with little approbation from the generality of persons; the discovery of
these islands, Porto Santo and Madeira, serving to whet his appetite for
further enterprise, but not winning the common voice in favor of
prosecuting discoveries on the coast of Africa. The people at home,
improving upon the reports of the sailors, said that "the land which the
Prince sought after was merely some sandy place like the deserts of
Libya; that princes had possessed the empires of the world, and yet had
not undertaken such designs as his, nor shown such anxiety to find new
kingdoms; that the men who arrived in those foreign parts--if they did
arrive--turned from white into black men; that the King Don John, the
Prince's father, had endowed foreigners with land in his kingdom, to
break it up and cultivate it--a thing very different from taking the
people out of Portugal, which had need of them, to bring them among
savages to be eaten, and to place them upon lands of which the mother
country had no need; that the Author of the world had provided these
islands solely for the habitation of wild beasts, of which an additional
proof was that those rabbits the discoverers themselves had introduced
were now dispossessing them of the island."
There is much here of the usual captiousness to be found in the
criticism of bystanders upon action, mixed with a great deal of false
assertion and premature knowledge of the ways of Providence. Still, it
were to be wished that most criticism upon action was as wise; for that
part of the common talk which spoke of keeping their own population to
bring out their own resources had a wisdom in it which the men of future
centuries were yet to discover throughout the peninsula. Prince Henry,
as may be seen by his perseverance up to this time, was not a man to
have his purposes diverted by such criticism, much of which must have
been, in his eyes, worthless and inconsequent in the extreme.
Nevertheless, he had his own misgivings. His captains came back one
after another with no good tidings of discovery, but with petty plunder
gained, as they returned from incursions on the Moorish coast.
The Prince concealed from them his chagrin at the fruitless nature of
their attempts, but probably did not feel it less on that account. He
began to think: Was it for him to hope to discover that land which had
been hidden from so many princes? Still, he felt within himself the
incitement of "a virtuous obstinacy," which would not let him rest.
Would it not, he thought, be ingratitude to God, who thus moved his mind
to these attempts, if he were to desist from his work, or be negligent
in it? He resolved, therefore, to send out again Gil Eannes, one of his
household, who had been sent the year before, but had returned, like the
rest, having discovered nothing. He had been driven to the Canary
Islands, and had seized upon some of the natives there, whom he brought
back. With this transaction the Prince had shown himself dissatisfied;
and Gil Eannes, now intrusted again with command, resolved to meet all
dangers rather than to disappoint the wishes of his master. Before his
departure, the Prince called him aside and said: "You cannot meet with
such peril that the hope of your reward shall not be much greater; and
in truth, I wonder what imagination this is that you have all taken
up--in a matter, too, of so little certainty; for if these things which
are reported had any authority, however little, I would not blame you so
much. But you quote to me the opinions of four mariners, who, as they
were driven out of their way to Frandes or to some other ports to which
they commonly navigated, had not, and could not have used, the needle
and the chart; but do you go, however, and make your voyage without
regard to their opinion,--and, by the grace of God, you will not bring
out of it anything but honor and profit."
We may well imagine that these stirring words of the Prince must have
confirmed Gil Eannes in his resolve to efface the stain of his former
misadventure. And he succeeded in doing so; for he passed the dreaded
Cape Bojador--a great event in the history of African discovery, and one
that in that day was considered equal to a labor of Hercules. Gil Eannes
returned to a grateful and most delighted master. He informed the Prince
that he had landed, and that the soil appeared to him unworked and
fruitful; and, like a prudent man, he could not tell of foreign plants,
but had brought some of them home with him in a barrel of the new-found
earth--plants much like those which bear in Portugal the roses of Santa
Maria. The Prince rejoiced to see them, and gave thanks to God, "as if
they had been the fruit and sign of the promised land; and besought Our
Lady, whose name the plants bore, that she would guide and set forth the
doings in this discovery to the praise and glory of God and to the
increase of his holy faith."
After passing the Cape of Bojador there was a lull in Portuguese
discovery, the period from 1434 to 1441 being spent in enterprises of
very little distinctness or importance. Indeed, during the latter part
of this period, the Prince was fully occupied with the affairs of
Portugal. In 1437 he accompanied the unfortunate expedition to Tangier,
in which his brother Ferdinand was taken prisoner, who afterward ended
his days in slavery to the Moor. In 1438, King Duarte dying, the
troubles of the regency occupied Prince Henry's attention. In 1441,
however, there was a voyage which led to very important consequences. In
that year Antonio Gonçalvez, master of the robes to Prince Henry, was
sent out with a vessel to load it with skins of "sea-wolves," a number
of them having been seen, during a former voyage, in the mouth of a
river about fifty-four leagues beyond Cape Bojador. Gonçalvez resolved
to signalize his voyage by a feat that should gratify his master more
than the capture of sea-wolves; and he accordingly planned and executed
successfully an expedition for capturing some Azeneghi Moors, in order,
as he told his companions, to take home "some of the language of that
country." Nuño Tristam, another of Prince Henry's captains, afterward
falling in with Gonçalvez, a further capture of Moors was made, and
Gonçalvez returned to Portugal with his spoil.
In the same year Prince Henry applied to Pope Martin V, praying that his
holiness would grant to the Portuguese crown all that it could conquer,
from Cape Bojador to the Indies, together with plenary indulgence for
those who should die while engaged in such conquests. The Pope granted
these requests. "And now," says a Portuguese historian, "with this
apostolic grace, with the breath of royal favor, and already with the
applause of the people, the Prince pursued his purpose with more courage
and with greater outlay."
In 1442 the Moors whom Antonio Gonçalvez had captured in the previous
year promised to give black slaves in ransom for themselves if he would
take them back to their own country; and the Prince, approving of this,
ordered Gonçalvez to set sail immediately, "insisting as the foundation
of the matter, that if Gonçalvez should not be able to obtain so many
negroes (as had been mentioned) in exchange for the three Moors, yet
that he should take them; for whatever number he should get, he would
gain souls, because the negroes might be converted to the faith, which
could not be managed with the Moors." Gonçalvez obtained ten black
slaves, some gold-dust, a target of buffalo-hide, and some ostrich eggs
in exchange for two of the Moors, and, returning with his cargo, excited
general wonderment on account of the color of the slaves. These, then,
we may presume, were the first black slaves that had made their
appearance in the peninsula since the extinction of the old slavery.
I am not ignorant that there are reasons for alleging that negroes had
before this era been seized and carried to Seville. The _Ecclesiastical
and Secular Annals_ of that city, under the date 1474, record that negro
slaves abounded there, and that the fifths levied on them produced
considerable gains to the royal revenue; it is also mentioned that there
had been traffic of this kind in the days of Don Enrique III, about
1399, but that it had since then fallen into the hands of the
Portuguese. The chronicler states that the negroes of Seville were
treated very kindly from the time of King Enrique, being allowed to keep
their dances and festivals; and that one of them was named _mayoral_ of
the rest, who protected them against their masters and before the courts
of law, and also settled their own private quarrels. There is a letter
from Ferdinand and Isabella in the year 1474 to a celebrated negro, Juan
de Valladolid, commonly called the "Negro Count," nominating him to this
office of mayoral of the negroes, which runs thus: "For the many good,
loyal, and signal services which you have done us, and do each day, and
because we know your sufficiency, ability, and good disposition, we
constitute you mayoral and judge of all the negroes and mulattoes, free
or slaves, which are in the very loyal and noble city of Seville, and
throughout the whole archbishopric thereof, and that the said negroes
and mulattoes may not hold any festivals nor pleadings among themselves,
except before you, Juan de Valladolid, negro, our judge and mayoral of
the said negroes and mulattoes; and we command that you, and you only,
should take cognizance of the disputes, pleadings, marriages, and other
things which may take place among them, forasmuch as you are a person
sufficient for that office, and deserving of your power, and you know
the laws and ordinances which ought to be kept, and we are informed that
you are of noble lineage among the said negroes."
But the above merely shows that in the year 1474 there were many negroes
in Seville, and that laws and ordinances had been made about them. These
negroes might all, however, have been imported into Seville since the
Portuguese discoveries. True it is that in the times of Don Enrique III,
and during Béthencourt's occupation of the Canary Islands, slaves from
thence had been brought to France and Spain; but these islanders were
not negroes, and it certainly may be doubted whether any negroes were
imported into Seville previous to 1443.
Returning to the course of Portuguese affairs, a historian of that
nation informs us that the gold obtained by Gonçalvez "awakened, as it
always does, covetousness"; and there is no doubt that it proved an
important stimulus to further discovery. The next year Nuño Tristam went
farther down the African coast; and, off Adeget, one of the Arguim
Islands, captured eighty natives, whom he brought to Portugal. These,
however, were not negroes, but Azeneghis.
The tide of popular opinion was now not merely turned, but was rushing
in full flow, in favor of Prince Henry and his discoveries. The
discoverers were found to come back rich in slaves and other
commodities; whereas it was remembered that, in former wars and
undertakings, those who had been engaged in them had generally returned
in great distress. Strangers, too, now came from afar, scenting the
prey. A new mode of life, as the Portuguese said, had been found out;
and "the greater part of the kingdom was moved with a sudden desire to
follow this way to Guinea."
In 1444 a company was formed at Lagos, who received permission from the
Prince to undertake discovery along the coast of Africa, paying him a
certain portion of any gains which they might make. This has been
considered as a company founded for carrying on the slave trade; but the
evidence is by no means sufficient to show that its founders meant such
to be its purpose. It might rather be compared to an expedition sent
out, as we should say in modern times, with letters of marque, in which,
however, the prizes chiefly hoped for were not ships nor merchandise,
but men. The only thing of any moment, however, which the expedition
accomplished was to attack successfully the inhabitants of the islands
Nar and Tider, and to bring back about two hundred slaves. I grieve to
say that there is no evidence of Prince Henry's putting a check to any
of these proceedings; but, on the contrary, it appears that he rewarded
with large honors Lançarote, one of the principal men of this
expedition, and received his own fifth of the slaves. Yet I have
scarcely a doubt that the words of the historian are substantially
true--that discovery, not gain, was still the Prince's leading idea. We
have an account from an eye-witness of the partition of the slaves
brought back by Lançarote, which, as it is the first transaction of the
kind on record, is worthy of notice, more especially as it may enable
the reader to understand the motives of the Prince and of other men of
those times. It is to be found in the _Chronicle_, before referred to,
of Azurara. The merciful chronicler is smitten to the heart at the
sorrow he witnesses, but still believes it to be for good, and that he
must not let his mere earthly commiseration get the better of his piety.
"O thou heavenly Father," he exclaims, "who, with thy powerful hand,
without movement of thy divine essence, governest all the infinite
company of thy holy city, and who drawest together all the axles of the
upper worlds, divided into nine spheres, moving the times of their long
and short periods as it pleases thee! I implore thee that my tears may
not condemn my conscience, for not its law, but our common humanity,
constrains my humanity to lament piteously the sufferings of these
people (slaves). And if the brute animals, with their mere bestial
sentiments, by a natural instinct, recognize the misfortunes of their
like, what must this by human nature do, seeing thus before my eyes this
wretched company, remembering that I myself am of the generation of the
sons of Adam! The other day, which was the eighth of August, very early
in the morning, by reason of the heat, the mariners began to bring to
their vessels, and, as they had been commanded, to draw forth those
captives to take them out of the vessel: whom, placed together on that
plain, it was a marvellous sight to behold; for among them there were
some of a reasonable degree of whiteness, handsome and well made; others
less white, resembling leopards in their color; others as black as
Ethiopians, and so ill-formed, as well in their faces as their bodies,
that it seemed to the beholders as if they saw the forms of a lower
hemisphere.
"But what heart was that, how hard soever, which was not pierced with
sorrow, seeing that company: for some had sunken cheeks, and their faces
bathed in tears, looking at each other; others were groaning very
dolorously, looking at the heights of the heavens, fixing their eyes
upon them, crying out loudly, as if they were asking succor from the
Father of nature; others struck their faces with their hands, throwing
themselves on the earth; others made their lamentations in songs,
according to the customs of their country, which, although we could not
understand their language, we saw corresponded well to the height of
their sorrow. But now, for the increase of their grief, came those who
had the charge of the distribution, and they began to put them apart one
from the other, in order to equalize the portions, wherefore it was
necessary to part children and parents, husbands and wives, and
brethren from each other. Neither in the partition of friends and
relations was any law kept, only each fell where the lot took him. O
powerful Fortune! who goest hither and thither with thy wheels,
compassing the things of the world as it pleaseth thee, if thou canst,
place before the eyes of this miserable nation some knowledge of the
things that are to come after them, that they may receive some
consolation in the midst of their great sadness! and you others who have
the business of this partition, look with pity on such great misery, and
consider how can those be parted whom you cannot disunite! Who will be
able to make this partition without great difficulty? for while they
were placing in one part the children that saw their parents in another,
the children sprang up perseveringly and fled to them; the mothers
enclosed their children in their arms and threw themselves with them on
the ground, receiving wounds with little pity for their own flesh, so
that their offspring might not be torn from them!
"And so, with labor and difficulty, they concluded the partition, for,
besides the trouble they had with the captives, the plain was full of
people, as well of the place as of the villages and neighborhood around,
who in that day gave rest to their hands, the mainstay of their
livelihood, only to see this novelty. And as they looked upon these
things, some deploring, some reasoning upon them, they made such a
riotous noise as greatly to disturb those who had the management of this
distribution. The Infante was there upon a powerful horse, accompanied
by his people, looking out his share, but as a man who for his part did
not care for gain, for, of the forty-six souls which fell to his fifth,
he speedily made his choice, as all his principal riches were in his
contentment, considering with great delight the salvation of those souls
which before were lost. And certainly his thought was not vain, for as
soon as they had knowledge of our language they readily became
Christians; and I, who have made this history in this volume, have seen
in the town of Lagos young men and young women, the sons and grandsons
of those very captives, born in this land, as good and as true
Christians as if they had lineally descended, since the commencement of
the law of Christ, from those who were first baptized."
The good Azurara wished that these captives might have some foresight
of the things to happen after their death. I do not think, however, that
it would have proved much consolation to them to have foreseen that they
were almost the first of many millions to be dealt with as they had
been; for, in this year 1444, Europe may be said to have made a distinct
beginning in the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides, like
the waves upon stirred water, and not, like them, to become fainter and
fainter as the circles widen.
In 1445 an expedition was fitted out by Prince Henry himself, and the
command given to Gonsalvo de Cintra, who was unsuccessful in an attack
on the natives near Cape Blanco. He and some other of the principal men
of the expedition lost their lives. These were the first Portuguese who
died in battle on that coast. In the same year the Prince sent out three
other vessels. The captains received orders from the Infante, Don Pedro,
who was then Regent of Portugal, to enter the river D'Oro, and make all
endeavors to convert the natives to the faith, and even, if they should
not receive baptism, to make peace and alliance with them. This did not
succeed. It is probable that the captains found negotiation of any kind
exceedingly tame and apparently profitless in comparison with the
pleasant forays made by their predecessors. The attempt, however, shows
much intelligence and humanity on the part of those in power in
Portugal. That the instructions were sincere is proved by the fact of
this expedition returning with only one negro, gained in ransom, and a
Moor who came of his own accord to see the Christian country.
This same year 1445 is signalized by a great event in the progress of
discovery along the African coast. Dinis Dyaz, called by Barros and the
historians who followed him Dinis Fernandez, sought employment from the
Infante, and, being intrusted by him with the command of a vessel,
pushed boldly down the coast, and passed the river Sanaga (Senegal),
which divides the Azeneghis--whom the first discoverers always called
Moors--from the negroes of Jalof. The inhabitants were much astonished
at the presence of the Portuguese vessel on their coasts, and at first
took it for a fish or a bird or a phantasm; but when in their rude
boats--hollowed logs--they neared it, and saw that there were men in it,
judiciously concluding that it was a more dangerous thing than fish or
bird or phantasm, they fled. Dinis Fernandez, however, captured four of
them off that coast, but as his object was discovery, not slave-hunting,
he went on till he discovered Cape Verd, and then returned to his
country, to be received with much honor and favor by Prince Henry. These
four negroes taken by Dinis Fernandez were the first taken in their own
country by the Portuguese. That the Prince was still engaged in high
thoughts of discovery and conversion we may conclude from observing that
he rewarded and honored Dinis Fernandez as much as if he had brought him
large booty; for the Prince "thought little of whatever he could do for
those who came to him with these signs and tokens of another greater
hope which he entertained."
In this case, as in others, we should do great injustice if we supposed
that Prince Henry had any of the pleasure of a slave-dealer in obtaining
these negroes: it is far more probable that he valued them as persons
capable of furnishing intelligence, and, perhaps, of becoming
interpreters, for his future expeditions. Not that, without these
especial motives, he would have thought it anything but great gain for a
man to be made a slave, if it were the means of bringing him into
communion with the Church.
After this, several expeditions, which did not lead to much, occupied
the Prince's time till 1447. In that year a fleet, large for those
times, of fourteen vessels, was fitted out at Lagos by the people there,
and the command given by Prince Henry to Lançarote. The object seems to
have been, from a speech that is recorded of Lançarote's, to make war
upon the Azeneghi Moors, and especially to take revenge for the defeat
before mentioned which Gonsalvo de Cintra suffered in 1445 near Cape
Blanco. That purpose effected, Lançarote went southward, extending the
discovery of the coast to the Gambia. In the course of his proceedings
on that coast we find again that Prince Henry's instructions insisted
much upon the maintenance of peace with the natives. Another instance of
the same disposition on his part deserves to be especially recorded. The
expedition had been received in a friendly manner at Gomera, one of the
Canary Islands. Notwithstanding this kind reception, some of the natives
were taken prisoners. On their being brought to Portugal, Prince Henry
had them clothed and afterward set at liberty in the place from which
they had been taken.
This expedition under Lançarote had no great result. The Portuguese went
a little farther down the coast than they had ever been before, but they
did not succeed in making friends of the natives, who had already been
treated in a hostile manner by some Portuguese from Madeira. Neither did
the expedition make great spoil of any kind. They had got into feuds
with the natives, and were preparing to attack them, when a storm
dissipated their fleet and caused them to return home.
It appears, I think, from the general course of proceedings of the
Portuguese in those times, that they considered there was always war
between them and the Azeneghi Moors--that is, in the territory from
Ceuta as far as the Senegal River; but that they had no declared
hostility against the negroes of Jalof, or of any country farther south,
though skirmishes would be sure to happen from ill-understood attempts
at friendship on the one side, and just or needless fears on the other.
The last public enterprise of which Prince Henry had the direction was
worthy to close his administration of the affairs relating to Portuguese
discovery. He caused two ambassadors to be despatched to the King of the
Cape Verd territory, to treat of peace and to introduce the Christian
faith. One of the ambassadors, a Danish gentleman, was treacherously
killed by the natives, and upon that the other returned, having
accomplished nothing.
Don Alfonso V, the nephew of Prince Henry, now took the reins of
government, and the future expeditions along the coast of Africa
proceeded in his name. Still it does not appear that Prince Henry ceased
to have power and influence in the management of African affairs; and
the first thing that the King did in them was to enact that no one
should pass Cape Bojador without a license from Prince Henry. Some time
between 1448 and 1454 a fortress was built in one of the islands of
Arguim, which islands had already become a place of bargain for gold and
negro slaves. This was the first Portuguese establishment on the coast
of Africa. It seems that a system of trade was now established between
the Portuguese and the negroes.
COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE
A.D. 1414
RICHARD LODGE
During the forty years of the second great schism in the
Roman Catholic Church, 1378-1417, different parties adhered
to different popes, of whom there were sometimes two or more
simultaneously in office. The French cardinals preferred
Avignon--to which the holy see had been removed in 1309--as
the seat of the pope, the Italian cardinals preferred Rome,
and two lines of popes were consequently chosen. This
division proved extremely injurious to the papal power and
authority.