* * * * *
Thirdly, the attempts of Prince Henry to acquire possession of the Canaries for Portugal may be noticed. In 1414, Maciot de Béthencourt, nephew and heir of the famous John, "Jean le Conquérant," having, under threat of war from Castille, ceded the islands to Pedro Barba de Campos, Lord of Castro Forte, sailed away to Madeira; and in 1418, according to some authorities, he made a sale of the "Fortunatae" to Henry of Portugal. This wasnot enough for him, as afterwards he made a third bargain with the Count of Niebla; while meantime Jean de Béthencourt himself left his conquests by will to his brother Reynaud. Pedro Barba de Campos soon parted with his new rights, which passed successively to Fernando Perez of Seville, and the Count of Niebla. But the latter, though now uniting in himself all Spanish claims to the islands, did not cling to them, but made over everything to Guillem de las Casas, who passed on his rights to Fernam Peraza, his son-in-law. While this transference was going on in Castille and in France, Henry, in the name of Portugal, attempted in 1424 to settle the question by sending out a fleet under Fernando de Castro, with 2,500 foot and 120 horse. With this force he would probably have conquered the Archipelago, in spite of the costliness and trouble of the undertaking, if the protests of Castille had not led King John I to discourage the scheme and persuade his son to defer its execution.
In 1445,[199]seven of the Prince's caravels visited the islands, received the submission of the chiefs Bruco and Piste in Gomera (who had already experienced the Infant's hospitality and become his "grateful servitors"), and made slave-raids upon the islanders of Palma. Alvaro Gonçalvez de Atayde, João de Castilha, Alvaro Dornellas, Affonso Marta, and the page Diego Gonçalvez, with many others,took part in this descent, which did not altogether spare the friendly Gomerans, and brought on the perpetrators the severe rebuke of Prince Henry.
In 1446, however, he followed up thereconnaissanceof 1445 by another attempt at complete conquest, which also seems to have ended in failure, though the account that remains is very inadequate; perhaps in the future it may be supplemented from the disinterred treasures of Spanish documentary collections. We only know that Henry obtained, in 1446, from the Regent D. Pedro a charter, giving him the exclusive right to sanction or forbid all Portuguese voyages to the Canaries; that in 1447 he conferred the captaincy of Lançarote on Antam Gonçalvez,[200]and that Gonçalvez sailed to establish himself there. So far, according to Azurara; Barros and the Spanish historians would ante-date all these measures of 1446-7 by several years. In 1455 Cadamosto, sailing in the Portuguese service, visited and described the islands, and in 1466 Henry's heir, D. Fernando, made one more attempt to reclaim the Canaries for Portugal. It failed, and in 1479 the islands were finally adjudged to Spain, or the now united monarchy of Castille and Aragon.
* * * * *
Fourthly, in the Madeira group, colonisation made progress during the Infant's lifetime. After the discoveries of 1418-20,[201]Madeira itself was divided upunder the feudal lordship of John Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz Teixeira; the former receiving the captaincy of the northern half with Machico for his chief settlement; the latter obtaining the southern portion, with Funchal as capital, and the Desertas as an annexe. From the language of the Infant's Charter[202]of September 18th, 1460, this settlement appears to have taken place in 1425, when the Prince was 35 years old.
According to Gaspar Fructuoso, Zarco, in clearing a path through the forests of Madeira, set the woodland on fire, and seven years elapsed before the last traces of the conflagration were extinguished. The seven years is, no doubt, an extra touch; but a fire of tremendous severity must have taken place, from Cadamosto's account.[203]The whole island, he declares, had once been in flames; the colonists only saved their lives by plunging into the torrents; and Zarco himself had to stand in a river-bed for two whole days and nights, with all his family. Yet, accordingto Azurara, so much wood was soon exported from the island to Portugal, that a change was produced in the housebuilding of Spain: loftier dwellings were built; and the Roman or Arab style was superseded by one originating in the new discoveries among the Atlantic Islands. Almost all Portugal, Cadamosto tells us in 1455, was now adorned with tables[204]and other furniture made from the wood of Madeira.
In the settlement of Porto Santo, Bartholemew Perestrello, a gentleman of the household of Prince Henry's brother, the Infant John, took part[205]with Zarco and Vaz. Perestrello imported rabbits, which destroyed all the colonists' experiments in crops and vegetable planting; but receiving the captaincy of the island, he made some profit from breeding goats and exporting dragon's blood. His grant of Porto Santo, originally for his lifetime only, was extended by decree of November 1st, 1446, to a donation in perpetuity for himself and his descendants. On the death of Bartholemew, Prince Henry bestowed the captaincy on his son-in-law, Pedro Correa da Cunha, in trust for the first Governor's son Bartholemew, who was still a minor. Da Cunha later contracted with young Bartholemew's mother and uncle—the widow and brother of the first grantee—for a sum of money in return for a cession of his interim rights; andPrince Henry authorised this contract by a decree from Lagos (May 17th, 1458), confirmed by King Affonso V at Cintra (August 17th, 1459).
Young Bartholemew entered into his governorship in 1473, and it was formally confirmed to him (15th March, 1473) by Affonso V. It was his sister, a daughter of the elder Bartholemew, named Felipa Moñiz de Perestrello, whom Christopher Columbus married in Lisbon; after which he lived for some time in Porto Santo, enjoying the use of Perestrello's papers, maps, and instruments.
Before many years had passed, Madeira became famous for its corn and honey, its sugar cane,[206]and, above all, its wine. The Malvoisie[207]grape, introduced from Crete, throve excellently, and at last produced the Madeira of commerce. When Cadamosto visited the island, in 1455, he found vine culture already advanced, and become the staple industry of the colonists, who exported red and white wine annually to Europe, and found a market for the vine staves as bows.
As early as 1430[208]the Infant issued a charter, regulating the settlement of Madeira; herein Ayres Ferreira (whose children, "Adam and Eve," were the first Europeans born in the island) is mentioned as a companion of Zarco. An early tradition, which has not yet been substantiated, also maintained thatPrince Henry instituted family registers for his colonists in this group.[209]In 1433 (September 26th), King Duarte, in a charter from Cintra, granted the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas to the Infant Henry; and in 1434 (October 26th), the spiritualities of the same were bestowed on the Order of Christ.[210]In December, 1452, a contract was made at Albufeira between the Infant D. Henry and Diego de Teive, one of his "esquires," for the construction of a water-mill to aid in the manufacture of cane-sugar,[211]the third part of the produce to go to the Prince. Finally, in 1455, on Cadamosto's visit, the island possessed four settlements and 800 inhabitants, and this prosperity seems to have steadily continued. The charter of 1460[212]has been already noticed.
From the work of the Portuguese among the Atlantic Islands arises one question of specialinterest. Did this westward enterprise of Prince Henry's seamen, which undoubtedly carried them in the Azores and Cape Verdes a great distance (from 20 to 22 degrees) westward of Portugal, lead them on further to a discovery of any part of the American mainland?
On the strength of an enigmatical inscription in the 1448 Map of Andrea Bianco, such a discovery of the north-east corner of Brazil in or before this year has been suggested;[213]but this, it must be admitted,is quite lacking in demonstrative evidence, however possible in itself. Yet once more, the "accidental" discovery of this same Land of the Holy Cross by Cabral in 1500 has been urged to much the same effect. For, if really accidental, a similar event might well have happened in earlier years—especially from the time of the Azores settlement of 1432, etc.; or if not accidental, it was based on information obtained from older navigators, who reached the same country.[214]Such older navigators towards the west were said to have been Diego de Teive and Pedro Velasco, who in 1452 claimed to have sailed more than 150 leagues west of Fayal; Gonçalo Fernandez de Tavira, who in 1462 sailed (in one tradition) W.N.W. of Madeira and the Canaries; Ruy Gonçalvez de Camara, who in 1473 tried to discover land west of the Cape Verdes; with a certain number of later instances. Some weight has also been attached to a statementof Las Casas, that on his third voyage, in 1498, Columbus planned a southern journey from the Cape Verde Islands in search of lands—especially because, proceeds Las Casas, "he wished to see what was the meaning of King John of Portugal, when he said there wasterra firmato the South. Some of the ... inhabitants of ... Santiago came to ... him,[215]and said that to the South-West of the Isle of Fogo[216]an island was seen, and that King John wished to make discoveries towards the South-West, and that canoes had been known to go from the Guinea coast to the West with merchandise."
Further, Antonio Galvano, after speaking of a voyage which took place in 1447, goes on to mention another (undated, but probably conceived by the author as falling within a year or two of the last) in these terms. "It is moreover told that in the meantime a Portuguese ship, coming out of the Straits of Gibraltar, was carried westwards by a storm much further than was intended, and arrived at an island where there were seven cities, and people who spoke our language." This, however, is too much like an echo of the old Spanish tale of the Seven Bishops and their cities in the Island of "Antillia."
In the same connection a number of still looser and more doubtful assertions exist in Portuguese archives and chronicles. Thus, in 1457, the Infant D. Fernando, as heir of Prince Henry, plannedAtlantic explorations; in 1484 and 1486 similar designs were entertained—possibly on the strength of Columbus' recent suggestions, which are known to have directly occasioned one unsuccessful venture at this time; and in 1473 João Vaz da Costa Cortereal was reported, by a now-exploded legend, to have actually discovered Newfoundland.
[180]See Major,Prince Henry, pp. 238-245 (Ed. of 1868), mainly based upon Father Cordeiro'sHistoria Insulana, 1717.
[181]Azurara (Chronicle of Guinea, c. lxxxiii.) says that the Regent, D. Pedro, having a special devotion to this saint, and being much interested in the re-discovery of the Azores, caused this name to be given. Prince Henry afterwards granted the Order of Christ the tithes of St. Michael, and one-half of the sugar revenues.
[182]"Azores" in Portuguese.
[183]"Western Islands," etc.
[184]"The Third," apparently in order after—1. St. Mary (reckoned with the Formigas); 2. St. Michael. Its arms were the Saviour on the Cross, and it was probably sighted by the Portuguese on some festival of the Redeemer.
[185]"De Vlaemsche Eylanden." So on Amsterdam maps of 1612 (Waghenaer); 1627 (Blaeuw'sZeespiegel) and others, such as the Atlas Major Blaviana, ix, Amsterdam, 1662, p. 104.
[186]I.e., Josua van der Berge. In 1449, according to Galvano and Barros (1, ii, 1), King Affonso V formally sanctioned the colonisation of the Azores.
[187]"Da Silveira" in Portuguese.
[188]"Joz de Utra" in Portuguese.
[189]Several documents exist relating to the Government, etc., of the Azores during Prince Henry's life; for instance:—(1) A royal charter of July 2, 1439, dealing with colonisation. (2) A similar charter of April 5, 1443, exempting the colonists from tithe and customs. (3) A similar charter of April 20, 1447, establishing the same exemption for the island of St. Michael, granted to the Infant D. Pedro. (4) A similar charter of March, 1449, to the Infant D. Henry, licensing him to people the Seven Islands of the Azores. (5) A similar charter of January 20, 1453, granting the Island of Corvo to the Duke of Braganza. (6) A donation of September 2, 1460, from the Infant D. Henry to his adopted son, the Infant Dom Fernando, of the Isles of Jesus Christ and Graciosa. [To which may be added: A royal charter of December 3, 1460, transferring to the Infant D. Fernando, Duke of Viseu, the grant of the Archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores, vacant by the death of D. Henry.] SeeArchivo dos Açores, i, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11; Martins,Os Filhos do D. João, pp. 261-2 (where the date of Gonçalo Velho Cabral's discovery of the Formigas is given as 1435);Documentsin Torre do Tombo, Gaveta 15, Maço 16, No. 5, of September 16, 1571.
[190]"Da Silveira." See above, p. lxxxix.
[191]E.g.By Major,Prince Henry, 1868, p. 286-8, based on Lopes de Lima'sEnsaios sobre a Statistica das Possessoẽs portuguezas, Lisbon, 1844; see Zurla'sDissertazioneof 1815.
[192]"Iles d'Afrique"....
[193]On the strength of Temporal's text in theHistoire de l'Afrique,... Lyons, 1556, by H. Y. Oldham,Discovery of Cape Verde Islands(paper of 15 pages; see especially 9-12).
[194]SeeIndice cronologico das Navigacoẽs ... dos Portuguezes, Lisbon, 1841; Oldham,op. cit., pp. 12-13.
[195]The Benincasa of 1463.
[196]"E la nocte sequente ne a fazo un temporal de garbin cum vento fortevole, diche per non tornar in driedo tegnessemo la volta di ponente e maistro salvo el vero per riparar e costizar el tempo doe nocte e III zorni." Oldham,loc. cit.11.
[197]Oldham adds: "Ifnocte sequentemeans, as it would seem, the night of the day following that on which Cape Blanco was passed, the ships would have had time to reach a point from which a West or West-south-west course would lead to Bonavista. Moreover, the Latin text gives the wind as South."
[198]See Astley'sVoyages and Travels, vol. i, Book iv, ch. 6.
[199]Al.1443. See Azurara,Guinea, chs. lxviii-lxix.
[200]Presumably the same man who "brought home the first captives from Guinea" in 1441. Cf. Azurara,Guinea, ch. xcv.
[201]Cadamosto's statement that Porto Santo had been found 27 years before his first voyage, has caused some to date this journey 1445, instead of 1455, reckoning from Zarco's discovery of 1418, and has led others to post-date Zarco's discovery by ten years; but the numberxxvis no doubt a slip forxxxv. This is a very common form of error at this period. Thus, in the "Cabot" Map of 1544, the year of the original Cabotian discovery of North America is given asmccccxciiii, instead ofmccccxcvii, by a (probable) malformation of the V, or simple inattention of the draughtsman. Also, in Grynaeus we havemcccccivformccccliv.
[202]Endowing the Order of Christ with the Spiritualities of these islands.
[203]On his visit in 1455.
[204]It has been also suggested, that the wooden crosses set up by Henry's orders in new-discovered lands were from the material thus provided.
[205]He accompanied Zarco in the second voyage of 1420.
[206]Introduced from Sicily.
[207]"Malmsey," or "Malvasie," from Monemvasia or Malvasia in the Morea, the original seat of its culture.
[208]See Cordeiro,Historia Insulana, Bk.iii, ch.xv.
[209]The late Count de Rilvascommunicatedthis fact to Mr. R. H. Major.
[210]Documentos ... do Torre do Tombo, p. 2.
[211]See Gaspar Fructuoso,Saudades da terra, ed. Azevedo (1873), pp. 65, 113, 665; Martins,Os Filhos de D. João, pp. 80 andn.1, 258 andn.2.
[212]This was issued on September 18th, 1460, bestowing the ecclesiastical revenues of Porto Santo and Madeira on the Order of Christ, the temporalities on King Affonso V. and his successors. It must be taken in connection with the Charters of June 7th, 1454, December 28th, 1458, and September 15th, 1448, all relating to the trade of Guinea, and the first two conferring special privileges on the Order of Christ, or revising such privileges already granted; see theCollectionof Pedro Alvarez, Partiii, fols. 17-18; Major,Prince Henry, 303.
[213]The inscription apparently runs "Isola Otinticha xe longa a ponente 1500 mia;" which has been translated—(1) "Genuine island distant 1,500 miles to the west." (2) "Genuine island, 1,500 miles long to the west." (3) "Genuine island extends 1,500 miles to the west." Also, reading ... a [= e] la sola otinticha. (4) "Is the only genuine ..." (The first line being altogether separate in sense from what follows—"xe longa," etc.) Once more, supplying "questa carta," (5) "This map is the only genuine one," leaving the second line unintelligible. (6) "Genuine island, stretching 1,500 miles westwards, ten miles broad." And lastly, reading Antillia for Otinticha, (7) "Island of Antillia," etc. (This would explain the difficulty of the Antillia Isle being otherwise absent from the 1448 Bianco.) See Desimoni, inAtti della Società ligure di Storia patria, 1864, vol. iii, p. cxiv; Canale, inStoria del Commercio degl'Italiani, 1866, p. 455; Fischer,Sammlung ... Welt- und See-Karten italienischen Ursprungs, Venice, 1886, p. 209;Proceedings R. G. S., London, March 1895, pp. 221-240. Whatever the explanation, it must be remembered that this Map and Inscription were never produced by Portugal as evidence of a Pre-Columbian discovery, either in 1492-3, or later, in formal negotiations with Spain—as at Badajoz in 1524. It is possible that the delineation and legend in question were added by a later hand; and it is probable that, if really inserted by Bianco himself, the reference is to one of the legendary Atlantic Islands under a new form. It cannot well be identified with that stated by Galvano to have been discovered about 1447, for the latter was reached by a course of 1,500 miles due west from the Straits of Gibraltar, which would bring us to the Azores. The coast line of the "Genuine Island" is, moreover, quite inconsistent with the north-east shore-land of South America.
[214]The most singular point in this controversy is that the pilots of Cabral's fleet professed to recognise the new land as the same they had seen marked on an old map existing in Portugal. This is stated by one John, "Bachelor in Arts and Medicine, and Physician and Cosmographer to King Emanuel." He accompanied the expedition of 1500, and declared that the country where Cabral landed was identical with a tract marked upon a Mappemonde belonging to Pero Vaz Bisagudo, a Portuguese.
[215]Columbus.
[216]In the Cape Verdes.
The "School of Sagres," etc.
Few things in connection with the life of Henry the Navigator are more interesting than the tradition of his educational and intellectual work, especially for the furtherance of geography, in the alleged School of Sagres and other supposed foundations or benefactions. Unfortunately, this tradition is not as clearly established as it might be, and it has been made more difficult by constant exaggeration. Not content with asserting that the Infant aimed at drawing the commerce of Cadiz and Ceuta—without reckoning other ports—to his town at Sagres, some have indulged in pictures of a geographical university established by the Prince upon this headland—pictures which are quite beyond any known means of verification. These flourishes, however, need not cause one to run into another extreme, and deny that Sagres became, during the latter part of Henry's life, especially from 1438 to his death, the centre of the exploring movement and the scientific study which the Infant inspired. At Sagres,[217]according towhat may be called the older view—which, resting mainly upon Barros, is adopted by Major, de Veer, Wauwermans, and even Martins—Prince Henry usually resided, not merely during the last years of his life, or after his return from the Tangier expedition of 1437, but from the time of his reappearance in Portugal after the relief of Ceuta in 1418. At first, however (1418-1438) it was called Tercena[218]Nabal, or Naval Arsenal, after it emerged from the stage of a little harbour of refuge for passing ships; and only afterwards did it become (from 1438 onwards) the Villa do Iffante, "my town," from which some of Prince Henry's charters are dated. Shortly before the completion of Azurara's chronicle, according to this view, the town was fortified with strong walls and enlarged by the building of new houses.[219]In this settlement (within the narrow space of some 100 acres), there were said to have been, besides the Infant's own Court or palace, a church, a chapel,[220]a study, and an observatory (the earliest in Portugal), together with an arsenal, a dockyard, and a fort. Here cartography and astronomical geography were diligently studied, and practical mariners were equipped for their work.
Two original statements of Portuguese authors have been often quoted to support this tradition. The first comes from John de Barros, the Livy of Portugal (a.d.1496-1570). "In his wish to gain a prosperous result from his efforts, the Prince devoted great industry and thought to the matter, and at great expense procured the aid of one Master Jacome[221]from Majorca, a man skilled in the art of navigation and in the making of maps and instruments, who was sent for, with certain of the Arab and Jewish mathematicians, to instruct the Portuguese officers in that science." Secondly, we have the statement of the mathematician Pedro Nuñes, that the Infant's mariners were "well taught and provided with instruments and rules of astrology and geometry which all map-makers should know."[222]On the otherhand, it has been contended that there is no satisfactory evidence of the Infant's town having ever been finished, or of the Prince ever having lived there continuously, except during the last years of his life; and that our best authorities do not warrant us in believing that the settlement was even begun before the Tangier expedition. Henry's earlier charters are, with one exception, dated from other places, and his residence before 1438 seems to have been usually at Lisbon, Lagos, or Reposeira. Further, we have no right to speak of the "School," or "University," or "Academy" of Sagres; there may have been both teachers and learners, but there was nothing of an "institution for instruction" in the Prince's establishment.
Such is the minimising view; and most, in face of this sharp divergence, will agree with Baron Nordenskjöld that a really critical study of the subject, especially from a local antiquarian, is desirable. Very plausibly does Nordenskjöld himself sum up the probabilities of the case when he concludes that "a small school of navigation, important for the period in question, has probably received from laudatory biographers the name of an 'Academy.'"[223]The Swedish geographer, however, adds from his ownspecial researches some important observations. He believes that in the La Cosa map of 1500[224]we have work which was based upon the observations of the Infant's captains, who, as shown in these results, were evidently able to keep reliable reckoning and take fairly correct altitudes. "Further, the extension of the normal or typical portolano along the West coast of Africa, as on the portolanos of Benincasa and others of the latter part of the fifteenth century, is shown by the legends of the same to have been based on observations made during the marine expeditions of Prince Henry."
No charts or other productions of the "Sagres School," in any definite sense of this term, no geographical or astronomical works emanating from the "Court" of the Infant, are now extant. But it may reasonably be inferred from passages in Azurara'sChronicle of Guineathat such charts were not only draughted under the Prince's orders, but used by his sailors;[225]Cadamosto tells us of the chart he kept on his voyage of 1455, probably by direction of the Infant; while it is probably true that the "extension of the portolanos beyond Cape Bojador, in Benincasa,[226]for instance, as well as in Fra Mauro's work of 1457-9,depended on information given by native and foreign skippers" sent out by Henry. Of course, it is obvious, in the light of present knowledge, that neither he nor his school in any sense invented the portolano type; although the mention of Master Jacome of Majorca reminds us of one of the earliest centres of the new scientific cartography[227](which was probably first made effective by Catalan skippers and draughtsmen), and suggests that the Infant was in touch with the best map-science of the time. "Neither is it correct to say that he introduced hydrographic plane charts or map graduation in accordance with geographical co-ordinates."
But his life was almost certainly not without direct influence in the improvement of cartography, and the extension of the scientific type of map beyond its fourteenth-century limits—an improvement which we see in the great map of Fra Mauro executed shortly before the Infant's death. Also, he made his nation take a real interest in geographical discovery, broke down their superstitious fear of ocean sailing, and made a beginning in the circumnavigation of Africa. He altered the conditions of maritime exploration by giving permanence, organisation, and governmental support to a movement which had up to this time proved disappointing for lack of these very means. And he certainly improved the art of shipbuilding, whichCadamosto remarks upon as having rendered the caravels of Portugal the best sailing ships afloat.
As to the build of these caravels we are fortunately not without data. Cadamosto, indeed, though he describes them as the best sailing ships at sea in his time, does not give any details; but from other sources[228]it is possible to form some idea of their peculiar features. They were usually 20-30 metres long, 6-8 metres in breadth; were equipped with three masts, without rigging-tops, or yards; and had lateen sails stretched upon long oblique poles, hanging suspended from the masthead. These "winged arms," when their triangular sails were once spread, grazed the gunwale of the caravel, the points bending in the air according to the direction of the wind. They usually ran with all their sail, turning by means of it, and sailing straight upon a bow-line, driving before the wind.When they wished to change their course, it was enough to trim the sails.
It was with this type of vessel that the Madeira and Canary groups were "gained from the secrets of the Ocean;" that the Azores, at a distance of twenty-two degrees west of Portugal, and in the heart of the Atlantic, were discovered and colonised; and that open sea navigation of almost equal boldness was successfully employed in the finding and settlement of the Cape Verdes. Before the end of the year 1446, according to Azurara's estimate, the Infant had sent out fifty-one of these ships along the mainland coast of Africa, and they had passed 450 leagues[229]beyond Cape Bojador, which before the Prince's time was the furthest point "clearly known on the coast of the Great Sea." Also, the work of the "School of Sagres" may perhaps be recognised in Azurara's further claim that "what had before been laid down on the Mappemonde was not certain, but only by guesswork," whereas now it was "all from the survey by the eyes of our seamen," and that "all this coast towards the South with many points our prince commanded to add to the sailing chart."
It has been noticed that D. Pedro, according to the Portuguese tradition, presented Henry with a copy of Marco Polo's travels, and a map of the same, either drawn by the explorer himself or by one who knew his works, and belonged to his owncity. Thereby, we are told, the work of the Infant was much furthered, and Galvano suggests that the same was extant in 1528, and that it contained many wonderful anticipations of later discoveries.[230]
It has also been surmised, without any certain evidence,[231]that D. Pedro presented his brother with various maps of Gabriel Valsecca,[232]and with the writings of Georg Purbach, the instructor of Regiomontanus. Much more certain and interesting is the allusion to the Infant's collection of old maps in the history of the discovery of St. Michael (1443-4) in the Azores. A runaway slave, having escaped to the highest peak in the Isle of St. Maria,sighted a distant land, and returned to his master to gain pardon with this news. Prince Henry was informed of this, consulted his ancient charts, and found them confirm the slave's discovery. So he sent out Gonçalo Velho Cabral to seek for the same. Cabral failed; but on his returning to the Prince, the latter showed him from the ancient maps how he had only missed it by a slight error of direction. On his second trial the explorer was successful, and reached St. Michael on May 8, 1444.
* * * * *
Prince Henry's connection with the Coimbra-Lisbon University (founded by King Dinis in 1300) opens another side of the same question. We have already mentioned the tradition that in 1431 the Infant provided new quarters in the parish of St. Thomas, in Lisbon, for the teachers and students, and afterwards established Chairs of Theology and Mathematics. This has been called by some a "Reform of Ancient Schools" under his influence and direction;[233]and recent enquiry[234]has endeavoured to prove that the Protector of Portuguese Studies was also the founder (in 1431) of a Chair of Medicine, and the donor of a room or lecture-hall in which was painted by his order a picture of Galen. In 1448 the Infant subsidised the Chair of Theology by a grant of twelve marks ofsilver annually from the revenues of Madeira.[235]It is perhaps noteworthy that the Prince does not appear to have founded any lectureship, or made any benefaction to promote directly the study of geography, though ancient texts bearing on this subject were now beginning to attract considerable attention. It may be open to question how far a university would then have welcomed an instructor in practical navigation or draughtsmanship; but students would have probably listened to lectures upon Ptolemy, or Strabo, or other classical geographers, and thereby a great impetus might have been given to the new exploring spirit. Thus in general we may fairly conclude that, so far as the Portuguese seamen of the next generation, Bartholemew Diaz, Da Gama, Cão, and others, "received their training from the Infant's School," it was usually through a rougher and more practical tradition than that of a class-room—by means of older mariners who had served in the Prince's ships rather than by university lecturers whom he had appointed.
[217]See Azurara,Guinea, iv; Barros,Asia, Decade I, i, 16.
[218]From the VenetianDarcena; see Goes,Chron. do pr. D. João IV; O. Martins,Filhos de D. João I, p. 75.
[219]It retained its importance till the Prince's death, when it gradually declined; it was sacked by Drake in 1597; and ruined by earthquakes. Finally it became again as deserted as before the Infant's time. Ferdinand Denis believed that before the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 there were traces of a much earlier habitation of the Sagres Promontory, including buildings (Moorish?) at least as old as the XIth century. The headland measures only one kilometre in circuit, half a kilometre in its extreme length.
[220]Prince Henry's will refers to the Church of St. Catherine, and the Chapel of St. Mary; see theMS. Collectionof Pedro Alvarez, iii; Martins,Os Filhos de D. João, p. 74. The observatory was not on Sagres Cape proper, but "un peu en avant quand on vient de l'Ouest" (V. St. Martin).
[221]Jacob or James, who, according to one tradition, came to the Infant's "Court" shortly after the disaster of Tangier, in or about 1438. To this name the Viscount de Juromenha in his notes to Rackzynski,Les Arts en Portugal, 205, adds that of Master Peter, the cartographic artist of the Infant, who illuminated his maps in colours and adorned them with legends and pictures. The existence of this Peter rests upon a document at Batalha discovered by Juromenha. See also O. Martins,Filhos de D. João I, p. 73.
[222]Wauwermans,Henri le Navigateur et l'Academie Portugaise de Sagres, gives little or no help towards the controverted question which he assumes as settled in his title. It is a general essay on the course of fifteenth-century exploration; its most useful portions are devoted to tracing the connections between geographical study in Portugal and the Netherlands.
[223]Nordenskjöld,Periplus, 121 A.
[224]Plates xliii and xliv of Nordenskjöld'sPeriplus.
[225]See Azurara,Guinea, ch. lxxviii; Nordenskjöld,Periplus, 121; Santarem,Essai sur Cosmographie, vol. iii, p. lix. Affonso Cerveira, Azurara's predecessor, was probably not a "pupil" of the "Sagres School," as some have supposed.
[226]Especially in his works of 1467-8 and 1471.
[227]In the Balearic isles. See pp. cxvii-cxix of this Introduction.
[228]See Osorio,Vida e feitos d'el rei D. Manoel, i, p. 193; O. Martins,Os Filhos de D. João I, p. 75; Candido Correa,Official Catalogue of the Naval Exposition of 1888 in Portugal, where was exhibited a facsimile of an old caravel; see also the plans in D. Pacheco Pereira'sEsmeraldo, and the article in theRevista Portuguesa Colonial, May 20th, 1898, pp. 32-52. In the last-named study, which is specially worthy of notice, we have a detailed account of (1) theBarca, (2) theBarinel, (3) theCaravel, (4) theNau, which are classed asnavios dos descobrimentos, followed by thenavios dos conquistas, viz., (5) theFusta, (6) theCatur, (7) theAlmadia de Cathuri, (8) theGalé, (9) theGaliota, (10) theBrigantim, (11) theGaleaça, (12) theTaforea, (13) theGaleão, (14) theCarraca. Illustrations of Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 13 are added.
[229]Azurara,Guinea, ch. lxxviii.
[230]"... Venice ... whence he [Pedro] brought a map which had all the circuit of the world described. The Strait of Magellan was called the Dragon's Tail; and there were also the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of Africa.... Francisco de Sousa Tavarez told me that in the year 1528, the Infant D. Fernando showed him a map which had been found in the Cartorio of Alcobaça, which had been made more than 120 years before, the which contained all the navigation of India with the Cape of Good Hope."—Galvano,Discovery of World, sub ann.1428.
[231]But see Gaspar Fructuoso,Saudades da terra(ed. Azevedo, 1873), bk. ii, p. 9; Cordeiro,Historia Insulana, ii, p. 2; Santos,Memoria sobre dois antigos mappas, etc., inMem. de Litt. da Academia, viii, pp. 275-301; O. Martins,Os Filhos de D. João I, p. 72.
[232]One of which (a.d.1434-1439) is our authority for the earliest known Portuguese voyage to any part of the Azores; viz., that of Diego de Sevill in 1427 (a date hypothetically converted by Major into 1432). This map of Valsecca's only gives St. Mary and the Formigas as known in 1439; see pp. cxxxi, cxxxiv of this Introduction.
[233]See O. Martins,Filhos de D. João I, pp. 63-4.
[234]Cf. Max. Lemos,A medicina em Portugal, 1881.
[235]J. S. Ribeiro,Historia dos estabel. scientific, litt. e art. de Portugal, i, p. 31.
Maps and Scientific Geography up to and during Prince Henry's Life.
Ancient maps were not without high merits in certain cases, and a little after Prince Henry's time the Renaissance editions of Ptolemy played a very important part in geographical history. But in the first part of the fifteenth century neither the work of the Alexandrian astronomer and cartographer, nor the ancient road maps of the Roman Empire and surrounding lands[236]seem to have been sufficiently known for the exercise of much influence in the progress of discovery or of geographical knowledge. The same result follows, for different reasons, in the case of almost all the earlier mediæval maps and charts,[237]which are quite unscientific in character, and often rather picture books of natural history legends than delineations of the world.
Strictly scientific map-making begins with the Mediterranean portolani. The earliest existing specimen of these is of about 1300, but the type then formed[238]must have been for some time in process of elaboration; and it is even probablethat a fully-developed example from the middle of the thirteenth century may yet be discovered.
"A sea-chart—probably a portolano—is mentioned as early as the account of the Crusade of St. Louis, in 1270."[239]So in Raymond Lulli'sArbor Scientiæ, written about 1300, we have reference to compass, chart and needle, as necessary for sailors.[240]Once again, it is probable that Andrea Bianco's planisphere of 1436[241]is only a re-edition of a thirteenth-century work, when the "Normal Portolano" was just in process of making, but had not reached even the comparative perfection of the Carte Pisane, Carignano, or Vesconte examples.
The earliest dated portolan is that of 1311, by Petrus Vesconte; and from this time the maps of this class, whose central feature is an accurate Mediterranean coast-line, increase rapidly, being indeed all reproductions of one type,[242]occasionallyintroducing additions or corrections, especially in outlying parts, but not often varying much from one another in the central portions. The type is reasonably believed by some[243]to have originated among the Catalans, either of Spain, France, or the Balearic Isles, well within the thirteenth century.[244]In connection with this, we may recall the point mentioned by Barros, that Prince Henry the Navigator obtained the services of Master Jacome, or James, from Majorca to instruct the Portuguese captains in navigation, map-making, and the proper handling of nautical instruments.
These plans of practical seamen are a striking contrast, in their often modern accuracy, to the results of the literary or theological geography portrayed in such works as those of the "Beatus School," or of Robert of Haldingham.[245]Map surveys ofthis kind were apparently unknown to the ancient world. The oldPeripliwere sailing directions, not drawn but written; and the only Arabic portolan known to exist was copied from an Italian example. Long after the Italian leadership in exploration and commerce had begun to pass away, Italian science kept control of cartographical work; thus, among the early portolani, not only the majority—413 out of 498—but the most valuable, were executed by the countrymen of Carignano and Vesconte.
This department of geographical history is only just beginning to be appreciated at its full value—as marking the vital transition from ancient to modern, from empirical to scientific—but this need not surprise us much. The portolani, as has been well said, never had for their object to provide a popular or fashionable amusement; they were not drawn to illustrate the works of classical authors or learned prelates; still less did they illustrate the legends and dreams of chivalry and historical romance; they were seldom drawn by learned men; and small enough in return was the acknowledgment which the learned but too often made them, when the great geographical compilers of the Renaissance and Reformation times incorporated the earlier coast-charts in grander and more ambitious works.
Unquestionably, however, it is in maps of the portolano type that we must look for Prince Henry's primary geographical teachers, though the influence of books—and even of the older theoretical designs in cartography—must not be forgotten. Therefore,to understand his position—to realise what he had to draw from—we must briefly describe the chief designs which it was possible for him to consult for his scientific purposes, for his Ptolemaic ambition,διοθῶσαι τὸν ἀρχαῖον πίνακα.
(1) The "Carte Pisane" of the latest thirteenth or earliest fourteenth century is probably only a copy of an earlier work, though now itself our earliest example of the portolano type. The Mediterranean on this example (as well as the Black Sea, where it has survived injury) shows the new scientific or surveying method, but the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France, and still more the shore-lines of Britain, are of a different and inferior character. This alone points to an earlier date than,e.g., the works of Vesconte and Dulcert. In West Africa only a part of the Maroccan coast now remains.
(2) The Map of Giovanni di Carignano,[246]ofc.1300?-1310, though much damaged, shows the Black Sea and Britain with contours differing somewhat from the ordinary portolan; and the same is noticeable in the Baltic. The West African coast does not extend to Cape Non. Another work by Carignano, ofc.1306, "specially referring to Central Asia," is said to exist, but its present position is unknown.
(3) A portolan of the early fourteenth(?) century, belonging to Professor Tammar Luxoro, of Genoa,in 1882, and usually called after him, is believed by Nordenskjöld to be a "slightly altered copy of the normal portolano in its original form." In N.W. Africa it only gives us the shore-line as far as Sallé, with a series of names, beginning at Arzilla.[247]
(4) Marino Sanudo the Elder, to his work,Liber Secretorum fidelium Crucis, written between 1306 and 1321, added an atlas of ten maps. Among these,i-vform an ordinary portolano, corresponding especially with Vesconte's work,[248]but giving us no special information upon Africa; while No.viis the famous map of the world often reproduced. Here a thoroughly conventional Africa is laid down, of the "Strabonian" or "Macrobian" type: its length, from east to west, traversed by the Negro Nile from near the Mountains of the Moon to the Atlantic, is equal to fully twice the breadth from north to south. The deep inlet in the West African coast penetrating east to a "RegioviiMontium" immediately south of the Negro Nile, is a prototype of the similar feature in Fra Mauro, and is perhaps only an exaggeration of the Sinus Hesperius of Ptolemy. This map was probably known to Prince Henry, like the book it accompanied, which contained many important particulars of fourteenth-century trade and navigation. The Mappemonde is a compromise between, or combination of, the portolano andthe Mediæval theoretical map, and is quite a landmark in the history of cartography.
(5) Pietro Vesconte of Genoa has left three or four works executed between 1311 and 1321, and still extant, viz.: (α) Of 1311, which lacks the Western Mediterranean and West Africa, what remains giving us a "normal portolano" of the Levant and Black Sea. (β) Of 1318, depicting the entire Mediterranean, etc., with the Atlantic, North Sea coasts of Europe (in ten plates), and West Africa as far as "Mogador." (γ) Of 1318 (in six maps), which for our purposes need not be discriminated from (β); and lastly (δ) Of 1320, a map of the world, with plans of cities, a special chart of Palestine, etc. The Mappemonde, which principally concerns us here, is extremely like Sanudo's, and is perhaps the work of the same artist—Vesconte himself. Another work, of 1321, by Vesconte, is mentioned in Santarem,[249]but its whereabouts is now unknown.
Once more a work of 1327, signed "Perrinus Vesconte fecit ...mcccxxviiin Veneciis" is conjectured to be only another "normal-portolan" byPietroVesconte.
(6) Angelino Dulcert, a Catalan, composed in August 1339, in Majorca ("in civitate Majoricarum") a portolan of great merit. Dulcert's Baltic somewhat resembles Carignano's, but with more numerous legends. A star ("the Star in the East") placed by this draughtsman south of theCaspian is copied, or at least paralleled, in the Atlas Catalan of 1375 (No. 9, p. cxxvi), in the Andrea Bianco of 1436, and in the Borgian map of 1430-50, as well as in the Anonymous Catalan planisphere hereafter noticed (No. 14, p. cxxviii). Dulcert's Africa probably served in some respects as a prototype for the Catalan Atlas of 1375, and Prince Henry may have studied the Continent in one or other of these delineations, which are among the most complete pictures of the Sahara coasts and Sudan interior coming down from any period before that of his voyages. Some of the Canaries are marked in about their right position, with Lançarote showing the Cross of Genoa, and Fuerteventura to the south, while almost in the latitude of Ceuta appear "Canaria," St. Brandan's Isle, etc. On the mainland a long stretch of shore-line is given beyond Cape Non or Nun, but it is drawn very conventionally in a S.S.E. direction, with seven names,[250]or titles, and an inscription of two lines, the whole seeming to show pretty clearly that the draughtsman knew nothing at first hand of the coast between Non and Boyador, but was led to conjecture a continuation of the Desert Littoral. In the Interior, the Atlas range, the large seated figure of a king with sceptre, and most of the towns depicted on eminences, reappear with slight alterations in the Atlas Catalan; which, however, adds many details.
(7) Next comes the most famous, and perhaps in some respects the most advanced, specimen of the early portolani: that usually quoted as the Medicean or Laurentian Portolan of 1351 ("Atlante Mediceo," or "Portolano Laurenziano-Gaddiano"). The author was anonymous, but almost certainly a Genoese, and his work consists of eight plates, or tables. The second of these is the Mappemonde, which is the only one that need be noticed here. The Africa of this map, taken as a whole, is drawn with a nearer approach to general correctness than on any chart anterior to the voyage of B. Diaz in 1486;[251]both the Guinea coast to the Camaroons, and the southern projection of the Continent, are extraordinarily well conceived for the time. No details or names are inserted on the W. African mainland shore beyond Cape Bojador and the River of Gold—"Palolus."[252]In this it is similar to the Pizigani map of 1367.[253]
(8) Francisco Pizigano, of Venice, 1367-1373, aided by his brother Marco, executed two famous works still extant: (α) In 1367, a large chart comprising a good deal beyond the normal portolano's Mediterranean and Black Sea;—e.g., part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Baltic, the Caspian, etc.It is signed, "mccclxvii, Hoc opus compoxuid Franciscus Pizigano Veneciar et domnus In Venexia meffecit Marcus die xii Decembris." (β) In 1373, a normal portolano, signed "mccclxxiiia die viii de zugno Francischo Pisigany Venician in Venexia me fecit." The N.W. Africa of these two maps shows no advance on the Laurentian Portolano.
(9) The Atlas Catalan of 1375 is said to have been executed for Charles V of France, in whose library it was entered with the title, "Une quarte de mer en tableaux faicte par manière de unes tables, painte et histoirée, figurée et escripte, et fermant a quatre fermoners de cuivre." It is in six plates, the last four of which compose a mappemonde—"the most comprehensive cartographic work of the fourteenth century," especially rich in legends, and showing us the normal portolan, for shore-lines, blended with the theoretical map, for the interiors of countries, all designed on the most elaborate scale. The West African coast on this example is brought down to, and a little beyond, Cape Bojador, southwest of which appear the Catalan explorers of 1346[254]in their boat, with an inscription.[255]Beginning with Arzilla, and continuing south, we have besides the recognisable Sallé, Cantin, Mogador, and No[n], 35 other names before we reach Cavo de Buyet(e)der, after which we have only thelegend "Danom," and the conclusion, "Cap de Finister(r)a occidental de Affricha."[256]More attention is given to the interior of North Africa in this design than in any other map of the fourteenth century.
(10) Guglielmo Soleri, of Majorca, betweenc.1380 and 1385, executed two designs of some value, both "normal-portolans:" (α) is undated, probably executed about 1380, and signed "Guill'mo Soleri civis Majoricarum me ficit." (β) is inscribed "Guillmus Solerii civis Majoricarum me fecit annomccclxxxv."
In (β) West Africa has a fairly good extension, a little beyond the latitude of the Canaries, where the rough and torn southern edge of the map cuts across all.[257]
(11) Next in order comes an anonymous Atlas of 1384 (?) in six sheets, usually called, after two of its possessors, the Pinelli-Walckenaer Portolano. It is probably a Genoese work. Its West Africa extends about as far as (or a little beyond) the Soleri of 1385, to what is apparently Cape Bojador, slightly south of the Canaries. Ten names occur beyond C. Non, among them Cavo de Sablon and Enbucder.[258]The little harbour existing to the south of Bojador seems indicated here.
(12) And now, coming to the fifteenth century, we have first the "Combitis" Portolan ofc.1410—an anonymous work, but inscribed "Haec tabula ex testamento domini Nicolai de Combitis devenit in Monasterio Cartusiae florentinae." This is, in some respects, closely similar to the Vesconte of 1318.
(13) Another cartographer of the early fifteenth century is Cristoforo Buondelmonte—otherwise Ensenius—whose "Description of the Cyclades" is accompanied by maps; who was the author of an important graduated chart of the North of Europe; and who also left a roughly-sketched mappemonde—perhaps a copy of a much older work—which may conceivably have been known to Prince Henry and have encouraged his explorations. This shows an Africa somewhat similar in contour to Fra Mauro's of 1457-9, but almost without names.[259]
(14) Last among these works of the "Preparatory Time," we may take an anonymous Catalan planisphere of the early fifteenth century (in the National Library of Florence) closely resembling the great Atlas of 1375.
This completes the list of important maps for the period immediately preceding the new Portuguese discoveries, and shows us the most likelyexamples of cartography for Prince Henry's study. Some of these he may have owned; many of them he probably inspected in person or by deputy.
It is probable enough that he was acquainted with some of the pre-scientific or "theoretical" designs, such as those of the "Beatus" type from the eighth and subsequent centuries; those which are to be found illustrating manuscripts of Sallust, Higden, Matthew Paris, St. Jerome, or Macrobius' Commentary on the "Dream of Scipio;" and those of Arabic geographers like Edrisi[260]—to name only a few examples—but he can hardly have derived much assistance from them. The great thirteenth century wheel-map pictures—as, for instance, those we know as the Hereford or Ebstorf Mappemondes—expressed the very antithesis of his spirit; and the same must be said of the greater part of the Mediæval cartography before the appearance of the portolani.
From certain books of travel, such as those of Carpini, Rubruquis, Odoric, Pegolotti, or Marco Polo, he may, however, have received great assistance. The merchants and missionaries who opened so much of Asia to the knowledge of Europe during the Crusading period, furnished the most direct stimulus for the discovery of a direct ocean route to the treasures of the East. And to find such a route by the circumnavigation of Africa was, as we havesuggested before, one of the primary objects of the Infant's life and work.
But, in addition to the Maps of his predecessors, the Infant was almost certainly acquainted with some of the chief cartographical works of his own time, falling within the period of his exploring activity, and we must finish this brief survey with some notice of these. Continuing the catalogue, we have
(15) A map by Mecia de Viladestes of 1413. This is a Catalan portolano, signed "Mecia de Viladestes me fecit in ano 1413," and is noticeable as containing a reference to the voyage of Jayme Ferrer in 1346, similar to that on the great Catalan atlas of 1375.[261]
(16) Four, or possibly five, specimens of Jacobus Giroldis' draughtsmanship belonging to the years 1422-1446, viz., (α) a Mediterranean portolan of 1422, signed "mccccxxiimense Junii die primo Jachobus de Giroldis Veneciis me fecit;" (β) a Portolan atlas in six sheets, ofa.d.1426, thought by some to resemble the work of Andrea Bianco in river-markings, legends, etc. This work possesses a distance-scale, but no graduation for latitude. It is inscribed, "Jachobus de Ziraldis [Ziroldis?] de Veneciis me fecit ...mccccxxvi." The West Africa of this work ends at Bojador ("Buider"), and gives us thirty-nine names between Arzilla andthis point. Its nomenclature here is very similar to, though somewhat less full than, that of the Catalan atlas (1375).[262]Besides these two works, Giroldis has left others of less importance, viz., (γ), a Portolan atlas of 1443, consisting of six maps; (δ), a Portolan atlas, also of six maps, dated 1446; (ε?), a Portolano, unsigned, in the Bibliotheca Ambrosiana at Florence, which is perhaps his work.