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APPENDIX.
the enterprise.
T h e y were bound to be ready to sail with two caravels
in the month of March, 1 4 8 7 . *
T h e fate of their enterprise is unknown.
T h e name of St. Brandan, or Borondon, given to this imaginary island from time immemorial, is said to be derived from a Scotch abbot, who nourished in the sixth century, and who is called sometimes by the fore足 going appellations, sometimes St. Blandano, or St. Blandanus.
In the
Martyrology of the order of St. Augustine, he is said to have been the patriarch of three thousand monks.
About the middle of the sixth cen足
tury, he accompanied his disciple, St. Maclovio, or St. Malo, in search of certain islands possessing the delights of paradise, which they were told existed in the midst of the ocean, and were inhabited by infidels.
These
most adventurous saints-errant wandered for a long time upon the ocean, and at length landed upon an island called Ima. body of a giant lying in a sepulchre.
Here St. Malo found the
H e resuscitated him, and had much
interesting conversation with him, the giant informing him that the inhabit足 ants of that island had some notions of the Trinity, and, moreover, giving him a gratifying account of the torments which Jews and Pagans suffered in the infernal regions.
Finding the giant so docile and reasonable, St.
Malo expounded to him the doctrines of the Christian religion, converted him, and baptized him by the name of Mildum.
T h e giant, however,
either through weariness of life, or eagerness to enjoy the benefits of his conversion, begged permission, at the end of fifteen days, to die again, which was granted him. According to another account, the giant told them he knew of an island in the ocean, defended by walls of burnished gold, so resplendent that they shone like crystal, but to which there was no entrance.
At
their request, he undertook to guide them to it, and taking the cable of their ship, threw himself into the sea.
H e had not proceeded far, how足
ever, when a tempest rose, and obliged them all to return, and shortly after the giant died.f
A third legend makes the saint pray to heaven on Easter
day, that they may be permitted to find land where they may celebrate the offices of religion with becoming state.
A n island immediately appears,
on which they land, perform a solemn mass, and the sacrament of the Eucharist ; after which re-embarking and making sail, they behold to their astonishment the supposed island suddenly plunge to the bottom of the
* Torre do Tombo. Lib. das Ylhas, f. 119. + Fr. Gregorio Garcia, Origen de los Indios, lib. i. cap. 9.