a thick curtain of mist.
In his Navigatio Sancti Brendan Abbatis, the monk Barino mentioned having visited this same "Paradise" in the Atlantic, a thickly wooded mountainous island where the sun never set and it was always day: the flora
were abundant, the trees bore rich fruit, the rivers ran with fresh water, and the birds sang sweetly in the trees.
Christian authors such as the monk Gaunilo
(Isla Perdida, 11th century) and the encyclopaedist Honorius Augustusdunensis were quite certain as to the existence of one or more mysterious Atlantic islands near the Canaries archipelago
, some of which may be found marked on maps of the 11th century cartographer San Severo: other believers from the contemporary Muslim
world were Al-Bekri and El Edvisi (1154).
In Planiferio de Ebstorf (1234), Marcos Martinez referred to "the lost island discovered by St Brendan but nobody has found it since" and in Mapamundi de Hereford (1275) the whole archipelago is described as "The Isles of the Blessed and the Island of St Brendan".
, La Palma
and La Gomera
. The quality of the witnesses, including bishops, priests, military commanders, mayors, doctors, fishermen and mariners, was such that the chronicler Clavijo deemed the phenomenon "not of the vulgar imagination."
The Portuguese writer Luís Perdigão recorded the interest of the King of Portugal after a sea captain informed Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) that he had found the island but was driven off by tumultuous sea conditions. Henry ordered him back: he sailed off but never returned.
In his shipboard diary for 9 August 1492, Christopher Columbus wrote that he "had the assurance of many respectable Castilian inhabitants of the island of El Hierro, who were at Gomera with Doña Inez Peraza, mother of Guillen Peraza, later first Count of Gomera, that every year they saw land to the west of Gomera, and others of Gomera affirmed the same on oath. The Admiral recalls that while in Portugal in 1484 there came a person to the King (João II
) from the island of Madeira
to beg for a caravel
to go to this land that was seen, who swore that it could be seen every year, and always in the same way."
Particularly from the beginning of the 16th century, the reputation of the new island, and belief in its probable existence, increased. By the Peace of Elvira, signed on 4 June 1519, the Portuguese Crown conceded to the Crown of Castille all claims in the conquest of the Canary Islands, including La Isla Nom-Trubada o Encubierta—the Not-found or Hidden Island. (The complete record of Portuguese maritime exploration was lost when fire destroyed the Lisbon archive in the 1755 earthquake
.)
During his trip around the world in 1520, Magellan
mapped the large bay south of the Río de la Plata
in Argentina
and named it Samborombón Bay
in the belief that it was the place where San Borondón's island had become detached from the American continent.
The year 1566 saw the most determined historical effort to locate and explore the island of San Borondón when Dr Hernán Pérez de Grado, First Regent of the Royal Canary Islands Court, ordered the justices at la Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera to investigate the phenomenon. The enquiry was headed by Fernando de Villalobos, military governor of La Palma. Included in the panel of researchers were Gaspar Pérez de Acosta, a coastal pilot with 34 years' experience, and Fray Lorenzo Pinedo, a Franciscan
monk with an excellent knowledge of seafaring.
In his history, Abreu y Galindo reports a conversation with a French adventurer claiming to have visited San Borondon, departing hence when a storm set in and making the voyage to La Palma for shelter within a day. In another report, Alonso de Espinosa, governor of El Hierro, described sighting San Borondon island north west of El Hierro and "leeward" of La Palma. He listed 100 witnesses to the apparition. In the same year, 1570, Pedro Ortiz de Funez of the Inquisition
obtained the statement of Marcos Verde, a person of renown in the Canaries, according to chronicler Clavijo
. Verde swore on oath that after returning to the Canaries "from the Berber
coast" he observed from a high point "an island to the west where none should be" and set out for it. Upon arrival, he anchored in a bay at the foot of steep cliffs and at nightfall went ashore with a party of men to explore. The group split up and took different paths, but all were driven back to the sea after hearing "terrified voices screaming for help". Once all had returned aboard ship, according to the chronicler Nuñez de la Peña, a hurricane set in, causing the vessel to drag anchor. They left the anchorage to obtain sea room, at which time the island disappeared.
Nuñez de la Peña also describes how a French ship, masts and rigging
down, approached the island to obtain a lee during a severe storm. Once ashore a tree was felled and fashioned for repairs, the whole afternoon being taken up with this work: when night fell the storm had risen to such an extent that the crew embarked with haste and abandoned the island, arriving next day at La Palma.
Another deponent to the 1570 enquiry was Pedro Velho, a pilot of Setúbal
in Portugal, who stated that due to severe weather he alighted on San Borondon with two men and there saw "marvellous sights": cows, sheep and goats at pasture, freshwater rivers, cliffs, mountains, beaches, thick forests, strange fruits and plants. He also reported seeing hieroglyphic
inscriptions and traces of human presence. At dusk the sky clouded over and a hurricane set in, at which, fearing for his ship, Velho returned aboard hurriedly, deciding to get clear of shore immediately. As he sailed, he lost sight of the island, which had seemingly vanished, but he lingered for some considerable time in the area "in the forlorn hope of finding the two men he had left behind exploring the jungle."
The island is considered to be much larger than La Gomera, on the north-south axis, about forty miles in length and twenty-five broad. Its estimated position puts it over a trench 6000 metres deep. Its contours appear to be two large bare mountains at each end with a heavily forested central section of relatively low land. The most frequent apparitions of San Borondon are at dawn and sunset: witnesses have reported seeing the sun set behind the island. In the days of sail, many seafarers approaching the Canaries from the west noted in their logs having sighted La Palma from afar and having been surprised to come across a second La Palma the next day.
Fray Abreu y Galida reported in Historia de la Conquista de las siete Islas Canarias that "the island of St Brendan (San Borondon), which is the eighth and last, whose existence may be inferred from sightings of its apparitions, seems to be located at 20 degrees 30 minutes of latitude and eight leagues (40 kilometres) due west of Gomera." (The longitude given in the coordinates is based on the old measurement before the introduction of the Greenwich meridian).
in 1721. As a result of these sightings, that same year Muy y Aguerre, military governor of the Canary Islands, appointed a new commission of enquiry under Gaspar Dominguez, a sea captain; no fresh evidence was uncovered and subsequently interest waned. According to the Canary historian Ramirez, in 1723 a priest performed the rite of exorcism
towards the island during one of its apparitions behind low cloud. This was witnessed by a large number of persons and sworn to on affidavit.
In his Noticias, Vol I, 1772, chronicler Viera y Clavijo
wrote: "A few years ago while returning from the Americas, the captain of a ship of the Canary Fleet believed he saw La Palma appear and, having set his course for Tenerife based on his sighting, was astonished to find the real La Palma materialize in the distance next morning." Viera adds that a similar entry is made in the diaries of Colonel don Roberto de Rivas, who made the observation that his ship "having been close to the island of La Palma in the afternoon, and not arriving there until late the next day", the officer was forced to conclude that "the wind and current must have been extraordinarily unfavourable during the night."
In 1759 a Franciscan monk mentioned, but not identified by name, by Viera y Clavijo wrote to a friend: "I was most desirous to see the island of San Borondon and, finding myself in Alexero, La Palma, on 3 May at six of the morning, I saw, and can swear to it on oath, that while having in plain view at the same time the island of El Hierro, I saw another island of the same colour and appearance, and I made out through a telescope, much wooded terrain in its central area. Then I sent for the priest Antonio Jose Manrique, who had seen it twice previously, and upon arrival he saw only a portion of it, for when he was watching, a cloud obscured the mountain. It was subsequently visible for another 90 minutes. being seen by about forty spectators, but in the afternoon when we returned to the same point we could see nothing on account of the heavy rain."
Further expeditions were organised in the search for the island, but from the 19th century onwards, reported sightings of San Borondon became less frequent.
In 1958, D.M. Rodriguez Quintero of Los Llanos de Aridane
, La Palma, allegedly obtained a photograph of the island.
Phantom island
Phantom islands are islands that were believed to exist, and appeared on maps for a period of time during recorded history, but were later removed after they were proved to be nonexistent...
often regarded as myth, since, unless it is the so-called "Eighth Canary Island
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
" known since time immemorial to the Spanish and Portuguese authorities as San Borondón, only a few have claimed to have seen it.
In the Irish tradition, the island is named after the Saint Brendan who founded the Clonfert monastery
Clonfert
Clonfert is a small village in east County Galway, Ireland. It is half way between Ballinasloe and Portumna.Clonfert Cathedral is situated in the village, which is the see of the Diocese of Clonfert.-See also:* List of towns and villages in Ireland...
and monastic school. It was apparently discovered by the saint and his followers while they were traveling across the ocean, evangelizing to islands. It appeared on numerous maps in Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
's time, apparently acting as one of the things spurring him on to explore the ocean westwards.
It also sparked some controversy because the claim is that St. Brendan and his brethren arrived at the Americas in the 6th century (around 530 A.D.). The first mention of the island was in the ninth-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abatis (Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot), placing the island into Irish and European folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
.
In 1976, explorer Tim Severin
Tim Severin
Tim Severin is a British explorer, historian and writer. Severin is noted for his work in retracing the legendary journeys of historical figures. Severin was awarded both the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society...
undertook St. Brendan’s voyage, using a leather currach
Currach
A Currach is a type of Irish boat with a wooden frame, over which animal skins or hides were once stretched, though now canvas is more usual. It is sometimes anglicised as "Curragh". The construction and design of the currach is unique to the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, with variations in...
, to see if the voyage was possible. They did manage to arrive at Newfoundland following the records of the Latin text, confirming that it was possible to have made the voyage described, but they didn’t find the mysterious isle.
Antiquity
In the second century, the astronomer, mathematician and geographer PtolemyPtolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
, speaking of the Canary Islands, described in his Geografia (Book IV-6-34) the same Isles of the Blessed
Fortunate Isles
In the Fortunate Isles, also called the Isles of the Blessed , heroes and other favored mortals in Greek mythology and Celtic mythology were received by the gods into a winterless blissful paradise...
of which one island, Aprositus Nesos "can never be reached or is not visible." Due to its characteristics and weird behaviour, in which it appears and disappears, or hides behind curtains of mist
Mist
Mist is a phenomenon of small droplets suspended in air. It can occur as part of natural weather or volcanic activity, and is common in cold air above warmer water, in exhaled air in the cold, and in a steam room of a sauna. It can also be created artificially with aerosol canisters if the...
or low cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...
, it has been called The Inaccessible or Insubstantial or other such names.
Middle Ages
The existence of this rogue island has been observed, and sworn to, by thousands of people throughout history. Nowadays it is known generally as San Borondon, for St Brendan de Cluainfort (b. Tralee 484, d. AnnaghdownAnnaghdown
Annaghdown is a parish in County Galway, Ireland. It takes its name from Eanach Dhúin, Irish for "the marsh of the fort". The village lies around Annaghdown Bay, an inlet of Lough Corrib...
577), who claimed to have landed on it in 512 together with 14 monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s, with whom he held a mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
. The monastic party reported its stay as 15 days, while the ships expecting their return complained that they had been kept waiting a year, during which period the island remained concealed behind a thick curtain of mist.
In his Navigatio Sancti Brendan Abbatis, the monk Barino mentioned having visited this same "Paradise" in the Atlantic, a thickly wooded mountainous island where the sun never set and it was always day: the flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
were abundant, the trees bore rich fruit, the rivers ran with fresh water, and the birds sang sweetly in the trees.
Christian authors such as the monk Gaunilo
Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
Gaunilo of Marmoutiers was an 11th-century Benedictine monk, best known for his criticism of St Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God. His thesis On Behalf of the Fool takes its name from the fools mentioned in Psalms 14:1 and Psalms 53:1, who say in their hearts that there is no...
(Isla Perdida, 11th century) and the encyclopaedist Honorius Augustusdunensis were quite certain as to the existence of one or more mysterious Atlantic islands near the Canaries archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
, some of which may be found marked on maps of the 11th century cartographer San Severo: other believers from the contemporary Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
world were Al-Bekri and El Edvisi (1154).
In Planiferio de Ebstorf (1234), Marcos Martinez referred to "the lost island discovered by St Brendan but nobody has found it since" and in Mapamundi de Hereford (1275) the whole archipelago is described as "The Isles of the Blessed and the Island of St Brendan".
Early Modern Age
The greater precision of later accounts, particularly from the late 15th century onwards, bears testimony to the regularity with which the mysterious island was disposed to show itself to the Castilian and Portuguese settlers of El HierroEl Hierro
El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano , is the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands , in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with a population of 10,162 .- Name :The name El Hierro, although phonetically identical to the Spanish word for 'iron', is generally thought...
, La Palma
La Palma
La Palma is the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands...
and La Gomera
La Gomera
La Gomera is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. In area, it is the second-smallest of the seven main islands of this group.- Political organization :...
. The quality of the witnesses, including bishops, priests, military commanders, mayors, doctors, fishermen and mariners, was such that the chronicler Clavijo deemed the phenomenon "not of the vulgar imagination."
The Portuguese writer Luís Perdigão recorded the interest of the King of Portugal after a sea captain informed Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) that he had found the island but was driven off by tumultuous sea conditions. Henry ordered him back: he sailed off but never returned.
In his shipboard diary for 9 August 1492, Christopher Columbus wrote that he "had the assurance of many respectable Castilian inhabitants of the island of El Hierro, who were at Gomera with Doña Inez Peraza, mother of Guillen Peraza, later first Count of Gomera, that every year they saw land to the west of Gomera, and others of Gomera affirmed the same on oath. The Admiral recalls that while in Portugal in 1484 there came a person to the King (João II
John II of Portugal
John II , the Perfect Prince , was the thirteenth king of Portugal and the Algarves...
) from the island of Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
to beg for a caravel
Caravel
A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward...
to go to this land that was seen, who swore that it could be seen every year, and always in the same way."
Particularly from the beginning of the 16th century, the reputation of the new island, and belief in its probable existence, increased. By the Peace of Elvira, signed on 4 June 1519, the Portuguese Crown conceded to the Crown of Castille all claims in the conquest of the Canary Islands, including La Isla Nom-Trubada o Encubierta—the Not-found or Hidden Island. (The complete record of Portuguese maritime exploration was lost when fire destroyed the Lisbon archive in the 1755 earthquake
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and...
.)
During his trip around the world in 1520, Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
mapped the large bay south of the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and named it Samborombón Bay
Samborombón Bay
Samborombón Bay is a bay of Argentina, located at the Río de la Plata's mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about southeast of Buenos Aires. The bay is about long and stretches from Point Piedras in the north to Point Norte, starting point of Cape San Antonio.The bay receives the Salado and...
in the belief that it was the place where San Borondón's island had become detached from the American continent.
The year 1566 saw the most determined historical effort to locate and explore the island of San Borondón when Dr Hernán Pérez de Grado, First Regent of the Royal Canary Islands Court, ordered the justices at la Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera to investigate the phenomenon. The enquiry was headed by Fernando de Villalobos, military governor of La Palma. Included in the panel of researchers were Gaspar Pérez de Acosta, a coastal pilot with 34 years' experience, and Fray Lorenzo Pinedo, a Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monk with an excellent knowledge of seafaring.
In his history, Abreu y Galindo reports a conversation with a French adventurer claiming to have visited San Borondon, departing hence when a storm set in and making the voyage to La Palma for shelter within a day. In another report, Alonso de Espinosa, governor of El Hierro, described sighting San Borondon island north west of El Hierro and "leeward" of La Palma. He listed 100 witnesses to the apparition. In the same year, 1570, Pedro Ortiz de Funez of the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
obtained the statement of Marcos Verde, a person of renown in the Canaries, according to chronicler Clavijo
Clavijo
Clavijo is a municipality of the autonomous community of La Rioja . It is located near the capital, Logroño. , its population was of 276 inhabitants....
. Verde swore on oath that after returning to the Canaries "from the Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
coast" he observed from a high point "an island to the west where none should be" and set out for it. Upon arrival, he anchored in a bay at the foot of steep cliffs and at nightfall went ashore with a party of men to explore. The group split up and took different paths, but all were driven back to the sea after hearing "terrified voices screaming for help". Once all had returned aboard ship, according to the chronicler Nuñez de la Peña, a hurricane set in, causing the vessel to drag anchor. They left the anchorage to obtain sea room, at which time the island disappeared.
Nuñez de la Peña also describes how a French ship, masts and rigging
Rigging
Rigging is the apparatus through which the force of the wind is used to propel sailboats and sailing ships forward. This includes masts, yards, sails, and cordage.-Terms and classifications:...
down, approached the island to obtain a lee during a severe storm. Once ashore a tree was felled and fashioned for repairs, the whole afternoon being taken up with this work: when night fell the storm had risen to such an extent that the crew embarked with haste and abandoned the island, arriving next day at La Palma.
Another deponent to the 1570 enquiry was Pedro Velho, a pilot of Setúbal
Setúbal
Setúbal is the main city in Setúbal Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 172.0 km² and a total population of 118,696 inhabitants in the municipality. The city proper has 89,303 inhabitants....
in Portugal, who stated that due to severe weather he alighted on San Borondon with two men and there saw "marvellous sights": cows, sheep and goats at pasture, freshwater rivers, cliffs, mountains, beaches, thick forests, strange fruits and plants. He also reported seeing hieroglyphic
Logogram
A logogram, or logograph, is a grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme . This stands in contrast to phonograms, which represent phonemes or combinations of phonemes, and determinatives, which mark semantic categories.Logograms are often commonly known also as "ideograms"...
inscriptions and traces of human presence. At dusk the sky clouded over and a hurricane set in, at which, fearing for his ship, Velho returned aboard hurriedly, deciding to get clear of shore immediately. As he sailed, he lost sight of the island, which had seemingly vanished, but he lingered for some considerable time in the area "in the forlorn hope of finding the two men he had left behind exploring the jungle."
The island is considered to be much larger than La Gomera, on the north-south axis, about forty miles in length and twenty-five broad. Its estimated position puts it over a trench 6000 metres deep. Its contours appear to be two large bare mountains at each end with a heavily forested central section of relatively low land. The most frequent apparitions of San Borondon are at dawn and sunset: witnesses have reported seeing the sun set behind the island. In the days of sail, many seafarers approaching the Canaries from the west noted in their logs having sighted La Palma from afar and having been surprised to come across a second La Palma the next day.
Fray Abreu y Galida reported in Historia de la Conquista de las siete Islas Canarias that "the island of St Brendan (San Borondon), which is the eighth and last, whose existence may be inferred from sightings of its apparitions, seems to be located at 20 degrees 30 minutes of latitude and eight leagues (40 kilometres) due west of Gomera." (The longitude given in the coordinates is based on the old measurement before the introduction of the Greenwich meridian).
Modern Age
In 1719, the Scottish monk Sigbert de Gembloux reported seeing the island, as did Don Matea Dacesta, mayor of Valverde, El HierroValverde, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Valverde is a municipality in the Canary Islands in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is located on the north-east part of El Hierro . The town of the same name serves as the island's official capital...
in 1721. As a result of these sightings, that same year Muy y Aguerre, military governor of the Canary Islands, appointed a new commission of enquiry under Gaspar Dominguez, a sea captain; no fresh evidence was uncovered and subsequently interest waned. According to the Canary historian Ramirez, in 1723 a priest performed the rite of exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
towards the island during one of its apparitions behind low cloud. This was witnessed by a large number of persons and sworn to on affidavit.
In his Noticias, Vol I, 1772, chronicler Viera y Clavijo
José de Viera y Clavijo
José de Viera y Clavijo , Spanish was an ecclesiastic, historian, botanist, ethnographer, and professor, best known for his exhaustive History of the Canary Islands . Born in Realejo de Arriba, on the island of Tenerife, he was the son of the town's mayor, Gabriel Viera del Álama...
wrote: "A few years ago while returning from the Americas, the captain of a ship of the Canary Fleet believed he saw La Palma appear and, having set his course for Tenerife based on his sighting, was astonished to find the real La Palma materialize in the distance next morning." Viera adds that a similar entry is made in the diaries of Colonel don Roberto de Rivas, who made the observation that his ship "having been close to the island of La Palma in the afternoon, and not arriving there until late the next day", the officer was forced to conclude that "the wind and current must have been extraordinarily unfavourable during the night."
In 1759 a Franciscan monk mentioned, but not identified by name, by Viera y Clavijo wrote to a friend: "I was most desirous to see the island of San Borondon and, finding myself in Alexero, La Palma, on 3 May at six of the morning, I saw, and can swear to it on oath, that while having in plain view at the same time the island of El Hierro, I saw another island of the same colour and appearance, and I made out through a telescope, much wooded terrain in its central area. Then I sent for the priest Antonio Jose Manrique, who had seen it twice previously, and upon arrival he saw only a portion of it, for when he was watching, a cloud obscured the mountain. It was subsequently visible for another 90 minutes. being seen by about forty spectators, but in the afternoon when we returned to the same point we could see nothing on account of the heavy rain."
Further expeditions were organised in the search for the island, but from the 19th century onwards, reported sightings of San Borondon became less frequent.
In 1958, D.M. Rodriguez Quintero of Los Llanos de Aridane
Los Llanos de Aridane
Los Llanos de Aridane is both a municipality and a town in the Canary Islands in the west-central part of the island of La Palma in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The population is 19,659 , its density is 54.91/km² and the area is 31.1 km²...
, La Palma, allegedly obtained a photograph of the island.