52 (p. 33). Needle or sailing chart.—See Introductory § on History of Maps and Nautical Intruments in Europe up to the time of Prince Henry, vol. ii, pp. cxvii-cl, and especially pp. cxlvii-cl.
53 (p. 34). Barinel ... Barcha ... anything worth recording.—[A Varinel or Barinel was an oared vessel then in use, whose name survives in the modern Varina; so Francisco Manoel, Epanaphoras, p. 317, etc.].—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. cxii-cxiii.
On the Footmarks of men and camels Santarem remarks.—[To this place our sailors gave the name of Mullet Bay (Angra dos Ruivos), from the great quantity of these fish that they found there. The bay appears with this name in the Map of Africa in the splendid Portuguese Atlas (unpublished), dating from the middle of the sixteenth century, in the Royal (National) Library at Paris (R. B. No. 1, 764)].—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, p. x. Ruivos is variously rendered "Mullet," "Gurnet," "Roach." The original meaning is simply "red[fish]."
54 (p. 35). Went up country 8 leagues, etc. ... anchorages.—[Our men named this place Angra dos Cavallos (cf. Barros Decades I, i, 5; Martines de la Puente, Compendio de las Historias de las Indias, ii, 1). This place-name is marked in nearly all the sixteenth and seventeenth century maps of Africa].—S.
55 (p. 36). Two things I consider ... saith he who wrote this history.—Though these phrases, "our author," "he who wrote this history," are certainly applied by Azurara to himself in some instances, there is also sometimes a suggestion of the previous writer on the Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, viz., Affonso Cerveira, a seaman in Prince Henry's service (see Introduction to vol. ii, p. cx). Here, we fancy, a passage of Cerveira's work is referred to. The loss of the latter is deplorable. It evidently contained all the facts and documents given by Azurara, and some omitted by him (see ch. lxxxiv of this Chronicle, end). Azurara added the reflections and the rhetoric, but followed Cerveira's order of narrative closely (see especially ch. lxvi).
56 (pp. 37-8). Sea-wolves ... Port of the Galley ... nets ... with all other cordage.—[These Sea-wolves are the Phocæ Vitulinæ of Linnæus. Cf. the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama's First Voyage, under December 27th, 1497, p. 3 of Port. text "Achamos muitas baleas, e humas que se chamam quoquas e Lobos marinhos."]—S.
[The Port of the Galley is so named in the Portuguese Atlas above referred to (Paris: Bibl. Nat., i, 764, of the sixteenth century), and in the Venetian maps of Gastaldi (1564); cf. Barros, Decades I, v, 11, who says, "Ponto a que ora chamâo a pedra da Galé"].—S.
On the "nets ... with all other cordage," cf. Barros, Decades I, ch. v, fol. 11: "No qual logar achou humas redes de pescar, que parecia ser feito o fiado dellas, do entrecasco d'algum pao, como ora vemos o fiado da palma que se faz em Guiné."
57 (pp. 38, 39). Rio d'Ouro ... discords in the Kingdom.—[On old unpublished Portuguese maps we find marked between Cape Bojador and the Angra dos Ruivos, the following points: Penha Grande, Terra Alta, and Sete-Montes, besides the Angra dos Ruivos, being all of them probably points where the Portuguese had landed].—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xiii, lxi-lxxi.
[The events which interrupted the Infant's expeditions and discoveries from 1437 to 1440 may be briefly indicated. The Infant returned to the Algarve after the expedition to Tangier (1437), and was there in September of the following year, when King Edward fell ill at Thomar. On the King's death, the Prince was at once summoned by the Queen, and charged by her to concert with the Infant D. Pedro, and with the grandees of the realm, some means of grappling with the difficulties of the Kingdom. The Infant convoked these persons, who decided that the Cortes ought to be assembled to pass the resolutions they judged expedient.
The Prince thought that D. Pedro ought to sign the summonses; but as he refused to do this, they were all signed by the Queen, with the proviso that such signature should hold good only till the Assembly of the Estates should settle the question.
At the same time the Infant, on account of his accustomed prudence, was chosen mediator between the Queen and D. Pedro. At his proposal, discussed in various conferences, the Queen was charged with the education of her children and the administration of their property; while to the Infant D. Pedro was given the administration and government of the Kingdom, with the title of Defender of the Kingdom for the King (Ruy de Pina, ch. xv).
But, as a large party did not agree to this, and so public disorder increased, Henry sought to conciliate the different parties by getting their consent to an Accord, published November 9th, 1438, providing:—
1. That the education of the King while a minor, and of his brothers, and the power of nominating to Court Offices, should rest with the Queen; and that a sum should be paid her sufficient to defray the expenses of the Royal Household.
2. The Royal Council was to consist of six members, who should be charged in turn and at definite periods with such business of state as was within their power to decide, conformably to the regulations of the Cortes.
3. Besides this Council there was to be elected a permanent deputation of the Estates, to reside at the Court, composed of one prelate, one fidalgo, and one burgess or citizen, to be elected, each by his respective estate, for a year.
4. All the business of the Royal Council was to be conducted by the six councillors and the deputation of the Three Estates under the presidency of the Queen, with the approval and consent of the Infant D. Pedro.
If the votes were equal, the business in question was to be submitted to the Infants, the Counts, and the Archbishop, and to be decided by the majority.
If the Queen agreed with the Infant D. Pedro, their vote was to be decisive, even though the whole Council should be against them.
5. All the business of the Treasury, except what belonged to the Cortes, was to be conducted by the Queen and the Infant: decrees and orders on the subject were to be signed by both, and the Controllers of the Treasury were to be charged with their execution.
6. It was settled that the Cortes should be summoned every year to settle any doubts which the Council could not decide for themselves, such as "the [condemnation to] death of great personages, the deprivation of state servants from great offices, the [confiscation or] loss of lands, the amendment of old or the making of new laws and ordinances; and it was also agreed that future Cortes should be able to correct or amend any defect or error in past sessions" (Ruy de Pina, ch. xv). The Queen, however, being induced by a violent party to resist, refused to agree to these resolutions, in spite of the vigorous efforts of D. Henry. This produced great excitement, and in the Cortes it was proposed to confer the sole regency on D. Pedro. It should be noted that Prince Henry expressed his disapproval of all the resolutions of the municipality of Lisbon and other assemblies, declaring that they illegally tried to rob the Cortes of its powers. Equally plain was his indignation when he learned that the Queen had fortified herself in Alemquer, and had invoked the aid of the Infants of Aragon.
He did not hesitate to go to Alemquer in person, and induce the Queen to return to Lisbon, in order to present the young King to the Cortes (1439); and such was the respect felt for him (Henry) that the Queen, who had resisted all other persuasions, yielded to the Infant's.
In the following year the divisions of the Kingdom compelled the Infant to occupy himself with public business, the conciliation of parties, and the prevention of a civil war.]—S.
58 (p. 39). Chronicle of D. Affonso.—This chronicle, according to Barros and Goës, was written by Azurara himself as far as the year 1449, and continued by Ruy de Pina. It is cited by Barbosa Machado. See Introduction to the first volume of this translation, pp. lxi-ii.
58a [(p. 43). Those on the hill.—This hill is also marked in the unpublished Portuguese maps in the National Library at Paris, and is situated to the south of the Rio do Ouro.]—S.
59 (p. 44). The philosopher saith, that the beginning is two parts of the whole matter.—Here, and in the two following notes, it is very difficult to suggest any classical reference which corresponds closely enough with Azurara's language; but cf., in this place, Aristotle, Ethics, Bk. I, ch. vii, p. 1098b7; Topics, Bk. IX, ch. xxxiv, p. 183b22 (Berlin edn.).
60 (p. 44). Roman History.—Cf. Valerius Maximus, Bk. II, cc. 3, 7; St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Bk. II, cc. 18, 21; Bk. V, c. 12.
61 (p. 45). That emulation which Socrates praised in gallant youths.—Cf. Xenophon, Memorabilia, Bk. I, c. 7; Bk. III, cc. 1, 3, 5, 6, and especially 7; also Plato, Laches, 190-9; Protagoras, 349-350, 359. On the history that follows, cf. D. Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo, cc. 20-33. Pereira must have had a copy of this Chronicle before him, for in places he transcribes verbatim; see Esmeraldo, c. 22.
62 (p. 47). "Portugal" and "Santiago."—The latter war-cry is of course derived from St. James of Compostella, which being in Gallicia was not properly a Portuguese shrine at all. All Spanish crusaders, however, from each of the five Kingdoms, made use of this famous sanctuary. See note 11, p. 7 of this version.
63 (p. 48). Port of the Cavalier.—[This is marked in two Portuguese maps of Africa in Paris, both of the sixteenth century, as on this side of Cape Branco, which is in 20° 46' 55" N. lat.]—S.
64 (p. 49). Azanegues of Sahara ... Moorish tongue.—[Cf. Ritter, Géographie Comparée, III, p. 366, art. Azenagha. Ritter says they speak Berber. On this language see the curious article, Berber, by M. d'Avezac, in his Encylopédie des gens du Monde. On the Azanegues, Barros says (Decade I, Bk. I, ch. ii): "The countries which the Azanegues inhabit border on the negroes of Jaloff, where begins the region of Guinea." Sahará signifies desert. Geographers spell Zahará, Zaara, Ssahhará, Sarra, and Sahar. The inhabitants are called Saharacin—Saracens—"sons of the desert" (cf. Ritter, Géographie Comparée, III, p. 360), a term immensely extended by mediæval writers—thus Plano Carpini expects to find "black Saracens" in India. On the etymology, cf. Renaud's Invasions des Sarrasins en France, Pt. IV, pp. 227-242, etc. He confirms Azurara's statement that the Sahara language differed from the Mooris—i.e., it was Berber, not Arabic—and he refers us to the Arab author Ibn-Alkûtya, in evidence of this.]—S.
The "Other lands where he learned the Moorish tongue" were probably Marocco, or one of the other Barbary States along the Mediterranean littoral, where Arabic was in regular use. This language stopped, for the most part, at the Sahara Desert. Santarem's derivation of the word "Saracen" is much disputed.
65 (p. 50). Lisbon Harbour ... —Here, perhaps, Azurara refers to the broad expanse of the Tagus, opposite the present Custom House and Marine Arsenal of Lisbon. "The broad estuary of the Tagus gives Lisbon an extensive and safe harbour." From the suburb of Belem up to the western end of Lisbon, the Tagus is little more than a mile in width, but opposite the central quays of the city the river widens considerably, the left, or southern, bank turning suddenly to the south near the town of Almada, and forming a wide bay, reach, or road about 5½ miles in breadth, and extending far to the north-east. "In this deep lake-like expansion all the fleets of Europe might be anchored."
66 (p. 50). Cabo Branco.—[In lat. N. 20° 46' 55", according to Admiral Roussin's observations.]—S. According to the most recent French surveys, it is thus described:—"Il forme, au S., sur l'Atlantique, l'extrémité d'une presqu'île aride et sablonneuse de 40 kil. de longeur environ, large de 4 à 5 kil., qui couvre a l'O. la baie Lévrier, partie la plus enfoncée au N. de la baie d'Arguin. Cette presqu'île se termine par un plateau dont le cap forme l'escarpement; le sommet surplomb la mer de 25 m. environ. Des éboulements de sable, que le soleil colore d'une nuance éblouissante, lui ont valu son nom. 'Le Cap Blanc est d'une access facile. Il est entouré de bons mouillages qui, au point de vue maritime, rendent cette position préférable à celle d'Arguin' (Fulcrand)."
67 (p. 53). Eugenius the Bishop.—[Barros adds certain reasons for this request; he says, "the Infant, whose intent in discovering these lands was chiefly to draw the barbarous nations under the yoke of Christ, and for his own glory and the praise of these Kingdoms, with increase of the royal patrimony, having ascertained the state of those people and their countries from the captives whom Antam Gonçalvez and Nuno Tristam had brought home—willed to send this news to Martin V (?), asking him, in return for the many years' labour and the great expense he and his countrymen had bestowed on this discovery, to grant in perpetuity to the Crown of these Kingdoms all the land that should be discovered over this our Ocean Sea from C. Bojador to the Indies (Barros, Decade I, i, 7).]—S. Barros here apparently confuses Martin V with Eugenius IV.
[Besides this bull, Pope Nicholas V granted another, dated January 8th, 1450, conceding to King D. Affonso V all the territories which Henry had discovered (Archives of Torre do Tombo, Maç. 32 de bullas No. 1). On January 8th, 1454, the same Pope ratified and conceded by another bull to Affonso V, Henry, and all the Kings of Portugal their successors, all their conquests in Africa, with the islands adjacent, from Cape Bojador, and from Cape Non as far as all Guinea, with the whole of the south coast of the same. Cf. Archivo R. Maç. 7 de bull. No. 29, and Maç. 33, No. 14; and Dumont, Corp. Diplomat. Univ., III, p. 1,200. On March 13th, 1455, Calixtus III determined by another bull that the discovery of the lands of W. Africa, so acquired by Portugal, as well as what should be acquired in future, could only be made by the Kings of Portugal; and he confirmed the bulls of Martin V and Nicholas V: cf. another bull of Sixtus IV, June 21st, 1481, and see Barros, Decade I, i, 7; Arch. R. Liv. dos Mestrados, fols. 159 and 165; Arch. R. Maç. 6 de bull., No. 7, and Maç. 12, No. 23.]—S.
68 (p. 54). Without his license and especial mandate.—See Introduction to vol. ii, p. xiv.
69 (p. 54). Curse ... of Cain.—For "Curse of Ham." Cf. Genesis ix, 25. "Cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." For this mediæval theory, used sometimes in justification of an African slave-trade, we may compare the language of Barros, quoted in note 81.
70 (p. 54). Going out of the Ark.—The writings of Abp. Roderic of Toledo, and of the other authors here referred to, are apparently regarded by Azurara as explanatory of the record in Genesis, ix and x. Abp. Roderic Ximenes de Rada (fl. 1212) wrote De Rebus Hispanicis in nine books; also an Historia Saracenica, and other works. Walter is doubtful. He may be Walter of Burley, the Aristotelian of the thirteenth-fourteenth century, who wrote a Libellus de vita et moribus philosophorum. Excluding this "Walter," our best choice perhaps lies between "Gualterus Tarvannensis" of the twelfth century; Walter of Châtillon, otherwise called Walter of Lille, author of an Alexandreis of the thirteenth century; or the chronicler Walter of Hemingburgh, or Hemingford, who is probably of the fourteenth century.
71 (p. 55). Better to bring to ... salvation.—Cf. the Christian hopes of the pagan Tartars in the thirteenth century.
72 (p. 55). Land of Prester John if he could.—See Introduction to vol. ii, p. liv. As to "Balthasar" [Barros says "he was of the Household of the Emperor Frederic III," who had married the Infanta Donna Leonor of Portugal (Decade I, ch. vii).]—S.
73 (p. 57). Infant's Alfaqueque ... managing business between parties.... —The Alfaqueque, or Ransomer of Captives, must have been an interpreter as well. Later, we find "Moors" and negroes employed for this purpose.
74 (p. 57). Who traded in that gold.—[Azurara seems ignorant that the gold was "brought from the interior by caravans, which from ancient times had carried on this trade across the great desert, especially since the Arab invasion. Under the Khalifs, this Sahara commerce extended itself to the western extremity of the continent, and even to Spain. The caravans crossed the valleys and plains of Suz, Darah and Tafilet to the south of Morocco. Cf. the Geographia Nubiensis of Edrisi (1619 ed.), pp. 7, 11, 12, 14; Hartmann's Edrisi, pp. 26, 49, 133-4. This gold came from the negro-land called Wangara, as Edrisi and Ibn-al-Wardi tell us. See Notices et extraits des MSS. de la Bibliothèque du Roi, fo. 11, pp. 33 and 37: so Leo Africanus and Marmol y Carvajal speak of the gold of Tiber, brought from Wangara. "Tiber" is from the Arab word Thibr = gold (cf. Walckenaer, Recherches géographiques, p. 14). So Cadamosto, speaking of the commerce of Arguim, says, ch. x, that men brought there "gold of Tiber;" and Barros, Decade I, ch. vii, in describing the Rio d' Ouro, refers to the same thing:—"A quantity of gold-dust, the first obtained in these parts, whence the place was called the Rio d' Ouro, though it is only an inlet of salt water running up into the country about six leagues."]—S.
75 (p. 58). Gete (or Arguim).—[Barros, Decade I, 7, says: "Nuno Tristam on this voyage went on as far as an island which the people of the country called Adeget, and which we now call Arguim." The Arab name was "Ghir," which Azurara turns into "Gete," Barros into "Arget." The discovery and possession of this point was of great importance for the Portuguese. It helped them to obtain news of the interior, and to establish relations with the negro states on the Senegal and Gambia. The Infant began to build a fort on Arguim in 1448. Cadamosto gives a long account of the state of commercial relations which the Portuguese had established there with the dwellers in the upland; and the Portuguese pilot, author of the Navigation to the Isle of St. Thomas (1558), published by Ramusio, says of Arguim: "Here there is a great port and a castle of the King our Lord with a garrison and a factor. Arguim is inhabited by black-a-moors, and this is the point which divides Barbary from Negroland." Cf. Bordone's Isolario (1528) on the Portuguese trade with the interior. In 1638 this factory and fortress were taken by the Dutch.]—S.
The subsequent changes of this position may be briefly noticed. After passing, in 1665, from the Dutch to the English and afterwards back again, in 1678 from the Dutch to the French, in 1685 from the French to the Dutch, in 1721 once more falling into French hands, only to be recovered shortly afterwards by the Netherlanders, it became definitely and finally a French possession in 1724, and at present forms part of the great North-West African empire of the Third Republic. At the northern extremity of the Bight of Arguim, or a little beyond, near Cape Blanco, is the present boundary between the French and Spanish spheres of influence in this part of the world.
The native boats, worked by "bodies in the canoes and legs in the water," must be, Santarem remarks, what the Portuguese call "jangadas."
75a (p. 59). An infinity of Royal Herons.—[The Isle of Herons is one of the Arguim islands; cf. Barros, Decade I, ch. vii; it is marked under this name (Ilha, or Banco, das Garças) in early maps, as in Gastaldi's Venetian chart of 1564, which is founded on ancient Portuguese maps.]—S.
76 (p. 61). Lagos ... Moorish captives.—On the importance of Lagos in the new Portuguese maritime movement, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xi-xii; and note the reasons given by Azurara in ch. xviii for the change of feeling among Portuguese traders and others towards the Infant's plans.
77 (p. 63). Lançarote ... Gil Eannes ... Stevam Affonso ... etc., ... expedition.—This list of names includes several of the Infant's most capable and famous captains. On Lançarote see this Chronicle, chs. xviii-xxiv, xxvi, xlix, liii-v, lviii, lix; on Affonso, chs. li, lx; on John Diaz, ch. lviii; on John Bernaldez, ch. xxi; and on Gil Eannes, chs. ix, xx, xxii, li, lv, lviii; also pp. x-xiii of Introduction to vol. ii, and the notices by Ferdinand Denis and others in the Nouvelle Biographie Générale. On the "Isle of Naar," mentioned a little later on p. 63, Santarem has the following note:—[This island is marked near to the coast of Arguim on the map of Africa in the Portuguese Atlas (noticed before) at the Bibliothèque Royale (Nationale) de Paris.]
78 (p. 68). [In Bordone's Isolario (1533) all three of the islands noticed by Azurara (Naar, Garças and Tider), are indicated with the title of Isles of Herons [Ilhas das Garças]. The same is to be found in the Venetian map of Gastaldi, and in others. In the Portuguese Atlas just cited, and in another Portuguese chart made in Lisbon by Domingos Sanchez in 1618, these islands are depicted as close to the coast of Arguim, but without any name.] As to Cabo Branco [This name was, apparently, given it by Nuno Tristam.]—S. See ch. xiii (end) of this Chronicle.
79 (p. 78). In the end.—It is evident, from Azurara's language, that the Azanegues made a better stand in this fight at Cape Branco, and came nearer to defeating the Portuguese than on any previous occasion. It was a sign of what was to follow, for the native resistance now began to show itself, and the very next European slave-raiders (Gonçallo de Sintra and his men) were roughly handled, and most of them killed (see ch. xxvii. of this Chronicle).
80 (p. 80). Friar ... St. Vincent de Cabo.—This "firstfruit of the Saharan peoples, offered to the religious life," was appropriately sent to a monastery close to the "Infant's Town" at Sagres, and adjoining the promontory whereabouts centred the new European movement of African exploration.
81 (p. 81). Sons of Adam.—Azurara's position here is, of course, just that of the scholastics: As men, these slaves were to be pitied and well treated, nay, should be at once made free; as heathen, they were enslaveable; and being, as Barros says, outside the law of Christ Jesus, and absolutely lost as regards the more important part of their nature, the soul, were abandoned to the discretion of any Christian people who might conquer them, as far as their lower parts, or bodies, were concerned.
82 (p. 84). As saith the text.—Cf. Virgil, Æneid, i, 630 (Dido to Æneas), Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. There is no text in the Jewish or Christian Scriptures which can be said to answer properly to Azurara's reference in this place. We may, however, cf. Judges xi, 38; Revelation i, 9.
83 (p. 87). Tully saith.—Cf. Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, i, 20, 55; De Or., iii, 57, 215, 48, 159.
84 84a 84b (p. 87). Ancient sages ... others.—Cf. Livy, v, 51, 46, 6. On the disaster of Gonçalo de Sintra, Santarem remarks:—[This event happened in 1445. The place where De Sintra perished is fourteen leagues S. of the Rio do Ouro, and in maps, both manuscript and engraved, from the close of the fifteenth century, it took the name Golfo de Gonçallo de Cintra]. The reference in the concluding words of this chapter, as had been commanded, etc., is to the passage on p. 87 of this version, towards the foot: "That he should go straight to Guinea, and for nothing whatever should fail of this:" an order which De Sintra treated with entire contempt.
85 (p. 92). First purpose, viz., to write the chronicle of the "Guinea Voyages," not to discuss philosophic problems. The reference here to the "wheels [or circles] of heaven or destiny" recalls the astrological passages on pp. 29, 30, 80, etc. Azurara's reference to Job is to ch. xiv, verse 5.
86 (p. 93). Julius Cæsar ... Vegetius ... St. Augustine ... —Azurara here, of course, indulges in some exaggeration. Cæsar's breach with the Senate did not take place because of his "overpassing the space of five years" allowed him at first (b.c. 59) for his command in Gaul. In b.c. 56 the Lex Trebonia formally gave him a second allowance, of five years more; and he was not required to disband his army and return from his province till b.c. 49, when the Civil War broke out. By "Bretanha," or "Brittany," Azurara indicates the Duchy of Bretagne, which retained a semi-independence till 1532, when it was absolutely united with the crown of France. Cæsar's campaigns against "England" are, of course, those of b.c. 55 and 54, against Germany of 55 and 53, against Spanish insurgents of 61; but he could not by any stretch be said to have made England or Germany "subject" to the Roman power in the same sense as Gaul or Spain. Had his life been prolonged twenty years, he would probably have achieved both these unfinished conquests, as well as that of Parthia.
87 (p. 93). The enemy ... to them.—Azurara's reference here is to Livy, Bk. XXII, cc. 42-3.
88 (pp. 93-94). Holy Spirit ... ever be watched.—The references in this paragraph are to Proverbs xi, 14; xxiv, 6; Tobit iv, 18; Ecclesiasticus vi, 18, 23, 32-3; xxv, 5.
89 (p. 94). Hannibal ... for the moment.—Cf. Livy, 3rd Decade, Bk. XXII, cc. 4-5, 42-6. The reading of the Paris MS. (sajaria) is rejected, plausibly enough, by Santarem for sagaçaria.
90 (p. 94). Ships of the Armada.—I.e., the Royal Navy of Portugal; the "very great actions on the coast of Granada and Ceuta" must refer to events of 1415, 1418, and 1437. (See Introduction to vol. ii, p. viii, x.) Especially does this expression recall the naval war of 1418, when the King of Granada sent a fleet of seventy-four ships, under his nephew, Muley Said, to aid the African Moslems in recovering Ceuta from the Portuguese. Prince Henry proceeded in person to the relief of the city, and the Granada fleet, we are told, fled at the approach of the European squadron, without venturing a battle. It is possible, however, though unrecorded, that the Infant was subsequently able to engage and destroy part of the Granadine squadron. Gonçalo de Sintra, from Azurara's words, may have been with D. Henry on this occasion.
On the reference to John Fernandez staying among the Azanegues "only to see the country and bring the news of it to the Infant" (close of ch. xxix, p. 95), Santarem refers to Barros' words: "Para particularmente ver as cousas daquelle sertão que habitão os Azenegues, e dellas dar razão ao Infante, confiado na lingua delles que sabia" (like Martin Fernandez, p. 57, c. xvi).
91 (p. 96). The Plains thereof.—[Comparing the account in the text with the unpublished maps already referred to, it appears that Nuno Tristam, after revisiting the isles of Arguim, followed the coast to the south, passing the following places: Ilha Branca, R. de S. João, G. de Santa Anna, Moutas, Praias, Furna, C. d'Arca, Resgate, and Palmar; the last being the point Azurara mentions as "studded with many palm trees."]—S.
92 (p. 98). When King Affonso caused this history to be written.—On this Santarem remarks: [This is important as showing that Azurara did not only consult written documents, but personally interviewed the discoverers, seeing that he confesses his inability to give details of this occurrence because Nuno Tristam was already dead, "When Affonso," etc. Cf. Barros, I, iii, 17]. Cf. Pina's "Chronicle of Affonso V," in vol. i of the Collection of Unpublished Portuguese Historians.
93 (pp. 98, 99). Dinis Diaz ... convenient place.—["Dinis Diaz" is called by Barros, and all other historians and geographers following his authority, "Dinis Fernandez."]—S.
On Azurara's statement that "the Infant provided a caravel for Dinis Diaz," Santarem adds: [Barros does not agree with Azurara in this, but says on the contrary, "que elle [Diaz] armara hum navio," etc]. The "other land to which the first (explorers) went" is apparently the Sahara coast, from Cape Bojador to the Senegal, which Azurara here admits to be quite a different country from "Guinea" proper (the land of the Blacks). This last, after the discoveries of 1445, the Portuguese recognised as beginning only with the cultivated or watered land to the south of the Sahara. The name, a very early one, whose subtle changes of meaning are very perplexing, like the "Burgundy" of the Middle Ages, was probably derived originally from the city of Jenné, in the Upper Niger Valley (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xlv-xlix). [Here Azurara shows that he is already beginning to recognise the geographical error of those who gave an undue extension to the term "Guinea."]—S.
On the reading at the close of this paragraph "concerning this doubt," Santarem remarks: [So it stands in the MS., as verified; but it seems to us that there must be some omission of the copyist, and we propose to restore the text thus: "Filharom quatro daquelles que tiveram o atrevimento," etc.].
94 (p. 100). Aught to the contrary.—On this passage, cf. Santarem's Memoir on the Priority of the Portuguese Discoveries, § III, p. 20, etc. Paris, 1840. [Memoria sobre a prioridade dos descobrimentos dos Portuguezes].
95 (p. 100). Egypt ... Cape Verde.—[This proves that our navigators were the first who gave the Cape this name. See the Memoria sobre a prioridade].—S. On Azurara's idea that the Senegal was near Egypt, cf. Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xii, xxx, xlii, lviii, cxxii. This notion is, of course, bound up with the theory of the Western or Negro Nile, branching off from the Nile of Egypt. No mediæval geographers, and scarcely any ancient, except Ptolemy, realised the size of Africa at all adequately.
On the "rewards" given by the Infant to Diaz, Santarem well remarks: [From this and other passages it is clear that the Infant's principal object was discovery, and not the slave-raids on the inhabitants of Africa in which his navigators so often indulged]. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. v, xxiii-vi.
Cape Verde.—The turning-point of the great north-west projection of Africa, now in French possession. It is so called, according to the general view, from the rich green appearance of the headland—"la vegetation (as the most recent French surveys describe it) qui le couvre durant l'hivernage, et que dominent deux mornes arrondis, nommés, par les marins français, Les Deux Mamelles." The peninsula of Cape Verde is one of the most remarkable projections of the African coast. Generally it has the form of a triangle, "terminé par une sorte d'éperon dirigé vers le S.E., et mesure depuis le cap terminal on point des Almadies jusqu' à Rufisque une longueur de 34 kilom. avec une largeur de 14 kilom., sous le méridien de Rufisque, pris comme base du triangle. Sa côte septentrionale, formant une ligne presque droite du N.N.E. au S.S.O. est creusée, près de l'extremité, de deux petites baies, dont la première (en venant de l'E.), la baie d'Yof, est la plus considérable; puis au delà de la pointe des Almadies, qui est le Cap Vert proprement dit, la côte court au S.E. jusqu' au Cap Manuel, roche basaltique haute de 40m., puis remonte aussitôt au N. pour, par une très légère courbe, partir droit a l'E., dessinant ainsi un éperon bien accusé qui envelloppe le Golfe de Gorée. Le corps principal de la presqu' île est bas, sablonneux et parsemé de lagunes qui s'égrènent en chapelets le long de la côte N.; la petite péninsule terminale est au contraire rocheuse, accidentée et semble un ilot marin attaché à la côte par les laisses de mer. Ses hautes falaises, d'une couleur sombre et rougeâtre, forment une muraille à pic contre laquelle la mer vient se briser, écumante." See Duarte Pacheco Pereira's Esmeraldo, pp. 46-49, ed. of 1892. As to the island on which Dinis Diaz and his men landed near the Cape, this may have been either (1) Goree, two kilometres from the mainland, and fronting Dakar on the S.E. of the peninsula; (2) The Madeleine islands, at the opening of a small inlet to the N.W. of Cape Manuel; (3) The Almadia islands ("Almadies"), "îlette, qui, située en avant du cap terminal, est la vrai terre la plus occidentale d'Afrique, les archipels de l'Atlantique non compris;" or (4) The isle of Yof, in the bay of Yof, on the north side of the peninsula. The Madeleine islands were once covered with vegetation, though now desert. Here the French naturalist Adanson made his famous observations on the Baobab trees, in the eighteenth century. These trees, though they have disappeared on the islands, are still numerous on the mainland near the Cape. Azurara has a good deal more to say about these islets and their baobabs in chs. lxiii, lxxii, lxxv, pp. 193, 218, 226, etc., of this version. The rounding of C. Verde opened a fresh chapter in the Portuguese circumnavigation of Africa—to S.E. and E.; see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xii, xxx.]
96 (pp. 101-2). John Fernandez ... such a request.—On this passage, and especially on Azurara's statement (middle of p. 101) that Fernandez "had already been a captive among the other Moors and in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, where he acquired a knowledge of their language," Santarem remarks: [This detail gives us another proof that Prince Henry's explorations were made systematically, and according to plans carefully worked out. In his previous captivity in Marocco, Fernandez had learnt Arabic, and probably Berber as well; he must also have gained some information about the interior of Africa. To gain more detailed knowledge, and so be able to inform the Infant better, he had now undertaken his residence among the Azanegues of the Rio do Ouro.
See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. viii, x, xvi, on the dual nature of Henry's African schemes, land conquest and exploration going along with the maritime ventures. This was, of course, partly due to an inadequate conception of the size of the continent, which rendered even the conquest of Marocco of little use towards the circumnavigation of Africa.
"How bitter ... to hear such a request" is, of course, one of Azurara's rare touches of irony.
97 (p. 103). Affonso Cerveira.—[The author of the earlier account of the Portuguese conquest of Guinea, Historia da Conquista dos Portuguezes pela costa d'Africa, on which Azurara's present Chronicle is based. Cf. Barbosa, Bibliotheca Lusitana.]—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, p. cx, and note 202A.
Ergim, in ch. xxxiii, pp. 104, etc., and elsewhere, is, of course, Arguim. Santarem here refers to Barros' description in Decade I, i, 10. "Porque naquelle tempo para fazer algum proveito todos os hião demandar (os ilheos d'Arguim); e tinha por certo que avião elles de ir dar com elle, por ser aquella costa e os ilheos a mais povoada parte de quantas té então tinhão descoberto. E a causa de ser mais povoada, era por razão da pescaria de que aquella misera gente de Mouros Azenegues se mantinha, porque em toda aquella costa não avia lugar mais abrigado do impeto dos grandes mares que quebrão nas suas praias senão na paragem daquellas ilhas d'Arguim: onde o pescado tinha alguma acolheita, e lambujem da povoação dos Mouros, posto que as ilhas em si não são mais que huns ilheos escaldados dos ventos e rocio da agua das ondas do mar. Os quaes ilheos seis ou sete que elles são, quada hum per si tinha o nome proprio per que nesta scriptura os nomeamos, posto que ao presente todos se chamão per nome commum os ilheos d'Arguim; por causa de huma fortaleza que el Rei D. Affonso mandou fundar em hum delles chamado Arguim." Cf. Duarte Pacheco Pereira's Esmeraldo, chs. xxv-vi, pp. 43-4. Arguim is defined in the most recent surveys of its present French possessors as "Golfe, île, et banc de sable ... l'île est par 20° 27' N. lat., 18° 57' à 60 kilom. vers le S.E. du Cap Blanc ... Ses dimensions sont de 7 kilom. sur 4. Elle est basse, inculte, et parsemée de dunes."
98 (p. 107). John Fernandez ... in that country.—Santarem draws attention to Azurara's statement that the explorer, Fernandez, was personally known to him. Cf. ch. lxxvii of this Chronicle; also chs. xxix and xxxii. "That country" is of course the Azanegue or Sahara land, near the Rio do Ouro.
Setuval (p. 106) is in Estremadura (of Portugal), twenty miles south-east of Lisbon.
99 (p. 110). Fear to prolong my story ... though all would be profitable.—The fondness of Azurara for these scholastic discussions and useless displays of learning is one of his worst failings; and a good deal of Cerveira's matter of fact has apparently been sacrificed to this weakness of his redactor.
100 (p. 111). Nine negroes and a little gold-dust.—This was the first instalment of the precious metal brought home to Portugal from the Negro-land of Guinea. The same Antam Gonçalvez had already, in 1441, brought the first gold dust from the Sahara, or Azanegue coast (see ch. xvi of this Chronicle, p. 57). As to the importance of these gold-samples in promoting the European exploring movement, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi.
101 (p. 111). Cape of the Ransom.—[This name is marked upon the manuscript maps already referred to. On one great Portuguese chart of this class, on parchment, in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, the reading is not Cape, but Port of the Ransom. The Portuguese nomenclature for the West African coast, as we see in this instance, was for a long time accepted by all the nations of Europe.]—S.
We may notice the allusion in this paragraph to the Portuguese colonisation of Madeira, in the story of Fernam Taavares (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xcviii-cii).
102 (p. 112). Isle of Tider (see note 78 to p. 68).—[Tider, marked "Tiber" in the map of West Africa before referred to. We do not meet this name in any of the many earlier charts that we have examined].—S.
103 (p. 115). Officers who collected royal dues.—The custom-house officers of Lisbon. We may compare with Azurara's graphic account of the return of Antam Gonçalvez in 1445, the very similar details of a much greater reception in the same port: that of Columbus on March 14th, 1493, on his home-coming from his first voyage (see the postscript of Columbus' Letter to Luis de Santangel, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Aragon, respecting the Islands found in the Indies).
104 (p. 115). A palace of the Infant, a good way distant from the Ribeira.—Azurara's only reference, in this Chronicle, to the Lisbon residence of the Infant Henry. This passage implies that Prince Henry was often to be found there, and must be taken with others in modification of extreme statements about his "shutting himself up at Sagres," etc. Again, at the end of this chapter we are expressly told that he was now in his dukedom of Viseu, in the province of Beira, some 50 kilometres N.E. of Coimbra, 220 kilometres N.N.E. of Lisbon.
105 (p. 115). Profits.—Azurara's remarks here about the change of feeling as to the Infant's plans are similar to passages in ch. xiv, p. 51, ch. xviii, pp. 60-61.]
106 (p. 116). Lisbon ... profit.—The city of Lisbon, whose name was traditionally and absurdly derived from Ulysses—"Ulyssipo," "Olisipo," and his foundation of the original settlement in the course of his voyages, was perhaps a greater city under the Moors, eighth-twelfth century, than at any time before the reign of Emmanuel the Fortunate. It was a Roman colony, but its prosperity greatly increased under the Arab rule from a.d. 714; from this port sailed Edrisi's Maghrarins, or Wanderers, on their voyage of discovery in the Western Ocean, probably in the earliest eleventh century. It was three times recovered and lost by the Christians: in 792(-812) by Alfonso the Chaste of Castille; in 851 by Ordonho I of Leon, who held it only a few months; and in 1093(-1094) by Alfonso VI of Leon, soon after his great defeat by the Almoravides at Zalacca (1086); but on each occasion it was quickly retaken—in 1094 by Seyr, General of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almorvaide. In alarm at the Moslem revival, Alfonso founded the county of Portugal in 1095, giving it in charge of Count Henry of Burgundy and his natural daughter Theresa, to hold as a "march" against the Moors. In 1147 Lisbon was finally recaptured by Affonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, in alliance with a fleet (164 ships) of English, Flemish, German and French Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land (Second Crusade). At this time it was said, perhaps with exaggeration, to contain 400,000 inhabitants; its present number is only about 240,000 (see Cruce-signati Anglici Epistola de Expugnatione Olisiponis, in Portugalliæ Monumenta Historica, vol. i, p. 392, etc). Before 1147 Guimaraens had been the capital of Portugal; and even down to the time of John I, Henry's father, Lisbon was not formally the seat of government, this being more often fixed at Coimbra. In the same reign, Lisbon also, as a commercial port, easily distanced all rivals within the kingdom, especially Oporto; and King John's erection of palaces in the city, and his successful application to the Pope for the creation of an Archiepiscopal See (thus rivalling Braga), further contributed to give point to Azurara's words in this paragraph about "the most noble town in Portugal." On the share of the commercial classes of Lisbon, Lagos, etc., in Henry's schemes, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x, xii.
Paulo Vergeryo is Pietro Paulo Vergerio, born at Capo d'Istria, July 23, 1370, died at Buda, 1444 (1428 according to others). He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a scholar at Padua in 1393, etc., and migrated to Hungary in 1419. See Bayle, Dict. Crit. IV, 430 (1741); P. Louisy, in Nouvelle Biographie Générale, art. (Vergerio); J. Bernardi, in Riv. Univers. (Florence, 1875) xxii, 405-430, in Arch. Stor. Ital. (1876) C., xxiii, 176-180; Brunet, Manuel V, 1132-3; Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scr. (edition of Vergerio's works) XVI, pp. 111-187, 189-215, 215-242; Fabricius, ed. Mansi, VI, p. 289. He has left various Orations and Letters; especially an Epistola de morte Francisci Zabarekae, and a Historia seu Vitae Carariensium Principum ab eorum origine usque ad Jacobini mortem (1355). See also Joachim Vadianus, Biographia P. P. Vergerii, sen.; and C. A. Combi, Di Pierpaolo V. ... seniore ... memoria, Venice, 1880.
107 (p. 116). Gonçalo Pacheco ... Kingdom.—Barros copies this sentence, with some omissions. The allusion to the High Treasurer of Ceuta (Thesoureiro Mor das cousas de Cepta), and his Noble lineage, goodness, and valour, is interesting in its proof of the detailed attention given to the new conquest, and to African affairs generally, by the Portuguese government at this time.
108 (p. 117). Cape Branco.—On the personnel of this expedition we have accounts elsewhere; for Dinis Eannes de Graã and the rest, see chs. xxxvii-xlviii, and especially pp. 121, 122, 126, 130, 131, 138; for Mafaldo, especially p. 119 ("a man well acquainted with this business ... had been many times in the Moorish traffic"); also pp. 120-121, etc. Cape Branco, since its discovery by Nuno Tristam, had become the favourite rendezvous of the Portuguese expeditions on this coast. See ch. lii, p. 153 (made agreement to await one another as usual at Cape Branco).
On the banners of the Order of Christ, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xviii-xix; and in this Chronicle, pp. 62 (ch. xviii), 53 (ch. xv), 117 (ch. xxxvii), etc.
[Cf. a parchment atlas (unpublished), executed in Messina as late as 1567 by João Martinez, in which two Portuguese ships are painted in various points of the Eastern Ocean with the Cross of the Order of Christ on their sails, apparently to indicate the Portuguese dominion in those waters. This atlas passed into the Library of Heber, and afterwards into that of M. Ternaux.]—S.
109 (p. 120). The patience with which men bear the troubles of their fellows is another piece of irony, similar to that on p. 102; see note 96.
110 (p. 122). Fifty-three Moorish prisoners.—In this, as in subsequent actions, Mafaldo, rather than Gonçalo Pacheco, showed himself to be the leader of the expedition.
111 (p. 123). Cunning ... but small in this part of the world.—The fair inference is that, on this occasion, Mafaldo, from his previous experience, correctly estimated the danger (or absence of danger), and knew when to trust the natives. Similar trustfulness was not always equally successful, sometimes from absence of that past experience possessed by Mafaldo. See chs. xxvii, pp. 90, 91; xlviii, pp. 144-5; lxxxvi, pp. 252, etc.; xxxv, pp. 112-3. The Azanegue Moors of the Sahara on the whole showed less ability to defend themselves than the Negroes of the Sudan coast; cf. chs. xlv, pp. 137-8; lx, pp. 179-182; lxxxvi, pp. 252-6; xli, p. 130; xxxi, p. 99; contrast with pp. 126, 122, 114, 105-6, 78, 73, 36.
112 (p. 126) ... true effects.—Azurara certainly does not commit the error of "those historians who avoid prolixity by summarizing things that would be greatest if related in their true effects," i. e., in detail. This central portion of his narrative (chs. xxxvi-lix, lxviii-lxxiv) is especially tedious, and we cannot too much regret the comparative sacrifice of the scientific interest to the anecdotal, biographical, or slave-raiding details, with which he fills so much of this Chronicle. Cf. the slender and imperfect narratives of the really important voyages of Dinis Diaz (ch. xxxi), Alvaro Fernandez (ch. lxxv), and Nuno Tristam (chs. xxx, lxxxvi), with the lengthy descriptions of the expeditions personally conducted by Gonçalo de Sintra, Gonçalo Pacheco, Lançarote, Mafaldo, and other men whose voyages resulted in scarcely any advance of exploration. In all this Azurara's narrative contrasts unfortunately with Cadamosto's, which is not only a record of exploration, but of acute original observation, a quality by no means so noticeable in the Chronicle of Guinea, except at rare intervals. Cf., however, chs. xxv, lxxvi-lxxvii, lxxix-lxxxiii, and see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xxiv-xxvi, etc.
INDEX.