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 transcribesverbatim; seeEsmeraldo, 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 hisEncylopédie 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."Saharásignifies 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'sInvasions 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 beanchored."
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'unepresqu'îlearide 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. Cettepresqu'îlese 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 bullasNo. 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, andMaç. 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 acquiredby 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, andMaç. 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) wroteDe Rebus Hispanicisin nine books; also anHistoria Saracenica, and other works. Walter is doubtful. He may be Walter of Burley, the Aristotelian of the thirteenth-fourteenth century, who wrote aLibellus 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 thechroniclerWalter 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....—TheAlfaqueque, orRansomer 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. theGeographia Nubiensisof Edrisi (1619 ed.), pp. 7, 11, 12, 14; Hartmann'sEdrisi, pp. 26, 49, 133-4. This gold came from the negro-land called Wangara, as Edrisi and Ibn-al-Wardi tell us. SeeNotices 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 ofArguim, 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 theNavigation 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'sIsolario(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, orBanco, 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 onGil 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 theNouvelle 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'sIsolario(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 (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 andengraved, from the close of the fifteenth century, it took the nameGolfo 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. Inb.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 tillb.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 ofb.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 forsagaçaria.
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 theCollection 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 daquellesque tiveramo atrevimento," etc.].
94 (p. 100).Aught to the contrary.—On this passage, cf. Santarem'sMemoir 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 theMemoria 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'sEsmeraldo, 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 inDecade 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 commumos ilheos d'Arguim; por causa de huma fortaleza que el Rei D. Affonso mandou fundar em hum delles chamado Arguim." Cf. Duarte Pacheco Pereira'sEsmeraldo, chs. xxv-vi, pp. 43-4.Arguimis 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, butPortof 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 froma.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 (seeCruce-signati Anglici Epistola de Expugnatione Olisiponis, inPortugalliæ 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 Vergeryois 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, inNouvelle Biographie Générale, art. (Vergerio); J. Bernardi, inRiv. Univers.(Florence, 1875) xxii, 405-430, inArch. 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 variousOrations and Letters; especially anEpistola de morte Francisci Zabarekae, and aHistoria 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 theHigh Treasurer of Ceuta(Thesoureiro Mor das cousas de Cepta), and hisNoble 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 thepersonnelof 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 anotheras usual at Cape Branco).
On thebanners 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 Oceanwith 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 fellowsis 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 theChronicle of Guinea, except at rare intervals. Cf., however, chs. xxv, lxxvi-lxxvii, lxxix-lxxxiii, and see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xxiv-xxvi, etc.
113(p. 132).Cape of St. Anne.—[This passage shows the date when the name of Cape (or rather "Gulf") of St. Anne was given to that point by Alvaro Vasquez, who was on this expedition. This name was employed, like the others which we have already indicated, in the nomenclature of the hydro-geographical charts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Barros, in his corresponding chapter, not only omits this detail, but further reduces the material of chs. xxxvii, xxxviii, xxxix, xl, xli, xlii, to a few lines.]—S.
114(p. 133).And the Moors, like,etc.—[From Cape Branco to the Senegal, the part of the coast of which the author treats is inhabited by various tribes composed of Moors of mixed race, who speak Arabic, are Mohammedans, and are known by the names of Trazas or Terarzah, Brakanas and others. They are in their nature very ferocious, and are the terror of the traveller. The most cruel of all are those who inhabit and extend as far as Cape Branco, called Ladessebas; and these, according to some authors, are of pure Arab race.]—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xlii-lix. Mungo Park gives a similar character of the "Moors" north of Senegal.Travels, chs. iii-xii.
115(p. 136).Came near to the coast of Guinea.—[According to the text it appears that Alvaro Vasquez, after quitting the place to which he had given the name of Cape of St. Anne, followed his course 80 leagues towards the south, running along the coast in this direction until he arrived at the Guinea coast—that is, a little beyond Cape Verde—but Barros, who omits some of the details of this voyage, says: ... "Forão-se pela costa adiante obra de oitenta legoas, e na ida, e vinda té tornar a ilha das Garças fazer carnagem," etc.]—S.
116(p. 136).Where they had captured the seven Moors[viz., at Tider; see note 78.]—S.
The reference on p. 139 to the Portuguese ships "in the Strait of Ceuta (Gibraltar) and through all the Levant Sea," may be compared with Introduction, p. viii, and notes 28, 31, etc.
117(p. 142).Cape Tira.—[In the old maps we meet with nocapeof this name, but combining this passage with what our author says in ch. xxx (How Nuno Tristam went to Tira), and with the distance of 80 leagues which they navigated after leaving the Isle of Herons, or of Arguim, it appears that the cape to which Azurara gives this name, or to which our first navigators gave the name of Tira, was a point, or "tira," of land at the embouchure of the Senegal, at a place marked in the old maps a little beyond Palma Seca, an inscription which is to be read on many (of the ancient charts), and especially on that of João Freire of 1546, and on that of Vaz Dourado of 1571. Although on this last there appears marked a point in close proximity with the name of Tarem, which is not met with in the preceding (maps). Be this as it may, by the distances of latitude between Arguim and that point at the mouth of the Senegal, it appears that theCape of Tiraof which our author speaks, is the place which we indicate. Notwithstanding the unfortunate laconism of Azurara about a fact so interesting for the history of geography, we nevertheless see clearly by this passage that the exploration of the bays, inlets, and points of that part of the coast of Africa was steadily pressed on; that all these points were successively examined by our sailors;and that to these same men are due the names which served for the hydro-geographical nomenclature (of W. Africa) adopted by all nations from the end of the fifteenth century to nearly the end of the seventeenth (see as to this ourMemoria sobre a prioridade dos descobrimentos Portuguezes na costa d'Africa occidental, § ix).]—S.
118(p. 143).Turtles.—[This passage shows that these mariners were navigating among the great banks and shoals of sand which exist between the isles of Arguim and the mouth of the Senegal. "And they saw an island, which is further out than all the others, but small and very sandy." Combining this account with the map which we meet in vol. i of the work of the Abbé Demanet (Nouvelle Histoire de l'Afrique) we perceive two islands clearly marked to the west of the last (sand-) bank, and in front of the places which, on the ancient Portuguese charts are indicated as Tarem, Palmar, and Palma Seca (as in the maps of Freire, 1546, of the Royal Library, and of Vaz Dourado).
Also in the following chapter our author says "They afterwards saw another island which was separated by an arm of the sea that ran between the two—to wit, that in which they were, and the other they had in sight."]—S.
The lake, or fiord, of Obidos, between Atouguya and Pederneira (p. 143) is in the Estremadura province of Portugal, an inlet on the coast, 47 miles N.N.W. of Lisbon.
119(p. 146).Arguim.—See notes 75 and 97, pp. 58 and 103.
120(p. 146).Marco Polo.—[Azurara, writing this chronicle before 1453, availed himself of a manuscript of the travels of Marco Polo, perhaps the same as the copy which the Infant Don Pedro brought from Venice. The oldest printed edition is of 1484. This book, which exercised great influence on discovery, was not only read in the beginning of the fifteenth century by our learned men, but we may notice that one of the most ancient translations which exists of the same is in Portuguese, published by Valentim Fernandez, with the journey of Nicholas the Venetian, etc., dedicated to the King Don Manuel, Lisbon, 1502, one volume, in folio gothic, a copy of which exists in the public library of Lisbon.]—S. Azurara's reference here is to Marco Polo, ch. lvii (Bk.i); ch. lxxiii (Bk.ii). On Valentim Fernandez and the bibliography of the Machin story, see Introduction to vol. ii, p. lxxxiv-v. On the editions of Marco Polo, see Yule's edition, Introduction; Pauthier,Le Livre de M. P.
121(p. 147).Lançarote ... collector of royal taxes(= Almoxarife, p. 62)in Lagos ... judges ... alcayde ... officials of the corporation.—Another of Azurara's references to "local," "home," or "municipal" affairs in Portugal, at this time. Cf. p. 62 of this Chronicle.
122(p. 151).Knight Don Pedro ... Sueiro da Costa ... Monvedro.—On the general history alluded to by Azurara in the first paragraph of ch. li, seeCronica de D. Alvaro de Luna, ed. Milan, 1546, Madrid, 1784;Histoire secrète de Connetable De Lune, Paris, 1720; Marina,Ensaio historico-critico; Cardonne,Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne...; Hallam,Middle Ages, ii, 16-17. It may be summarised as follows: The reign of John II of Castille,after his majority, was constantly disturbed by conspiracies and civil wars, headed by his cousins John and Henry, the Infants of Aragon, who possessed large properties in Castille, bequeathed them by their father Ferdinand. They were also assisted often by their brother the King of Aragon. The nominal object of attack was Alvaro de Luna, favourite minister of John II during thirty-five years, a man probably unscrupulous and somewhat rapacious, but of great ability and energy. At last John gave way, withdrew his favour, and the minister was tried and beheaded, meeting his fate "with the intrepidity of Strafford," to whom some have compared him.
Sueiro da Costa, Alcaide of Lagos.—Cf. notes 77, 121, etc.
The King D. Edward(Duarte) is, of course, Henry's eldest brother, King of Portugal 1433-1438 (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi, and notes 30, 57; and pp. 3, 11, 18, 28, 39, of the text of this version; also Pina's Chronica (D. Duarte), vol. i of theIneditos Hist. Port.) The allusions to Portuguese, Castilian, and Aragonese history are so intertwined in these paragraphs that some caution is necessary.
Monvedro.—Here there is a manuscript note, of later date, however, than the Chronicle itself [Esta batalha se llama del endolar].
123(p. 152).Vallaguer ... Arras.—[The siege of Balaguer was undertaken in 1413, and in this the King, Don Fernando of Aragon, made prisoner the Count of Urgel.]—S.
Ibid., Ladislaus.—[The king of whom the author speaks here under the name of Lançaraao, is Ladislaus, King of Naples, who in the year 1404 entered Rome with his army in order to put down the rebellion of the people against the new Pope, Innocent VII. Hence our author's allusion: "When he assailed the city of Rome."]—S.
Louis of Provence.—[This was Louis II, Count of Provence. The campaign which Sueiro da Costa made with Louis appears to be that which began in 1409, which the aforesaid Prince carried on in Italy, in common with the allies commanded by Malatesta and by the famous Balthazar Cossa, legate of Bologna. This war lasted till 1411].—S.
The battle of Agincourt(theAjancurtof Azurara's text) was not between theKingsof France and England in the strictly literal sense. The French, on October 25th, 1415, were commanded by the Dauphin, the Constable of France, and the Duke of Orleans.
Vallamont[is Valmont, 5 leagues north-west of Yvetot].—S. Really 22 kilometres.... It is on the Valmont River (Seine Inférieure), and possesses an ancient chateau, with buildings of date varying from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.
Constable of France.—[This Admiral of France, with whom served Sueiro da Costa, appears to be the Count of Foix (Foes in the text of Azurara).]
The Count of Armagnac(p. 152) [was probably Bernard VII, who, in the Civil Wars of the time of Charles VI, was at the head of the party of the House of Orleans, which fought various combats, especially in the years 1410-11.]—S.
Arras(p. 152).—[The siege of this place began in Sept. 1414.]—S.
124(p. 152).Lançarote ... Stevam Affonso.—See Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii, and note 77; pp. 60-80, 83, 86 of this version.
125(p. 152).In that year[viz. 1447].—S. The place is of course Lagos.
126(p. 153).Dinis Diaz[see ch. xxxi].—S. See pp. 98-100 of this Chronicle. Also Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii, and notes 93, 94, 95, etc.
127(p. 153).Tristam ... Zarco ... Lagos.—See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. ix, xii, xcix-cii, notes 76, 80, and pp. 192, 213, 225-9, 244-8, 60-2, 79, 83, etc., of this Chronicle.
One of Zarco's caravels was under the command of Alvaro Fernandez, the only captain on this expedition who accomplished much (see ch. lxxxvii, and Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii).
128(p. 156). [This bird is theBuceros nasutusof Linnæus, the same that the French callCalao-Tock. Notwithstanding some exaggeration which may be noted in the description of Azurara, it is beyond doubt that the bird of which he treats here is that which the Negroes of the Senegal callTock, and which the Portuguese namedCróes. Latham calls itBuceros Africanus.
Brisson made two species, Linnæus and Latham two varieties; but Buffon considered them as individuals of the same species, a fact which is otherwise witnessed to by Sonini. Buffon says that the beak, considered apart from the body, is a foot in length and of enormous size (seeBuffon, Plate 933). The "work" of which Azurara speaks is not due only to the pores of the beak, but chiefly to a series of cuts or incisions, in the form of half-moons, which this bird has upon its beak. It was the famous naturalist Aldrovandi who first gave a picture of the enormous beak of this bird; but the oldest description of it is certainly that given by Azurara. It was not, therefore, Père Labat who first among travellers saw and carefully observed this notable bird, but Lourenço Diaz and the other Portuguese, his companions in 1447: that is, at a date almost three hundred years before Labat. On this bird the reader may also consult the Memoir of Geoffroi de Villeneuve (Actes de la Société d'histoire naturelle de Paris).]—S.
129(p. 158).Isle of Herons.—[Since it was to these islands on the coast of Africa, that, in the first epoch of our discoveries, expeditions (by preference) usually directed their course, in conformity with the instructions of the Infant, for the reasons which (in part) Barros gives us (note 97, p. 104, note 79, p. 78 of this version). We have already indicated their position to the reader, conformably to the ancient charts, but we have nevertheless thought well, for the better illustration of the matter, to point out here their true position. In some maps, and among others on that of the famous Livio Sanuto, on the first sheet of hisAfrica, these islands are placed thus:—The Isle of Herons in the most northerly part of all the group, Tider in the most southerly of all, and the Isle of Nar (Naar) between the two.]—S.
130(p. 159).What we have been ordered.—[By these expressions it is evident that the views and plans of the illustrious Infant were not concerned with making captives or slaves, or with expeditions against the natives, but only with the prosecution of the discoveries. The passage which occurs in the next chapter, as to the "great joy" of the crews, and especially of the "lower class" at meeting with the other caravels at the Isle of Herons, "in order to put in hand the matter,"i.e., a new incursion against the Moors, shows us the spirit whichanimated those sailors: which spirit, perhaps, some of the captains were not able at times to hold in check and moderate.]—S.
131(p. 164).The Banner of the Crusade ... Gil Eannes.—[Barros omits these details, which are so interesting for the history of those expeditions. This Gil Eannes was the same who had first passed beyond Cape Bojador. (See ch. ix of this Chronicle.)]—S. On theBanner of the Crusade, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xviii-xix.
132(p. 165).Alvaro de Freitas.—[Barros says that Alvaro de Freitas was Commander of Algezur. (Decade I, Bk.i, ch. ii.)]—S. Cf. in this Chronicle, pp. 152, 157-8, 161, 165-6, 174, 194-5, 197.
133(p. 167).Fra Gil de Roma[lived in the time of Philippe le Bel, King of France. The treatiseDe Regimine Principum, which he wrote in 1285 for the education of that Prince, was a book of the highest reputation (in its time), especially at the close of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By the notice which is given us in theChronicle of the Count D. Pedro, and by the quotation of Azurara, we perceive the estimation in which this book was held amongst us at the beginning of the latter century (the fifteenth).]—S. In fact, King John I (of Portugal), in his discourse at Ceuta in 1415, recalled to his fidalgos and knights the maxims and precepts which they had read in the same book,De Regimine Principum, and which he always kept in his own room. And if we are to believe Barbosa (Bibliotheca Lusitana), the Infant D. Pedro had made a Portuguese translation of the same treatise; but this learned bibliographer calls Fr.Gil de Roma, Fr.Gil Correa. This note is not a fitting place to show whether the name ofCorrea, which Barbosa gives to that author, is or is not exact. We must confine ourselves here to saying that King D. Edward (Duarte), quoting this book several times in chs. xxxi, xxxii, xxxvi, lii, lvi of hisLeal Conselheiro, calls the author, like Azurara, Fr.Gil de Roma. In the library at Cambrai there exists a manuscript, No. 856, of theDe Regimine Principum, which was finished in 1424, and consequently at an epoch subsequent to the one of which King John I made use. This is probably one of those used by King Edward and by Azurara. The first printed edition was published in 1473 (seeDictionnaire bibliographique, La Serna Santander, etc.) If, as we have just said, the manuscript used by King John I, by King Edward, and by Azurara, is one of the most ancient of which any notice survives, the Portuguese translation of the book of Fr. Gil de Roma by the Infant Don Pedro is also one of the most ancient versions—if we except the French translation attributed to Henry of Ghent. (On this consult the Abbé Lebœuf,Dissertation sur l'histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Paris, II, p. 41.) We think it well to give the reader this notice, in view of the importance of Azurara's citation in this place, which shows us the state of learning and literary culture among our people at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and at the same time the literary relations which existed between Portugal, France, and other countries at the end of the Middle Ages.]—S. See Martins,Os Filhos de D. João I, chs. i, iv, v, vi.
134(p. 169).Pero Allemain, etc.—See p. 55 of this Chronicle, on Balthasar, an undoubted German of the "household of the Emperor."
135(p. 173).Directions from the Lord Infant.—These seem to have been rather vague for purposes of exploration, and are differently given byGomez Pirez(p. 173). See text of this version pp. 95, 173, etc., and next note.
136(p. 174).River of Nile.—[Compare this passage with our remarks in the notes to chs. liii, xxxii, xv, and xiii, about the true plans of the illustrious Infant, author of these discoveries. These passages reveal to us, in spite of the brevity of the Chronicler, the intention and the system of the Prince in relation to these expeditions. It is clear that he desired not only to discover those countries, but above all to obtain information from the natives themselves of the interior of Africa, in order to compare it with the scientific, historical, and geographical ideas of antiquity and of the Middle Ages, with a view of prosecuting his discoveries till the East was reached. Thus, Garcia de Resende says, with good reason (Chronicle of the King D. John II, ch. cliv), when treating of the discovery of the Congo, made twenty-five years after the death of the Infant:—"In the year 1485, the King desiring the discovery of India and Guinea, which the Infant D. Henry, his uncle, first among all the Princes of Christendom, commenced,..."]—S. What Gomez Pirez says here implicitly contradicts Lançarote's statement, p. 172; see note 135.
137(p. 174).The terrestrial Paradise.—[We call the attention of the reader to this passage, in itself very interesting, especially because the words of Alvaro de Freitas indicate beyond doubt a certain geographical idea as to the situation of the terrestrial Paradise agreeing with the cosmographical knowledge of the Middle Ages, and as to the distance at which they found themselves from those delicious parts of the world.
The sailors whom the Infant employed in these navigations and discoveries were well instructed in nautical science. They set out from Portugal furnished with "naval charts" in which the cosmographers of that time had designed not merely the hydrographical configuration of the coasts of the various countries then known, but also which is more curious, the interior of the Continents, in which they represented, by a multitude of figures, the various sovereigns, animals, birds, woodland, and other details, both real, fantastic, and hypothetical: as the curious reader may see in the Planisphere of Andrea Bianco of 1436, published in the work of Formaleone, entitledSaggio sulla nautica antica de Veneziani, and in the other planisphere of the famous Fra Mauro, published by Cardinal Zurla in his work,Sulle antiche Mappe lavorate in Venezia(1818).
The idea, then, which Alvaro de Freitas had of his distance from the terrestrial Paradise, according to his own words, shows that he considered it to be at the extremity of the earth: that idea, we repeat, proves the influence which the geography of the Middle Ages exercised upon our sailors. As a matter of fact, that idea of the position of the terrestrial Paradise dates from the time of theTopographia Christianaof Cosmas Indicopleustes (see Montfaucon,Nova Collectio Patrum, vol. ii), an idea which the journeys accomplished by land during the Middle Ages fortified and reduced to a systematic opinion. On the map of Andrea Bianco, the terrestrial Paradise is to be found marked in the most easterly part of Asia.
Alvaro de Freitas in these words of his, alluded either to the localityin which Paradise was to be found on the ancient charts—and this, we think, is the more probable supposition—or he referred to theCosmologyof Dante, according to which Paradise was situate in the middle of the seas of the southern hemisphere (Dante,Purgatorio, cant. xxvi, ll. 100, 127.)]—S.
Santarem's commentary here needs a word of supplement, which we take from theDawn of Modern Geography, pp. 332-3.
"The position of the Garden of Eden, the habitat of the people of Gog Magog and other monstrous races, and the existence of a literal centre for the earth-circle, were problems which exercised the patristic mind only less than the great controversy upon the 'Spherical,' 'Tabernacular,' or other shape of the world itself.
"As to the earthly Paradise, the plain word of Scripture [Genesis, ii, 8; iii, 24] compelled most Theologians to place it in the Furthest East, though a minority inclined to give a symbolic meaning to the crucial words, 'The Lord God planted a gardeneastwardin Eden ... and placed Cherubim at the East of the Garden, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.' Augustine, here as elsewhere, shows himself inclined to compromise, as well became one who attempted such a task as the re-statement of the whole Catholic Faith. His knowledge was too many-sided, and his intelligence too keen, for him not to perceive the importance of a certain liberality of temper in a creed which aspired to conquer the world, and his treatment of the question of the terrestrial Paradise is a good example of his method. For himself, he holds fast to the real existence of Eden, and the literal sense of Scripture on its position, but he allows any one who will to give the texts at issue a symbolical meaning (De Civ. Dei, XIII, ch. xxi; see also Eucherius, Comm. on Genesis in theMax. Bibl. Vet. Pat.vi, 874, and A. Graf's interesting essay on theLegends of the terrestrial Paradise, Turin, 1878). To the same effect, though more doubtfully, speaks St. Isidore of Seville, who in so many ways reproduces at the end of the sixth century the spirit and method of the Bishop of Hippo in the fifth. In one place the Spanish Doctor repeats the traditional language about Eden, placed in the East, blessed with perpetual summer, but shut off from the approach of man by the fiery wall which reached almost to the Heaven: yet elsewhere he seems to countenance a purely figurative sense. His scepticism is expressed in theDe Differentiis, i, 10; his traditionalism in theEtymologiesorOrigins, XIV, 3 (De Asia).
"The ordinary conclusion of the more philosophic school of Churchmen is perhaps expressed by Moses Bar-Cepha, 'Bishop of Bethraman and Guardian of sacred things in Mozal' [i.e., Mosul? or Nineveh], near Bagdad, abouta.d.900 [Migne's editor of Moses, inPat. Græc., cxi, pp. 482-608 (1863), places him later, abouta.d.950; but Marinelli, Erdkunde, 20-1, dates him abouta.d.700, doubtless with the assent of S. Günther and L. Neumann, who are responsible for the enlarged German edition of Marinelli's admirable essay. The most interesting passages of Moses' geography are in Pt. I, chs. i, ii, vii-ix, xi-xiv]. In hisCommentary on Paradise, the ingenious prelate solves past difficulties in the spirit of Hegel himself. The terrestrial Eden had one existence under two conditions, visible and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal, sensual and intellectual. As pertaining to this world, it existed, he considers, in a land which was on, but not of, the earth that we inhabit; for it lay on higher ground, it breathed apurer air, and, though many of the saints had fixed it in the East, it was really beyond our ken.
"From Augustine onwards, through the writings of Eucherius of Lyons [Commentary on Genesis], of St. Basil the Great, and many others, something of this tendency to compromise between the literal meaning of Scripture and the tacit opposition of geography, may be traced in this attempt to give reality to the earthly Paradise; and the same comes out in the conjecture of Severian of Gabala, adopted by Cosmas and by many of the traditionalists, that the rivers of Eden dived under the earth for a long space before reappearing in our world as Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and Pison (Severian of Gabala, v, 6; according to S., this subterranean course was to prevent men from tracking their way up to Paradise; cf.Philostorgius, III, 7-12.)