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'João Gonçalves Zarco' (c. Leça da Palmeira (or Tomar) 1390-1467, Funchal), pron. , was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who discovered the Madeira Islands.
Zarco (from the Arabic "zarka", which means "blue eyed") was a nobleman, some argue of Jewish converso origin^[1]. He was in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator's house. In his service Zarco led the fleet that discovered the island of Porto Santo (1419) and afterwards, rumor has it, purely by coincidence, the island of Madeira (1420). He was granted, as hereditary fief (Capitania), half the island of Madeira. Also, together with his fellow fleet commanders, Tristão Vaz Teixeira and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, he started the colonization of the islands in 1425.
In his role of noble of Prince Henry the Navigator's house he participated in the failure siege of Tangier, in 1437.
The date of death of João Gonçalves Zarco is uncertain, but most people agree on 1467.
A statue of Zarco stands on the Avenida Arriaga, one the main streets in the Madeiran capital of Funchal.

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Footnotes

1. Isabel Violante Pereira, "De Mendo da Guarda a D. Manuel I," Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 2001, p. 83.

External links

★ João Gonçalves Zarco's genealogy in a Portuguese genealogical site

★ Zarco's statue on Madeira [Image:http://www.mymadeira.info/pb/wp_d7556b51.html?0.5408295657516493]